Interactive Animation of Dynamic Manipulation

Abstract

Lifelike animation of manipulation must account for the dynamicinteraction between animated characters, objects, and their environment. Failing to do so would ignore the often significant effects objectshave on the motion of the character. For example, lifting a heavy objectwould appear identical to lifting a light one. Physical simulationhandles such interaction correctly, with a principled approach thatadapts easily to different circumstances, changing environments, andunexpected disturbances. Our work shows how to control lifelike animatedcharacters so that they accomplish manipulation tasks within aninteractive physical simulation. Our new multi-task control algorithmsimplifies descriptions of manipulation by supporting prioritized goalsin both the joint space of the character and the task-space of theobject. The end result is a versatile algorithm that incorporatesrealistic force limits and recorded motion postures to portray lifelikemanipulation automatically.