Methods and systems for representing complex animation using scripting capabilities of rendering applications

• US 8,902,235 B2
• Filed: 04/07/2011
• Issued: 12/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Chiculit, Alexandru
• Primary Examiner(s): Tung, Kee M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Liu, Zhengxi
• Application Number:
  US13/081,745
• Publication Number:
  US 20120256928A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,335 Days
• US Class Current: 345/473
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/20 3D [Three Dimensional] animation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2213/04 Animation description language

Abstract

A computerized device implements an animation coding engine to analyze timeline data defining an animation sequence and generate a code package. The code package can represent the animation sequence using markup code that defines a rendered appearance of a plurality of frames and a structured data object also comprised in the code package and defining a parameter used by a scripting language in transitioning between frames. The markup code can also comprise a reference to a visual asset included within a frame. The code package further comprises a cascading style sheet defining an animation primitive as a style to be applied to the asset to reproduce one or more portions of the animation sequence without transitioning between frames.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

accessing data defining an animation sequence with timeline data over a number of keyframes, the animation sequence depicting motion of at least one object over time;

accessing data identifying animation primitives supported by a client rendering platform;

analyzing the data defining the animation sequence to determine a first portion of the animation sequence that can be represented using a set of visual assets animated using a portion of the animation primitives supported by the client rendering platform and a second portion of the animation sequence that can be represented by using a scripting language to control transitions between frames defined in the animation sequence representing the second portion, wherein at least some of the frames of the second portion of the animation sequence include animation primitives that are not natively supported by the client rendering platform; and

generating a package, the package comprising markup code referencing the visual assets and defining an appearance of the frames, a stylesheet referencing the animation primitives, and a structured data object,

the markup code generated to cause a rendering application of the client rendering platform to provide the animation sequence by using the scripting language to coordinate rendering of each of the first portion and the second portion according to a parameter included in the structured data object, the first portion rendered by applying the animation primitives as styles in the stylesheet to the set of visual assets, wherein the styles are applied to move the animation primitives, and the second portion rendered by drawing each frame of the second portion by using the scripting language, wherein a frame of the first portion and a frame of the second portion are rendered next to each other in a temporal sequence.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the data defining the animation sequence comprises a scripting element defining a function associated with the at least one object and generating the package comprises including a corresponding scripting element to cause the rendering application to provide the function.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the data defining the animation sequence comprises determining whether the motion of the object over time corresponds to an animation primitive supported by a browser, wherein if the motion does not correspond to an animation primitive supported by a browser, the motion is represented by using a plurality of frames.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the structured data object indicates to the scripting language which elements in the markup code correspond to certain frames and further indicates to the scripting language when frames are to be made visible.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using the data defining the animation sequence to generate a runtime application that provides the animation sequence.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing the data defining the animation sequence to determine whether the second portion of the animation sequence can be represented using the animation primitives definable as the styles;

based on determining that the second portion of the animation sequence cannot be represented using the animation primitives definable as the styles, the package including a plurality of markup code elements in the markup code, each markup code element corresponding to a rendered appearance of a particular frame of the second portion of the animation sequence, and the parameter in the structured data object controlling rendering of the plurality of markup code elements so as to display the frames in sequence;

analyzing the data defining the animation sequence to determine whether the first portion of the animation sequence can be represented using the animation primitives definable as the styles; and

based on determining that the first portion of the animation sequence can be represented using the animation primitives definable as the styles, the package including elements in the markup code representing the set of visual assets in the animation sequence, and including the styles in the style sheet to apply the animation primitives to the visual assets.

7. A computerized device, comprising:

a hardware interconnect; and

a data processing hardware element interfaced to the hardware interconnect,

wherein the data processing hardware element implements an animation coding engine to;

analyze timeline data over a number of keyframes defining an animation sequence depicting motion of at least one object over time and generate a code package, and

identify a first portion of the animation sequence that can be represented by animation primitives supported by a client rendering platform and a second portion of the animation sequence that can be represented by using a scripting language to control transitions between frames defined in the animation sequence representing the second portion, wherein at least some of the frames of the second portion of the animation sequence include animation primitives that are not natively supported by the client rendering platform;

the code package representing the animation sequence using markup code that defines a rendered appearance of a plurality of frames of the animation sequence, the code package comprising the markup code, a stylesheet referencing the animation primitives, and a structured data object defining a parameter used by the scripting language in transitioning between the plurality of frames such that a frame of the first portion and a frame of the second portion of the animation sequence appear next to each other in a temporal sequence, wherein the first portion is rendered by applying the animation primitives as styles in the stylesheet to a set of visual assets, wherein the styles are applied to move the animation primitives, and wherein the second portion is rendered by drawing each frame of the second portion by using the scripting language.

8. The computerized device of claim 7, wherein the markup code comprises a reference to a visual asset included within a particular frame and the code package further comprises a cascading style sheet defining an animation primitive as a style to be applied to the asset.

9. The computerized device of claim 8, wherein:

the markup code comprises a reference to a first markup container element comprising code defining a rendered appearance of a first frame,

the markup code comprises a reference to a second markup container element comprising code defining a rendered appearance of a second frame, and

the parameter in the structured data object indicates respective times during which the contents of the first and second markup container elements are to be visible.

10. The computerized device of claim 9, wherein the parameter in the structured data object controls when the scripting language is to be used to change a style property that controls visibility of the first and second markup container elements.

11. The computerized device of claim 9, wherein the markup code further comprises a reference to a visual asset, the reference included in one of the first and second frames and associated with a style that defines an animation primitive to be applied to animate the visual asset.

12. The computerized device of claim 8, wherein the animation coding engine analyzes the timeline data defining the animation sequence to determine whether each of the first portion and the second portion of the animation sequence can be represented using the animation primitive definable as the style;

and

based on determining that the second portion of the animation sequence cannot be represented using the animation primitive definable as the style;

the animation coding engine includes a plurality of markup code elements in the markup code, each markup code element corresponding to a rendered appearance of a frame of the second portion of the animation sequence, and the parameter in the structured data object controls rendering of the plurality of markup code elements so as to display the frames of the second portion in sequence;

based on determining that the first portion of the animation sequence can be represented using the animation primitive definable as the style;

the animation coding engine includes an element in the markup code representing a visual asset in the animation sequence, and the animation coding engine includes the style in the style sheet to apply the animation primitive to the visual asset.

13. The computerized device of claim 8, wherein the scripting language comprises JavaScript and the structured data object comprises a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) object.

14. The computerized device of claim 8, wherein the animation coding engine further identifies a scripting element applied to an element in the timeline data and includes, in the code package, a corresponding scripting element to be applied to a corresponding asset in the markup code.

15. The computerized device of claim 8, wherein the data processing hardware comprises a processor and the animation coding engine comprises program logic accessible by the processor.

16. The computerized device of claim 8, wherein the animation coding engine is comprised in a development environment further configured to use the timeline data to generate a runtime application that provides the animation sequence.

17. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying program code, the program code comprising:

code for providing a design canvas and receiving input specifying an animation sequence representing a varying appearance of at least one animated object on a stage over time, wherein the animation sequence is defined with timeline data over a number of keyframes;

code for storing data defining the animation sequence;

code for identifying animation primitives supported by a client rendering platform;

code for analyzing the data defining the animation sequence to determine a first portion of the animation sequence that can be represented using a set of visual assets animated using a portion of the animation primitives supported by the client rendering platform and a second portion of the animation sequence that can be represented by using a scripting language to control transitions between frames defined in the animation sequence representing the second portion, wherein at least some of the frames of the second portion of the animation sequence include animation primitives that are not natively supported by the client rendering platform; and

code for generating a package, the package comprising;

markup code referencing visual assets of the set of visual assets and defining an appearance of frames, a stylesheet referencing the animation primitives, and a structured data object, the markup code generated to cause a rendering application of the client rendering platform to provide the animation sequence by using the scripting language to coordinate rendering of each of the first portion and the second portion according to a parameter included in the structured data object,

the first portion rendered by applying the animation primitives as styles in the stylesheet to the set of visual assets, wherein the styles are applied to move the animation primitives, and

the second portion rendered by drawing each frame of the second portion by using the scripting language,

wherein a frame of the first portion and a frame of the second portion are rendered next to each other in a temporal sequence.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the stylesheet invoking the animation primitives supported by the client rendering platform, the structured data object indicating when one of the animation primitives is to be applied to a visual asset in a frame of the first portion of the animation sequence without transitioning to a different frame.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the visual asset is included in a portion of the markup code defining a rendered appearance of a frame.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, further comprising:

program code for generating a runtime application based on the data defining the animation sequence, the runtime application configured to provide the animation sequence when executed.