Patent ID: 7973803

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for rendering an artwork comprising a plurality of surfaces, wherein the plurality of surfaces comprises a plurality of sets of semi-transparent surfaces, the method comprising, for each of the sets of semi-transparent surfaces: rendering each of the semi-transparent surfaces in the set of semi-transparent surfaces to a multi-sampling image buffer comprising an array of sub-pixels, wherein each sub-pixel in the array of sub-pixels is indexed to a corresponding one of the semi-transparent surfaces in the set of semi-transparent surfaces; multiplying each of the sub-pixels in the multi-sampling image buffer by one or more transparency values of one or more surfaces that occlude the respective sub-pixel in the corresponding semi-transparent surface; and adding each of the sub-pixels in the multi-sampling image buffer to a second image buffer after the rendering and the multiplying, wherein the second image buffer comprises an array of pixels at a display resolution; wherein the multi-sampling image buffer comprises anti-aliasing samples for each of the pixels in each of the semi-transparent surfaces in the set of semi-transparent surfaces, wherein a number of the anti-aliasing samples for each of the pixels is at least two, wherein a number of the semi-transparent surfaces in the set of semi-transparent surfaces is at least two, wherein the multi-sampling image buffer is larger than the display resolution by a multi-sampling factor, and wherein the multi-sampling factor is a product of the number of the anti-aliasing samples for each of the pixels and the number of the semi-transparent surfaces in the set of semi-transparent surfaces.