Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Computer graphics processing – Animation
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-03
2003-12-09
Zimmerman, Mark (Department: 2671)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Computer graphics processing
Animation
C345S475000, C345S420000, C345S670000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06661420
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an apparatus for displaying a character of three-dimensional (three-dimensional) computer graphics by relating a skeleton that describes a framework to polygon data that describes an outer surface, and in particular, to a three-dimensional skeleton data compression apparatus capable of efficiently compressing skeleton data.
BACKGROUND ART
Due to the recent enhanced performance of computer systems and development of a multimedia processing technique, an environment allowing even a personal computer or the like to process sophisticated three-dimensional computer graphics (hereinafter, abbreviated as a “CG”) is being established, and a graphic accelerator board and the like dedicated to processing of a three-dimensional CG are being provided.
There are various types of data formats of a three-dimensional CG. In a game involving the movement of a character such as an artificial creature and an object, generally, data on an object is held mainly in a polygon format, and regarding a rendering process, a texture is attached to a generated polygon mesh, whereby high-speed rendering processing is conducted.
The polygon is obtained by relating positional information of polygon vertexes to texture information that is a graphic pattern, and forms an outer surface of a three-dimensional character such as an artificial creature. The polygon is data for forming a mesh-shaped wire-frame model by disposing polygon vertexes on the outer surface of a three-dimensional object model designed by an animator so that changes in an outside shape are understood, and connecting each polygon vertex, and is related to texture information describing the pattern of an outer surface.
As described above, in the case where data is held in a polygon format, as the number of polygons that can be assigned to an object is larger, CG processing of higher quality will be achieved. In a recent entertainment application, there is a demand for a high quality rendering. It is not rare that more than 2,000 polygons are assigned to a three-dimensional character in order to satisfy user's needs. It is a demanding task to describe the movement/deformation on a polygon vertex basis, so as to provide a three-dimensional object described by a large number of polygons with movement/deformation information in accordance with each scene. Therefore, an idea of a skeleton is introduced. If the movement of a three-dimensional character such as an artificial creature is expressed by a skeleton that is to be a framework thereof, and polygon data that is to be an outer surface is related to the skeleton, it becomes easy to conduct polygon deformation processing. This is because, in general, an artificial creature also has joints conceptually, and its skeleton is mostly operated with respect to the joints. The movement of an artificial creature on a scene basis is described as changes in a skeleton. Since each skeleton is related to polygon vertexes forming the outside shape, the movement of each polygon vertex can be described and calculated based on the movement of the skeleton.
The relationship between the skeleton data and the polygon data will be briefly described with reference to FIG.
10
. As shown in
FIG. 10
, it is assumed that a skeleton
101
and a skeleton
102
are connected to each other via a joint and relatively rotatable. A polygon vertex
110
will be exemplified. The relationship between the polygon vertex and the skeleton is described by a numerical value such as weight information. The weight information is a numerical value showing a degree of the influence of the movement of the skeleton on the polygon vertex. For example, in the case where weight is 100, the polygon vertex moves 100% in accordance with the movement of the skeleton, and in the case where weight is 0, even if the skeleton is changed, the polygon vertex will neither be influenced nor changed. As shown in FIG.
10
(
a
), it is assumed that the weight information of the polygon vertex
110
is set at “100” with respect to the skeleton
101
and at “0” with respect to the skeleton
102
. It is assumed that the XYZ coordinate of the polygon vertex
110
at a scene
1
is (X
0
, Y
0
, Z
0
). Then, the skeleton
102
is rotated in accordance with the development of the scene so as to be moved to a position represented by
102
a.
In this example, the polygon vertex
110
is 100% dependent upon only the skeleton
101
, and an influence thereon by the movement of the skeleton
102
is set at “0”. Therefore, the coordinate of the polygon vertex
110
remains at (X
0
, Y
0
, Z
0
). On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
10
(
b
), in the case where the weight information of the polygon vertex
110
is set at “0” with respect to the skeleton
101
and at “100” with respect to the skeleton
102
, when the skeleton
102
is rotated so as to be moved to a position represented by
102
a,
the polygon vertex
110
is 100% dependent upon only the skeleton
102
, and is rotated in accordance with the rotation of the skeleton
2
to take coordinate (X
1
, Y
1
, Z
1
). In this manner, if the weight information of a polygon vertex is provided to skeleton data, it is not required to give movement/deformation information to all the polygon vertexes individually, with respect to the movement/deformation of a three-dimensional object. Therefore, when the movement/deformation information of a skeleton is given, the movement of a polygon vertex can be described, and the movement of a three-dimensional character can be described.
As described in the prior art, by using skeleton data, the movement of a three-dimensional character can be described on a skeleton basis, and an apparatus user such as an animator can more easily describe an animation scene. However, there arises a problem that enormous amount of calculation processing is involved for deformation processing of a three-dimensional character based on skeleton data. More specifically, it is required to conduct enormous amount of matrix calculation for actually moving/deforming a skeleton based on the information of movement/deformation of the skeleton and conducting movement/deformation processing with respect to a corresponding polygon vertex based on the weight information. As the number of skeletons and polygon vertexes becomes larger, its calculation cost is increased. It is difficult for a personal computer or home game equipment to absorb a calculation cost. Therefore, the number of polygons of a three-dimensional character model is limited and rendering processing ability of a three-dimensional character at each scene is not sufficient; consequently, rendering processing with smooth and natural movement cannot be conducted.
Thus, according to the three-dimensional object rendering processing that adopts a skeleton, performance and quality are determined depending upon the calculation processing ability of a platform. Therefore, in the case where a three-dimensional object is displayed in real time, it is an important technique to reduce a data amount regarding skeleton data so as to decrease a calculation processing amount.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
The present invention has been achieved in order to overcome the problems of three-dimensional object rendering using skeleton data of the prior art, and its object is to provide a three-dimensional skeleton data compression processing apparatus capable of compressing a data amount regarding skeleton data so as to decrease a calculation amount, and ensuring smooth and natural movement of a three-dimensional object without degrading a rendering quality thereof.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a three-dimensional skeleton data compression processing apparatus of the present invention is a skeleton data compression apparatus for compressing and holding skeleton data, used in a three-dimensional polygon display apparatus that renders a three-dimensional character described by polygon data and skeleton data, including: a weight detecting part for detecting weight information that is a numerical value repre
Arai Masatoshi
Miyata Ryosuke
Fujitsu Limited
Nguyen Kimbinh T.
Staas & Halsey , LLP
Zimmerman Mark
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