Animating human athletics

TLDR

The paper presents algorithms for animating men and women performing running, bicycling, and vaulting. The authors employ control algorithms that drive a physically realistic model to execute these maneuvers, extend them to group behaviors and clothing dynamics via spring‑mass simulations, and validate the motion against real human video and biomechanical data. The control algorithms enable simulated humans to balance while moving their arms, run or bicycle at various speeds, and perform a handspring vault.

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 secondary motion to the animations with spring-mass simulations of clothing driven by the rigid-body motion 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.