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E-mail ostrandb@genimator.com

Applies human motion onto linedrawn cartoon characters

THE COST OF ANIMATION
Animation is traditionally a long, slow process. An average feature length animated picture requires some 460,000 drawings. Including inspirational sketches, storyboard drawings, layouts etc etc. the grand total is likely between one and two million drawings. Producing traditionally animated feature films require large staffs, large budgets and a lot of time.

GeniMator
GeniMator is a new, revolutionizing computer method for animation, offering a 75% saving in time and staff. It's the first tool for drawn characters to apply real-time "rotoscoping", producing character animation from human acting, preserving the qualities and characteristics of the original cartoon artwork.

GeniMator requires two sets of information - a library of vectorized linedrawings of the character to be animated, and the sequence of movements the character is to perform.


THE CARTOON LIBRARY
As opposed to 3-D software and CAD-based animation packages, GeniMator does not model and render animated characters. The cartoon characters are drawn by artists in sequential positions for each of its body segments. The drawings are then stored in a vectorized form in a computer memory, each 'toon limb thus representing 360 degrees of perspective. A complete library for one cartoon character is made up of no more than 1000 drawings. In traditional animation, this number of drawings would produce less than 83 seconds animation, at 12 frames drawn for each second.

MOVEMENT
The motion of a live actor is registered and the data generated will retrieve all the 'toon segments by their corresponding position and have them reassembled to fully copy the performance of the actor.

Since the live action is captured as 3-D data, the cartoon character can be generated from any perspective, and at different speeds.

Any configuration of cartoon segments can be used to create different characters. Motion data from the actors' legs could for example generate life for a horse, or a centipede. A flock of birds, or a parade of elephants could be generated similarly, from the captured motion of one single actor.

ANIMATION EFFECTS
As the 'toon archives consist of vectorized drawings, the graphic output can be manipulated for traditional animation effects. Many types of performance control is made possible. For instance, to emphasize a fat mans' bouncy walk, motion along the vertical axis can be mapped to continuously alter the vertical scaling of the figure = squash & stretch. Since all motion data is in digital form, a variety of conditions are possible to define for the final dynamics and behaviour of the toon.

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For the director/producer of an animated film, GeniMator will be more like traditional filmproduction in the sense that 'toons could now be directed, in real time.
The actors' performance can be monitored and evaluated in real time, and once the director is satisfied with the performance for the scene, a low-res version of the cartoon can be viewed. The final result will then be produced after chosing "camera angle", linetexture (crayon, ink, etc), coloring, shading and possible cast-shadow to be projected.

GeniMator is Pat. and Pat.pend. worldwide.
Torkils väg 2 S-191 73 Sollentuna Sweden Phone: +46 8 754 09 17 Fax: +46 8 754 54 08
E-mail ostrandb@genimator.com

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