Turning 2D into 3D animations

Ever wished you could take a 2D digital image/photograph and turn it into a 3D animated image? Well there are a couple of products that are working to make this happen. MotionPortrait "transforms an ordinary digital photograph of a face into a living 3D animation that can blink and move its eyes, turn its gaze to follow the movement of the mouse cursor, express a range of emotions, sneeze and more — in very little time and with little effort". This technology was developed about 2 years ago at the Sony Kihara Research Center. This technology is now owned by Motion Portrait Inc.
Motion Portrait can:

• Automatically create 3D models
• Real-time rendering, interactive control
• Supports various natural facial expressions by their Expression Engine
• Create 3D models not only from a human face image, but also animals, 2D cartoon characters, composite drawings and any other objects that are even different from a face.

Read some of the solutions that Motion Portrait could address.

One of the other technologies that has a unique approach to getting 2D images into 3D applications is iClone.

iClone is a 3D digital storytelling application that can recreate stories for English classes, use in Drama programs or recreate historical events. This product is a lot of fun and has a lot of great tools.

One tool to note in particular is Face Fitting - Customize your own 3D head by importing one photo and mapping it to the 3D head template using the easy fitting wizard. Here is a quick tutorial to show you how to create a 3D head by using 2 different photographs.



You can also create a fashion show through clone cloth.
Great to use in Clothing & Textile programs....brings a new technology into this program.