Controls: Click applet before pressing keys

r: Increase Rate of Movement e: Decrease Rate

Goals and Methodology

The goal of this project was to create a virtual character with realistic walking and running gaits. Furthermore, the character should be able to blend between the two gaits based on the rate specified by the user (in paces/second).

To accomplish this, I first generated the spline paths to be used by the ankles and wrists. this was done using the spline editor built for homework 7. The paths were adapted from Muybridge film sequences of walking and running adults. The splines used are shown below:

Spline PathUsage
Running Legs
Walking Legs
Running Arms
Walking Arms

From the positions of the ankles and hips, the positions of the knees were calculated using inverse kinematics. The same was done to find the elbow positions.

The blending between gaits was accomplished by linear interpolation between the gaits, absed on the desired rate and the native rates of each gait.

Additionally, each gait has a native torso angle. These too are interpolated for intermediate gaits.

Source