Patent ID: 8314801

Claim:
At a computer system including a processor and a memory, a method for automatically generating an animation for a transition between a current state and a new state, the method comprising: an act of accessing state properties of a visual element corresponding to a current state the visual element is in and a new state the visual element is to be transitioned to, the state properties for each of the current and new states including visual properties and transition description information, the state properties including multiple different separately applicable portions of transition description information; an act of the processor determining the differences between the state properties of the current state and the state properties of the new state; an act of determining that the selectively applicable portions of transition description information apply both to the current state and the new state, only to the new state or only to the current state; an act of weighting the portions of transition description information based on whether the portions of transition description information apply to both the current state and the new state, only to the new state or only to the current state; and an act of automatically generating an animation based on the determined differences between the state properties of the current state and the state properties of the new state and the applicable transition description information determined by the weighting, such that the animation is playable to transition the visual element from the current state to new state.