Lecture 18: Intro to Animation (49)
tom5079

Can we use inverse kinematics to animate human?

DTanxxx

Inverse kinematics is a common tool used in procedural animation, where models intended for animation can be given “targets” (used by effectors), and the joints connecting these end effectors are rotated such that the effectors are able to "reach" the targets (eg physically reach the target, face the target, avoid the target, etc.).

keeratsingh2002

How do you determine the best set of joint angles that will position the end effector accurately while also maintaining a natural motion for the character or object?

AXM78251

I think one of the methods that can be utilized to solve these types of Inverse Kinematics problem, and one which is discussed in EECS106A!, is through the use of Padan-Kahan subproblems to break up our problem into basic subproblems that we know the answer to!

omijimo

this is interesting because it allows animators to create several very similar animations without having to animate each one by hand with direct kinematics. this is how some of tf2's animations are created (such as upper body animations when holding different weapons that require slightly different hand positions)

Edge7481

IK is also pretty useful for simulating interactions between the subject and the environment. For example, a human simulation can use IK to ensure that the feet don't clip into the ground, or to grab and reach for objects in an arbitrary position

agao25

My understanding of IK is that in animation and solving kinematics problems, we can fix a limb or a point in the system and then position the end of the the limb or define some end point. IK can then solve the interconnecting joints and their angles to reach the end point from the fixed start point for the system. I wonder if you can use ML or some training tool and feed a program to create "realistic" scenes or animations of body movements based on the position of limbs and joints.

AbhiAlderman

It is super cool to see how much overlap lies between robotics and animation. Intuitively it makes sense, as both can be seen as a study of "how things move". Inverse kinematics is insanely important in the field of robotics, but it never occurred to me that it had uses outside of that field. To see it be used for animation is really cool to me. This also makes sense as to why Disney has so much experience when it comes to Robotics. I was always curious why and how Disney had such advanced robotics rigs for their puppets, but now I see the connection between making robotics move fluidly and creating fluid animations. If anyone is curious to see some Disney robotics stuff, here's a cool video I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtHYQ0qbwxA

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