부산대학교 도서관

An image processing system processes image data in response to a sequence of image processing steps defined by a process tree data structure. The process tree comprises a plurality of interconnected nodes, including input nodes and at least one output node. Output rendering is performed a frame at a time, and each frame is rendered in a time determined by the amount of processing defined by the process tree. The process tree may comprise many branches of interconnected nodes, and the user can selectively cache intermediately rendered frames at nodes where the contributing process tree branches are relatively stable in their configuration. The user may then make modifications to processes in other parts of the process tree, without having to wait for image data to be rendered from unchanged parts of the process tree.