Synthetic Actors in Real World Animating Virtual Actors in Real Environments

This paper tries to provide a detailed and complete description of merging virtual actors with animation in a real environment. It describes the tasks involved in each stage of integration such as the video acquisition, the extraction of camera parameters, the creation and animation of virtual actors, and the rendering of the final images. The most important problems are discussed: real objects hidden by virtual actors and virtual actors hidden by real objects, collision detection between the virtual actor and the real environment, correspondence between the real and the virtual cameras, casting shadows of the virtual actors on the real world. Case studies are presented like the virtual actress Marilyn walking with real people on a real street or sitting down on a real chair.