Deformation-Based Animation of Snake Locomotion

We propose a fast and powerful method to create locomotive animation of a snake. The goal here is to provide an animator with highly familiar but greatly improved key-frame system that is efficient enough to expedite the animation process and flexible enough to accept creative input while achieving the striking visual realism required in movie production. These goals are achieved using a deformationbased approach. Simple deformation rules tailored to the motion of a snake are proposed. Each deformation is devised by faithfully referencing available research in biology as well as live video footage of snake locomotion. Single deformation or various combinations of deformations applied to the control curve of a rigged snake generate the distinctive locomotion observed in typical snakes. The method is transparent to conventional keyframing as it provides individual control of the CVs. The additional tweak of individual CV control can improve the animation quality. The system alleviates the tedium of conventional key-framing while expanding the expressive power. 2. Deformation-based Animation