Abstract: A timepiece includes a plurality of coaxially mounted disks which are driven with different periods, at least some of the disks having a time indicator area which is visible through one or more transmissive areas on one or more disks which lie over it. In a preferred embodiment, one of the disks is provided with three concentric annular zones and is driven with a period of sixty seconds. The outermost zone has discrete reflective areas which are visible through discrete transmissive areas in an overlying annular zone. The inner zones have discrete transmissive areas through which discrete reflective areas in two concentric annular zones on two respective lower disks are visible. The lowermost disk is driven with a period of twelve hours and is visible through a central transparent area of an intermediate disk which is driven with a period of sixty minutes.

Abstract: A method of integrating two independent simulations including running a first simulation simulating changes in an object over time. The first simulation includes a first simulation output reflective of a state of the first simulation at one or more predefined times. A second simulation is run concurrently simulating changes in a second object over time. An interaction between the first and second simulations is defined resulting in an integrated simulation output without affecting the first simulation state.

Abstract: A timepiece includes a plurality of coaxially mounted disks which are driven with different periods, at least some of the disks having a time indicator area which is visible through one or more transmissive areas on one or more disks which lie over it. In a preferred embodiment, one of the disks is provided with three concentric annular zones and is driven with a period of sixty seconds. The outermost zone has discrete reflective areas which are visible through discrete transmissive areas in an overlying annular zone. The inner zones have discrete transmissive areas through which discrete reflective areas in two concentric annular zones on two respective lower disks are visible. The lowermost disk is driven with a period of twelve hours and is visible through a central transparent area of an intermediate disk which is driven with a period of sixty minutes.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method for delaying the rendering of source material associated with a source layer in a nested composition that is a layer in a root composition. During the rendering of the root composition the method retrieves the source layer, promotes the source layer to the root layer and delays the rendering of the source material until the root layer is rendered.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method and apparatus for animating a property (such as the position of an object) using floating keyframes to selectively decouple property space and time constraints. Fixed keyframes and floating keyframes may used to specify a path through an n-dimensional property space, but the motion along the path is controlled only by the fixed keyframes. The timing of the floating keyframes is determined by temporal attributes of the nearest fixed keyframes.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method and apparatus for rendering a composition where the user selects a composition to be rendered, a set of render settings and two or more different output format definitions to create output of two or more different formats. The composition is rendered according to the user-selected render settings to create master frames. The master frames are transformed according to each output format definition to create formatted frames in the selected output format.