In nuce: Ubisoft recently unveiled the so-called “ZooBuilder” via social networks. This is a tool that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to recreate the basic skeletal structure of animals. All of this works on the basis of moving images that the user feeds into the tool. “ZooBuilder” is designed to help animators create character rigs. However, artists still have to fine-tune the resulting rig afterwards so that the movement sequences of animated animal characters look believable.
How does this work? The three-minute video below, called “ZooBuilder – A Machine Learning Prototype”, takes a closer look at this fascinating new tool. In the video, Abassin Sourou Fangbemi, data scientist at Ubisoft La Forge, explains the advantages of the tool as follows: “Imagine you wanted to record the movements of a lion or a tiger – you would have to take these dangerous animals to a motion capture studio. That would be quite a challenge.” according to Abassin, “ZooBilder” will now dispense with MoCap and rely on machine learning and AI instead. This should make it easier to digitise the movement sequences of animals.
Who invented it? The “ZooBuilder” was developed by Ubisoft La Forge. This is a branch of Ubisoft based in Canada, which is dedicated to the development of new technologies – always with the help of the latest results from academic research organisations.
Click further: You can find out which technological developments Ubisoft LaForge continues to drive on the corresponding website.
