Entity agnostic animation tool

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10210645-B2
Application number	US-201514732736-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 7, 2015
Priority date	Jun 7, 2015
Publication date	Feb 19, 2019
Grant date	Feb 19, 2019

Abstract

This disclosure relates generally to the field of image processing and, more particularly, to various techniques and animation tools for allowing 2D and 3D graphics rendering and animation infrastructures to be able to dynamically render customized animations—without the need for the customized animations to be explicitly tied to any particular graphical entity. These so-called entity agnostic animations may then be integrated into “mixed” graphical scenes (i.e., scenes with both two-dimensional and three-dimensional components), where they may be: applied to any suitable graphical entity; visualized in real-time by the programmer; edited dynamically by the programmer; and shared across various computing platforms and environments that support the entity agnostic animation tools described herein. The entity agnostic animations created by the techniques described herein may be output directly to the current scene file that a programmer is working on, or they may be output to standalone, reusable entity agnostic animation object files.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A non-transitory program storage device, readable by a programmable control device and comprising instructions stored thereon to cause one or more processing units to:
obtain a scene file having one or more entity objects and a plurality of animation action objects uniquely associated with each entity object;
identify a first entity object and a first collection of animation action objects, wherein the first collection of animation action objects: (i) includes all animation action objects associated with the first entity object, (ii) is separate from the first entity object, and (iii) represents a plurality of animation steps that define an entity object agnostic animation routine, wherein the first entity object is animated by referencing the entity object agnostic animation routine with a first parameter to apply the plurality of animation steps to the first entity object;
display a window having a first portion and a separate second portion;
display a representation of the first entity object in the first portion of the window;
display a representation of a first series of temporally non-overlapping animation action objects from the first collection of animation action objects in a first track in the second portion of the window;
generate a first action file that includes the first collection of animation action objects defining the entity object agnostic animation routine, wherein the first action file: (i) does not include the first entity object, and (ii) is configured to animate a second entity object referencing the entity object agnostic animation routine with a second parameter; and
store the first action file in a non-transitory memory.

2. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions stored on the programmable control device further cause the one or more processing units to animate the representation of the first entity object in the first portion of the window in real-time.

3. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions stored on the programmable control device further cause the one or more processing units to display a representation of a second series of temporally non-overlapping animation action objects from the first collection of animation action objects in a second track in the second portion of the window,
wherein the first track and the second track comprise a first group.

4. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 3 , wherein the first group is displayed as a collapsible user interface element in the second portion of the window.

5. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions stored on the programmable control device further cause the one or more processing units to modify at least one aspect of at least one of the animation action objects in the first track.

6. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processing units to store the first action file further comprise instructions that cause the one or more processing units to store the first action file in another scene file.

7. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processing units to store the first action file further comprise instructions that cause the one or more processing units to store the first action file in a standalone, reusable entity object agnostic animation file.

8. A system, comprising:
a non-transitory memory having, stored therein, computer program code; and
one or more processing units operatively coupled to the memory and display element and configured to execute instructions in the computer program code that cause the one or more processing units to:
obtain a scene file having one or more entity objects and a plurality of animation action objects uniquely associated with each entity object;
identify a first entity object and a first collection of animation action objects, wherein the first collection of animation action objects: (i) includes all animation action objects associated with the first entity object, (ii) is separate from the first entity object, and (iii) represents a plurality of animation steps that define an entity object agnostic animation routine, wherein the first entity object is animated by referencing the entity object agnostic animation routine with a first parameter to apply the plurality of animation steps to the first entity object;
display a window having a first portion and a separate second portion;
display a representation of the first entity object in the first portion of the window;
display a representation of a first series of temporally non-overlapping animation action objects from the first collection of animation action objects in a first track in the second portion of the window;
generate a first action file that includes the first collection of animation action objects defining the entity object agnostic animation routine, wherein the first action file: (i) does not include the first entity object, and (ii) is configured to animate a second entity object referencing the entity object agnostic animation routine with a second parameter; and
store the first action file in the non-transitory memory.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the computer program code further comprises instructions that cause the one or more processing units to animate the representation of the first entity object in the first portion of the window in real-time.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the computer program code further comprises instructions that cause the one or more processing units to display a representation of a second series of temporally non-overlapping animation action objects from the first collection of animation action objects in a second track in the second portion of the window,
wherein the first track and the second track comprise a first group.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the first group is displayed as a collapsible user interface element in the second portion of the window.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the computer program code further comprises instructions that cause the one or more processing units to modify at least one aspect of at least one of the animation action objects in the first track.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the instructions in the computer program code that cause the one or more processing units to store the first action file further comprise instructions that cause the one or more processing units to store the first action file in another scene file.

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein the instructions in the computer program code that cause the one or more processing units to store the first action file further comprise instructions that cause the one or more processing units to store the first action file in a standalone, reusable entity object agnostic animation file.

15. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
obtaining a scene file having one or more entity objects and a plurality of animation action objects uniquely associated with each entity object;
identifying a first entity object and a first collection of animation action objects, wherein the first collection of animation action objects: (i) includes all animation action objects associated with the first entity object, (ii) is separate from the first entity object, and (iii) represents a plurality of animation steps that define an entity object agnostic animation routine, wherein the first entity object is animated by referencing the entity object agnostic animation routine with a first paramete

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Wang Norman N
• Gasselin De Richebourg Jacques P
• Dexter Ross R
• Casella Tyler L

Classifications

• G06T2200/24

  involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs] · CPC title

• G06T2213/12

  Rule based animation · CPC title

• G06T13/00 Primary

  Animation · CPC title

• G06T2213/08

  Animation software package · CPC title