A method of moving a virtual articulated object in a virtual environment in a succession of unit movements, the articulated object including a set of articulated elements connected together by a set of joints, the relative positions of the articulated elements being defined by a plurality of joint angles about a plurality of degrees of freedom. The method includes the steps of calculating an interaction distance between a given articulated element and the other articulated elements of the articulated object; extracting from the interaction distance, a first point belonging to the given articulated element, and a second point belonging to one of the other articulated elements of the articulated object; and defining a single extraction vector from the first and second points. The method further includes a step of moving the given articulated element away from the other articulated elements of the articulated object in a movement defined as a function of the single extraction vector by acting on the degrees of freedom of the articulated object in order to avoid a collision between the given articulated element and the other elements of the articulated object.