a) (b) (c) (d) (e) BBW Our method Our method LBS DQS Figure 1 : Previous automatic weighting schemes, such as bounded biharmonic weights (BBW) are deformation-agnostic, whereas our method optimizes weights to minimize shape distortion. Combined with our joint-based deformers, we achieve higher-quality results than both linear blend (LBS) and dual quaternion skinning (DQS). Our technique requires no additional user input and its speed is competitive to linear skinning. Abstract Current

more »

... to skeletally-controlled character articulation range from real-time, closed-form skinning methods to offline, physically-based simulation. In this paper, we seek a closed-form skinning method that approximates nonlinear elastic deformations well while remaining very fast. Our contribution is two-fold: (1) we optimize skinning weights for the standard linear and dual quaternion skinning techniques so that the resulting deformations minimize an elastic energy function. We observe that this is not sufficient to match the visual quality of the original elastic deformations and therefore, we develop (2) a new skinning method based on the concept of joint-based deformers. We propose a specific deformer which is visually similar to nonlinear variational deformation methods. Our final algorithm is fully automatic and requires little or no input from the user other than a rest-pose mesh and a skeleton. The runtime complexity requires minimal memory and computational overheads compared to linear blend skinning, while producing higher quality deformations than both linear and dual quaternion skinning.