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SceneBeans Animator

The SceneBeans animator is a simple tool that loads and runs an animation file, allows the user to invoke commands on the animation and displays events announced by the animation. It is useful for debugging animations and new visual and behavioural beans.

Running the Animator

The main entry point of the animator is the Animator class in the animator.jar file. The JAR file in the lib subdirectory of the SceneBeans distribution. The JAR Main-Class and Class-Path attributes of the JAR file have been configured so that it can be run using the -jar option of the java virtual machine (see the documentation for your Java installation for more information).

Command Line Arguments

The first argument is the name of an XML file that defines the animation. That can optionally be followed by pairs of arguments that define macros that are substituted when parsing the animation: the first of each pair is the macro name, the second the macro value.

Examples

The following examples are equivalent. They assume that the animator is being run from the root of the SceneBeans distribution.

java -jar lib/animator.jar xml/copter.xml

java -cp lib/animator.jar Animator xml/copter.xml

The following example defines some macros to parameterise the animation.

java -cp lib/animator.jar Animator xml/example.xml N 4 COLOR ff0000

User Interface

Command List

The list of commands understood by the animation. Double-clicking on a command will invoke it.

Event List

The list of events that can be announced by the animation.

Announced Event List

The events that have been announced by the animation, in chronological order. The list scrolls down as new events are announced so that the latest events are always visible.

Animation Canvas

This is where the animation is displayed.

Pause Box

Check this box to pause the animation. Uncheck it to resume.

Center Box

Check this box to center the origin of the animation in middle of the window. Uncheck it to position the origin at the top-left corner of the window (the default).

Stretch Box

Check this box to stretch the animation as the window is resized or shrunk. Uncheck it to fix the size of the animation as the window is resized (the default).

Aspect Box

Check this box to maintain the aspect ratio of the animation when it is resized with the window.