- Number
- 20220309737
- Published
- 2022-09-29
- Filed
- 2021-03-24
- Assignee
- Disney Enterprises, Inc.
- Inventors
- Coffey; Dane M., Scerbo; Siroberto, Baker; Daniel L., Mine; Mark R., Goldberg; Evan M.
- CPC
- G06T15/20; H04N5/2224; G06T17/00; G06T17/10; G06T15/08; G06T17/20; G06T7/593
- Verdict
- Low Notable software
- Source
- Google Patents · FreePatentsOnline
The keeper's note
Volumetric capture/rendering technique from depth data.
Abstract
An image processing system includes a computing platform having processing hardware, a display, and a system memory storing a software code. The processing hardware executes the software code to receive a digital object, surround the digital object with virtual cameras oriented toward the digital object, render, using each one of the virtual cameras, a depth map identifying a distance of that one of the virtual cameras from the digital object, and generate, using the depth map, a volumetric perspective of the digital object from a perspective of that one of the virtual cameras, resulting in multiple volumetric perspectives of the digital object. The processing hardware further executes the software code to merge the multiple volumetric perspectives of the digital object to form a volumetric representation of the digital object, and to convert the volumetric representation of the digital object to a renderable form.
Background
BACKGROUND
The types of three-dimensional digital objects used in content production pipelines can be incredibly complex. For example, digital models of characters and other artistic assets are typically in the form of meshes having many parts and including upwards of millions of polygons. The complexity of digital assets, while not free of challenges for pre-rendered content, are typically manageable due to the advantage of lengthy offline renders on large compute farms. However, real-time rendering of such high complexity digital assets on mobile devices or in game engines is impracticable. As a result, those high complexity digital assets must be significantly simplified for their use on mobile platforms or in game engines to be possible.
In the conventional art, simplification of a film quality digital asset often includes remodeling the asset by one or more artists to reduce its complexity. Due to its intense reliance on human participation, this manual remodeling is both undesirably costly and time consuming. Consequently, there is a need in the art for a substantially automated solution for converting high complexity film quality digital objects to digital objects that are simple enough to be rendered on mobile devices and in game engines. While there exist techniques to perform automatic decimation on models, most implementations act on source geometry that lack important render-time details (e.g. application of displacement maps, procedurals, etc.).
Claims
1. An image processing system comprising: a computing platform including a processing hardware, a display, and a system memory storing a software code; the processing hardware configured to execute the software code to: receive a digital object; surround the digital object with a plurality of virtual cameras oriented toward the digital object; render, using each one of the plurality of virtual cameras, a depth map identifying a distance of the one of the plurality of virtual cameras from the digital object; generate, using the depth map, a volumetric perspective of the digital object from a perspective of the one of the plurality of virtual cameras, resulting in a corresponding plurality of volumetric perspectives of the digital object; merge the plurality of volumetric perspectives of the digital object to form a volumetric representation of the digital object; convert the volumetric representation of the digital object to a renderable form. ||
6. The image processing system of claim I, wherein the processing hardware is further configured to execute the software code to: convert the volumetric representation of the digital object to a mesh representation of the digital object. ||
10. A method for use by an image processing system including a computing platform having a processing hardware, a display, and a system memory storing a software code, the method comprising: receiving, by the software code executed by the processing hardware, a digital object; surrounding, by the software code executed by the processing hardware, the digital object with a plurality of virtual cameras oriented toward the digital object; rendering, by the software code executed by the processing hardware and using each one of the plurality of virtual cameras, a depth map identifying a distance of the one of the plurality of virtual cameras from the digital object; generating, by the software code executed by the processing hardware and using the depth map, a volumetric perspective of the digital object from a perspective of the one of the plurality of virtual cameras, resulting in a plurality of volumetric perspectives of the digital object; merging, by the software code executed by the processing hardware, the corresponding plurality of volumetric perspectives of the digital object to form a volumetric representation of the digital object; and converting, by the software code executed by the processing hardware, the volumetric representation of the digital object to a renderable form. ||
19. An image processing system comprising: a computing platform including a processing hardware, and a system memory storing a software code configured to optimize a positioning of a plurality of virtual cameras oriented toward a digital object; the processing hardware configured to execute the software code to: generate at least one closed surface surrounding the digital object; cast a plurality of occlusion rays from each of a plurality of points on a surface of the digital object toward the at least one closed surface, resulting in a plurality of intersections; cluster the intersections, based on the plurality of virtual cameras and a surface density of the plurality of intersections on the at least one closed surface, to identify a respective plurality of camera locations for each of the plurality of virtual cameras; and generate the plurality of virtual cameras at the respective plurality of camera locations. ||
22. A method for use by an image processing system including a computing platform having a processing hardware and a system memory storing a software code to optimize a positioning of a plurality of virtual cameras oriented toward a digital object, the method comprising: generating, by the software code executed by the processing hardware, at least one closed surface surrounding the digital object; casting, by the software code executed by the processing hardware, a plurality of occlusion rays from each of a plurality of points on a surface of the digital object toward the at least one closed surface, resulting in a plurality of intersections; clustering the intersections, by the software code executed by the processing hardware based on the plurality of virtual cameras and a surface density of the plurality of intersections on the at least one closed surface, to identify a respective plurality of camera locations for each of the plurality of virtual cameras; and generating, by the software code executed by the processing hardware, the plurality of virtual cameras at the respective plurality of camera locations.