Free-viewpoint Video for Interactive Character Animation

Conventional 2D video production provides a fixed-view reproduction of a recorded event in which a director defines every moment to be viewed. Multiple camera studio systems are now being developed to capture real-world events from multiple viewpoints to replay the event in 3D as a freeviewpoint video. Free-viewpoint video provides the consumer the flexibility to interact with a scene by changing the viewpoint in replaying the event. The challenge in computer vision and computer graphics remains to capture real world events for both replay and to provide the director or consumer the freedom to synthesize new unseen content. In this paper we explore the use of free-viewpoint video in content synthesis by re-using captured scenes of people. Our work combines image based scene reconstruction and video-based animation techniques to provide a new approach that allows interactive character animation from free-viewpoint video.