Core Technology

At the core of HumanIK are bio-mechanically correct models of biped and quadruped characters, how their skeletons are constructed and how their joints can move. HumanIK retargets input animation based on these bio-mechanically correct models to achieve more realistic animation output.

Full body Inverse Kinematics

HumanIK uses a full body IK solver which enables it to create more realistic output animation at run-time.

Without HumanIK, rotating a character's limbs can result in unrealistic motion. In this case, the character's arm is intersecting his torso. HumanIK procedural motion adaptation makes sure that characters can move in a bio-mechanically correct way. In the example below, moving the character’s arm will also affect its upper body.

Bio-mechanically correct models

When dynamically repositioning character animation, it is crucial that it looks accurate. HumanIK uses bio-mechanically correct models of biped and quadruped characters to reposition animation correctly.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Image courtesy of Ubisoft

Animation Reuse and Retargeting

HumanIK helps streamline the animation pipeline, reducing the burden of creating and maintaining large animation clip libraries typically used in games. Using HumanIK, developers can alter character animations on the fly. Less animation data means quicker load times for players and less assets to produce and maintain.

Characters can reach out and grab objects procedurally.

HumanIK retargeting enables you to take an animation and apply it to another character rig which it wasn't originally intended for. That animation rig might not have the exact same skeletal structure or the same proportions. This enables a project to reuse animations across multiple characters, saving both time and sanity.

Procedural motion adaptation

HumanIK uses sophisticated procedural motion adaptation to free animators from having to produce many repetitive motions for characters, which typically results in lost time and lots of data. Procedural motion adaptation repositions a character's limbs and joints in a bio-mechanically correct manner at runtime, resulting in more realistic animation without the need for more animation clips and complex blending between them.