Patent 7345686 was granted and assigned to Pixar on March, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A method and apparatus for visibility determination and processing. The method includes receiving at least information associated with a plurality of objects, generating a first plurality of geometric primitives based on at least information associated with the plurality of objects, generating a first plurality of grids based on at least information associated with the first plurality of geometric primitives, and shading the first plurality of grids. The generating a first plurality of grids includes generating a second plurality of grids associated with the first plurality of geometric primitives, selecting a third plurality of grids from the second plurality of grids, and selecting the first plurality of grids from the third plurality of grids.