Abstract :

Physics simulation offers the possibility of truly responsive and realistic animation. Despite wide adoption of physics simulation for the animation of passive phenomena, commercial applications still resort to kinematics-based approaches for the animation of actively controlled characters. In recent years, however, research on interactive character animation using simulated physics has resulted in tremendous improvements in controllability, efficiency, flexibility and visual fidelity. In this review, we present a structured evaluation of relevant aspects, approaches and techniques regarding interactive character animation using simulated physics, based on over two decades of research. We conclude by pointing out some open research areas and possible future directions.

Paper :
This survey have been published as a State of the Art Report (STAR) at Eurographics 2011.
An extended version has been published in Computer Graphics Forum: see paper page .