Systems, methods, and devices for creating a spline-based video animation sequence

Abstract

A spline-based animation process creates an animation sequence. The process receives a plurality of frames that illustrate a figure based on a design template (e.g., which includes a skeleton having segments). The process further identifies a spine segment, generates hip, shoulder, and head segments at respective positions relative to the spine segment, identifies limb and facial feature segments, and converts the segments into respective splines bound between endpoints. The process further determines changes between frames for respective splines and animates movement of the figure over a sequence of frames based on the changes.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for creating an animation sequence within virtual environments, the method comprising:
 generating a display of an interactive virtual environment, wherein a character associated with a user device is located within the interactive virtual environment;   receiving gameplay data regarding a drawing action by the character within the interactive virtual environment, wherein the drawing action creates one or more lines of an illustrated figure corresponding to a set of pixels within the interactive virtual environment;   converting pixels associated with one or more segments of the figure into one or more splines associated with a defined shape between segment endpoints;   determining one or more changes corresponding to one or more movement parameters for at least one of the splines; and   animating movement of the figure over a plurality of frames based on the determined changes for the at least one spline, wherein the animated figure moves in accordance with the movement parameters within the interactive virtual environment.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the interactive virtual environment includes one or more virtual surfaces, and wherein the drawing action creates the lines upon one of the virtual surfaces. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the splines have fixed knot counts that define the shape between the segment endpoints. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , further comprising determining the fixed knot counts based on one or more of a feature of each segment of the figure and a convex hull of the pixels associated with the each segment. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising identifying the drawing action based on input from a user of the user device. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the figure includes a rotation or direction point in an initial position, and wherein the changes corresponding to the movement parameters include one or more changes to the rotation or direction point. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein animating movement of the figure includes generating one or more intermediate frames to illustrate a progression of the changes in position of the at least one spline between a first frame and a second frame. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein generating the intermediate frames includes creating a fixed number of intermediate frames at a constant frame rate. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising determining endpoints for each of the segments based on a gift wrapping algorithm. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein converting the pixels into the splines includes resampling one or more pixels positioned between the endpoints for the segments. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the splines include one or more Catmull-Rom Splines. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the converted splines include one or more of a spine spline, a hip spline, a shoulder spline, a facial feature spline, and a limb spline. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising mapping texture data to the splines within the virtual environment. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising mapping the one or more segments to a 2-dimensional (2D) plane, wherein the changes corresponding to the movement parameters further include a rotation of the 2D plane about an axis of rotation. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the animated movement further includes movement within a three-dimensional (3D) virtual plane of the virtual environment. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining the changes corresponding to the movement parameters is based on a predetermined animation sequence. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the predetermined animation sequence is selected from a plurality of predetermined animation sequences. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising selecting the predetermined animation sequence based on the splines. 
     
     
         19 . A system for creating an animation sequence within virtual environments, the system comprising:
 a network interface to communicate in a communication network;   a processor coupled to the network interface; and   a memory configured to store instructions executable by the processor, the instructions, when executed, are operable to:
 generate a display of an interactive virtual environment, wherein a character associated with a user device is located within the interactive virtual environment; 
 receive gameplay data regarding a drawing action by the character within the interactive virtual environment, wherein the drawing action creates one or more lines of an illustrated figure corresponding to a set of pixels within the interactive virtual environment; 
 convert pixels associated with one or more segments of the figure into one or more splines associated with a defined shape between segment endpoints; 
 determine one or more changes corresponding to one or more movement parameters for at least one of the splines; and 
 animate movement of the figure over a plurality of frames based on the determined changes for the at least one spline, wherein the animated figure moves in accordance with the movement parameters within the interactive virtual environment. 
   
     
     
         20 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor to perform a method for creating an animation sequence within virtual environments, the method comprising:
 generating a display of an interactive virtual environment, wherein a character associated with a user device is located within the interactive virtual environment;   receiving gameplay data regarding a drawing action by the character within the interactive virtual environment, wherein the drawing action creates one or more lines of an illustrated figure corresponding to a set of pixels within the interactive virtual environment;   converting pixels associated with one or more segments of the figure into one or more splines associated with a defined shape between segment endpoints;   determining one or more changes corresponding to one or more movement parameters for at least one of the splines; and   animating movement of the figure over a plurality of frames based on the determined changes for the at least one spline, wherein the animated figure moves in accordance with the movement parameters within the interactive virtual environment.