Cosmetics !

We want to make creating animations easy. However, if the tools looks a bit neater and stylish, it adds the extra punch. Often people evaluate the tool on the basis of looks rather than the functionality. So this release is purely a cosmetic release. We have changed the user interface from a greyish one to a different dark one. Yes yes, it is not a metal band theme but it certainly adds the much needed color to the website.  Here are a few screengrabs.

These changes are the first few to come, some more iterations will also come soon enought. 

We also added a small yet useful feature to the shape object, shadows ! As of now it uses the HTML5 shadow functionality. We are very excited about it as it really make the object pop out.

Updates Galore ! Thanks Sandeep and Madhu :)

Timeline
Previously we had the option to delete frame, but no option to restore them back to the empty state. We added that part in this release. Now you can clear the keyframe that was set previously. This replaces the delete keyframe functionality. Thanks Madhu, for pointing this out!

While editing we often want to lock and hide items to make editing easier. Now you can do that from the timeline itself. You can hide or show a object by clicking on the lightbulb icon. A object can be locked from editing by using the lock button. However keyframes can be added or removed even when a object is locked.

Properties Panel
We originially had a horizontal panel where you could edit the properties of the objects. But editing with the timeline was cumbersome and thus we removed it. We had originally put a placeholder for the properties panel on the left side, but never implemented. Recently we asked our friend Sandeep and his gang to look at the logo to suggest something. We still haven't got done the logo redesign, but Sandeep noticed that the properties tab was not working. In this release we added that. Thanks Sandeep!

Overlay Modes
In animation we often have objects masking other objects. Till last releases, we did not have any such option with animations. With this release all this changes. You can now select overlay modes as available in the HTML5 Specification. However we have run into a odd bug that affects Firefox. Things look fine in Chrome. We have reported it to the Firefox team and waiting on it here (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=783883 ). Once we have a answer on this we will push this functionality to the OpenAnimator javascript runtime too.

Grouping
Grouping objects is an item we continually work on. But there were few features that were not built when we first started off. And a couple of them broke functionality for other components. So we rolled them back to avoid such problems. Grouped objects showed up for the shape templates. So we extended the same look and feel for the objects that are grouped using the group button in the tools panel that shows up on the left.

Shapes

 Ever since the last few version we have been adding new shapes. Keeping with same line we added 4 more shapes - LeftUp Arrow, Bent Up Arrow, and two callouts.

Bugs and Performance
We hate bugs as much as you do, but they are inevitable part of the development cycle. But do try to fix them as fast as we can. With the latest release we fixed a few of the bugs which are
  Performance:
  a. Decrease the number of javascript calls during grouping
  Bugs:
  a. Group deletion was not happening when delete key was pressed.
  b. Group deletion was not correct when done from the timeline
  c. When a object was a selected and then the document closed, the selector was still visible
 d. When the document control shifts to a older document the timeline was not loaded

Improved Grouping and 12 new shape templates

We introduced shape templates a couple of weeks back and here we are with 12 more shape templates.
Shapes that we added this week are

3 new basic shapes

Arrows

Turns

4 new flowchart shapes, to add the extra detail

And yes we have a new section, callouts !

We will keep bringing more !


Grouping objects was available in previous releases. But as we found out, it caused a bit of confusion when there was no change in the timeline for it. We have thus enhanced the timeline control to remove this confusion. As you see below, the multidocument shape is composed of multiple sub-shapes. Each of this shape is neatly now shown as a child of the group Multi Document 1.

Happy Animating !

New Features 3 Jun/2012

We added shape templates in the last week release. Here we are with 10 more shapes.
We have added a few arrows and flowchart templates. More shapes to come soon enough!

More shape templates!

For all this long we had the option to open our old creations using the open menu option. From the backend we had all the controls, but soon we realized that this is missing from the interface. Now you have it!

Manage your old animations!

List of all your animations

Remove your stuff with ease

New Features 27 May/2012

We all love templates, this release introduces templates in the tools.

The new tool is accessible shown here. It is the one right after the triangle tool.

More templates will be added soon !

Freehand drawing is the easiest way to create objects. Freehand drawing can now easily be created using the freehand tool. This tool is available just below the triangle tool.

Happy animating!

New Features 15 Apr/2012

We have been experimenting a lot on how to improve the way animation is created. One thing we realized is that the font selection was a bit difficult. Since there was no preview of how you can select the fonts. We thus have improved on the UI design and provided for a simpler and easier way to select fonts.

The font selection dialog show a sample text beside the font name. We hope this makes font selection easier. Happy animating!

New Features 4 Apr/2012

It has been some time since we posted our last update. But we have been busy, really busy getting you the new improved designer.

Here is what we have been doing:

1. You can now scroll the animation canvas up and down, left and right.
2. You can zoom into animations by specifying the zoom amount in the box below the animation

3. The selector shows the x,y location now

4. A new rotation helper has been added. Hope this improves the experience.

5. You can pick colors from different objects now. Try it !