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Method and apparatus for handling secondary dependencies

  • US 6,756,994 B1
  • Filed: 08/07/2000
  • Issued: 06/29/2004
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2000
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
Patent Images

1. A method of creating a series of images, each member of said series being related to a preceding member, said images being formed by rendering a plurality of graphical objects according to a compositing tree representing a compositing expression, said compositing tree including a plurality of nodes each representing a component of at least one of said images, each of said objects having a predetermined outline, said method comprising the steps of:

  • (a) for each said node, dividing a component image space in which said outlines are defined into one or more mutually exclusive regions, each said region being related to at least one graphical object and being substantially formed by one or more of said predetermined outlines, wherein each said node has at least one associated region;

    (b) generating at least one directed acyclic graph for substantially each node of said compositing tree, said directed acyclic graph identifying, for at least one region associated with a particular node, those regions associated with any other nodes of said compositing tree that if changed can affect said at least one region;

    (c) rendering a first image of said series by compositing any one or more of said regions substantially according to said compositing tree;

    (d) in response to at least one change to at least one of said nodes of said compositing tree, (i) examining the directed acyclic graph corresponding to said at least one node to identify those of said regions affected by said at least one change, wherein if at least one of said regions associated with said at least one node is indirectly affected by a change to at least one other of said regions associated with any other node of said compositing tree, said indirectly affected region is identified by inference through association with at least one other of said affected regions, said inference being determined through said examination of the directed acyclic graph corresponding to said at least one node, (ii) for each node having affected regions, updating the corresponding identified regions and incorporating into said node those new regions arising from the change and/or removing any of said regions that are no longer relevant, (iii) updating directed acyclic graphs corresponding to at least each node having affected regions to reflect changes to said compositing tree, and (iv) rendering a further image of said series by compositing those regions affected by said at least one change; and

    (e) repeating step (d) for further changes to at least one of said nodes of said compositing tree.

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