The development of human animation figures using 3D anthropometrical database

The objective of this study is to develop 3D animation human figures using an existing anthropometrical database-the Taiwanese 3D BodyBank with 135 male and female subjects. Each subject was scanned with 9 postures, one of standing postures was designated as "standard" to develop animation figures, and the other 8 were used for evaluation purpose. The database was stratified into 15 different body size groups, 5 heights and 3 weights, for the development of 15 animation figures each for the males and the females. For both genders, we began with the establishment of a prototype model of the animation figure on the median body size group. The developing of the prototype model is proceeded as (1) the selection of representative model within each body size group, (2) the design of the skeleton, (3) the definition of spherical coordinate system, (4) the organization of data structure, (5) the implantation of the skeleton, and (6) the binding of the surface data with the skeleton. The results of the prototype model were evaluated on accuracy and precision by superimposing the animated postures onto the 8 scanned postures. The finding showed that the average mismatching errors were all smaller than 10 mm. and the maximal mismatching errors were smaller than 16 mm. This prototype model was applied onto the rest of 14 body types using template matching method.