JP4976473B2 - Image generating apparatus, image generating method, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image generation apparatus, an image generation method, and a program for realizing these on a computer, which are suitable for obtaining an arbitrary posture and movement from a specific posture and movement of a character and generating the image.

  Conventionally, various techniques for generating an image representing the appearance of an object arranged in a virtual space have been proposed. For example, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, the shape of an object is formed using bones, control points, vertices, and polygons.

  A bone corresponds to a bone in humans, and the bones are connected to each other at a connection point. Changing the relative position and orientation of adjacent bones will change the outline of the object.

  Typically, bones are managed by a tree-like hierarchy having bones as nodes. The position and orientation of the bone (hereinafter referred to as “root bone”) with respect to the root node of the tree structure represent the position and orientation of the entire object in the virtual space. The bone of the parent node (hereinafter referred to as “parent bone”) and the bone of the child node (hereinafter referred to as “child bone”) are directly connected, and by changing the direction of the child bone relative to the parent bone, Change relative position and orientation.

  The appearance of the object is formed by attaching a texture to a polygon that connects vertices that move as the bone deforms. The surface formed by this polygon is called a skin.

  Each bone is associated with a plurality of control points, and these control points operate in conjunction with the bone. That is, even if the bone changes its position and orientation, the relative position of the control point to the bone does not change.

  Each vertex is associated with a plurality of control points with weights. The position of each vertex when the position or orientation of the bone is changed is a position obtained by weighting and averaging the position of the control point associated with the vertex.

  In addition, each bone has an initial position and initial orientation. When the bone takes the initial position and initial orientation, each vertex and the control point associated with that vertex overlap at the same position. Typically, it is configured.

  By performing such processing, when the object is deformed, it is possible to prevent the skin from being unnaturally crushed or crushed.

  Such an object is also used to represent the appearance of a character or monster in a game or the like in which characters and monsters arranged in a virtual space battle each other.

  In addition, by applying the motion capture technology, it is possible to obtain changes in the position and movement of the bone when the character takes a specific posture or a specific motion. For example, by capturing the motion of a person swinging a sword down from the upper stance, the position of the bone when the character takes the upper stance or the character swings the sword downward from the top And change in orientation.

  Therefore, the position and orientation of the bone when the character takes a basic motion from the basic stance, and these changes can be obtained by motion capture. For example, a human being is taken from the upper, right middle, lower right, lower left, and left middle stances to obtain five different postures, and from these stances, the sword is shaken so as to pass the front. If the types of movements are acquired, the character can take five different postures and five different movements.

Japanese Patent No. 40111285

  However, it is impossible to perform motion capture of any posture and motion in advance. Therefore, there is a demand for a technique for generating a new character posture and movement from the character's existing posture and movement. For example, from the posture of the upper and middle right and the action of dropping the sword so that it passes the front from there, these intermediate postures, that is, the posture of holding the sword diagonally to the upper right and the sword diagonally downward to the left from there There is a strong demand for a technology that generates a motion to swing down.

  Furthermore, when the player uses the controller to determine the character's posture and movement, several types of default postures and movements are prepared by motion capture, and a new posture is then created based on the player's operation. There is also a desire to improve game development efficiency and reduce memory consumption, etc., so that the game can be generated.

  The present invention solves the above-described problems. An image generation apparatus, an image generation method, and an image generation apparatus that are suitable for obtaining an arbitrary posture and movement from a specific posture and movement of a character and generating the image, and An object of the present invention is to provide a program for realizing these by a computer.

  In order to achieve the above object, the following invention is disclosed in accordance with the principle of the present invention.

  The image generation apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention uses posture bone information representing the relative positions and orientations of a plurality of bones in order to determine the posture of a character having a plurality of bones connected to each other. To generate an image of the character.

  The bone corresponds to the skeleton of the character, and generally the connection position between the bones does not change. Therefore, it is necessary to first determine the position and orientation of any one bone, and then repeat the determination of the position and orientation of another bone that is directly connected to the bone whose position and orientation are determined. The shape of the whole bone is uniquely determined. The shape of the entire bone may be designed by the designer or acquired by motion capture.

  The image generation apparatus includes a storage unit, a posture reception unit, a posture calculation unit, a posture mixing unit, and a generation unit.

  Here, the storage unit stores the first posture bone information when the character takes the first posture in association with the first posture parameter value, and when the character takes the second posture. Second posture bone information is stored in association with the second posture parameter value.

  For example, considering the posture of the character holding the sword, the posture parameter value is the angle at which the tip of the sword is vertical downward as seen from the front center of the character, that is, facing the character and centering on the middle of the character In this case, a counterclockwise angle formed by the direction from the center to the tip of the sword and the direction from the center to the vertically downward direction can be employed.

In this example, the posture parameter value is
(A) 0 degrees in the lower right stance,
(B) 90 degrees in the middle right stance,
(C) 180 degrees in the upper stance,
(D) 270 degrees in the middle left stance,
(E) 360 degrees in the lower left stance. Here, the reason why the lower right stage and the lower left stage are distinguished from each other is that, in kendo, the directions of twisting of the wrists are different.

  Bone information of each posture bone is prepared by motion capture or the like, and stored in the storage unit in association with the posture parameter value.

  As the posture parameter value, not only the above angle but also an arbitrary scalar amount representing the character's posture can be adopted.

  On the other hand, the posture receiving unit receives an input of a posture parameter value representing a posture to be taken by the character.

  In the above example, the posture parameter value represents the attitude angle. The posture parameter value is input depending on the direction in which the joystick is tilted and how much the position indicated by the touchpad, trackpad, mouse, etc. is deviated from the center.

  In the following description, it is assumed that θ degrees is input as an angle between 90 degrees and 180 degrees as the posture parameter value, the first posture is set in the middle right stage (the posture parameter value is 90 degrees), and the second The posture is the upper stance (posture parameter value is 180 degrees). In other words, the character should take the posture of holding a sword diagonally upward to the right. A mode in which an arbitrary angle is input as the posture parameter value will be described later.

  For example, when θ = 120, the sword is held slightly above the middle right, and when θ = 150, the sword is further held up.

  Further, the posture calculation unit calculates a posture internal ratio in which the received posture parameter value internally divides the first posture parameter value and the second posture parameter value.

  In the above example, since the input posture parameter value is θ degrees, the posture internal ratio is (θ−90) :( 180−θ).

  In general, if the first posture parameter value is α, the second posture parameter value is β (α <β), and the input posture parameter value is θ, then α ≦ θ ≦ β holds, and the posture internal ratio is , (Θ-α) :( β-θ).

  Further, the posture mixing unit obtains the third posture bone information by blending the first posture bone information and the second posture bone information with the calculated posture internal ratio.

  As described above, the bone information specifies the relative position and orientation of the bones. In general, one bone has one or more connection points, but the position of the connection point in the bone does not move even if the character changes its posture. This is equivalent to the fact that the length of the character's bone does not change abruptly.

  Therefore, the direction of other bones connected to the bone is compared between the case of the first posture bone information and the case of the second posture bone information, and information indicating the direction is used as the posture internal ratio. The result of blending the directions of the other bones in the third posture bone information is obtained. In general, Euler angles and quaternions, which will be described later, are used as the inner division method.

  Furthermore, the generation unit determines the shape of the character based on the obtained third posture bone information, and generates an image representing the character with the determined shape.

  That is, the generation unit generally obtains the position of the control point linked to the bone from the bone information, obtains the position of the vertex by weighted averaging of the control points, and pastes the texture on the polygon connecting the vertexes. . Then, a skin is formed by the polygons to which the texture is pasted to generate a character image. The generated image is typically displayed on the screen.

  According to the present invention, an intermediate posture between the two postures can be obtained from the two postures of the character, and an image representing how the character takes the intermediate posture can be generated.

  In the image generating apparatus of the present invention, each of the plurality of bones is a tree in which each bone is assigned as a node, and one of the two connected bones is assigned as a parent node and the other bone as a child node. It is hierarchized into a structure, and posture bone information is specified by specifying the position and orientation of the bone of a child node (hereinafter referred to as “child bone”) relative to the bone of the parent node (hereinafter referred to as “parent bone”). , Can be configured to be expressed.

  The present invention relates to a preferred embodiment of the above invention. In the present invention, the position and orientation of the root bone are adopted as the position and orientation of the character. By tracing the parent-child relationship of the tree structure from the root bone and determining the position and orientation of the child bone relative to the parent bone, the entire shape of the character is determined. As described above, generally, the length of the bone, that is, the distance between the connection points in the bone is constant.

  According to the present invention, the posture of the character can be easily changed by managing the bones hierarchically.

  Further, in the image generating apparatus of the present invention, the position and orientation of the child bone are determined by the coordinates of the connection point where the child bone is connected to the parent bone in the coordinate system fixed to the parent bone, and the child bone in the coordinate system. Expressed by Euler angles or quaternions representing the orientation, the posture mixture unit calculates the Euler angles or quaternions of the corresponding bones in the first posture bone information and the second posture bone information, respectively. The third posture bone information can be obtained by performing internal division.

  As described above, the length of the bone is generally fixed. In this case, in the coordinate system fixed to the parent bone, the coordinates of the connection point where the child bone is connected to the parent bone are fixed.

  Therefore, if the orientation of the child bone is specified in the coordinate system, the relative position and orientation of the child bone with respect to the parent bone is determined.

  In the present invention, Euler angles or quaternions are used to determine the orientation. The Euler angles and quaternions in the third posture can be obtained by internally dividing the Euler angles in the two postures by the posture internal ratio or by dividing each element of the quaternion by the posture internal ratio.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to easily obtain bone information of an intermediate posture by internally dividing Euler angles and quaternions representing the direction of bones by the posture internal ratio.

  In the image generation apparatus of the present invention, the posture bone information is information that changes over time, and the posture mixing unit calculates the first posture bone information and the second posture bone information at each time point. The blending and generating unit can be configured to generate a moving image by generating an image at each time point.

  For example, when a character has a sword, he may want to adopt a state in which the sword moves minutely according to the character's breathing. The present invention addresses such a situation.

  In this case, motion capture is performed at a predetermined time interval for one cycle of human breathing with a sword in advance. Then, the position and orientation of the character bone at each time point in the cycle are determined from the motion-captured data. Then, as the time passes, the position and orientation of the bone at each time point are appropriately selected, and the position and orientation are blended.

  In the above example, the posture bone information for one breath when holding the sword in the upper stage and the posture bone information for one breath when holding the sword in the middle right, the sword is held diagonally upward to the right. The posture bone information for one breath is obtained.

  The change of the posture bone information with the passage of time is typically a periodic change, but is not necessarily limited thereto.

  According to the present invention, an intermediate motion can be generated from two types of motions of a character, and an image representing the state of the character taking the motion can be generated.

  In addition, the image generation apparatus of the present invention further uses motion bone information representing the amount of change of the relative positions and orientations of a plurality of bones over time in order to determine the shape change when the character moves.

  In the above invention, the information indicating the posture of the character at each time point with the passage of time is used as the posture bone information. However, in the present invention, information indicating the difference in character posture at each time point is used as the motion bone information. That is, when the motion bone information is added to the posture bone information at a certain time, the posture bone information at the next time is obtained.

  The image generation apparatus according to the present invention further includes an operation reception unit, a direction calculation unit, a change mixing unit, and a start posture acquisition unit, and is configured as follows.

  That is, the storage unit further stores the first motion bone information when the character moves in the first direction in association with the first direction parameter value, and the character moves in the second direction. The second motion bone information at that time is further stored in association with the second orientation parameter value.

For example, an angle representing the direction in which the character swings the sword can be adopted as the direction parameter value. In the following, according to the above example, as the orientation parameter value,
(A) 0 degree in the swinging motion from the lower right,
(B) 90 degrees for movement from right to left,
(C) 180 degrees when swinging from top to bottom,
(D) 270 degrees when swinging from left to right,
(E) The operation of swinging up from the lower left will be described with an example of 360 degrees.

  The situation in which the posture parameter value and the orientation parameter value are both 90 degrees represents a situation in which the character takes the action of swinging the sword from the right middle stance to the left. The situation in which the posture parameter value and the orientation parameter value are both 180 degrees represents a situation in which the character takes the action of swinging the sword down from the upper stance.

  Thus, when the posture parameter value and the orientation parameter value are the same value, the locus of the tip of the sword passes through the middle center of the character.

  On the other hand, the motion accepting unit accepts an input of a direction parameter value indicating a direction in which the character should move.

  This is a parameter value corresponding to the direction in which the sword is swung, and is typically input independently of the posture parameter value. Note that the case where the posture parameter value matches the direction parameter value is substantially equivalent to the case where the “posture bone information that changes with the passage of time” described above is adopted.

  Furthermore, the direction calculation unit calculates a direction division ratio in which the received direction parameter value internally divides the first direction parameter value and the second direction parameter value. The calculation of the orientation internal ratio is performed in the same manner as the calculation of the posture internal ratio.

  Then, the change mixing unit obtains the third motion bone information by blending the first motion bone information and the second motion bone information with the calculated internal ratio.

  The posture mixing unit internally blends the two posture bone information by the internal division ratio, whereas the change mixing unit internally blends the two motion bone information by the internal division ratio. The motion bone information is expressed as a Euler angle difference or a quaternion difference as described above. Therefore, if these are internally divided for each element, the operation bone information after blending can be obtained.

  Then, the starting posture acquisition unit acquires fourth posture bone information that determines the posture at the time when the character starts to move.

  Most simply, the starting posture acquisition unit acquires the third posture bone information as the fourth posture bone information. That is, the posture of the character at the moment when the input of the orientation parameter value is accepted becomes the motion starting posture.

  Furthermore, the generation unit causes the character to move with time from the posture determined by the acquired fourth posture bone information with the motion determined by the obtained third motion bone information, and the character moves with time. A moving image representing a state of changing the shape is generated.

  As described above, in the present invention, the difference between the stationary posture bone information is adopted as the motion bone information. For this reason, for example, the sword is swung down (orientation parameter value is 180 degrees) from an obliquely upper right position (posture parameter value is 120 degrees, 150 degrees, etc.), and the tip of the sword passes through the right side of the character. An image can be generated for various operations.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to easily generate a moving image representing a character that takes an intermediate action by generating an intermediate action from the two actions of the character.

  Further, the image generation apparatus of the present invention can be configured as follows.

  That is, a representative point is fixed to any one representative bone of a plurality of bones possessed by the character.

  For example, in the above example, a representative point is set at the tip of the sword.

  On the other hand, the motion bone information is associated with posture bone information representing the posture at the time when the character is about to start posture. That is, in the present invention, it is assumed that the posture at the start of the operation is prepared independently of the posture of the posture, and there is a difference between the two.

  Then, the start posture acquisition unit obtains the posture bone information associated with the first motion bone information and the posture bone information associated with the second motion bone information by blending with the orientation internal ratio. The fifth posture bone information is corrected so that the position of the representative point in the fifth posture bone information is as close as possible to the position of the representative point in the third posture bone information.

  That is, in the present invention, the position of the representative point of the posture of the posture is obtained by the blending of the posture. The position of the representative point at the start of the operation is obtained by blending the operations. Then, the position of the representative point at the start of the operation is corrected so that the positions of both approaches.

  Further, in the starting posture acquisition unit, posture bone information obtained by the correction is acquired as fourth posture bone information.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to generate a natural moving image even when there is a difference between the posture of the character at rest and the posture at the start time of the character's movement.

  In the image generation device of the present invention, the start posture acquisition unit uses the inverse kinematics adopting a predetermined constraint condition to determine the position of the representative point in the fifth posture bone information in the third posture bone information. It can be configured to perform correction by overlapping the position of the representative point.

  When the representative point is the tip of the sword, the inverse kinematics method is used so that the tip of the sword overlaps. Inverse kinematics is a technique for correcting the position and orientation of each bone while tracing the tree structure of the bone from the leaves to the roots. In this example, the sword, the wrist holding the sword, the lower arm The direction of the bone is corrected in order, like the upper arm, shoulder, upper spine, and waist.

  The present invention relates to a preferred embodiment of the above invention, and by overlapping the positions of representative points, the deviation between the character's stationary posture and the starting point of the character's motion is minimized. Will be able to.

  In the image generation device of the present invention, the start posture acquisition unit changes the relative orientation of any two bones directly connected among the plurality of bones of the character to thereby change the fifth posture bone. The position of the representative point in the information can be configured to be as close as possible to the position of the representative point in the third posture bone information.

  For example, consider a situation where the relative orientation of a character's waist and upper spine is changed. In the present invention, the character's waist and the upper part of the spine are relative to each other so that a half line from the connection point to the representative point based on the posture and a half line from the connection point to the representative point based on the start time of the movement overlap. Change only the orientation. That is, in inverse kinematics, there is a large amount of information on the bone direction to be corrected, but in the present invention, only one direction is corrected.

  The present invention relates to a preferred embodiment of the above-described invention, and the deviation between the character's stationary posture and the character's starting posture when moving can be made as small as possible by simple calculation. It becomes like this.

  Further, the image generation apparatus of the present invention can be configured as follows.

  That is, posture bone information is stored in the storage unit in association with each of a plurality of posture parameter values. For example, as described above, five types of character postures are stored.

  On the other hand, in a controller in which a position within a predetermined range is specified by the user, when a position included in the periphery of the predetermined range is specified, the posture receiving unit changes the orientation of the position as viewed from the center position of the predetermined range. The posture parameter value is input. For example, as described above, the posture parameter value is input by a joystick, a touch pad, or the like.

  The first posture parameter value and the second posture parameter value are two posture parameter values that sandwich the accepted posture parameter value among the plurality of posture parameter values stored in the storage unit.

  Here, the posture parameter values α and β (α <β) stored in the storage unit between the input posture parameter values θ are most recently sandwiched when α ≦ θ ≦ β, and α is equal to or greater than β. This means that the posture parameter value is not stored in the storage unit.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain a wide range of character postures by preparing three or more character postures and obtaining an intermediate posture among those postures.

  Further, the image generation apparatus of the present invention can be configured as follows.

  That is, the storage unit stores posture bone information in association with each of a plurality of posture parameter values, and stores motion bone information in association with each of a plurality of orientation parameter values. For example, as described above, five types of postures and five types of actions of the character are stored.

  On the other hand, in the controller in which the position within the predetermined range is designated by the user, the first position included in the periphery of the predetermined range passes through other than the periphery of the predetermined range, and the When the designated position moves to the position 2, the posture accepting unit uses the orientation of the first position viewed from the center position of the predetermined range as an input of the posture parameter value, and the motion accepting unit The direction of the second position viewed from the first position is set as an input of the direction parameter value.

  For example, as described above, when the joystick or the like is slowly tilted, the orientation from the center of the rod-shaped body becomes the posture parameter value. Furthermore, when the direction of the joystick or the like is moved at a high speed, the direction from the start point to the end point of the movement of the rod-shaped body becomes the direction parameter value.

  The first posture parameter value and the second posture parameter value are two posture parameter values that sandwich the accepted posture parameter value among the plurality of posture parameter values stored in the storage unit. The direction parameter value and the second direction parameter value are two movement parameter values that sandwich the accepted movement parameter value among the plurality of movement parameter values stored in the storage unit.

  That is, in the present invention, the posture bone information that sandwiches the input posture parameter value most recently is blended, and the motion bone information that sandwiches the input orientation parameter value most recently is blended. , To obtain both time change of posture during operation.

  According to the present invention, the player can specify both the posture and motion of the character at rest with one controller.

  An image generation method according to another aspect of the present invention uses posture bone information representing a relative position and orientation of a plurality of bones in order to determine a posture of a character having a plurality of bones connected to each other. , Generate an image of the character.

  The image generation method is executed by the image generation apparatus. The image generation apparatus includes a storage unit, a posture receiving unit, a posture calculation unit, a posture mixing unit, and a generation unit.

  Here, the storage unit stores the first posture bone information when the character takes the first posture in association with the first posture parameter value, and when the character takes the second posture. Second posture bone information is stored in association with the second posture parameter value.

  The image generation method includes an attitude reception process, an attitude calculation process, an attitude mixing process, and a generation process.

  Here, in the posture accepting step, the posture accepting unit accepts an input of a posture parameter value representing the posture that the character should take.

  On the other hand, in the posture calculation step, the posture calculation unit calculates a posture internal ratio in which the received posture parameter value internally divides the first posture parameter value and the second posture parameter value.

  Further, in the posture mixing step, the posture mixing unit blends the first posture bone information and the second posture bone information with the calculated posture internal ratio, thereby obtaining the third posture bone information. Get.

  In the generation step, the generation unit determines the shape of the character based on the obtained third posture bone information, and generates an image representing the character with the determined shape.

  A program according to another aspect of the present invention is configured to cause a computer to function as each unit of the image generation apparatus.

  The program of the present invention can be recorded on a computer-readable information storage medium such as a compact disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magneto-optical disk, digital video disk, magnetic tape, and semiconductor memory.

  The above program can be distributed and sold via a computer communication network independently of the computer on which the program is executed. The information storage medium can be distributed and sold independently from the computer.

  According to the present invention, an image generation device, an image generation method, and a program for realizing these on a computer, which are suitable for obtaining an arbitrary posture and movement from a specific posture and movement of a character and generating the image Can be provided.

It is a schematic diagram which shows schematic structure of a typical information processing apparatus. It is explanatory drawing which shows the external appearance of a controller. It is explanatory drawing which shows schematic structure of the image generation apparatus which concerns on this embodiment. It is explanatory drawing which shows the relationship between a posture parameter value and a character's posture. It is explanatory drawing which shows the relationship between a posture parameter value and a character's posture. It is explanatory drawing which shows the relationship between a posture parameter value and a character's posture. It is explanatory drawing which shows the relationship between a posture parameter value and a character's posture. It is explanatory drawing which shows the relationship between a posture parameter value and a character's posture. It is explanatory drawing which shows the relationship between direction parameter value and the direction of a character's operation | movement. It is explanatory drawing which shows the relationship between direction parameter value and the direction of a character's operation | movement. It is explanatory drawing which shows the relationship between direction parameter value and the direction of a character's operation | movement. It is explanatory drawing which shows the relationship between direction parameter value and the direction of a character's operation | movement. It is explanatory drawing which shows the relationship between direction parameter value and the direction of a character's operation | movement. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of control of the image generation process performed in the image generation apparatus of this embodiment. It is explanatory drawing which shows the operation method of the joystick for inputting an attitude | position parameter value. It is explanatory drawing which shows the operation method of the joystick for inputting direction parameter value. It is explanatory drawing which shows the positional relationship of the bone in three attitude | positions. It is explanatory drawing which shows the mode of the bone of the character set by operation of a joystick, and the direction which the said character shakes a sword by operation of a joystick.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. In the following, for ease of understanding, an embodiment in which the present invention is realized using a game information processing device will be described. However, the embodiment described below is for explanation, and the present invention is described. It does not limit the range.

  Therefore, those skilled in the art can employ embodiments in which each or all of these elements are replaced with equivalent ones, and these embodiments are also included in the scope of the present invention.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a typical information processing apparatus that can function as an image generation apparatus according to the present embodiment by executing a program. Hereinafter, a description will be given with reference to FIG.

  An information processing apparatus 100 shown in the figure corresponds to a so-called consumer game machine, and includes a central processing unit (CPU) 101, a read only memory (ROM) 102, a random access memory (RAM) 103, an interface 104, a controller 105, An external memory 106, an image processing unit 107, a DVD-ROM (Digital Versatile Disc ROM) drive 108, a NIC (Network Interface Card) 109, an audio processing unit 110, a microphone 111, and a hard disk (HD) 121 are included. Various input / output devices can be omitted as appropriate.

  When the information processing apparatus 100 is caused to function as a typical consumer game machine, a DVD-ROM storing a game program and data is mounted on the DVD-ROM drive 108 and the power is turned on. Then, the game program is executed and the game can be played.

  However, in the present embodiment, typically, an application is installed in the HD 121 from a DVD-ROM attached to the DVD-ROM drive 108. Then, by executing the program stored in the HD 121, various applications including a game are executed.

  In order to make the portable game device portable, the DVD-ROM drive 108 is not used, but an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM) cassette is mounted in the ROM cassette slot and the HD 121 is mounted. It can also be omitted. In this case, the application program is written in the EEPROM cassette and then the program is executed. In addition, an application program can be installed in the external memory 106.

  The CPU 101 controls the overall operation of the information processing apparatus 100 and is connected to each component to exchange control signals and data. Further, the CPU 101 uses arithmetic operations such as addition / subtraction / multiplication / division, logical sum, logical product, etc. using an ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit) (not shown) for a storage area called a register (not shown) that can be accessed at high speed. , Logic operations such as logical negation, bit operations such as bit sum, bit product, bit inversion, bit shift, and bit rotation can be performed. In addition, the CPU 101 itself is configured so that saturation operations such as addition / subtraction / multiplication / division for multimedia processing, vector operations such as trigonometric functions, etc. can be performed at a high speed, and those provided with a coprocessor. There is.

  The ROM 102 records an IPL (Initial Program Loader) that is executed immediately after the power is turned on, and when this is executed, the program recorded on the DVD-ROM is read out to the RAM 103 and execution by the CPU 101 is started. The The ROM 102 stores an operating system program and various data necessary for operation control of the entire information processing apparatus 100.

  The RAM 103 is for temporarily storing data and programs, and retains programs and data read from the HD 121 and DVD-ROM, and other data necessary for the progress of the communication battle game and chat communication. Further, the CPU 101 provides a variable area in the RAM 103 and performs an operation by directly operating the ALU on the value stored in the variable, or temporarily stores the value stored in the RAM 103 in the register. Perform operations such as performing operations on registers and writing back the operation results to memory.

  The controller 105 connected via the interface 104 receives an operation input performed when the user executes the game.

  The controller 105 does not necessarily have to be externally attached to the information processing apparatus 100, and may be formed integrally. The controller 105 of the portable terminal device includes various buttons and switches, and handles these pressing operations as operation inputs. In addition, in the information processing apparatus 100 using the touch screen, the user traces the trace of the touch screen using a pen or a finger as an operation input.

  FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the appearance of the controller 105. Hereinafter, a description will be given with reference to FIG.

  On the left side of the controller 105, there are arranged an ↑ button 201, a ↓ button 202, a ← button 203, and a → button 204 that are used to perform operation input indicating up, down, left and right.

  On the right side, a ○ button 205 used to input a decision operation, a × button 206 used to input a cancel operation, a Δ button 207 used to input an instruction such as a menu display, A square button 208 used for inputting other instructions is arranged.

  In the center, in addition to the SELECT button 209 and the START button 210, an ANALOG button 211 for instructing start / stop of analog input and an indicator 212 for displaying whether the analog input is valid or invalid are arranged. .

  In addition, joysticks 213 and 214 for inputting an instruction with a size in a direction not limited to up, down, left, and right are arranged at the lower center.

  Further, an L1 button 215, an L2 button 216, an R1 button 217, and an R2 button 218 that can be used for inputting various instructions are disposed above.

  Each button 201-208, 215-218 of the controller 105 is provided with a pressure sensor, and when analog input is enabled, it can detect which button is pressed, The magnitude of the pressure of the user's pressing operation can be obtained in 256 steps from 0 to 255.

  The joysticks 213 and 214 of the controller 105 are provided with strain gauges and can detect how much they are bent in which direction.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the external memory 106 detachably connected via the interface 104 stores data indicating game play status (past results, etc.), game progress data, and network battles. Chat communication log (record) data and the like are stored in a rewritable manner. The user can record these data in the external memory 106 as appropriate by inputting an instruction via the controller 105.

  As described above, it is possible to adopt a form in which the application program is installed in the external memory 106 and executed. This is suitable when the external memory 106 has a large capacity.

  A DVD-ROM mounted on the DVD-ROM drive 108 stores a program for realizing the game and image data and audio data associated with the game. Under the control of the CPU 101, the DVD-ROM drive 108 performs a reading process on the DVD-ROM loaded therein, reads out necessary programs and data, and these are temporarily stored in the RAM 103 or the like.

  The image processing unit 107 processes the data read from the DVD-ROM by an image arithmetic processor (not shown) included in the CPU 101 or the image processing unit 107, and then processes the processed data on a frame memory ( (Not shown). The image information recorded in the frame memory is converted into a video signal at a predetermined synchronization timing and output to a monitor (not shown) connected to the image processing unit 107. Thereby, various image displays are possible.

  As a monitor of a portable terminal device, a small liquid crystal display is typically used. When a touch screen is used as the controller 105, the display panel of the touch screen functions as a monitor. A display device such as a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) or a plasma display can be used as a monitor for a terminal device for playing at home or a server device for a network game.

  The image calculation processor can execute a two-dimensional image overlay calculation, a transmission calculation such as α blending, and various saturation calculations at high speed.

  Also, polygon information arranged in the virtual three-dimensional space and added with various texture information is rendered by the Z buffer method, and the polygon arranged in the virtual three-dimensional space from the predetermined viewpoint position is determined in the direction of the predetermined line of sight It is also possible to perform high-speed execution of operations for obtaining rendered images.

  Further, the CPU 101 and the image arithmetic processor operate in a coordinated manner, so that a character string can be drawn as a two-dimensional image in a frame memory or drawn on the surface of each polygon according to font information that defines the character shape. is there.

  The NIC 109 is used to connect the information processing apparatus 100 to a computer communication network (not shown) such as the Internet, and conforms to the 10BASE-T / 100BASE-T standard used when configuring a LAN. An analog modem for connecting to the Internet using a telephone line, an ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) modem, an ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) modem, a cable modem for connecting to the Internet using a cable television line, etc. These are configured by an interface (not shown) that mediates between these and the CPU 101.

  An application program can be installed in the HD 121 or the like based on information obtained from the computer communication network via the NIC 109.

  The audio processing unit 110 converts audio data read from the HD 121 or DVD-ROM into an analog audio signal, and outputs the analog audio signal from a speaker (not shown) connected thereto. Further, under the control of the CPU 101, sound effects and music data to be generated during the progress of the game are generated, and the corresponding sound is output from a speaker, headphones (not shown), and earphones (not shown). Output.

  When the audio data recorded on the HD 121 or the DVD-ROM is MIDI data, the audio processing unit 110 refers to the sound source data included in the audio data and converts the MIDI data into PCM data. If the compressed audio data is in ADPCM format or Ogg Vorbis format, it is expanded and converted to PCM data. The PCM data can be output by performing D / A (Digital / Analog) conversion at a timing corresponding to the sampling frequency and outputting it to a speaker.

  Furthermore, a microphone 111 can be connected to the information processing apparatus 100 via the interface 104. In this case, the analog signal from the microphone 111 is subjected to A / D conversion at an appropriate sampling frequency so that processing such as mixing in the sound processing unit 110 can be performed as a PCM format digital signal.

  As described above, the information processing apparatus 100 used in the present embodiment typically uses a large-capacity external storage device such as the HD 121. The HD 121 can also perform the same functions as a DVD-ROM or the like mounted on the ROM 102, RAM 103, external memory 106, DVD-ROM drive 108, and the like.

  In addition, it is possible to adopt a form in which a keyboard for accepting a character string editing input from a user, a mouse for accepting various position designations and selection inputs, and the like are connected. In addition, a general-purpose personal computer, a server computer, or the like can be used instead of the information processing apparatus 100 of the present embodiment.

  The information processing apparatus 100 described above corresponds to a consumer game apparatus, but the terminal apparatus and server apparatus of the present invention can be realized as long as the electronic apparatus can perform various input / output processes. . Therefore, the terminal device and server device of the present invention can be realized on various computers such as a mobile phone, a mobile game device, a karaoke device, and a general business computer.

  For example, similarly to the information processing apparatus 100, the business computer has a CPU, RAM, ROM, DVD-ROM drive, NIC, and HD as constituent elements, and has simpler functions than the information processing apparatus 100. In addition, a flexible disk, a magneto-optical disk, a magnetic tape, etc. can be used as an external storage device, and it is typical to use a keyboard or mouse as an input device instead of the controller 105. is there.

  FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of the image generation apparatus according to the present embodiment. Hereinafter, a description will be given with reference to FIG.

  The image generation apparatus 301 according to the present embodiment includes a storage unit 302, a posture reception unit 303, a posture calculation unit 304, a posture mixing unit 305, a motion reception unit 306, a motion calculation unit 307, a motion mixing unit 308, a generation unit 309, and a start. A posture acquisition unit 310 is provided. The image generation apparatus 301 is realized by the information processing apparatus 100 executing a predetermined program recorded on a DVD-ROM or HD 121 attached to the DVD-ROM drive 108.

  Here, in the storage unit 302, posture bone information for determining the posture of the character at rest is stored in association with the posture parameter value, and motion bone information for determining the posture of the character in motion is used as the orientation parameter. It is stored in association with the value. The storage unit 302 is realized by a DVD-ROM mounted on the DVD-ROM drive 108, a RAM 103, or the like.

  On the other hand, when the user operates the joystick 213 of the controller 105, posture parameter values and orientation parameter values are obtained from the operation status, and the posture accepting unit 303 and the motion accepting unit 306 And the orientation parameter value are received. Therefore, the posture receiving unit 303 and the operation receiving unit 306 are realized by the CPU 101 working together with the controller 105.

  The posture calculation unit 304 and the motion calculation unit 307 are respectively configured to accept the posture parameter value and the orientation parameter value stored in the storage unit 302 in association with the posture bone information and the motion bone information. It calculates the posture internal ratio and the direction internal ratio to internally divide values, and is realized by the CPU 101.

  The posture mixing unit 305 and the motion mixing unit 308 mix the posture bone information and the motion bone information stored in the storage unit 302 based on the calculated posture internal ratio and direction internal ratio, It generates posture bone information and action bone information, and is realized by the CPU 101.

  The generation unit 309 generates an image when the character is calm based on the generated posture bone information, or generates an image when the character moves based on the motion bone information. This is realized by the function of the image processing unit 107 below.

  The starting posture acquisition unit 310 acquires the posture immediately before the operation is started, and is realized by the CPU 101. If the motion bone information includes only bone direction difference information, the posture bone information adopted immediately before is used as the posture immediately before the motion is started.

  Hereinafter, the image generation apparatus 301 will be described in more detail.

  First, the posture bone information and the motion bone information stored in the storage unit 302 are for determining the character's posture.

  Here, the bone corresponds to the skeleton of the character, and generally the connection position between the bones does not change. Therefore, it is necessary to first determine the position and orientation of any one bone, and then repeat the determination of the position and orientation of another bone that is directly connected to the bone whose position and orientation are determined. The shape of the whole bone is uniquely determined. The shape of the entire bone may be designed by the designer or acquired by motion capture.

  A plurality of bones are hierarchized into a tree structure with each bone as a node. In the tree structure, of the two bones connected to each other, one bone is assigned to the parent node, and the other bone is assigned to the child node. That is, one of the directly connected bones is a parent and the other is a child.

  The root bone assigned to the root node of the tree structure represents the basic position and orientation of the character. Accordingly, the position and orientation of the root bone are determined with respect to the global coordinate system in the virtual space.

  On the other hand, the relative positions and orientations of the bones connected to each other are expressed by the positions of the connecting points in the coordinate system fixed to the parent bone and the orientations of the child bones in the coordinate system.

  Therefore, when the character changes posture, the position of the connection point does not change, and only the direction of the child bone relative to the parent bone generally changes.

  By tracing the parent-child relationship of the tree structure from the root bone and determining the orientation of the child bone relative to the parent bone, the position and orientation of each child bone in the global coordinate system can be obtained. By repeating this, the entire shape of the character is determined.

  In order to represent the direction of a child bone in a coordinate system fixed to the parent bone, Euler angles or quaternions in the coordinate system are generally used.

  The storage unit 302 stores a plurality of sets of posture parameter values and posture bone information, and stores a plurality of sets of orientation parameter values and motion bone information.

  In the present embodiment, the present invention is applied to a situation in which a character swings a sword from a posture holding a sword.

  Therefore, as the posture parameter value, the angle that the tip of the sword faces downward from the center of the character when viewed from the front center of the character, that is, when facing the character and centering on the middle center of the character, from the center to the tip of the sword And the angle from the center to the vertically downward direction is a counterclockwise angle.

  4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 are explanatory diagrams showing the relationship between the posture parameter value and the character's posture. Hereinafter, a description will be given with reference to FIG.

  The shape of the character 401 is determined by a plurality of bones 402. In the figure, only some bones are denoted by reference numerals.

  The connection point between the bones 402 is drawn with a circle in this figure. That is, in this figure, most of the bones 402 are drawn by lines sandwiched between circles.

  However, the bone 402a representing the sword is drawn with a thick line in this figure, and the position of the fist 411 on the right hand (drawn with a □ mark in this figure) and the position of the fist 412 on the left hand (this figure). Then, the direction is determined by □.

The posture parameter values representing the posture of the character 401 are a bone 405 representing a sword from a line 405 extending vertically downward from the center point 404 and a center point 404 at the center of the middle stage of the character (in this figure, indicated by Δ). It is an angle θ formed by a half straight line 406 toward the tip 403 of 402a (drawn as a hexagon in this figure).
(A) In FIG. 4, the character 401 is in the lower right stance, and the posture parameter value is 0 degree. The tip 403 faces downward in the figure.
(B) In FIG. 5, the character 401 is in the middle right position, and the posture parameter value is 90 degrees. The tip 403 faces right in the figure.
(C) In FIG. 6, the character 401 takes the upper stance and the posture parameter value is 180 degrees. The tip 403 faces upward in the figure.
(D) In FIG. 7, the character 401 is in the middle left position, and the posture parameter value is 270 degrees. The tip 403 faces left in the figure.
(E) In FIG. 8, the character 401 is in the lower left stance, and the posture parameter value is 360 degrees. The tip 403 faces downward in the figure.

  The posture bone information may represent the posture of the character at the moment when the character is completely stationary. For example, the posture bone information may change with the passage of time according to the breathing cycle of the character.

  Here, the reason why the lower right stage and the lower left stage are distinguished from each other is because the directions of twisting of the wrists are different. That is, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 8, the orientation and position of the sword bone 402a are the same, but the positional relationship between the right hand fist 411 and the left hand fist 412 of the character 401 is different.

  On the other hand, FIG. 9, FIG. 10, FIG. 11, FIG. 12, and FIG. 13 are explanatory diagrams showing the relationship between the orientation parameter value and the direction of the character movement, respectively. 8 represents the direction of the locus drawn by the tip 403 of the sword when the character 401 swings the sword. Hereinafter, description will be given with reference to these drawings.

The action of the character 401 is determined by time changes in the positions and orientations of the plurality of bones 402. The direction parameter value representing the direction of the character's movement is an angle φ formed by a line 501 extending vertically upward from the center point 404 and a trajectory 502 representing the direction in which the tip 403 of the bone 402a representing the sword moves. In order to make the drawing easy to understand, the locus 502 in this figure is drawn by shifting the place.
(A) In FIG. 9, the character 401 swings the sword up from the bottom with the lower right hand grip, and the orientation parameter value is 0 degrees. The tip 403 has moved from the bottom to the top in the figure.
(B) In FIG. 10, the character 401 represents an action of swinging the sword from right to left, and the orientation parameter value is 90 degrees. The tip 403 has moved from right to left in the figure.
(C) In FIG. 11, the character 401 represents the action of swinging the sword down from above, and the orientation parameter value is 180 degrees. The tip 403 has moved from top to bottom in the figure.
(D) In FIG. 12, the character 401 represents the movement of swinging the sword from left to right, and the orientation parameter value is 270 degrees. The tip 403 has moved from left to right in the figure.
(E) In FIG. 13, the character 401 represents an operation of swinging the sword up from the bottom with the lower left hand grip, and the orientation parameter value is 360 degrees. The tip 403 has moved from the bottom to the top in the figure.

  In any of the drawings, the locus 502 passes through the center point 404.

  In the present embodiment, by generating posture bone information at an arbitrary angle θ and motion bone information at an arbitrary direction φ based on the five types of posture bone information and the five types of motion bone information. Then, the change of the posture of the character at the time of calm and the posture at the time of movement is obtained with respect to arbitrary θ and φ.

  In addition, in this embodiment, posture bone information of a basic posture in which the character does not hold a sword is also used.

  FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the flow of control of image generation processing executed in the image generation apparatus of this embodiment. Hereinafter, a description will be given with reference to FIG.

  When this processing is started, the CPU 101 receives posture bone information and its posture parameter value, motion bone information and its orientation parameter value, and other various information from a DVD-ROM or the like mounted on the DVD-ROM drive 108. Information is read and written to the RAM 103, and initialization is performed (step S601).

  Next, the CPU 101 checks the state of the joystick 213 in the controller 105 to confirm whether any input has been made (step S602). Here, an input method using the joystick 213 will be described.

  FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of operating the joystick 213 for inputting posture parameter values. Hereinafter, a description will be given with reference to FIG.

  This figure shows a situation where the stick 651 of the joystick 213 is tilted from a basic position 652 indicated by a dotted line to a position 653 within the peripheral edge 654.

  In this situation, an angle θ formed by a line 681 extending downward from the basic position 652 and a line 682 extending from the basic position 652 to the current position 653 is input as the posture parameter value.

  When the user goes around the periphery 654 while tilting the stick 651 of the joystick 213, an arbitrary value from 0 degrees to 360 degrees can be input as the posture parameter value θ.

  FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of operating the joystick 213 for inputting the orientation parameter value. Hereinafter, a description will be given with reference to FIG.

  In this figure, the stick 651 of the joystick 213 has moved linearly within a certain time from a position 653 in the peripheral edge 654 to a position other than the peripheral edge 654 and to another position 655 in the peripheral edge 654. Shows the case. At this time, an angle φ formed by a line 683 extending upward from the position 653 and a trajectory 656 of movement from the position 653 to the position 655 is input as an orientation parameter value.

  Since the movement locus 656 needs to pass through a position other than the periphery, there is a limit to the range that can be input as the orientation parameter value φ. Typically, the movement locus 656 is approximately ± 60 around the posture parameter value θ immediately before. Degree.

  However, since the immediately preceding posture parameter value θ can take an arbitrary value, it can be considered that if the orientation parameter value φ is viewed alone, an arbitrary value can be taken.

  Further, when the stick 651 is at a position other than the periphery, for example, when the user lifts his / her finger from the stick 651, neither the posture parameter value nor the orientation parameter value is input.

  By adopting such an operation method, it is possible to input the posture when the character holds the sword and the direction when the character shakes the sword only by operating one joystick 213 of the controller 105.

  Further, since the posture parameter value is always input immediately before the direction parameter value is input, the character swings the sword after taking a certain posture.

  A similar operation system can be realized by using a mouse, a touch pad, a track pad, a track ball or the like, and these embodiments are also included in the scope of the present invention.

  When the posture parameter value θ is input (step S602; θ), the CPU 101 sandwiches θ among the posture parameter values stored in the RAM 103 in association with the posture bone information. Two are selected (step S603). Hereinafter, these two posture parameter values are α and β (α <β).

As described above, since the posture parameter values stored in the storage unit 302 are five types of 0 degree, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees, and 360 degrees,
(A) When 0 ≦ θ <90, α = 0, β = 90,
(B) When 90 ≦ θ <180, α = 90, β = 180,
(C) When 180 ≦ θ <270, α = 180, β = 270,
(D) When 270 ≦ θ <360, α = 270 and β = 360.

Next, the CPU 101 calculates an internal ratio A: B in which θ internally divides α and β (step S604). Internal ratio A: B is
A: B = (θ-α) :( β-θ)
It can be calculated as follows.

  Further, the CPU 101 blends the posture bone information associated with the posture parameter value α and the posture bone information associated with the posture parameter value β at an internal ratio A: B, Correct posture bone information is obtained (step S605).

  Hereinafter, a specific method of blending posture bone information will be described. In order to facilitate understanding, a case where only three bones are present without taking up the hierarchical structure of bones is taken as an example.

  FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram showing the positional relationship between bones in three postures. Hereinafter, a description will be given with reference to FIG. In this figure, the positional relationship is exaggerated for easy understanding.

  This figure explains the process of obtaining the third posture by blending the first posture and the second posture. Regarding the reference numerals attached to the bones and angles in the first posture, “A” is added to the code, “b” is added to the code in the second posture, and “c” is added to the code in the third posture.

  In this figure, a bone 702 extends from a bone 701 (corresponding to reference numeral 701a in the first attitude, reference numeral 701b in the second attitude, reference numeral 701c in the third attitude, and so on). Bone 703 extends from bone 702. Therefore, in this figure, there are two parent-child relationships of a parent bone 701 and a child bone 702, and a parent bone 702 and a child bone 703.

  Bones 701a, 702a, and 703a in the drawing indicate the positions of the bones in the first posture (posture parameter value α), and the bones 701b, 702b, and 703b in the drawing show the second posture (posture parameter value β). ) Shows the position of the bone.

  In addition, bones 701c, 702c, and 703c in the drawing indicate the positions of the bones in the third posture in which the first posture and the second posture are blended at the internal division ratio A: B.

  First, the position and orientation of the root bone 701 are different between the first posture and the second posture as in the bones 701a and 701b. Therefore, the position obtained by internally dividing these with the internal ratio A: B is set as the position of the bone 701c.

  Further, the bones 701a and 701b have different directions. Accordingly, an angle obtained by internally dividing the angle 710a formed by the bone 701a with the reference line and the angle 710b formed by the bone 701b with the reference line at an internal division ratio A: B is defined as an angle 710c formed by the bone 701c with the reference line. .

  Then, the position of the connection point where the bone 701c is connected to the bone 702c is inevitably determined.

  Next, consider the angle between the parent bone 701 and the child bone 702. An angle 711c obtained by internally dividing the angle 711a formed by the two members in the first posture and the angle 711b formed by the two members in the second posture with an internal division ratio A: B is calculated.

  The direction of the child bone 702c with respect to the parent bone 701c is the angle 711c.

  Then, the position of the connection point where the bone 702c and the bone 703c are connected is inevitably determined.

  Therefore, consider the angle between the parent bone 702 and the child bone 703. An angle 712c obtained by internally dividing the angle 712a formed by both in the first posture and the angle 712b formed by both in the second posture with an internal division ratio A: B is calculated.

  The direction of the child bone 703c with respect to the parent bone 702c is set to the angle 712c.

  Then, the position of the bone 703 is inevitably determined.

  In this way, by traversing the hierarchical relationship of the bones in turn, the direction of all the bones is internally divided by the internal ratio A: B. Then, the 3rd attitude | position which blended the 1st attitude | position and the 2nd attitude | position with internal division ratio A: B is obtained.

  In the description of this figure, the two-dimensional drawing is used for easy understanding, but in the three-dimensional graphics, the direction is expressed by a plurality of numerical values such as Euler angles and quaternions. In this case, the blending is executed by dividing each element internally.

  When the posture bone information for the posture parameter value θ is obtained in this way, the CPU 101 drives the image processing unit 107 and, based on the obtained posture bone information, the shape of the character placed in the virtual space. And an image representing the character is generated in the RAM 103 (step S606). Various three-dimensional graphics techniques can be applied to the image generation.

  Further, the CPU 101 stands by until a vertical synchronization interrupt occurs (step S607). During this standby, various other calculation processes can be executed in parallel as a coroutine.

  When the vertical synchronization interrupt occurs, the CPU 101 drives the image processing unit 107 to display the image generated in the RAM 103 on the screen of a monitor or the like (step S608), and returns to step S602.

  On the other hand, when the orientation parameter value φ has been input (step S602; φ), the CPU 101 sandwiches φ among the orientation parameter values stored in the RAM 103 in association with the motion bone information. Is selected (step S609). Hereinafter, these two orientation parameter values are γ and δ (γ <δ).

As described above, the orientation parameter values stored in the storage unit 302 are five types of 0 degree, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees, and 360 degrees.
(A) When 0 ≦ θ <90, γ = 0, δ = 90,
(B) When 90 ≦ θ <180, γ = 90, δ = 180,
(C) When 180 ≦ θ <270, γ = 180, δ = 270,
(D) When 270 ≦ θ <360, γ = 270 and δ = 360.

Next, the CPU 101 calculates an internal ratio C: D in which φ internally divides γ and δ (step S610). Internal ratio C: D is
C: D = (φ-γ) :( δ-φ)
It can be calculated as follows.

  Further, the CPU 101 blends the motion bone information associated with the orientation parameter value φ and the motion bone information associated with the orientation parameter value δ at an internal ratio C: D, The operation bone information is obtained (step S611).

  Here, the motion bone information is information indicating the difference between the posture of the character at a certain point in time and the posture at the next point of time (that is, the point in time after the vertical synchronization interrupt cycle) in a line over time. Can be considered. Therefore, the posture at the start of motion does not necessarily need to be included in the motion bone information.

  In the posture bone information, the relative direction of each bone is internally divided by the internal ratio A: B, but in the motion bone information, the difference in the direction of each bone is internally divided by the internal ratio C: D.

  In other words, in the motion bone information, the method of internally dividing the difference between the corresponding time points with the internal ratio C: D is substantially the same as the method of internally dividing the posture bone information with the internal ratio A: B. .

  Now, the difference in orientation is expressed as a difference in Euler angle or quaternion. Therefore, in the first operation and the second operation, the third operation can be obtained by dividing the difference in direction at each time point by the internal division ratio C: D for each bone.

  As for the movement of the root bone, the movement of the position of the root bone in the third operation can be obtained by equally dividing the position difference by the internal division ratio C: D.

  When the motion bone information for the direction φ is obtained in this way, the following processing is repeated in order for each time point included in the motion bone information (step S612).

  First, the current bone difference is acquired from the motion bone information (step S613).

  Then, the position of the root bone is moved by the difference of the root bone (step S614).

  Next, while sequentially traversing the tree structure from the root bone to all bones, the direction of each bone is changed by the difference acquired for the bone (step S615).

  When the current posture is obtained in the situation where the immediately previous posture parameter value is θ and the specified orientation parameter value φ, the CPU 101 drives the image processing unit 107 to obtain the obtained posture. Based on the above, the shape of the character arranged in the virtual space is obtained, and an image representing the character is generated in the RAM 103 (step S616). Various three-dimensional graphics techniques can be applied to the image generation.

  Further, the CPU 101 stands by until a vertical synchronization interrupt occurs (step S617). During this standby, various other calculation processes can be executed in parallel as a coroutine.

  When the vertical synchronization interrupt occurs, the CPU 101 drives the image processing unit 107 to display the image generated in the RAM 103 on a screen such as a monitor (step S618).

  When this process is repeated for the number of differences specified in the motion bone information (step S619), an animation in which the character in posture θ swings the sword in the direction φ is displayed on the screen. Thereafter, the process returns to step S602.

  FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram showing the appearance of the bone of the character set by the operation of the joystick 213 in FIG. 15 and the direction in which the character swings the sword by the operation of the joystick 213 in FIG.

  As shown in the figure, the bone 402 of the character 401 takes an intermediate posture between FIGS. 10 and 11. Further, the sword locus 502 is substantially parallel to the locus 656 of the stick 651 and does not pass through the center point 404 in this example.

  As described above, since the operation of the joystick 213 and the posture and motion of the character 401 are intuitively linked, the user can easily input the posture and motion of the character 401.

  If neither the posture parameter value θ nor the orientation parameter value φ is input (step S602; none), the CPU 101 acquires bone information representing the basic posture stored in the RAM 103 (step S620).

  Then, the CPU 101 drives the image processing unit 107 to obtain the shape of the character arranged in the virtual space based on the acquired bone information representing the basic posture, and generates an image representing the character in the RAM 103. (Step S621). Various three-dimensional graphics techniques can be applied to the image generation.

  Further, the CPU 101 stands by until a vertical synchronization interrupt occurs (step S622). During this standby, various other calculation processes can be executed in parallel as a coroutine.

  When the vertical synchronization interrupt occurs, the CPU 101 drives the image processing unit 107 to display the image generated in the RAM 103 on the screen of a monitor or the like (step S623), and returns to step S602.

  In the control flow, it is assumed that the posture parameter value θ and the orientation parameter φ are input with a time difference. However, in addition to being obtained alone, there may be embodiments in which these are obtained simultaneously. In such an aspect, when it is determined in step S602 that the posture parameter value θ and the orientation parameter φ are obtained at the same time, step S603 to step S608 are executed, and then step S609 to step S619 are executed continuously. What should I do?

  In the control flow, the transition between the posture of the character 401 and the basic posture and the transition of the posture of each posture are performed instantaneously, and the user's intention is immediately reflected.

  In addition, the transition between the postures of the respective postures and the transition between the basic postures may be gradually performed as time passes. In this case, the above technique for obtaining an intermediate posture between two postures can be applied.

  That is, the time required for the transition between the two postures is determined by the difference between the posture parameter values. Note that the time length required for the transition between the posture and the basic posture may be a constant.

  Then, the current intermediate posture is obtained by using the internal ratio at which the current time point internally divides the time length required for the entire transition.

  By displaying the intermediate posture on the screen as time passes, the posture can be changed not only instantaneously but also over time.

  In the above description, the posture bone information represents the posture of a character that is completely stationary, but an animation that represents a minute movement when the character breathes while maintaining almost the same posture in a calm state. If display is desired, information corresponding to the motion bone information is prepared for the posture bone information, and the same processing may be performed.

  In this case, motion capture is performed at a predetermined time interval for one cycle of human breathing with a sword in advance.

  Then, the position and orientation of the character bone at each time point in the cycle are determined from the motion-captured data. Then, as the time passes, the position and orientation of the bone at each time point are appropriately selected, and the position and orientation are blended.

  For example, from the posture bone information for one breath when holding the sword in the upper stage and the posture bone information for one breath when holding the sword in the middle right, 1 when the sword is held diagonally upward to the right It obtains posture bone information for breathing.

  The change of the posture bone information with the passage of time is typically a periodic change, but is not necessarily limited thereto.

  Further, as the posture parameter value and the orientation parameter value, not only the above angle but also any scalar amount representing the character's posture can be adopted.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, an intermediate motion can be generated from two types of motions of a character, and an image representing the state of the character taking the motion can be generated.

  In addition, about the aspect which operates a character, it is also possible to abbreviate | omit suitably.

  In addition, in this embodiment, an example in which the user and the character 401 are displayed on the screen so as to face each other is considered. However, the character 401 may cause the user to face the same direction. At this time, the back side of the character 401 is displayed on the screen.

  In this case, the rotation direction for measuring the posture parameter value θ and the orientation parameter value φ may be set so that the operation of the controller 105 and the operation of the character 401 are intuitively linked.

  In the above-described embodiment, only the difference information of the relative orientation of each bone over time is specified as the motion bone information, and the start posture acquisition unit 310 uses the posture bone information immediately before the start of the motion as it is. It was the posture at the start of operation.

  On the other hand, at the time of motion capture, the posture at the start of operation may be determined. When this posture is used, it is necessary to interpolate the posture currently taken by the character based on the posture bone information and the posture at the start of the motion based on the motion bone information.

  In the present embodiment, the start posture acquisition unit 310 realized by the CPU 101 performs this interpolation.

  First, a representative point whose position varies greatly depending on the posture parameter value θ and the orientation parameter value φ is considered. In the above example, a representative point is set at the tip 403 of the sword possessed by the character 401.

  Next, the posture at the start point specified by the two motion bone information is blended at the internal division ratio C: D as described above. The reason why the orientation internal ratio C: D is adopted instead of the posture internal ratio A: B is that the posture at the start time is the posture related to the motion. What is obtained here is information corresponding to the posture bone information of the stationary character.

  Then, the motion start time point is set so that the position of the representative point at the motion start time point obtained with respect to the orientation parameter value φ is brought close to the position of the representative point in the posture bone information obtained with respect to the posture parameter value θ Correct posture bone information. There are two typical correction methods.

  The first method uses inverse kinematics that employs predetermined constraint conditions.

  That is, the inverse kinematics method is used so that the sword tips 403 overlap. Inverse kinematics is a technique for correcting the position and orientation of each bone while tracing the tree structure of the bone from the leaves to the roots. In this example, the sword, the wrist holding the sword, the lower arm The direction of the bone is corrected in order, like the upper arm, shoulder, upper spine, and waist.

  The second method is a method of selecting only one connection point of the character bone and correcting the direction of the child bone connected there.

  For example, when a connection point near the character's umbilicus is adopted, the relative orientation of the upper spine bone with respect to the hip bone is changed.

  In order to bring the position of the representative point closer, a half line from the connection point to the representative point based on the posture and a half line from the connection point to the representative point based on the start point of the operation should be overlapped.

  That is, in inverse kinematics, there is a large amount of information about the orientation of the bone to be corrected, but the correction result becomes even smoother. On the other hand, it has been proved by the inventors' experiment that the technique of correcting only one bone direction is easy to calculate and does not cause an unnatural operation in practice.

  As described above, in this embodiment, when the posture at the time of start of the character is prepared in advance, the deviation between the posture at the time of stationary of the character and the posture at the start of time of movement of the character is By simple calculation, it can be made as small as possible.

  In the case where only the difference in the bone direction is adopted as the motion bone information as in the above embodiment, the correction processing as in the present embodiment is unnecessary.

  As described above, according to the present invention, an image generation apparatus, an image generation method, and a method suitable for generating an image by obtaining an arbitrary posture and movement from a specific posture and movement of a character. A program realized by a computer can be provided.

100 Information processing apparatus 101 CPU
102 ROM
103 RAM
104 Interface 105 Controller 106 External Memory 107 Image Processing Unit 108 DVD-ROM Drive 109 NIC
110 Audio processing unit 111 Microphone 121 HD
201 ↑ button 202 ↓ button 203 ← button 204 → button 205 ○ button 206 × button 207 Δ button 208 □ button 209 SELECT button 210 START button 211 ANALOG button 212 indicator 213 joystick 214 joystick 215 L1 button 216 L2 button 217 R1 button 218 R2 button Button 301 Image generation device 302 Storage unit 303 Posture reception unit 304 Posture calculation unit 305 Posture mixing unit 306 Motion reception unit 307 Motion calculation unit 308 Motion mixing unit 309 generation unit 310 Start posture acquisition unit 401 Character 402 Bone 403 Sword tip 404 Center Point 405 Vertical downward line 406 Line from the center point toward the stick 501 Vertical upward line 502 Trajectory of sword 651 Tic 652 basic position position 654 periphery 655 position 656 trajectory 701 bone 702 bone 703 bone 711 angle bone to each other is an angle 712 bone between the movement of the stick in the periphery of 653 in the peripheral edge

Claims (11)

In order to determine the posture of a character having a plurality of bones connected to each other and the change in shape when the character moves, the posture bone information indicating the relative position and orientation of the bones and the bones An image generation device that generates an image of the character using motion bone information representing an amount of change in relative position and orientation with respect to time ,
The first posture bone information when the character takes the first posture is stored in association with the first posture parameter value, and the second posture bone information when the character takes the second posture is stored. , Stored in association with the second posture parameter value, and the first motion bone information when the character moves in the first orientation is stored in association with the first orientation parameter value. A storage unit in which second motion bone information when operating in the first direction is stored in association with the second direction parameter value ;
A posture accepting unit for receiving an input of a posture parameter value representing a posture to be taken by the character;
A posture calculation unit that calculates a posture internal ratio by which the received posture parameter value internally divides the first posture parameter value and the second posture parameter value;
A posture mixing unit that obtains third posture bone information by blending the first posture bone information and the second posture bone information with the calculated posture internal ratio.
An operation accepting unit that accepts an input of an orientation parameter value indicating an orientation in which the character should act;
A direction calculator that calculates a direction internal ratio that internally divides the received direction parameter value into the first direction parameter value and the second direction parameter value;
A change mixing unit that obtains third motion bone information by blending the first motion bone information and the second motion bone information at the calculated orientation ratio.
The character is moved over time from the posture determined by the obtained third posture bone information with the motion determined by the obtained third motion bone information, and the character changes shape with the passage of time. An image generation apparatus comprising: a generation unit that generates a moving image representing a state of the image generation. The image generation apparatus according to claim 1,
The plurality of bones are hierarchized into a tree structure in which each bone is a node and one of the two connected bones is assigned as a parent node and the other bone as a child node. Information is expressed by specifying the position and orientation of the bone of a child node (hereinafter referred to as “child bone”) relative to the bone of the parent node (hereinafter referred to as “parent bone”). An image generating device. The image generation apparatus according to claim 2,
The position and orientation of the child bone are the coordinates of the connection point at which the child bone is connected to the parent bone in the coordinate system fixed to the parent bone, and the Euler angle representing the orientation of the child bone in the coordinate system. Or expressed by quaternions,
The posture mixing unit internally divides Euler angles or quaternions of the corresponding bones in the first posture bone information and the second posture bone information by the calculated posture internal ratio, The third generation bone information is obtained. The image generation apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3 ,
A start posture acquisition unit for acquiring fourth posture bone information for determining a posture at which the character starts to move;
The generation unit is configured to cause the character to move with time from a posture determined by the acquired fourth posture bone information with an operation determined by the obtained third motion bone information. Image generation device. The image generation apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein a representative point is fixed to any one of a plurality of bones of the character, and the character starts to move in the motion bone information. Posture bone information representing the posture at the time of starting to be associated,
The start posture acquisition unit blends posture bone information associated with the first motion bone information and posture bone information associated with the second motion bone information at the orientation internal ratio. Correcting the fifth posture bone information so that the position of the representative point in the fifth posture bone information obtained by the method is as close as possible to the position of the representative point in the third posture bone information;
The starting posture acquisition unit acquires posture bone information obtained by the correction as the fourth posture bone information. The image generation apparatus according to claim 5 ,
The start posture acquisition unit uses the inverse kinematics adopting a predetermined constraint condition to change the position of the representative point in the fifth posture bone information to the position of the representative point in the third posture bone information. An image generation apparatus characterized by performing the correction by overlapping. The image generation apparatus according to claim 5 ,
The start posture acquisition unit changes the relative orientation of any two bones directly connected among the plurality of bones of the character, thereby changing the position of the representative point in the fifth posture bone information. As close as possible to the position of the representative point in the third posture bone information. The image generation apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7 ,
In the storage unit, posture bone information is stored in association with each of a plurality of posture parameter values,
In a controller in which a position within a predetermined range is specified by the user, when a position included in the periphery of the predetermined range is specified, the posture receiving unit determines the orientation of the position viewed from the center position of the predetermined range, As an input of the posture parameter value,
The first posture parameter value and the second posture parameter value are two posture parameter values that sandwich the accepted posture parameter value among the plurality of posture parameter values stored in the storage unit. An image generation apparatus characterized by that. The image generation apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7 ,
The storage unit stores posture bone information in association with each of a plurality of posture parameter values, stores motion bone information in association with each of a plurality of orientation parameter values,
In the controller in which the position within the predetermined range is specified by the user, the second position included in the peripheral edge of the predetermined range passes from the first position included in the peripheral edge of the predetermined range and passes outside the peripheral edge of the predetermined range. When the designated position moves to a position, the posture receiving unit uses the orientation of the first position viewed from the center position of the predetermined range as the input of the posture parameter value, and the motion receiving unit The direction of the second position viewed from the first position is used as an input of the direction parameter value,
The first posture parameter value and the second posture parameter value are two posture parameter values that sandwich the accepted posture parameter value among the plurality of posture parameter values stored in the storage unit. The first direction parameter value and the second direction parameter value are two movement parameter values that sandwich the accepted movement parameter value among the plurality of movement parameter values stored in the storage unit. An image generation apparatus characterized by that. In order to determine the posture of a character having a plurality of bones connected to each other and the change in shape when the character moves, the posture bone information indicating the relative position and orientation of the bones and the bones An image generation method executed by an image generation apparatus that generates an image of the character using motion bone information representing a change amount of a relative position and direction with respect to time. The image generation apparatus includes a storage unit A posture receiving unit, a posture calculating unit, a posture mixing unit, a motion receiving unit, a direction calculating unit, a change mixing unit, and a generating unit, and the storage unit includes a first when the character takes a first posture. The posture bone information is stored in association with the first posture parameter value, and the second posture bone information when the character takes the second posture is the second Stored in association with the orientation parameter values,
A posture receiving step in which the posture receiving unit receives an input of a posture parameter value representing a posture to be taken by the character;
A posture calculation step in which the posture calculation unit calculates a posture internal ratio in which the received posture parameter value internally divides the first posture parameter value and the second posture parameter value;
The posture in which the posture mixing unit obtains the third posture bone information by blending the first posture bone information and the second posture bone information with the calculated posture internal ratio. Mixing process,
An operation accepting step for accepting an input of an orientation parameter value representing an orientation in which the character should act,
An orientation calculation step in which the orientation calculation unit calculates an orientation ratio in which the accepted orientation parameter value internally divides the first orientation parameter value and the second orientation parameter value;
A change in which the change mixing unit obtains third action bone information by blending the first action bone information and the second action bone information at the calculated orientation ratio. Mixing process,
The generation unit causes the character to move from the posture determined by the obtained third posture bone information with the passage of time according to the motion determined by the obtained third motion bone information. An image generation method comprising: a generation step of generating a moving image representing a state of changing a shape with progress . The computer, in order to determine the change in shape when character orientation and where the character with bones which are connected a plurality of mutually operate, posture bones information and the plurality representing the relative position and orientation of the plurality of bones A program for causing an image generation apparatus to generate an image of the character using motion bone information representing a change amount of the relative position and orientation of the bone with respect to time. ,
The first posture bone information when the character takes the first posture is stored in association with the first posture parameter value, and the second posture bone information when the character takes the second posture is stored. , Stored in association with the second posture parameter value, and the first motion bone information when the character moves in the first orientation is stored in association with the first orientation parameter value. A storage unit in which second motion bone information when operating in the first direction is stored in association with the second direction parameter value ;
A posture accepting unit for receiving an input of a posture parameter value representing a posture to be taken by the character;
A posture calculation unit that calculates a posture internal ratio by which the received posture parameter value internally divides the first posture parameter value and the second posture parameter value;
A posture mixing unit that obtains third posture bone information by blending the first posture bone information and the second posture bone information with the calculated posture internal ratio.
An operation accepting unit that accepts an input of an orientation parameter value indicating an orientation in which the character should act;
A direction calculator that calculates a direction internal ratio that internally divides the received direction parameter value into the first direction parameter value and the second direction parameter value;
A change mixing unit that obtains third motion bone information by blending the first motion bone information and the second motion bone information at the calculated orientation ratio.
The character is moved over time from the posture determined by the obtained third posture bone information with the motion determined by the obtained third motion bone information, and the character changes shape with the passage of time. A program characterized by functioning as a generation unit that generates a moving image representing the state of the image .

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