by Janae Allen
June 22, 2009
Developers interested in creating applications with rich user experiences and animations will be interested in the Windows 7 Animation manager. Also known as Windows 7 Scenic Animation, this API is a set of COM interfaces and is designed to work with any graphics technology. It will help simplify animation development by providing a rich library of commonly used transformations, including linear, accelerate/ decelerate, and parabolic, and act also as a state manager. As state manager, the Animation API handles the scheduling of animations and resolves conflicts that occur when multiple animations have the same target. Complex storyboards are supported, so multiple transitions occuring on different targets and different variables can occur within the same storyboard. By using the Animation API, developers will be able to concentrate more on the functionality of their applications, instead of spending time on handling state management and creating transitions.
Links to more information about Windows 7 Animation:
Windows Scenic Animation Overview
Inside Windows 7: Animation Manager Deep Dive and Tutorial
Scenic Animation Overview - whitepaper
Windows Animation API Overview