
TECHNICAL ANIMATION:
Mini Project 1
For the first mini project, I tried my hand at implementing IK in Unity using the Jacobian Transpose and Pseudoinverse methods, and 2 walk cycles of a rigged character, done in Maya.
Inverse Kinematics (Jacobian Transpose and Pseudo-inverse Methods)
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I attempted two implementations of IK using the Jacobian Transpose and Jacobian Pseudoinverse methods respectively. Both were done in Unity.
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The demo above in Unity shows a real-time comparison of the two implementations. The bones following the red spheres demonstrate the Transpose method, while the bones following the blue spheres demonstrate the pseudo-inverse method.
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Each sphere influences a set of 3 joints, and can be moved around in 3D space by a cursor.
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The transpose is computed using the Analytical method.
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Clamped the rotations to within 360 degrees.
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Clamped the motion if the target position is far from the end effector.
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Added a small identity matrix to the original to make it invertible.
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Used Mathnet.Numerics plugin for Unity to perform Matrix operations
Keyframed Walk Cycles in Maya
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I attempted 2 walk cycles in Maya, shown below.
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The one on the right is the one I started off with. It is a fairly standard walk cycle.The one on the left is a fashion walk, a variation on the first one

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For both walk cycles, I followed the five poses of traditional animation
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Created the created the Contact pose, keyframed it and duplicated it to create the end pose.
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Added the opposite of the Contact Pose in the middle of the span of my walk cycle.
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Created the Passing Poses, taking care of the tilt of the hips, movement of the shoulders.
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The character is at his lowest point on the Impact Poses.
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At the Up poses the root/center of gravity is at its highest point
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I tried paying attention to the movement of the arms, the wrists, the ankles, and the toes. this especially comes across in the fashion walk.
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I wrote simple MEL scripts to help me select groups of controls at once and save poses, for duplication and backups.