The grand plan of the SimpleAnimation library is to try and make animation as easy as it would be in Flash. (Flash being the grandfather of browser animations). That being the case, this library as of version 0.4, is still in a state of flux. The syntax should remain the same, and keep in mind there's alternate, jQuery like syntax if you look at the code closely), but how it works internally may change until the 1.0 release, which is scheduled for mid 2012. Hope you like this and can contirbute to it!

The SimpleAnimation library is designed to make complex JavaScript animations, simple. It's syntax is inspired from TweenLite (an AS3 library), but that's where the similarity ends.

Currently, the project is still in a very early beta state, but it has been used in commercial projects.

The SimpleAnimation library is currently separated into 3 parts:

• SimpleSynchro
• SimpleTween
• SimpleTimeline.

Below are descriptions of what each script does and some basic usage examples.

SimpleSynchro is REQUIRED for any other script. It's the main timer for all animations and timelines. You don't need to initialise SimpleSynchro, it will initialise as soon as any tween or timeline is added to the page.

<script type="text/javascript" src="libs/SimpleSynchro.js">

Just include it your page and you're done.

SimpleTween is the main script of the library. It's used to animate any enumerable property of an element. The most common usage is to move an element across the screen or change the width or height of an element.

To move an element with the id of 'sqA' left 100px in 2 seconds;

SimpleTween.to(document.getElementById('sqA'), 2, {left: 100});

Move an element with easing, delay and multiple callbacks. (See the demos for examples).

SimpleTween.to(document.getElementById('sqA'), 2, {left: 100, top:100, width: 200, height:200}, {delay:1, callback: cbHandler, ease: Easing.elasticEaseOut, pause:true});

SimpleTimeline is used to sequence multiple SimpleTweens. With SimpleTimeline you can sequence animations and then change the timing of the animation without impacting the events to follow.

var timeline, tween1, tween2, tween3, cbHandler = {};
		
tween1 = SimpleTween.to(document.getElementById('sqA'), 2, {width: 180, height:100}, {callback: cbHandler, trigger: {callback: triggerHandler, width: 90}, ease: Easing.backEaseOut});
cbHandler.onComplete = handleTweenComplete;
cbHandler.onStart = handleTweenStart;
cbHandler.onStop = handleTweenStop;
		
tween2 = SimpleTween.to(document.getElementById('sqB'), 1, {width: 300}, {ease: Easing.backEaseOut});
tween3 = SimpleTween.to(document.getElementById('sqC'), 1, {top: 10, left:200}, {ease: Easing.strongEaseOut});
		
timeline = new SimpleTimeline();
timeline.addTween(tween1, 0);
timeline.addTween(tween2, 0);
timeline.addTween(tween3, 2);

Below are proposed updates and changes to the library

• Use CSS3 transitions as primary tween and fallback/integrate JS functionality as of v.0471b
• Add a reverse method to SimpleTween and SimpleTimeline
• Add nested timelines
• CSS3 Transforms for rotation and scale
• More advanced demos

If you're interested in contributing, feel free to contact me: [email protected]

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/