adding a complex animation with out using UIImage

[xcoderx]

i want to create a childrens book like this one:

The Monster At the End of This Book iPad App Review - YouTube

and i wanted to know, How do i create the animations? I have searched and all i can find are creating animations via putting together UIImages and then playing them. But i sure hope i do not have to do this with my whole book. I was wondering if there is another program i could use to create the animation in and then import it into Xcode and then just call it to play. Is this possible? Thanks a bunch!

[mikesowerbutts]

Originally Posted by xcoderx

i want to create a childrens book like this one:

The Monster At the End of This Book iPad App Review - YouTube

and i wanted to know, How do i create the animations? I have searched and all i can find are creating animations via putting together UIImages and then playing them. But i sure hope i do not have to do this with my whole book. I was wondering if there is another program i could use to create the animation in and then import it into Xcode and then just call it to play. Is this possible? Thanks a bunch!

Hi,

I have created a video, which is essentially an animation created in Flash, then exported to a .mov file and then played through a MPMoviePlayerController object. If you have 1 animation per page, then I would suggest adding a movie player controller to each UIView in your book and playing the appropriate video file.

[Duncan C]

Originally Posted by xcoderx

i want to create a childrens book like this one:

The Monster At the End of This Book iPad App Review - YouTube

and i wanted to know, How do i create the animations? I have searched and all i can find are creating animations via putting together UIImages and then playing them. But i sure hope i do not have to do this with my whole book. I was wondering if there is another program i could use to create the animation in and then import it into Xcode and then just call it to play. Is this possible? Thanks a bunch!

It looks to me like that app is essentially a QuickTime movie with page transitions and some clickable buttons that trigger specific animations.

You could probably create a much more effective version using a package like Cocos2D.


The best way to do the kinds of character animation in that book is to use Skeletal animation, also known as bone animation. I don't know if there are any Skeletal animation frameworks available in open source for Mac OS. I did a little searching, and found people playing with the idea in Cocos2d, as well as Jeff Lamarche's blog posts on the subject. He says he's working on some cross-platform C libraries for that that he is planning to offer under an open source license.