Virtual Characters: Reproduction, Expressions and aricatures

Speaker: Roberto Vieira

Affiliation: Federal University of Ceará

Time: Thursday 18/12/2014 from 14:00 to 15:00

Venue: Access Grid UWS. Presented from Parramatta (EB.1.32), accessible from Campbelltown (26.1.50) and Penrith (Y239).

Abstract: Many virtual reality applications and games need a large number of virtual characters. Some of these applications require, in addition to quantity, the simulation of kinship and evolution, not only of human character models but also of different types of animals, toon models or other creatures. Some applications also require interactions between isolated populations with well-defined ethnic characteristics. The identification of similar traits between individuals of the same family is crucial to providing increased realism to many of these systems. The main difficulty in these situations is to generate models automatically, in real time, which are physically similar to a given population or family. Other realistic desirable features are the automatic body variations due to epigenetic factors and the application of facial expressions as the character interacts with the environment. As a solution, the reproduction of diploid beings is mimicked to produce character models that inherit genetic characteristics from their ancestors, with the possibility to map and identify the origin of each gene. With this approach, a genetic characteristic from an ancestor can be manifested only after a few generations. With the new reproduced character, custom body variations and facial expressions can be applied. Using the same mesh adaptation system, it is possible to generate caricatures of characters, inserting a comic atmosphere to the application. With this solution it is possible to create interactive evolution and life-simulation games, genetics educational applications, and many other possibilities.

Biography: Graduated in Computer Science - Federal University of Ceará (2002), Masters in Computer Science - Federal University of Ceará (2007) and PhD in Computer Science - Federal University of Ceará (2012). Has experience in Computer Science, with emphasis on Computer Graphics and Virtual Reality.