TS-animation: A track-based sketching animation system

Abstract

Computer has been widely used in classroom. Yet most of them can only provide static slides in the project mode, which are not attractive to children, especially to the younger ones. On contrast animations are not only attractive but also expressive. Using some animations in classroom makes the children more active and enhances their learning efficiency. However, most of current animation tools are either too complicated to common users, or specific domain based. Aimed at removing the complexity barrier and allowing nonprofessional users to create a wide variety of animations quickly, we propose a sketching animation system. A kind of track-based method is adopted to make creating animations as easy as drawing. Motion coordination is simplified by providing the tool of motion time warping. The interface of our system allows most of the important motions to be set by pen gestures. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.