Example-based motion cloning

In this paper, we pose a motion cloning problem of retargeting the motion of a source character to a target character with a different structure. Based on scattered data interpolation, an example-based approach to motion cloning is proposed. Provided with a set of example motions, our method automatically extracts a small number of representative postures called source key-postures. The animator then creates the corresponding key-postures of the target character, breathing his/her imagination and creativity into the output animation. Exploiting this correspondence, each input posture is cloned frame by frame to the target character to produce an initial animation, which is further adjusted in space and time for retargeting and timewarping and then finalized with some interactive fine tuning. With rich animation data available, our motion cloning method aims at rapid prototyping of an animation to verify an animator’s concept at an early stage.