[ODE] ode & dynamic skeletal animationsystem

Nguyen Binh Nguyen Binh <ngbinh at glassegg.com>
Thu May 15 20:59:02 2003


        Pls, see below....
DS> hi,

DS> i'm currently working on a prototyp for my diploma thesis.
DS> i made a realtime skeletal character animation system and
DS> now i would like to influence the bones and therefore the
DS> played animations. (let it be dynamic ;)

DS> so i thought about a physics engine/API, because bones are actually
DS> joints.
DS> sounds a bit like ragdoll physics, but it's a different approach.
DS> rag doll physics apply to the character after death and replaces so
DS> called death-animations.

DS> i'd like to let forces or params influence the animations so
DS> they do not look the same all the time they are played.
DS> i do not necessarily need to influence anims all the time,
DS> only under certain circumstances (explosions, wind from any direction,
DS> areas with lower/higher gravity, etc.).

    Someone has done that. But if you depend only on
    "physics", you can't expect to see a "good" animation.

DS> how could i do this?
DS> i think i would need motion mixing (mixing the currently played
DS> animation with the calculated bone-positions, of course with
DS> a kind of weighting factor).
    Right, they called them online and offline animation. There is a
    demo called Alien Skinned Mesh of Bongfish studio implement that.
    And it comes with a doc. Try to google it, if you can't find it
    then email me privately and I will send to you.

DS> should gravity be 0 and should only integrate about specific
DS> time steps and applyspecific forces?

DS> any other ideas or comments?

    My comments is, try to discuss this on GDAlgorithms list. :)


-- 
Best regards,

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   Nguyen Binh
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