Method of animating point cloud data of a scene, and a system therefor

A system comprising one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that when executed by the one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

• obtaining the point cloud data of the scene, wherein the scene comprises an object;
• obtaining moving image data of the scene, the moving image data depicting movement of the object within the scene;
• identifying, using the moving image data, moving parts of the object;
• identifying, from the point cloud data, sets of points corresponding to the moving parts of the object;
• and
• generating bone data associated with the point cloud data, wherein the bone data defines bones that are each linked to a respective set of points such that, when in use, movement of the bones causes movement of the sets of points, thereby animating the point cloud data.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the performance of operations comprising:

• obtaining the point cloud data of the scene, wherein the scene comprises an object;
• obtaining moving image data of the scene, the moving image data depicting movement of the object within the scene;
• identifying, using the moving image data, moving parts of the object
• identifying, from the point cloud data, sets of points corresponding to the moving parts of the object;
• and
• generating bone data associated with the point cloud data, wherein the bone data defines bones that are each linked to a respective set of points such that, when in use, movement of the bones causes movement of the sets of points, thereby animating the point cloud data.