Patent ID: 8436860

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of animating objects, the method comprising: receiving, at one or more computer systems, information organizing a plurality of depth maps according to a plurality of categories representing surface properties of objects located on surfaces, each depth map in the plurality of depth maps representing a surface comprised of one or more objects and encoding displacement information associated with the one or more objects; receiving, at the one or more computer systems, information ordering each depth map in the plurality of depth maps in at least one queue associated with at least one category in the plurality of categories based on at least one criteria factor; determining, with one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, a category from the plurality of categories based on information associated with a component of an animated object; determining, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, a depth map from at least one queue associated with the determined category based on a selection criteria and searching each depth map in a set of depth maps in the at least one queue using a position of the component of the animated object relative to the surface represented by the depth map in the set of depth maps; receiving, at the one or more computer systems, information regarding a projected position for the component of the animated object relative to the surface represented by the determined depth map; verifying, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, that the position of the component of the animated object corresponds to the projected position for the component within a threshold distance from the surface; and generating, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, information configured to change one or more of the animated object's properties in a state of the animated object.