Abstract

Walking is a normal day-to-day activity that most people rarely think about – people just walk. They always have, and they always will. However, walking requires using many parts of one’s body, besides just the legs and feet. This movement is affected by one’s overall body type and structure. This project is about exploring how phenotypes can lead to different ways of movement, specifically walking, among human beings. The project will look at creating rigs for human models of the desired body type within Maya given by inputting values. This will require knowledge of creating Maya plug-ins, how rigging is set-up within Maya and the data necessary to create believable walk-cycles for the desired body structure.

Due to the Maya-based nature of this project, knowledge of setting up Maya plug-ins is very important. Using knowledge gained from the summer, I will create an interface that will allow users to customize given parameters, such as weight, height, gender and age that will help create the walk-cycle. The inputted values will then use the underlying data and algorithms to help determine how the character’s rig is setup and how the character will move realistically. This will require knowing how to setup a rig using MEL scripting, as well as Maya’s API for creating a Maya plug-in. Also, I will need to gather data such that my tool can provide natural results. I hope to present a realistic and useful tool that will help to make an aspect of animating characters within Maya a little easier.

I will make a post introducing myself more personally tomorrow. First I must finish up my design document!