Synthesizing Balancing Character Motions

Abstract

This paper presents a novel method for generating balancing character poses by means of a weighted inverse kinematic constraint algorithm. The weighted constraints enable us to control the order of priority so that more important conditions such as balancing can take priority over less important ones. Maintaining a balancing pose enables us to create a variety of physically accurate motions (e.g., stepping, crouching). Balancing is achieved by controlling the location of the overall centre of mass of an articulated character; while the secondary constraints generate poses from end-effectors and trajectory information to provide continuous character movement. The poses are created by taking into account physical properties of the articulated character, that include joint mass, size, strength and angular limits. We demonstrate the successfulness of our method by generating balancing postures that are used to produce controllable character motions with physically accurate properties; likewise, our method is computationally fast, flexible and straightforward to implement.