Patent ID: 7598952

Claim:
A method including: identifying a plurality of image elements to be rendered within a three-dimensional image; identifying a set of light sources according to which lighting and shadowing are to be computed within the three-dimensional image; transforming the plurality of image elements from an object space, defined by an object coordinate system, to an intermediate space defined by an intermediate coordinate system; for each image element of the plurality of image elements, generating a shaded image element, wherein the generating of the shaded image element includes rendering the respective image element into a buffer for each light source of the set of light sources so as to accumulate lighting effects, particular to the image element, within the buffer as the shaded image element; transforming the shaded image elements from the intermediate space to an eye space defined by an eye coordinate system through a world space; and for each image element of the plurality of image elements, rendering at least one effect with respect to the shaded image element to generate a modified image element.