Patent ID: 7714869

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of animating a scene comprising a plurality of objects, each object represented by one of a plurality of models, the method comprising: determining an object to be animated; identifying a first model of the plurality of models, the first model corresponding to the object to be animated; accessing a representation of the plurality of models, wherein for each of the plurality of models, the representation includes: a representation of the model, a representation of one or more inputs of the model, a representation of an output of the model, and a representation of a set of data dependencies between the one or more inputs of the model and an output of a different model; determining, based on the representation of the plurality of models, one or more models of the plurality of models that require evaluation in order to evaluate the first model; loading the first model and the one or more models of the plurality of models into the computer memory, wherein the plurality of models includes at least one model that is not loaded into the computer memory; evaluating the one or more of the plurality of models and the first model, thereby rendering the object, wherein, once loaded, the one or more models and the first model are evaluated in a predetermined manner, the predetermined manner being statically defined in the representation of the plurality of models; and displaying the object on a display device, wherein said determining, identifying, accessing, loading and evaluating are performed via a computer processor.