JP2002074383A - Method and device for generating character animation - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently generate an animation. SOLUTION: An animation database 13 stores the set of basic animation data expressing the basic motions of a character. A script storage part 14 stores plural scripts. Each of scripts describes how to synthesize a new animation from the basic animation data expressing the motions of the character and describes the generation and synthesis of animations and correspondence with an event. The events generated outsides and insides are dispatched through an event processing part 12 to a script performing part 11, a correspondent script is performed and an internal state is transited. The script 2 part performing 11 performs the interpretation of the script, synthesizes basic animation data, generates and outputs a new animation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for creating an avatar or a character in a game on a network by creating a virtual character and generating the movement as an animation. This technology is used to generate animations,
Widely applied to video content.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In conventional character animation, all animations required for various events have been created. Then, an animation corresponding to an event to be generated is selected and played.

[0003]

In the prior art, a number of movements that the character wants to take are created from the animation level and stored in a database, which is selected and reproduced as needed. Was. For this reason, animation development efficiency was poor. According to the present invention, only a basic animation is stored in a database, and an appropriate animation is generated by synthesizing a plurality of necessary animations in response to an event.

[0004]

According to the present invention, in order to improve the development efficiency of animation and the like, a configuration as described in the claims is adopted. Here, a supplementary explanation will be given for the description of the claims.

An outline of the present invention will be described. According to one aspect of the present invention, a basic animation (basic animation)
Is distributed first, or is distributed as appropriate, and thereafter, by setting or distributing a script describing the behavior of the character, an arbitrary character animation is performed. Since multiple basic animations are combined to generate a new animation, there is no need to prepare many animations in advance. In addition, a script describing the behavior is applied to the set of basic animations, so the behavior of the character can be easily changed, and the same script can be used for different characters, improving the development efficiency of the behavior I do.

Further, the present invention will be described. According to the present invention, in a method for generating a character animation,
A step of storing a plurality of basic animation data each representing a different motion in a database; a step of storing behavior description data describing a behavior of a character; and a basic animation data stored in the database based on the behavior description data. And generating synthetic animation data from the program.

In this configuration, a variety of animations can be synthesized by describing the behavior with the behavior description data using a small amount of basic animation data as a material.

[0008] The behavior description data is, for example, a script described in a predetermined script language, and can be executed by an information processing device having a script execution environment. The behavior describes that new animation data is generated by a combination of basic animation data that describes limited movements respectively, and it activates basic animation data or new animation data according to events, A transition from one movement (animation data) to another movement (animation data) is described.

The behavior data (script) can be generated by the user himself in an editing environment.
It can be obtained through a communication network such as the Internet, a broadcast channel, or the like, or can be obtained using a recording medium such as a compact disk, a mini disk, and a floppy (registered trademark) disk. In an environment where behavior data can be processed, if basic animation data is held, various animations can be used just by acquiring behavior description data. The environment in which the behavior data can be processed is possible with various information processing devices, and is applicable to game machines, personal computers, intelligent telephones, multimedia kiosks, intelligent home appliances, and the like.

[0010] In addition to the behavior data (script), a basic animation may be distributed via a communication network, a broadcast channel, a recording medium, or the like.

Note that the present invention can be realized not only as an apparatus or a system but also as a method.
In addition, it goes without saying that a part of such an invention can be configured as software. Also, it goes without saying that a software product (recording medium) used for causing a computer to execute such software is also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

Further, it is a matter of course that a computer-readable recording medium in which the behavior description data, for example, a script in which the behavior is described, is recorded is also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. Here, after describing a device for realizing the character animation of the present invention, an overall image of generation of a character animation by animation synthesis operating on this device will be described.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention as a whole. In FIG. 1, an automatic animation generation apparatus 10 includes a script execution unit 11, an event processing unit 12,
Animation database 13, script storage unit 1
4, an input device 15, an output device 16, and the like. The animation automatic generation device 10 is actually
It is implemented in game machines, personal computers, and the like. It may be configured as an animation editing device.

The script execution section 11 interprets and executes a script described in a predetermined script language. As will be described in detail later, each script synthesizes an animation representing the behavior of the character using the basic animation data. This script describes each behavior as an object,
When an event is input, an animation representing an operation corresponding to the event is sequentially generated, and the event is generated as appropriate. The event processing unit 12 performs processing such as redirection on an event (external event) from the input device 15 or an event generated by the script itself. The animation database 13 holds a limited number of basic animation data. The basic animation data represents basic movements of a character, such as walking, running, flying, and turning. The script storage unit 14 stores a script describing behavior. Scripts and basic animations may be edited and created locally, communication networks such as the Internet, broadcast channels (for example, data broadcasting), and CDs.
-ROM, mini disk, floppy disk, DVD
(Digital versatile disk) or other portable recording medium may be used to obtain it from outside. The input device 15 includes a controller (game machine), a mouse device,
It is a keyboard or the like. The output device 16 is, for example, a display. The synthesized animation data may be recorded in a recording device.

Next, the types of the basic animation will be described, and the behavior setting of the character using the basic animation will be described.

FIG. 2 shows that a script describing a character animation (basic animation) and a behavior are given separately. As a basic animation to be prepared, give a rough motion such as "walk" or "grab an object" to be performed by the character. If a new animation is needed later, the script will be based on the individual animation by appropriately describing the type of event, the method of compositing the basic animation, and the relationship between the event and the animation. Use of new animations and flexible character behaviors can be defined.

Hereinafter, a set of a script that describes a character, its animation, and its behavior will be referred to as an actor.

FIG. 3 shows an operation when an actor processes a script. The actor sequentially interprets a script held by the actor or a script given from the outside, and generates an event inside or outside the actor. The generated event prompts the execution of another script or activates a registered animation or an animation obtained by synthesis. In addition, when the animation is activated, a smooth animation is automatically generated by performing a transitional synthesis with the animation that has been displayed so far. In addition, the user can control the actor from outside by generating an event using the controller.

The animation synthesis is performed by executing interpolation processing on a plurality of basic animations to generate a new animation. The interpolation processing may be linear interpolation or non-linear interpolation. For example, an animation synthesizing method proposed by the present applicant (JP-A-2000-1)
1199, “Automatic Animation Generation Method”).

FIG. 4 shows the creation of a new animation in which the speed can be adjusted on the script side from two walking animations having different speeds. (A) shows a script for generating a synthetic animation. Also, (b) shows the actual state of synthesis. In the script, after setting the variable t to adjust the distribution between the two animations, the walking speed is increased by gradually increasing t from 0 to 1. Further, t can be changed in conjunction with an event.

FIG. 5 shows an example of generating an animation having an appropriate bending angle by synthesizing an animation that goes straight and an animation that changes direction. (A)
Is a script that describes the behavior, and specifies that the actor changes direction by two events after activating the walking animation. (B) shows an animation that is generated by combining two animations and that slowly changes direction while walking. (C) shows an event as a timing for performing composition and a change in weight used for composition. Although the figure shows a case where a fixed weight is used, the combination ratio can be specified by a script.

FIG. 6 shows that a more complicated animation is synthesized by a script by synthesizing a partially specified animation. (A)
Shows a script for composing an animation of sitting down and smoking a cigarette. Here, since the synthesis timing can be shifted as appropriate, the timing of crossing legs and the timing of lighting a cigarette can be freely set. (B) shows that a desired animation is generated by adding a partial animation of sitting down and a partial animation of smoking a cigarette to the animation of sitting down.

Next, human expressions are not stationary but have a temporal spread. Therefore, as shown in FIG.
A facial expression to be used can be prepared, and a facial expression can be expressed by performing a transitional animation composition by an event. (A) shows an animation of each expression, and (b) shows a transition state of animation by an event.

Next, a lip sync can be performed by preparing a face for utterance as shown in FIG. 8 and using vowels and consonants as events as shown in FIG.

As described above, in this embodiment, the original animation can be easily created, and a new animation can be dynamically generated by a separate script. Not only is it unnecessary to prepare all of them, but also animations closely related to events can be dynamically generated, so that more interactive contents can be created.

Also, the script can be rewritten or diverted to another character, and the time required to create an animation in content development can be reduced.

[0028]

According to the present invention, in the production of animation, basic animations are prepared as a set such as a database, and a script for describing the behavior is applied to them. By synthesizing and generating an animation, it is possible to easily change the behavior of the character or create a new one. In addition, these scripts can be applied to different models of characters. From these facts, it is possible to dramatically improve the efficiency of the production process in animation production.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention as a whole.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a mode in which basic animation data and a script are separately stored in the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the above embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an operation of generating a composite animation by weighting and adding two similar basic animations.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an operation of generating a synthetic animation by superimposing two basic animations of different series.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an operation of generating a synthetic animation by adding an animation of a character part.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an operation of generating a synthetic animation by adding a facial expression animation as an animation of a face part.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a change of a face accompanying sound generation.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an operation of performing lip sync by executing facial expression animation synthesis using vowels and consonants included in voice as an event.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Automatic animation generation apparatus 11 Script execution part 12 Event processing part 13 Animation database 14 Script storage part 15 Input device 16 Output device

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Takashi Nozaki 1-14-10 Higashi-Gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Stock inside Sony Kihara Research Laboratories (72) Inventor Yoichiro Axta 1-14-10 Higashi-Gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo F-term (reference) in Sony Kihara Laboratories, Inc. 5B050 BA08 BA12 EA19 FA10 FA19

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A method for generating a character animation, comprising the steps of: storing a plurality of basic animation data, each representing a different motion, in a database; storing behavior description data describing a behavior of a character; Generating synthetic animation data from basic animation data stored in said database based on said character animation data. 2. The method is executed in an environment in which a script described in a predetermined script language is executed, and the behavior description data is stored as the script. 2. The character animation generating method according to claim 1, wherein an event for activating a transition to a movement is described. 3. The basic animation data necessary for the movement of the character described in the script is collectively stored in the database, and the basic animation data is appropriately synthesized based on external events. 3. The character animation generation method according to claim 2, wherein the character animation is generated. 4. The basic animation data includes emotions such as emotions, walking, flying,
The character animation generating method according to claim 3, further comprising animation data such as turning. 5. The character animation generating method according to claim 3, wherein said basic animation data includes lip sync animation data as a character movement. 6. A new animation data is generated by performing an interpolation calculation on a plurality of basic animation data stored in the database.
The described character animation generation method. 7. A method for generating a character animation in an environment in which a script written in a predetermined script language is executed, a step of storing a plurality of basic animation data each representing a different motion in a database, and describing a behavior of the character. Storing a script to be executed, and executing the corresponding script based on an event to generate synthetic animation data from basic animation data stored in the database. . 8. A character animation generating apparatus, comprising: a database for storing a plurality of basic animation data each representing a different motion; a means for storing behavior description data for describing the behavior of a character; Means for generating synthetic animation data from basic animation data stored in a database. 9. A computer-readable recording medium on which a computer program for generating a character animation is recorded, wherein a plurality of basic animation data each representing a different motion are stored in a database, and behavior description data describing the behavior of the character. And a computer-readable recording recording a computer program used to cause a computer to execute the step of generating synthetic animation data from the basic animation data stored in the database based on the behavioral description data Medium. 10. A plurality of basic animation data each representing a different motion is stored in a database, and a script used in a computer environment for generating a synthetic animation from the basic animation by executing a script described in a predetermined script language is executed. A computer readable storage medium, wherein the script describes at least a character movement and an event that triggers a transition from one movement to another movement in association with the basic animation data. recoding media.