Tom Nugent – Electronic Arts

Supervisor:
Dr Darren Cosker

Industry mentors:
Dr Stephen Frye
Dr Mike Bassett

Developing improved game characters combining novel animation, physics and AI techniques

Animation for characters in computer games is a continuous mix of pre-recorded motions, blended together based on controller input. The limited controller interactions mean that all of the possible motions that would be demanded of a character can be captured and accounted for offline. The only factor that can change the motion of a character is its animation controller.

But introducing a physics engine into a game where you want realistic, that respond to interactions with their environment leads to the difficult problem of the motion no longer being predictable. Characters can collide and interact in unforeseen ways with other characters and the environment. All motion cannot be accounted for beforehand, and control techniques need to be able to cope with these interactions in a realistic way.

If a footballer has a leg taken out from under them in a tackle, will they lose their balance? How can you tell? Is it possible to regain it? Should they stumble, if so, in what direction? If they fall, they shouldn’t go limp and collapse. Can they land such that they can get up quickly? Was the fall hard enough to cause injury? How do people react when they’re falling through the air? Characters need to respond appropriately to whatever situation they’re placed in, and they need to do it in a natural, human-like way that is very difficult to generate algorithmically.