Method and apparatus for providing animation in a three-dimensional computer generated virtual world using a succession of textures derived from temporally related source images
Methods and systems for rendering and displaying in a real time 3-D computer graphic system a sequence of images of a subject using a plurality of time-sequenced textures such that at least a portion of the subject appears animated. The time-sequenced textures are derived from sources such as digitized frames or fields captured from a video recording of a live actor who may be engaged in a scripted performance, or a digitally-recorded cartoon animation sequence, and can be mapped in different ways to different types of surface geometries to achieve animation.
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/911,821, filed Jul. 10, 1992, now abandoned, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING ANIMATION IN A THREE-DIMENSIONAL COMPUTER GENERATED VIRTUAL WORLD USING A SUCCESSION OF TEXTURES DERIVED FROM TEMPORALLY RELATED SOURCE IMAGES.
A system for the storage of a digital image in an image database, the system comprises: a processor; software for automatically generating with said processor open space metadata from the digital image independent of manually inputting data; and software for storing the open space metadata along with the associated image in the image database.
A methodology for allowing component models to be developed independently and allowing a user to select and connect a set of models into a desired multi-component configuration at run-time. The component models are built free from inter-model dependencies, thereby enhancing flexibility and reuse. The component models conform to a standard interface for initialization (prior to simulation run) and inter-model communication (prior to and during a simulation run).
Sketch and cartoon images are automatically generated from video or still images captured in real-time from a digital camera or obtained from a stored file. Steps of the method include calculating luma values for each pixel in a captured or retrieved image, applying noise reduction techniques to the captured or retrieved image to improve its quality, performing an adaptive luma chroma difference computation to find and mark edges of objects in a captured or retrieved image as lines forming objects in a sketch image, and applying noise reduction to the sketch image. The process may be repeated for each frame in a video sequence. Temporal smoothing is applied to the video sequence of frames. Generated sketch images may be colored to produce cartoon images.
A graphics system that renders surface features of 3D object in a manner that is direction dependent but without the time consuming and expensive calculations involved in the evaluation of lighting equations on a per pixel basis. The graphics system employs direction-dependent texture maps which hold parameters that define surface structures in a manner in which the appearance of a surface structure varies in response to a direction vector. The direction vector may be light source direction or view direction. The parameters are those of a predetermined polynomial equation the evaluation of which does not involve vector calculations.
An image synthesizing apparatus according to the present invention comprises coefficient setting means for setting a blending coefficient .alpha.(0.ltoreq..alpha..ltoreq.1) at a specified value when a value of a specific picture element component included in picture element components A of a first image is a predetermined value; and arithmetic means for performing an operation on the picture element components A, picture element components B of a second image, and the blending coefficient .alpha. as follows: A*.alpha.+B*(1-.alpha.), and performing the operation on all the picture element components A and the picture element components B of a picture element that has the specific picture element component representing the predetermined value by using the blending coefficient .alpha. set by the coefficient setting means.
