JPH0916799A - Display screen preparing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the amount of data to be preserved for the display on the screen in the case of presentation by synthesizing designated material data by successively overwriting them from the downside of overlapping, based on attribute data preserved in a data attribute preserving part. SOLUTION: Concerning the respective material data separately preserved in a data preserving part 1, a data attribute preserving part 2 preserves the attribute data such as a title position or the order of overlapping on the display screen. A data designating part 3 designates any one of data to be synthesized as one piece of data among the material data such as graphic, character or image to be defined as the object of combination corresponding to direct designation due to the preparing person of the display screen or indirect instruction such as a preparation end signal. Based on the attribute data preserved in the data attribute preserving part 2, a material synthesizing part 4 synthesizes the designated material data into one piece of material data by successively overwriting them from the downside of overlapping in the case of display on a screen and corrects the data preserved in the data attribute preserving part 1 corresponding to the synthesization at the same time.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a screen editing device,
In particular, the present invention relates to a display screen creating apparatus that creates data for final output of an edited screen for storage in a storage medium or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, presentations such as screen display using a computer have been performed in order to use in place of OHP used in academic conference presentations or to be used in place of e-mails that consist of only letters. Has become. In order to give a presentation using this computer, a display screen used for the presentation must be created on the computer. The display screen at this time is created.First of all, the graphics and characters as the material used for display are created separately, and then the created material is appropriately placed on the screen to convey the content of communication. This is done by making the screen suitable. As a screen editing device for this purpose, there are a graphic drawing function program provided in association with a word processor on a computer, a MacDraw on Macintosh of Apple Inc., and the like.

Recently, in addition to simply creating a static display screen, moving a figure as a material on the display screen, changing the size, or changing the color, that is, an animation There are some that can be created. Now, in such a screen editing device, in order to create a display screen that the editor is interested in, the figures and characters as materials are appropriately selected from those originally stored in the position and size displayed during screen editing. It will be changed and used. As a result, for the purpose of presentation, the respective figures and the like are managed separately as material data.

For example, in the display screen shown in FIG. 3, there are four material data of background image data, car graphic data, title character data, and human image data, which are stored and displayed at the time of display. As a material for deleting unnecessary portions, etc., they are stored in pieces in a storage medium and managed accordingly.

[0005]

By the way, in the above-mentioned management, the background image data of the part hidden under the house or the like which is overlaid and displayed is not displayed in the actual display as a presentation. Actually it is unnecessary. However, nevertheless, since the data is held as data for presentation, the amount of material data necessary for displaying on the screen increases. In turn,
The reading speed when displaying on the screen becomes slow,
The required storage resources will increase.

However, it is not very preferable to equip a CPU having a high processing speed and a storage means having a large capacity just to deal with this. In particular, a device that simply executes a presentation is not preferable because it is immediately expensive. Further, in recent years, notebook computers, home-use game machines represented by Nintendo and 3DO, etc. have become widespread, but it is also considered to make presentations using these machines as execution machines. However, in many of these cases, the available memory capacity or the CPU calculation speed is inevitably inevitable, which is an obstacle to the spread of presentations using these. For this reason, it is desired to develop a technique that enables appropriate presentations even with these devices.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image creating apparatus which requires a small amount of data to be saved for displaying a screen during a presentation.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, in the invention of claim 1, a CRT, a keyboard,
It has a drawing tool, etc., and is a figure consisting of circles, quadrangles, lines, etc. defined by position coordinates under the control of a computer, and figures that are colored based on the figure, fonts that have been stored in advance (characters). ) Is used to combine characters such as images to be displayed as bitmap data, and a screen editing device that edits a screen to be displayed as a presentation. Initially (at the end of editing for a while) data such as figures, characters, and images as materials are divided and stored separately. For each data stored in
One of the data attribute storage unit that stores the attribute data such as the display position on the display screen and the order of the upper and lower overlaps at the time of display, and the material data such as the figure, the character, and the image to be combined and edited. Based on the material designation section that designates what should be combined as data by the direct or indirect instruction of the display screen creator and the attribute data stored in the data attribute storage section, the designated material data is ordered from the bottom The data to be stored in the data storage unit and the data attribute storage unit are required according to the combination. Presentation of the data that is stored in the data storage unit and the data attribute storage unit after being corrected by the material composition unit. An external storage device for Shon, is characterized by comprising an output section for outputting to the communication line or the like.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, for each material data stored in the data storage unit, the attribute data 1 includes a coordinate value of a start point and an end point of a position on the display screen. An animation definition section that adds animation information such as information about movement, information about changes in size, and information about changes in color, and the above figures,
A motion determination unit that determines whether or not the data necessary for displaying each material such as characters and images is dynamic data having attribute data related to animation, by referring to the column of the data attribute storage unit; In the static data extraction section that automatically extracts the material data that is determined to be not dynamic data, and only the material data extracted by the static data extraction section is specified by the material specification section. It is characterized in that it is provided with a static data designation synthesis control unit which controls the material synthesis unit to be a synthesis target.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the static data fetching section, for all the static data fetched,
Based on the attribute data stored in the attribute data storage unit,
It is determined whether the material data is in the upper or lower order of overlapping on the display screen for each dynamic data, taking into consideration the overlapping order of the dynamic data, and based on the overlapping order of the dynamic data. In addition, there is a level-specific static data designation part to which this division mark is attached, and the material composition section composes the material data necessary for display in order from the bottom of the stacking order for each material data with the same division mark. It is characterized by having a material composition part for each level.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, for each material data which is determined to be dynamic data by the motion determining unit, a locus associated with a motion on the display screen is calculated based on the attribute data of the material data. Even if the static data designating unit for each level has a calculation unit, the display area occupied by the static material data on the screen is the trajectory calculation unit even if it is higher than the dynamic data in the stacking order. For material data that does not overlap the obtained higher-order dynamic data locus, and whose area does not overlap with other static data that overlaps the above-mentioned locus and is in the order immediately below the dynamic data It is characterized in that it has a small portion for static data judgment for each level that puts the same mark as the material data immediately below the dynamic data.

[0012]

According to the above construction, in the invention of claim 1,
The following operations are performed in a screen editing apparatus that edits and creates a screen to be displayed as a presentation by combining graphics, characters, images, etc. under the control of a computer. The data storage unit consisting of memory, disk, etc. initially displays the data necessary for displaying the position, shape, etc. to be displayed on the screen, such as figures, characters, images, etc. as the material of the display screen. Save each item separately. The data attribute storage unit, for each material data separately stored in the data storage unit, the attribute data such as the display position on the display screen, the overlapping order,
For example, it is saved as a table associated with each material data. The material designating part is caused by direct designation by the display screen creator of the material data to be combined as one data among the material data such as figures, characters and images to be combined, and indirect instructions such as creation completion signal. Specify (thus, if it is an indirect instruction, all static data will be specified). The material composition unit, based on the attribute data stored in the data attribute storage unit, the specified material data,
The data stored in the data storage unit and the data attribute storage unit are corrected according to the combination by overwriting in order from the bottom when they are displayed on the screen to be combined into one material data. . The output unit outputs each data stored in the data storage unit and the data attribute storage unit after being corrected by the material composition unit for presentation.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the animation definition section defines, for each material data stored in the data storage section, a movement of the display position, a change in size, and a color as one of the attribute data. Add animation information about changes. The motion determination unit determines whether or not each material data such as the figure, character, image, etc. is dynamic data having attribute data related to animation. The static data extraction unit automatically and sequentially extracts static data, which is material data determined by the operation determination unit to be not dynamic data. The static data designation synthesis control unit is the target of the synthesis of the material synthesis unit, which is performed in accordance with the designation by the material designation unit, of only the material data fetched by the static data fetching unit (including, fetched All static data is automatically targeted for composition).

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the level-specific static data designation portion of the static data extraction unit sets attribute data stored in the data attribute storage unit for all the extracted static data. Based on the material data, it is determined whether or not the order of overlapping on the display screen is higher or lower for each dynamic data while considering the order of overlapping dynamic data,
Based on the overlapping order of dynamic data, this overlapping mark is attached. In the level-based material composition part of the material composition part, the material data required for display are composited in order from the bottom of the overlapping order for each material having the same mark.

For this reason, the units for synthesizing the static material data are divided into levels at the upper part and the lower part of the material data to be animated. Therefore, when there are two pieces of material data to be animated, the static data is combined into three levels. For example, if an animation is set for the 5th and 12th material data on a screen composed of 20 material data, the static data from the 1st to 4th is combined to create one It becomes an image (level 1), the 6th to 11th static data is combined into a second image (level 2), and the 13th to 20th static data is combined into a 3rd image. Become an image (level 3).

In the invention of claim 4, the locus calculation unit obtains the locus on the display screen by calculation or the like based on the attribute data of the material data determined by the motion determination unit as dynamic data. . Even if the static data determination sub-part of the level static data designation part of the level is higher in the overlapping order than the dynamic data, the area occupied by the material data on the screen is the trajectory calculation unit. Material data that does not overlap the obtained higher-order dynamic data trajectory and that does not overlap with the material data area in the order immediately below and below the dynamic data in other static data that overlaps the above trajectory On the other hand, the same division mark as the material data immediately below is attached.

Therefore, for example, in a screen composed of 20 material data, animations are set in the 5th and 12th material data, and the 8th static data is the animation of the 5th material data. Overlap with trajectory (6th and 7th static data does not overlap with trajectory), 17
If the 12th static data overlaps the trajectory of the 12th material data animation, the 1st to 4th and 6th,
The 6th static data of 7th is combined to become the 1st image (level 1), and the 8th static data of 11th to 13th and 16th to 13th is combined to the 2nd image. (Level 2), the 18th to 20th static data are combined to form the 3rd image (Level 3). Further, as a result, even if an animation is defined, only the color changes and the material data that does not change in the display area becomes irrelevant to the level classification based on the dynamic data of static data. Often.

[0018]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below based on embodiments. (First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of a display screen creating apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a data storage unit, which is displayed on the screen, and when viewed from the entire display surface, material data, which is data such as a figure or a character string as a material forming the material, is stored for each data. Store each separately in. 2 is the order in which, for each material data stored in the data storage unit, the position indicated by the coordinate value on the X and Y coordinate axes at the time of display and the upper and lower overlapping with other material data on the display surface. It is a data attribute storage unit that stores attributes such as. Reference numeral 3 denotes a data designating unit for the editor to designate a graphic or character string to be combined as one data for a material for creating a display screen. Reference numeral 4 denotes a material combining unit that creates a display image by overwriting the material data specified by the data specifying unit 3 in order from the bottom of the upper and lower overlapping order. 5 is various inputs by the editor who creates the display screen,
An input unit for performing an operation, which includes a keyboard, a mouse, and the like. Reference numeral 6 denotes a display unit that displays a screen or the like being edited, and is composed of a liquid crystal display. A material data creation unit 7 creates a string of figures and characters used as material on the display screen. Reference numeral 8 denotes a layout editing unit for arranging the graphic or character string created by the material data creating unit 7 at an arbitrary position on the screen and changing the size thereof. It consists of a drawing tool and the like of the main body (not shown). Reference numeral 9 is a presentation data storage unit that stores the final display image created by the material composition unit 4 and the attributes of the display data. Reference numeral 10 is a presentation execution device that makes a presentation using the data stored by the presentation data storage device 9.

In addition to the above, a computer main body for controlling each of the above-mentioned parts and adjustment for exhibiting appropriate functions, a floppy disk loading / writing read-out part for storing the edited display screen in a floppy disk, etc., printing And a character font storage unit for printing, a printing unit, a connection unit with an external communication line, and an L / E conversion unit that reads in the L / E conversion to use image data printed on magazines as material data. Have However, these are not only obvious and publicly known techniques, but also have no direct relation to the gist of the present invention. Therefore, the illustration and description thereof are omitted. This also applies to other embodiments described later.

Next, the operation as a man-machine system in the screen editing apparatus having the above-mentioned configuration and the presentation executing apparatus essential for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG. (A1) The editor of the display screen first operates the input unit 5 such as a keyboard and a mouse in order to give a presentation by a computer, and the material data creation unit 7 operates to input a graphic or character string to be displayed on the screen. Create or enter material data. The created material data is
When actually used for display, each data is stored in the data storage unit 1 for layout editing such as determining the displayed position.

(A2) Next, the editor changes the size of the graphic or character string created by the material data creating section 5 and rotates it by the layout editing section 6 in order to create a presentation screen. Depending on the case, the color is changed or placed on the screen. Then, the information such as the size of the graphic or character string and the arranged position at this time is stored in the data attribute storage unit 2. Also, on the display screen, it is possible that part of one material figure may be hidden by another material figure depending on the arrangement of the material figures. Is also stored in the data attribute storage unit 2 as 1 of the attribute data. It is needless to say that the arrangement editing section 8 can change the overlapping order of the graphic and character strings once determined for more appropriate display.

(A3) Whether or not the display screen is satisfactory is determined. (A4) New input of material data and the like are made as necessary. (A5) The editor edits the screen for the presentation as described above, but the screen editing ends,
When the final display screen is completed, a finalizing operation is then performed on the layout editing unit 3 to determine whether or not to use it to display a sequence of figures and characters that are scattered on the screen, and also to determine the final display screen. Final layout and display position.

FIG. 3 shows a display graphic in this final state, FIG. 4 shows each graphic as a material, and FIG. 5 shows attribute data at the time of display. Actually, information about colors is added to the figure defined by the line diagram, the material data is not necessarily rectangular, and the character string is defined for each character. Since it is self-evident and has no direct relation to the gist of the present invention, the description, explanation, etc. thereof are omitted.

(A6) Then, the material data to be combined as one data is designated by the data designating section 3. (A7) Now, when the designation of the figure or character string is complete,
The material composition unit 4 is activated. In the material composition section 4, first,
Of the graphic and character strings designated by the data designating unit 3, the graphic and character strings at the bottom are searched based on the attribute data stored in the data attribute storage unit, and the graphic and character strings are searched for. The data to be displayed is retrieved from the data storage unit 3.

Next, the display image of the second figure or character string from the bottom is taken out. Then, the display image of the second figure or character string from the bottom is overlaid on the display image of the lowest figure or character string extracted earlier to create a new display image. At this time, the data of the display image of the bottom figure and character string and the display image of the second figure and character string from the bottom are deleted from the data storage unit 1, and the newly created display image is stored in the data storage unit 1. Of the data stored in the data attribute storage unit 2 and also deletes the attribute data of the lowest figure or character string and the attribute data of the second figure or character string from the bottom, Save the attribute data for the newly created display image.

Further, a display image of the third figure or character string from the bottom is taken out, and a display image is created by superimposing the display image of the third figure or character string on the newly created display image. Then, the data in the data storage unit 1 and the data attribute storage unit 2 are changed. The above processing,
This is performed for all the graphic or character strings designated by the data designation unit 3. As a result, a plurality of existing display images are combined in the overlapping order and replaced with one display image.

(A8) Finally, the presentation data storage unit 9 stores the data in the data storage unit 1 and the data attribute storage unit 2 on a floppy disk or the like, and the floppy disk storing this data is mounted on the presentation execution device 10. And give a presentation. Next, the above processing will be described using a specific example of a screen for presentation.

The screen image shown in FIG. 3 includes a background image 21, a person image 22, a car figure 23, and a character string 24.
It is composed of four figures and a string of characters. Further, the data stored in the data storage unit 1 is shown in FIG. 4, and the data stored in the data attribute storage unit 2 is shown in FIG. In addition to the data shown in FIG. 4, the data storage unit 1 may store data that is not finally used for display, but the processing of these data is not directly related to the purpose of the present invention. Also, since the display position (x, y) is not stored as a data attribute in the material combining unit 4, it can be easily determined that it is not the target of specification (combination). Therefore, the description of these data is omitted. This is also the case with other embodiments that follow.

It is assumed that the data designating section 3 designates three of the graphic image and the character string, that is, the background image 21, the person image 22, and the character string 24. When the data designating section 3 designates data such as a figure or character string, the material synthesizing section 4 is activated next. In the material composition unit 4, first, based on the data in the data attribute storage unit 2, the figure or character string at the bottom is searched from the figure or character string designated by the data designation unit 3, and the figure is searched. Display data of a character string is retrieved from the data storage unit 1.

In the case of FIG. 3, the background image 21 is the figure at the bottom. Next, the material composition unit 4
Retrieve the display image of the second graphic or character string. FIG.
In the case of, the image 22 of a person corresponds to it. Then, the display image of the extracted person image 24 is superimposed on the previously extracted display image of the background image 21. At this stage, the image as shown in FIG. 6A is created.

Then, the created display image is stored in the data storage unit 1. The contents of the data storage unit 1 at this stage are as shown in FIG. Again,
The contents of the data attribute storage unit 2 are changed as shown in FIG. Next, the display image of the character string 24, which is the third character string from the bottom, is taken out, and this is displayed in FIG.
Overlay on the image shown in. At this stage, an image as shown in FIG. 7A is created.

At this point, the contents of the data storage unit 1 are as shown in FIG.
7B, and the contents of the data attribute storage unit 2 are as shown in FIG. 7C. Next, FIG. 8 shows the material composition unit 4.
3 shows a procedure of synthesizing material data for the bitmap data in FIG. In this figure, I is the maximum pixel value of the X coordinate, J is the maximum pixel value of the Y coordinate, and d
Indicates the maximum overlapping order of the material data to be designated. In this case, if there is unspecified data, it goes without saying that the value of n is reduced accordingly. Also, instead of bitmap data, it is defined by the display positions and functions of lines and points, such as the center position and radius for circles, the positions of both ends for line segments, and the display position according to the situation for graphic data. It goes without saying that the function calculation is performed to obtain the pixels of the contour of.

As described above, in this embodiment,
Since the material synthesizing unit 4 for synthesizing the graphic or character string on the display screen designated by the display screen editor into one display image data is provided, it is possible to reduce the amount of data for the display screen required at the time of presentation. In this case, the screen editing device and the presentation execution device may not be separate units as shown in FIG. 1, and both may be the same computer. Also in this case, the display has a smooth display due to a small amount of data when the presentation is executed, and the waiting time at the time of switching the screen is shortened.

When all the material data are static data, the data to be displayed is automatically extracted from the VRAM for the display unit by the confirmation operation of the final display screen by the display screen creator. , May be combined. In this case, all static data will be designated. Further, as shown in FIG. 7, a part of static data may be excluded from the designation target, and only the static data may be displayed with various colors while leaving the contour unchanged.

In this case, if it is bitmap data, material data for each color is stored, and if it is graphic data consisting of lines and points, information about color is added to the shape as attribute data. Data about the time when the color changes is also added as an attribute. For this reason, for example, attribute data such as (0, blue), (1, red), (2, yellow) is added to the attribute of the graphic data in addition to the shape. It turns red after 2 seconds and turns yellow after 2 seconds. As a result, it is possible to easily show how the impression of the car changes by changing the color under the same background. In this case, the data whose color changes with time is, of course, dynamic data from the point of view of the present invention.
(Second Embodiment) FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of the image creating apparatus according to the present invention.

In this figure, components having the same structure and function as those of the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals. In addition, a description thereof will be omitted.
Only the configuration unique to this embodiment will be described below. 20
1 defines data regarding a display position, shape, and color movement at the time of displaying a graphic or character string created by the material data creating unit 7, that is, an animation (how This is the animation definition part. Reference numeral 202 denotes an operation determination unit that determines whether or not an animation is defined for a graphic or character string on the display screen. Reference numeral 203 denotes a static data designation that automatically designates, as a target of synthesis, a graphic or character string displayed on the screen that is determined by the motion determination unit 202 to have no animation defined. It is a department.

Next, the operation of the screen editing apparatus and the presentation executing apparatus 10 of the present embodiment having the above configuration will be described. Similar to the first embodiment, the editor uses the input unit 5 such as a keyboard and a mouse to create screen data for giving a presentation. At this time, the animation definition unit 201 can be used to define a motion for a string of figures or characters displayed on the screen. The motion information defined here includes the information indicating the position and size of the graphic or character string and the data attribute storage unit 2
It is saved in the field provided in advance. However, this is a so-called publicly known technique, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In this way, the editor edits the screen for the presentation including the animation.
When the screen editing is completed and the final screen image is created, the static data specifying unit 203 is instructed to specify the static data. In the static data designation unit 203, first, the lowest figure or character string is extracted from the information on the overlapping order of the figure or character strings stored in the data attribute storage unit 2.

Next, the motion determination unit 202 is inquired whether or not an animation is defined in the extracted data. In the motion determination unit 202, the static data designation unit 203
From the presence or absence of the description (memorization) in the animation definition information column of the graphic or character string stored in the data attribute storage unit 2 for the graphic or character string inquired from judge.

When the motion determining unit 202 determines that the animation is not defined, the static data specifying unit 203
Then, the bottommost graphic or character string is designated as the graphic or character string to be combined by the material combining unit 4. Next, the static data designation unit 203 takes out the second graphic or character string from the bottom, and determines whether or not an animation is defined by the motion determination unit 202 like the bottommost graphic or character string. judge.

When it is determined that the animation is not defined, the static data designating section 203 designates the second figure or character string as the figure or character string to be combined by the material combining section 4. To do. The above processing is repeated until a figure or character string for which the motion determination unit 202 determines that an animation is defined appears.

When a string of figures or characters for which it is determined that an animation has been defined appears, the material synthesizing unit 4 is activated, and a plurality of strings of figures or characters are displayed as in the first embodiment. The data are combined as one display data. Next, the content of image creation of the present embodiment that operates as described above will be described more specifically using the screen shown in FIG.

The screen image shown in the figure is a background image 21, a person image 22, a car figure 83, and a character string 24.
An animation is defined for the car figure 83. As for the content of the animation defined in the figure 83 of this car, the figure 82 of this car moves linearly from the position shown in FIG. 10 (a) to the position shown in FIG. 10 (b). However, it is related to the position coordinates of the start point and the end point.

Although the data stored in the data storage unit 1 is basically the same as that in FIG. 4B in the first embodiment, the data stored in the data attribute storage unit 2 will be described. Adds an animation definition,
Therefore, it is as shown in FIG. In addition, actually, information about the moving time, time, speed, etc. is also stored, but this is not directly related to the gist of the present invention, so the description is omitted.

When the static data designation section 203 is activated, the background image 81, which is the bottom figure, is first taken out, and the motion determination section 202 determines whether or not an animation is defined. . Background image 21
Since there is no animation definition in the data of the data attribute storage unit 2 corresponding to, the motion determining unit 202 determines that the background image 21 has no animation definition.

Therefore, the static data designating section 203 designates the background image 21 as a figure to be synthesized by the material synthesizing section 4. Next, the static data designation unit 203
The image 22 of the person, which is the second figure, is taken out, and the motion determination unit 202 determines whether or not an animation is defined.

Since the animation of the person image 22 is not defined, it is designated as a figure to be synthesized by the material synthesis section 4. Next, the car figure 83, which is the third figure from the bottom, is taken out, and the motion determination unit 202 determines whether or not an animation is defined. Since an animation is defined for the car graphic 83, the static data designation unit 203 ends the processing as described above, and the data synthesis unit 4 is activated.

The data synthesizing section 4 automatically performs the same processing as in the first embodiment on the background image 21 and the person image 22. The contents of the data storage unit 1 after the processing of the data synthesizing unit 4 are as shown in FIG. 11A, and the contents of the data attribute storage unit 2 are as shown in FIG. 11B. It has become. Thus, in the execution of the presentation, as shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B, the figure 2 of the person in the background is accompanied by the movement of the figure 83 of the car.
2 and the like are not displayed, and on the other hand, the character string 24 continues to be displayed in priority to the car graphic 23.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the operation of determining whether or not the animation definition is performed for the graphic or character string on the display screen created by the editor of the display screen. By providing the determination unit 202 and the static data designating unit 203 that designates that the material composition unit 4 composes the display image only for the sequence of figures and characters for which animation is not set, the editor has no particular purpose. It is possible to reduce the amount of data for the display screen required when the presentation is executed, by automatically specifying it programmatically without specifying a character string or a character string.

In order to display the animation according to the display time when the presentation is executed, in the present embodiment, the VRAM is overwritten in order from the material graphic data located in the lower order at each display time. At this time, the dynamic data is determined by determining the display position at that time from the attribute data regarding the relationship between the display time and the display position. However, this is a known technique, and the description thereof is omitted. (Third Embodiment) FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an image creating apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

Also in this figure, components having the same configurations and functions as those of the previous two embodiments are designated by the same reference numerals, and their repetitive description will be omitted. The unique configuration will be described below. Reference numeral 303 is a level-specific static data designation unit that sets different levels across a sequence of figures and characters for which animation is defined. Reference numeral 304 denotes a level-specific material composition unit that composes display data of a graphic or character string having the same level to create display data for each level.

Next, the operations of the screen editing apparatus and the presentation executing apparatus of the present embodiment configured as above will be described. Similar to the second embodiment, when a display screen including a sequence of figures and characters for which animation is defined is created,
The editor of the screen instructs the level-specific static data specification unit 303 to specify the level-specific static data.

In the level-specific static data designating section 303, first, the lowest figure or character string is extracted from the information on the overlapping order of the figure or character string stored in the data attribute storage section 2. Next, the motion determination unit 202 is inquired whether or not an animation is defined for the extracted data.

In the motion determining unit 202, it is stored in the data attribute storing unit 2 whether or not an animation is defined for the graphic or character string inquired from the level-specific static data specifying unit 303. Judge from the animation definition information of the existing figure or character string. When the motion determination unit 202 determines that the animation is not defined, the level-specific static data designation unit 303 combines the bottommost graphic or character string with the graphic or character combined by the level-specific material composition unit 304. A mark (flag, flag) of level 1 is added to the column.

Next, the level-specific static data designation unit 303
Takes out the second string of figures or characters from the bottom, and determines whether or not an animation is defined by the motion judging unit 202, like the string of figures or characters at the bottom. When it is determined that the animation is not defined, the level-based static data designation unit 303 adds the second figure or character string to the figure or character to be composited by the level-based material composition unit 104. Mark level 1 as the same as the bottom row of graphics or letters.

The above processing is repeated until a figure or character string whose animation is defined by the motion judging unit 202 appears. As a result, all static graphic and character strings until the first graphic or character string for which an animation is defined appear are marked with level 1.

Next, if there is a string of figures or characters that is above the figure in which the animation is first defined and that the animation is not defined, the level-specific static data designation unit 303 causes the figure or character to be displayed. Mark the column as level 2. The above process is repeated until the next figure or character string in which the animation is defined appears, as in the case of marking level 1.

In this way, when the processing of all the graphics or character strings displayed on the screen is completed, the level-based material composition section 304 is activated. The level-based material composition unit 304 performs the same processing as that of the material composition unit 4 of the first embodiment for each string of figures and characters marked with the same level, thereby creating a mark of the same level. The display data that it has is combined as one display data. The image creation of the present embodiment that operates as described above will be specifically described using the screen shown in FIG.

The screen image shown in this figure is composed of a background image 21, a person image 22, a car figure 83, a title character string 24, and a tree image 115, which are five figures or character strings. An animation is defined for the figure 83. The content of the animation defined in the car graphic 83 is such that the car graphic 83 moves linearly from the position shown in FIG. 13A to the position shown in FIG. 13B.

FIG. 14 shows the contents of the data storage unit 1 in the screen image of FIG. 13, and FIG. 15 shows the contents of the data attribute storage unit. In the example of the screen image shown in FIG. 13, the level-specific static data designation unit marks the background image 21 and the image 22 of a person as level 1 and the level 2 for the title character string 24 and the tree image 115. Is marked.

Next, in the level-based material composition section 304, a display image in which the background image 21 marked with level 1 and the display image of the person image 22 are composed,
A display image is created by synthesizing the tree image 115 marked with level 2 and the display image of the title character string 24. At the same time, the contents of the data storage unit 1 and the data attribute storage unit 2 are changed as shown in (a) and (b) of FIG. Under this condition, the presentation as shown in FIGS. 13 (a) and 13 (b) is displayed in the same manner as in the second embodiment.

As described above, according to this embodiment, of the graphic and character strings on the display screen created by the editor of the display screen, those not defined for animation are defined. An editor is provided by providing a level-specific static data designating section 303 for performing level division based on objects and a level-based material composition section 304 for compositing a display image combined for each row of figures and characters divided by level. It is possible to combine the display images of all the figures and character strings for which animation is not defined without specifying the figures and character strings, which in turn reduces the amount of data on the display screen that is required when performing a presentation. Is possible.

In particular, when the number of material data to be displayed is large, it is possible to prevent the operator from making a mistake. (Fourth Embodiment) FIG. 17 is a block diagram of another embodiment of the image creating apparatus according to the present invention. Also in this figure, components having the same configurations and functions as those of the previous embodiments are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted. The configuration unique to this embodiment will be described below.

Reference numeral 401 is a locus calculation unit for calculating a display area through which a graphic or character string having an animation definition passes when an animation is performed. 403 is
This is a level-specific static data determination unit that determines whether or not there is an overlap with the region of the trajectory calculated by the trajectory calculation unit 401, and performs level division of the figure or character string having no animation definition.

Next, the operations of the screen editing apparatus and the presentation executing apparatus of the present embodiment having the above-mentioned configuration will be described. Similarly to the third embodiment, when a display screen including a graphic or character string for which an animation is defined is created, the screen editor makes a level-based static data determination unit 403 determine the level-based static data. Instruct designation.

The level-specific static data determination unit 403 first extracts the lowest figure or character string from the information on the overlapping order of the figure or character strings stored in the data attribute storage unit 2. Next, the motion determination unit 202 is inquired whether or not an animation is defined for the taken out data.

In the motion determination unit 202, the animation definition information of the graphic or character string stored in the data attribute storage unit 2 is set for the graphic or character string inquired from the level-based static data determination unit 403. Determines whether an animation is defined from. Motion determination unit 202
When it is determined that the animation is not defined in,
In the level-specific static data determination unit 403, the bottommost graphic or character string is marked as level 1 as the graphic or character string to be combined by the level-specific material combining unit 304.

Next, the level-specific static data judging unit 403 takes out the second figure or character string from the bottom, and an animation is defined by the motion judging section 202 in the same manner as the lowest figure or character string. Is determined. Then, if it is determined that the animation is not defined,
In the level-specific static data determination unit 403, the second figure or character string is also at the same level as the lowermost figure or character string as a string of figures or characters to be combined by the level-based material composition unit 304. Mark 1

The motion determination unit 202 repeats this processing until a figure or character string for which it is determined that an animation is defined appears. As a result, the figure or character string until the first figure or character string in which the animation is defined appears is marked as level 1. Next, when a figure with an animation definition first appears, the trajectory calculation unit 401 is activated, and when the figure with an animation definition moves on the display surface, the area is calculated based on the definition contents. , Data attribute storage unit, etc.

In the calculation of the trajectory of the figure in which the animation is defined, if the shape is simple such as a quadrangle or circle, and the movement is simple such as a straight line, the corresponding vertices of the start and end points of the movement This is done by finding the contour of the area surrounded by the line segment connecting the lines and the start and end figures. The maximum of the curve represented by the locus of points (pure mathematical locus of points) that defines the position coordinates of the figure in case of complicated movement takes several points of the outline of the figure in the case of somewhat complicated figure Alternatively, the minimum X-coordinate position, the Y-coordinate position, the start point and the end point, and some points between them are taken, and the contour of the locus is obtained based on the position coordinates of the points of each main part corresponding to the point. . Further, if only the size changes while the center position remains unchanged, the maximum size is obtained. However, since this method including this is a well-known technique, further description will be omitted.

Then, the string of figures and characters above the figure for which the animation is defined is taken out. If no animation is defined for this figure or character string, the level-specific static data determination unit 403 determines whether or not the previous animation trajectory area and this figure or character string overlap, and if they do not overlap. , The same level 1 mark as the mark attached to the figure below the previous animation. This process is repeated until a figure or character string that overlaps the previous animation trajectory area appears.

Next, when a string of figures or characters that overlaps the animation trajectory area appears, the level of the mark to be added to the figure or string of characters is incremented by 1 and a level 2 mark is added.
The graphic or character string is marked as level 2 until the graphic or character string in which the next animation is defined appears. If a figure or character string that overlaps the previous animation trajectory area does not appear and a figure or character string that defines the next animation appears, the level of the mark automatically added to the figure or character string. Increase 1 and mark the next level as Level 2.

After that, similar processing is repeated until processing of all the graphic or character strings displayed on the screen is completed, so that the material is combined with the lower-ranked material as much as possible. After that, the level-based material composition unit 30
Start 4 The level-based material composition unit 304 performs the same processing as that of the material composition unit 4 of the first embodiment for each string of figures and characters marked with the same level. As a result, the display data having the same level mark is combined as one display data.

Next, the image creating apparatus of the present embodiment which operates as described above will be specifically described with reference to the screen shown in FIG. The screen image shown in this figure is composed of five figures or character strings of a background image 21, a person image 22, a car figure 83, a title character string 24, and a tree image 115. An animation is defined for.

The contents of the animation defined in the car graphic 83 are such that the car graphic 83 moves linearly from the position shown in FIG. 13A to the position shown in FIG. 13B. In addition, the data storage unit 1 for the screen image of this figure
14 and FIG. 15 show the contents of the data attribute storage unit. In the example of the screen image shown in FIG.
And the image 22 of the person is marked as level 1.

Next, the figure 83 of the car is taken out. Since the figure of the car has the definition of the animation, the locus calculation unit 401 is activated and the locus 16 of the movement shown in FIG.
1 is required. Next, the static data determination unit 4 for each level
03 takes out the image 115 of the tree, and the locus calculation unit 40
It is determined whether or not there is an area that overlaps the area 161 of the animation trajectory of the car graphic 83 calculated in 1. In the case of the image 115 of the tree, since it has no overlapping portion, it is marked with the same level 1 as the graphic below the car graphic 83.

Finally, the string 24 of title characters is extracted and, as in the case of the tree image 115, the region 1 of the locus is extracted.
It is determined whether or not it has a region overlapping 61.
In the case of the title character string 24, since it has a portion that overlaps with the locus region 161, it is marked as level 2. Next, the level-based material composition unit 304 creates a display image by combining the display image of the background image 21 marked with the level 1, the image 22 of the person, and the image 24 of the tree. 1 and the contents of the data attribute storage unit 2 are changed as shown in FIGS. 19 (a) and 19 (b).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the animation trajectory of the graphic definition or character string on the display screen created by the editor of the display screen is defined as the animation. And a static data determination unit 4 for each level that performs the level division in consideration of the region of the trajectory of the animation for the trajectory calculation unit 401 that calculates the region of
Level-based material composition unit 304 that composes a display image that is composed for each figure and character string divided into 03 and levels
By providing the above, it becomes possible to automatically combine the display images of all the figures and character strings for which no animation is defined. As a result, as can be seen by comparing FIGS. 16 and 19, it is possible to further reduce the amount of data required for the display screen when the presentation is executed, by the amount that the tree and the background overlap.

Although the present invention has been described above based on some embodiments, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. That is, the following is also included in the present invention. (1) Indispensable constituent elements (requirements, means) of the present invention
Is divided into a plurality of pieces for the convenience of manufacturing, or on the contrary, a plurality of pieces is made one, or these are appropriately combined.

(2) The dynamic data, which is a figure in which an animation is defined, is not one type but a plurality of types. A specific example is the other side viewed from one side of the street. In this case, the shopping street on the other side (the other side) is used as the lowest static data, the passerby is used as the dynamic data, the street tree on the other side is used as the static data, and then the dynamic data is used. Two layers of cars such as eastbound and westbound will be seen as data, and the roadside trees on this side will be seen as static data next. Then, for example, the graphic of the lowest shopping mall is combined as one data together with the graphic of a stationary person looking into the show window, for example. The same is true of some roadside trees. Further, the electric light as the illumination of the show window blinks without changing the display position, so that the dynamic data of the lowermost layer becomes in the show window.

[0081]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, when a presentation is performed on a computer, a plurality of static data having an overlapping portion at the time of display are combined as one static data. It is possible to reduce the required data amount. By the way, expensive CP
The presentation execution apparatus does not need U or a separate storage means, and the presentation execution apparatus can be inexpensive and simple, and its practical effect is great.

According to the second aspect of the invention, since the operation of the first aspect of the invention is automatically performed to some extent, the work of the display screen creator can be reduced. According to the invention of claim 3, after the editing of the screen for presentation is completed, the amount of static data necessary for screen display is automatically reduced while considering the vertical relationship with the dynamic data. Since the work for synthesizing is reduced, and the presentation on an inexpensive device becomes possible, the practical effect thereof is great.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, even if the static data above the dynamic data does not overlap the displayed range of the dynamic data, it is combined with the static data below it. , The data required for screen display can be minimized. Therefore, the practicality becomes higher.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a first embodiment (a screen editing device is a main component, and a presentation execution device is also provided) of an image creating apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a flow of the entire procedure in the above-mentioned embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an example of a display screen in the above embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an example of data contents stored in a data storage unit in the above embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an example of data contents stored in a data attribute storage unit in the above embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an example of a state of data during processing of the image creating apparatus in the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an example of data after processing by the image creating apparatus in the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a procedure of synthesizing material data targeting bitmap data in the above embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram of a second embodiment (screen editing device and presentation executing device) of the image creating apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a display screen and an example of data attributes in the above embodiment.

FIG. 11 is an example of data after processing by the image creating apparatus in the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a configuration diagram of a third embodiment (screen editing device and presentation executing device) of the image creating apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 13 is an example of a display screen in the third and (fourth) embodiments.

FIG. 14 is an example of data contents stored in a data storage unit in the third and (fourth) embodiments.

FIG. 15 is an example of contents of data stored in a data attribute storage unit in the third and fourth embodiments.

FIG. 16 is an example of data after being processed by the image creating apparatus according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 17 is a configuration diagram of a fourth example (screen editing apparatus and presentation executing apparatus) of the image creating apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 18 is an example of a display area (trajectory area) occupied when a figure of a car moves for animation display in the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 19 is an example of data after processing by the image creating apparatus in the above-described embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Data Storage Section 2 Data Attribute Storage Section 3 Data Designation Section 4 Material Composition Section 5 Input Section 6 Display Section 7 Material Data Creation Section 8 Layout Editing Section 9 Presentation Data Storage Section 10 Presentation Execution Device 21 Background Image 22 Image of 22 People , 83 Car figure 24 Character string 201 Animation definition part 202 Motion determination part 203 Static data designation part 303 Static data designation part by level 304 Material composition part by level 115 Tree image 161 Locus of car movement 401 Locus calculation Part 403 Static data judgment part by level

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Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A screen editing device for editing and creating a screen to be displayed as a presentation by combining graphics, characters, images, etc. under the control of a computer, and the material displayed on the screen. Data, such as figures, characters, and images, are stored separately at the beginning, and for each material data that is stored separately in the data storage unit, its display position, attribute data such as the order of overlapping, etc. The data attribute storage unit that stores the data, the material designation unit that designates one of the material data such as figures, characters, and images to be combined and edited as one data, and the designated material data Based on the attribute data stored in the data attribute storage unit, the material data of 1 is synthesized by overwriting in order from the bottom of the overlap, Then, a material composition section for making necessary corrections to the data stored in the data storage section and the data attribute storage section, and each data stored in the data storage section and the data attribute storage section after being modified by the material composition section. And a display unit for outputting for presentation. 2. An animation definition unit that adds, to each material data stored in the data storage unit, animation information about movement of a display position, a change in size, and a change in color as one of its attribute data. And a motion determining unit that determines whether or not each material data such as the figure, character, image, etc. is dynamic data having attribute data related to animation, and the motion determining unit determines that it is not dynamic data. The static data extraction unit that extracts the material data, and only the material data extracted by the static data extraction unit is subject to the composition of the material composition unit that is performed according to the designation by the material designation unit. The display screen creation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a static data designation synthesis control unit for controlling. 3. The static data extraction unit, based on the attribute data stored in the data attribute storage unit, sets the material data for each dynamic data for all the extracted static data. The level at which the overlapping order on the display screen is determined by considering the overlapping order of the dynamic data, and whether the overlapping order is up or down and the overlapping order of the dynamic data is used as a reference is added. There is a separate static data designation part, and the material composition part composes the material composition part for each level that composes the material data necessary for display in order from the bottom of the overlapping order for each material data having the same division mark. 3. The display screen creating apparatus according to claim 2, which has. 4. A locus calculation unit that obtains a locus on a display screen based on the attribute data of each material data determined by the motion determination unit as dynamic data is provided, and the level-dependent static data is provided. Even if the static data specification part is higher than the static data in the overlapping order, the area occupied by the material data on the screen does not overlap the higher dynamic data locus obtained by the locus calculation section. For material data that does not overlap the area of material data that is in the order immediately below the dynamic data in the other static data where the area overlaps the trajectory, the same division as the material data immediately below 4. The display screen creating apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a small static data judging portion for each level to be marked.