Re: Sun-Java and SMIL Animation

Hi all !

Chet Haase (from Sun Microsystems) just published a new technical  
article about the Java TimingFramework they're working on:
<http://today.java.net/pub/a/today/2006/03/16/time-again.html>

QUOTE: "Much of the Timing Framework supports the SMIL model of timing;  
understanding SMIL might help in understanding how to use the Timing  
Framework effectively."

QUOTE: "the SMIL spec had just what I needed: acceleration and  
deceleration."

QUOTE: "...KeySplines (and KeyTimes/KeyValues, for that matter) in the  
timing framework were implemented specifically to be very compatible  
with SMIL. So, for example, the method of defining and calculating  
splines is the same for SMIL as it is for the timing framework..."

So far so good ! ;)

QUOTE: "...An important point to note: the SMIL spec assumes that the  
"anchor points" of each spline are (0, 0) and (1, 1); I found this  
crucial assumption poorly documented (read: completely skipped)..."

I was intrigued by this remark and I looked at the relevant parts of  
the SMIL spec:

<http://www.w3.org/TR/SMIL/animation.html#animationNS-OverviewSpline>
<http://www.w3.org/TR/SMIL/animation.html#animationNS-SplineAnimDetails>

It seems to me that it is all well-documented indeed:

QUOTE: "Each time value in the keyTimes  list is specified as a  
floating point value between 0 and 1 (inclusive), representing a  
proportional offset into the simple duration of the animation element."

QUOTE: "The keyTimes values that define the associated segment are the  
Bezier "anchor points", and the keySplines values are the control  
points."

<http://www.w3.org/TR/SMIL/animation.html#adef-keyTimes>
<http://www.w3.org/TR/SMIL/animation.html#adef-keySplines>

Graph illustrations are even provided to help visualize the principle:
<http://www.w3.org/TR/SMIL/animation.html#animationNS- 
InterpolationKeysplines>

---> Chet, what makes you feel that the current SMIL specification  
lacks of clarity for that matter ?

And a final side-note: I see you got contributions from various people  
including Vincent Hardy <http://www.w3.org/People/VHardy/>. It's nice  
to see the W3C's philosophy well-represented ! ;)
Any idea if SVG-Batik will include SMIL animation anytime soon ? (Maybe  
using your TimingFramework ?)


Regards, Daniel WECK.


On 10 Mar 2006, at 18:33, Chet Haase wrote:
> Hi Daniel,
>
> Glad you found the current work interesting; I'm hoping the
> next stage will be much more so.  I've completed some
> pretty powerful features for the timingframework project and
> an article on them; I'm just waiting for a publishing date
> at the end of the month before I push the next rev of the
> timingframework code to the project site.
>
> Specifically, the next version will have such features as
> property setters, keyValues/keyTimes/keySplines, and acceleration/
> deceleration.  All of these additions should make the timing
> framework much more powerful as well as enabling easier
> integration with SMIL concepts and capabilities.
>
> Thanks for the pointers and information; lots of good stuff
> out there!
>
> Chet.
>
> Daniel Weck wrote:
>> Hi Chet !
>> -- Note for people reading this email from the mailing-lists: Chet   
>> Haase is an architect in the Java Client Group at Sun Microsystems,  
>> of  which one area of interest is timing and animation. --
>> My name is Daniel Weck, I am a member of the W3C SYMM Working Group:
>> <http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/>
>> As you may already know, SYMM is responsible for SMIL  
>> standardization,  of which the latest version is SMIL 2.1:
>> <http://www.w3.org/TR/SMIL2/>
>> First of all, congratulations for your work related to the Java  
>> "Timing  Framework". I always enjoy reading your articles and the  
>> ongoing  implementation effort is exiting:
>> <http://today.java.net/pub/au/78>
>> <http://weblogs.java.net/blog/chet/>
>> <https://timingframework.dev.java.net/>
>> I understand that there may be a possibility for the implementation   
>> work to be ultimately included in a future release of Sun's JDK. I  
>> also  read that the project's goal is to provide general SMIL support  
>> in the  long term.
>> The W3C SYMM Working Group is always interested in hearing about new   
>> SMIL implementations, so please let me invite you to keep us updated   
>> via the public mailing-list:
>> <http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-smil/>
>> Also, I am sure you will find answers to your questions on the SVG   
>> Working Group's public mailing-list:
>> <http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-svg/>
>> I gather that your current focus is on animations, so for your   
>> information here are some pointers to documents published by the W3C:
>> - Animation module in the current SMIL recommendation:
>> <http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/REC-SMIL2-20051213/animation.html>
>> - Separate W3C recommendation specifically for SMIL-animation:
>> <http://www.w3.org/TR/smil-animation/>
>> - SVG 1.1 Animation:
>> <http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/animate.html>
>> - SVG 1.2 Tiny animation (working-draft, not yet an approved   
>> recommendation):
>> <http://www.w3.org/TR/SVGMobile12/animate.html>
>> There is an old working draft which includes an appendix related to   
>> Java-specific implementations of SMIL-DOM. Please note that this has   
>> been removed in the approved recommendation of SMIL 2.0:
>> <http://www.w3.org/TR/smil-boston-dom/java-binding.html>
>> Additionally, there are existing Java implementations of SMIL timing   
>> and synchronization, such as:
>> - X-Smiles
>> <http://www.x-smiles.org/xsmiles_smil.html>
>> <http://www.xsmiles.org/xsmiles_features.html#smil>
>> <http://www.xsmiles.org/xsmiles_features.html#timesheet>
>> <http://www.x-smiles.org/javadoc/org/w3c/dom/smil20/package-  
>> summary.html>
>> - JGoodies Animations
>> <http://jgoodies.com/freeware/animation/>
>> Batik 1.6 does not support SMIL yet, but this is included in the   
>> roadmap for Batik 2.0. That's probably good place to contribute:
>> <http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/batik/#BatikStatus>
>> <http://www.ludicrum.org/plsWork/papers/BatikSMILsupport.htm>
>> <http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/batik/javadoc/org/w3c/dom/smil/ 
>> package- summary.html>
>> I hope you'll find this useful,
>> Kind regards,
>> Daniel/
>
>

Received on Saturday, 18 March 2006 15:43:25 UTC