JavaAnimeMaker (JAM) ver1.5

2009/06/17 Wednesday

Key Configuration

Key	Command
'B'	Brush mode.
'C'	Change part/component mode.
'E'	Edit mode.
'L'	Scale mode. When executed, it changes the scale of actual object.
'O'	Rectangle/Ellipse/Speech mode.
'P'	Play animation. Press any key or mouse click to stop.
shift + 'P'	Play animation from a current frame.
'R'	Rotation mode.
'S'	Line/Rectangle Select mode.
'T'	Text mode.
'V'	Move mode.
'Z'	Zooom mode. Only changes the screen scale, does not change the scale of actual object.
control + 'A'	Select all.
control + 'D'	Deselect. Release edit object when in edit reference mode.
control + 'E'	Expand current frames.
control + 'G'	Group selected objects.
control + shift + 'G'	Ungroup selected objects.
control + 'I'	Insert page.
control + 'O'	Load a drawing/image from a file.
control + 'delete'	Delete page.
left	Turn to previous page.
right	Turn to next page.
up	Select next selectable object.
down	Select previous selectable object.
delete	Delete selected object. Delete empty page (if no object remains).
space	Duplicate selected object from previous page.
shift + left	Visible page - 1.
shift + right	Visible page + 1.
shift + up	Frame counts per page + 1.
shift + down	Frame counts per page - 1.
Brush Mode
mouse drag	Draw line.
shift	Straight line.
Change Mode
mouse move	Select component.
mouse click	Change component part.
mouse wheel	Change component part.
Edit Mode
'E'	Set currently focused object as default.
Play Mode
right	Fast forward frames.
left	Rewind frames.
down	Mark repeat A->B.
up	Reset repeat A->B.
Rectangle/Ellipse/Speech Mode
mouse move	Draw rectangle/ellipse/speech.
shift	Draw equal sides.
Rotation Mode
mouse drag	Rotation.
mouse wheel UP	Rotation to left.
mouse wheel DOWN	Rotation to right.
Scale Mode
mouse drag	Scale.
mouse wheel UP	Scale down seleted object.
mouse wheel DOWN	Scale up selected object.
Text Mode
mouse click	Start text input. End text input.
mouse drag	Start text input with width bound.
key type	Input text string.
return	Next line.
return twice	End text input.
left	Move a cursor to left.
right	Move a cursor to right.
Zoom Mode
mouse drag	Zoom.
mouse wheel UP	Zoom up.
mouse wheel DOWN	Zoom in.
Application Command
control + 'P'	Print images to 'image' directory.
control + 'S'	Save a current drawing into a file.

How To

Draw Instruction

Step1	Step2	Step3	Step4

Draw line ('B' for brush)	Next page (right key)	Draw line ('B' for brush)	Play ('P' for play)

Drawing Multiple Lines

Step1	Step2	Step3	Step4

Draw Three lines ('B' for brush)	Next page (right key)	Draw line ('B' for brush)	Select next line (Up key)
Step5	Step6	Step7	Step8

Draw line ('B' for brush)	Select next line (Up key)	Draw line ('B' for brush)	Play ('P' for play)

Select Image Parts

Step1	Step2	Step3	Step4

Select image (Up key)	Next page (right key)	Duplicate image (space key)	Mouse over part ('C' for Choose)
Step5	Step6 (Check)	Step7 (Check)	Step8

Switch Image (Mouse click)	Previous Image (Left key)	Current Image (right key)	Play ('P' for play)

Tips

Sometimes a key input doesn't work, that's because a key focus is off to somewhere (mainly browser). Clicking a drawing panel works most of the time.
If a screen freezes and clicking or typing doesn't work anymore, it means the program freezed. Restarting are browser is the only cure for this bag. Sorry... ; _ ;
The program saves/prints animation into PNG images by pressing ctrl+'P'. This print function is only available when you are running as an application. An applet (which can be run from a browser) doesn't have access to a local disk, so the program can't load/save files.
Since animation pages/frames are saved as PNG images in an 'image' directory, it's possible to add additional colors, texts, images to the drawings.
MovieMaker program convert PNG images stored in 'image' directory to a QuickTime movie file. This step can be replaced with another program, if you already have a program which convert images to a movie file.
Since MovieMaker uses "QuickTime for Java" API, this program ONLY works with latest JRE for Windows and MacOSX. I haven't checked with Windows environment yet, but it works fine with my Mac.
QuickTime movie can be uploaded to YouTube. Sample animations I've created can be found here.

Download

Jar Files

JavaAnimeMaker.jar
MovieMaker.jar

Commands

> java -jar JavaAnimeMaker.jar

Creates a window where user can draw an animation. Animation is saved as PNG images in 'image' directory by pressing 'ctrl+P'.

> java -jar MovieMaker.jar

Loads PNG images from a directory and converts into a QuickTime movie file. It calculates with 10 frames per second. After a convertion, movie is displayed on a window. By pressing play button, you can see the movie.

written by Akira Hasegawa