This paper explores a method for re-sequencing an existing set of animation, specifically motion capture data, to generate new motion. Re-using animation is helpful in designing virtual environments and creating video games for reasons of cost and efficiency. This paper demonstrates that through nonlinear dimensionality reduction and frame re-sequencing, visually compelling motion can be produced from a set of motion capture data. The technique presented uses Isomap and ST-Isomap to reduce the dimensionality of the data set. Two distance metrics for nonlinear dimensionality reduction are compared as well as the effect of global degrees of freedom on the visual appeal of the newly generated motion. Keywords 3D figure animation, re-sequencing, motion capture, dimensionality reduction
A. Elizabeth Seward, Bobby Bodenheimer