Apparatus for generating successive picture frames depicting a feature to create an illusion of movement

Abstract

Abstract In a computer generated imagery system, a surface to be depicted in a motion picture is defined in a data base where it is considered to be composed of a plurality of polygonal faces. In one store the surface is defined by specifying the colour of each of a relatively small number of relatively large faces thereby defining the surface to a first, relatively poor level of detail. In another store the surface is defined by specifying the visual characteristics of a relatively large number of relatively small sub-faces thereby defining the surface to a second, relatively good, level of detail. The colour of each face or sub-face is specified in the stores and by a number whose magnitude is proportional to the displacement of the colour of the face or sub-face from one end of a spectrum of colours. Processing circuitry selects from which store data is used and switches between the stores between successive frames of the picture being generated so that the surface is shown to a greater degree of detail when it is to be depicted at close range than at long range. To avoid a sudden and therefore unrealistic visual change at the switch-over time a circuit (28) is included which allows the colour number to change by only one between each frame. In this way the colour change in the generated image Is a gradual process spread over a significant time. The stores (9) and (9') also contain brightness values of the faces and sub-faces and these brightness values are controlled in a similar way in a circuit (28A).

Inventors

• 👤 Norman Robert Sidney Nesbitt
• 👤 Edwin Skeels
• 👤 Robert William Laker
• 👤 Terence Rowley
• 👤 Michael Edward Judge

Bibliographic Details