A mesh-based automatic in-betweening algorithm in computer-assisted animation

Abstract

The automatic in-betweening technology is one of the most important technologies in computer-assisted animation. The preprocessing of inconsistency of the topological structure between the start and the end key frames is time-consuming in the traditional in-betweening algorithm. Therefore, in order to guarantee the consistency of the topology structure between the start and the end key frames, we present in this paper a new mesh-based automatic in-betweening algorithm for the key frame animation. By meshing a three-dimensional object, all the infinite and disorderly points on the surface of an object can be converted into finite and ordinal points according to some principles of each layer and between layers, and then a series of in-betweens can be automatically generated in terms of an interpolation function. The algorithm in this paper presents a solution to the corresponding principles of the vertices on each layer and between layers after meshing the start and the end key frames. The experimental results demonstrate that the animation generated based on this method is smooth, natural, and fluent. In application, our algorithm can improve the efficiency of animation production as well as greatly reducing the cost.