Appealing Female Avatars from 3D Body Scans: Perceptual Effects of Stylization.

Advances in 3D scanning technology allow us to create realistic virtual avatars from full body 3D scan data.However, negative reactions to some realistic computer generated humans suggest that this approach mightnot always provide the most appealing results. Using styles derived from existing popular character designs,we present a novel automatic stylization technique for body shape and colour information based on a statistical3D model of human bodies. We investigate whether such stylized body shapes result in increased perceivedappeal with two different experiments: One focuses on body shape alone, the other investigates the additionalrole of surface colour and lighting. Our results consistently show that the most appealing avatar is a partiallystylized one. Importantly, avatars with high stylization or no stylization at all were rated to have the leastappeal. The inclusion of colour information and improvements to render quality had no significant effect onthe overall perceived appeal of the avatars, and we observe that the body shape primarily drives the changein appeal ratings. For body scans with colour information, we found that a partially stylized avatar was mosteffective, increasing average appeal ratings by approximately 34%.