Entity Agnostic Animation Tool

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016358366-A1
Application number	US-201514732736-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 7, 2015
Priority date	Jun 7, 2015
Publication date	Dec 8, 2016
Grant date	—

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

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 and a first collection of animation action objects, wherein the first collection of animation action objects includes all of the animation action objects associated with the first entity; display a window having a first portion and a second portion, wherein the second portion is separate from the first 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 and not the first entity object; and store the first action file in a non-transitory memory.

2 . The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions 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 , further comprising instructions 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 1 , 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 further comprise instructions 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 to store the first action file further comprise instructions to:
store the first action file in the scene file.

7 . The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to store the first action file further comprise instructions to:
store the first action file in a standalone, reusable entity 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 and a first collection of animation action objects, wherein the first collection of animation action objects includes all of the animation action objects associated with the first entity;
display a window having a first portion and a second portion, wherein the second portion is separate from the first 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 and not the first entity object;
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 8 , wherein the first group is displayed as a collapsible user interface element in the second portion of the window.

12 . The system 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 to:
store the first action file in the 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 to:
store the first action file in a standalone, reusable entity 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 and a first collection of animation action objects, wherein the first collection of animation action objects includes all of the animation action objects associated with the first entity; displaying a window having a first portion and a second portion, wherein the second portion is separate from the first portion; displaying a representation of the first entity object in the first portion of the window; displaying, 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; generating a first action file that includes the first collection of animation action objects and not the first entity object; and storing the first action file in a non-transitory memory.

16 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , further comprising:
animating the representation of the first entity object in the first portion of the window in real-time.

17 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , further comprising:
displaying 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.

18 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , further comprising:
modifying at least one aspect of at least one of the animation action objects in the first track.

19 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein storing the first action file further comprises:
storing the first action file in the scene file.

20 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein storing the first action file further comprises:
storing the first action file in a standalone, reusable entity agnostic animation file.

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

• G06T2213/08

  Animation software package · CPC title

• G06T13/00 Primary

  Animation · CPC title

• G06T2213/12

  Rule based animation · CPC title

• G06T13/80 Primary

  Two-dimensional [2D] animation, e.g. using sprites · CPC title