Patent Document ID: 20110304622
Application ID: 13214814
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A computerized method for transferring an expression from a plurality of source rigs characterizing a plurality of animated characters to a target rig characterizing a target animated character, each of the source rigs and the target rig characterized by a set of joints and a skin mesh having a plurality of vertices, each vertex, in turn, characterized by a matrix of weights relating a response of the vertex to movement of associated joints, the method comprising: a. defining neutral and goal expressions for each of the multiplicity of source rigs relative to a neutral expression of each source rig; b. building a mathematical model mapping neutral shape to goal expression offsets on a basis of the neutral and goal expressions defined for the plurality of source rigs; c. applying the mathematical model to an unseen neutral expression shape to calculate required expression offsets; and d. vectorially adding the calculated set of offsets to a neutral expression of the target rig in such a manner as to implement the goal expression on the target rig, thereby transforming the target rig.