Adjustment layers for composited image manipulation

Details Adjustment layers for composited image manipulation Adjustment layers for composited image manipulation

1999-09-15

2001-02-06

Bella, Matthew C. (Department: 2621)

Image analysis

Image transformation or preprocessing

Combining image portions

C382S294000, C382S302000, C382S305000, C382S283000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06185342

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to graphical image manipulation systems, and more particularly to a method and system for compositing graphical images.
2. Description of Related Art
A number of graphic image manipulation computer programs build up a final image by compositing several image layers together. An example of one such program is Adobe Photoshop 3.0, from Adobe Systems, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.
Referring to
FIG. 1
, each image layer
10
typically comprises the actual image information
12
, compositing parameters
14
, and, optionally, a mask
16
. As is known in the art, the image
12
generally comprises a set of pixels in an m×n array. The compositing parameters
14
generally include such information as a transfer mode (e.g., color model), global opacity information, color-based restrictions on which areas are subject to blending, and other information known in the art.
A number of image layers,
1
. . . n, are merged to form a composite image. In the merge process, each pixel generally is independent of the other pixels of the image
12
within each image layer
10
, so an implementing system can equally well calculate pixel data for the entire final image, or just a piece of the final image.
FIG. 2
is a block diagram showing diagrammatically that a set of image layers
20
are subjected to a compositing operation
22
to generate a merged image
24
, in known fashion. The process of merger may also be represented by the following pseudocode:
PROCEDURE CalculateMergedData (layers: ARRAY OF ImageLayer; result: Image);
VAR I: INTEGER;
BEGIN
InitializeMergedData (result);
FOR I=1 TO LEN(layers) DO
CompositeImageIntoImage (
layers[i].image,
layers[i].compositingParameters,
layers[i].mask, result)
END FOR
END CalculateMergedData;
In the pseudocode above, the final image, “result”, can be initialized either to a solid color or to a value representing transparency.
In existing image manipulation programs, there is a large class of useful image effects based upon functions that are applied to each pixel of an image independently. These functions include operations like inverting the color at a pixel, increasing the brightness of all pixels, etc. Such functions typically are known as “adjustments”, and are selectable via a user interface (e.g., menu or icons) of an implementing program, such as Adobe Photoshop 3.0 referenced above. A key property that sets these functions apart from filters (such as blurring operations), is that each pixel in the result only depends on the spatially corresponding pixel in the source image. Adjustment operations generally involve applying a particular function to some pixels based on some global parameters. In addition, frequently a mask is specified to constrain the effect. An adjustment operation is typically invoked by a call to a function such as the following, which specifies an adjustment function and parameters and the mask constraining that function:
ApplyAdjustmentToImage (
adjustmentfunction,
adjustmentparameters,
mask,
image)
When applying an adjustment function, the mask is frequently accounted for by using separate images for the initial and adjusted data, and then using the mask to compute a weighted average of the two images. This may require the use of a temporary buffer to hold a copy of the initial image, or to hold the adjusted data before blending it into the original data. This could, for example, result in a code path like the following:
ApplyAdjustmentNoMaskFromImageToImage (
adjustmentFunction,
adjustmentParameters,
image,
tmpImage);
BlendImages (tmpImage, image, mask, image);
FIG. 3A
is a block diagram showing an image
30
to which is applied one or more adjustments
32
to generate an adjusted image
34
, in accordance with the prior art. Thus, for example, an image X may be color corrected by an adjustment to generate image X′.
FIG. 3B
is a block diagram showing diagrammatically the application of a simple adjustment to a merged image, in accordance with the prior art. The adjustment data may be stored, for convenience, as a “pseudo-layer”
36
, so that the data is part of the array of actual image layers
1
. . . n. The image layers
20
are merged by the application of a compositing operation
22
into a merged image
24
. The adjustment function
36
is then applied
38
to the merged image
24
to generate an adjusted merged image
24
′. Accordingly, adjustment operations can be readily incorporated into a conventional layer merging process in accordance with the following pseudocode:
TYPE
Layer=
OBJECT
mask: Image
END;
ImageLayer=
OBJECT EXTENDING Layer
image: Image;
compositingParameters: CompositingParameters
END;
SimpleAdjustmentLayer=
OBJECT EXTENDING Layer
adjustmentFunction: AdjustmentFunction;
adjustmentParameters: AdjustmentParameters
END;
PROCEDURE CalculateMergedData (layers: ARRAY OF Layer; result: Image);
VAR I: INTEGER;
BEGIN
InitializeMergedData (result);
FOR I = 1 TO LEN(layers) DO
IF layers[i] IS ImageLayer DO
WITH layers[i] AS ImageLayer DO
CompositeImageIntoImage (
layers[i].image,
layers[i].compositingParameters,
layers[i].mask,
result )
END WITH
ELSEIF layers[i] IS SimpleAdjustmentLayer DO
WITH layers[i] AS SimpleAdjustmentLayer DO
ApplyAdjustmentToImage (
layers[i].adjustmentFunction,
layers[i].adjustmentParameters,
layers[i].mask,
result )
END WITH
ELSE
(* Unexprected layer type! *)
END IF
END FOR
END CalculateMergedData;
(In the above pseudocode, types declared as OBJECTs are polymorphic records, which are generally accessed via pointers. When an object is declared as EXTENDING another OBJECT type, the object inherits all of the fields of the extended object type. Thus, in the example above, OBJECTs “ImageLayers” and “SimpleAdjustmentLayers” have “mask” fields which they inherit from OBJECT “Layer”. The IS expression tests whether a particular object is really a specified extension of its declared type. The WITH statement casts an object to an extension, allowing the program to access fields only defined in that extension—the IS test indicates that it is safe perform this cast.)
In the above pseudocode, for each conventional image layer
1
. . . n (having type “ImageLayer”), conventional compositing
22
is performed to generate the merged image
24
. When the simple adjustment layer
36
(having type “SimpleAdjustmentLayer”) is detected, the adjustment function is applied
38
to the entire merged image
24
stored in variable “result” to generate the adjusted merged image
24
′.
A drawback of the prior products implementing simple adjustment layers is that they do not allow the system to edit the data underneath an adjustment “layer” while viewing the adjustment as applied to the final result. That is, the adjustment function does not truly have characteristics of an image layer. Further, the range of effects presented is generally quite limited.
Accordingly, it would be useful to have greater flexibility in applying adjustments to composited images. The present invention provides the system and method for allowing such flexibility.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an advanced adjustment layer that may be applied during the compositing process to a set of image layers
1
. . . n, or to any subordinate subset of such image layers. One or more adjustment layers are applied to an intermediate merged image, generated by compositing previous image layers, and the adjusted result is stored as a temporary image. The temporary image is then in turn composited with the intermediate merged image. Any remaining image layers are then composited in with the intermediate merged image to generate a final merged image.
The invention allows a user to apply a vast array of effects without requiring significant new knowledge on the part of the user. For example, if there are “A” adjustments and “T” transfer modes, the present i

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