1. A system of editing and rendering an on-screen image, comprising: storing 3D data of an object; storing a 2D image of surroundings of the object; displaying a first rendered 2D image of the object concurrently with the 2D image of the surroundings of the object; editing the 3D data of the object while simultaneously viewing the first rendered 2D image of the surroundings of the object, wherein editing the 3D data of the object comprises moving the object across the displayed 2D image of the surroundings of the object; rendering the edited 3D data of the object as a 2D image of the object to generate a second rendered image; and displaying the second rendered 2D image of the object concurrently with the 2D image of the surroundings of the object, wherein the 2D image of the object can be moved across the 2D image of the surroundings during the rendering step, such that the object is simultaneously rendered while being moved across the 2D image of the surroundings; wherein editing the 3D data of the object comprises an operator selecting both the degree to which rendering is carried out and the method of rendering used, and wherein the method of rendering selected by the operator comprises interactive ray tracing, a hardware accelerated render path, or an offline software rendering.