Graphical user interface for creating data structures used for computing simulated surfaces for animation generation and other purpose

1. A computer implemented method for displaying surfaces of simulated objects within a scene at different stages of development, the method comprising:

receiving a first selection from a user via a first selector of a user interface;

based on the first selection, displaying at least a portion of the scene on a display as:

(1) a plurality of particles, wherein the particles of the plurality of particles each comprise a plurality of attributes;

(2) a plurality of ellipsoids formed from the plurality of particles, wherein dimensions and orientation of the ellipsoids of the plurality of ellipsoids each depend on a number and direction of neighboring ellipsoids within a search radius of the ellipsoid different from the dimensions of the ellipsoid; or

(3) one or more splatted or rasterized surfaces formed from the plurality of ellipsoids; and

receiving editorial inputs from the user via the user interface to modify attributes of the particles, or dimensions or orientations of the ellipsoids, while the at least a portion of the scene is displayed on the display.

2. A computer implemented method for displaying surfaces of simulated objects within a scene at different stages of development, the method comprising:

receiving a first selection from a user via a first selector of a user interface;

based on the first selection, displaying at least a portion of the scene on a display as:

(1) a plurality of particles, wherein at least some particles of the plurality of particles each comprise a plurality of attributes;

(2) a plurality of ellipsoids formed from the plurality of particles, wherein dimensions and orientation of at least some ellipsoids of the plurality of ellipsoids each depend on a number and direction of neighboring ellipsoids within a search radius of the ellipsoid; or

(3) one or more splatted or rasterized surfaces formed from the plurality of ellipsoids; and

receiving editorial inputs from the user via the user interface to modify attributes of the at least some particles, or dimensions or orientations of the at least some ellipsoids, while the at least a portion of the scene is displayed on the display,

wherein modifying attributes of the at least some particles comprises adjusting a voxel size or particle size of the at least some particles.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2 , wherein modifying dimensions or orientations of the at least some ellipsoids comprises adjusting the search radius.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the editorial inputs from the user specify whether to make the search radius proportional to the particle size.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of attributes comprises at least one of an X-coordinate, a Y-coordinate, a Z-coordinate, an anisotropy matrix, a rotation matrix, a size, a color, a maximum elongation, a position smoothing, a volume normalization, or a global size scaling.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving one or more masking inputs from the user via the user interface to define a neighborhood of particles.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 6 , further comprising receiving one or more artistic inputs from the user via the user interface to manipulate one or more attributes of particles within the neighborhood of particles.

8. A computer implemented method for displaying surfaces of simulated objects within a scene at different stages of development, the method comprising:

receiving a first selection from a user via a first selector of a user interface;

based on the first selection, displaying at least a portion of the scene on a display as:

(1) a plurality of particles, wherein at least some particles of the plurality of particles each comprise a plurality of attributes;

(2) a plurality of ellipsoids formed from the plurality of particles, wherein dimensions and orientation of at least some ellipsoids of the plurality of ellipsoids each depend on a number and direction of neighboring ellipsoids within a search radius of the ellipsoid; or

(3) one or more splatted or rasterized surfaces formed from the plurality of ellipsoids;

receiving editorial inputs from the user via the user interface to modify attributes of the at least some particles, or dimensions or orientations of the at least some ellipsoids, while the at least a portion of the scene is displayed on the display; and

receiving from the user, via the user interface, an expression that defines a relationship between a first attribute of the plurality of attributes and a second attribute of the plurality of attributes.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8 , wherein the expression includes one or more arithmetic operations.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the expression includes one or more constants.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising receiving from the user, via the user interface, a functional selection of whether the expression affects the particles within a neighborhood globally or per-particle.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving from the user a color selection of whether to display the at least a portion of the scene in monochrome or in color.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving from the user a render selection of whether to render the at least a portion of the scene.

14. A computer implemented method for displaying surfaces of simulated objects within a scene at different stages of development, the method comprising:

receiving a first selection from a user via a first selector of a user interface;

based on the first selection, displaying at least a portion of the scene on a display as:

(1) a plurality of particles, wherein at least some particles of the plurality of particles each comprise a plurality of attributes;

(2) a plurality of ellipsoids formed from the plurality of particles, wherein dimensions and orientation of at least some ellipsoids of the plurality of ellipsoids each depend on a number and direction of neighboring ellipsoids within a search radius of the ellipsoid; or

(3) one or more splatted or rasterized surfaces formed from the plurality of ellipsoids;

receiving editorial inputs from the user via the user interface to modify attributes of the at least some particles, or dimensions or orientations of the at least some ellipsoids, while the at least a portion of the scene is displayed on the display; and

receiving from the user a render selection of whether to render the at least a portion of the scene,

wherein the render selection includes whether to render the scene with a maximum number of vertices per traced light path.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the scene is two-dimensional or three-dimensional.

16. A computer system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory storage medium storing instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to implement the computer implemented method of claim 1 .

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, which when executed by at least one processor of a computer system, causes the computer system to implement the computer implemented method of claim 1 .

18. A non-transitory carrier medium carrying image data of the scene that has been processed by the computer implemented method of claim 1 .

19. The computer implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of attributes comprises at least one of an X-coordinate, a Y-coordinate, a Z-coordinate, an anisotropy matrix, a rotation matrix, a size, a color, a maximum elongation, a position smoothing, a volume normalization, or a global size scaling.

20. The computer implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising receiving one or more masking inputs from the user via the user interface to define a neighborhood of particles.

21. The computer implemented method of claim 20 , further comprising receiving one or more artistic inputs from the user via the user interface to manipulate one or more attributes of particles within the neighborhood of particles.

22. The computer implemented method of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of attributes comprises at least one of an X-coordinate, a Y-coordinate, a Z-coordinate, an anisotropy matrix, a rotation matrix, a size, a color, a maximum elongation, a position smoothing, a volume normalization, or a global size scaling.

23. The computer implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising receiving one or more masking inputs from the user via the user interface to define a neighborhood of particles.

24. The computer implemented method of claim 23 , further comprising receiving one or more artistic inputs from the user via the user interface to manipulate one or more attributes of particles within the neighborhood of particles.

25. The computer implemented method of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of attributes comprises at least one of an X-coordinate, a Y-coordinate, a Z-coordinate, an anisotropy matrix, a rotation matrix, a size, a color, a maximum elongation, a position smoothing, a volume normalization, or a global size scaling.

26. The computer implemented method of claim 14 , further comprising receiving one or more masking inputs from the user via the user interface to define a neighborhood of particles.

27. The computer implemented method of claim 26 , further comprising receiving one or more artistic inputs from the user via the user interface to manipulate one or more attributes of particles within the neighborhood of particles.

28. The computer implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising receiving from the user a color selection of whether to display the at least a portion of the scene in monochrome or in color.

29. The computer implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising receiving from the user a render selection of whether to render the at least a portion of the scene.

30. The computer implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising receiving from the user a color selection of whether to display the at least a portion of the scene in monochrome or in color.

31. The computer implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising receiving from the user a render selection of whether to render the at least a portion of the scene.

32. The computer implemented method of claim 14 , further comprising receiving from the user a color selection of whether to display the at least a portion of the scene in monochrome or in color.

33. The computer implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the scene is two-dimensional or three-dimensional.

34. A computer system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory storage medium storing instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to implement the computer implemented method of claim 2 .

35. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, which when executed by at least one processor of a computer system, causes the computer system to implement the computer implemented method of claim 2 .

36. A non-transitory carrier medium carrying image data of the scene that has been processed by the computer implemented method of claim 2 .

37. The computer implemented method of claim 8 , wherein the scene is two-dimensional or three-dimensional.

38. A computer system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory storage medium storing instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to implement the computer implemented method of claim 8 .

39. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, which when executed by at least one processor of a computer system, causes the computer system to implement the computer implemented method of claim 8 .

40. A non-transitory carrier medium carrying image data of the scene that has been processed by the computer implemented method of claim 8 .