Virtual camera layout generation using a reference video

Abstract

We propose a method that generates a virtual camera layout of a 3D animation scene by following the cinematic intention of a reference video. From a reference video, cinematic features such as the start frame, end frame, framing, camera movement, and the visual features of the subjects are extracted automatically. The extracted information is used to generate the virtual camera layout, which resembles the camera layout of the reference video. Our method handles stylized as well as human characters with body proportions diferent from those of humans. We demonstrate the efectiveness of our approach with various reference videos and 3D animation scenes. The user evaluation results show that the generated layouts are comparable to layouts created by the artist, allowing us to assert that our method can provide efective assistance to both novice and professional users when positioning a virtual camera.