MOVIE ANIMATION SYSTEMS
First Claim
1. A method of controlling a virtual camera position in a 3D virtual reality environment to enable a director controlling said environment to create a movie of a story set within said environment, the method comprising:
- selecting a subject in said environment;
defining a framing line on said subject; and
wherein said framing line defines an image of said subject captured by said virtual camera and determines a position of said virtual camera relative to said subject, such that as said subject moves within said environment, said virtual camera moves with said subject so as to maintain substantially the same image of said subject captured by said virtual camera.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
This invention relates generally to methods, apparatus, and computer program code for machine-assisted generation of animated films/movies, in particular for animation based on games engine technology. We describe methods of controlling a plurality of virtual cameras in a 3D virtual reality environment, and also methods of controlling a plurality of animated characters and objects within the 3D virtual reality environment. These enable a director controlling said environment to create a movie of a story set within the environment We also describe methods of providing random time access to a scripted animation with many scripted activities and controlled-random performance activities, techniques for automatically controlling camera framing, and techniques for automatically controlling the gaze direction of animated characters within the movie.
24 Citations
41 Claims
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1. A method of controlling a virtual camera position in a 3D virtual reality environment to enable a director controlling said environment to create a movie of a story set within said environment, the method comprising:
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selecting a subject in said environment; defining a framing line on said subject; and wherein said framing line defines an image of said subject captured by said virtual camera and determines a position of said virtual camera relative to said subject, such that as said subject moves within said environment, said virtual camera moves with said subject so as to maintain substantially the same image of said subject captured by said virtual camera. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. -6. (canceled)
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7. A method of controlling a virtual camera position in a 3D virtual reality environment to enable a director controlling said environment to create a movie of a story set within said environment, the method comprising:
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selecting a subject in said environment; defining a first framing line on said subject, said first framing line defining a first image of said subject captured by said virtual camera and determining a first position of said virtual camera relative to said subject; defining a second framing line on said subject, said second framing line defining a second image of said subject captured by said virtual camera and determining a second position of said virtual camera relative to said subject whereby as said subject moves within said environment, said virtual camera interpolates from said first virtual camera position to said second virtual camera position so as to smoothly transform from said first image of said subject to said second image of said subject - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10)
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11. -12. (canceled)
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13. A method of controlling a plurality of virtual cameras in a 3D virtual reality environment to enable a director controlling said environment to create a movie of a story set within said environment the method comprising:
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defining a plurality of animated characters and objects within said environment positioning said plurality of virtual cameras to provide a plurality of different images of said characters and objects within said environment; providing a script, said script defining activities enacted by said characters with said objects; allocating an interest value to each of said activities defined in the script;
running said script;determining, as said script runs, which of said virtual cameras provides an image of the activity in the script with the highest interest value; automatically cutting to said virtual camera providing an image of the activity in the script with the highest interest value; and outputting said images of activities with the highest interest value on an output device to create said movie. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. -19. (canceled)
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20. A method of controlling the direction of gaze of an animated character in a 3D virtual reality environment to enable a director controlling said environment to create a movie of a story set within said environment, the method comprising:
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defining a plurality of animated characters and objects within said environment; positioning at least one virtual camera to provide an image of said characters and objects within said environment; providing a script, said script-defining activities enacted by said characters with said objects; allocating an interest value to each of said activities defined in the script; running said script; determining, as said script runs, which one or more of said activities had a highest said interest value; and controlling the gaze of one or more of said animated characters to direct their gaze towards said one or more activities with said highest interest value as said script runs. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22)
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23. -24. (canceled)
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25. A method of controlling a plurality of animated characters and objects within a 3D virtual reality environment to enable a director controlling said environment to create a movie of a story set within said environment, the method comprising:
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representing each said character and at least one of said objects using a respective state machine, each state machine being a state representing a physical configuration of a said character or a said object; providing a script, said script-defining activities enacted by each of said characters with at least one of said objects; controlling said state machines using said script; and representing said characters and said objects on an output device by representing states of said state machine. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. -37. (canceled)
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38. A method of providing random time access to a scripted animation, said animation being defined by animation of between configurations of characters and objects each defined by a state of a state machine, the method comprising identifying a defined state of said animation at a time prior to a random access time and then playing said animation forward from said prior time to said random access time.
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39. -40. (canceled)
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41. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions for controlling a virtual camera position in a 3D virtual reality environment to enable a director controlling said environment to create a movie of a story set within said environment, the instructions when implemented by one or more processors perform the following method:
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selecting a subject in said environment; defining a framing line on said subject; and wherein said framing line defines an image of said subject captured by said virtual camera and determines a position of said virtual camera relative to said subject, such that as said subject moves within said environment, said virtual camera moves with said subject so as to maintain substantially the same image of said subject captured by said virtual camera.
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Specification