Autodesk HumanIK

Why HumanIK?

Reduce the time required to implement character animations

In many game productions, each movement of a character must be choreographed -- animators must painstakingly create animations for each and every possible movement and interaction, which are all blended together at run-time. This is labor-intensive and does not necessarily solve all possible use-cases. HumanIK utilizes full-body inverse kinematics and retargeting to dynamically alter character animations. When implemented, animations are "corrected on-the-fly" so that they are more realistic. Retargeting also enables a set of animations built for one specific rig to be re-used (or "retargeted") onto another rig which may have different proportions. These mechanisms save labor and hence time for implementing character animations.

Push gameplay to a higher level with more realistic animation.

HumanIK enhances animation systems by enabling characters to interact more realistically with highly detailed, free-roaming environments. Full body inverse kinematics algorithms enable characters to adapt posture and movements at run-time. Characters place their feet firmly on the uneven surfaces, climb walls, and pick up arbitrarily-placed objects with more natural movements, even when the game environment changes. This can result in greater realism and help increase a player's immersion in the game experience.

The technology is robust enough to handle multiple character instances running concurrently, each seeking individualized programmed goals. The HumanIK inverse kinematics (IK) solver is most often used to alter forward-kinematics (FK) animations to synchronize them better with the current state of the character and the game. In principle, HumanIK helps achieve the flexibility to create realistic, complex animations for characters at run-time.

Distinguish your game with unique character behaviors.

Game developers can build HumanIK tools with which to implement specific character behaviors defined by artists. These custom behaviors can enhance the uniqueness of game characters, making them stand out from those of the competition. Over time, one can build up a library of such behaviors that can be shared across titles.

Reduce the burden of managing large amounts of animation data.

HumanIK employs procedural motion adaptation, a technology that helps free animators from having to produce every possible animation clip to cater for that use-case. Instead, HumanIK procedurally adapts existing character animations to game environments at run-time. This minimizes the need for large animation clip libraries, which in turn reduces the number of clips animators need to produce and maintain.

HumanIK’s run-time retargeting technology enables developers to reuse banks of animation on characters of completely different scales and proportions. As a result, development teams can save time for more creative challenges.