Monster Mash is a brand-new sketch-based modeling and animation tool that allows you to quickly draw a character, inflate it into a 3D model, and rapidly animate it. All interactions can be done on the sketch plane without any 3D manipulation. The demo program was released together with the paper "Monster Mash: A Single-View Approach to Casual 3D Modeling and Animation" by Dvorožňák et al. (published in ACM Transactions on Graphics 39(6):214, and presented at SIGGRAPH Asia 2020). The source code of the demo program is provided under the Apache-2.0 license. The demo program is free for evaluation and research purposes.
Purpose: Monster Mash is mainly used to quickly create and animate 3D characters, suitable for non-expert users for casual 3D modeling and animation production.
Main capabilities:
- Provides three basic modes: draw, inflate, and animate.
- In draw mode, you can draw the character part by part, using strokes to outline the boundaries of regions, and the stroke order corresponds to the depth order. Closed strokes represent the main body parts, and open strokes represent parts that connect smoothly with other regions (such as limbs).
- Inflate mode, you can quickly preview the 3D model, and support rotating and moving model parts.
- In animate mode, create animations by placing control pins and moving them. You can record the positions of multiple control pins and play them back to create complex animations.
- Supports importing template images or background images, and can use them as textures for the final 3D model.
- Supports creating layers from masks, allowing layers to be prepared from external image editors.
- Supports exporting the current animation frame as a Wavefront .obj file, and exporting the entire animation as glTF (.glb) format.
How to use:
- Use a mouse, touch, or stylus for control, and a stylus on a tablet is recommended.
- In draw mode, draw region boundaries by clicking and moving. Click to select a region, double-click to duplicate a region, Shift+click to add or remove from the selection.
- In inflate mode, click and move to move model parts, and click and move (or hold Shift to pan) to rotate the model.
- In animate mode, click to create control pins, drag to move control pins, and you can record animations and play them back.
- Supports shortcut key operations, such as N for a new project, Ctrl+O to open a project, Ctrl+S Save project, 1/2/3 switch modes, E toggle animation recording, Space play/pause, etc.
Applicable scenarios:
- Rapid character design and animation prototyping.
- Educational or research purposes, for demonstrating single-view 3D modeling and animation techniques.
- Casual creation, suitable for users without 3D modeling experience.
Limitations:
- Recommended for use on larger screens such as tablets; the current user interface is not optimized for small screens.
- Exporting large animations as glTF may cause the program to crash; it is recommended to save the project first.
- Requires a device with sufficient computing resources and the latest operating system and browser installed.
Other information:
- The user forum is located at forum.monstermash.zone, and can be used to share results or provide feedback.
- The demo program starts with a new blank project, and you can return to the initial state or open an existing project via the menu button.
- If the resolution of an uploaded image is not 1000x800, it will be scaled to fit the canvas.
