Character Animation: Modeling, Simulation, and Control of Human Motion

This course introduces technologies and mathematical tools for simulating, modeling, and controlling human/animal movements. Students will be exposed to integrated knowledge and techniques across computer graphics, robotics, machine learning and biomechanics. The topics include numerical integration, 3D character modeling, keyframe animation, skinning/rigging, multi-body dynamics, human kinematics, muscle dynamics, trajectory optimization, learning policies for motor skills, and motion capture. Students who successfully complete this course will be able to use and modify physics simulator for character animation or robotic applications, to design/train control policies for locomotion or manipulation tasks on virtual agents, and to leverage motion capture data for synthesizing realistic virtual humans. The evaluation of this course is based on three assignments and an open-ended research project. Recommended Prerequisite: CS148 or CS205A