Transplanting Individual Limbs

I improved the overlay creation tool to allow the user to transplant individual limbs. By default, all the limbs above the root will be transplanted. However, the user can select and de-select individual limbs. The interface is also very easy to use, allowing you to toggle between transplanting an entire arm. To demonstrate, here is a more recent video of the overlay creation process.



The user first loads the motion he/she wants to use for the lower body. Then the user selects to create an overlay and loads the motion for the upper body. Options include interpolating between the two motions before transplanting and selecting individual limbs as mentioned before.

Here is an example of the difference between an overlay where all the upper body limbs are transplanted and one where one of the arms is not transplanted:



In the example above, I am obviously using a running motion for the lower body and a drinking motion for the upper body. In the first overlay, all upper body limbs are transplanted from the drinking motion to the running motion. As a result, the right arm remains stiff because it wasn't moving in the original drinking motion. However, if we choose not transplant this arm we get the result shown in the second overlay, which I think looks a bit better.

Transplanting individual limbs can really help make better looking overlays. Of course, it also multiplies the number of possibilities we have to consider when thinking of ways to automatically generate overlays.