Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-24
2001-06-05
Alam, Hosain T. (Department: 2171)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06243706
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system and method for managing the creation and production of computer generated works. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method to allow the creation and production of works, such as 2D and 3D computer animations, special effect visuals for motion pictures and other computer generated information, the creation and production being managed by the system and method to permit parallel creative and production activities to be performed.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The creation and production of works such as motion pictures and television series is well known. Generally, raw footage (film or video) is shot with the actors over some period of time and the raw footage is subsequently edited, special effects created and incorporated and the final work produced. One of the problems with such creation and production processes is that they are largely linear, i.e.—all of the footage of the actors must be shot before editing and other post production activities are performed.
As this linearity increases the time required to produce the final work, it generally also increases the cost of making the work. Further, it is not unknown that as the editing and/or other post production activities are performed, problems are identified which require additional footage to be shot, which can incur significant expense, or which requires the director of the work to change the work, usually in otherwise undesired ways, when it is not possible to shoot new footage.
Various techniques are employed to mitigate these expenses and risks which result from this linearity and these include various continuity and storyboarding operations to manage the process of obtaining necessary footage and using “first units” and “second units” to obtain required footage in parallel, wherever possible.
To date, works created and produced with computer generated content have followed a process much like that for conventional film and video works for a variety of reasons. Thus, these works have been created and produced in a linear fashion wherein one activity is essentially completed before a second is commenced. For example, in a 3D animation the process of creating the 3D models will be completed, then the backgrounds and/or sets are completed and then the models are placed in the backgrounds and/or sets to allow the animations to be completed. This linearization of the creation and production process results in many of the same disadvantages as with the conventional video and film creation and production process discussed above.
Specifically, it results in long production times (e.g. the animators cannot start the animation of the models until the backgrounds and/or sets have been completed), and can result in significant errors/undesirable aspects remaining undetected until the final assembly of the various components (models, animation data, sets, etc.) of the work.
In such a case, depending upon the seriousness and/or type of the errors, various stages of the process may have to be re-performed. In some circumstances, such as the case wherein a set has to be changed, a large part of the creation process may have to be re-performed to accommodate the changes and models, animations, etc. may have to be modified. Often, these corrective modifications also have to be performed in a linear fashion, adding further to the expense and delays of correcting the work.
The present inventors have determined that computer generated works, including 2D and 3D animations and visual special effects, should be more susceptible to creation and production in a parallel manner than conventional works produced with real actors, sets, etc. While it is clear that a computer generated character (such as the T-Rex in Jurassic Park™) can be placed in more than one scene at a time, to date systems for creating and producing computer generated works have not well supported this capability.
While some activities can be performed in parallel, such as when an animator works on a particular character while other animators work on other particular characters, the integration of these characters and/or components into the final work is often a problem. Very often characters and/or components will not “fit” with each other when the final work is assembled. For example, a component may not be the correct size, relative to other real or computer generated characters/components in the work, or an animated action for a character may “break” when an object or other character is not located at the location in the final scene where the animator thought it would be. Generally, changes in one portion of a computer generated work can affect one or more other portions of the work and to date no satisfactory solution has existed to manage these changes and thus parallel creative and production tasks have not been widely employed. ,
Further, due to the typical monolithic storage of a scene (e.g.—the set construction, animated models, animation data, lighting and other rendering information are all stored essentially as single entity), responsibility for a scene is often assigned to a single artist/user, who is said to “own” the scene. The owner of the scene must manage the scene to ensure that: all components of the scene are present; they correspond to one another as needed; and a component is not changed without consideration as to the effect of such changes on other components in the scene. Management of this task is difficult at best and scene owners often restrict access to one artist/user at a time.
It is desired to have a system and method for managing the creation and production of computer generated works such as 2D and 3D animations, special effects and the like which permits two or more users to collaborate on the work and/or components of the work at the same time and which manages the changes to portions of the work and the combining of components into the final work.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel system and method for managing the creation and production of computer generated works such as 2D and 3D animations and/or visual special effects which obviates or mitigates at least one of the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for managing the creation and production of computer generated works by multiple users. A project structure is defined for the work and includes at least one scene structure representing a scene in the work. Each scene structure includes at least one element structure which represents a component, such as an animation model, 3D setting, etc. used in the scene. For each element structure, the project includes a defined list of the permitted type of accesses to the element structure by each user, i.e.—read only, read/write, etc. When a request to access an element structure is received from one of the users, a determination is made from this list as to whether the request can be provided for the user. When the request is permitted, the user is allowed access to the element and a record is maintained of this access until the user has completed the access. When a modification of an element structure is performed by one of the users, a determination is made if another user is accessing the same element structure from the maintained records of accesses and, if another user is still accessing the unmodified element structure, the modified structure is stored until users have finished accessing the unmodified element. At this point, the unmodified element structure is replaced with the modified element structure.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for managing the creation and production of a computer generated work by at least two users. The system comprises at least one data storage device having stored thereon a project structure for the work including at least one scene structure for said work and at least one element structure representing a component for sa
Cajolet Claude
Gagne Rejean
Moreau Sylvain
Alam Hosain T.
Avid Technology Inc.
Coby Frantz
Milik Kenneth L.
Monks Lawrence E.
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