Dynamic Sprites - Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University

Dynamic Sprites

Ben Jones, Jovan Popovic, James McCann, Wilmot Li, and Adam W. Bargteil
Conference Paper, Proceedings of Motion in Games (MIG '13), pp. 39 - 46, November, 2013

Abstract

Traditional methods for creating dynamic objects and characters from static drawings involve careful tweaking of animation curves and/or simulation parameters. Sprite sheets offer a more drawing-centric solution, but they do not encode timing information or the logic that determines how objects should transition between poses and cannot generalize outside the given drawings. We present an approach for creating dynamic sprites that leverages sprite sheets while addressing these limitations. In our system, artists create a drawing, deform it to specify a small number of example poses, and indicate which poses can be interpolated. To make the object move, we design a procedural simulation to navigate the pose manifold in response to external or user-controlled forces. Powerful artistic control is achieved by allowing the artist to specify both the pose manifold and how it is navigated, while physics is leveraged to provide timing and generality. We used our method to create sprites with a range of different dynamic properties.

BibTeX

@conference{Jones-2013-113396,
author = {Ben Jones and Jovan Popovic and James McCann and Wilmot Li and Adam W. Bargteil},
title = {Dynamic Sprites},
booktitle = {Proceedings of Motion in Games (MIG '13)},
year = {2013},
month = {November},
pages = {39 - 46},
}