AnimationVR - Interactive Controller-Based Animating in Virtual Reality

Animating with keyframes gives animators a lot of control but they can be tedious and complicated to work with. Currently, different solutions try to simplify animation creation by recording the natural hand movements of the user. However, most of the solutions are bound to 2D animations [1] or suffer from a low workflow speed [4]. The proposed Unity plugin AnimationVR uses the HTC Vive system to enable the puppeteering animation technique in VR while still allowing for a fast workflow speed by utilizing the 6DOF controllers. During storyboarding or rapid prototyping, the user can immediately see the results of their actions. Also, AnimationVR is written for easy integration in already existing Unity projects. The plugin was evaluated by four animation experts who agreed that AnimationVR accelerates the workflow while decreasing the animation precision. This trade-off makes it useful for storyboarding in professional environments. The experts also noted the ease of use of the puppeteering technique which could enable beginners to create complex animations without any experience with animating.