CSC 2529 Winter 2003 Suggested Projects

• Interactive character modeling: Implement an interactive character modeler using a scan and sculpt approach with the scanner in DGP. The project will involve understanding the basic concepts of scuplting and deformation of objects. Scanning parts of a body or sculpture and cutting and pasting bits of objects together.
• Motion from Primitives: Build a system for higher level motion of a stick figure. The system should work with a database of motion primitives, also known as a motion graph and use them to build longer sequences of motion. Try collaborative or hierarchical motion graphs to make the problem really interesting. 
• Behavioral Motion: Build a system for higher level motion of a stick figure. The system should encode rules expressing relationships between figures. Build a scalable database of actions that the figures can perform in reponse to various stimuli and rules. 
• Musculature based skinning
  Build a musculature based skinning algorithm that works from the outside in. It takes a model in the rest pose that muscles are fit to. From there on the musculature drives the deformation of the skin.
• Dynamic swimmer
  Design a dynamic control algorithm for an underwater swimmer. Look at the breast stroke for starters, make lots of simplifying assumptions. Interactively control for the swimmer using a haptic device like the phantom.
• Motion drawings
  Pencil sketches are a useful means of quickly creating various object shapes. Develop an abstraction for sketching animated motions without having to sketch individual motion curves. Restricting yourself to a particular character and a particular class of motions will help a lot.
• Picturing motion
  Given a complex human motion (e.g., a trampolinist doing a double back flip with a double twise), how can the motion be best visualized using one or two images? Pose this as an optimization problem that can be automatically solved.
• Behavioral modeling of everyday motions
  When a person sits in a chair to watch a presentation or sits in a chair in front of a desk, they never really stop moving. Build a simple behavioral model of the types of motions typically observed for these situations.