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Animation generation systems and methods

  • US 8,462,198 B2
  • Filed: 11/08/2010
  • Issued: 06/11/2013
  • Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2009
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. An animation generation system, comprising:

  • an avatar generation module for generating an avatar in a virtual space, wherein the avatar has a set of skeletons and a skin attached to the set of skeletons, and the set of skeletons has a plurality of movable nodes, and the movable nodes are manipulated so that a motion of the skin is induced; and

    an avatar manipulation module for manipulating the movable nodes of the avatar, comprising;

    a position mark which is moved by users to at least one first real position in a real space;

    at least one control mark which is moved by the users to at least one second real position in the real space;

    a video capturing unit for capturing the images of the real space;

    an arithmetic unit, coupled to the video capturing unit, for identifying the first real position and the second real position from the images of the real space, and converting the first real position into a first virtual position where the avatar is in the virtual space, and the second real position into a second virtual position where one of the movable nodes of the avatar is in the virtual space,wherein the relative motions between the second virtual position and the first virtual position make the avatar perform a series of successive motions in the virtual space, andone of the images captured by the video capturing unit are drawn as a background, while one of the images of a designated object corresponding to the position mark is drawn onto the background, according to the first virtual position, to generate an Augmented Reality (AR) animation,wherein the avatar generation module further comprises;

    a readout unit for reading out skin information in respect of the skin, and skeleton information in respect of a set of template skeletons, wherein the skin information is composed of data of a plurality of mesh vertices, and the skeleton information comprises geometric data of each bone of the set of template skeletons and the linkage relationship between the bones of the set of template skeletons;

    an analyzing unit for analyzing the skin information to obtain a plurality of appearance features and a plurality of trunk features of the skin;

    a rough fitting unit for adjusting the size of the set of template skeletons according to the appearance features to generate the set of skeletons of the avatar, and fitting the set of skeletons to the appearance features;

    a precise fitting unit for fitting the set of skeletons to the trunk features of the skin;

    an envelope range calculating unit for calculating an envelope range of a bone of the set of skeletons according to a plurality of mesh vertices in proximity to the bone;

    a mesh vertices weight calculating unit for calculating the weight of a mesh vertex of the skin information relative to a bone according the envelope range, wherein the weight of the mesh vertex indicates how the mesh vertex is affected by the movement of the bone when the bone is moving; and

    an output unit for outputting the avatar to the arithmetic unit, wherein the outputted avatar comprises data in relation to the skin, the set of skeletons and the relationships therebetween.

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