Motion editing using combined partial motion clips

In this dissertation a method is presented for allowing a motion clip to be edited by blending or merging it with another one. Previous methods exist that allow clips to be merged, but they do not allow degrees of freedom that are not defined in both clips to be affected. The work presented here is different. The merged in clip does not necessarily define all degrees of freedom yet the method used for merging allows all degrees of freedom in the original motion clip to be affected. This is achieved through the inclusion of scripts that contain equations for the estimation of the undefined degrees of freedom from the defined ones. These scripts approximate the correlation that exists naturally between joint movements, they are the results of thorough analysis of sample motions. Such a clip is called a Combined Partial Motion Clip.; The method is demonstrated by applying it to the example of throwing. A partial motion clip for throwing is obtained. It contains detailed information only for the degrees of freedom of the throwing arm and trunk. Yet it can be merged with another motion such as walking where even the degrees of freedom of the legs will be affected reasonably to produce a naturally looking final motion of a person throwing while walking. From a comparison of the resulting joint trajectories to originally captured ones, one can conclude that the method produced a realistic motion.