CG Animation of Piano-Playing Motion : Humanizing of Playing Motion and GPU Rendering

Abstract

Technologies re-creating piano performance in the form of CG animation are eagerly anticipated by people working in various fields, such as content production and music education. We are promoting research into the analysis and CG expression of realistic and natural-looking piano fingering. This paper proposes a method that automatically generates an interactive animation of a pianist playing the piano from a musical score in real-time. The optimal piano fingering and the trajectories of all control points in the bony frameworks of hands based on the fingering are determined by using optimized algorithms. The piano-playing motion generated automatically is humanized at the performance skill level that users expect, and the real-appearing skin texture is simulated by the GPU (graphics processing units) rendering in real-time. These methods can be applied to many other areas, such as designing a training support system for piano practice or for contents creation.