The 2nd paper actually uses a 3D dataset, though it explicitly doesn't attempt to handle occlusion beyond detecting it.
I sort of hope you can handle occlusion based on learning 2D training data similarly to the video interpolation paper cited at the end. If 3D is necessary, it's Not Good for 2D animation...
AI for 3D animation is big in its own right; these puppets have 1 billion controllers and are not easy for humans to animate. I didn't look into it deeply because I like 2D more. (I learned 3D modeling and animation a bit, just to learn that I don't really like it...)
I sort of hope you can handle occlusion based on learning 2D training data similarly to the video interpolation paper cited at the end. If 3D is necessary, it's Not Good for 2D animation...
AI for 3D animation is big in its own right; these puppets have 1 billion controllers and are not easy for humans to animate. I didn't look into it deeply because I like 2D more. (I learned 3D modeling and animation a bit, just to learn that I don't really like it...)