“Average” of multiple quaternions?

Question

I\'m trying to make the switch from matrices to quaternions for skeletal animation in my OpenGL program, but I\'ve encountered a problem:

Given a number of unit quat

Answer 1

Quaternions are not an ideal set of DOF to use for rotations when computing an unconstrained average.

Here is what I use most of the time (

[MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.AggressiveInlining)]
    internal static Vector3 ToAngularVelocity( this Quaternion q )
    {
        if ( abs(q.w) > 1023.5f / 1024.0f)
            return new Vector3();
            var angle = acos( abs(q.w) );
            var gain = Sign(q.w)*2.0f * angle / Sin(angle);

        return new Vector3(q.x * gain, q.y * gain, q.z * gain);
    }


    [MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.AggressiveInlining)]
    internal static Quaternion FromAngularVelocity( this Vector3 w )
    {
        var mag = w.magnitude;
        if (mag <= 0)
            return Quaternion.identity;
        var cs = cos(mag * 0.5f);
        var siGain = sin(mag * 0.5f) / mag;
        return new Quaternion(w.x * siGain, w.y * siGain, w.z * siGain, cs);

    }

    internal static Quaternion Average(this Quaternion refence, Quaternion[] source)
    {

        var refernceInverse = refence.Inverse();
        Assert.IsFalse(source.IsNullOrEmpty());
        Vector3 result = new Vector3();
        foreach (var q in source)
        {
            result += (refernceInverse*q).ToAngularVelocity();
        }

        return reference*((result / source.Length).FromAngularVelocity());
    }
     internal static Quaternion Average(Quaternion[] source)
    {
        Assert.IsFalse(source.IsNullOrEmpty());
        Vector3 result = new Vector3();
        foreach (var q in source)
        {
            result += q.ToAngularVelocity();
        }

        return (result / source.Length).FromAngularVelocity();
    }
     internal static Quaternion Average(Quaternion[] source, int iterations)
    {
        Assert.IsFalse(source.IsNullOrEmpty());
        var reference = Quaternion.identity;
        for(int i = 0;i < iterations;i++)
        {
            reference = Average(reference,source);

        }
        return reference;

    }`