Alice ChauNeil ChungfatShirley HaoWhile the original purpose of many computer graphics has focused mainly on creating imageswhich seem uncannily life-like, attention has recently been focused on creating non-realisticlooking images. This technique, known as non-photorealism, has been the subject of much recentinterest and development. As a result, cartoons and other similar artforms that were traditionallycreated by hand are now beginning to appear in the context of computer graphics. This projectaimed to investigate these non-photorealistic techniques and to utilize those that were most fittingto model the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. This would allow for faithful recreation of theoriginal look and feel of the comic, while adding another dimension of visual realization to thetraditional 2D comic strip. Our project also involved, in no small way, exploring andimplementing the various types of character and scene modeling techniques available. Introduction The film strip "Calvin and Hobbes" was created by Bill Watterson in the 1980s and first appearedin the Universal Press Syndicate on November 18, 1985. Based on the relationship and adventuresof Calvin, a six-year old boy, and Hobbes, Calvin’s stuffed tiger, the cartoon amused readers of allages until December 31, 1995, when the strip was retired. Watterson was against commercializinghis popular strip, and consequently, no commercial animated version of Calvin and Hobbes wasever created. Computer graphic artists once aimed at creating realistic models. Recently, however, efforts haveaimed at creating non-photorealistic models, a genre which includes cartoons, comics, and othersimilar art-forms. Sugano Yoshinori, producer of the recently released animated film PrincessMononoke, believes that graphics, as an art form, aims to convey ideas through images. He claimsthat it is the interpretation of the ideas that is more important than how similar a given scenereflects its counterpart in the real world. He therefore states, "I think that computer graphics andnon-photorealistic technologies offer us chances to create images which are actually more real toviewers than those created using photorealistic methods." (Yoshinori, 1999) Watterson was able toconvey some of his beliefs to his readers by way of his comic strip. It is therefore ourresponsibility that the ideas conveyed by the original comics remain salient after our conversion ofhis work into the realm of 3D. This project requires the use of several of the topics discussed in class from the perspective of anend user. For example, though we did not actually implement an algorithm for texture mapping,Calvin & Hobbes: An Interactive3D GalleryProposal| Abstract| Goals| Design| Implementation| IndividualContributions| LessonsLearned| Acknowledgements| Referencesthe use of this technique was of central importance for creating snowy fields in our scenes. Otherissues that were important to deal with include lighting and camera angles. Goals We originally planned to model three stills(see Figure 1) and two full-lengthanimations in 3-D for our project. Halfwaythrough the project, we decided it would bemore realistic to cut one of the longeranimations down to a simpler, shorteranimation sequence. Our central goal was tomaintain the look and feel of the original2D comic strip, while adding anotherdimension of complexity to the characters. To combine the different stills andanimations into one product, we wanted todesign an interactive interface to allowusers to browse our gallery. Since snow isthe connecting element in the strips wechose, we decided to model a snowy worldwhere the user can virtually walk aroundand choose to examine different objectsrelated to each scene, such as a sled or asnowman. Upon selecting an object, theuser will be able to view the 3D rendition ofthe comic or animation sequence in aseparate window. Figure 1: The three modeled stills.Design Using a well-known comic strip as thesubject of our project presented bothadvantages and disadvantages. On thepositive side, our scenes required very littleplanning in regards to storyboarding and thelayout of objects. However, this also provedto be a constraint on our freedom to movearound objects or make major modificationsFigure 2: The 2 strips used for animations. around objects or make major modificationsto any of the scenes. In addition, because thecharacters are so well-known, great painswere made to create accurate andrecognizable models of Calvin and Hobbes. The scenes modeled were carefully chosen,so as to limit the complexity of the project.For example, animations involved only theCalvin and Hobbes characters, thus allowingus to concentrate our efforts on modelingtwo quality characters. In addition, the soleuse of winter scenes allowed a fewsimplifying features for the characters, suchas the hat that covers up Calvin’s somewhatunrealistic hair. As the basis for our animations are a seriesof panels, key frames were essentially givento us. However, it was dependent upon us todecide how to segue between these framesand manipulate the camera views in areasonable fashion. We decided early on notto provide voices for the characters, thereasoning being that everyone has adifferent mental idea of what Calvin’s voiceshould sound like. Instead, we chose toplace text bubbles that appear in key framesand then disappear as the camera shifts. In order to provide the interactive world forthe user to navigate through and pick thestills and animations, we had originallyplanned to use a programming package tomake the world from scratch. Essentially bysubstituting the buttons on a toolbar with 3Dobjects, we wanted the user interface to beinteresting and relevant to our comic. Implementation As none of the group members were very familiar with 3D Studio Max, our first task was toovercome the learning curve as quickly as possible so that efficient modeling could begin as soonas possible. Modeling issues arose early on and continued to emerge throughout the evolution ofthis project. These included many valiant attempts to model objects and characters using variousmodeling techniques, many of which were later discarded for one reason or another. Character ModelingA major goal of this project was to successfully model and render Calvin and Hobbes intothree-dimensional space. Meeting this goal, while seeming straightforward at the onset of theproject, did not fail to generate enough unforeseen problems to make for a lengthily
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