Precomputed environment semantics for contact-rich character animation

Number: 10713832
Published: 2020-07-14
Filed: 2016-05-17
Assignee: Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Inventors: Sumner; Robert, Xianghao; Xu, Coros; Stelian, Kapadia; Mubbasir Turab
CPC: G06T13/40; G06T1/20
Verdict: Low Notable software
Source: Google Patents · FreePatentsOnline

The keeper's note

Physics-aware character animation technique.

Abstract

A method of identifying locations in a virtual environment where a motion sequence can be performed by an animated character may include accessing the motion sequence for the animated character, identifying a plurality of contact locations in the motion sequence where the animated character contacts surfaces in virtual environments, accessing the virtual environment comprising a plurality of surfaces, and identifying the locations in the virtual environment where the motion sequence can be performed by the animated character by identifying surfaces in the plurality of surfaces that match the plurality of contact locations.

Background

BACKGROUND(1) Humanoid character animation involves the complex animation of fully articulated virtual humans. Animated characters may rely on motion capture or artist-created content and may move in natural and pleasing ways. These animated characters can be used to create complex, data-driven controllers for animating interactive, responsive virtual characters.(2) The widespread availability of high-quality motion capture data and the maturity of character animation systems have enabled the design of large, complex, virtual worlds. This has paved the way for the next generation of interactive virtual worlds, which include intricate interactions between characters and the environments they inhabit. However, current motion synthesis techniques have not been designed to scale with these complex environments and contact-rich motion sequence. Current automated approaches for motion synthesis cannot be easily extended to address the increase in environment and motion secquence complexity, particularly for interactive applications, such as video games. Because of this difficulty, environment designers are burdened with the task of manually annotating motion semantics in the environment, which helps informs character controllers which motion sequences a character is able to perform and how, thus pruning the search space for motion synthesis. This, however, is very tedious, especially for intricate motion sequences that involve many contacts between the character and the environment

Claims

1. A method of identifying locations in a virtual environment where a motion sequence can be performed by an animated character, the method comprising: accessing the motion sequence for the animated character performed in a first environment; identifying a plurality of contact locations in the motion sequence where the animated character contacts surfaces in the first environment; accessing the virtual environment comprising a plurality of surfaces; identifying the locations in the virtual environment where the motion sequence can be performed by the animated character by identifying surfaces in the plurality of surfaces that match the plurality of contact locations in the first environment; and annotating the locations in the virtual environment where the motion sequence can be performed by the animated character. 9. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: accessing a motion sequence for an animated character performed in a first environment; identifying a plurality of contact locations in the motion sequence where the animated character contacts surfaces in the first environment; accessing a virtual environment comprising a plurality of surfaces; identifying locations in the virtual environment where the motion sequence can be performed by the animated character by identifying surfaces in the plurality of surfaces that match the plurality of contact locations in the first environment; and annotating the locations in the virtual environment where the motion sequence can be performed by the animated character. 15. A system comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memory devices comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: accessing a motion sequence for an animated character performed in a first environment; identifying a plurality of contact locations in the motion sequence where the animated character contacts surfaces in the first environment; accessing a virtual environment comprising a plurality of surfaces; identifying locations in the virtual environment where the motion sequence can be performed by the animated character by identifying surfaces in the plurality of surfaces that match the plurality of contact locations in the first environment; and annotating the locations in the virtual environment where the motion sequence can be performed by the animated character.