Appealing virtual humans

Abstract

Computer generated virtual humans play an important role in many 3d graphical applications, and are often used to evoke empathic responses from human users, due to their human form and behaviour. Most movie and game studios aim to produce appealing virtual characters that audiences will react to in a positive manner. However, humans are very experienced at observing the motion and appearance of other humans, and can be very unforgiving of minor errors in the form or movement of virtual characters. Negative reactions to virtual characters are common and have been attributed to many factors including incongruence between their motion and appearance. In our recent work, we investigated the complex interaction between the movement and appearance of virtual humans using perceptual experiments. The aim being to guide developers in the creation of plausible characters that are considered appealing to viewers. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.