Real-Time Animation Using Physical Simulation and Kinematics

Herwin van Welbergen, Job Zwiers, and Zsofia M. Ruttkay

This paper appears in issue Volume 14, Number 4.
An electronic version of this article is available.

Abstract

Expressive animation (such as gesturing or conducting) is typically generated using procedural animation techniques. These techniques offer precision in both timing and limb placement, but they lack physical realism. On the other hand, physical simulation offers physical realism, but does not provide the precision offered by procedural motion. We introduce a new animation technique that combines the advantages of procedural animation and physical simulation. The technique is based on simultaneously using kinematics and physics, applied to different regions of the human body, combined with a torque feedback method that couples the two. It is efficient and easy to implement as a plugin for a wide range of physical simulation engines. Source code is available online.

Author Information

Herwin van Welbergen welberge@ewi.utwente.nl

Job Zwiers zwiers@cs.utwente.nl

Zsofia M. Ruttkay zsofi@utwente.nl

BibTeX Entry

@article{vanWelbergen10,
  author = "Herwin van Welbergen and Job Zwiers and Zsofia M. Ruttkay",
  title = "Real-Time Animation Using Physical Simulation and Kinematics",
  journal = "journal of graphics, gpu, and game tools",
  volume = "14",
  number = "4",
  pages = "1-21",
  year = "2009",
}