Patent ID: 7737996

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for forming one or more animation sequences used in animating a graphic comprising: receiving a semantic model of one or more semantic elements corresponding to content data; receiving a presentation model of one or more presentation elements corresponding to objects to be populated with said content data and displayed in a diagram presented by a computer; determining a set of one or more mappings for each of said semantic elements, said set of one or more mappings including a mapping of each of said semantic elements to one or more presentation elements, each of said one or more mappings classified based on different types of mapping relationships characterized by number of mappings between semantic elements and presentation elements; receiving a user-selected animation sequence type for grouping semantic elements to animate together as an animation sequence; ordering said set of one or more mappings in accordance with said selected animation sequence type, said selected animation sequence type specifying set of grouped semantic elements that animate together; and building one or more animation sequences by traversing said set of one or more mappings in accordance with said ordering, determining which semantic elements to include in a current animation sequence in accordance with said selected animation sequence type, determining a mapping classification associated with each semantic element to include in said current animation sequence, and applying one or more rules for building animation sequences in accordance with a particular mapping classification associated with each semantic element to include in said current animation sequence, wherein said set of one or more mappings is modified automatically in response to a change in a current diagram or selection of a different diagram and is traversed in accordance with a different ordering in response to a different selected animation sequence type.