2.5D Animation in Blender: Combining 2D Tweening, 3D Context, and Physics Simulation Toward 2.5D Simulated Keyframe Animation

Abstract

3D animation typically requires specialized skills and training, and tends to limit creative expression in favor of physical feasibility. On the other hand, while drawing2D animation frames is thought to be more accessible and expressive, it is tedious and tricky to inject sophisticated and believable physics into drawings. Another duality within animation exists between forward (simulation-based) animation and pose-to-pose (keyframed) animation. While simulations provide physical believability to the generated animations, keyframes give animators a level of timing control that is missing from the former approach. This project seeks to bridge the gap between these different approaches to animation: leveraging the expressiveness of 2D animation, the robustness of 3D environment and camera movement, the physical feasibility of 3D simulation, and the timing control of keyframing. To this end, I present a 2.5D animation interface that takes 2D drawn keyframes and 3D context (object, environment and camera movement) to generate simulated animations that adhere to the user-drawn keyframes.