Given motion capture samples of Charlie Chaplin's walk, is it possible to synthesize other motions�say, ascending or descending stairs�in his distinctive style? More generally, in analogy with handwritten signatures, do people have characteristic motion signatures that individualize their movements? If so, can these signatures be extracted from example motions? Furthermore, can extracted signatures be used to recognize, say, a particular individual's walk subsequent to observing examples of other movements produced by this individual? We are developing an algorithm that extracts motion signatures and uses them in the animation of graphical characters. For example, given a corpus of walking, stair ascending, and stair descending motion data collected over a group of subjects, plus a sample walking-motion for a new subject, our algorithm can synthesize never-before-seen ascending and descending motions in the distinctive style of this new individual.