Advanced animation framework for virtual character within the MPEG-4 standard

The paper presents an advanced animation framework for virtual characters within the MPEG-4 standard. The bone-based animation (BBA) specifications are described and it is shown how they extend the MPEG-4 face and body animation (FBA) specifications. Specifically, the scene graph concept, the BBA nodes related to bone and muscle modeling, the animation parameters and the compression capabilities are successively addressed and discussed within a specific application related to a sign language communication system.