Curve Animator

CURVE ANIMATOR INSTRUMENT
1. Abstract.
the purpose of this instrument is to allow the user to draw curves, which then can be animated. drawing multiple curves can result in one more complex curve. a guide image is loaded in the background to make the drawing easier. the curves data can be stored in an XML file. each curve is defined by three points (start, final and control point), color, alpha and speed of animation.
2. What to use for?
use this tool to animate signatures, contour drawings, short texts. use it to animate short intro animations.
3. Functionality.
the instrument features:

select tool – this tool allows selection of curves and nodes. clicking on the curve selects it. clicking on the order label selects the curve as well. using the SHIFT key you can select more than one curve. pressing the “a” key selects all curves. clicking outside of selection deselects all curves. selected nodes can be dragged and will snap to other nodes if dragged too close to them.

move tool – use this tool to drag all working area for better view. pressing the spacebar key also triggers the move tool on and off.

zoom in/zoom out tool – click on working area and the click point will be center of zoom in or zoom out event. min and max values are hardcoded from 100% to 800%. can be changed in the fla file.

add curve tool – click or click drag using this tool to create new curve in the working area. first click creates start point and second click creates final point for the curve. control point is auto created between these two. upon completion the newly created curve becomes selected. the color and the alpha values are taken from the color picker tool. pressing “n” also starts this tool.

color picker tool – use this tool to define color and alpha. newly created curves will use defined color and alpha. already created and selected curves will receive newly defined color and alpha. multiple selection of curves can receive color and alpha values from color picker tool.

swap tool – is this tool on a single selection. it will swap start and final points positions.

remove tool – removes a single selected curve.

go tool – tests the animation.

xml tool – opens a popup form where the user can copy xml data and store it in a xml file.

x/y tool – three panels showing position of start, final and control points for selected curve. manual input is allowed too. manual input is applied when the focus leaves the input textfield.

order tool – drop down tool which allows change of order for a single selected curve.

frames tool – defines number of frames each curve will be animated. more frames mean slower motion. only integer values are accepted.

offset tool – this tool allows translation of multiple selection by number of pixels defined in x and y input fields.

4. How to use?
first of all prepare an image that you will use as a guide for your animation. the image must be saved with the name of “curve_animator.jpg”. when the instrument loads it, it centers the image in the working area. also it puts a transparency of 50% to the image. when your guide image is in position you have to decide what strategy you will use to draw your curves. which detail will come first, which is second, etc. colors and not very important in the beginning but use transparency curves to imitate the idle movement of the pencil when it must start to draw next detail. imagine that your own hand moves the pencil. some details can be drawn by one curve others by more. use the speed control for each curve to gain smooth animation. a long one curve detail can preferably have bigger number of frames for animation. when a part of the figure is done you can apply the colors and test the animation. testing can be done also if the working area is zoomed in. in order to save your progress DO NOT forget to open the xml popup. copy the info there and SAVE it in sa xml file. the xml file must go by the name of “curve_animator.xml”. next time you open the tool it will load your progress from the xml file.
5. What the package consists of?
curve animator instrument; player which can play the animations you created. the player acts the same way the test tool acts.