Patent ID: 7692657

Claim:
Animation editing apparatus for editing animation data, said apparatus comprising a data storage, a processing device, a visual display and a manually responsive input device, wherein: said manually responsive input device is configured to allow a user to indicate a selected point on the visual display; said visual display is configured to display an image representing a simulated three-dimensional world-space including a simulated three-dimensional object comprised of a plurality of related simulated three-dimensional objects; said manually responsive input device is configured to provide an input signal indicating a location within said image corresponding to one of said plurality of related three-dimensional objects based on said selected point; said processing device is configured to identify said one of said plurality of related simulated three-dimensional objects in response to receiving said location indicated via said input signal, and to retrieve data from said data storage of one or more related items defining attributes related to said identified simulated three-dimensional object, wherein said attributes have hierarchy levels of a single predefined degree among degrees of relationships corresponding only to said identified simulated three-dimensional object at said location; said visual display is configured to display labels identifying said one of said plurality of simulated three-dimensional objects including said related items that are only within said predefined degree among a hierarchy containing each of said plurality of simulated three-dimensional objects.