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Emmanuele Bassi 4533edeef0 cookbook: Further clarification of the anchor point 
Make sure to add a note on the behaviour of the anchor point. Ideally,
it would be nice to have a recipe about it in the Actor section.
2010-09-23 17:03:17 +01:00

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<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">
<chapter id="animations" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2003/XInclude">
<title>Animations</title>
<epigraph>
<attribution>Walt Disney</attribution>
<para>Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive.</para>
</epigraph>
<section id="animations-introduction">
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>Clutter actors have a variety of <emphasis>properties</emphasis>
(position, size, rotation in 3D space, scale, opacity) which govern
their visual appearance in the UI. They may also have
<emphasis>constraints</emphasis> on how they are aligned
and/or positioned relative to each other.</para>
<para>The Clutter animation API provides a means of changing
properties and constraints as a function of time: moving, scaling,
rotating, changing opacity and colour, modifying postional
constraints, etc.</para>
<note><para>Clutter also makes it possible to animate non-visual
properties if desired.</para></note>
<section>
<title>High level overview</title>
<para>Here are the main concepts behind animation in Clutter:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>An <emphasis>animation</emphasis> changes one or more
properties of one or more actors over time: their rotation in
a particular dimension (<varname>x</varname>, <varname>y</varname>,
<varname>z</varname>), scale, size, opacity etc.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>An animation has an associated <emphasis>timeline</emphasis>.
Think of this as analogous to the "thing" you're controlling when
you watch a video on the internet: it's what you control with
the play/pause button and what is measured by the bar
showing how far through the video you are. As with the
controls on a video player, you can play/pause/skip a Clutter
timeline; you can also rewind it, loop it, and play it
backwards.</para>
<note>
<para>If a timeline is reversed, the progress along the
timeline is still measured the same way as it is in the forward
direction: so if you start from the end of the timeline and run
it backwards for 75% of its length, the progress is reported
as 0.25 (i.e. 25% of the way from the start of the
timeline).</para>
</note>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The <emphasis>duration</emphasis> of a timeline
(e.g. 500 milliseconds, 1 second, 10 seconds) specifies how
long its animation will last. The timeline can be inspected
to find out how much of it has elapsed, either as a value in
milliseconds or as a fraction (between 0 and 1) of the total
length of the timeline.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>An animation is divided into <emphasis>frames</emphasis>.
The number of frames which make up the animation isn't
constant: it depends on various factors, like how powerful
your machine is, the state of the drivers for your hardware,
and the load on he system. So you won't always get the same
number of frames in an animation of a particular duration.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The change to a property in an animation occurs over
the course of the timeline: the start value of the property
heads toward some target value. When it reaches the end of
the timeline, the property should have reached the target
value.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Exactly how the property changes over the course of the
timeline is governed by an <emphasis>alpha</emphasis>. This
is the trickiest idea to explain, so it has its own section
below.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</section>
<section id="animations-introduction-alphas">
<title>Alphas</title>
<para>An alpha is generated for each frame of the animation.
The alpha varies between -1.0 and 2.0, and changes during the
course of the animation's timeline; ideally, the value should
start at 0.0 and reach 1.0 by the end of the timeline.</para>
<para>The alpha for any given frame of the animation is determined
by an <emphasis>alpha function</emphasis>. Usually, the alpha
function will return a value based on progress along the timeline.
However, the alpha function doesn't have to respect or pay
attention to the timeline: it can be entirely random if desired.</para>
<para>To work out the value of a property at a given frame
somewhere along the timeline for a given alpha:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Determine the difference between the start value and
the target end value for the property.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Multiply the difference by the alpha for the current
frame.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Add the result to the start value.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>The shape of the plot of the alpha function over time is
called its <emphasis>easing mode</emphasis>. Clutter provides
various modes ranging from <constant>CLUTTER_LINEAR</constant>
(the alpha value is equal to progress along the timeline),
to modes based on various polynomial and exponential functions,
to modes providing elastic and bounce shapes. See the
ClutterAlpha documentation for examples of the shapes produced
by these functions. There is also a good interactive demo
of the modes on
<ulink url="http://www.robertpenner.com/easing/easing_demo.html">Robert Penner's site</ulink>.
</para>
<para>Most of the time, you can use the built-in Clutter easing
modes to get the kind of animation effect you want. However,
in some cases you may want to provide your own alpha function.
Here's an example (based on the quintic ease in mode from
<filename>clutter-alpha.c</filename>):</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
static gdouble
_alpha_ease_in_sextic (ClutterAlpha *alpha,
gpointer dummy G_GNUC_UNUSED)
{
ClutterTimeline *timeline = clutter_alpha_get_timeline (alpha);
gdouble p = clutter_timeline_get_progress (timeline);
return p * p * p * p * p * p;
}
]]>
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>An alpha function just has to have a specified method
signature and return a <type>gdouble</type> value when called.
As stated above, you'd typically base the return value on the
timeline progress; the function above shows how you get the
timeline associated with the alpha, so you can apply the alpha
function to it.</para>
</section>
<section id="animations-introduction-api">
<title>Clutter's animation API</title>
<para>All of the animation approaches in Clutter use the same
basic underpinnings (as explained above), but the API provides
varying levels of abstraction and/or ease of use on top of those
underpinnings.</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Implicit animations</emphasis> (created using
<function>clutter_actor_animate()</function> and related
functions) are useful where you want to apply
a simple or one-off animation to an actor. They enable you
to animate one or more properties using a single easing mode;
however, you only specify the target values for the properties
you're animating, not the start values.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>ClutterAnimator</emphasis> provides support
for declarative animations (defined using <type>ClutterScript</type>).
You can animate multiple actors with this approach, and
have more control over the easing modes used during an
animation: while implicit animations only allow a single
easing mode for all properties, <type>ClutterAnimator</type>
supports <emphasis>multiple</emphasis> easing modes for
<emphasis>each</emphasis> property; <emphasis>key frames</emphasis>
are used to indicate where in the animation each easing mode
should be applied.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>ClutterState</emphasis> enables you to describe
<emphasis>states</emphasis>: property values across one or
more actors, plus the easing modes used to transition to
those values. It can also be combined with <type>ClutterAnimator</type>
for finer grained definition of transitions if desired.</para>
<para>States are particularly useful if you need actors to
animate between a known set of positions/sizes/opacities etc.
during their lifecycles (e.g. animating a list of items in
a menu, or for animations in a picture viewer where you
click on thumbnails to display a full view of a photograph).</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>The recipes in this section show when and where it is
appropriate to use each of these approaches.</para>
</section>
</section>
<section id="animations-inversion">
<title>Inverting Animations</title>
<section>
<title>Problem</title>
<para>You want to have an animation exactly mirroring another one
that you just played.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Solution</title>
<para>Reverse the direction of the <type>ClutterTimeline</type>
associated with the animation.</para>
<para>For example, here's how to invert an implicit
animation which moves an actor along the <varname>x</varname>
axis. The direction of the animation is inverted when the
movement along the <varname>x</varname> axis is completed; it is
also inverted if the mouse button is pressed on the actor.</para>
<para>First, set up the animation:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
ClutterAnimation *animation;
/*
* animate actor to x = 300.0;
* the implicit animation functions return a ClutterAnimation
* which we can use to invert the timeline
*/
animation = clutter_actor_animate (actor,
CLUTTER_EASE_IN_OUT_CUBIC,
2000,
"x", 300.0,
NULL);
/* callback for when the animation completes */
g_signal_connect (animation,
"completed",
G_CALLBACK (_animation_done_cb),
NULL);
/*
* callback for when the mouse button is pressed on the actor;
* note the animation is passed as user data, so we can
* get at the timeline
*/
g_signal_connect (actor,
"button-press-event",
G_CALLBACK (_on_click_cb),
animation);
]]>
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>Next, add a function for inverting the timeline:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
static void
_invert_timeline (ClutterTimeline *timeline)
{
ClutterTimelineDirection direction = clutter_timeline_get_direction (timeline);
if (direction == CLUTTER_TIMELINE_FORWARD)
direction = CLUTTER_TIMELINE_BACKWARD;
else
direction = CLUTTER_TIMELINE_FORWARD;
clutter_timeline_set_direction (timeline, direction);
}
]]>
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>Then add a function which calls <function>_invert_timeline</function>
when the animation completes. More importantly, the callback should
stop emission of the "completed" signal by the animation. This
prevents the <type>ClutterAnimation</type> underlying the implicit
animation from being unreferenced; which in turn allows it to be
inverted:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
static void
_animation_done_cb (ClutterAnimation *animation,
gpointer user_data)
{
/* stop the completed signal before the ClutterAnimation is unreferenced */
g_signal_stop_emission_by_name (animation, "completed");
/* invert the timeline associated with the animation */
ClutterTimeline *timeline = clutter_animation_get_timeline (animation);
_invert_timeline (timeline);
}
]]>
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>Finally, the click callback function uses the same
<function>_invert_timeline</function> function if the animation
is playing; but if the animation is stopped, it will
start it instead:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
static void
_on_click_cb (ClutterActor *actor,
ClutterEvent *event,
gpointer user_data)
{
ClutterAnimation *animation = (ClutterAnimation *)user_data;
ClutterTimeline *timeline = clutter_animation_get_timeline (animation);
if (clutter_timeline_is_playing (timeline))
{
_invert_timeline (timeline);
}
else
{
clutter_timeline_start (timeline);
}
}
]]>
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
</section>
<section>
<title>Discussion</title>
<para>If you are using <type>ClutterAnimator</type> rather than
implicit animations, <function>clutter_animator_get_timeline()</function>
enables you to get the underlying timeline; you could then use
the techniques shown above to invert it.</para>
<para><type>ClutterState</type> enables a different approach
to "inverting" an animation: rather than having a single animation
which you invert, you would define two or more
<emphasis>keys</emphasis> for an actor (or set of actors) and
transition between them.</para>
<para>For the example above, you would define two keys:
one for the actor's initial position; and a second for the actor
at <code>x = 300.0</code>. You would also define the
transition between them: 2000 milliseconds with a
<constant>CLUTTER_EASE_IN_OUT_CUBIC</constant> easing mode.</para>
<para>With the states defined, you would then use
<function>clutter_state_set_state()</function> inside callbacks to
animate the actor between the two <varname>x</varname> positions.
Behind the scenes, <type>ClutterState</type> would handle the
animations and timelines for you.</para>
</section>
</section>
<section id="animations-fading">
<title>Fading an actor out of or into view</title>
<section>
<title>Problem</title>
<para>You want to animate an actor so that it fades out of or into
view.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Solution</title>
<para>Animate the actor's opacity property.</para>
<para>You can do this using any of the approaches provided
by the animation API. Here's how to fade out an actor (until it's
completely transparent) using implicit animations:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
/* fade out actor over 4000 milliseconds */
clutter_actor_animate (actor,
CLUTTER_EASE_OUT_CUBIC,
4000,
"opacity", 0,
NULL);
]]>
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>Here's an example of a rectangle fading out using this
animation:</para>
<inlinemediaobject>
<videoobject>
<videodata fileref="videos/animations-fading-out.ogv"/>
</videoobject>
<alt>
<para>Video showing an actor fading out using implicit
animations</para>
</alt>
</inlinemediaobject>
<para><constant>CLUTTER_EASE_OUT_CUBIC</constant> is one of the
Clutter easing modes; see
<link linkend="animations-introduction-alphas">the introduction</link>
for more details about what these are and how to choose one.</para>
<para>Here's an example of the transitions you could use to
fade an actor in and out using <type>ClutterState</type>:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
ClutterState *transitions = clutter_state_new ();
/* all transitions last for 2000 milliseconds */
clutter_state_set_duration (transitions, NULL, NULL, 2000);
/* transition from any state to "fade-out" state */
clutter_state_set (transitions,
NULL, /* from state (NULL means "any") */
"fade-out", /* to state */
actor, "opacity", CLUTTER_EASE_OUT_QUAD, 0,
NULL);
/* transition from any state to "fade-in" state */
clutter_state_set (transitions, NULL, "fade-in",
actor, "opacity", CLUTTER_EASE_OUT_QUAD, 255,
NULL);
/* put the actor into the "fade-out" state with no animation */
clutter_state_warp_to_state (transitions, "fade-out");
]]>
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>You would then trigger an animated state change as events
occur in the application (e.g. mouse button clicks):</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
clutter_state_set_state (transitions, "fade-in");
]]>
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>Here's an example of this animation fading in then out again:</para>
<inlinemediaobject>
<videoobject>
<videodata fileref="videos/animations-fading-in-then-out.ogv"/>
</videoobject>
<alt>
<para>Video showing an actor fading in then out using
<type>ClutterState</type></para>
</alt>
</inlinemediaobject>
<note>
<para><type>ClutterState</type> is most useful where you
need to animate an actor backwards and forwards between multiple
states (e.g. fade an actor in and out of view). Where you just
want to fade an actor in or out once,
<function>clutter_actor_animate()</function> is adequate.</para>
</note>
</section>
<section>
<title>Discussion</title>
<para>Reducing an actor's transparency to zero does not make it
inactive: the actor will still be reactive even if it's not
visible (responding to key events, mouse clicks etc.).
To make it really "disappear", you could use
<function>clutter_actor_hide()</function> once you'd made the actor
fully transparent.</para>
</section>
</section>
<section id="animations-rotating">
<title>Rotating an actor</title>
<section>
<title>Problem</title>
<para>You want to animate rotation of an actor. Some example cases
where you might want to do this:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>To rotate an image so it's the right way up for
viewing.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>To make actors more or less prominent, rotating them
towards or away from the view point.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>To turn an actor "around" and display different UI
elements "behind" it.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</section>
<section>
<title>Solution</title>
<para>Animate one of the <varname>rotation-angle-(x|y|z)</varname>
properties of the actor.</para>
<para>The most "obvious" (and probably most commonly used) rotation is
in the <emphasis>z axis</emphasis> (parallel
to the 2D surface of the UI). The other rotation axes
(<emphasis>x</emphasis> and <emphasis>y</emphasis>)
are less obvious, as they rotate the actor in the depth dimension,
"away from" or "towards" the view point.</para>
<para>Examples of each type of rotation are given below. While the
examples use <link linkend="animations-introduction-api">implicit
animations</link>, it is also possible to use
<type>ClutterAnimator</type> and <type>ClutterState</type> to animate
rotations: see <link linkend="animations-rotating-example">the
full example at the end of this recipe</link> for some
<type>ClutterState</type> code.</para>
<note>
<para>I've added an inaccurate (but hopefully useful) metaphor to
each rotation axis ("wheel", "letter box", "door"), to make it
easier to remember the effect you get from animating in that axis
(and when the rotation center is inside the actor).</para>
</note>
<para><emphasis>Rotating on the z axis</emphasis> ("wheel")</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
clutter_actor_animate (actor,
CLUTTER_LINEAR, /* easing mode */
1000, /* duration in milliseconds */
"rotation-angle-z", 90.0, /* target rotation angle in degrees */
NULL);
]]>
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>The above code animating a texture:</para>
<inlinemediaobject>
<videoobject>
<videodata fileref="videos/animations-rotating-z-90.ogv"/>
</videoobject>
<alt>
<para>Video showing an actor rotating to 90 degrees on the
z axis</para>
</alt>
</inlinemediaobject>
<para>By default, the center of the rotation is derived from
the anchor point of the actor; unless you've changed the anchor
point, the default is the top-left corner of the actor. See the
Discussion section below for more about setting the rotation center.</para>
<note>
<para>An animated rotation moves an actor <emphasis>to</emphasis>
the specified rotation angle; it <emphasis>does not</emphasis>
increment or decrement the actor's current rotation angle by
the amount specified.</para>
</note>
<para><emphasis>Rotating on the <code>x</code> axis</emphasis>
("letter box")</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
clutter_actor_animate (actor,
CLUTTER_LINEAR,
1000,
"rotation-angle-x", -45.0,
NULL);
]]>
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>The above code animating a texture:</para>
<inlinemediaobject>
<videoobject>
<videodata fileref="videos/animations-rotating-x-minus-45.ogv"/>
</videoobject>
<alt>
<para>Video showing an actor rotating to -45 degrees on the
x axis</para>
</alt>
</inlinemediaobject>
<para>Notice how the texture rotates away from the view point,
and also how perspective effects are applied (as the actor is rotating
"into" the depth dimension).</para>
<para><emphasis>Rotating on the <code>y</code> axis</emphasis>
("door")</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
clutter_actor_animate (actor,
CLUTTER_LINEAR,
1000,
"rotation-angle-y", 45.0,
NULL);
]]>
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>The above code animating a texture:</para>
<inlinemediaobject>
<videoobject>
<videodata fileref="videos/animations-rotating-y-45.ogv"/>
</videoobject>
<alt>
<para>Video showing an actor rotating to 45 degrees on the
y axis</para>
</alt>
</inlinemediaobject>
<para>Again, the rotation is into the depth dimension, so
you get perspective effects.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Discussion</title>
<para>It can sometimes be difficult to predict exactly
how a particular rotation animation will appear when applied.
Often the only way to find out is to experiment. However,
the sections below outline some of the most common factors which
affect animated rotations, with the aim of minimising the
experimentation you need to do.</para>
<section>
<title>Setting the rotation center for an animation</title>
<para>The examples in the previous section used the default
center of rotation for each axis. However, it is possible to
change the rotation center for an axis, in turn changing
the appearance of the animation.</para>
<note>
<para>Rotation center coordinates are relative to the
actor's coordinates, not to the coordinates of the actor's
container or the stage.</para>
</note>
<section>
<title>Setting a rotation center inside an actor</title>
<para>You can set the center for rotation on the x or y axes
like this:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
/*
* only required for y axis rotation;
* here set to the mid point of the actor's y axis
*/
gfloat x_center = clutter_actor_get_height (actor) * 0.5;
/*
* only required for x axis rotation;
* here set to the mid point of the actor's x axis
*/
gfloat y_center = clutter_actor_get_width (actor) * 0.5;
/*
* depth for the rotation center: positive numbers
* are closer to the view point, negative ones
* are further away
*/
gfloat z_center = 0.0;
/* set rotation center */
clutter_actor_set_rotation (actor,
CLUTTER_X_AXIS, /* or CLUTTER_Y_AXIS */
0.0, /* set the rotation to this angle */
x_center,
y_center,
z_center);
]]>
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>Because z axis rotations are more common, Clutter
provides some convenience functions to set the rotation
center for this axis:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
clutter_actor_set_z_rotation_from_gravity (actor,
0.0,
CLUTTER_GRAVITY_CENTER);
]]>
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para><constant>CLUTTER_GRAVITY_CENTER</constant> makes the
center of the actor the rotation center for
the z axis. See the <type>ClutterGravity</type> enumeration for
acceptable values for this parameter.</para>
<note>
<para>Setting the rotation center for the z axis using gravity
is recommended, as Clutter will automatically recompute the
rotation center if the actor's size changes. For the x and y
axes, you have to do this computation yourself if you
want an actor's center of rotation to stay in the same place
if it is resized.</para>
</note>
<para>Rotation on the x axis around an actor's center:</para>
<inlinemediaobject>
<videoobject>
<videodata fileref="videos/animations-rotating-x-centered.ogv"/>
</videoobject>
<alt>
<para>Video showing an actor rotating around its center
on the x axis</para>
</alt>
</inlinemediaobject>
<para>Rotation on the y axis around an actor's center:</para>
<inlinemediaobject>
<videoobject>
<videodata fileref="videos/animations-rotating-y-centered.ogv"/>
</videoobject>
<alt>
<para>Video showing an actor rotating around its center
on the y axis</para>
</alt>
</inlinemediaobject>
<para>Rotation on the z axis around an actor's center:</para>
<inlinemediaobject>
<videoobject>
<videodata fileref="videos/animations-rotating-z-centered.ogv"/>
</videoobject>
<alt>
<para>Video showing an actor rotating around its center
on the z axis</para>
</alt>
</inlinemediaobject>
</section>
<section>
<title>Setting the rotation center outside an actor</title>
<para>Rather than rotating the actor around a point inside
itself, the rotation center can be moved to a position
outside the actor. (In the case of the z axis,
any rotation center setting is outside the actor as its depth
is 0.) When animated, the actor will describe an arc around the
rotation center, as if it's swinging from an invisible thread.</para>
<para>The same code as shown above can be used to set the
rotation center: just set the rotation center coordinates to
negative numbers (outside the actor). However, you can't use the
gravity functions if the rotation center falls outside an actor.</para>
<para>For example, here's a rotation to -180 degrees in the x
axis, with the y rotation center set to -96 (the same as the height
of the actor):</para>
<inlinemediaobject>
<videoobject>
<videodata fileref="videos/animations-rotating-x-minus-180-with-y-minus-96.ogv"/>
</videoobject>
<alt>
<para>Video showing an actor rotating to -180 degrees on
the x axis with y rotation center set to -96</para>
</alt>
</inlinemediaobject>
<para>Similarly, moving the z rotation center (for a rotation
in the x or y axis) will cause the actor to swing "into" or "out
of" the UI. Its final apparent size may be different, as it could
reach a different depth in the UI by the end of the
animation.</para>
<para>For example, here's a rotation to -180 in the x axis,
with the z rotation center set to -96 (the same as the height
of the actor):</para>
<inlinemediaobject>
<videoobject>
<videodata fileref="videos/animations-rotating-x-minus-180-with-z-minus-96.ogv"/>
</videoobject>
<alt>
<para>Video showing an actor rotating to -180 degrees on
the x axis with z rotation center set to -96</para>
</alt>
</inlinemediaobject>
<para>The apparent final size of the actor is reduced, as it
has rotated away from the view point.</para>
</section>
</section>
<section id="animations-rotating-discussion-direction">
<title>Direction of rotation</title>
<para>The apparent direction of an animated rotation depends on
two things:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Whether the angle of rotation is positive or negative.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The rotation of the container(s) the actor is inside.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>In the case of the sign of the rotation, here's what
happens for each axis and rotation angle sign (positive or
negative).</para>
<informaltable>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Axis</th>
<th>Sign of rotation angle</th>
<th>Effect on actor</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>z</td>
<td>+</td>
<td>
Clockwise spin about the <code>x,y</code> center of
rotation.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>z</td>
<td>-</td>
<td>
Anti-clockwise spin about the <code>x,y</code>
center of rotation.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>x</td>
<td>+</td>
<td>
The top swings away from the view point and the
bottom swings towards it. If y rotation center == 0,
the top is fixed; if y rotation center == the actor's
height, the bottom is fixed.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>x</td>
<td>-</td>
<td>
The bottom swings away from the view point and the
top swings towards it. If y rotation center == 0,
the top is fixed; if y rotation center == the actor's
height, the bottom is fixed.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>y</td>
<td>+</td>
<td>
The right-hand side swings away from the view point and
the left-hand side swings towards it. When x rotation
center == 0, the left-hand side if fixed; when x
rotation center == the actor's width, the right-hand
side is fixed.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>y</td>
<td>-</td>
<td>
The right-hand side swings towards the view point and
the left-hand side swings away from it. When x rotation
center == 0, the left-hand side if fixed; when x
rotation center == the actor's width, the right-hand
side is fixed.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</informaltable>
<para>If an actor's container is rotated, this may affect the
appearance of rotation animations applied to the actor. In
particular, if an actor's container has been rotated
by 180 degrees in one axis, the direction of that actor's
rotation may appear reversed.</para>
<para>For example, the video below shows an actor being animated
to 90 degrees on the z axis, then back to 0 degrees;
the actor's container is then rotated by 180 degrees in the y
axis; then the same rotation 90 degree rotation is applied
to the actor again. Note that the first time the animation
is applied, the rotation is clockwise; but the second time (as
the actor is effectively "reversed"), it is anti-clockwise.</para>
<inlinemediaobject>
<videoobject>
<videodata fileref="videos/animations-rotating-container-reverses-direction.ogv"/>
</videoobject>
<alt>
<para>Video showing how an actor's apparent rotation is
affected by the rotation of its parent</para>
</alt>
</inlinemediaobject>
</section>
<section>
<title>Apparent vs. actual rotation</title>
<para>There is a difference between an actor's <emphasis>apparent</emphasis>
rotation (how much an actor appears to be rotating, from the
perspective of someone looking at the UI) and its
<emphasis>actual</emphasis> rotation (how much that actor is
really rotating).</para>
<para>For example, if you rotate an actor and its container
simultaneously, each by 90 degrees in the same direction, the
actor will appear to have rotated by 180 degrees by the end
of the animation. However, calling the
<function>clutter_actor_get_rotation()</function> function
for that axis on the actor still returns a rotation of 90
degrees.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Orientation of rotation axes</title>
<para>The rotation axes remain fixed in the same place on
the actor regardless of its rotation, even though from the viewer's
perspective they may appear to move.</para>
<para>For example, when rotation in the z axis is 0 degrees,
the actor's x axis is horizontal (across the UI) from both the
actor's and the viewer's perspective. However, if you rotate the
actor by 90 degrees in the z axis, the x axis is now vertical from
<emphasis>the viewer's</emphasis> perspective, but still horizontal
across the actor from <emphasis>the actor's</emphasis>
perspective.</para>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<title>Full example</title>
<example id="animations-rotating-example">
<title>Rotating an actor around x, y, and z axes using
<type>ClutterState</type></title>
<programlisting>
<xi:include href="examples/animations-rotating.c" parse="text">
<xi:fallback>a code sample should be here... but isn't</xi:fallback>
</xi:include>
</programlisting>
</example>
</section>
</section>
<section id="animations-complex">
<title>Creating complex animations with
<type>ClutterAnimator</type></title>
<section>
<title>Problem</title>
<para>You want to create a complex animation involving one or more
actors. The animation will consist of a sequence of transitions
over multiple properties on each actor.</para>
<para>An example might be moving several actors between points,
with different types of movement for each part of the path, while
transforming each actor (e.g. scaling or rotating it).</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Solution</title>
<para>Use a <type>ClutterAnimator</type> to define the animation.</para>
<para>Because there are many complex animations you
<emphasis>could</emphasis> implement, the example below does
this:</para>
<inlinemediaobject>
<videoobject>
<videodata fileref="videos/animations-complex.ogv"/>
</videoobject>
<alt>
<para>Video showing a complex animation of an actor
using <type>ClutterAnimator</type></para>
</alt>
</inlinemediaobject>
<para>Although this uses a single actor, the animation is complex
enough to make it difficult to implement with implicit animations
or <type>ClutterState</type> (see
<link linkend="animations-complex-why-clutteranimator">the Discussion
section</link> for reasons why).</para>
<para>Here is a JSON definition of the stage, actors, and
the <type>ClutterAnimator</type> for this
animation:</para>
<example id="animations-complex-example-1">
<title>JSON definition of a complex animation using
<type>ClutterAnimator</type></title>
<programlisting>
<xi:include href="examples/animations-complex.json" parse="text">
<xi:fallback>a code sample should be here... but isn't</xi:fallback>
</xi:include>
</programlisting>
</example>
<note>
<para>The core to understanding this example is understanding
how to define keys for a <type>CutterAnimator</type>. As
this is an involved topic, further explanation
is given in <link linkend="animations-complex-discussion-keys">the
Discussion section</link>.</para>
</note>
<para>The program for loading this JSON definition from a file
is as follows:</para>
<example id="animations-complex-example-2">
<title>Simple program for loading a JSON script;
any key press starts the animation</title>
<programlisting>
<xi:include href="examples/animations-complex.c" parse="text">
<xi:fallback>a code sample should be here... but isn't</xi:fallback>
</xi:include>
</programlisting>
</example>
<note>
<para>It is also possible to use the <type>ClutterAnimator</type>
C API to define keys for an animation, but this will
typically be much more verbose than the JSON equivalent.</para>
<para>One other advantage of JSON is that it is much simpler
to tweak and test an animation, as you don't have to recompile
the application each time you edit it (you just load
the new JSON file).</para>
</note>
</section>
<section id="animations-complex-discussion">
<title>Discussion</title>
<para>You can think of <type>ClutterAnimator</type>
as a way to give directions to actors. For example,
you could give a real (human) actor a direction like "move
downstage; when you get there, stop and
rotate 90 degrees to your right". In code,
this might equate to a transition in the <varname>x</varname>
and <varname>y</varname> properties of the actor, followed by a
rotation in one axis.</para>
<note>
<para><type>ClutterAnimator</type> can give
"directions" to any type of GObject, but we concentrate
on animating <type>ClutterActors</type> in this section.</para>
</note>
<para>Each direction like this has an implicit
timeline, spanning the length of time the direction should
take to fulfil (you set the length of the timeline through
the <varname>duration</varname> property of the
<type>ClutterAnimator</type>). But within that timeline, you may
change the proportion of time spent on each action: "move
downstage quickly, then slowly rotate 90 degrees
to your right". The direction is the same, but we've
specified how much of the timeline should be devoted to each
action.</para>
<para>In <type>ClutterAnimator</type>, this concept is
captured by <emphasis>key frames</emphasis>. A
key frame represents a point somewhere along the timeline,
with one or more target property values for one or more actors.
A <type>ClutterAnimator</type> manages the transitions
between property values for each object, ensuring that
the target values are reached when the associated key frame
is reached.</para>
<para>To change the amount of time a transition
should take, you change the percentage of the timeline
between key frames. Using our real stage directions as an
example, you might define the key frames like this:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>0.2 (after 20% of the timeline):</emphasis>
arrive downstage</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>1.0 (by the end of the timeline):</emphasis>
achieve a 90 degree rotation to the right</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>See
<link linkend="animations-complex-discussion-keys">this
section</link> for more details about keys and key frames.</para>
<para>Finally, a direction might be further refined with
a description of the kind of movement to use:
rather than saying "move downstage quickly, then
slowly rotate 90 degrees to your right" a director could say:
"start off slowly, but build up to a run;
run downstage quickly; then stop and start rotating
slowly to your right, gradually speeding up, turn a little more, then slow
down gradually; you should end up rotated 90 degrees to your right"
(this granularity of description is closer to what you might
see in dance notation like
<ulink href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labanotation">Laban</ulink>;
though of course you can't animate human opacity, scale, dimensions
etc...).</para>
<para><type>ClutterAnimator</type> gives you this level of
granularity. Each transition to a property value between
key frames can have a separate <emphasis>easing mode</emphasis>:
for example, starting off slowly and building to a constant
speed equates to an "ease in" mode; starting slowly, speeding
up, maintaining a constant speed, then gradually slowing down
equates to "ease in and ease out".</para>
<para>To summarise: creating a complex animation means deciding:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Which properties need to change on which actors?</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>What target value should each property transition to?</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>How quickly (by which key frame) should the property
reach the target value?</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>What "shape" (easing mode) should the change to
the target value follow?</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<section id="animations-complex-discussion-keys">
<title>Understanding keys and key frames</title>
<para>A <type>ClutterAnimator</type> maintains a list of
<varname>properties</varname> objects, each being a unique pair
of <varname>object</varname> (an object to be animated) +
<varname>name</varname> (name of the property
to be animated on that object).</para>
<para>Each <varname>properties</varname> object in turn has a
list of keys, with each key having three elements:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>The <emphasis>key frame</emphasis>, expressed as a fraction
(between 0.0 and 1.0) of the duration of the animation. At this
point, the named property should reach a target value.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The <emphasis>easing mode</emphasis> to use to transition
the property to that value.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The <emphasis>target value</emphasis> the property
should transition to.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>For example:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
{
"object" : "rectangle",
"name" : "x",
"ease-in" : true,
"keys" : [
[ 0.0, "linear", 0.0 ],
[ 0.1, "easeInCubic", 150.0 ],
[ 0.8, "linear", 150.0 ],
[ 1.0, "easeInCubic", 0.0 ]
]
}
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>defines a sequence of transitions for the <varname>x</varname>
property (position on the x axis) of the <code>rectangle</code>
object, as follows:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>[ 0.0, "linear", 0.0 ]</emphasis>:
At the start of the animation, <code>x</code> should be
0.0; <code>linear</code> is used as the easing mode, as there
is no transition here.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>[ 0.1, "easeInCubic", 150.0 ]</emphasis>:
By 10% of the way through the animation,
<code>x</code> should reach a value of <code>150.0</code>.
This moves the rectangle horizontally across the stage.</para>
<para>The <code>easeInCubic</code> easing mode means that
the transition to the new value starts slow and speeds up.
This makes the movement look more "natural".</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>[ 0.8, "linear", 150.0 ]</emphasis>:
From 10% of the way through the animation to 80%
of the way through, the <code>x</code> value remains at
<code>150.0</code>. This makes the rectangle stay still
on the x axis throughout this period.</para>
<para>It's important to specify interim key frames if
in a later key frame you intend to change the value again
(as is done for the <code>x</code> value here). Otherwise
you can get premature transitions to a value over longer
periods than you intended. By specifying the interim
key frames where the value remains constant, you ensure
that it doesn't change before you want it to.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>[ 1.0, "easeInCubic", 0.0 ]</emphasis>:
From 80% of the way through the animation to the end,
the <code>x</code> value should transition back to
<code>0.0</code>. This moves the actor back to its
starting position on the x axis. Again, an <code>easeInCubic</code>
easing mode is used to make the transition appear more natural.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>There are two more properties you can set for each
object/property pair:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Set <varname>ease-in</varname> to <code>true</code> to
animate to the target value at the first key frame. If
<varname>ease-in</varname> is false, the animation will
"jump" to the target value instead (if the target value is
different from the current value).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Set <varname>interpolation</varname> to either
<code>"linear"</code> (the default) or <code>"cubic"</code>.
This sets how <type>ClutterAnimator</type> transitions between
key frames; in effect, it further modulates any easing modes
set on individual keys: if set to <code>"cubic"</code>, you
get a slightly more natural and gentle transition between
key frames than you do if set to <code>"linear"</code>.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</section>
<section id="animations-complex-why-clutteranimator">
<title>Why <type>ClutterAnimator</type>?</title>
<para>Why use <type>ClutterAnimator</type> and not the other
<link linkend="animations-introduction-api">Clutter animation
approaches</link> for complex animations?</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Implicit animations</emphasis> can animate
properties on a single actor; however, you can only specify a
single transition for each property. Also, it's not possible
to describe complex movement along a path in a single implicit
animation: you would have to chain several animations together
to do that.</para>
<para>To animate multiple actors, you'd also need multiple
implicit animations, one for each actor. These animations would
also need to be synchronized (for example, by sharing a
single timeline).</para>
<para>So it would be possible, but more difficult than
an implementation using <type>ClutterAnimator</type>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis><type>ClutterState</type></emphasis> can
be used for complex animations: each state can describe
transitions for multiple actors and multiple properties.
However, to make continuous movement (as in the example),
you would need to write a state for each movement between a
pair of points; then add a callback so that when each state
is reached, the animation moves onto the next state. This
adds some code (a handler for the <code>completed</code>
signal emitted by the <type>ClutterState</type> to set
the next state). This could work OK for a few states,
but doesn't scale as well as <type>ClutterAnimator</type>
if you have many transitions.</para>
<note>
<para><type>ClutterState</type> and
<type>ClutterAnimator</type> are not mutually exclusive. If
you generally need to transition between several known states
(e.g. hiding/revealing menus which stay in the same place,
moving between two UI layouts), but want to create a
complex animation between states, you can use
<type>ClutterAnimators</type> to define the transitions: see
the documentation for
<function>clutter_state_set_animator()</function> for
details.</para>
</note>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para><type>ClutterAnimator</type> is a good fit for complex
animations, and probably the best fit for the most complex:
it is the simplest way to encode a sequence of transitions
for a list of object/property pairs which can be treated
as a single animation. This is largely because
<type>ClutterAnimator</type> is effectively managing the
chaining together of the individual transitions into a whole.</para>
<para>One other feature of <type>ClutterAnimator</type> which
isn't demonstrated here is how it enables transitions to overlap.
For example, let's say you wanted an actor
to move along a complex path (e.g. described by five pairs of
x,y coordinates); but during that movement, you
wanted the actor to continuously transition to a scale of
4.0 on both the x and y axes.</para>
<para>To achieve this with <type>ClutterState</type>, you would
need to set up five transitions (one to move to each pair of
x,y coordinates); plus a callback to chain the state transitions
together; and within each transition, you'd have to figure out a
percentage of the scaling to apply, so that the actor
was at a scale of 4.0 on reaching the final state.</para>
<para>With <type>ClutterAnimator</type>, you can treat the
movement between the coordinates and the scaling separately
within the same animation, but overlap their key frames. This
makes coding overlapping animations of different properties
much more straightforward. See
<link linkend="animations-complex-example-3">this JSON
definition</link> for an example of how to do this.</para>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<title>Full example</title>
<example id="animations-complex-example-3">
<title>Running multiple transition sequences with
different key frames in parallel using
<type>ClutterAnimator</type></title>
<note>
<para>This JSON file can be loaded with the same code
as used for <link linkend="animations-complex-example-2">this
example</link>, by passing the JSON file name on the command line:</para>
<screen>
<prompt>$</prompt> <command>./animations-complex animations-complex-overlapping.json</command>
</screen>
</note>
<programlisting>
<xi:include href="examples/animations-complex-overlapping.json" parse="text">
<xi:fallback>a code sample should be here... but isn't</xi:fallback>
</xi:include>
</programlisting>
</example>
</section>
</section>
<section id="animations-reuse">
<title>Reusing a complex animation on different actors</title>
<section id="animations-reuse-problem">
<title>Problem</title>
<para>You want to apply the same complex animation to several
different actors.</para>
</section>
<section id="animations-reuse-solution">
<title>Solution</title>
<para>Instead of animating each actor separately, create a
<emphasis>rig</emphasis>: an empty container with an associated
animation, which will be animated in lieu of
animating the actor directly. Do this as follows:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Initialise the stage and actors, including those
to be animated.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Define a <type>ClutterContainer</type> and a
<type>ClutterAnimator</type> animation to animate it.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>When you need to animate an actor:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Create an instance of the rig and its animator.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Reparent the actor to the rig.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Run the rig's animation.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>For this solution, we're using
<ulink url="http://json.org/">JSON</ulink> to define the
animation and the user interface elements. For more
details about this approach, see
<link linkend="script-introduction">the chapter
on <type>ClutterScript</type></link>.</para>
<para>Here's an extract of the JSON definition for the stage and
one of five rectangles placed at its left edge (the full definition
is in <link linkend="animations-reuse-example-1">the
appendix</link>):</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
[
{
"type" : "ClutterStage",
"id" : "stage",
... stage properties, signal handlers etc. ...
"children" : [
{
"type" : "ClutterRectangle",
"id" : "rect1",
"color" : "white",
"width" : 50,
"height" : 50,
"y" : 50,
"reactive" : true,
"signals" : [
{ "name" : "button-press-event", "handler" : "foo_button_pressed_cb" }
]
},
... more children defined here ...
]
}
]
]]>
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>The key point to note is how a signal handler is defined
for the <code>button-press-event</code>, so that the
<function>foo_button_pressed_cb()</function> function will trigger
the animation when a (mouse) button is pressed on each rectangle.</para>
<para>The second JSON definition includes the rig
(an empty <type>ClutterGroup</type>) and a
<type>ClutterAnimator</type> to animate it. The animation moves the
container across the stage and scales it to twice its original
size. (This is the <link linkend="animations-reuse-example-2">same
code as in the appendix</link>):</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
<xi:include href="examples/animations-reuse-animation.json" parse="text">
<xi:fallback>a code sample should be here... but isn't</xi:fallback>
</xi:include>
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>The remaining parts of the application code load
the user interface definition, setting up the stage and rectangles;
and define the callback. The full code is
<link linkend="animations-reuse-example-3">in the appendix</link>,
but below is the most important part, the callback function:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
gboolean
foo_button_pressed_cb (ClutterActor *actor,
ClutterEvent *event,
gpointer user_data)
{
ClutterScript *ui = CLUTTER_SCRIPT (user_data);
ClutterStage *stage = CLUTTER_STAGE (clutter_script_get_object (ui, "stage"));
ClutterScript *script;
ClutterActor *rig;
ClutterAnimator *animator;
/* load the rig and its animator from a JSON file */
script = clutter_script_new ();
/* use a function defined statically in this source file to load the JSON */
load_script_from_file (script, ANIMATION_FILE);
clutter_script_get_objects (script,
"rig", &rig,
"animator", &animator,
NULL);
/* remove the button press handler from the rectangle */
g_signal_handlers_disconnect_matched (actor,
G_SIGNAL_MATCH_FUNC,
0,
0,
NULL,
foo_button_pressed_cb,
NULL);
/* add a callback to clean up the script when the rig is destroyed */
g_object_set_data_full (G_OBJECT (rig), "script", script, g_object_unref);
/* add the rig to the stage */
clutter_container_add_actor (CLUTTER_CONTAINER (stage), rig);
/* place the rig at the same coordinates on the stage as the rectangle */
clutter_actor_set_position (rig,
clutter_actor_get_x (actor),
clutter_actor_get_y (actor));
/* put the rectangle into the top-left corner of the rig */
clutter_actor_reparent (actor, rig);
clutter_actor_set_position (actor, 0, 0);
/* animate the rig */
clutter_animator_start (animator);
return TRUE;
}
]]>
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>The code creates a new rig and associated animation
at the point when the rectangle is clicked. It then positions the
rig at the same coordinates as the rectangle, reparents
the rectangle to the rig, and starts the rig's animation.</para>
<note>
<para>The signal handler has to be declared non-static and
you must use <code>-export-dynamic</code> as an option to the
compiler, otherwise the function isn't visible to
<type>ClutterScript</type> (as outlined
<link linkend="script-signals">in this recipe</link>).</para>
</note>
<para>This is what the animation looks like:</para>
<inlinemediaobject>
<videoobject>
<videodata fileref="videos/animations-reuse.ogv"/>
</videoobject>
<alt>
<para>Video of a simple reusable animation</para>
</alt>
</inlinemediaobject>
</section>
<section id="animations-reuse-discussion">
<title>Discussion</title>
<para>The above solution reparents an actor to be animated
into a rig (an empty placeholder). The rig is a container
which acts as a temporary parent for the actor we
<emphasis>really</emphasis> want to animate. By animating the rig,
it appears as though the actor inside it is being animated (but
<link linkend="animations-reuse-discussion-rig-not-actor">see
these caveats</link>). This means the same animation can be
easily applied to different actors: create an
instance of the rig, reparent an actor to it, then
run the rig's animation. This is simpler than creating
a separate animation for each actor individually, or
reusing a single <type>ClutterAnimator</type> on different
actors (see
<link linkend="animations-reuse-discussion-one-or-many">this
section</link>).</para>
<para>Using JSON enhances the animation's reusability (it's even
potentially reusable in another application), makes the code
simpler (an animation can be loaded directly from the script),
and makes refactoring easier (the animation can be modified
without recompiling the application code). However, it also puts
some minor limitations on the animation's reusability; namely, you
can only set absolute property values in a JSON animation
definition. This makes JSON less useful in cases where
you need to animate properties relative to their starting
values: for example, "move 50 pixels along the x axis" or
"rotate by 10 degrees more on the z axis". (This type of animation
is probably less portable anyway.) In such cases, the programmable
API may be a better option: see the <type>ClutterAnimator</type>
documentation for examples.</para>
<section id="animations-reuse-discussion-one-or-many">
<title>One animation vs. many</title>
<para>In the sample code, a new instance of the rig and its
animation are created for each actor. One side effect of this
is that all of the actors can animate simultaneously with the
"same" animation. If you don't want this behaviour, but still
want to use a rig approach, you could create a single instance
of the rig and its animation. Then, you could reparent each actor
to it in turn.</para>
<para>To ensure that the rig only animates one actor (or group
of actors) at a time, you could track whether the rig is
currently animating (e.g. by examining the animation's
timeline with <function>clutter_animator_get_timeline()</function>).
Then, if the animation is running, prevent any other actor
from being reparented to the rig.</para>
<para>Note that you would also need to "reset" the rig each time the
animation completed (move it back to the right start values for
its properties), ready to animate the next actor.</para>
</section>
<section id="animations-reuse-discussion-rig-not-actor">
<title>Caveats about animating a rig instead of an actor</title>
<para>There are a few issues to be aware of in cases
where you animate a rig with contained actors, rather than
animating the actor directly:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Animating a rig doesn't <emphasis>always</emphasis>
produce the same visual effect as animating an actor directly.
For example, compare the following cases:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>You rotate an actor by 180 degrees in the
<code>y</code> axis, then by 90 degrees in the
<code>z</code> axis. The actor appears to rotate in
a <emphasis>clockwise</emphasis> direction.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>You rotate the parent container of an actor
by 180 degrees in the <code>y</code> axis; then rotate
the actor by 90 degrees in the <code>z</code> axis.
The actor appears to rotate in an
<emphasis>anti-clockwise</emphasis> direction. By
rotating the container, the "back" of the
actor faces the view point, so the actor's movement
appears reversed. See
<link linkend="animations-rotating-discussion-direction">this
recipe</link> for more details.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>There may be other situations where you get similar
discrepancies.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Animating a rig doesn't change an actor's properties,
but animating the actor does.</para>
<para>When you animate a container rather than the actor
directly, the reported properties of the actor may not
reflect its visual appearance. For example, if you apply
a scale animation to a container, the final scale of
actors inside it (as returned by
<function>clutter_actor_get_scale()</function>) will not
reflect the scaling applied to their container; whereas
directly animating the actors would cause their scale
properties to change.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Reparenting an actor to a rig can cause the actor
to "jump" to the rig's position, unless you align the
actor to the rig first.</para>
<para>Note that in the sample code, the position of the actor
(<code>x</code>, <code>y</code> coordinates) is copied to
the rig before the reparenting happens. The actor is then
reparented to the rig, and positioned in the rig's
top-left corner. So the actor appears to be in the same
position, but is now actually inside a rig at the actor's old
position.</para>
<para>Why bother to do this? Because the rig has a default
position of <code>0,0</code> (top-left of <emphasis>its</emphasis>
container, the stage). If you reparent the actor to the rig,
without first copying the actor's position to the rig, the
actor appears to "jump" to the rig's position.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</section>
</section>
<section id="animations-reuse-examples">
<title>Full example</title>
<note>
<para>The three separate code examples in this section
constitute a single application which implements the above
solution.</para>
</note>
<example id="animations-reuse-example-1">
<title><type>ClutterScript</type> JSON defining several
rectangles with signal handlers</title>
<programlisting>
<xi:include href="examples/animations-reuse-ui.json" parse="text">
<xi:fallback>a code sample should be here... but isn't</xi:fallback>
</xi:include>
</programlisting>
</example>
<example id="animations-reuse-example-2">
<title><type>ClutterScript</type> JSON describing a "rig"
and a <type>ClutterAnimator</type> animation</title>
<programlisting>
<xi:include href="examples/animations-reuse-animation.json" parse="text">
<xi:fallback>a code sample should be here... but isn't</xi:fallback>
</xi:include>
</programlisting>
</example>
<example id="animations-reuse-example-3">
<title>Loading <type>ClutterScript</type> from JSON files
in response to events in a user interface</title>
<programlisting>
<xi:include href="examples/animations-reuse.c" parse="text">
<xi:fallback>a code sample should be here... but isn't</xi:fallback>
</xi:include>
</programlisting>
</example>
</section>
</section>
<section id="animations-moving">
<title>Moving actors</title>
<section>
<title>Problem</title>
<para>You want to animate the movement of one or more actors.
For example:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>To move user interface elements in response to user input
(e.g. keyboard control of a character in a game).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>To move a group of actors "off stage" to make way
for another group of actors (e.g. paging through
thumbnails in a photo viewer).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>To move an actor to a different position in the
interface (e.g. moving an icon for a trashed file into
a wastebin).</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</section>
<section>
<title>Solutions</title>
<para>Animate the actors movement on one or more axes
(<varname>x</varname>, <varname>y</varname>,
<varname>z/depth</varname>) using one or more of the approaches
available in the Clutter API (implicit animations,
<type>ClutterState</type>, <type>ClutterAnimator</type>).</para>
<section>
<title>Solution 1: Implicit animations</title>
<para>This works well for simple movement of a single actor to
a single set of coordinates. Here is an example of how to animate
movement of a <type>ClutterActor</type> <varname>actor</varname>
to position <code>100.0</code> on <varname>x</varname> axis:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
clutter_actor_animate (actor, CLUTTER_LINEAR, 500,
"x", 100.0,
NULL);
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>See <link linkend="animations-moving-example-1">this
example</link> which demonstrates movement in each axis,
in response to (mouse) button presses.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Solution 2: <type>ClutterState</type></title>
<para>This suits simple, repeated movement of one or more actors
between sets of coordinates. Here is an example of how to
create two states for a <type>ClutterState</type> instance to
move two actors, <varname>actor1</varname> and
<varname>actor2</varname>:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
ClutterState *transitions = clutter_state_new ();
/* all state transitions take 250ms */
clutter_state_set_duration (transitions, NULL, NULL, 250);
/* create a state called move-down which moves both actors to y = 200.0 */
clutter_state_set (transitions, NULL, "move-down",
actor1, "y", CLUTTER_EASE_OUT_CUBIC, 200.0,
actor2, "y", CLUTTER_EASE_OUT_CUBIC, 200.0,
NULL);
/* create a state called move-up which moves both actors to y = 0.0 */
clutter_state_set (transitions, NULL, "move-up",
actor1, "y", CLUTTER_EASE_OUT_CUBIC, 0.0,
actor2, "y", CLUTTER_EASE_OUT_CUBIC, 0.0,
NULL);
/* move the actors by setting the state */
clutter_state_set (transitions, "move-down");
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>This <link linkend="animations-moving-example-2">full
example</link> shows how to move and simultaneously
scale two actors. When a button is pressed on one actor, it is
moved and scaled to occupy the right-hand side of the stage;
the other actor is simultaneously moved back to the left-hand
side of the stage and scaled down.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Solution 3: <type>ClutterAnimator</type></title>
<para>This is a good way to implement complex movement of
one or more actors between sets of coordinates.</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
ClutterAnimator *animator = clutter_animator_new ();
/* the animation takes 500ms */
clutter_animator_set_duration (animator, 500);
/* at the start of the animation, actor should be at 0.0,0.0;
* half-way through, at 100.0,100.0;
* by the end, actor should be at 150.0,200.0;
* note that you can set different easing modes for each
* part of the animation and for each property at each key
*/
clutter_animator_set (animator,
/* keys for the start of the animation */
actor, "x", CLUTTER_LINEAR, 0.0, 0.0,
actor, "y", CLUTTER_LINEAR, 0.0, 0.0,
/* keys for half-way through the animation */
actor, "x", CLUTTER_EASE_OUT_CUBIC, 0.5, 100.0,
actor, "y", CLUTTER_EASE_IN_CUBIC, 0.5, 100.0,
/* keys for the end of the animation */
actor, "x", CLUTTER_EASE_OUT_EXPO, 1.0, 150.0,
actor, "y", CLUTTER_EASE_OUT_CUBIC, 1.0, 200.0,
NULL);
/* run the animation */
clutter_animator_start (animator);
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>The <link linkend="animations-moving-example-3">full
example</link> demonstrates how <type>ClutterAnimator</type>
can be used to programmatically animate multiple actors: in this
case, to simultaneously move three actors to random positions
along the <varname>x</varname> axis. Synchronising the
movement of three actors simultaneously using implicit
animations would be possible but awkward;
<type>ClutterState</type> might be another option,
but it wasn't really designed for this case: there are no persistent
states to transition between, as the actor positions are
generated on each key press.</para>
<note>
<para>If you want to apply the same movement to a group of
actors, rather than different movements for each actor,
it's often better to put the actors into a container
of some kind and move that instead of moving the actors
individually.</para>
</note>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<title>Discussion</title>
<section>
<title>Movement can take an actor "outside" its container</title>
<para>Actor movement in the <varname>x</varname> and
<varname>y</varname> axes is relative to the actor's parent
container. There is nothing to stop you animating an actor
until it falls outside the bounds of its container. This
could result in the actor moving "off" the interface; though it's
worth remembering that the actor is not unparented or destroyed
if this happens.</para>
<para>To ensure that an actor remains visible, its position
should remain within the visible area of the container. In practice,
this means either anywhere in the container, if no clip area
has been set; or within the container's clip area, if set.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Anchor points can affect movement</title>
<para>An actor's anchor point is defined as an <code>x,y</code>
coordinate relative to the top-left of the actor. The default
anchor point for an actor is in its top-left
corner. However, it is possible to set this to some other
coordinate, relative to the actor's top-left corner,
using the <function>clutter_anchor_set_anchor_point()</function>
function.</para>
<para>For example:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
/* set the actor's size to 100px x 100px */
clutter_actor_set_size (actor, 100, 100);
/* set an anchor point half-way along the top of the actor */
clutter_actor_set_anchor_point (actor, 50.0, 0.0);
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<note>
<para>In GL terms, the anchor point of an actor is the equivalent
of applying an additional transformation of <code>-x, -y</code> to
the actor's modelview. If the anchor point is <code>0, 0</code>,
i.e. the top-left corner, then the transformation will leave the
actor in the same place.</para>
<para>It is important to note that the anchor point will affect the
position in which an actor is painted, but will not change the
position or size that its parent allocated for it.</para>
<para>Finally, the anchor point will affect the other transformations
that can be applied to an actor: scaling and rotating.</para>
</note>
<para>A positive anchor point within the width/height bounds of the
actor is inside the actor. An anchor point outside these bounds
is outside the actor. You can also set a negative
<varname>x</varname> or <varname>y</varname> value for
the anchor point, which will again place the point outside
the actor's bounds.</para>
<para>This is important with respect to moving an actor, because
you are actually moving the anchor point and "dragging" the
actor along with it.</para>
<para>For example: you have an actor with width 50px, and you
set its <varname>anchor-x</varname> property to <code>25.0</code>.
If you move that actor on the <varname>x</varname> axis, you are
effectively moving a point half-way across the top of the
actor along the <varname>x</varname> axis (which in turn moves the
actor).</para>
<para>Similarly, you could set the same actor's
<varname>anchor-x</varname> to <code>-25.0</code>. If you then
moved the actor along the <varname>x</varname> axis, you would
effectively be moving the point 25px left of the top of the actor
along that axis.</para>
<para>The video below demonstrates the effect on movement of shifting
the anchor point on the <varname>x</varname> axis. The
<emphasis>red</emphasis> rectangle has <varname>anchor-x</varname>
set to <code>25.0</code>; the <emphasis>green</emphasis> rectangle has
<varname>anchor-x</varname> set to <code>0.0</code> (the default); the
<emphasis>blue</emphasis> rectangle has <varname>anchor-x</varname>
set to <code>-25.0</code>.</para>
<inlinemediaobject>
<videoobject>
<videodata fileref="videos/animations-moving-anchors.ogv"/>
</videoobject>
<alt>
<para>Video showing the effect of anchor point on movement</para>
</alt>
</inlinemediaobject>
<para> A <type>ClutterAnimator</type> is
used to move each of the rectangles to <code>x = 225.0</code>.
Although the three rectangles move to the same position on the
<varname>x</varname> axis, it's actually the the anchor points
which are at the same position. These all align on the
<varname>x</varname> axis with the left-hand edge of the green
rectangle.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Actors can move in the <varname>z</varname> axis</title>
<para>The examples so far have shown how to move actors in
the <varname>x</varname> and <varname>y</varname> axes; but it
is also possible to move actors in the <varname>z</varname>
axis (i.e. move them closer or further away from the view point).
This lets you move actors under/over each other.</para>
<para>To move an actor in the <varname>z</varname> axis, animate
its <varname>depth</varname> property. Animating to a negative
depth moves the actor away from the view point; animating to a
positive depth moves the actor towards the view point.</para>
<para>Changing the depth of an actor also causes perspective
effects: the actor gets smaller and converges on the center
of the stage as it gets further from the view point, and
gets larger and diverges from the center of the stage as it gets
closer. This results in an apparent (but not actual) change in
the <code>x,y</code> position and scale of the actor.</para>
<note>
<para>Animating the depth of an actor is slightly different
from animating its x and y coordinates, as depth is relative
to the whole stage, not just the parent container of the
actor. This means that perspective effects are with
respect to the whole stage: so as an actor's depth
moves below <code>0.0</code>, it converges on the center
of the stage, and may even apparently move outside its
container (if the container stays at the same depth).</para>
</note>
<para>The video below demonstrates the effect of animating
the depth of four actors to a value of <code>-15000.0</code>.
Note how the actors converge on the center of the stage,
as well as appearing to change position and scale; also note
that they appear to move outside the bounds of their parent containers
(the four yellow <type>ClutterBoxes</type>).</para>
<inlinemediaobject>
<videoobject>
<videodata fileref="videos/animations-moving-depth.ogv"/>
</videoobject>
<alt>
<para>Video showing perspective effects when animating
actor depth</para>
</alt>
</inlinemediaobject>
</section>
<section>
<title>Movement is affected by constraints</title>
<para>An actor can have its x,y position constrained by
the position of other actors through <type>ClutterBindConstraints</type>.
This can affect movement in two ways:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>If an actor has its <varname>x</varname> and/or
<varname>y</varname> properties
bound or aligned to another actor's, you can't animate
those properties.</para>
<para>In effect this means that the bound actor can't be
moved on a bound axis directly, but can only be moved by
animating the constraint's properties.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>If you move an actor which has other actors bound to
it, the bound actors will also move. For example, if
the actor has several other actors whose <varname>x</varname>
properties are bound to its <varname>x</varname> property,
moving the actor on the <varname>x</varname> axis will also
move the bound actors on that axis.</para>
<para>Similarly, if some actor is the source for
alignment constraints on other actors, moving the source
will cause those other actors to move, so that they remain in
alignment with it.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>For example, consider two actors bound by constraints
as follows:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
/* the source actor for the constraint */
ClutterActor *source;
/* the actor bound by the constraint */
ClutterActor *target;
/* a constraint to be added to target */
ClutterConstraint *constraint;
/* ...initialize actors etc... */
/* create a constraint for binding the x position of some actor to the
* x position of source
*/
constraint = clutter_bind_constraint_new (source, CLUTTER_BIND_X, 0.0);
/* add the constraint to target with a name */
clutter_actor_add_constraint_with_name (target, "bind-x", constraint);
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>Animating <varname>source</varname> on the <varname>x</varname>
axis also animates <varname>target</varname> on the same axis:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
clutter_actor_animate (source, CLUTTER_LINEAR, 500,
"x", 250.0,
NULL);
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>...while this has no effect, as it would violate
<varname>constraint</varname> (it's best not to animate
<varname>target's</varname> <varname>x</varname> property
directly):</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
clutter_actor_animate (target, CLUTTER_LINEAR, 500,
"x", 250.0,
NULL);
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>But the constraint's properties can be animated, to change
how <varname>source</varname> and <varname>target</varname>
are bound; which in turn moves <varname>target</varname>:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
clutter_actor_animate (target, CLUTTER_LINEAR, 500,
"@constraints.bind-x.offset", 250.0,
NULL);
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>Note the <code>@constraints.&lt;constraint name&gt;.&lt;constraint property&gt;</code>
syntax (which is why we needed to use
<function>clutter_actor_add_constraint_with_name()</function>,
so that the constraint can be accessed through the actor).
We are still animating <varname>target</varname>, but really
we're indirectly animating a property of one of its constraints.</para>
<para>Another alternative would be to directly animate
the constraint's properties through <type>ClutterState</type>
or <type>ClutterAnimator</type>, rather than using
pseudo-properties on the actor animation:</para>
<informalexample>
<programlisting>
ClutterAnimator *animator = clutter_animator_new ();
clutter_animator_set_duration (animator, 500);
clutter_animator_set (animator,
constraint, "offset", CLUTTER_LINEAR, 0.0, 0.0,
constraint, "offset", CLUTTER_LINEAR, 1.0, 250.0,
NULL);
clutter_animator_start (animator);
</programlisting>
</informalexample>
<para>This could be useful if you need to animate
multiple constraints between multiple values simultaneously.</para>
</section>
</section>
<section id="animations-moving-examples">
<title>Full examples</title>
<example id="animations-moving-example-1">
<title>Simple movement using implicit animations</title>
<programlisting>
<xi:include href="examples/animations-moving-implicit.c" parse="text">
<xi:fallback>a code sample should be here... but isn't</xi:fallback>
</xi:include>
</programlisting>
</example>
<example id="animations-moving-example-2">
<title>Using <type>ClutterState</type> to repeatedly move
(and scale) two actors</title>
<programlisting>
<xi:include href="examples/animations-moving-state.c" parse="text">
<xi:fallback>a code sample should be here... but isn't</xi:fallback>
</xi:include>
</programlisting>
</example>
<example id="animations-moving-example-3">
<title>Using <type>ClutterAnimator</type> to randomly move
three actors along the <varname>x</varname> axis</title>
<programlisting>
<xi:include href="examples/animations-moving-animator.c" parse="text">
<xi:fallback>a code sample should be here... but isn't</xi:fallback>
</xi:include>
</programlisting>
</example>
</section>
</section>
</chapter>
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