Space-Time Warp Curve for Synthesizing Multi-character Motions

This paper introduces a new motion-synthesis technique for animating multiple characters. At a high level, we introduce a hub-sub-control-point scheme that automatically generates many different spline curves from a user scribble. Then, each spline curve becomes a trajectory along which a 3D character moves. Based on the given curves, our algorithm synthesizes motions using a cyclic motion. In this process, space-time warp curves, which are time-warp curves, are embedded in the 3D environment to control the speed of the motions. Since the space-time warp curve represents a trajectory over the time domain, it enables us to verify whether the trajectory causes any collisions between characters by simply checking whether two space-time warp curves intersect. In addition, it is possible to edit space-time warp curves at run time to change the speed of the characters. We use several experiments to demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can efficiently synthesize a group of character motions. Our method creates collision-avoiding trajectories ten times faster than those created manually.