Realistic Behavior of Virtual Citizens through Procedural Animation

Abstract

Three-dimensional and virtual technologies develop rapidly, tools such as animation of virtual characters, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and computer-generated imagery occupy important spaces in different areas. However, new innovations and technological developments give rise to new challenges for artists and researchers. Several research work have dedicated their efforts to the development of virtual cities, methods to optimize time and information processing during crowd simulation, integration of virtual reality in crowd simulation, among other important milestones. However, the necessary attention has not been paid to the naturalness of the movement that virtual characters perform within these scenes, creating an obstacle to the sensation of the user's presence in this type of virtual environments. Moreover, crowd simulation investigations have been generated on flat ideal terrain, which differs from the reality of different cities that are composed of irregular terrain. Consequently, the use of standard walking animations lead to discrepancies with the real behavior of a human. This paper discusses the use of procedural animation to create realistic movements of a virtual character that can be applied in the different areas of research mentioned, therefore the character within the simulation is able to modify its standard movement without generating new animations and thus optimizing production resources.