Abstract: A patch-driven video 3D special effects system constructs an output display of a desired three-dimensional shape with real-time video picture information displayed on the surface of the shape by dividing a video source plane into a plurality of polygonal patches and manipulating said patches in three dimensions to create the shape. The special effects system is controlled by a keyframing control system in which a small number of selected parameters are used to define several general purpose 3D shapes. These parameters are then specified in each keyframe. By varying the selected parameters, the general purpose object can be reshaped into a number of familiar shapes such as cubes, cones, etc. A pre-defined program converts the selected parameters into patch shapes and vertice positions which are used by the video special effects hardware to actually create the images.