Integration with Tweening/TimeLines

[scotru]

Greetings,

 

I'm currently in the process of choosing a transform tool and I've narrowed it down to three: GreenSock, Sencoluar, or Boceto. Some questions I have about the GreenSock tool:

 

1) How easy is it to make modifications, for example "skin" the controls appearance? I'd like to use a vector image for my resize/rotate handles rather than the generic blocks and I'd like to get rid of the rectangular box. I like that Senocular's controls are easy to derive a class from an individual control and just override the draw method. Is that easy to do with Greensock too? Are the methods that draw the controls exposed for overriding? I'd like to make transitions to future versions of the base code as easy as possible, but I foresee fairly heavy modification so I'm looking for something where I can use OOP principles to isolate the base functionality from my derived code.

 

2) Are their any integrations between the Transform tools and the Tweening/Timeline tools? I'd love to, for example, be able to "record" various transform states and save tweens between those positions to a timeline. Functions in the tweening tools that would let me add a transformitem derived control to a timeline and create a tween to it's current position (from the last recorded position) would be extremely useful, for example. If not currently available, is this a possibility for the future?

 

3) I notice that SVN access is mentioned for the tweeningtools but not the transform tools. Some form of version control would really make handling updates easier for me (especially if I end up having to modify the base classes). Is source control access available for easy upgrades?

 

4) Any other comparison or comments on features that differentiate these tools are appreciated. One pro for the Greensock tool that comes to mind is multiselect (and it appears to be very well supported

 

5) Are there public Roadmaps for the TransformTool anywhere?

 

Thanks!

 

--scotru

[GreenSock]

1) How easy is it to make modifications, for example "skin" the controls appearance? I'd like to use a vector image for my resize/rotate handles rather than the generic blocks and I'd like to get rid of the rectangular box. I like that Senocular's controls are easy to derive a class from an individual control and just override the draw method. Is that easy to do with Greensock too? Are the methods that draw the controls exposed for overriding? I'd like to make transitions to future versions of the base code as easy as possible, but I foresee fairly heavy modification so I'm looking for something where I can use OOP principles to isolate the base functionality from my derived code.

 

Sure, I tried to write the code in a pretty logical, object-oriented manner and I've had plenty of folks say they actually enjoyed digging into the source. You can definitely override the various methods that are responsible for drawing things. And you can already set the handleSize to whatever you want (including 0) and apply a custom cursor. You can even attach other custom interface elements to any handle with addSelectionBoxElement(). But to be clear, one of the biggest goals when building TransformManager was to make it very simple to get up and running without having to skin things yourself. It wasn't built from the ground up with lots of custom skinning in mind, although you definitely can write your own code to accomplish those goals.

 

2) Are their any integrations between the Transform tools and the Tweening/Timeline tools? I'd love to, for example, be able to "record" various transform states and save tweens between those positions to a timeline. Functions in the tweening tools that would let me add a transformitem derived control to a timeline and create a tween to it's current position (from the last recorded position) would be extremely useful, for example. If not currently available, is this a possibility for the future?

 

There isn't any specific integration, but you could certainly use them together like that. I can't think of any reason why integration would be necessary. You can use the tweening tools to tween to the various properties (scaleX/scaleY/rotation/x/y) and call the updateSelection() method with an onUpdate in the tween or you could even use the TransformMatrixPlugin for the tweening platform to tween the individual matrix values which would accommodate the potential skewing that can happen with multiple selections.

 

3) I notice that SVN access is mentioned for the tweeningtools but not the transform tools. Some form of version control would really make handling updates easier for me (especially if I end up having to modify the base classes). Is source control access available for easy upgrades?

 

No, since TransformManager is a paid-for tool, a public svn repository isn't available. And frankly I didn't want to impose security restrictions (usernames/passwords) in a special SVN repository for TransformManager - it's simply available as a zip download from your GreenSock account.

 

4) Any other comparison or comments on features that differentiate these tools are appreciated. One pro for the Greensock tool that comes to mind is multiselect (and it appears to be very well supported

 

Yeah, multiselection is a big deal, plus there are a lot of little extras like the ability to export to XML (and import again) and bounds and a Crop tool (FlexCrop too), and support forums. Frankly I'm not very familiar with the other tools out there or their limitations. I just know that when I researched a few years back, nothing seemed to perform well and support multiple selections elegantly. Some tools that claimed multiselection capabilities were quite clunky and cumbersome for the user (not to mention the developer).

 

5) Are there public Roadmaps for the TransformTool anywhere?

 

Nope, sorry.

 

Keep in mind, there's a 30-day money back guarantee, so if you buy TransformManager and don't like it (for whatever reason), we'll gladly issue a full refund. We want happy customers, not frustrated ones.