Inverse
Kinematics of a Human figure
By: Sara Kwong
CMPS161 : Computer
Animations and Visualization
This project explores inverse kinematics using a hierarchical human figure. The human is made up of 14 joints. The end effectors are calculated using geometry. I used the Jacobian matrix formula to calculate the angles needed to get the end-effector to the position I desired. First I check if the point is reachable from the right hand, the right side of the arm is moved towards the point. If it isn’t reachable from the right arm, it then checks to see if it is reachable from the left arm. After that happens, it checks if the point is reachable from the right arm and from the back. Then if it still isn’t reachable from the right arm and back, it checks to see if it is reachable from the left arm and back. The point the arm tries to follow is white if it is reachable from the four given states. If it isn’t reachable from that point, the point turns red. The head of the human follows the point position.
Camera x, y, z -> Rotates the camera view of the perspective.
Rotate x, y, z -> Rotates everything either in the x, y, or z position.
Zoom -> Zooms in and out of the picture.
Solid Button -> Changes the person from a wire frame to a solid frame.
Rotate arm -> Rotates the left arm in the x-axis.
Animate point -> Moves the point, this is where the arm follows tries to follow the point.
Reset -> Resets everything to the start position.
Save frames -> Saves the frames to ppm files to make a mpeg video.
Quit -> Exits the program.
To watch a little clip of the program, please click here movie.mpeg
For more questions about the program, please contact me through e-mail at