Systems and methods for applying animations or motions to a character

• US 8,803,889 B2
• Filed: 05/29/2009
• Issued: 08/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Perez, Kathryn Stone, Kipman, Alex A., Margolis, Jeffrey
• Primary Examiner(s): Ma, Tize
• Application Number:
  US12/475,422
• Publication Number:
  US 20100302257A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,901 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 345/474
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/213 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. cameras, photodiodes or infrared cells A63F13/219, A63F13/655 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/215 comprising means for detecting acoustic signals, e.g. using a microphone
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/428 involving motion or position input signals, e.g. signals representing the rotation of an input controller or a player's arm motions sensed by accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/57 Simulating properties, behaviour or motion of objects in the game world, e.g. computing tyre load in a car race game A63F13/56 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/812 Ball games, e.g. soccer or baseball
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/816 Athletics, e.g. track-and-field sports
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/833 Hand-to-hand fighting, e.g. martial arts competition A63F13/837 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1087 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. a camera
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5593 involving scheduling aspects
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6607 for animating game characters, e.g. skeleton kinematics
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/69 Involving elements of the real world in the game world, e.g. measurement in live races, real video
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8005 Athletics
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8011 Ball
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/40 of characters, e.g. humans, animals or virtual beings
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/80 2D [Two Dimensional] animation, e.g. using sprites
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10028 Range image; Depth image; 3D point clouds
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30196 Human being; Person
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/251 : involving models
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/23 : Recognition of whole body movements, e.g. for sport training

Abstract

An virtual character such as an on-screen object, an avatar, an on-screen character, or the like may be animated using a live motion of a user and a pre-recorded motion. For example, a live motion of a user may be captured and a pre-recorded motion such as a pre-recorded artist generated motion, a pre-recorded motion of the user, and/or a programmatically controlled transformation may be received. The live motion may then be applied to a first portion of an the virtual character and the pre-recorded motion may be applied to a second portion of the virtual character such that the virtual character may be animated with a combination of the live and pre-recorded motions.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor executes computer-executable instructions, and wherein the computer-executable instructions comprise instructions for;

receiving a pre-recorded motion and a live motion of a user;

mapping one or more body parts of a virtual character to one or more joints in a first model of the user associated with the live motion;

mapping one or more body parts of the virtual character to one or more joints in a second model associated with the pre-recorded motion; and

animating the virtual character with the pre-recorded motion and the live motion by at least;

disabling one or more joints in the first model of the user that correspond to one or more body parts in a second portion of the virtual character;

disabling one or more joints in the second model associated with the pre-recorded motion that correspond to one or more body parts in a first portion of the virtual character; and

blending the live motion associated with the first model of the user with the pre-recorded motion associated with the second model in response to the disabling the one or more joints in the first model of the user and the disabling the one or more joints in the second model;

animating the first portion and the second portion of the virtual character with the blended live and pre-recorded motions.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the pre-recorded motion comprises at least one of the following:

a pre-recorded motion of the user;

an artist developed motion; and

a programmatically controlled transformation.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise instructions for receiving a gesture from the user, wherein the gesture is associated with a command to apply an animation to the virtual character.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the virtual character is animated with the live motion and the pre-recorded motion in response receiving the gesture from the user.

5. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a pre-recorded motion and a live motion of a user;

mapping one or more body parts of a virtual character to one or more joints in a first model of the user associated with the live motion;

mapping one or more body parts of the virtual character to one or more joints in a second model associated with the pre-recorded motion; and

animating the virtual character with the pre-recorded motion and the live motion by at least;

disabling one or more joints in the first model of the user that correspond to one or more body parts in a second portion of the virtual character;

disabling one or more joints in the second model associated with the pre-recorded motion that correspond to one or more body parts in a first portion of the virtual character; and

blending the live motion associated with the first model of the user with the pre-recorded motion associated with the second model in response to the disabling the one or more joints in the first model of the user and the disabling the one or more joints in the second model; and

animating the first portion and the second portion of the virtual character with the blended live and pre-recorded motions.

6. The computer-implemented of claim 5, wherein the pre-recorded motion comprises at least one of the following:

a pre-recorded motion of the user;

an artist developed motion; and

a programmatically controlled transformation.

7. The computer-implemented of claim 5, further comprising instructions for receiving a gesture from the user, wherein the gesture is associated with a command to apply an animation to the virtual character.

8. The computer-implemented of claim 7, wherein the virtual character is animated with the live motion and the pre-recorded motion in response receiving the gesture from the user.

9. A computer-readable storage device having stored thereon computer-executable instructions comprising instructions for:

receiving a pre-recorded motion and a live motion of a user;

mapping one or more body parts of a virtual character to one or more joints in a first model of the user associated with the live motion;

mapping one or more body parts of the virtual character to one or more joints in a second model associated with the pre-recorded motion; and

animating the virtual character with the pre-recorded motion and the live motion by at least;

disabling one or more joints in the first model of the user that correspond to one or more body parts in a second portion of the virtual character;

disabling one or more joints in the second model associated with the pre-recorded motion that correspond to one or more body parts in a first portion of the virtual character; and

blending the live motion associated with the first model of the user with the pre-recorded motion associated with the second model in response to the disabling the one or more joints in the first model of the user and the disabling the one or more joints in the second model; and

animating the first portion and the second portion of the virtual character with the blended live and pre-recorded motions.

10. The computer-readable storage device of claim 9, wherein the pre-recorded motion comprises at least one of the following:

a pre-recorded motion of the user;

an artist developed motion; and

a programmatically controlled transformation.

11. The computer-readable storage device of claim 9, wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise instructions for receiving a gesture from the user, wherein the gesture is associated with a command to apply an animation to the virtual character.

12. The computer-readable storage device of claim 11, wherein the virtual character is animated with the live motion and the pre-recorded motion in response receiving the gesture from the user.