Animated mesh simplification based on saliency metrics

Mesh saliency identifies the visually important parts of a mesh. Mesh simplification algorithms using mesh saliency as simplification criterion preserve the salient features of a static 3D model. In this thesis, we propose a saliency measure that will be used to simplify animated 3D models. This saliency measure uses the acceleration and deceleration information about a dynamic 3D mesh in addition to the saliency information for static meshes. This provides the preservation of sharp features and visually important cues during animation. Since oscillating motions are also important in determining saliency, we propose a technique to detect oscillating motions and incorporate it into the saliency based animated model simplification algorithm. The proposed technique is experimented on animated models making oscillating motions and promising visual results are obtained.