Animanium animation software

Animanium is character-animation software associated with SEGA and research into flexible inverse kinematics.

Character animation and posing

SEGA’s 2002 annual report lists Animanium among its new businesses and describes it as software for producing CG character animation. The University of Tokyo’s Robot Brain project awards record identifies Animanium as an application using flexible inverse kinematics, associated with the university and SEGA.

Why inverse kinematics matters

Inverse kinematics works from a target toward a chain of joints. It gives an animator a way to reason about a planted hand or foot instead of rotating every joint independently. This makes posing a useful starting point for understanding the technique.

Try the principles in our exercise on choosing IK or FK for an action.