Physically Based Character Animation Synthesis

Abstract

Understanding and synthesizing human motions are an important scientific quest. It also has broad applications in computer animation. Research on physically based character animation in the last two decades has achieved impressive advancement. A large variety of human activities are synthesized automatically in a physically simulated environment. The two key components of physically based character animation are (1) physical simulation that models the dynamics of humans and their environment and (2) controller optimization that optimizes the character's motions in the simulation. This approach has an inherent realism because we all live in a world that obeys physical laws, and we evolved to survive in this physical environment. In this chapter, we will review the state of the art of physically based character animation, introduce a few established methods in physical simulation and motor control, and discuss promising future directions.