Character animation
AssigneeAnanova Limited
InventorsJonathan Simon Jowitt, William James Cooper, Andrew Robert Burgess
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Abstract
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for generating an animated character representation. This is achieved by using marked-up data including both content data and presentation data. The system then uses this information to generate phoneme and viseme data representing the speech to be presented by the character. By providing the presentation data this ensures that at least some variation in character appearance will automatically occur beyond that of the visemes required to make the character appear to speak. This contributes to the character having a far more lifelike appearance.
Claims41
Apparatus for generating an animated character representation, the apparatus comprising a processing system having:
- an input for receiving marked-up input data including:
- i. content data representing speech to be presented;
- and,
- ii. presentation data representing the manner in which the speech is to be presented;
- a processor coupled to the input for generating data according to a defined time-base, the data including:
- i phoneme data generated in accordance with the content data;
- and,
- ii viseme data generated in accordance with the phoneme data and the presentation data;
- the processor being further adapted to:
- iii. generate audio data in accordance with the phoneme data;
- iv. generate image data in accordance with the viseme data and the presentation data;
- and,
- v. synchronise the output of the audio and image data in accordance with the defined time-base.
Apparatus according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the processing system further comprises a communications network interface, which in use couples the computing device to a communications network, thereby allowing the animated character representation to be transferred to other processing systems coupled to the communications network.
Image and/or audio data generated using apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims.
A method of generating an animated character representation using a processing system, the method comprising:
- receiving marked-up input data including:
- content data representing speech to be presented;
- and,
- presentation data representing the manner in which the speech is presented;
- generating data according to a defined time-base, the data including:
- phoneme data generated in accordance with the content data;
- and,
- viseme data generated in accordance with the phoneme data and the presentation data;
- generating audio data in accordance with the phoneme data;
- generating image data in accordance with the viseme data and the presentation data;
- and,
- synchronising the output of the audio and image data in accordance with the defined time-base.
A method according to any of claims 28 to 34, wherein the method of generating the viseme data comprises:
- determining visemes corresponding to each of the determined phonemes;
- and,
- determining a viseme time reference for each viseme in accordance with the phoneme time reference of the corresponding phoneme;
- and,
- using the viseme to obtain the viseme data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.