CLIPE · Creating Lively Interactive Populated Environments

Creating Lively Interactive Populated Environments

The project addressed the core challenges of designing new techniques to create and control interactive virtual characters, benefitting from opportunities open by the wide availability of emergent technologies in the domains of human digitization and displays, as well as recent progresses of artificial intelligence. The primary objective of CLIPE was to train a generation of innovators and researchers in the field of virtual character simulation and animation and help bring Europe to the forefront of this dynamic field. The research objective of CLIPE was to design the next-generation of VR-ready characters that could seamlessly integrate into immersive virtual environments. CLIPE addressed the most important current aspect of the problem, which was making the characters capable of: • behaving more naturally, by developing sophisticated character behaviors that more closely resembled human actions and expressions. • interacting with real users, engaging in interactions with virtual characters sharing a virtual experience. • being more intuitively and extensively controllable for virtual worlds designers. The project provided young researchers with unique opportunities to engage in cutting-edge research, exploring innovative approaches such as: - Machine learning, to provide characters with new abilities based on examples, - Procedural animation techniques, to design large‐scale virtual population of characters, - Perceptual studies, to evaluate the effectiveness of character simulations quality and communication capabilities. CLIPE also extended its partnership to key industrial partners of populated virtual worlds, providing invaluable real-world experience for the researchers, giving students the ability to explore new application fields and start collaborations beyond academia. Finally, the project implemented a comprehensive training program designed to equip 15 young researchers (ESRs) with many of the skills necessary to excel in the very competitive industry/start‐ up world if they decided to venture there. The CLIPE research program achieved significant outcomes in several key areas oriented toward providing new tools and methods to enable communities of experts or non-expert users create high-end virtual characters, and design narrative immersive populated environments: 1. Character Creation and Manipulation: The project developed new tools and methods for generating and manipulating character meshes as well as for retargeting and stylizing motion and appearance, to make these actions achievable by non-expert users. 2. Intelligent Virtual character interaction: CLIPE successfully equipped virtual characters with sophisticated interaction and response capabilities, enabling more natural and engaging interactions with users. 3. User Friendly Authoring Tools: The project developed intuitive and accessible interfaces for creating complex 3D environments populated with virtual characters (or crowd of characters) facilitating the assignment of roles and specific behaviors. 4. Building Scalable and Immersive Worlds: The project advanced the development of robust, realistic, and scalable populated immersive virtual and augmented environments, enabling more immersive and engaging user experiences.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union