ANIMATION CREATION AND MANAGEMENT IN PRESENTATION APPLICATION PROGRAMS

• US 20130120405A1
• Filed: 11/17/2011
• Published: 05/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Maloney, Christopher Michael, Pasalic, Mirza, Huang, Runzhen
• Application Number:
  US13/298,810
• Publication Number:
  US 20130120405A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/474
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/00 Animation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/80 2D [Two Dimensional] animation, e.g. using sprites

Abstract

An animation timeline is analyzed to determine one or more discrete states. Each discrete state includes one or more animation effects. The discrete states represent scenes of a slide in a slide presentation. The concepts of scenes allows user to view a timeline of scenes, open a scene, and direct manipulate objects in the scene to author animations. The animations can include motion path animation effects, which can be directly manipulated utilizing a motion path tweening method. To aid in direct manipulation of a motion path of an object, a ghost version of the object can be shown to communicate to a user the position of the object after a motion path animation effect that includes the motion path is performed. The ghost version may also be used to show a start position when a start point is manipulated.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive an input of a motion path animation effect for an object, the motion path animation effect comprising a start point for the object, an end point for the object, and a motion path between the start point and the end point;

receive an input of a new start point and a new end point for the object; and

scale the motion path of the motion path animation effect to fit between the new start point and the new end point for the object.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the start point comprises a start x coordinate and a start y coordinate, the end point comprises an end x coordinate and an end y coordinate, the new start point comprises a new start x coordinate and a new start y coordinate, and the new end point comprises a new end x coordinate and a new end y coordinate for the object.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to scale the motion path of the motion path animation effect to fit between the new start point and the new end point for the object comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

associate a bounding box with the motion path, the bounding box encompassing the motion path and the bounding box having properties, comprising

a bound rotation property defining an angle of rotation around a point positioned at a corner of the bounding box,

a bound position property defining an x coordinate and a y coordinate of the point, and

a bound size property defining a width and a height of the bounding box;

set the bound position property such that the x coordinate equals a difference between the new start x coordinate and the start x coordinate, and such that the y coordinate equals a difference between the new start y coordinate and the start y coordinate;

calculate an old distance comprising a distance between the start point and the end point;

calculate a new distance comprising a distance between the new start point and the new end point;

calculate a distance quotient comprising the new distance divided by the old distance;

scale the width of the bounding box relative to the start point by the distance quotient;

calculate an old angle comprising an angle between the start point and the end point;

calculate a new angle comprising an angle between the new start point and the new end point;

calculate an angle quotient comprising the new angle divided by the old angle; and

rotate the bounding box around the start point by the angle quotient.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

receive a type change for the motion path; and

change the motion path in accordance with the type change, without redefining the new start point and the new end point.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein the motion path is non-linear.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein the new start point is equal to the start point.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein the new end point is equal to the end point.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

present a height adjustment indicator on the bounding box to indicate to a user that the height of the bounding box may be manipulated, the height of the bounding box being perpendicular to a line from the new start point to the end point, and the line not being visible to the user;

receive a height manipulation; and

scale the height of the bounding box according to the height manipulation, thereby causing an equally proportionate change to a top portion of the motion path that is positioned above the line and to a bottom portion of the motion path that is positioned below the line.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

add the motion path animation effect to an animation timeline, the animation timeline comprising a plurality of animation effects;

analyze the plurality of animation effects in the animation timeline to determine which of the plurality of animation effects in the animation timeline are triggered by a start with previous trigger or an on mouse click trigger, and wherein an animation effect that is triggered by the start with previous trigger or an on mouse click trigger indicates a start of a discrete state of one or more discrete states generated for the animation timeline.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

present an animation pane in a user interface, the animation pane comprising a scenes view comprising one or more scenes, each of the one or more scenes comprising a visualization of a discrete state of the one or more discrete states generated for the animation timeline.

11. A computer-implemented method for defining animations, the computer-implemented method comprising computer-implemented operations for:

receiving, via a presentation application program executing on a computer, an input of a motion path animation effect for an object, the motion path animation effect comprising a start point for the object, an end point for the object, and a motion path between the start point and the end point;

receiving, via the presentation application program executing on the computer, an input of a new start point and a new end point for the object; and

scaling, via the presentation application program executing on the computer, the motion path of the motion path animation effect to fit between the new start point and the new end point for the object.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the start point comprises a start x coordinate and a start y coordinate, the end point comprises an end x coordinate and an end y coordinate, the new start point comprises a new start x coordinate and a new start y coordinate, and the new end point comprises a new end x coordinate and a new end y coordinate for the object.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein scaling the motion path of the motion path animation effect to fit between the new start point and the new end point for the object comprises:

associating a bounding box with the motion path, the bounding box encompassing the motion path and the bounding box having properties, comprising

a bound rotation property defining an angle of rotation around a point positioned at a corner of the bounding box,

a bound position property defining an x coordinate and a y coordinate of the point, and

a bound size property defining a width and a height of the bounding box;

receiving an input of a new start point and a new end point for the motion path animation effect, the new start point comprising a new start x coordinate and a new start y coordinate for the object on the slide canvas, and a new end point comprising a new end x coordinate and a new end y coordinate for the object on the slide canvas;

setting the bound position property such that the x coordinate equals a difference between the new start x coordinate and the start x coordinate, and such that the y coordinate equals a difference between the new start y coordinate and the start y coordinate;

calculating an old distance comprising a distance between the start point and the end point;

calculating a new distance comprising a distance between the new start point and the new end point;

calculating a distance quotient comprising the new distance divided by the old distance;

scaling the width of the bounding box relative to the start point by the distance quotient;

calculating an old angle comprising an angle between the start point and the end point;

calculating a new angle comprising an angle between the new start point and the new end point;

calculating an angle quotient comprising the new angle divided by the old angle; and

rotating the bounding box around the start point by the angle quotient.

14. A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

present a slide canvas;

receive an input of an object on the slide canvas;

present the object on the slide canvas;

receive an input of a motion path animation effect for the object, the motion path animation effect comprising a start point comprising a start x coordinate and a start y coordinate for the object on the slide canvas, an end point comprising an end x coordinate and an end y coordinate for the object on the slide canvas, and a non-linear motion path between the start point and the end point;

associate a bounding box with the non-linear motion path, the bounding box encompassing the non-linear motion path and the bounding box having properties, comprising

a bound rotation property defining an angle of rotation around a point positioned along an edge of the bounding box,

a bound position property defining an x coordinate and a y coordinate of the point, and

a bound size property defining a width and a height of the bounding box;

receive an input of a new start point and a new end point for the motion path animation effect, the new start point comprising a new start x coordinate and a new start y coordinate for the object on the slide canvas, and a new end point comprising a new end x coordinate and a new end y coordinate for the object on the slide canvas;

set the bound position property such that the x coordinate equals a difference between the new start x coordinate and the start x coordinate, and such that the y coordinate equals a difference between the new start y coordinate and the start y coordinate;

calculate an old distance comprising a distance between the start point and the end point;

calculate a new distance comprising a distance between the new start point and the new end point;

calculate a distance quotient comprising the new distance divided by the old distance;

scale the width of the bounding box relative to the start point by the distance quotient;

calculate an old angle comprising an angle between the start point and the end point;

calculate a new angle comprising an angle between the new start point and the new end point;

calculate an angle quotient comprising the new angle divided by the old angle; and

rotate the bounding box around the start point by the angle quotient.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the new start point is equal to the start point.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the new end point is equal to the end point.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to perform the motion path animation effect.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

present a height adjustment indicator on the bounding box to indicate to a user that the height of the bounding box may be manipulated, the height of the bounding box being perpendicular to a line from the new start point to the end point, and the line not being visible to the user;

receive a height manipulation; and

scale the height of the bounding box according to the height manipulation, thereby causing an equally proportionate change to a top portion of the non-linear motion path that is positioned above the line and to a bottom portion of the non-linear motion path that is positioned below the line.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

add the motion path animation effect to an animation timeline, the animation timeline comprising a plurality of animation effects; and

analyze the plurality of animation effects in the animation timeline to determine which of the plurality of animation effects in the animation timeline are triggered by a start with previous trigger or an on mouse click trigger, and wherein an animation effect that is triggered by the start with previous trigger or an on mouse click trigger indicates a start of one of one or more discrete states generated for the animation timeline.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, further comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

present an animation pane in a user interface, the animation pane comprising a scenes view comprising one or more scenes, each of the one or more scenes comprising a visualization of a discrete state of the one or more discrete states generated for the animation timeline.