Patent Document ID: 7643037
Application ID: 10840894

Base Claim:
1. A method of applying effects to a number of computer-generated characters, the method comprising: defining an effect for a first character and a second character; displaying, on a display device of a computer, a commencement of an application of the effect to the first character; and after starting the display of the commencement of the application of the effect to the first character, displaying, on the display device of the computer, a commencement of an application of the effect to the second character, wherein the application of the effect to a particular character comprises displaying a movement of the particular character, wherein the effect is applied for a same amount of time to each character such that there is a first period of time when the first character and the second character are both moving and a second period of time when the second character is still moving after the first character stops moving.

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Claim 12:
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein defining the effect comprises specifying a time delay for commencing an application of the effect to at least one character from a plurality of characters, wherein a time delay for the first character is different than a time delay for the second character.