Concepts
- cast
- The cast is the list of objects that take part in an
animation.
- object
- The available object types are Line, Rectangle, Arc,
Ellipse, Pixmap, String, Point, Filled Rectangle, Filled
Arc and Filled Ellipse.
- script
- Every object has a script, which is a list of ticks
telling the object where it should move and when.
- tick
- A tick is a structure containing all properties of
an object at a certain point in time.
- property
- The available properties are position (x and y), size
(width and height), visibility, color, font and string.
- duration
- The number of milliseconds the animation will take.
- delta
- The number of milliseconds between each frame. A smaller
delta can make the movement smoother but also present the CPU
with a heavier load.
- now
- The "current time" in the animation. For every frame, the
position and size of each object is calculated at the time now.
If no tick matches now exactly in the object's script, the
values are interpolated from the surrounding ticks.
Ulric Eriksson - July 1997 - ulric@siag.nu