Snake terrestrial locomotion synthesis in 3D virtual environments

We present a method for a 3D snake model construction and terrestrial snake locomotion synthesis in 3D virtual environments using image sequences. The snake skeleton is extracted and partitioned into equal segments using a new iterative algorithm for solving the equipartition problem. This method is applied to 3D model construction and at the motion analysis stage. Concerning the snake motion, the snake orientation is controlled by a path planning method. An animation synthesis algorithm, based on a physical motion model and tracking data from image sequences, describes the snake’s velocity and skeleton shape transitions. Moreover, the proposed motion planning algorithm allows a large number of skeleton shapes, providing a general method for aperiodic motion sequences synthesis in any motion graph. Finally, the snake locomotion is adapted to the 3D local ground, while its behavior can be easily controlled by the model parameters yielding the appropriate realistic animations.