1. A method for generating and coding for transmission an animated graphic image, comprising the steps of: composing a first frame of the image from a plurality of component objects from a predetermined set of object types, the composition including scaling and location of each object within a fixed coordinate set image field; coding the first frame as an ordered rendering list of the component objects, the rendering list identifying the order in which the component objects are to be rendered on regeneration of the image; sequentially coding each subsequent frame (n) as a number of data words representing the difference between that frame (n) and the previous frame (n−1).