Let’s Give ‘m a Hand
There is a good project on Hand Motion Modeling running at our lovely department of IDE, special branch ID Studiolab. Fed up with the ugly and unnatural hands of avatars Onno van Nierop fathered his own Hand.
(source is better)
What should you notice? First, look at the motion not at the skin. The pink triangular surfaces are the foundations of the skin, which can and should be smoothed and overlaid with actual skin texture. Second, the fingers (watch the pink) do not travel in a circular arc, but in a conical arc. The anatomy of the joint is such that the finger axes are not at straight angles with their turning axis, but rather at slightly bent angles. Third, extending is not the same as flexing, the turning axes are shifted slightly. This happens because different muscle systems are at work: extensors and flexors. It creates an ovoidal motion.
Virtual Guido, the eSign Avatar (click for movie)
It might be worth a try to give Guido a bit of a Hand in signing. One of the project members (IZ) once told me Guido has a weird thumb. It was modeled after one of the guys programming the Avatar who happened to possess a non-standard issue thumb.
