Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Bournemouth University
A New Hybrid Approach to the Animation of Complex Character Interactions in Games
Context:
As for output number 1.
This was an invited paper that is based on a Keynote Address presented at the Third International Conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications held in Athens, Greece.
In this Paper:
We discuss a set of well-established problems in computer animation and computer games that are difficult to solve using currently established modelling technologies. We also present a new solution to a frequently encountered problem in CG; namely interaction between an animated character defined by a polygonal mesh and an object made from a viscoelastic substance. Additionally we examine and provide a solution to the problem of attaching soft appendages (defined functional representation) to polygonal-mesh animated objects. This is a very hard problem to solve when using polygonal models alone. Our approach in tackling these two shape-modelling problems is intended for animators and is aimed at achieving verisimilitude rather than physically based simulation.
Originality:
1 Introduction of a novel technique that allows artists to animate the interactions between polygonal-mesh character (animated by a rigging skeleton) and an object made of a viscoelastic substance.
2. Introduction of a novel technique that allows artists to attach flexible appendages (defined by a function representation) to polygonal-mesh character (animated by a rigging skeleton).
3. Creation of a plug-in tool that makes these two techniques available from within a commercial animation system that is widely used by animators in our industry.
Significance:
The two techniques presented in this paper address problems that were previously hard to solve using polygonal representations – the most commonly used representation in CG – alone. The fact that our techniques were implemented as a Maya plug-in makes them available to a large number of artists.
Rigour:
Detailed mathematical derivations, two new algorithms and a number of animation tests were presented.
