IS GSAPv12 JS working well on mobile devices?

[HaunGo]

I work alot in Flash, and haven't tried anything for mobile yet.. Just wondering how the community is feeling about it.. How amazing is it? A list of known bugs? Things TO DO, and NOT To Do?

 

Thanks,

[GreenSock]

Absolutely, GSAP is working very well on mobile devices. Much faster than any other Javascript animation engine I've seen - you can check for yourself using http://www.greensock.com/js/speed.html. Keep in mind, however, that speed is always affected by the processor, so it isn't realistic to expect that you can have massive amounts of large graphics flying all over the entire screen at 60fps on a mobile device with a weak processor. You'll always get the best performance from a native app, but GSAP works surprisingly well in mobile browsers. I was just showing some folks a really complex animation yesterday on my iPad and they were shocked - it looked like it was built in Flash. It even had 3D stuff flying around, glowing effects, and a slider that allowed you to drag backwards/forward through the animation.

 

I will warn you, though, that you're spoiled with Flash. It can do so much so easily and you don't need to worry about cross-browser issues whereas Javascript development takes more time and the various browsers can cause some real headaches. GSAP smooths much of that out, though, at least in terms of animation. But it can't fix layout issues and various other quirks that aren't directly related to animation.

 

But yes, to answer your question, GSAP works great on mobile browsers.

 

As far as bugs, I'm not aware of any right now. As far as things to do or not to do, I'd say that if you want super smooth animation on mobile devices with weak processors, keep things relatively simple. Experiment with doing all your stuff in a Canvas element because it might deliver the best speed (not always, though - it depends on what you're doing). Javascript can actually be quite fun and I think you'll enjoy it, but prepare yourself for some headaches wrestling with browser differences, debugging, etc. In a year (heck, 6 months), you'll feel much more comfortable and be happy to be playing in the HTML5/JS sandbox.

[DeltaFrog]

I work a lot in Flash, and haven't tried anything for mobile yet.. Just wondering how the community is feeling about it.. How amazing is it? A list of known bugs? Things TO DO, and NOT To Do?

 

Thanks,

 

 

It's fantastic. I'm a flash guy and I've recently switched to JS, it was nearly a seamless transition using GSAP v12.

[HaunGo]

Excellent,

 

thanks Jack