1. Final Presentation Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center

2. TEAM Juan J. Ramirez - Co-Producer Mac Lotze - Co-Producer Jon Lew - Designer / Programmer Robin Lee - Programmer Xiaoyi Zhang - Lead Programmer Jiahao Xia - Artist Rachina Ahuja - Artist 3. ADVISORS & CLIENT Shirley Saldamarco Personal Robotics Lab Mike Christel 4. BIG PICTURE GUI May 1 To turn HERB into a stage actor, controlled by an operator through a tool using parameterized animations 5. DELIVERABLES Set of expressive animations An intuitive and flexible interface Open-source code More efficient pipeline 6. RECAP 7. HALVES Rehearsals / User Testing Animation Design (Parameterization) Implementation of Tool 8. SOFTS Demonstration of tool Composing individual actions to form sequences Adjusting parameters: openness & intensity Built a sample sequence from the play Showcased videos of HERB executing animations 9. STRATEGY 10. TWO-PRONGED APPROACH Hand animation to work directly with lab Parameterized animations as part of future research 11. HAND-ANIMATED ANIMATION Time constraints: 3hrs in the last two weeks Technical Difficulties with HERB 12. HAND-ANIMATED ANIMATION Emotional playtest advised the crafting of animations Primary contributor (60%) to all animations used in play 13. FINAL PLAY 14. DESIGN 15. INITIAL DESIGN Hand crafting the animation and return transition Generating parameterized animations 16. DRAWBACKS OF DESIGN Main Problem: Transitions are too obvious Sometimes breaks the intended performance Can be used as part of the performance Sample Transition 17. ITERATION ON DESIGN Remove end poses and transitions Parameterizing animations with fixed end pose 18. ITERATION ON DESIGN Closed Open Old Design Closed Open New Design 19. DRAWBACKS Animations conform to a fixed rule-set Less range of modification for openness Takeaway: Combining both designs give most flexibility Old Design New Design Range of movementRange of movement 20. IMPLEMENTATION 21. BLENDER PLUGIN Adding to the Robotics Institutes toolset: Parameterization Plugin 22. TOOL (SOFTS) Implemented parameterization, tested with robot 23. TOOL (PERFORMANCE) Save/Load to support plays 24. Filtering based on pose graph TOOL (PERFORMANCE) 25. PLAYTEST 26. STUDY 27 participants 4 Animations x 4 Versions: Openness (High/Low) Speed (High/Low) Based off Robert Plutchik scale 27. RESULTS High Openness High Speed perceived to be most intense Key O Openness S Speed L Low H High 28. RESULTS Extremes were clearly identified High Openness High Speed VS Low Openness Low Speed 29. FEEDBACK Emotions are hard to tell Could be improved with Quicker motions Facial animations Deformations/Translations 30. COMPARISON 31. Parameterized Animations Short simple actions that can be modified Combine/parameterize for variation Small tweaks on-site Simple to Add Huge initial overheads Not tested for more complex animations Hand Animations Long complex purposefully created animation sequence Actions tend to become reused No changes on-site Requires more time No initial overheads Subtle touches increase expressiveness PROS AND CONS 32. Parameterized Animations Short simple actions that can be modified Hand Animations Long complex purposefully created animation sequence COMPLEXITY 33. LESSONS 34. EXTERNAL TECHNOLOGY Challenge Complex external technologies/resources Technical difficulties in getting technology to work outside the lab Lesson Get the client to understand this difficulty early Troubleshoot on-site Plan more for dealing with external technology 35. WORKING WITH HERB Challenge HERB was designed to be a functional robot Simulator is limited in artistic fidelity Robots have physical limitations Lesson Simulators can only simulate Access to robot Understand the big picture of things acceptance of HERB by humans 36. CONCLUSION 37. SUMMARY Set of expressive animations Hand animated and parameterized animations An intuitive and flexible interface Interface that supports the play and parameterized animations Open-source code A more efficient pipeline Blender Plugin, Updated Wiki, Workflow with external parties Hand animated and parameterized animations Interface that supports the play and parameterized animations Blender Plugin, Updated Wiki, Workflow with external parties 38. THANK YOU