Animation Collage

Abstract

We propose a method to automatically transform mesh animations into animation collages, i.e. moving assemblies of shape primitives from a database given by an artist. An animation collage is a complete reassembly of the original animation in a new abstract visual style that imitates the spatio-temporal shape and deformation of the input. Our algorithm automatically decomposes input animations into plausible approximately rigid segments and fits to each segment one shape from the database by means of a spatio-temporal matching procedure. The collage is then animated in compliance with the original s shape and motion. Apart from proposing solutions to a number of spatio-temporal alignment problems, this work is an interesting add-on to the graphics artist s toolbox with many applications in arts, non-photorealistic rendering, and animated movie productions. We exemplify the beauty of animation collages by showing results created with our software prototype.