Computer graphics data generating apparatus, computer graphics animation editing apparatus, and animation path generating apparatus

A CG animation editing apparatus for generating CG animation of a virtual object from CAD data which defines the object as a plurality of polygons, said CG animation editing apparatus comprising:

• a light ray generator to virtually generate a plurality of light rays originating from a plurality of points;
• an intersecting judge to identify whether each of said light rays intersects with said polygons which make up said object;
• a data deleting section to eliminate all of the CAD data corresponding to polygons for which a judgment has been made that no light ray intersects therewith indicating that such polygons could not be viewed, while leaving all of the CAD data corresponding to remaining polygons for which at least one of said light rays intersects indicating that the remaining polygons may be viewed, to produce an intermediate CG data file;
• and
• a CG animation generating section to generate CG animation using said intermediate CG data file.

A computer graphics data generating apparatus for generating, from data that defines a virtual object made up of polygons, an intermediate CG data file that requires further processing prior to producing visible output, said CG data generating apparatus comprising:

• a light ray generator that virtually generates a plurality of light rays originating from a plurality of points corresponding to possible viewing points of the virtual object;
• an intersecting judge which identifies whether each of said light rays intersects with said polygons which make up the virtual object;
• and
• a data deleting section to eliminate, from the data defining the virtual object, all data corresponding to first polygons for which a judgment has been made that none of said light rays intersects therewith, while leaving all data corresponding to second polygons for which at least one of said light rays intersects, thereby generating CG data without the data corresponding to the first polygons which cannot be seen from any possible viewing angle and saving the CG data into an intermediate CG data file for future use by an animation or graphics program.