Educational software for teaching animation in computer graphics

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to create an educational software for students starting to learn animation. This software should allow the user to observe the movement of many objects along a path, each at its own distance-time profile. The user should be able to create any arbitrary path by setting control points to shape the path. The main stages using the created software are: Drawing the motion path, smoothing the path, computing arc length parameterisation of the path, selecting the desired distance-time functions, viewing the animation. Mathematical operations such as joining cubic Bezier curves, using a combined arc length table, normalising distance-time functions, animating all individual frames were used in the background. The graphic user interface has been designed to be user-friendly for students who have never used animation software before. The buttons are arranged in a natural, sequential order. The software is able to animate up to 6 different objects moving along a user-defined motion path starting at the same time, each according to different distance-time functions. This allows the user to visually compare the movement of the objects.