An approach to computer-supported cartooning

An approach to computer-supported cartooning is described that aims at optimizing the image-related working process by introducing computer-support in the drawing and painting stages of traditional cartoon production, in particular, allowing automatic coloring of a sequence of digitized images. This is achieved by using a shape-matching algorithm to evaluate the similarity of image regions and by performing an optimum region assignment to identify the corresponding ones and propagate the color information through the image sequence. In order to maintain the use of traditional drawing tools, the first step in the proposed system architecture is the processing of scanned animators' drawings to enhance their quality and extract meaningful information. Two different system modules allow either manual coloring of images or computer-assisted automatic painting of an image sequence. Additional modules allow the construction of a vector representation for the images, the generation of in-betweens, and the composing of each cartoon frame. The first stages of the system's architecture - image preprocessing, painting and vectorization - are presented. Special emphasis is placed on the fundamental ideas behind the computer-assisted painting and vectorization steps. The competitiveness of the approach, which requires no special hardware or high-performance workstation, is shown.