(published in: Artificial Life IV Proceedings , 1994, MIT Press)
Explorations in the Emergence of
Morphology and Locomotion Behavior
in Animated Characters
Jeffrey Ventrella
Visible Language Workshop
MIT Media Laboratory
20 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
Abstract
This paper presents an animation system developed for the exploration of emergent
morphology and locomotion behavior in articulated 3D figures. A genetic
algorithm is used in this system for evolving populations of these figures
towards improved locomotion and realistic positioning of the head. Qualities
reminiscent of some familiar animals are shown to emerge. This work stems
originally from research in designing tools for the art of character animation -
as such, personality and humor are noted as qualities which may also emerge.
An interactive evolution overlay to automatic evolution is supplied by a
separate tool which allows a viewer to affect the course of evolution for
these purposes. Of interest in this paper are issues in the design
methodologies involved in creating genotype-phenotype representations
for biomorphs with "evolvability".
