Pixar

Tom Hahn

Robert H Russ

Maxwell Oliver Drukman

Karon A Weber

Steven Clay Hunter

Christopher Martin King

Marco Jorge Da Silva

Katrina Archer

Robert Jensen

Warren Trezevant

Christopher Slaboszewicz King

Malcolm Blanchard

Matt Silas

Juei Chang

Sarah Shen

Ken Fishkin

Techniques are disclosed that allow animators to easily share and reuse character poses such as gestures, expressions, and mouth shapes. When starting on a new shot, an animator often wants a character to have the same pose exactly as the end of the previous shot. According to various embodiments, an animator can easily set up these hookup poses by animator copying a pose directly from a clip of prerecorded media. In one aspect, a pose at the current playhead of the playback tool is copied into a software buffer of an animation tool and then pasted into a character. Thus, the animator may copy a pose exactly as he/she is seeing visually. In various aspects, animators can choose a pose from an entire inventory of available animated videos. This provides a more efficient method for selecting a pose since the user can easily choose and pick a pose from a large inventory of animated videos and bring in a desired pose in a matter of a few mouse clicks.

Copy pose

This disclosure provides an approach for aggregating elements that are common across shots in the rendering of image frames. In one embodiment, common elements are aggregated via a scene editor which stores the common elements in a scene layer, which is an asset that is a container for elements such as characters, locations, and the like that are common across shots. The scene layer permits new shots to be created that inherit the common elements, rather than from scratch or by manually copying elements from other shots. The scene editor may further receive elements specific to particular shots and store such elements in shot layers that are created on top of the scene layer and store differences from the scene layer. A rendering application then renders image frames on a shot-by-shot basis using the common elements stored in the scene layer and the shot-specific elements stored in the shot layers.

Generating content based on shot aggregation

A summary spline curve can be constructed from multiple animation spline curves. Control points for each of the animation spline curves can be included to form a combined set of control points for the summary spline curve. Each of the animation spline curves can then be divided into spline curve segments between each neighboring pair of control points in the combined set of control points. For each neighboring pair, the spline curve segments can be normalized and averaged to determine a summary spline curve segment. These summary spline curve segments are combined to determine a summary spline curve. The summary spline curve can then be displayed and/or modified. Modifications to the summary spline curve can result in modifications to the animation spline curves.

Manipulation of splines based on a summary spline

Users define object control rigs that can be used to perform specific object manipulation tasks for the user when manipulating objects in a scene. Different rigs can be constructed for the same set of animation objects to perform different tasks. A rig is modeless in that a rig may include an arbitrary user-selected mixture of object control elements that are typically used in different modes and scopes of manipulation. When a user selects a rig, all of the visual representations of the object control elements specified for that rig are enabled to be displayed proximal the object(s) with which the control elements are associated. No additional selection of object parts is necessarily required to determine which control elements are associated with the object(s). The user may manipulate the object(s) using a displayed visual representation of an object control element.

Systems and methods for creating and using modeless animation manipulation rigs

Systems and methods for defining or specifying an arbitrary set of one or more animation control elements or variables (i.e., 'avars'), and for associating the set with a model object or part of a model object. Once a set of avars ('avarset') is associated with an object model, a user is able to select that model or part of the model, and the avarset associated with that part of the model is made available to, or enabled for, any animation tool that affords avar editing capabilities or allows manipulation of the model using animation control elements. This enables users to create and save sets of avars to share between characters, or other objects, and shots. In certain embodiments, the user can associate multiple avarsets with a model part and can designate one of those sets as &#x201c;primary&#x201d; so that when that model part is selected, the designated primary avarset is broadcast to the available editing tools. Additionally, the user can override the primary designation set and select one of the other sets of avars, or the user can cycle through the various associated avarsets.

Systems and methods for specifying arbitrary animation controls for model objects

A transformation region is displayed around a selection of knots defining one or more computer graphics variable curves. The transformation region includes transformation handles enabling the modification of the transformation region shape. The transformation region defines an envelope of the curves. Modifying the shape of the transformation region defines a new envelope of the curves. The input and/or output values of knots are scaled to match the modified envelope so that the computer graphics variable remains a function of its input variables. Associated tangent handles of the knots are scaled proportional to the knot value. The transformation region can include a retiming curve specifying a remapping of input variable values. Points on the retiming curve below this diagonal remap associated knots to lower input values. Point on the retiming curve above the diagonal remap associated knots to higher input values.

Computer graphics variable transformation interface

Systems and methods for custom designing modeless rigs or sets of object control elements that can be used when manipulating one or more objects. Users define object control rigs that can be used to perform specific object manipulation tasks for the user when manipulating objects in a scene. Different rigs can be constructed for the same set of animation objects to perform different tasks. A rig is modeless in that a rig may include an arbitrary user-selected mixture of object control elements that are typically used in different modes of manipulation. When a user selects a rig, all of the visual representations of the object control elements specified for that rig are enabled to be displayed proximal the object(s) with which the control elements are associated. No additional selection of object parts is necessarily required to determine which control elements are associated with the object(s). The user may manipulate the object(s) using a displayed visual representation of an object control element.

A stepmode animation visualization emphasizes authored values of computer graphics variables. Users select all or a portion of the computer graphics variables associated with objects in a scene to be included in the stepmode animation visualization. When users activate the stepmode animation visualization, the generated values of the selected computer graphics variables are overridden with authored values of the selected computer graphics variables. For example, the stepmode animation visualization overrides each generated value of a computer graphics variable with the nearest preceding authored value of that computer graphics variable. Users may repeatedly activate and deactivate the stepmode animation visualization without reselecting computer graphics variables. The selection of computer graphics variables affected by the stepmode animation visualization is maintained. All or a portion of the animation may be looped or repeated while the stepmode animation visualization is active.

Stepmode animation visualization

Techniques for customizing draw styles of widgets to better accommodate a user's direct manipulation needs. A user can customize various attributes of a widget and its manipulators to suit the user's needs. The customizations are stored as a style. The stored style can subsequently be applied to the widget to control the appearance and behavior of the widget. Stored styles may be applied to other widgets and can also be shared between users.

Customizing widget draw styles

A method for an animation environment includes displaying a first geometric object on a display, wherein the first geometric object comprises a plurality of geometric components, wherein the plurality of geometric components are coupled according to a geometric hierarchy, wherein the plurality of geometric components includes a first geometric component and a second geometric component, and wherein the first geometric component and the second geometric component are not adjacent within the geometric hierarchy, receiving a selection signal from a user, selecting the first geometric component in response to the selection signal, receiving a navigation signal from the user, and selecting the second geometric component in response to the navigation signal by traversing an animation hierarchy, wherein the first geometric component and the second geometric component are adjacent within the animation hierarchy.

Pickwalking methods and apparatus

A computer program product for a computer system includes code that directs a processor to display a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional object on a display, wherein the two-dimensional representation comprises a plurality of two-dimensional regions, wherein the three-dimensional object is associated with a plurality of components in a component hierarchy, and wherein each two-dimensional region is associated with at least one component from the plurality of components, code that directs the processor to receive a selection of a two-dimensional region from the user on the display, code that directs the processor to determine a component from the plurality of components associated with the two-dimensional region, code that directs the processor to receive a value for an animation variable associated with the component, and code that directs the processor to set the animation variable associated with the component to the value, wherein the codes reside on a tangible media.

Patch picking methods and apparatus

A method and apparatus for creating, manipulating and displaying images. This invention permits a user to manipulate a high resolution source image through interaction with a lower resolution display image. User operations are interpreted by a paint system processor and executed on the source image in real time (i.e., concurrently with the manipulation of the display image by the user). A 'combiner' feature allows operations to be described as mathematical expressions, where operands are images and operators are chosen from a list of special related operators. This reduces the amount of memory normally required in prior art systems. An undo operation is implemented with reduced memory. The source image is stored in location A and the current user operation is executed in location B. The combiner feature joins images A and B to display the result of the operation to the user on the display. To undo the operation, the combination of images A and B is undone and only the original source image is displayed. When the current user operation is accepted, the combination of A and B is stored in location A.

Growing community of inventors

Piedmont, CA, United States of America

Tom Hahn