US Patent 8091039 Authoring interface which distributes composited elements about the display

Techniques are described for providing a display of visual elements representing various media elements on a composite media presentation, wherein the display may be altered such that the visual elements transition from an overlapping arrangement to an arrangement where the overlap is minimized or eliminated. Once in the non-overlapping arrangement, a particular element may be selected or manipulated, for example applying an effect to the underlying media element, and the display returns to the original overlapping arrangement of visual elements, in some embodiments ending with the selected visual element at the top of the overlapping arrangement where before the visual elements may have been partially or completely obstructed from view.