The Lightning Artist Toolkit (Latk) provides a complete pipeline for hand-drawn volumetric animation—a common exchange file format, a set of ML models, and plugins to integrate 3D drawings into a wide range of XR projects. Readable in any popular 3D graphics application and ready to use in real-world production scenarios, Latk's goal is to make creation in 3D as expressive and intuitive as drawing in 2D.

A note about the name: early animators like Winsor McCay first created their work for a live audience in vaudeville halls—and they were billed as “lightning artists.”


Papers:
“Lightning Artist Toolkit: A Hand-Drawn Volumetric Animation Pipeline”

Datasets:
TiltSet
ABC-Draco

Supported in part by a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship (752-2023-2691).