Controlling animated character expression

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9256973-B2
Application number	US-201314139409-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 23, 2013
Priority date	Dec 31, 2008
Publication date	Feb 9, 2016
Grant date	Feb 9, 2016

Abstract

A system includes a computer system capable of representing one or more animated characters. The computer system includes a blendshape manager that combines multiple blendshapes to produce the animated character. The computer system also includes an expression manager to respectively adjust one or more control parameters associated with each of the plurality of blendshapes for adjusting an expression of the animated character. The computer system also includes a corrective element manager that applies one or more corrective elements to the combined blendshapes based upon at least one of the control parameters. The one or more applied corrective elements are adjustable based upon one or more of the control parameters absent the introduction of one or more additional control parameters.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
combining a first geometry of a portion of an animated character and a second geometry of another portion of the animated character to form a combined geometry such that a first movement of the first geometry causes a second movement of the second geometry; and
automatically applying at least a first corrective element, different from the first geometry and second geometry, to the combined geometry to correct for interference between the first and second geometries that represents a geometry conflict in the combined geometry due to the first movement of the first geometry.

2. The method set forth in claim 1 wherein the first and second geometries are combined such that a single control parameter influences both the first and second geometries.

3. The method set forth in claim 2 further comprising:
adjusting the first geometry to cause the first movement of the first geometry in response to a user adjusting the single control parameter; and
adjusting the second geometry based on the adjustment of the first geometry.

4. The method set forth in claim 3 wherein the at least first corrective element is applied in response to detecting the second movement of the second geometry.

5. The method set forth in claim 2 wherein the single control parameter comprises a slider bar that may be adjusted by a user to a range of values.

6. The method set forth in claim 2 wherein the first corrective element is selected based on a value of the control parameter.

7. The method set forth in claim 1 further comprising generating an animation from the combined geometry after the at least first corrective element is applied to the combined geometry to correct for interference between the first and second geometries.

8. The method set forth in claim 1 , wherein the first geometry is associated with a first blendshape and the second geometry is associated with a second blendshape, and wherein combining the first and second geometries comprises combining the first and second blendshapes.

9. The method set forth in claim 1 , wherein the first geometry represents an individual facial feature or reflects an expression.

10. The method set forth in claim 1 , wherein the second geometry represents an individual facial feature or reflects an expression.

11. A computer program product embodied in a non transitory computer-readable medium and comprising instructions that when executed by a processor perform operations comprising:
combining a first geometry of a portion of an animated character and a second geometry of another portion of the animated character to form a combined geometry such that a first movement of the first geometry causes a second movement of the second geometry; and
automatically applying at least a first corrective element, different from the first geometry and second geometry, to the combined geometry to correct for interference between the first and second geometries that represents a geometry conflict in the combined geometry due to the first movement of the first geometry.

12. The computer program product set forth in claim 11 wherein, in the operations performed, the first and second geometries combined such that a single control parameter influences both the first and second geometries.

13. The computer program product set forth in claim 12 wherein the operations performed further comprises:
adjusting the first geometry to cause the first movement of the first geometry in response to a user adjusting the single control parameter; and
adjusting the second geometry based on the adjustment of the first geometry.

14. The computer program product set forth in claim 13 wherein, in the operations performed, the at least first corrective element is applied in response to detecting the second movement of the second geometry.

15. The computer program product set forth in claim 12 wherein, in the operations performed, the single control parameter comprises a slider bar that may be adjusted by a user to a range of values.

16. The computer program product set forth in claim 12 wherein, in the operations performed, the first corrective element is selected based on a value of the control parameter.

17. The computer program product set forth in claim 11 wherein the operations performed further comprises generating an animation from the combined geometry after the at least first corrective element is applied to the combined geometry to correct for interference between the first and second geometries.

18. A computer system comprising:
one or more display devices;
a computer-readable storage device having a computer program stored thereon;
one or more processing devices operable to execute the computer program product, interact with the one or more display devices and perform operations comprising:
combining a first geometry of a portion of an animated character and a second geometry of another portion of the animated character to form a combined geometry such that a first movement of the first geometry causes a second movement of the second geometry; and
automatically applying at least a first corrective element, different from the first geometry and second geometry, to the combined geometry to correct for interference between the first and second geometries that represents a geometry conflict in the combined geometry due to the first movement of the first geometry.

19. The system set forth in claim 18 wherein, in the operations performed by the one or more processing devices, the first and second geometries are combined such that a single control parameter influences both the first and second geometries.

20. The system set forth in claim 19 wherein the operations performed further comprises:
adjusting the first geometry to cause the first movement of the first geometry in response to a user adjusting the single control parameter; and
adjusting the second geometry based on the adjustment of the first geometry.

21. The system set forth in claim 20 wherein, in the operations performed by the one or more processing devices, the at least first corrective element is applied in response to detecting the second movement of the second geometry.

22. The system set forth in claim 19 wherein, in the operations performed by the one or more processing devices, the first corrective element is selected based on a value of the control parameter.

23. The system set forth in claim 18 wherein the operations performed further comprises generating an animation from the combined geometry after the at least first corrective element is applied to the combined geometry to correct for interference between the first and second geometries.

Assignees

• Lucasfilm Entertainment Co Ltd

Inventors

• Koperwas Michael
• Pighin Frederic P
• Phillips Cary
• Sullivan Steve
• Hueso Eduardo

Classifications

• G06T13/40 Primary

  of characters, e.g. humans, animals or virtual beings · CPC title

• G06T11/60 Primary

  Creating or editing images; Combining images with text · CPC title

• G06T13/80

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