Artist Statement

The animation is based on the inverse kinematics algoritm of Koichi Kondo, and a multi-arm manipulation planner invented by Yoshihito Koga. It is NOT a key-framed animation, rather the motions were specified at the task-level and computed automatically. Only ten intermediate goals were specified to complete the entire animation sequence.

This research into Automatic Animation of Human Arm Motion involves using path-planning algorithms from robotics to automatically generate computer animation sequences for human figures. If you would like to read more about this project in detail, see the 1994 edition of COMPUTER GRAPHICS (the conference proceedings of SIGGRAPH ’94) for our group’s research paper entitled Planning Motions with Intentions.

In early September 1993, we began brainstorming on ideas for creating a short animation sequence that would demonstrate the potential for manipulation planning in the automatic animation of human motion. This was the motivation for the creation of a hypothetical game of Chess between a human and a robot in a futuristic world.

After many weeks of rendering fully ray-traced still images, the nearly 3,600 frames of animation were sequenced together and recorded to 3/4″ U-Matic tape using an Abekas machine.

The film had its world premiere in Orlando, Florida in July 1994, when it was shown at the “Electronic Theater” at SIGGRAPH ’94. It is included in the 1994 Video Conference Proceedings of SIGGRAPH ’94 “Electronic Theater” edition.

In order to demonstrate the potential for automating the animation of grasping and manipulation motions, we collaborated to produce a 2 minute short film. The sequence involves a human and a robot playing a hypothetical game of chess in a futuristic world, in which all of the motion was generated using a randomized path-planning technique.  [source: kuffner.org/james/anim/endgame]

• James Kuffner Jr. studied at the Magdalen College of Oxford University, UK and is now (1994) Graduate Research Assistant, Stanford University, Dept. of Computer Science, Robotics Laboratory. Stanford, CA., USA. Contributes to a variety of research projects in computer graphics, robotics, haptics, computer vision, and physically-based modeling. Dissertation research combines robot motion planning with computer graphics to synthesize motion for articulated animated characters from task-level commands.  kuffner.org/james