ViCMA: Visual Control of Multibody Animations

Abstract

Motion control of large-scale, multibody physics animations with contact is difficult. Existing approaches, such as those based on optimization, are computationally daunting, and, as the number of interacting objects increases, can fail to find satisfactory solutions. We present a new, complementary method for the visual control of multibody animations that exploits object motion and visibility, and has overall cost comparable to a single simulation. Our method is highly practical, and is demonstrated on numerous large-scale, contact-rich examples involving both rigid and deformable bodies.