ARAPLBS: Robust and efficient elasticity-based optimization of Weights and Skeleton Joints for Linear Blend Skinning with Parameterized Bones

We present a fast, robust and high-quality technique to skin a mesh with reference to a skeleton. We consider the space of possible skeleton deformations (based on skeletal constraints, or skeletal animations), and compute skinning weights based on an optimization scheme to obtain as-rigid-as-possible (ARAP) corresponding mesh deformations. We support stretchable-and-twistable bones (STBs) and spines by generalizing the ARAP deformations to stretchable deformers. Additionally, our approach can optimize joint placements. If wanted, a user can guide and interact with the results, which is facilitated by an interactive feedback, reached via an efficient sparsification scheme. We demonstrate our technique on challenging inputs (STBs and spines, triangle and tetrahedral meshes featuring missing elements, boundaries, self-intersections, or wire edges).

@Article { TE17,
  author       = "Thiery, Jean-Marc and Eisemann, Elmar",
  title        = "ARAPLBS: Robust and efficient elasticity-based optimization of Weights and Skeleton Joints for Linear Blend
                  Skinning with Parameterized Bones",
  journal      = "COMPUTER GRAPHICS forum",
  number       = "2",
  volume       = "33",
  pages        = "1--13",
  year         = "2017",
  note         = "http://perso.telecom-paristech.fr/~jthiery/documents/araplbs/araplbs.pdf",
  url          = "http://graphics.tudelft.nl/Publications-new/2017/TE17"
}