1/31 Automated Character Locomotion

I thought this paper was really impressive. Being able to automatically change a character's walk to suit the terrain can save a ton of time for animators; instead of animating a different walk for each situation, you only have to do one! However, I'm pretty skeptical of using the data from one character for another, ex. using data from an adult human for a humanoid animal or a small child. I suppose maybe it could work for an animal doing impossible things, since we don't really know what those actions should look like. Going with the example we talked about in class, no one has seen a real alligator dance, so I think audiences will be forgiving. A dancing alligator doesn't have to look completely realistic because it's not realistic, so maybe this type of technology could work using adult human data. I'm far more skeptical about using this to animate a baby or a toddler. Yes, they're all human and have the same joints and physical capabilities as adult humans, but they simply don't walk the same way. We all know what toddlers look like when they run. They waddle because they still haven't quite gotten a hang of what they're doing, not to mention they're wearing a diaper. An adult might be able to imitate this, but I think it would look really weird if you tried to use the data from an adult walking regularly to animate a toddler. Especially since everyone knows what toddlers look like, it would look extremely unrealistic, and honestly probably a bit creepy.