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Anurag “ Anku ” Upadhyay
Software Development
Creating a Skeletal Animation System for Parkour Movement : Using Animation Blending , Root Motion Fixes , FBX Data , Quaternion Mathematics , and Raycast-Based Obstacle Detection
The goal of my project was to create a parkour system and to understand the skeletal animation pipeline used in the video game industry . This involved loading animation data provided by artists into my custom game engine , storing the data , sampling it , crossfading between different animations , and skinning the skeletal mesh .
Growing up , I played games like Prince of Persia and Assassin ’ s Creed , and I was captivated by the parkour elements in those games — hopping from building to building and performing cool stunts along the way . I wanted to recreate a piece of that action .
I realized that I really liked working with animations . This project introduced me to the entire field of animation and how it is implemented in games . It also introduced me to the mathematical concepts of quaternions and the animation concepts of blending and crossfading animations , along with playing with the removal of root motion in animations . The skinning part of the animation was particularly intriguing . Working long-term on this project helped me to become more structured and organized in tackling a large problem . It also made me more confident in my programming skills and game mathematics skills .
It took me over eight months and approximately 350 hours of work to even scratch the surface of what these giant behemoths of games achieved , which I dearly enjoyed .
78 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT