Patent ID: 8395627

Claim:
A method for generating a computer graphic of a shape to be animated, the shape having at least one joint, wherein the shape changes about the joint, the method comprising: providing, by a computing device, a spline that includes at least two points, each point being defined in a two-dimensional space, the spline being indicative of an outline of the shape in a base position; providing, by the computing device, coordinate information corresponding to positions of the at least two points on the spline that indicate the outline of the shape at predefined positions when the shape is to be changed about the joint with respect to the base position; generating, by the computing device and based at least in part on the provided coordinate information, a new position of the spline to change the shape; and rendering, by the computing device, the spline at the new position to form the outline of the shape associated with the new position, each of the at least two points on the spline being defined in the two-dimensional space represented by (x,y), where: x=t 2 *( P 3. x− 2* P 2. x+P 1. x )+2 t *( P 2. x−P 1. x )+ P 1. x y=t 2 *( P 3. y− 2* P 2. y+P 1. y )+2 t *( P 2. y−P 1. y )+ P 1. y, where t varies between 0 and 1, where (P 2 . x , P 2 . y ) and (P 1 . x , P 1 . y ) are points on the spline, and where (P 3 . x , P 3 . y ) is a point that defines a curvature of the spline.