Patents
US 10984578 B2: Method and system for directly manipulating the constrained model of a computer-generated character
- Granted
- 2021-04-20
- Filed
- 2017-09-28 application 15719348
- Type
- Utility · 17 claims
- Elsewhere
- Google Patents ↗ · USPTO patent document ↗ · USPTO Patent Center record ↗
Abstract
A rail manipulator indicates the possible range(s) of movement of a part of a computer-generated character in a computer animation system. The rail manipulator obtains a model of the computer-generated character. The model may be a skeleton structure of bones connected at joints. The interconnected bones may constrain the movements of one another. When an artist selects one of the bones for movement, the rail manipulator determines the range of movement of the selected bone. The determination may be based on the position and/or the ranges of moments of other bones in the skeleton structure. The range of movement is displayed on-screen to the artist, together with the computer-generated character. In this way, the rail manipulator directly communicates to the artist the degree to which a portion of the computer-generated character can be moved, in response to the artist's selection of the portion of the computer-generated character.
Source: PVGPATDIS, file of 2026-04-10 (ipg210420.xml).
Assignees
| Assignee | Type | Place | Also on furp.org | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DREAMWORKS ANIMATION LLC 108 patents | US company or organization | Burbank, CA | PVGPATDIS, file of 2026-04-10 |
Inventors
| Inventor | Place | Patents | Person page | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander P. Powell | Los Angeles, CA | 38 | PVGPATDIS, file of 2026-04-10 |
CPC categories
| Subclass | Category | First group | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| G06T | Image data processing or generation, in general | G06T13/80 | PVGPATDIS, file of 2026-04-10 |
Cooperative Patent Classification, as currently assigned (one row per subclass).
Assignments and security interests
No recorded assignments or security interests on file for this patent.
USPTO bulk data: PatentsView granted patents, disambiguated (PVGPATDIS) for patents, assignees, inventors, places and CPC categories; the USPTO Patent Assignment Dataset (ECORSEXC) for assignments and security interests. Patents filed in the last 20 years. No claims or full text. Links to other records are by name (and state): EXACT means the identical full name and state; FUZZY means a looser name match, with the confidence shown.