Motion patches: building blocks for virtual environments annotated with motion data

Real time animation of human figures in virtual environments is an important problem in the context of computer games and virtual environments. Recently, the use of large collections of captured motion data has increased realism in character animation. However, assuming that the virtual environment is large and complex, the effort of capturing motion data in a physical environment and adapting them to an extended virtual environment is the bottleneck for achieving interactive character animation and control. We present a new technique for allowing our animated characters to navigate through a large virtual environment, which is constructed using a set of building blocks. The building blocks, called motion patches, can be arbitrarily assembled to create novel environments. Each patch is annotated with motion data, which informs what actions are available for animated characters within the block. The versatility and flexibility of our approach are demonstrated through examples in which multiple characters are animated and controlled at interactive rates in large, complex virtual environments.