Dreamworks Patent Grants

Traversal selection of components for a geometric model

Granted: July 28, 2020
Patent Number: 10726621
Systems and methods for traversal selection of components of a geometric model are disclosed. An embodiment includes displaying a plurality of components corresponding to a geometric model, selecting a first component, receiving a first input indicating a first direction for selecting a next component, wherein the next component is connected to the first component by an edge, identifying one or more candidate edges connected to the first component for selecting the next component,…

Techniques for placing masking window objects in a computer-generated scene for stereoscopic computer-animation

Granted: July 21, 2020
Patent Number: 10719967
A computer-implemented method for placing a window object within a computer-generated scene. The computer-generated scene includes a pair of stereoscopic cameras adapted to capture an image of at least one computer-generated object and the window object. A left portion and right portion of the image along the left and right edges of the image are obtained. The nearest computer-generated object to the pair of stereoscopic cameras within the left and right portions of the image is…

Dynamic contour volume deformation

Granted: April 28, 2020
Patent Number: 10636210
Systems and methods for dynamic contour volume deformation are disclosed. An embodiment includes applying a deformation to a point of a volumetric mesh, wherein a plurality of tessellations of the volumetric mesh are identified and wherein each tessellation is a tetrahedral mesh, identifying a deformation point associated with a first polyhedron of the volumetric mesh, determining a barycentric coordinate representation of the deformation point with respect to each tetrahedron of the…

3D printer visualization shader and geometry procedural

Granted: March 17, 2020
Patent Number: 10591899
The present disclosure describes a technique for rendering a pre-visualization image representative of a 3D object to be printed by a 3D printer. The technique accesses a geometric digital model of the 3D object and receives one or more printer characteristics of the 3D printer. The one or more printer characteristics are associated with settlement of added material to the 3D object by the 3D printer. The technique further receives one or more material parameters of a volume of the added…

Digital user interface to provide drawing directions to guide user

Granted: March 10, 2020
Patent Number: 10586317
An electronic device with a display screen provides drawing directions to guide a user to create artwork on a physical medium. The electronic device displays a first drawing direction for drawing a portion of a subject on a physical medium, and prompts a user for a user input indicating completion of the first drawing direction by the user. Upon receiving the prompted user input, the electronic device displays a second drawing direction for drawing another portion of the subject on the…

Approximating mesh deformations for character rigs

Granted: February 18, 2020
Patent Number: 10565792
Systems, methods, and computer-readable medium for approximating mesh deformations for character rigs are disclosed. An embodiment includes applying a first deformation function to one or more mesh elements to determine an intermediate position based on a transform to a first structural element, wherein the one or more mesh elements are assigned to the first structural element, generating an offset based on a second deformation function for the one or more mesh elements using a…

Multipoint offset sampling deformation

Granted: February 11, 2020
Patent Number: 10559109
A skin deformation system for use in computer animation is disclosed. The skin deformation system accesses the skeleton structure of a computer generated character, and accesses a user's identification of features of the skeleton structure that may affect a skin deformation. The system also accesses the user's identification of a weighting strategy. Using the identified weighting strategy and identified features of the skeleton structure, the skin deformation system determines the degree…

Timeline tool for producing computer-generated animations

Granted: January 14, 2020
Patent Number: 10535175
A method of creating a computer-generated animation uses a graphical user interface including a two-dimensional array of cells. The array has a plurality of rows associated with computer-generated elements and a plurality of columns associated with frames of the animation. The array includes a first cell associated with a first computer-generated element and a first frame. A first view of the array is displayed in which the first cell has a first width and includes a key frame indicator…

Facial capture analysis and training system

Granted: January 14, 2020
Patent Number: 10534955
A method for evaluating a facial performance using facial capture of two users includes obtaining a reference set of facial performance data representing a first user's facial capture; obtaining a facial capture of a second user; extracting a second set of facial performance data based on the second user's facial capture; calculating at least one matching metric based on a comparison of the reference set of facial performance data to the second set of facial performance data; and…

Composing an animation scene in a computer-generated animation

Granted: January 7, 2020
Patent Number: 10529110
A method of composing an animation scene in a computer-generated animation includes receiving a user input requesting to perform an operation on at least one computer-generated asset in the animation scene. The method also includes determining, based on the user input, a type of operation and at least one attribute associated with the at least one computer-generated asset in the animation scene. The method further includes, in accordance with the determination of the type of operation…

Constraint evaluation in directed acyclic graphs

Granted: October 29, 2019
Patent Number: 10460498
Systems and processes are described below relating to evaluating a dependency graph to render three-dimensional (3D) graphics using constraints. Two virtual 3D objects are accessed in a virtual 3D space. A constraint relationship request is received, which identifies the first object as a parent and the second object as a child. The technique verifies whether the graphs of the objects are compatible for being constrained to one another. The first object is evaluated to determine its…

Temporal dependencies in dependency graphs

Granted: October 22, 2019
Patent Number: 10453239
Systems and processes are described below relating to evaluating a dependency graph having one or more temporally dependent variables. The temporally dependent variables may include variables that may be used to evaluate the dependency graph at a frame other than that at which the temporally dependent variable was evaluated. One example process may include tracking the temporal dirty state for each temporally dependent variable using a temporal dependency list. This list may be used to…

Connected guest platform

Granted: October 15, 2019
Patent Number: 10445773
A connected guest platform receives information identifying a user's planned visit to an entertainment attraction that is located at a physical location, the user's biographical information, and the user's shopping preferences. Features of the attraction are customized based on the user's information. Goods created at the attraction can be stored with the connected guest platform. Third-parties may purchase items from the user's wish list for pickup at a physical merchant located…

Scalable messaging system

Granted: June 4, 2019
Patent Number: 10313295
A system and method provides a computer-implemented messaging service. Users subscribe to message channels. A message queue buffers messages to a router. The router determines whether characteristics of a first message match criteria specified in subscription requests, and may route the first message to one or more sending agents based on modes of communication specified in the subscription service requests. The sending agent(s) generate a second message formatted for the specified modes…

Multi-representation dependency graphs

Granted: May 21, 2019
Patent Number: 10297064
Systems and methods for multi-representation dependency graphs are disclosed. A first representation of a dependency graph may be accessed using a processor. The first representation of the dependency graph may have a first type and include a plurality of nodes. A transition of the first representation of the dependency graph from a first state to a second state may be detected using the processor. In response to a detection of the transition of the first representation of the dependency…

Repurposing existing animated content

Granted: April 16, 2019
Patent Number: 10262448
Systems and methods for automatically animating a character based on an existing corpus of animation are described. The character may be from a previously produced feature animated film, and the data used for training may be the data used to animate the character in the film. A low-dimensional embedding for subsets of the existing animation corresponding to different semantic labels may be learned by mapping high-dimensional rig control parameters to a latent space. A particle model may…

File system manager for customized resource allocation

Granted: March 12, 2019
Patent Number: 10229170
Systems and processes provide network clients on various platforms a customized file system experience on demand while managing files (e.g., computer animation files) across a variety of storage devices spread across a network of arbitrary size (local area networks, wide area networks, worldwide networks, the world wide web, etc.). Clients may specify a set of requirements for an instantiation of a file system interface or object for a given application. Such requirements may include…

Efficient and stable approach to elasticity and collisions for hair animation

Granted: February 5, 2019
Patent Number: 10198844
One exemplary process for animating hair includes receiving data representing a plurality of hairs and a plurality of objects in a timestep of a frame of animation. A first tree is populated to represent kinematic objects of the plurality of objects and a second tree is populated to represent dynamic objects of the plurality of objects based on the received data. A first elasticity preconditioner is created to represent internal elastic energy of the plurality of hairs based on the…

Method and system for reducing motion sickness in virtual reality ride systems

Granted: January 15, 2019
Patent Number: 10181212
A virtual reality ride system including a headset, a control unit, and a dynamic platform. The headset includes a display unit configured to display a video of an animated virtual environment. The control unit includes one or more processors configured to perform render processing that renders the video of the virtual environment; event motion processing that generates first data representing motions associated with events in the virtual environment; and low-frequency motion processing…

Method and system for calibrating a virtual reality system

Granted: January 8, 2019
Patent Number: 10176638
A virtual reality system includes a platform, a headset, a mount, and a control unit. The headset includes a motion-sensing unit and a display unit configured to display a video of a virtual environment. The mount is positioned on the platform and configured to releasably engage the headset. While the headset is engaged with the mount, the headset is positioned in a first position. While the headset is disengaged from the mount, the headset is positioned in a second position. The control…