---
license: cc0-1.0
pretty_name: Dancing Chibi Figures
language:
- en
task_categories:
- text-to-video
- text-to-image
- image-to-video
- keypoint-detection
- image-segmentation
tags:
- synthetic
- video-diffusion
- motion
- chibi
- character-animation
- sprite
- benchmark
- toy-dataset
size_categories:
- 100K<n<1M
dataset_info:
- config_name: frames
  features:
  - name: sample_id
    dtype: string
  - name: color
    dtype: image
  - name: prompt
    dtype: string
  - name: caption_short
    dtype: string
  - name: group
    dtype: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: frame_idx
    dtype: int32
  - name: clip_id
    dtype: string
  - name: seg
    dtype: image
  - name: depth
    dtype: image
  - name: normal
    dtype: image
  - name: caption
    dtype: string
  - name: caption_static
    dtype: string
  - name: caption_dynamic
    dtype: string
  - name: caption_dense
    dtype: string
  - name: events
    dtype: string
  - name: n_frames
    dtype: int32
  - name: fps
    dtype: int32
  - name: held_out
    dtype: bool
  - name: text
    dtype: string
  - name: seed
    dtype: int32
  - name: qa_flags
    dtype: string
  - name: cam_yaw
    dtype: float32
  - name: cam_pitch
    dtype: float32
  - name: cam_center_x
    dtype: float32
  - name: cam_center_y
    dtype: float32
  - name: px_per_m
    dtype: float32
  - name: joint_xyz
    dtype: binary
  - name: joint_xy
    dtype: binary
  - name: joint_depth
    dtype: binary
  - name: joint_visible
    dtype: binary
  - name: root_pos
    dtype: binary
  - name: root_vel
    dtype: binary
  - name: root_heading
    dtype: binary
  - name: foot_contacts
    dtype: binary
  - name: config
    dtype: string
  - name: size
    dtype: int32
- config_name: mini
  features:
  - name: sample_id
    dtype: string
  - name: color
    dtype: image
  - name: prompt
    dtype: string
  - name: caption_short
    dtype: string
  - name: group
    dtype: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: frame_idx
    dtype: int32
  - name: clip_id
    dtype: string
  - name: seg
    dtype: image
  - name: depth
    dtype: image
  - name: normal
    dtype: image
  - name: caption
    dtype: string
  - name: caption_static
    dtype: string
  - name: caption_dynamic
    dtype: string
  - name: caption_dense
    dtype: string
  - name: events
    dtype: string
  - name: n_frames
    dtype: int32
  - name: fps
    dtype: int32
  - name: held_out
    dtype: bool
  - name: text
    dtype: string
  - name: seed
    dtype: int32
  - name: qa_flags
    dtype: string
  - name: cam_yaw
    dtype: float32
  - name: cam_pitch
    dtype: float32
  - name: cam_center_x
    dtype: float32
  - name: cam_center_y
    dtype: float32
  - name: px_per_m
    dtype: float32
  - name: joint_xyz
    dtype: binary
  - name: joint_xy
    dtype: binary
  - name: joint_depth
    dtype: binary
  - name: joint_visible
    dtype: binary
  - name: root_pos
    dtype: binary
  - name: root_vel
    dtype: binary
  - name: root_heading
    dtype: binary
  - name: foot_contacts
    dtype: binary
  - name: config
    dtype: string
  - name: size
    dtype: int32
configs:
- config_name: frames
  default: true
  data_files:
  - split: train
    path: frames/train-*.parquet
  - split: validation
    path: frames/val-*.parquet
  - split: test
    path: frames/test-*.parquet
- config_name: mini
  data_files:
  - split: train
    path: mini/train-*.parquet
  - split: validation
    path: mini/val-*.parquet
  - split: test
    path: mini/test-*.parquet
---
# Dancing Chibi Figures — v0.1

**One template Q-version (chibi) character, animated by 1,430 motion clips, rendered with exact labels and motion-grounded captions — and paired frame-for-frame with [Dancing Stick Figures](https://huggingface.co/datasets/sprited/dancing-stick-figures).**

1,423 clips · 6 s @ 20 fps · 128×128 RGBA · 514,800 frames · 143 text prompts × 10 seeds × 3 cameras ·
every frame carries the 3D skeleton, camera, depth, camera-space normals, part segmentation, motion events and five
levels of caption.

<p align="center"><img src="figs/contact_sheet.png" width="900"></p>

*One row per motion group; every clip also carries depth, camera-space normals, part segmentation and joints:*

<p align="center"><img src="figs/labels_row.png" width="1000"></p>

The stick-figure dataset was the minimal case (lines, an exact oracle). This is the next rung: a **real character with
volume** — a grey, flat-shaded chibi mannequin (~2.8 heads tall, face guide cross, dark outline, the kind of template
figure drawing books use) — while every pixel is still a deterministic function of ~30 known parameters. Same motion,
same cameras, same `clip_id` as the stick-figure dataset, so the two can be used together (skeleton → character,
stick render ↔ chibi render, pose estimation on chibi proportions).

> **v0.1 = first public cut.** Rendering, labels and splits are final for this version. Captions are templated from the
> motion labels (see *Captions*) and may be refined in v0.2 without re-rendering.

## Which config?

| config | rows | size | contents |
|---|---|---|---|
| `frames` (default) | 514,800 frames | 5.1 GB | 128² RGBA colour (WebP lossless) + depth16 + normals + seg + all labels + captions |
| `mini` | 514,800 frames | 2.09 GB | **64²** version of `frames` — laptops, Colab, classrooms |
| motion | — | — | the raw ARDY motion is identical to the stick dataset's `motion` config (same `clip_id`); the chibi retarget is `generator/chibi.py` in the code repo |

## Quick start

```python
from datasets import load_dataset
ds = load_dataset("sprited/dancing-chibi-figures", "frames", split="validation")
row = ds[0]
row["color"]              # PIL RGBA image, transparent background
row["caption"]            # "Seen from the front-right, a chibi mannequin waves hello with the right hand; it raises the right hand to head level at 0.5 s ..."
row["caption_dynamic"]    # observed motion only (from the labels, never from the prompt)
row["prompt"]             # the text the motion was generated from: "A person waves hello with the right hand."
import json, numpy as np
events = json.loads(row["events"])                                    # per-clip motion events (same on every row of a clip)
xy = np.frombuffer(row["joint_xy"], np.float32).reshape(27, 2)       # normalised [0,1] image coords
seg = np.array(row["seg"])                                            # bone id per pixel (0 = background)
```

Composite the RGBA colour over any background you like; depth/normal/seg let you relight or recolour it (the render is
unlit on purpose — the normals are there so you can "afterlight" it).

## What is in a frame

**`frames` / `mini` — one row per rendered frame.**

| column | type | meaning |
|---|---|---|
| `sample_id`, `clip_id`, `frame_idx`, `n_frames`, `fps` | str/int | `clip_id = group/prompt_slug_s{seed}/c{cam}`; 120 frames per clip, 20 fps; **identical ids to Dancing Stick Figures** |
| `split`, `group`, `held_out` | str/bool | split ∈ train/val/test; group ∈ dance, gesture, locomotion, transitions, idle, acrobatic, **sport** (held out → test only) |
| `prompt` (= `text`) | str | the ARDY motion prompt the clip was generated from (143 unique) — the *intent*, not a description of the clip |
| `events` | JSON str (identical on every row of a clip-camera) | rule-based motion events from the labels: `travel_m`, `travel_dir`, `heading_change_deg`, `jumps` [[t,dur]], `steps`, `left/right_hand_above_head / _raised / _forward`, `left/right_foot_raised`, `low_posture`, `lying`, `inverted`, `hips_height_m`, `activity_per_s`, `active_s` |
| `caption_static` | str | appearance + framing + camera (constant over the clip) |
| `caption_dynamic` | str | the observed motion in temporal order, generated from `events` only |
| `caption_short`, `caption`, `caption_dense` | str | 5–10 words / 1–2 sentences / 3–6 sentences; 2–3 paraphrase templates sampled per clip-camera |
| `seed` | int | ARDY seed 0–9 |
| `qa_flags` | str | comma list; `prompt_mismatch:no_locomotion / no_jump / no_turn / no_low_posture / no_arms_up` (heuristics: the clip contradicts its prompt), `frozen`, `out_of_frame` (a joint centre leaves the image — 0.31 % of frames, almost all in `transitions` clips that start on the floor and stand up; the fixed camera is framed on the frame-0 hips). Kept, not filtered |
| `cam_yaw`, `cam_pitch` | float (rad) | orthographic camera, same sampling and values as the stick dataset; yaw 0 = figure faces the camera; **positive pitch = camera slightly below** the horizontal |
| `cam_center_x/y`, `px_per_m` | float | projection in 128-px units: `x_px = cx + px_per_m·x` (for `mini` divide by 2); scale 50–58 px/m |
| `joint_xyz` | binary f32[27,3] | figure-frame 3D joints (x left, y up, z forward), metres, Hips at frame 0 = origin |
| `joint_xy` | binary f32[27,2] | image coordinates, normalised to [0,1] |
| `joint_depth` | binary f32[27] | depth toward the camera (m), Hips-relative, same convention as the depth map |
| `joint_visible` | binary u8[27] | **1 if the bone owns ≥1 pixel in `seg`** — NOT the stick dataset's per-joint occlusion test, despite the same column name; hand-tip and toe bones are absorbed by their neighbours in `seg` and are always 0 (use `joint_xy` for an in-frame test). Will be unified with the stick semantics in v0.2 |
| `root_pos`, `root_vel`, `root_heading` | binary f32[3], f32[3], f32[2] | Hips trajectory in the frame-0 figure frame (world travel — the render itself is hips-centred); heading = (cos, sin) yaw |
| `foot_contacts` | binary u8[4] | ARDY foot contacts: LeftFoot, LeftToe, RightFoot, RightToe |
| `color` | image | 128×128 RGBA WebP (lossless), **transparent background**, unlit flat grey |
| `depth` | image | 16-bit PNG, `depth = lo + u16/65535·(hi−lo)`, range [−1.5, 1.5] m toward the camera around the Hips, 0 = background |
| `normal` | image | RGB WebP (lossless), camera-space normal `n = rgb/255·2−1` (x right, y up, z toward camera) |
| `seg` | image | 8-bit PNG, value = joint id + 1 of the bone owning the pixel (0 = background); exact at render resolution, majority-vote downsampled |
| `config`, `size` | str/int | `frames`/128, `mini`/64 |

**All left/right in prompts, captions, events and joint names are the figure's own left/right (egocentric), not the viewer's** — a figure facing the camera points "to the left" toward screen-right.

Binary columns are raw little-endian arrays: `np.frombuffer(row[col], dtype).reshape(shape)`.
Skeleton (`cskel27`, index order): Hips, Spine, Spine1, Spine2, Spine3, Neck, Head, RightShoulder, RightArm,
RightForeArm, RightHand, RightHandEnd, RightHandThumb1, LeftShoulder, LeftArm, LeftForeArm, LeftHand, LeftHandEnd,
LeftHandThumb1, RightUpLeg, RightLeg, RightFoot, RightToeBase, LeftUpLeg, LeftLeg, LeftFoot, LeftToeBase.
`Head` is the head-sphere **centre** (skull base in the stick dataset).

## Captions: prompt ≠ caption

The ARDY prompt is what we *asked for*; the clip is what the motion model *produced*, and they disagree more often than
you would think ("walks in a circle" turns 62°; "does jumping jacks" jumps twice, then stands). So the captions are
generated **from the labels**, Seedance-style: a static part (appearance, framing, camera), a dynamic part (events in
temporal order), and three granularities, with the prompt kept as a separate `prompt` column and a `prompt_mismatch`
flag when the two clearly contradict. The render is hips-centred, so the captions say "the camera follows the hips"
and never claim visible travel; travel lives in `events` / `root_pos`.

We also ran an off-the-shelf video VLM (Qwen3-VL-8B) on the clips: it described ~half of them correctly (sitting,
waving, kicking) and missed whole-body fast motion (jumps, a flip) and turning on this featureless mannequin — a
useful probe, not a caption source; VLM captions are not included in v0.1.

## Splits

By **prompt**, never by seed or camera (identical to the stick dataset): `sport` is held out entirely; else hash(prompt) → 90/5/5.

| | frames |
|---|---|
| train | 363,600 |
| validation | 18,000 |
| test (incl. sport) | 133,200 |

## How it was made

prompt → **NVIDIA ARDY** text-to-motion (6 s, 20 fps, seeds 0–9; the same clips as the stick dataset) → chibi
retarget (same joint rotations on chibi bone lengths; root travel scaled by the leg ratio so the feet do not slide;
ground from foot contacts) → **Blender 5.1** procedural rig (Skin-modifier mannequin over the 27-joint graph + sphere
head, heat weights, dual-quaternion skinning; flat Emission material, inverted-hull outline, face guide cross) → 3
orthographic cameras per clip (same sampling as the stick dataset) → two headless Eevee passes per frame (anti-aliased
colour; 1-sample exact depth / normal / segmentation) at 256², box-downsampled to 128 / 64 → parquet. Deterministic
from `clip_id`; the generator is in the code repo.

## Intended use / limitations

Teaching and benchmarking small video/image generative models, conditional generation (skeleton/seg/depth → character),
pose estimation on chibi proportions, sprite/character animation research. One template character only (no clothes,
hair, faces, props); hips-centred framing (no visible travel); ~0.3 % of frames are partly out of frame (flagged `out_of_frame`); the rig mesh has small internal defects at the neck and
wrists invisible at ≤256 px; `prompt_mismatch` flags are heuristics; camera pitch sign follows the stick dataset
(positive = from slightly below).

## Baselines & tutorial

Two tracks, both trained on `mini` (64px):

**🤗 diffusers-standard** — load with three lines, everything transfers to any diffusers project:
- [sprited/dancing-chibi-figures-ddpm-64](https://huggingface.co/sprited/dancing-chibi-figures-ddpm-64) — unconditional `DDPMPipeline` (UNet2DModel, 4-channel RGBA).
- [sprited/dancing-chibi-figures-t2i-64](https://huggingface.co/sprited/dancing-chibi-figures-t2i-64) — **text-to-image**: a miniature Stable Diffusion (UNet2DConditionModel + frozen CLIP + classifier-free guidance, no VAE).

```python
from diffusers import DiffusionPipeline
pipe = DiffusionPipeline.from_pretrained("sprited/dancing-chibi-figures-t2i-64",
                                         custom_pipeline="sprited/dancing-chibi-figures-t2i-64",
                                         trust_remote_code=True)
imgs = pipe(["a person jumps in place"] * 4, num_inference_steps=50, guidance_scale=3.0).images
```

**pure PyTorch** — [sprited/dancing-chibi-figures-baselines](https://huggingface.co/sprited/dancing-chibi-figures-baselines):
a 64px image model and a **text-conditioned autoregressive video** model (chunked diffusion, CLIP prompt embeddings);
trainer and `scripts/rollout.py` in the code repo. A ComfyUI node (`comfy/qversion-chibi`) wraps the image checkpoints.

**📓 Colab tutorial** — [dancing_chibi_figures_colab.ipynb](https://github.com/sprited-ai/dancing-chibi-figures/blob/main/notebooks/dancing_chibi_figures_colab.ipynb):
look at the data, train the text-to-image model from scratch, turn it into a video model, grade it with a counting
robot — free-T4-sized, written for absolute beginners. (Sequel to the stick-figures notebook.)

## Versioning

v0.1 (2026-08) first public cut. Planned v0.2: more prompts (a curated set of ~300 from a chibi pose reference book),
an anatomy oracle, post-processed outlines, optional colour-coded config, 8-direction sprite views.

## License and attribution

Data CC0-1.0. Motion generated with NVIDIA ARDY (NVIDIA Open Model License, which claims no ownership of outputs);
character, rig and renderer are procedural code (MIT) — no third-party 3D assets. Paired dataset:
[sprited/dancing-stick-figures](https://huggingface.co/datasets/sprited/dancing-stick-figures).