Patents by Inventor Arthur D. Gregory

Arthur D. Gregory has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10636210
    Abstract: Systems and methods for dynamic contour volume deformation are disclosed. An embodiment includes applying a deformation to a point of a volumetric mesh, wherein a plurality of tessellations of the volumetric mesh are identified and wherein each tessellation is a tetrahedral mesh, identifying a deformation point associated with a first polyhedron of the volumetric mesh, determining a barycentric coordinate representation of the deformation point with respect to each tetrahedron of the plurality of tessellations, determining, for each tessellation of the first polyhedron, weight values with respect to the deformation point for vertices of each tetrahedron which correspond to natural vertices of each tetrahedron, and determining, based on the determined weight values, a new position of the identified deformation point represented as a weighted sum determined from the barycentric coordinate representations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2020
    Assignee: DreamWorks Animation LLC
    Inventor: Arthur D. Gregory
  • Patent number: 10559109
    Abstract: A skin deformation system for use in computer animation is disclosed. The skin deformation system accesses the skeleton structure of a computer generated character, and accesses a user's identification of features of the skeleton structure that may affect a skin deformation. The system also accesses the user's identification of a weighting strategy. Using the identified weighting strategy and identified features of the skeleton structure, the skin deformation system determines the degree to which each feature identified by the user may influence the deformation of a skin of the computer generated character. The skin deformation system may incorporate secondary operations including bulge, slide, scale and twist into the deformation of a skin. Information relating to a deformed skin may be stored by the skin deformation system so that the information may be used to produce a visual image for a viewer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2020
    Assignee: DreamWorks Animation L.L.C.
    Inventors: Paul Carmen DiLorenzo, Matthew Christopher Gong, Arthur D. Gregory
  • Publication number: 20190228577
    Abstract: Systems and methods for dynamic contour volume deformation are disclosed. An embodiment includes applying a deformation to a point of a volumetric mesh, wherein a plurality of tessellations of the volumetric mesh are identified and wherein each tessellation is a tetrahedral mesh, identifying a deformation point associated with a first polyhedron of the volumetric mesh, determining a barycentric coordinate representation of the deformation point with respect to each tetrahedron of the plurality of tessellations, determining, for each tessellation of the first polyhedron, weight values with respect to the deformation point for vertices of each tetrahedron which correspond to natural vertices of each tetrahedron, and determining, based on the determined weight values, a new position of the identified deformation point represented as a weighted sum determined from the barycentric coordinate representations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 24, 2018
    Publication date: July 25, 2019
    Applicant: DreamWorks Animation LLC
    Inventor: Arthur D. Gregory
  • Publication number: 20180025527
    Abstract: A skin deformation system for use in computer animation is disclosed. The skin deformation system accesses the skeleton structure of a computer generated character, and accesses a user's identification of features of the skeleton structure that may affect a skin deformation. The system also accesses the user's identification of a weighting strategy. Using the identified weighting strategy and identified features of the skeleton structure, the skin deformation system determines the degree to which each feature identified by the user may influence the deformation of a skin of the computer generated character. The skin deformation system may incorporate secondary operations including bulge, slide, scale and twist into the deformation of a skin. Information relating to a deformed skin may be stored by the skin deformation system so that the information may be used to produce a visual image for a viewer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 2, 2017
    Publication date: January 25, 2018
    Applicant: DreamWorks Animation L.L.C.
    Inventors: Paul Carmen DILORENZO, Matthew Christopher GONG, Arthur D. GREGORY
  • Patent number: 9786083
    Abstract: A skin deformation system for use in computer animation is disclosed. The skin deformation system accesses the skeleton structure of a computer generated character, and accesses a user's identification of features of the skeleton structure that may affect a skin deformation. The system also accesses the user's identification of a weighting strategy. Using the identified weighting strategy and identified features of the skeleton structure, the skin deformation system determines the degree to which each feature identified by the user may influence the deformation of a skin of the computer generated character. The skin deformation system may incorporate secondary operations including bulge, slide, scale and twist into the deformation of a skin. Information relating to a deformed skin may be stored by the skin deformation system so that the information may be used to produce a visual image for a viewer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: DreamWorks Animation L.L.C.
    Inventors: Paul Carmen Dilorenzo, Matthew Christopher Gong, Arthur D. Gregory
  • Patent number: 9418465
    Abstract: Systems and methods for performing MOS skin deformations are provided. In one example process, the in vector of a MOS transform may be manually configured by a user. In another example process, a slide/bulge operation may be configured to depend on two or more MOS transforms. Each of the MOS transforms may be assigned a weight that represents the transform's contribution to the overall slide/bulge. In yet another example process, a bulge operation for a MOS vertex may be performed in a direction orthogonal to the attached MOS curve regardless of the direction of the attachment vector. In yet another example process, a ghost transform may be inserted into a MOS closed curve and used to calculate skin deformations associated with first transform of the MOS closed curve.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: DreamWorks Animation LLC
    Inventors: Mark R. Rubin, Robert Lloyd Helms, Arthur D. Gregory, Peter Dean Farson, Matthew Christopher Gong, Michael Scott Hutchinson
  • Publication number: 20150187113
    Abstract: Systems and methods for performing MOS skin deformations are provided. In one example process, the in vector of a MOS transform may be manually configured by a user. In another example process, a slide/bulge operation may be configured to depend on two or more MOS transforms. Each of the MOS transforms may be assigned a weight that represents the transform's contribution to the overall slide/bulge. In yet another example process, a bulge operation for a MOS vertex may be performed in a direction orthogonal to the attached MOS curve regardless of the direction of the attachment vector. In yet another example process, a ghost transform may be inserted into a MOS closed curve and used to calculate skin deformations associated with first transform of the MOS closed curve.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 31, 2013
    Publication date: July 2, 2015
    Applicant: DreamWorks Animation LLC
    Inventors: Mark R. Rubin, Robert Lloyd Helms, Arthur D. Gregory, Peter Dean Farson, Matthew Christopher Gong, Michael Scott Hutchinson
  • Publication number: 20130088497
    Abstract: A skin deformation system for use in computer animation is disclosed. The skin deformation system accesses the skeleton structure of a computer generated character, and accesses a user's identification of features of the skeleton structure that may affect a skin deformation. The system also accesses the user's identification of a weighting strategy. Using the identified weighting strategy and identified features of the skeleton structure, the skin deformation system determines the degree to which each feature identified by the user may influence the deformation of a skin of the computer generated character. The skin deformation system may incorporate secondary operations including bulge, slide, scale and twist into the deformation of a skin Information relating to a deformed skin may be stored by the skin deformation system so that the information may be used to produce a visual image for a viewer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 7, 2011
    Publication date: April 11, 2013
    Applicant: DreamWorks Animation LLC
    Inventors: Paul Carmen DILORENZO, Matthew Christopher Gong, Arthur D. Gregory