Stop motion animation system
First Claim
1. A system for developing stop motion animation sequences for an object positioned on a surface comprising:
- a lighting system including at least one beauty light and at least one back light, wherein said beauty light illuminates said object to produce a beauty image of said object and wherein said back light illuminates said object to produce a silhouette image of said object;
an image capture system which receives said beauty and said silhouette images and electronically captures said beauty and silhouette images respectively as a beauty shot and a matte shot, said beauty shot comprising an image of said object against a first background wherein said image occupies a first position in said beauty shot, and said matte shot comprising an image of said silhouette of said object against a second background wherein said silhouette occupies a first position in said matte shot an defines a first region of said matte shot; and
a graphics processing system which receives said beauty shot and said matte shot from said image capture system, and combines at least a portion of said matte shot with at least a portion of said beauty shot in a predetermined relationship, so as to produce a final beauty shot comprising a uniform background and a portion of said beauty shot wherein said final beauty shot is configured to be one of a plurality of final beauty shots that comprise a stop motion animation sequence.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system for developing stop motion animation sequences including a lighting system, an image capture system and a video processing system. An object is positioned on a stage in a desired pose and is illuminated. A camera records the illuminated object and the image capture system digitally records this image as a beauty shot. The object is then illuminated by an back light which produces a silhouette. The camera then records this silhouette and the image capture system digitally records this image as a matte shot. The object is then illuminated by an overhead light which produces a shadow on the stage. The camera records this image and the image capture system records this image as a shadow shot. The beauty, matte and shadow shots are then processed by the graphics processing system. Subsequently, the beauty and matte shots are combined to produce a final beauty shot whereby only the portion of the image in the beauty shot that has the same position as the silhouette in the matte shot is included in the final shadow shot. Hence, a perfectly matted final beauty shot is produced along with a corresponding shadow shot. This process is repeated for each shot comprised of multiple frames of the stop motion animation sequence.
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Citations
45 Claims
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1. A system for developing stop motion animation sequences for an object positioned on a surface comprising:
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a lighting system including at least one beauty light and at least one back light, wherein said beauty light illuminates said object to produce a beauty image of said object and wherein said back light illuminates said object to produce a silhouette image of said object; an image capture system which receives said beauty and said silhouette images and electronically captures said beauty and silhouette images respectively as a beauty shot and a matte shot, said beauty shot comprising an image of said object against a first background wherein said image occupies a first position in said beauty shot, and said matte shot comprising an image of said silhouette of said object against a second background wherein said silhouette occupies a first position in said matte shot an defines a first region of said matte shot; and a graphics processing system which receives said beauty shot and said matte shot from said image capture system, and combines at least a portion of said matte shot with at least a portion of said beauty shot in a predetermined relationship, so as to produce a final beauty shot comprising a uniform background and a portion of said beauty shot wherein said final beauty shot is configured to be one of a plurality of final beauty shots that comprise a stop motion animation sequence. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A system for developing a stop motion animation sequence for an object positioned on a surface comprising:
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a lighting system including at least one beauty light which illuminates said object to produce a beauty image of said object and at least one shadow light positioned to illuminate said object to thereby produce a shadow of said object on said surface; an image capture system which receives said beauty image and said shadow of said object and electronically captures said beauty image as a beauty shot, comprising an image of said object against a first background wherein said image occupies a first position in said beauty shot, and wherein said image capture system captures said shadow as a shadow shot comprising an image of said shadow against a second background wherein said shadow occupies a first position in said shadow shot; and a graphics processing system which receives said beauty shot and said shadow shot, and wherein said graphics processing system processes said beauty shot to produce a final beauty shot comprised of an image of said object against a uniform background, wherein said final beauty shot is configured to be one of a plurality of final beauty shots comprising said stop motion animation sequence, and wherein said graphics processing system further processes said shadow shot to produce a corresponding final shadow shot which is comprised of an image of said shadow against a uniform background wherein said final shadow shot is configured to be selectively combined with said final beauty shot so as to comprise said stop motion animation sequence. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A system for developing stop motion animation sequences for an object positioned on a surface comprising:
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a lighting system including at least one beauty light which illuminates said object to produce a beauty image of said object, at least one back light which illuminates said object to produce a silhouette image of said object and at least one shadow light which illuminates said object to produce a shadow of said object on said surface; a video capture system including a camera, which obtains analog signals representative of said beauty image, said silhouette image and said shadow of said object, and an image capture card which translates said analog signals into digital signals and stores said digital signals in a storage device as a beauty shot, a matte shot and a shadow shot, wherein said beauty shot is comprised of said beauty image against a background such that said image occupies a first position in said beauty shot, wherein said matte shot is comprised of said silhouette image against a background such that said silhouette occupies a first position in said matte shot, and wherein the shadow shot is comprised of said image of said shadow against a background such that said image of said shadow occupies a first position in said shadow shot and defines a first region of said matte shot; and a video processing system which has access to said storage device and receives said beauty shot, matte shot and shadow shot from said storage device, wherein said beauty shot and matte shot are in a predetermined format where said first position of said beauty shot corresponds to said first position of said matte shot and wherein said graphics processing system combines said matte shot with said beauty shot and thereby produces a final beauty shot comprised of a uniform background and an image of a portion of said image in said beauty shot lies within said first region of said matte shot, and wherein said video processing system further processes said shadow shot to obtain a final shadow shot comprised of said image of said shadow against a uniform background and wherein said final beauty shot and said final shadow shot are respectively configured to be one of a plurality of final beauty shots and final shadow shot comprise a stop motion animation sequence. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A method of producing a stop motion animation sequence comprising the steps of:
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positioning an object on a surface in a desired pose; illuminating said object with a light to obtain a beauty image of said object; electronically capturing a beauty shot of said object comprised of said beauty image against a background, wherein said beauty image occupies a first position in said beauty shot; illuminating said object with a light so that a shadow of said object is produced on said surface; electronically capturing a shadow shot of said object, said shadow shot comprised of said shadow against a background, wherein said shadow occupies a first position in said shadow shot; processing said beauty shot of said object to obtain a final beauty shot, wherein said final beauty shot comprises an image of said object against a uniform background; and processing said shadow shot of said object to obtain a final shadow shot, wherein said final shadow shot corresponds to said final beauty shot and is comprised of an image of said shadow against a uniform background. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41)
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42. A method of producing a stop motion animation sequence comprising the steps of:
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positioning an object on a surface in a desired pose; illuminating said object with a light to obtain a beauty image of said object; electronically capturing a beauty shot of said object comprised of said beauty image against a background, wherein said beauty image of said object occupies a first position in said beauty shot; illuminating said object with a light to obtain a silhouette of said object; electronically capturing a matte shot of said object comprised of said image of said silhouette against a background, wherein said silhouette occupies a first position in said matte shot and defines a first region of said matte shot; combining at least a portion of said beauty shot with at least a portion of said matte shot in a predetermined relationship; and combining said beauty shot and said matte shot in a predetermined relationship to thereby produce said final beauty shot, wherein said final beauty shot is comprised of a portion of said image in said beauty shot, that lies in said first region of said matte shot when said beauty shot and said matte shot are combined. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45)
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Specification