Patent ID: 8232989

Claim:
A method of enabling enhanced control over an Avatar in a three dimensional computer-generated virtual environment, the method comprising the steps of: implementing an Avatar using skeletal animation in which the Avatar has a skeleton defined by Avars; during execution of the three dimensional computer-generated virtual environment, receiving input from a user to select an Action to be performed by the Avatar in the three dimensional computer-generated virtual environment, the Action being implemented as a computer graphics animation sequence of the Avatar in the three dimensional computer-generated virtual environment in which motion of the Avatar during the Action is defined by specifying a pre-defined sequence of keyframes of the Avars during the computer graphics animation sequence, the input from the user specifying that the sequence of keyframes be executed to cause the Avatar to move through the pre-defined sequence of keyframes to complete the Action in the three dimensional computer-generated virtual environment; after initializing execution of the pre-defined sequence of key frames, and prior to completion of execution of the pre-defined sequence of keyframes, receiving input from the user via a touch sensitive user input device to select one of the plurality of keyframes of the pre-defined sequence of keyframes to control an extent of completion of execution of the computer graphics animation sequence of the Action; and translating the input from the user via the touch sensitive user input device into direct control over the extent of completion of execution of the computer graphics animation sequence of the Action.