Virtual Camera Path Editing via Event-Based Keyframes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Real-time navigation of virtual cameras in 6 degrees of freedom is challenging, especially in capturing important events, as users struggle to react to moving targets, leading to errors in camera paths, and editing these paths is labor-intensive due to excessive data points, making it difficult to achieve smooth camera motion efficiently.
Innovation Solution
A method that identifies control points along the camera path based on significant events, allowing users to modify the path only in the vicinity of these points, interpolating between them to recreate a smooth camera path that matches the original intent, reducing the number of data points and facilitating easier editing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the camera path is composed of data points recorded at frame rate (60 fps), then the camera motion can be sustained consistently, but the amount of data becomes excessive (600 points in 10 seconds) making editing labor-intensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the continuous camera path data into discrete keyframes at significant events. Instead of presenting all 600 frame-rate data points for editing, the system identifies and extracts only the critical moments (goals, penalties, throw-ins) as keyframes. This segmentation reduces the editing workload from hundreds of points to a manageable number of event-based keyframes while maintaining camera motion consistency through interpolation between these keyframes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts only the essential data points from the complete camera path. By taking out the keyframes corresponding to significant events and removing the intermediate redundant data points, the system creates a simplified camera path that retains the important camera positions and orientations. This extraction process reduces data volume while preserving the essential camera motion characteristics needed for consistent playback.
2Productivity
If the path is simplified to reduce data points, then the difficulty of managing excessive data is reduced, but the location of remaining data points becomes random and may not be beneficial to the user
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary identification and marking of significant events before the editing process. By automatically detecting and tagging events such as goals, penalties, and throw-ins in advance, the system prepares the camera path with pre-identified keyframes at meaningful locations. This preliminary action ensures that when users review the simplified path, the remaining data points are strategically positioned at important moments rather than being randomly distributed, making the editing process more intuitive and user-friendly.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different qualities or densities of data points at different locations along the camera path. Instead of uniform distribution, the system concentrates keyframes at locations corresponding to significant events (high importance areas) and reduces or removes points in less critical segments. This local quality variation ensures that data points are strategically positioned where they provide maximum value for capturing important moments, enhancing user friendliness while maintaining data management efficiency.
3Loss of information
If the original camera path data is presented to the user, then complete information is available, but the user cannot quickly determine which areas need editing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses visual differentiation (analogous to color changes) to highlight significant events in the camera path. By marking keyframes with visual indicators corresponding to event types (such as different colors or symbols for goals, penalties, throw-ins), the system enables users to quickly identify which areas of the path contain important moments that may need editing. This visual coding maintains complete information about all events while allowing users to rapidly scan and locate editing priorities without reviewing every data point.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary analysis to identify and mark significant events before presenting the camera path to the user. By pre-processing the data to highlight important moments with visual indicators or metadata tags, the system prepares the information in a readily interpretable format. This allows users to quickly determine which areas need editing by looking at the marked events rather than analyzing raw coordinate data, significantly reducing the time needed to identify editing priorities while preserving complete event information.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method of controlling a virtual camera. The method comprises receiving a camera path of the virtual camera, the camera path defining movement of the virtual camera over a period of time to capture video data of a scene; and determining a plurality of control points on the camera path using a plurality of time markers within the period of time, each of the time markers corresponding to at least one event of a predetermined type being identified in the scene, wherein the control points at least partially define the camera path. The method further comprises controlling the virtual camera using the camera path modified based on the plurality of control points in response to a user input in relation to at least one of the control points.