Systems and methods for cross-application authoring, transfer, and evaluation of rigging control systems for virtual characters

Abstract

Various examples of cross-application systems and methods for authoring, transferring, and evaluating rigging control systems for virtual characters are disclosed. Embodiments of a method include the steps or processes of creating, in a first application which implements a first rigging control protocol, a rigging control system description; writing the rigging control system description to a data file; and initiating transfer of the data file to a second application. In such embodiments, the rigging control system description may be defined according to a different second rigging control protocol. The rigging control system description may specify a rigging control input, such as a lower-order rigging element (e.g., a core skeleton for a virtual character), and at least one rule for operating on the rigging control input to produce a rigging control output, such as a higher-order skeleton or other higher-order rigging element.