Splicing of concurrent upper-body motion spaces with locomotion

In this paper, we present a motion splicing technique for generating concurrent upper-body actions occurring simultaneously with the evolution of a lower-body locomotion sequence. Specifically, we show that a layered interpolation motion model generates upper-body poses while assigning different actions to each upper-body part. Hence, in the proposed motion splicing approach, it is possible to increase the number of generated motions as well as the number of desired actions that can be performed by virtual characters. Additionally, we propose an iterative motion blending solution, inverse pseudo-blending, to maintain a smooth and natural interaction between the virtual character and the virtual environment; inverse pseudo-blending is a constraint-based motion editing technique that blends the motions enclosed in a tetrahedron by minimising the distances between the end-effector positions of the actual and blended motions. Additionally, to evaluate the proposed solution, we implemented an example-based application for interactive motion splicing based on specified constraints. Finally, the generated results show that the proposed solution can be beneficially applied to interactive applications where concurrent actions of the upper-body are desired

Real-time motion synthesis for multiple goal-directed tasks using motion layers

In this paper, a work in progress approach of layered motion interpolation method for designing realistic animation sequences for multiple goal-directed tasks is presented. The proposed solution is based on the ability to extract and synthesize different motions (in layers), while trying to efficiently reconstruct a natural-looking character's posture in real time. The proposed solution is examined for the case in which running, jumping, and reaching motions are combined. However, in addressing multiple goals fulfilled by a character in complex environments, as well as those involving complex motions, it is necessary to define the best way to handle and reconstruct the information from a motion capture database. Finally, because the character's posture should be as natural looking as possible, a simple centre of mass approach is proposed, to give desirable results at specific time step