A computer graphics system

a computerized graphics system in which a new type of entity, referred to as "phenomenon" can be created, instantiated and used to form an image of a scene described. A phenomenon is a DAG encapsulated degrader comprising one or more nodes, each of which comprises a linker or an encapsulated set of DAGs which are interconnected so that they can cooperate, which are instantiated and attached to entities in the scene They are created during the process of defining the scene to define various types of features of the scene. Phenomena selected for use by an operator in reference to a scene may be predefined, or may be constructed from base degradative nodes, by the operator using a phenomenon creator. The editor phenomena allows the operator to see the effects of the different configurations of the values ​​of the parameters are selected.