System and method of converting frame-based animations into interpolator-based animations and rendering animations

A mobile device comprising:

• a wireless communications system for sending and receiving signals over a wireless network;
• a display screen;
• a storage;
• a processor coupled to the wireless communications system, display screen and storage for controlling operation of the mobile device;
• a binary animation instruction set stored in the storage and including a visual graph and a sequence graph, the visual graph including instructions defining visual objects that are to be displayed on the display screen and visual attributes of the visual objects, the sequence graph including instructions setting out behavioral operations to be performed on the visual objects, at least some of the behavioral operations defining changes to the visual attributes of the visual objects;
• and
• rendering agent means associated with the processor for rendering the visual objects on the display screen in accordance with the instructions contained in the visual graph and periodically re-rendering at least some of the visual objects in accordance with the behavioral operations set out in the sequence graph.

A computer implemented method for converting a computer animation from a frame-based animation format into an interpolator-based animation format,

• wherein in the frame based animation format a frame-based computer animation is displayed as a series of successive frames in which appear animation objects each having associated display properties that change throughout the frames, the animation objects each appearing at a unique associated depth in the frames, the frame-based computer animation being represented in computer memory as data defining the animation objects and frame instructions identifying for each frame the animation objects appearing therein and the display properties and depth associated with each of the animation objects appearing therein,
• wherein in the interpolator-based animation format an interpolator-based computer animation is displayed in which animation objects appear having display properties that change over time, the interpolator-based computer animation being represented in computer memory as data defining animation objects appearing in the interpolator-based computer animation and interpolators associated with each of the animation objects that specify changes in the display properties of the animation object over time,
• the method including:
• a) identifying in a frame-based computer animation each unique combination of animation object and associated depth identified in the frame instructions for the plurality of frames;
• b) for each identified unique combination, identifying the display properties associated with the animation object of the combination through the successive frames;
• and
• c) for each identified display property for each identified unique combination, creating an interpolator associated with the animation object of the combination which specifies any changes that occur in the display property for the associated animation object throughout the plurality of frames.