A method and apparatus for translating between an object displayed in a first mode of a user interface (UI) and a second mode of the UI. The method includes determining a current UI mode from among UI modes, which include a physics animation mode and a non-physics animation mode, and determining an animation type of the current UI mode; extracting current UI information, associated with the animation type of the current UI mode, of a UI object; translating the current UI information of the UI object to translation UI information of the UI object associated with the animation type of another UI mode among the UI modes; and storing the translation UI information.