Procedural Generation of Mammals and Locomotion

a year ago

The developer is working on procedurally generated and animated creatures for their game 'The Big Forest'.
Initial work involved procedural model generation and animation, starting in 2021 but intensifying in 2024.
The goal is to create 3D creatures that fit the forest environment, focusing on mammal-like designs.
Procedural generation challenges include defining meaningful parameters and ensuring valid creatures from random values.
Early models used extruded rectangles to capture basic proportions, evolving to more complex structures.
Attempts at automatic parametrization (e.g., PCA) were unsuccessful due to lack of meaningful control over traits.
Manual parametrization was pursued, focusing on high-level parameters and joint placement.
A Gradient Descent tool was developed to speed up creature creation by matching reference model silhouettes.
Procedural animation was approached kinematically, using FK and IK, with iterative improvements.
Challenges in animation included natural movement, especially for fast gaits like galloping.
Comparative tools and data plots were used to study and refine animation against handcrafted references.
Despite progress, both procedural generation and animation require further refinement.
The developer plans to take a break from creature work before continuing.

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