1. At a computer system including at least one processor and a memory, in a computer networking environment including a plurality of computing systems, a computer-implemented method for rendering animations in a multi-layered animation system, the method comprising: an act of establishing an operating system (OS)-specified animation value for at least one property of a user interface (UI) element that is to be animated; an act of receiving a user-specified animation value for at least one property of the UI element that is to be animated; an act of determining, based on the UI element property, how to combine the OS-specified animation value and the user-specified animation value; an act of combining the OS-specified animation value and the user-specified value for the UI element in the determined manner; and an act of rendering the animation for the element using the combined animation values.