Fast and Efficient Skinning of Animated Meshes

Assigned Paper: Found on authors website here

1. Sentence:  We present an algorithm based on iterative coordinate descent optimization which handles arbitrary animations and produces more accurate approximations than previous techniques, while using only standard linear skinning without any modifications or extensions.
2. Problem:  Animating complex meshes per vertex, per frame is time consuming. Instead use a small collection of ‘bones’ to control how the mesh should deform each frame.
3. Key Idea:  Compute the skinning decomposition by using alternate least squares in a reduced coordinate space to alleviate the number of computations required.
4. Application:  Demonstrates technique used to animate a flapping flag and moving characters wearing loose clothing.
5. Usefulness:  Arbitrary animations of soft or flexible bodies are needed for more organic models, like creatures. This approach may make animating such models easier and more accurate in appearance.
6. Other Materials:  Video, slide presentation, and experimental data found on author’s website