The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 16, 1999
Filed:
Dec. 01, 1995
Christian Rouet, San Rafael, CA (US);
John Lewis, Paloi Alto, CA (US);
Lucas Digital, Ltd., San Rafael, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are disclosed for automatically generating features of computer animated objects that are represented by a skeleton surrounded by an envelope. An animator may modify the shape of the envelope for a particular configuration of the object's skeleton ('pose'). These envelope modifications for these poses are stored. When an animator desires to create a new pose, the stored modifications for previous poses are blended together, based upon the difference between each pose and the new pose, to automatically generate a modified envelope shape for the new pose. When satisfied with a particular envelope shape for a pose, the animator may store the modification in the database and the modification may then be used for subsequent poses.