System supporting animation of graphical display elements through animation object instances

A method for animating display elements in a graphical display system including a display structure for maintaining a set of runtime display elements generated by an executing program and a property system for managing properties associated with the display elements, and wherein animating ones of the display element is achieved by modifying display element property values in response to a passage of time, the method comprising:

• creating a graphical display element including a modifiable property;
• defining an animation behavior assignable to the modifiable property;
• associating, in accordance with requests from a program at runtime, the animation behavior with the modifiable property of the element;
• and
• providing a sequence of time-varying values to the modifiable property in accordance with the animation behavior wherein the providing a sequence of time-varying values comprises, initiating the animation behvior by
• applying multiple times, over an active animation period, a current time and a base property value to an animation value generator embodying the animation behavior, to render a current value for the modifiable property, wherein applying the multiple times comprises using a process that receives the base property value and returns a value based on the process's internal modifier definition computation of a progress value, and
• generating an updated layout in accordance with the current value for the modifiable property.

A method for applying an animation behavior to an element property maintained by a property system to implement sequential modifications to the element property value over the course of time, said method comprising:

• instantiating animation object instances from animation object classes specifying basic animation behaviors;
• instantiating an animation collection object from an animation collection class specifying a list of constituent animation objects;
• and
• instantiating a dynamic animation collection from an animation collection class that associates the animation collection object with the element property maintained by the property system;
• applying a current time and a base property value to the constituent animation objects of the animation collection object to render a current property value for the element property, initiating the animation object wherein the animation object classes use a process that receives the base property value and returns a value based on the process's internal modifier definition computation of a progress value;
• generating an updated layout in accordance with the current property value for the element property.

A computer-readable medium including computer executable instructions for providing a graphical display animation system supporting timed modification of element property values, the graphical display animation system comprising:

• a display structure for maintaining a set of elements, wherein an element includes a variable property value affecting a display characteristic of the element;
• a property system for maintaining properties associated with elements maintained by the display structure, including dynamic properties that are capable of changing over time;
• and
• animation classes, from which animation objects are instantiated, wherein the animation object instances provide time varying values affecting values assigned to the dynamic properties, wherein the time varying values are produced by applying multiple times, over an active animation period, a current time and a base property value, wherein, to initiate the animation objects, the animation classes use a process that receives the base property value and returns a value based on the process's internal modifier definition computation of a progress value and a display device configured to display an updated layout based upon the set of elements.