Opinion ID: 4535483
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: A method for automatically animating lip syn-

Text: chronization and facial expression of three-dimensional characters comprising: obtaining a first set of rules that defines a morph weight set stream as a function of phoneme sequence and times associated with said phoneme sequence; Case: 19-1557 Document: 88 Page: 6 Filed: 05/20/2020 6 MCRO, INC. v. BANDAI NAMCO GAMES AMERICA obtaining a plurality of sub-sequences of timed phonemes corresponding to a desired audio sequence for said three-dimensional charac- ters; generating an output morph weight set stream by applying said first set of rules to each sub- sequence of said plurality of sub-sequences of timed phonemes; and applying said output morph weight set stream to an input sequence of animated characters to generate an output sequence of animated characters with lip and facial expression synchronized to said audio sequence. Id., col. 11, lines 44–59.