Puppeteering the Pixels: Innovative Animation Tools For Stylized Rendering

This talk presents two techniques where novel animation tools are used to influence the final render in unusual ways that have been implemented in the Sony Pictures Imageworks pipeline. The first technique, CreaseLines, provides animators the ability to dynamically create and control curves to define emotive facial creases that directly drive displacement of the face meshes. CreaseLines wide range of control opened new opportunities for animators to quickly hit performances in a very direct way. The second technique, Variable Motion Blur, gives the animators more direct control over the motion blur in the render, allowing them to easily direct the audience’s attention and highlight the important action. Spheres define regions in the scene where motion blur amplitude can be scaled.