A fully automatic rigging algorithm for 3D character animation

Abstract

This paper proposes an automatic algorithm to generate an inverse kinematic (IK) skeleton for 3D characters. First, a curve skeleton is extracted from the volume inside the character mesh. The extracted curve skeleton is then analyzed and classified by comparing it with the characteristics of templates for real animals. The outcome of this classification step is an associated class for the given 3D character model, together with the meaning of each skeleton segment. Next, each bone of the template skeleton is located in the appropriate skeleton segment of the input skeleton graph. Unlike previous methods, this algorithm does not require an original 3D character model that is created with a restricted pose, topology and orientation. Furthermore, all stages of the process are completed without user intervention.