[nzlug] NZOSS Patent Analysis Project - could use a hand here...

[Timothy Musson]

Simon Bridge, 2008-03-15 01:02:15:
[...]
> 1. Animation Software - particularly the kind that create small
> animations that annoy^H^H^H^H^Henhance web pages.

> The patent describes creating an animation by specifying an initial
> frame, moving a slider to a later time, drawing a new frame (seems the
> older frame is duplicated and changes made to it) and so on... the
> application fills in the missing frames to make the animation.

> This appears to me to be the normal way that applications create
> animations - but I need a clear example.

Sorry if this isn't relevant - I'm posting it just in case.

In the early 1980s, Usborne published a bunch of computer books for kids
using ZX81s, Vic20s, C64s, BBC Micros, etc.

One of those books had a program written in BASIC, where you defined a
start shape and an end shape (points and lines), specified the number of
frames you wanted, and the program drew all the "in between"[1] frames.

  [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweening

I'm pretty sure this is the book I'm talking about:

  Understanding computer graphics: From computer animation to arcade
  games.
  Judy Tatchell, Les Howarth
  London: Usborne Publishing, 1983

  http://www.antiqbook.co.uk/boox/river/12995.shtml

Tim
--
Timothy Musson                FSF Associate Member #1262
http://www.russsoc.org.nz/           http://www.fsf.org/