movementrelocation

Movement relocation is a computational technique in motion data processing that transfers or remaps a movement trajectory from one spatial or anatomical context to another while striving to preserve the overall shape, timing, and dynamics of the motion. It is used to adapt movement patterns across different rigs, scales, or environments, enabling reuse of motion data in new settings.

In animation and motion capture, movement relocation often refers to retargeting a motion sequence from a source skeleton to a target skeleton with different limb lengths or joint limits. The process reparametrizes the trajectory and applies constraint-based optimization to maintain a natural appearance, minimizing distortions in speed, reach, or posture.

Techniques used for movement relocation include transformation-based relocation, which applies coordinate frame changes; kinematic retargeting with inverse kinematics to satisfy joint limits and reach targets; and dynamic or optimization-based approaches that adjust trajectories to preserve velocity, acceleration, and energy profiles. Temporal alignment may be employed to synchronize timing differences between source and target data, ensuring coherent motion transfer.

Applications span film and game animation, robotic manipulation and teleoperation, virtual reality interaction, gait rehabilitation, and sports analysis. The method is valued for enabling asset reuse, cross-domain motion transfer, and improved accessibility of motion data across platforms.

Limitations include potential loss of naturalness if constraints are too restrictive or if the source and target anatomies differ greatly. Quality depends on data quality, appropriate constraint selection, and the similarity between source and target rigs or environments.

See also: motion retargeting, trajectory planning, coordinate transformation, inverse kinematics.