1. A method comprising: defining a group of associated graphic objects for display on a display device; defining a set of operations to perform on the associated graphic objects in a particular order, the operations each comprising one or more transforms applied to at least one of the graphic objects, wherein for each transform applied to a set of the graphic objects, each graphic object in the set of graphic objects has a set of participation states indicating whether the graphic object is affected by each of a set of primitive transforms of the transform, wherein a first set of participation states for a first graphic object indicates that the first graphic object is affected by a first primitive transform of a particular transform but not a second primitive transform of the particular transform and a second set of participation states for a second graphic object indicates that the second graphic object is affected by the second primitive transform of the particular transform but not the first primitive transform of the particular transform; and storing the group of associated graphic objects and set of operations as a single graphic object.