JP2003274283A - Video data editing method and video data editing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate the complication of operation when non-displayed CG objects existing in a CG studio is edited, in video data editing equipment based on a video producing technique using CG (computer graphics) animation, a dynamic image a music file, speech synthesis equipment, etc. <P>SOLUTION: When the event edition of the CG objects is started, all CG objects existing on a monitor window which are set in a non-displayed state are displayed in a translucent state. By displaying the CG objects in the translucent state, existence, position relation and conditions of all the non-displayed CG objects can be grasped at once without operation, so that the erroneous operation of the movement of the non-displayed CG objects by using a mouse and the erroneous selection of the non-displayed CG objects by using the mouse are eliminated. As a result, the complication of the event edition is reduced. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present description relates to a video data editing method which is used for creating programs such as television broadcast programs and video programs and which is edited by an operation on a monitor screen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a video data editing system has been developed in which a CG (computer graphics) animation technique, a voice synthesizing technique, a moving image reproducing technique and the like are fused to produce video data using a computer.

Furthermore, a television program is described in the manner of writing a scenario, a computer interprets the television program to generate a television program, and it is easy for a person who has been writing a program composition table until now to comprehend it. The editing status is displayed on the display screen, and the GUI (Graphical User I) is displayed.
A video data editing system that can be operated on the Internet has been considered.

A conventional typical interactive video data editing system will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a television program editing device, 101 is a CPU (C
internal Processing Unit), 1
02 is a memory, 103 is a CG animation generation unit, 1
Reference numeral 04 is a voice synthesis unit, 105 is a sequencer unit, 106 is an event storage unit, 107 is a current event pointer storage unit, 108 is an edit screen generation unit, 109 is a magnetic recording device,
110 is a moving image generation unit, 111 is a monitor, 112 is an input device, and 113 is a bus. The CPU 1 uses the memory 113 and the CG animation generation unit 10 via the bus 113.
3, speech synthesis unit 104, sequencer unit 105, event storage unit 106, current event pointer storage unit 10
7, an edit screen generator 108, a magnetic recording device 109, a moving image generator 110, a monitor 111, and an input device 112.

In FIG. 1, a CG animation generating unit 103 generates a CG animation of an appearing character or a studio set, and a voice synthesizing unit 104 produces a talking voice of the appearing character (serif, call, onomatopoeic sound, studio sound effect, etc.). To generate. In addition, when there are a plurality of languages used in different countries or ethnic groups, there may be a plurality of voice synthesizers 104 corresponding to the languages. The moving image generation unit 110 displays a previously edited moving image, and the memory 102 stores the talking and movement of the appearing character corresponding to the scenario of the television program and events such as moving image reproduction and audio reproduction. The sequencer unit 105, based on the event information of the TV program stored in the memory 102, the CG animation generation unit 103, the voice synthesis unit 104, and the moving image generation unit 11
0 is controlled to sequentially generate television programs. Monitor 111
Displays the generated television program and the editing information of the program. The edit screen generation unit 108 also displays an event edit screen for producing a TV program, and the memory 10
The editing information of the program stored in 2 is operated. The event storage unit 106 stores the event of the television program produced on the event edit screen by the edit screen generation unit 108 and the edit screen generation unit 10 stored in the memory 102.
The events of the television program displayed on the event edit screen of 8 are recorded in chronological order. The current event pointer storage unit 107 acquires the pointer of the event to be edited from the event storage unit 106 on the event edit screen generated by the edit screen generation unit 108 and stores it. The input device 112 is used to instruct the monitor 111 to display, to the sequencer unit 105 to reproduce, and to instruct the event information of the television program stored in the memory 102. It is composed of a pointing device such as a mouse and a keyboard for performing GUI operations. The magnetic storage device 109 stores modeling data of characters, studio data, video information of moving images, audio data (music, background sound, other audio data), and stores edited data. Further, the magnetic storage device 109 may be a randomly accessible remote file such as a hard disk, an optical disk or a magneto-optical disk via another transmission network. The bus 113 connects each of these components. It is also possible to connect to other devices via the bus 113. The CPU 101 exchanges signals with other components connected via the bus 113, and each component is controlled by an access signal from the CPU 101. For the sake of convenience, the function of hardware and the function of software are not distinguished from each other for convenience, but the event storage unit 106, the current event pointer storage unit 107, and the edit screen generation unit 108 are realized as software executed by using the CPU 101. Is a simple and preferred method.

By using the above-mentioned editing device, it becomes possible to arrange the scenarios of the television programs in chronological order, efficiently edit them, and generate and output the television programs created as a result.

A screen example of the television program editing apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a basic editing screen displayed on the monitor 111. 201 is an edit window, 2
02 is a studio block, 203 is a super block,
Reference numeral 204 is a sound block, 205 is a narration block, 206 is various setting blocks, 207 is an event mark, and 208 is a monitor window. The studio block 202 is a dialogue setting unit 209 for setting a CG object to speak in the CG studio, and a C for walking or the like.
An operation setting unit 210 for setting the operation of the G object, a camera setting unit 211 for setting the camera work, an initial value of the position of the CG object or camera in the CG studio, C
G studio background and studio set props, props,
And a studio setup button 212 for setting the combination thereof.

In the edit window 201, a vertical column having a studio block 202 and the like on the left side of the screen of the edit window 201 shows a video output to a television program. In the edit window 201, the vertical axis is the time axis, and television programs are generated in order from the top of the screen toward the bottom.

The super block 203 is a part for controlling the composition of superimposed characters in the image output to the television, and the sound block 204 is a part for controlling the music such as BGM to be combined with the image, and the narration block. Reference numeral 205 is a portion for synthesizing narration with video during reproduction of a moving image, and various setting blocks 206 are portions for setting a waiting time and the like. The blocks described above can be edited in the same manner as the studio block 202 described above.

In FIG. 1, a television program creator (hereinafter,
The creator) calls a TV program by a GUI operation on the editing screen of FIG. First, the producer creates a studio block 202 or the like in the editing window 201 according to the scene of the program to be produced, and arranges it in the vertical direction. Then, the program is created by making various settings in the block.

When a CG character or a prop (to be collectively referred to as a CG object hereinafter) is arranged in the studio, the studio setup button 212 is pressed with the mouse to display the studio setup window 301 shown in FIG. The studio setup window 301 is a setting mode selection menu 302 for switching between character setting, camera setting, and prop setting setting modes, an add button 303 for adding a CG object or a camera to the studio, and a studio set selecting for changing the CG studio set. A default button 30 for initializing values such as the menu 304 and the arrangement of CG objects
5. Cancel button 306 for returning to the state before editing, Close button 307 for ending the studio setup
Composed of. Hereinafter, a case where characters are arranged will be described as an example. Studio setup window 3
A character board 308 is displayed in 01. The character board 308 is a name edit text field 309 for editing the name of the character, a model selection menu 310 for selecting the type of character, a quality menu 311 for selecting the type of language spoken by the character, and an arrangement indicating the position of the x coordinate of the character. x text field 312,
Arrangement z text field 313 indicating the z coordinate, orientation text field 314 indicating the orientation of the character, state selection menu 315 for selecting a standing state or a sitting state.
Composed of. The character board 308 is displayed by the number of characters.

X the CG object 301 in the studio
If you want to move in the direction, place x text field 3
Click 12 to place x text field 31
2 is surrounded by a red frame, indicating that the x coordinate of the CG object can be changed. When a numerical value is input in the arrangement x text field 312 in this state, the character moves to the designated position and is displayed on the monitor window 208. Or, mouse over x on the monitor window 208.
The character moves by dragging in the direction. Here, dragging means an operation of moving the mouse while holding down the mouse button. The amount of movement of the character at this time is proportional to the amount of dragging the mouse. The movement of the character in the z direction and the movement of CG objects such as props are all possible by the above operations.

Next, the setting for walking the CG object placed in the studio will be described. When it is desired to set the operation of the CG object in the studio, the operation window 501 as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed on the screen when the cell of the operation setting unit 210 of FIG. 4 is double-clicked with the mouse. In the action window 501, the action target menu 502 for setting the CG object to be activated, the character setting menu 503 for changing the CG object to be activated, the action type setting menu 504 for selecting the action of the character, and the walk type in the action type setting menu 504 are selected. Position x end of walking x text field 505, z text field 506, direction d text field 507, stop mode setting menu 508 for setting end of walking, pitch setting scale 509 when walking, step setting scale 510, step A setting scale 511, a wait menu 512 for selecting whether to wait for an action event, a preview button 513 for previewing the action of a CG object, and the value set in this window is the default. Default button 514 to change the value, the reset button 515 to return to the state when the setting contents of the window the window open, cancel button 516 to close the window, for closing the window by applying the settings of the window close button 51
7. There is an end waiting check button 518 that waits until the CG object has finished walking. Monitor window 208a
In order to walk the CG object, the action window 501 is displayed by the above procedure, the action target menu 502 is set to character, and the action type setting menu 504 is set to move. And the CG of the monitor window 208a
When the object is clicked with the mouse, the CG object moves following the position of the mouse pointer, and the position after the movement of the CG character can be freely set.

The setting for walking the hidden CG object placed in the studio will be described. Two CG objects exist in the monitor window 208b of FIG. Since the CG object on the right side is set to be hidden, it is not displayed in the monitor window 208b. Let us say that the CG object on the left side of the monitor window 208b is the character A, and the non-displayed CG object on the right side is the character B. Character B here
When setting to move, the operation window 501 is displayed by the above procedure, the operation target menu 502 is set to character, and the operation type setting menu 504 is set to move. In this state, by clicking the position of the character B on the right side of the monitor window 208b with the mouse, the character B is displayed as in the monitor window 208c of FIG. If you drag the mouse as it is,
The character B moves following the position of the mouse pointer, and the position of the character B after the movement can be freely set. Then, the position of the character B is fixed by dragging, and the displayed character B is hidden.

[0015]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION As described above,
The hidden CG object is displayed only while being selected and moved by the mouse. In this case, C set to hidden
Hidden CG selected by mouse when dropping on the monitor window with forgetting the position of G object
Although the object is displayed, the CG object may be moved at the same time. When dropped in this state, the displayed CG object is hidden, and the location of the hidden CG object becomes unknown again. It takes a lot of work to return the CG object that is moved by mistake to the original position, and the program production efficiency is deteriorated.

Further, when there are a plurality of hidden CG objects, if the position where the mouse is clicked is mistaken even a little, a CG object other than the CG object to be selected may be selected, and the operation becomes complicated.

Further, there is a problem that the state of the hidden CG object cannot be confirmed unless the CG object is displayed by selecting it by clicking the mouse.

[0018]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, by displaying all CG objects which are set to be invisible at the time of editing an event in a semi-transparent state,
The existence, position and state of all the CG objects set to be hidden are always made explicit to facilitate the video data editing operation.

[0019]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. In the present invention, when the CG object is set to be hidden, the set CG object can be displayed in a semitransparent state.

A method of displaying a semi-transparent CG object will be described. FIG. 8 is a method of creating an image in which a semi-transparent CG object is drawn. Image 801
Indicates an image in which a CG object to be in a semitransparent state is not drawn. The image 802 is an image in which a CG object to be in a semitransparent state is drawn. By averaging the images obtained by superimposing the image 802 on the image 801, an image 803 in which a semitransparent CG object is drawn can be created. By displaying this image, a semi-transparent CG object is displayed.

Another embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 9, 10 and 1.
1 will be described below. The monitor windows of FIGS. 10 and 11 are the monitor windows of FIG.
Same as 8. In the present invention, all the CG objects that are set to be invisible on the monitor window are displayed in a semi-transparent state during the event editing for setting the change of the position of the CG object, so that they are set to be invisible. It is possible to immediately grasp the existence of all the CG objects present and their positions and states. Hereinafter, a non-displayed CG object displayed in a semi-transparent state is referred to as “semi-transparent”.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart for explaining the processing operation for displaying "semitransparent" on the monitor window. First, in step 902, when the editing of the event for setting the movement of the position of the CG object is started, the process proceeds to step 903. The CG object display state at this time is shown in FIG. It can be seen that there is one CG object in the center of the screen, but there are two CG objects that are set to be hidden. If there is at least one CG object set to be hidden on the monitor window at step 903, at step 904 all hidden CG objects are displayed.
The CG object "translucent" is displayed for each object.

The CG object display state at this time is shown in FIG.
Shown in 1. It can be seen that one translucent CG object exists on each of the right and left sides of the screen. This is the CG object "translucent". Step 90
If the editing of the event is not completed in step 5, step 90
Go to 6. When the preview is started in step 906, all CG objects “translucent” are hidden in step 907, and the preview of the movement currently edited is executed in step 908. Then, when the preview is completed in step 909, all CG objects “translucent” are displayed in step 910. If the preview has not started in step 906,
Proceed to step 911. If the CG object “translucent” is dragged with the mouse in step 911,
The CG object “translucent” selected in step 912 moves following the mouse. And step 91
When the mouse is dropped in step 3, the hidden C for the CG object “translucent” selected in step 914 is displayed.
The position of the G object is determined. If the event editing is completed in step 905, step 915
Hide all CG objects "translucent" with.

By displaying this "translucent",
The creator can confirm the existence, position, and status of all the CG objects set to be hidden. And
If you drag "semi-transparent" with the mouse, it follows the mouse and moves. By setting the movement of the CG object with "translucent", it is also possible to edit the position of the non-displayed CG object which is "translucent". Further, when executing preview during event editing, by hiding "semitransparent", it is possible to confirm the operation of the edited event with all CG objects actually set. Therefore, the producer can immediately confirm all the CG objects set to be hidden without complicated operations, and the positions thereof can be explicitly edited, so that the work efficiency of the program production is improved.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, in the event editing for setting the position of the CG object, the existence, position and state of all the hidden CG objects can be immediately grasped without any operation. . The efficiency of television program production is improved by preventing the CG object set to be hidden from being moved due to an erroneous operation of the mouse, and also being able to explicitly edit the CG object set to be hidden.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a television program production device for implementing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a basic editing screen of a conventional television program production device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a studio setup window of a conventional television program production device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a studio block of a conventional television program production device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an operation window and a monitor window of a conventional television program production device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a conventional monitor window.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a conventional monitor window.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an image creating method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a monitor window of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a monitor window of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: CPU (Central Processing)
g Unit), 102: memory, 103: CG animation generation unit, 104: voice synthesis unit, 105: sequencer unit, 106: event storage unit, 107: current event pointer storage unit, 108: edit screen generation unit, 10
9: magnetic recording device, 110: moving image generation unit, 111: monitor, 112: input device, 113: bus, 201: editing window, 202: studio block, 203: super block, 204: sound block, 205: narration block , 206: Various setting blocks, 20
7: Event mark, 208: Monitor window, 20
9: Dialogue setting section, 210: Operation setting section, 211: Camera setting section, 212: Studio setup button, 30
1: Studio setup window, 302: Setting mode selection menu, 303: Add button, 304: Studio set selection menu, 305: Default button,
306: Cancel button, 307: Close button, 3
08: Character board, 309: Name edit text field, 310: Model selection menu, 311: Verbal menu, 312: Placement x text field, 31
3: Placement text field, 314: Orientation text field, 315: Status selection menu.

Continued front page    F-term (reference) 5B050 AA08 BA06 BA07 BA08 BA18                       EA24 FA02                 5C023 AA01 AA11 BA11 CA01 CA05                       EA03                 5E501 AC15 AC16 AC34 BA02 BA05                       CB09 EA07 EA13 FA06 FA14                       FA15 FB22 FB29

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. CG (Computer Graphi)
cs: computer graphics) animation,
In a video data editing device that edits video data information displayed on the display device by GUI operation using moving image data, still image data, character data, audio data, voice synthesis data, etc. A video data editing device characterized by displaying an object in a semi-transparent state. 2. CG (Computer Graphi)
cs: computer graphics) animation,
In a video data editing method for editing video data information displayed on a display device by GUI operation using moving image data, still image data, character data, audio data, voice synthesis data, etc. A video data editing method, characterized in that an object is displayed in a semi-transparent state.