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Exploring inbetween charts with trajectory-guided sliders for cutout animation

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Abstract

We introduce an interactive tool to intuitively make inbetween charts for cutout character movements (i.e., transitioning from one image to another), inspired by cartoon animators’ techniques. Given several keyframes, this system constructs trajectory-guided sliders that enable users to directly adjust inbetween values on a screen. In addition, these sliders can visualize simple inbetween timings to provide guidance on cartoon-like motions, such as animating “on twos” and “slow-in/out” in the background of the slider. Thus, the users can intuitively explore inbetween charts until they are satisfied. This method is simple enough to easily implement in existing animation-authoring tools. We conduct a user study with novice and amateur users and confirm that the proposed slider (including the guidance function) is effective for manually constructing the inbetween charts envisioned by the users.

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Data Availibility Statement

The original data collected during the user study are not publicly available because it contains video and audio of the subjects, but anonymized questionnaire results and character models are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Notes

  1. https://cacani.sg/

  2. https://www.toonboom.com/products/harmony

  3.  https://www.live2d.com/en/

  4. https://www.figma.com/

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Waseda University Grant for Special Research Projects (Project number: 2023Q-009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Intermedia Art and Science, Waseda University, 3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 169-8555, Japan

    Tsukasa Fukusato

  2. OLM Digital, Inc., 1-18-10 Wakabayashi, Setagaya, Tokyo, 154-0023, Japan

    Akinobu Maejima & Tatsuo Yotsukura

  3. IMAGICA GROUP Inc., 1-14-2 Kaigan, Minato, Tokyo, 105-0022, Japan

    Akinobu Maejima & Tatsuo Yotsukura

  4. Department of Creative Informatics, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan

    Takeo Igarashi

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  1. Tsukasa Fukusato
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  4. Tatsuo Yotsukura
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Correspondence to Tsukasa Fukusato.

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Akinobu Maejima and Tatsuo Yotsukura are employees of OLM Digital, Inc. and IMAGICA GROUP Inc.

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Fukusato, T., Maejima, A., Igarashi, T. et al. Exploring inbetween charts with trajectory-guided sliders for cutout animation. Multimed Tools Appl 83, 44581–44594 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-023-17354-x

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