Sony Corporation

Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc.

Sony Electronics Inc

Francois Chardavoine

Armin Walter Bruderlin

Gustav Melich

Clint Chua

Clint Chun

Armin Walter Brunderlin

Amin Walter Brunderlin

A surface definition module of a hair/fur pipeline may be used to define a surface. An instancing module is used to instance hairs. An instanced hair database coupled to the instancing module is used to store hair data. The instancing module retrieves hair data from the instanced hair database to allow for a relatively large number of hairs to instanced. A display module is used to display the instanced hairs with respect to the surface.

Instanced hair database for use in a hair/fur pipeline

A surface definition module of a hair/fur pipeline may be used to generate a shape defining a surface and an associated volume. A control hair module may be used to fill the volume with control hairs and an interpolation module may be used to interpolate final hair strands from the control hairs.

Fill-volume techniques for use in a hair/fur pipeline

A lighting module of a hair/fur pipeline may be used to produce lighting effects in a lighting phase for a shot and an optimization module may be used to: determine if a cache hair state file including hair parameters exists; and determine if the cache hair state file includes matching hair parameters to be used in the shot, and if so, the hair parameter values from the cache hair state file are used in the lighting phase.

Hair caching optimization techniques for use in a hair/fur pipeline

A surface definition module of a hair/fur pipeline may be used to define a surface and an optimization module may be used to: create a bounding box for a set of hairs; determine whether the bounding box is visible; and if the bounding box is visible, hair associated with the visible bounding box is rendered upon the surface.

Sub-patch optimization techniques for use in a hair/fur pipeline

A hair pipeline utilizes a surface definition module to define a surface and a control hair and a hair motion compositor module combines different control hair curve shapes associated with the control hair and the surface. In particular, the hair motion compositor module generates a static node defining a static control hair curve shape; generates an animation node defining an animation control hair curve shape; and combines the static control hair curve shape of the static node with the animation control hair curve hair shape of the animation node to produce a resultant control hair curve shape for the control hair.

Hair motion compositor system for use in a hair/fur pipeline

A surface definition module of a hair/fur pipeline may be used to define a surface. An interpolation module may be used to interpolate at least one final hair on the surface based upon at least one control hair. An effects module including an effects pipeline may be utilized to apply a plurality of effects to the final hair in a user-defined order to generate a modified final hair that may be ultimately rendered.

Multiple instantiable effects in a hair/fur pipeline

A surface definition module of a hair/fur pipeline may be used to define a surface and an optimization module may be used to determine whether a hair is to be rendered upon the surface. In particular, the optimization module may be used to: determine a size metric for the hair; apply a first density curve to the size metric determined for the hair to generate a density multiplier value; and based upon the density multiplier value, determine whether the hair should be rendered.

Screen space optimization techniques for use in a hair/fur pipeline

A hair pipeline may be used to generate a user-selected geometry based upon a hair location for at least one hair with respect to a surface. A surface definition module may be used to define the surface. A display module may be used to: process a user-selected geometry and render the user-selected geometry at the hair location on the surface in place of the at least one hair.

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Los Angeles, CA, United States of America

Francois Chardavoine