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Animated Presentations Using SVG

Posted by Unknown on from the twirling-twirling-toward-freedom dept.

Inspired by work on work on non-traditional presentations in KDE's Karbon (part of Calligra), Aditya Bhatt set out to create a purely client-side tool for creating animated presentations in the browser. Based upon svg-edit and using Sozi, the initial results are pretty cool. His weblog post documents the process — the choice of SVG versus html5's canvas, Javascript instead of SMIL, etc. highlighting the challenges faced even today with different browsers offering wildly different levels of support for each web technology. The sourcecode for Awwation can be had over at Github.

13 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. Intriguing but... by 6Yankee · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...people would forget everything you said, then spend the next month asking how to make PowerPoint do that.

    1. Re:Intriguing but... by doesnothingwell · · Score: 3, Funny

      Could you make the background cornflower blue?

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      They can have my command prompt when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
    2. Re:Intriguing but... by eigenstates · · Score: 2

      But what about Facebook and Twitter integration?

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      quis custodiet ipsos custodes
  2. Animated presentations by Joehonkie · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Animation is something that should be used minimally in presentations, if even at all. I have seen very few presentations where the animations were to anyone's benefit.

    1. Re:Animated presentations by professionalfurryele · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Depends on why you are using the animation. Every element of a presentation should have a reason to be there otherwise it is a distraction. Those stupid cube rotation things that Keynote does is annoying and distracting in most presentations because it has me thinking about rotations and not about whatever chemical composition or algorithm or whatever is being discussed. So are the silly wipes people use in PowerPoint.
      This type animation is probably going to be used in a stupid and distracting way in most presentations. However I think it can be considerably more useful than the cube or wipes because this kind of animation can be used to place related concepts in spatial relation to one another. Imagine a presentation on a multi-stage algorithm where one moves up and down a flowchart constantly reminded of the relations between different operations in the algorithm due to their spatial relations on the slide. I suspect if this is used that way, it could be a powerful tool.

    2. Re:Animated presentations by swbozo · · Score: 2

      Sorry, you need to think more creatively. I can think of several types of presentations that would benefit from even simple animation support: data flow diagrams (networking, software engineering), illustrating business processes (document workflow, budget approvals), and more that I could probably think of.

  3. Motion Sickness!! by vtTom · · Score: 2

    This (and Prezi) totally make me motion-sick. I hope this fad passes quickly.

  4. Re:Nice... by ninjackn · · Score: 3, Funny

    Handout iPads.

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    [FUCK BETA 2.6.2014]
  5. SVG Logo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I got a kick out of how the only thing that wasn't a vector was the SVG logo itself. Hah!

  6. Has this guy seen... by thehodapp · · Score: 2

    impress.js. It isn't SVG/canvas, but it uses CSS3 and javascript to make prezi-like presentations using simple html. It's actually quite easy to use. I've been having a bit of fun with it lately.

    1. Re:Has this guy seen... by pavon · · Score: 2

      It's actually referenced in the presentation as a possible backend to display the results generated by his editor. The point being that non-technical people don't have to know HTML, just a vector drawing tool.

  7. This is already available in Inkscape! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Inkscape + jessyink (which is nowadays included by default in inkscape) has been doing this for several years.

    1. Re:This is already available in Inkscape! by treeves · · Score: 2

      No mod points, but parent comment is Informative (got the hint?)

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      ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.