Kinematic Spider
The kinematic spider is a quick tool used for making procedual animation. Any creature with legs can walk on the ground with no animations needed!
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This tool was actually one used by other groups within my experience at AIE, although I would still optomise the system before showing it off!
How it Works
The kinematic spider uses a tool called inverse kinematics to create it's movement. It is a method which figures out where your joints should be. For example, take your leg and it's parts, the upper leg, knee, lower leg, ankle and foot. When you place your foot on the ground, your brain places and rotates all the joints in your leg to reach that spot. Inverse kinematics does all of that automatically for you.
It is worth noting I did not create the code for calculating inverse kinematics, I merely downloaded a package from the asset store and used it. I made this choice not only to save time, but because I don't want to "Recreate the wheel" when there are already systems in place.
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The code I created places a point below the leg using raycasting, and tells the inverse kinematics to bend to that point. Then, when the base of the leg is too far from the point, it recalculates a new point, and the leg moves to the new point. Do this for multiple legs each with their own points, and your creature will walk. It is important to realise that the legs don't actually control any of the creatures movement, it is simply front end that makes the character look more alive.
Future Plans
I decided to make this tool within a single day, so the system is not one I would personally brag is well written. I plan to continue improving the system, firstly by making the code cleaner and easier to use.
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Next what I would do is make the system usable for different purposes where kinematics is handy. If I could make the head of a creature look towards a point, or create a worm like creature, the system would have so many uses.