Abstract: Methods and systems for creating and rendering skins are described. In one described embodiment, a skin is defined using at least one skin definition that defines the skin in a hierarchical tag-based language.

Abstract: Methods and systems for creating and rendering skins are described. In one described embodiment, a method of providing a skin model for use in rendering a skin comprises receiving a skin definition file that contains information associated with a skin, and one or more other files that are associated with the skin; providing at least some of the one or more other files directly into computer memory, without the files entering a computer file system; and processing the skin definition file to provide a hierarchical data structure that describes the skin.

Abstract: Methods and systems for creating and rendering skins are described. In one described embodiment, a skin-organizing method comprises providing one or more file types that define different aspects of a skin; and organizing the files types using a hierarchical tag-based structure.

Abstract: Methods and systems for creating and rendering skins are described. In one described embodiment, an XML data structure comprises multiple tag pairs, individual tag pairs being associated with and referencing information that can be utilized to render a skin.

Abstract: Methods and systems for creating and rendering skins are described. In one described embodiment skins can be defined as sets of script files, art files, media files, and text files. These files can be used to create new and different skin appearances, layouts and functionalities. The files are organized for use using a hierarchical tag-based data structure, an example of which is an XML data structure. The data structure is processed to provide an object model. The object model can be a scriptable object model that enables script to execute to provide an interactive, dynamic skin that can respond to internal and external events. In one embodiment, a computer architecture used for rendering the skin includes a layout manager that processes an intermediate representation of the XML data structure to provide the scriptable object model. Various components of the scriptable object model can include a script engine for receiving and executing script, and one or more rendering elements.

Abstract: A method of supporting all raster-based image manipulations described in vector-based terms. The present invention has the benefits of providing clean transformation that vector-based manipulations yields, and providing a broad selection of all image transformation operations that raster-based manipulations yield. In one aspect of the invention a vector-defined shape is drawn on top of a raster-based image by replacing the contents of the vector image with the bits from the raster image. In another aspect of the present invention, a copy of the portion of the raster image that overlaps with the vector-defined portion is made, the transformation operation is performed on the copy, and then the portion of the raster image is replaced with the transformed copy.

Abstract: A method of supporting all raster-based image manipulations described in vector-based terms. The present invention has the benefits of providing clean transformation that vector-based manipulations yields, and providing a broad selection of all image transformation operations that raster-based manipulations yield. In one aspect of the invention a vector-defined shape is drawn on top of a raster-based image by replacing the contents of the vector image with the bits from the raster image. In another aspect of the present invention, a copy of the portion of the raster image that overlaps with the vector-defined portion is made, the transformation operation is performed on the copy, and then the portion of the raster image is replaced with the transformed copy.