AbstractWe present a novel interface for interactive and intuitive motion control of human figures. By drawing a stroke on the screen using a pen or a mouse, a user of our system can make virtual human figures perform various types of motions. An important feature of ‘stroke’ is that it has initial and terminal points. With a single stroke, users can specify the source and target of an action at the same time. An appropriate action is determined based on single stroke and the context. For example, by drawing a stroke from the foot of a character to a ball, the character kicks the ball. By drawing a stroke from a prop to one of the character's hands, the character takes the prop with the specified hand. By drawing a stroke from a character to any point on the ground, the character walks to the specified position. First, we categorize selectable objects into some types. The motions are then described using combinations of the defined types. We also detail the implementation of our system and the methods for motion generation, and finally we discuss some issues based on experiments with the implemented system. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.