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Java Forum / General / November 2005Animation jargon
I'm working with animations and I'm trying to think of a good name for a variable that a user can specify when creating a viewer for an animation. Ideally, the meaning of the name will be self-explanatory and will conform with common usage among people who use animations. As you know, an animation is just a set of still pictures which are displayed sequentially (often in a loop) to give the appearance of motion. When I display the animation, I can make the time that each frames is projected very long, making the action appear to move slowly, or I can project the still for a short time, making the action take place very quickly. Alternatively, I can think of the animation as being projected at so many frames per second, where a higher number means the animation will move quickly and a lower number means the animation will move slowly. How do "real" animators, people who have studied the subject in school for example, generally think of animation speed: is it the number of seconds that each still is projected before moving on to the next? Or is the number of frames viewed per second? I've heard the term "frame rate" a few times and suspect that it refers to the number of frames that are viewed each second but I'm not sure if that is common usage or if I am correctly understanding its usage. Also, I'm not sure if that is a term only used by people who are largely ignorant of animation or if it is actually a term preferred by professionals. One other related matter. I'd like to set a default value for this variable, whatever it will eventually be called, frameRate or animationSpeed or whatever. Is there any general concensus on a standard speed for animations? In other words, if someone handed you an animated GIF without telling you fast it should play, how fast would you play it? (I was a little surprised to find that animated GIFs apparently don't include this information in the file somewhere.) By experimenting a bit, I've found that 5 frames per second seems a good comfortable speed but maybe that's just a personal taste thing....  SignatureRhino On Sat, 29 Oct 2005 13:30:09 -0400, "Rhino" <no.offline.contact.please@nospam.com> wrote, quoted or indirectly quoted someone who said : >How do "real" animators, people who have studied the subject in school for >example, generally think of animation speed: is it the number of seconds >that each still is projected before moving on to the next? Or is the number >of frames viewed per second? if you don't get a better answer, the Java term is "clip". SignatureCanadian Mind Products, Roedy Green. http://mindprod.com Java custom programming, consulting and coaching. > On Sat, 29 Oct 2005 13:30:09 -0400, "Rhino" > <no.offline.contact.please@nospam.com> wrote, quoted or indirectly [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > >of frames viewed per second? > if you don't get a better answer, the Java term is "clip". Huh? Isn't a "clip" a fragment of film, i.e. a few frames of an animation? I'm asking about the SPEED at which the animation is shown, which is an entirely different thing. Rhino On Sun, 30 Oct 2005 08:19:17 -0500, "Rhino" <no.offline.contact.please@nospam.com> wrote, quoted or indirectly quoted someone who said : >Huh? Isn't a "clip" a fragment of film, i.e. a few frames of an animation? >I'm asking about the SPEED at which the animation is shown, which is an >entirely different thing. FPS Frames per second SignatureCanadian Mind Products, Roedy Green. http://mindprod.com Java custom programming, consulting and coaching. >How do "real" animators, people who have studied the subject in school for >example, generally think of animation speed: is it the number of seconds >that each still is projected before moving on to the next? Or is the number >of frames viewed per second? If you want to know how animators think, wouldn't it be better to ask in a newsgroup that deals with animation, rather than a general Java programming one? There may be a few trained animators here, but there are bound to be more there. Pete Barrett > >How do "real" animators, people who have studied the subject in school for > >example, generally think of animation speed: is it the number of seconds [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > programming one? There may be a few trained animators here, but there > are bound to be more there. Fair enough. Do you know of such a newsgroup? Mind you, this is such a basic question that I assume that someone here could answer it.... Rhino >Fair enough. Do you know of such a newsgroup? comp.graphics.animation looks promising. My ISP also carries rec.arts.animation and rec.arts.disney.animation (presumably Disney animation is different<g>). Note that I've never looked at any of these, not being interested in the details of animation; and there may be other and better ones which my ISP doesn't carry. >Mind you, this is such a basic question that I assume that someone here >could answer it.... I don't see why - you're interested in the subject, so to you it seems basic, but most programmers probably deal with other things. Sure, most of us have probably animated a picture at some time in our lives, but that doesn't mean we've gone into the theory of animation and learnt the jargon. Anyone who's written an animation *program* (which I suppose is what you're doing) probably has, but how many of those are there? Pete Barrett ... > ..(I was a little surprised > to find that animated GIFs apparently don't include this information in the > file somewhere.) Sure they do (can). a Java based GIF writing library I used recently (as well as Win based GIF writers) have the ability to set the animation delay. It is important to be able to set it. A lot of gif's used for ads use a very slow rate, to become more like a slideshow. They would be illegible at 5 frames per second. > ... > > ..(I was a little surprised [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > used recently (as well as Win based GIF writers) have the > ability to set the animation delay. There's a world of difference between having the _ability_ to store the information and a _requirement_ that it be there somewhere. Furthermore, I don't see anything in the ImageIO that lets you get the "frame rate" or "animation speed" or whatever it is properly called. Mind you, I'm looking at the getters and fields in the ImageIO and ImageReader classes; perhaps there is a different way to obtain that information. I have displayed the metadata on some animated GIFs as well and didn't see the information there; perhaps I missed it since there is quite a bit of information displayed. If you know how I can determine what the animation creator's intended speed was, I'd love to hear it. > It is important to be able to set it. A lot of gif's used > for ads use a very slow rate, to become more like a slideshow. > They would be illegible at 5 frames per second. There _should_ be some way for the creator of the animation to store the intended speed in a standard way and for software to obtain this information in a standard way. But does this actually exist in the real world? Does the GIF file format have a specific field to specify the intended"speed" of an animation? Rhino (big snip) > ..But does this actually exist in the real world? Sure does. As I alluded to in my post which was *not* referring to Java's core ImageIO classes. The AnimatedGifEncoder class from fmsware.com* not only allows you to set the delay between frames, it also allows you to set the delay rate different for *each* frame. Though I have not yet tested the latter ability (no defined need), I had previously used the class to create animated GIF's with a variety of frame delay rates. Now stop p*ssing about with classes that don't do what you want, and at least experiment with classes that (I guess) do! [ * As mentioned in Marco Schmidt's library list.. <http://www.fmsware.com/stuff/gif.html> ] On Tue, 1 Nov 2005 12:10:50 -0500, "Rhino" <no.offline.contact.please@nospam.com> wrote, quoted or indirectly quoted someone who said : >Furthermore, I don't see anything in the ImageIO that lets you get the >"frame rate" or "animation speed" or whatever it is properly called that is considered "metadata". That might help you find the magic incantation. SignatureCanadian Mind Products, Roedy Green. http://mindprod.com Java custom programming, consulting and coaching. > .... > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > used recently (as well as Win based GIF writers) have the > ability to set the animation delay. Vis. <http://www.physci.org/giffer/> Try the version of gifferNNNN.jnlp that uses the most RAM your PC can offer. The UI (written by myself, duhh..) does not provide access to some of the functionality of the AnimatedGifEncoder class of FM Software, but it allows you to set the frame delay rate. <standard disclaimer> It is very beta. </standard disclaimer> <LZW disclaimer> If Unisys comes a knockin', ya' never heard of me, ..OK? ;-) </LZW disclaimer> .. >> S..a Java based GIF writing library I >> used recently ... ability to set the animation delay. > > Vis. <http://www.physci.org/giffer/> (cough, cough) ..or, at least, this update (v 0.1) that actually checks the user settings prior to writing the GIF does. The earlier version was hard coded to 1000 msec delay and 1 repeat. F1 for further details. Free MagazinesGet these publications absolutely FREE for up to 12 months. There are no hidden fees and no obligation. Simply choose a title, complete the application form and submit it. Read more ...
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