Abstract - Bio - Website

Computer graphics techniques allow artists to create immersive virtual worlds that capture the imagination of audiences world-wide. Nowadays, thanks to advancements in rapid manufacturing devices, tangible links between these vivid virtual worlds and our own can be created. However, in order to unleash the full potential of this technology, a key challenge lies in determining the fundamental principles and design paradigms that allow digital content to be processed into forms that are suitable for fabrication. A particularly challenging task is that of creating physical representations of animated virtual characters. In this talk, I will describe several techniques that can be applied towards this goal. In particular, I will present a computational design system that allows animated mechanical characters to be easily created, I will summarize a method for controlling the deformation behavior of real-world objects and I will show that that locomotion control algorithms developed for physics-based character animation can also be applied to legged robots, allowing them to move with skill and purpose.

Dr. Stelian Coros is a Research Scientist at Disney Research, Zurich. Before joining Disney, he obtained his PhD in Computer Science from the University of British Columbia. Stelian’s research focuses on models of motor control, motion planning, physics-based simulation and computational design methods. The overarching goal of this work is to develop virtual characters and legged robots that can move with life-like skill and agility.

Abstract - Bio - Website

Human crowds are becoming an increasingly important component of video games and virtual environments. As these virtual worlds become more realistic, the simulation of human crowds must become more sophisticated to keep pace. Much recent work in the field of crowd simulation has focused on improving aspects relating to navigation and collision avoidance in order to create complex, collision free trajectories. However, this paper argues that an equally important aspect of creating believable crowds is simulating aspects beyond navigation such as the internal psychological state of a simulated agent and external physical forces. We also discuss how recently proposed methods can be used to simulate these physical and psychological aspects of crowd simulations while maintaining high-quality, collision free motion. Finally, we point towards how these various components can be combined into a unified simulation technique.

Stephen J. Guy is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on the areas of interactive computer graphics (real-time crowd simulation, path planning, intelligent virtual characters) and multi-robot coordination (collision avoidance, sensor fusion, path planning under uncertainty). Stephen’s work on motion planning has been licensed for use in games and virtual environments by Relic Entertainment, EA, and other companies; his work in crowd simulation has been recognized by best paper awards at international conferences. Prior to joining Minnesota, he received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2012 from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill with support from fellowships from Google, Intel, and the UNCF, and his B.S. in Computer Engineering with honors from the University of Virginia in 2006..

Abstract - Bio - Website

This talk discusses how realtime face tracking and performance based animation can facilitate new ways of interaction for computer gaming and other online applications. We identify a number of requirements for realtime face capture and animation systems, and show how recent progress in tracking algorithms advances towards satisfying these requirements. Performance-based animation has the potential to significantly enrich the emotional experience of ingame communication through live avatars that are controlled directly by the facial expressions of a recorded user. We briefly outline other potential use scenarios of realtime face tracking systems and conclude with a discussion of future research challenges.

Mark Pauly is an associate professor at the School of Computer and Communication Sciences at EPFL. Prior to joining EPFL, he was assistant professor at the CS department of ETH Zurich since April 2005. From August 2003 to March 2005 he was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, where he also held a position as visiting assistant professor during the summer of 2005. He received his Ph.D. degree in 2003 from ETH Zurich. His research interests include computer graphics and animation, geometry processing, shape modeling and analysis, and architectural geometry. He is one of the co-founders of faceshift AG, an EPFL startup developing software for facial performance capture and animation.

Abstract - Bio

Level-of-detail, once a purely graphical concern, is now widely applied to AI and other simulation aspects of games as well. While many reduced-detail AI techniques have been developed, little attention has been given to how detail levels are assigned to entities by the application. I will describe how traditional, graphics-inspired LOD selection techniques are a poor choice for simulation LOD, and argue for a more formal and viewer-centric approach. I will then describe our work on the "LOD Trader", a system for maintaining near-optimal LOD selections while respecting limits on resource consumption.

Ben Sunshine-Hill received a PhD in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania for his work in video game-focused computational techniques. Since then, he has been a software developer at Havok, focusing on AI and path-planning..