Pixar

Rob Cook

Tony DeRose

John R Anderson

A method for specifying a design for an animatronics unit includes receiving motion data comprising artistically determined motions, determining a design for construction of at least a portion of the animatronics unit in response to the motion data, and outputting the design for construction of the animatronics unit.

Methods and apparatus for designing animatronics units from articulated computer generated characters

A method for determining behavior of an animatronics unit includes receiving animation data comprising artistically determined motions for at least a portion of an animated character, determining a plurality of control signals to be applied to at least the portion of the animatronics unit in response to the animation data, estimating the behavior of at least the portion of the animatronics unit in response to the plurality of control signals by driving a software simulation of at least the portion of the animatronics unit with the plurality of control signals, and outputting a representation of the behavior of at least the portion of the animatronics unit to a user.

Methods and apparatus for estimating and controlling behavior of animatronics units

Function spaces defined by scaling functions are used to generate bandlimited noise octaves and other attribute data sets. Scaling functions are basis functions that admit multiresolution analysis and include piecewise constant scaling functions, piecewise polynomial scaling functions, bandlimited scaling functions, Daubeschies scaling functions, as well as other multiresolution analysis scaling basis functions known to those of skill in the art. Scaling basis functions can be locally supported or have infinite support. The properties of the scaling basis functions used to construct bandlimited noise octaves may ensure that any bandlimited noise octave at resolution level N is orthogonal to bandlimited noise octaves and their associated scaling basis functions at all resolution levels less than N. Bandlimited noise octaves can be scaled to any resolution level and guaranteed to have no effect on images at any lower resolution level.

Method of creating and evaluating bandlimited noise for computer graphics

Slices of N dimensions can be extracted from bandlimited data sets of M dimensions. N is any arbitrary value less than N. A value of a slice is defined by an evaluation of an integral of the bandlimited data set weighted by a filter scaling function orientated along the normal of the slice. Due to the properties of the bandlimited data set, the slice is bandlimited in N dimensions as well. The filter scaling function diminishes at substantially the same rate as the aliasing frequency of the bandlimited data set in the normal direction. The convolution of a scaling basis function used to construct the bandlimited data with itself defines the filter scaling function. A scaling basis function widened in the direction of the normal can approximate the filter scaling function in some cases. Quadrature can approximate the value of the integral. Slices may or may not be axis aligned.

Bandlimited texture slicing for computer graphics

Bandlimited noise for computer graphics

Data tiles can be combined to form attribute data sets for use in generating computer graphics images. Tiles may be arranged in a regular grid pattern or in arbitrary, irregular positions. Tiles can be overlapped slightly and blended to hide tile boundaries. The value of the combined data set in an overlap region may be a weighted sum of values from the tiles. To compensate for reduced variance and contrast caused by blending, the values in overlap regions can be scaled by a variance correction factor. The variance correction factor is the inverse of the reduction in variance from the source tiles. Tile values can be scaled by their weights and variance correction values at the time they are combined or in advance, if the pattern of tile overlaps are consistent. Data tiles can be comprised of bandlimited noise data or other data types.

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San Anselmo, CA, United States of America

Rob Cook