Hitachi, Ltd.

Akihiro Sakamoto

Atsushi Kawabata

Norito Watanabe

Tsugio Tomita

Toshio Sakai

Yoshiaki Usami

Kengiro Sato

Yasuo Sasaki

There are provided apparatuses for generating the motion path of an object. One apparatus includes an input unit for inputting information representative of the position of a start point of the motion of an object, at least one of the magnitude and direction of a velocity at the start point, an end point of the motion of the object, and at least one of the magnitude and direction of a velocity at the end point, and a calculation unit for calculating a motion path from the start point to the end point, in accordance with the information inputted to the input unit. As an alternative of the position and velocity of an object, the rotary angle and angular velocity of an object may be used to represent the facing direction of the object. Another apparatus includes a display device for displaying information of the position of an object and an icon representative of the time corresponding to the position of the object, and a calculator for calculating information representative of the motion path, in accordance with the information entered by the icon and information representative of at least one of the magnitude and direction of a velocity at the position of the object. The motion path is then displayed on the screen. The motion of an object can be easily defined and smoothly coupled to a succeeding or preceding motion on each key frame. The path and/or surface reflection attribute of an object can be defined with a small number of procedures.

Method and apparatus for generating object motion path, method of

A three-dimensional graphic system includes a scene origination equipment, a rendering apparatus and a display device. The user interface unit of the scene origination equipment displays on the display screen of the display device. The user interface unit of the scene origination equipment displays on the display screen of the display device a graph which represents the relationship between a distance from a point generated with a cursor and the density of the generated point. The setting of the shape of the displayed graph is accepted on the display screen, and the relationship between the distance from the generated point of the cursor and the density of the generated point is determined in accordance with the accepted setting of the shape of the graph. The image generation unit of the scene origination equipment displays the cursor on the display screen, and generates an image in which the point generated with the cursor and points vicinal to the generated point are drawn at densities conforming to the determined relationship. The rendering apparatus generates a video graphic in which the generated image is mapped on an object and displays the video graphic on the display screen.

Three-dimensional graphic system with an editor for generating a textrue

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Hitachi, Japan

Akihiro Sakamoto