Assignment 1: Interpolation
Due Date: Jan 30
Grade Value: 15%

Overview:
In this assignment, you'll implement interpolation using splines and use your code to create a keyframed animation to demonstrate to the class.

Requirements:

  • Design or choose an articulated character to animate.
  • Design or choose an input format for keyframes. Your system should input keyframes that indicate both the time and the complete pose of the character.
  • Implement an interpolation technique using the spline of your choice (e.g., Catmull-Rom or Bezier splines). Your system will create a smooth animation of the character by interpolating the character pose between input keyframes.
  • Produce a final keyframed animation.
  • Write a project report. Your report should include a description of your implementation choices and plots that show keyframed points and interpolated curves for at least two degrees-of-freedom of your character. These curves should be clearly labelled, and they should match the animation you hand in.
  • Prepare a 5min presentation that you will give in class on Jan. 30. In this presentation you will briefly describe your implementation and show your animation.

    Hand in (please supply a CD or URL from which the files can be downloaded):

    You may do this project using any software that you prefer, although of course you must write the code for keyframe interpolation on your own. One option is to use the ASF / AMC viewer (and source code) available at this web page: http://graphics.cs.cmu.edu/software/. You could, for example, download a motion from the motion capture database (http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu), extract a few frames to use as keyframes, write your own code to interpolate between those keyframes to produce a complete animation at 30fps, and play the resulting animation in the ASF/AMC viewer.

    Last Modified: 01/10/07