Procedural Test

Here is a quick test for a real-time procedural system I have been working on.

procedural test from Erik Eidukas on Vimeo.

The animator has control over the amplitude, frequency, and shape. Amplitude acts as a multiplier for the entire motion. Frequency controls the rate at which it will swing back and forth. Included with the frequency option is an indicator which displays the frame number for when the animation will loop. Finally, the shape spinner controls the overlap and rigidity of the motion. Lower values will be more rigid and higher values will be more loose.

There are also some other options found within the system. It provides the animator with the freedom to hand key, bake the automated motion to FK controllers, or blend between the automated motion and hand keyed motion. This way the animator can choose when they want to go from procedural motion to keyframed, or even use a combination of the two.

This system does not require that the bones are set up in a straight line, it will function based on any starting pose. It also supports posing in FK, and then updating the starting shap to match that new pose.

This system is based on sine waves, and there are no spring controllers involved. This means that all updates can be seen real time in the viewport, during playback. It also means that the object does not react to translation or rotation of its parent, which is the effect that I was going for.