A GUI that radically changes its layout as it goes from one mode to the other can be jarring to users. A new trend is for changes in content or context to be animated, so the user can see the nature of the changes. In an example inspired by the the Filthy Rich Clients book he co-authored, Chet...
The Timing Framework project provides commonly used timing concepts for animations. Its latest version adds newer and more sophisticated features, for interpolating between key frames. Chet Haase takes another look at the framework.
Animation quality is a subjective perception, and that makes it somewhat more of an art than a science. Chet Haase has taken a look at some of the things that make animation look choppy, and offers programmatic approaches to improving the appearance of Java animations.
Anti-aliasing helps with the appearance of text, but on LCD monitors you can do even better: you can use the spatial arrangement of the red, green, and blue parts of each pixel to achieve an even better anti-aliasing effect. This feature is coming to Java in Mustang, and in this article, Chet...
Chet Haase considers what it now takes to add dynamic effects, animations, or time-based events to a Java application and proposes and details a timing framework.
