Abstract: A computer implemented method for use in animating parts of a virtual object in a virtual world, the method comprising obtaining joint data for joints associated with parts of a virtual object, joint data including length data defining a vector length from the joint to a next joint, the length data corresponding to a length of a part in the virtual world; accessing data for a target curve defining target locations for the joints of the parts of the virtual object; computing a length along the target curve equal to the length defined for a first joint from the first joint defined on the target curve to an initial target location on the target curve; computing an initial location for a second joint at the length defined for the first joint along a line through the initial target location; computing a difference between the initial location for the second joint and the initial target location; and computing a target location for the second joint on the target curve based on the computed difference and the initia

Abstract: A computer implemented method and a computer system for animating parts of a virtual object in a virtual world, accesses joint data for each joint of a chain of joints associated with parts of a virtual object, joint data including length data defining a vector length for a vector from the joint to a next joint, the length data corresponding to a length of a part in the virtual world; accesses data for a target curve for use in defining possible target locations for the joints of the parts of the virtual object, and retrieves or estimates a length of the curve; and processes the joint data to determine a total length of the vectors for the joints of the chain using the length data for the vectors; to determine scaled vectors by determining a scaled length for the vector for each joint of the chain based on the length of the curve and the total length of the vectors for the joints of the chain; to fit the scaled vectors for the joints of the chain to the curve by rotating the scaled vectors, with a first joint

Abstract: A computer implemented method for use in animating parts of a virtual object in a virtual world, the method comprising obtaining joint data for each joint of a chain of joints associated with parts of a virtual object, joint data including length data defining a vector length for a vector from the joint to a next joint, the length data corresponding to a length of a part in the virtual world, the joint data for at least one joint including vector constraint data defining a rotational constraint for the vector; accessing data for a target curve defining target locations for the joints of the parts of the virtual object; and processing the joint data to rotate the vector for a joint towards a target location on the curve for a next joint in the chain; and if constraint data for the joint prevents the rotated vector from reaching the target location: set the vector angle for the joint at an angle dependent on the rotational constraint; and rotate an immediately preceding joint in the chain to move the vector for

Abstract: A computer implemented method for use in animating parts of a virtual object in a virtual world, the method comprising accessing joint data for each joint of a chain of joints associated with parts of a virtual object, joint data including length data defining a vector length for a vector from the joint to a next joint, the length data corresponding to a length of a part in the virtual world; accessing data for a target curve for use in defining possible target locations for the joints of the parts of the virtual object; and processing the joint data to set a location of a first joint at a first end of the chain to location of a first end of the target curve; define an end target location on the curve for an end joint at a second end of the chain; define intermediate locations on the curve for joints intermediate the ends of the chain based on the lengths of the vectors along the chain; and for a number of iterations, repeatedly identify a joint at a location having a largest location error relative to an int

Abstract: A computer implemented method for use in animating parts of a virtual object in a virtual world, the method comprising accessing joint data for each joint of a chain of joints associated with parts of a virtual object, joint data including length data defining a vector length for a vector from the joint to a next joint, the length data corresponding to a length of a part in the virtual world; accessing data for a target curve for use in defining possible target locations for the joints of the parts of the virtual object; and processing the joint data to set a location of a first joint at a first end of the chain to location of a first end of the target curve; define an end target location on the curve for an end joint at a second end of the chain; define intermediate locations on the curve for joints intermediate the ends of the chain based on the lengths of the vectors along the chain; and for a number of iterations, repeatedly identify a joint at a location having a largest location error relative to an int

Abstract: A target animation includes a blend of two or more animations from a plurality of predetermined animations. The blend includes a weighted combination of the two or more animations based on respective blend weights. In a method of generating a target animation of a virtual object, an input identifying a first point, specifying the target animation, in a control parameter space is received. A second point corresponding to the first point is determined using a predetermined displacement function. A barycentric coordinate for the second point in the control parameter space is determined. The barycentric coordinate is defined relative to predetermined points in the control parameter space, each predetermined point corresponding either to a respective one of the two or more animations or a respective blend of the two or more animations. The blend weights for the two or more animations are based on the barycentric coordinate for the second point.

Abstract: A method of animating a virtual object within a virtual world, wherein the virtual object comprises a plurality of object parts, wherein for a first object part there is one or more associated second object parts, the method comprising: at an animation update step: specifying a target frame in the virtual world; and applying control to the first object part, wherein the control is arranged such that the application of the control in isolation to the first object part would cause a movement of the first object part in the virtual world that reduces a difference between a control frame and the target frame, the control frame being a frame at a specified position and orientation in the virtual world relative to the first object part, wherein applying control to the first object part comprises moving the one or more second object parts within the virtual world to compensate for the movement of the first object part in the virtual world caused by applying the control to the first object part.

Abstract: In a method of defining an animation of a virtual object, during which values for attributes of the virtual object are updated at each of a series of time points, a user specifies a structure representing the update that includes a plurality of items and one or more connections between respective items. Each item represents a respective operation. Each connection represents that data output by the operation represented by one item is input to the operation represented by the connected item. The user specifies that the structure comprises one or more items in a predetermined category associated with a predetermined process that may be executed at most a predetermined number of times at each time point. An item belongs to the predetermined category if performing the respective operation represented by that item requires execution of the predetermined process. One or more rules are applied.

Abstract: A method of detecting an occurrence of an event of an event type during an animation, in which the animation comprises, for each of a plurality of object parts of an object, data defining the respective movement of that object part at each of a sequence of time-points for the animation, the method comprising: indicating the event type, wherein the event type specifies: one or more of the object parts; and a sequence of two or more event phases that occur during an event of that event type such that, for each event phase, the respective movements of the one or more specified object parts during that event phase are each constrained according to a constraint type associated with that event phase; and detecting an occurrence of an event of the event type by detecting a section of the animation during which the respective movements defined by the animation for the specified one or more object parts are constrained in accordance with the sequence of two or more event phases.