Re: [Algorithms] IK-influenced animation?

[Neall V. <ver...@ra...>]

Charles Bloom wrote:
> We started something like this, but the number of animations just goes 
> way overboard for any kind of interesting motion.  Not only do the 
> artists need to make some 500+ animations per character, you wind up 
> playing like 20+ animations on each character at a time....

Sounds like you went overboard.  We've shipped several titles with this 
technique.  It works well if you are careful to manage the number of 
blends that occur at any given time.  Otherwise you get slow mush.  We 
often mix blends with various procedural fixups (head tracking, aiming, 
etc.).  In my experience, having good blending let's you get away with 
fewer animations than you would need otherwise.

Neall.