What’s the best way to get 3D characters in videogames to look real and expressive? Two computer scientists at Université de Montréal have come up with answer: use simple bitmap sketches to make their poses more lifelike.

Assistant professor Mikhail Bessmeltsev and his Ph.D. student Kirill Brodt have developed an animation tool that uses drawings to control how videogame characters stand and move in three dimensions.

The duo’s study is published on July 22 in ACM Transactions on Graphics. We asked them to tell us more.