Framework for Graphics Animation and Compositing Operations

• US 20080030504A1
• Filed: 05/31/2007
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Harper, John, Brunner, Ralph, Graffagnino, Peter N.
• Granted Patent: US 8,130,226 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/473
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/00 Animation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/00 3D [Three Dimensional] image rendering

Abstract

A framework for performing graphics animation and compositing operations has a layer tree for interfacing with the application and a render tree for interfacing with a render engine. Layers in the layer tree can be content, windows, views, video, images, text, media, or any other type of object for a user interface of an application. The application commits change to the state of the layers of the layer tree. The application does not need to include explicit code for animating the changes to the layers. Instead, an animation is determined for animating the change in state. In determining the animation, the framework can define a set of predetermined animations based on motion, visibility, and transition. The determined animation is explicitly applied to the affected layers in the render tree. A render engine renders from the render tree into a frame buffer for display on the processing device. Those portions of the render tree that have changed relative to prior versions can be tracked to improve resource management.

Claims

1. A method of processing graphical content for application programs, comprising:

maintaining a plurality of renderable objects independently from graphical content of an application program executing on a processing device;

making the renderable objects available for rendering to a display of the processing device;

identifying a modification of at least a portion of the graphical content; and

manipulating at least one of the renderable objects independently from the application program to achieve a result for the modification when making the at least one renderable object available for rendering.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of manipulating comprises animating a change of a property of the at least one renderable object, whereby the change in the property of the at least one renderable object is animated from a first state to a second state when rendered to the display.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of manipulating comprise animating a transition of the at least one renderable object, whereby the at least one renderable object transitions from a first state to a second state when rendered to the display.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of manipulating comprise animating a transformation of the at least one renderable object, whereby the at least one renderable object transforms from a first state to a second state when rendered to the display.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of manipulating is performed implicitly based on the modification to the graphical content.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of manipulating is performed explicitly in response to an instruction from the application program.

7. Application Programming Interface executing on a processing device for providing an application graphics processing method in accordance with claim 1.

8. An operating system service, comprising an Application Programming Interface for providing an application graphics processing method in accordance with claim 1.

9. A program storage device having instructions stored thereon for causing a programmable control device to perform a method in accordance with claim 1.

10. An Application Programming Interface for a processing device, comprising:

a first interface with an application program executing on a processing device;

a second interface with a render engine for rendering to a display of the processing device;

an input process receiving information pertaining to graphical content of the application program via the first interface and creating a data structure having a plurality of renderable objects based on the graphical content information;

an output process outputting the renderable objects of the data structure to the render engine via the second interface; and

an intermediate process responding to a modification of at least a portion of the graphical content in the information received via the first interface, the intermediate process determining one or more actions to achieve a result for the modification and performing the one or more actions on the data structure as the output process makes the renderable objects available to the render engine.

11. An application programming interface for use in connection with processing graphical content of an application program executing on a processing device, wherein—

the application programming interface receives as input information pertaining to the graphical content of the application program, creates a data structure having a plurality of renderable objects based on the input, and provides the renderable objects as output to a render engine for rendering to a display of the processing device, and

the application programming interface, in response to a modification of at least a portion of the graphical content in the information received, determines one or more actions to achieve a result for the modification and performs the one or more actions on the data structure as the renderable objects are made available to the render engine.

12. A method of processing graphical content for application programs, comprising:

interfacing with an application program executing on a processing device;

maintaining a plurality of renderable objects based on graphical content of the application program;

making the renderable objects available for rendering to a display of the processing device;

identifying a modification of at least a portion of the graphical content;

determining one or more actions to perform on at least one of the renderable objects to achieve a result for the modification; and

performing the one or more actions on the at least one renderable object to achieve the result when making the at least one renderable object available for rendering.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the act of interfacing with the application program comprises maintaining a first data structure having a plurality of model objects associated with the graphical content of the application program.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the act of identifying the modification comprises identifying a model object being inserted into the first data structure by the application program, a model object being removed from the first data structure by the application program, a change being made to a property of one of the model objects in the first data structure by the application program, or an explicit request from the application program.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the act of maintaining the plurality of renderable objects comprises maintaining a second data structure separate from the first data structure, the second data structure having the plurality of renderable objects that are based on the model objects of the first data structure.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the act of making the renderable objects available for rendering to the display of the processing device comprises making the renderable objects in the second data structure available to a rendering process executing on the processing device.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the act of determining is performed implicitly based on the modification to the graphical content.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the act of determining is performed explicitly in response to an instruction from the application program.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the act of performing comprises using interpolated values of a property to perform the one or more actions.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the property comprises a resizing attribute, a color attribute, a filter, a border attribute, a coordinate system, a visibility attribute, a mask, an opacity value, a position, a shadow attribute, a sublayer, a transform matrix, or any combination thereof.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein the act of performing comprises using timing information to perform the one or more actions.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the timing information comprises a liner progression, a discrete progression, a paced progression, an ease-in progression, an ease-out progression, an ease-in then ease-out progression, a progression based on a function, a progression based on a Beizer curve, or any combination thereof.

23. The method of claim 12, wherein the act of performing comprises using directional information to perform the one or more actions.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the directional information comprises an indication of moving on the display from a left direction, a right direction, a top direction, a bottom direction, a corner direction, an arbitrary direction, or any combination thereof.

25. The method of claim 12, wherein the acts of determining and performing comprise:

determining a change in a property of at least one of the renderable objects in response to the modification; and

animating the change in the property of the at least one renderable object when making it available for rendering.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the property comprises a resizing attribute, a color attribute, a filter, a border attribute, a coordinate system, a visibility attribute, a mask, an opacity value, a position, a shadow attribute, a sublayer, a transform matrix, or any combination thereof for an object associated with the graphical content.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the act of animating comprises using interpolated values to animate the change in the property.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the act of animating comprises using timing information to animate the change in the property.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein the act of animating comprises using directional information to animate the change in the property.

30. The method of claim 12, wherein the acts of determining and performing comprise:

determining a transition of at least one of the renderable objects in response to the modification; and

animating the at least one renderable object with the transition when making it available for rendering.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the transition comprises a fading in of the at least one renderable object for display, a fading out of the at least one renderable object from display, a moving in of the at least one renderable object for display, a moving out of the at least one renderable object from display, a pushing in of the at least one renderable object for display, a pushing out of the at least one renderable object from display, a revealing of the at least one renderable object for display, or a combination thereof.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein the act of animating comprises using interpolated values to animate the transition.

33. The method of claim 30, wherein the act of animating comprises using timing information to animate the transition.

34. The method of claim 30, wherein the act of animating comprises using directional information to animate the transition.

35. The method of claim 12, wherein the acts of determining and performing comprise:

determining a transformation of at least one of the renderable objects in response to the modification; and

animating the transformation of the at least one renderable object when making it available for rendering.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the transformation comprises translating the at least one renderable object from a first position to a second position, rotating the at least one renderable object about at least one axis, scaling the at least one renderable object along at least one axis, warping the at least one renderable object in at least one direction, folding at least a portion of the at least one renderable object, or a combination thereof.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein the act of animating comprises using interpolated values to animate the transformation.

38. The method of claim 35, wherein the act of animating comprises using timing information to animate the transformation.

39. The method of claim 35, wherein the act of animating comprises using directional information to animate the transformation.

40. The method of claim 12, wherein the renderable objects comprise a scrollable object contained within a framing object, and wherein the acts of determining and performing comprise:

determining one or more actions to scroll the scrollable object within the framing object in response to the modification; and

performing the one or more actions to scroll the scrollable object within the framing object when making the scrollable object available for rendering.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the act of performing comprises using tiled portions of the scrollable object.

42. The method of claim 40, wherein the act of performing comprises using timing information to scroll the scrollable object.

43. The method of claim 40, wherein the act of performing comprises using directional information to scroll the scrollable object.

44. Application Programming Interface executing on a processing device for performing a method in accordance with claim 12.

45. An operating system service, comprising an Application Programming Interface for providing a method in accordance with claim 12.

46. A program storage device having instructions stored thereon for causing a programmable control device to perform a method in accordance with claim 12.