Animating Human Athletics

Jessica K. Hodgins
Carnegie Mellon University

Wayne Wooten
Georgia Tech University

David Brogan
University of Virginia

James O'Brien
University of California at Berkeley

Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 1995 Proceedings)

Abstract

This paper describes algorithms for the animation of men and women performing three dynamic athletic behaviors: running, bicycling, and vaulting. We animate these behaviors using control algorithms that cause a physically realistic model to perform the desired maneuver. For example, control algorithms allow the simulated humans to maintain balance while moving their arms, to run or bicycle at a variety of speeds, and to perform a handspring vault. Algorithms for group behaviors allow a number of simulated bicyclists to ride as a group while avoiding simple patterns of obstacles. We add secondarymotion to the animations with springmass simulations of clothing driven by the rigid-bodymotion of the simulated human. For each simulation, we compare the computed motion to that of humans performing similar maneuvers both qualitatively through the comparison of real and simulated video images and quantitatively through the comparison of simulated and biomechanical data.

Paper

 

David Brogan