   Semi-Procedural Animation: Locomotion System Released Now
  For more than half a year I've been working on an automated Locomotion System to make animated humans and animals walk correctly on any uneven terrain including arbitrary steps and slopes.My blog has interactive demos of and video demonstrations of its capabilities, including the new features that enables it to be used with 4-legged animals:I'm happy to say that the Locomotion System has now been officially released last Friday concurrent with my presentation of it at Unite 2008. It is available for download at the Unity website:Go To Locomotion SystemFrom the website:Quote:AboutTake a look at how semi-procedural animation can dramatically improve the realism of animated humans and animals.Full Control of styleAnimators are experts in creating motions with specific styles and personalities. The Locomotion System uses keyframed or motion-captured animations as input and only adjusts them minimally to move the feet correctly in a dynamic and detailed environment.Full Control of BehaviorMove your character around by any means you desire, be it a CharacterController, a RigidBody, or your own custom movement logic. The Locomotion System simply observes the position, alignment, velocity and rotational velocity of your character and deduces everything from that, along with some raycasts onto the ground.DetailsThe Locomotion System automatically blends your keyframed or motion-captured walk and run cycles and then adjusts the movements of the bones in the legs to ensure that the feet step correctly on the ground. The system can adjust animations made for a specific speed and direction on a plain surface to any speed, direction, and curvature, on any surface, including arbitrary steps and slopes.The presentation of the Locomotion System at Unite 2008 was received very well, and this Gamasutra article refers to the presentation as a "crowd favorite".I am also currently finishing writing my Master Thesis about the techniques behind the Locomotion System so that the theory behind it can be spread and implemented in other engines too.Rune[Edited by - runevision on November 3, 2008 9:33:18 AM]
  Glad to hear things went well with the presentation.  This looks very interesting.  The addition of support for quadruped characters is also of interest.  Looking forward to learning more about the techniques used.;  Brilliant. Very inspiring indeed. Will there be a cost to non unity users?   ;Quote:Original post by spookycatBrilliant. Very inspiring indeed. Will there be a cost to non unity users?Thanks!The implemented system is designed for the Unity engine so you can't use it without. The theory behind the system is generally applicable though, so once I've finished writing my Master's Thesis about it, people should be able to read it and implement it for other game engines if they want. It will require some work of course.Rune   