Patent ID: 7561164

Claim:
A method of editing texture for a three-dimensional computer model of an object, the model comprising data defining a plurality of polygons and associated texture data stored in one or more texture maps, the method comprising: a computer executing the following steps: generating image data representing an image of the object rendered with the texture data in accordance with a user selected viewing direction; editing the image based on user input so as to generate modified image data representing a modified image of said object from said viewing direction; utilizing the user selected viewing direction and the data defining a plurality of polygons to select portions of texture data to be updated and to identify portions of the modified image data to be utilized to generate user modified texture data; generating user modified texture data by modifying the selected portions of texture data utilizing the identified portions of the modified image data; and storing the user modified texture data in one or more texture maps, herein, polygons from the three-dimensional computer model are tested to determine a measure of the respective orientation of each polygon relative to the user selected viewing direction, in the processing to generate the user modified texture data, the texture data is modified in dependence upon the determined orientation measures and in dependence upon the generated modified image data; and each texture data value to be modified is modified by replacing it with a value comprising a combination of the original texture data value and a generated modified image data value, the relative contributions of the original texture data value and the generated modified image data value being determined in dependence upon the calculated orientation measure of the corresponding polygon.