Patent ID: 7737977

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of facilitating animation, the method comprising: analyzing, with a processor of a computer system, an animation cue configured to produce a continuous input over time to controls associated with a model for a discontinuous change; determining, with the processor of the computer system, a set of one or more controls of the model that is affected by the discontinuous change, output from each control in the set of one or more controls that is affected by the discontinuous change being discontinuous at an identified time in response to the continuous input; determining, with the processor of the computer system, a first value at the identified time for each control in the set of one or more controls that is affected by the discontinuous change, the first value for a control that is affected by the discontinuous change representing a value of the control prior to occurrence of the discontinuous change; determining, with the processor of the computer system, a second value at the identified time for each control in the set of controls that is affected by the discontinuous change, the second value for a control that is affected by the discontinuous change representing a value of the control after occurrence of the discontinuous change that compensates across the discontinuous change to produce an output from the control that remains continuous at the identified time; and inserting, with the processor of the computer system, one or more discontinuities into the animation cue at the identified time based on the second value for each control in the set of controls that is affected by the discontinuous change that configure the animation cue to produce a discontinuous input to the controls associated with the model that maintains a world space position of the model after occurrence of the discontinuous change the same as a world space position of the model before occurrence of the discontinuous change.