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JavaFX + Ajax 04 August 2008

I just noticed something. JavaFX has all the letters in Ajax. so you just switch around the J and the A (ajvafx) take out the V and the F (ajax). freaky huh? I wonder if that was intended…


0.21 Bugfixes 04 August 2008

I fixed this bug where if you drew a square, went to a blank frame, moved it, and then went to a blank frame (do nothing), and go back to a tween (between first and last frame), the tween engine would crash, and the animation would be destroyed. Fixed by wrapping SVGRenderer’s remove function in a try..catch loop.

I also split diff_core into diff_attr which allows you to diff only a single attribute at a time. I also added a diff_list function which would make it easier to implement an export format to a tweening engine like that of JavaFX and Silverlight.

On that note, I added fake support for JavaFX. so you now see the toolbar icon, and I added the script for javafx though there’s nothing in it.


new features 03 August 2008

Okay, so I’m polishing the app alot today. Right now, I’m setting the app up for a release some time this week.

I added framerate support to the Ajax Animator’s Format. I also added some messages for Help->Bugs, Help->Comments, and I renamed Help->Donate to Help->Contribute.

Help->Manual shows a page that says “Manual Currently Unavailable” and Help->FAQ actually shows a working page (OMG!)

Help->About now reports that the Ajax Animator is at “Beta RC1” Stability, and its no longer a “testing” release.

Please test things out and report bugs if you can :)


Ajax Animator 0.20 Beta RC1 Released 03 August 2008

I’m pleased to release the latest version of the Ajax Animator, 0.2. This version has been a complete rewrite of the application down to it’s core, not a single like of code copied from the old (0.14.7) release. It also happens to be the most advanced and complete release to date, with full multi-layer support, a greatly expanded toolbox, complete undo history, a shared clip-art library, a completely redesigned UI, and much more.

Lets start from when you open the app. The application speed has greatly improved, the 0.14.7 release takes ~9.5 seconds to load, 0.2 takes a mere 4.5 seconds, more than half the time. On the top toolbar, the buttons are relocated and restylized. Over at the file button, you see everything has new gorgeous icons intuitively organizing the New, Open, and Save options, where you can use the powerful new JSON based file format. Below that, you see a new Publish menu, where you can export to several formats like Adobe Flash, Processing (language), Microsoft Silverlight (XAML), and Animated GIFs.

Skipping over to the View meu, you see that there are 17 different UI themes to choose from. An unprescedented degree of customizability. And over at the Help menu, there is more useful content. A working FAQ, helpful Tip Of the Day, About page, and a list of keyboard shortcuts.

Of course the most important and powerful change in this version is the inclusion of the OnlyPaths editor. A new, powerful Vector graphics editor. The new editor allows you to draw not only the standard rectangles, ellipses, and lines, but also Text, Polygons, Freeform Paths, Images and more. You can now Rotate, Resize, and move shapes around.

The Timeline has also been reworked. The new archetecture allows the deletion of layers, expansion of tweens, and more. The Tweening engine is vastly superior, with much fewer bugs than the old one, though the new one certainly does much more and gets much more room to screw up.

A new Animations tab allows you to view and improve on public animations them. A new Properties panel allows you to adjust the canvas size and animation framerate along with the text content and image URL.

Its available here, at http://antimatter15.110mb.com/ajaxanimator/build/


Do not go to testing site 03 August 2008

I’m changing lots of things to prepare for the new 0.2 release which will be soon. When it is done, the new url will be

/ajaxanimator/testing/build