Tag Archives: Animation

Introducing the Motion Editor

Posted by Scott Swarthout, Product Manager

We spoke with the Android developer community and learned that animations are important for making UIs more intuitive and memorable. However, we also heard that adding complex animation to Android apps has been a difficult task.To address this problem, we created a powerful set of APIs with Motion Layout and a corresponding tool – Motion Editor, that when combined make it easier to build pixel-perfect animations. This blog is a quick tour of the new Motion Editor and how to use the latest features during your animation development. Additionally today, you can now watch a new video series specifically created to teach you about the various APIs included with MotionLayout. Watch here.

Motion Editor is a visual design editor for the MotionLayout layout type, making it easier to create and preview animations. We just released the stable version Motion Editor in Android Studio 4.0 and we already see many developers using it to build animations.

Animation running in the Motion Editor

The Motion Editor is an extension of Android Studio’s layout editor, and automatically opens when you select the Design or Split view on an XML file containing a MotionLayout. From there, you can edit your layout and Motion Scene files using the familiar interactive tools of the Layout Editor as well as preview your animations right from the Android Studio preview pane.

Motion Editor

The Motion Editor is broken up into several panels which we will describe in this article. The main panels are: Overview, Selection, Attribute, and Preview.

The Motion Editor has four main panels


Overview panel

MotionLayout helps you animate layout changes, which you specify as transitions between ConstraintSets. The Motion Editor helps you visualize these states with the Overview panel. To edit constraints in a ConstraintSet, click on the corresponding box in the Overview panel.

MotionLayout Scene with two ConstraintSets, start and end, and a Transition between them


Selection panel

The Selection panel provides detailed controls based on the state of the Overview panel. It has three modes:

  1. Motion Layout selected
  2. ConstraintSet selected
  3. Transition selected

The selection panel has three modes depending on the state of the Overview panel

MotionLayout selected

The Motion Editor supports editing of the base Motion Layout. When Motion Layout is selected in the Overview panel, you can select components to see if they are properly constrained.

Check if components are properly constrained with the Selection panel

ConstraintSet selected

When a ConstraintSet is selected, the Selection panel displays the list of components and a checkmark to indicate if the component is constrained in this ConstraintSet.

Select components to be included in the ConstraintSet


Transition selected

When a transition is selected, you can control the playback of the animation with the animation toolbar. When an animation is selected, click Play ▶️ above the timeline to preview the animation.

Preview animations on the Motion Editor timeline

Keyframes

Sometimes you want to modify the path a view takes during an animation. To do this, MotionLayout uses keyframes. We build keyframe editing into the editor to make it easy to tweak animations. To create a new keyframe, click on the new keyframe icon in the top right of the selection panel. This action opens a dialog where you can set attributes for the keyframe. To edit a keyframe, click on the diamond ◆ icon to open the KeyFrame attribute panel.

Create keyframes with the selection panel


Attribute panel

Creating animations in MotionLayout involves editing lots of view parameters, so we brought the Attribute panel from the Layout Editor into the Motion Editor. The Attribute panel includes handy visualizations for Constraints as well as all the attributes set on each view in the Motion Scene file.

Constraint visualization in the Attribute panel

The Attribute panel is also where you can create custom attributes. You use custom attributes when you want to animate view properties that are not part of the ConstraintLayout or MotionLayout APIs, such as backgroundColor. We made it easy to create custom attributes with autocomplete and input validation for all view properties.

Preview panel

We wanted to make it easy to quickly edit and get immediate feedback when working on animations, so you can view animations right from the Preview panel. Now you don’t have to recompile and redeploy your app every time you want to make a small tweak to your animation.

We also added a number of features to the Preview panel to make it easier to understand how views are animating. You can preview animations with the Design view and Blueprint view to get a clearer idea of how your views are moving with fewer visual distractions.



We also added visualizations for the paths views take across the screen, including markers for keyframes. We hope these features make it easier to parse complex transitions and simplify the creation experience.



The Motion Editor is available in Android Studio 4.0, give it a try and let us know what you think! We are eager to see what the community builds with MotionLayout and the Motion Editor. The Android Studio team is constantly gathering feedback to improve the experience of using our tools, so if you have any ideas for new features or run into any issues using these tools, please file a bug.

The code used in this example, along with several other MotionLayout examples, are available on our GitHub sample page, found here.

For more information on MotionLayout, see the following links:

Introducing the Motion Editor

Posted by Scott Swarthout, Product Manager

We spoke with the Android developer community and learned that animations are important for making UIs more intuitive and memorable. However, we also heard that adding complex animation to Android apps has been a difficult task.To address this problem, we created a powerful set of APIs with Motion Layout and a corresponding tool – Motion Editor, that when combined make it easier to build pixel-perfect animations. This blog is a quick tour of the new Motion Editor and how to use the latest features during your animation development. Additionally today, you can now watch a new video series specifically created to teach you about the various APIs included with MotionLayout. Watch here.

Motion Editor is a visual design editor for the MotionLayout layout type, making it easier to create and preview animations. We just released the stable version Motion Editor in Android Studio 4.0 and we already see many developers using it to build animations.

Animation running in the Motion Editor

The Motion Editor is an extension of Android Studio’s layout editor, and automatically opens when you select the Design or Split view on an XML file containing a MotionLayout. From there, you can edit your layout and Motion Scene files using the familiar interactive tools of the Layout Editor as well as preview your animations right from the Android Studio preview pane.

Motion Editor

The Motion Editor is broken up into several panels which we will describe in this article. The main panels are: Overview, Selection, Attribute, and Preview.

The Motion Editor has four main panels


Overview panel

MotionLayout helps you animate layout changes, which you specify as transitions between ConstraintSets. The Motion Editor helps you visualize these states with the Overview panel. To edit constraints in a ConstraintSet, click on the corresponding box in the Overview panel.

MotionLayout Scene with two ConstraintSets, start and end, and a Transition between them


Selection panel

The Selection panel provides detailed controls based on the state of the Overview panel. It has three modes:

  1. Motion Layout selected
  2. ConstraintSet selected
  3. Transition selected

The selection panel has three modes depending on the state of the Overview panel

MotionLayout selected

The Motion Editor supports editing of the base Motion Layout. When Motion Layout is selected in the Overview panel, you can select components to see if they are properly constrained.

Check if components are properly constrained with the Selection panel

ConstraintSet selected

When a ConstraintSet is selected, the Selection panel displays the list of components and a checkmark to indicate if the component is constrained in this ConstraintSet.

Select components to be included in the ConstraintSet


Transition selected

When a transition is selected, you can control the playback of the animation with the animation toolbar. When an animation is selected, click Play ▶️ above the timeline to preview the animation.

Preview animations on the Motion Editor timeline

Keyframes

Sometimes you want to modify the path a view takes during an animation. To do this, MotionLayout uses keyframes. We build keyframe editing into the editor to make it easy to tweak animations. To create a new keyframe, click on the new keyframe icon in the top right of the selection panel. This action opens a dialog where you can set attributes for the keyframe. To edit a keyframe, click on the diamond ◆ icon to open the KeyFrame attribute panel.

Create keyframes with the selection panel


Attribute panel

Creating animations in MotionLayout involves editing lots of view parameters, so we brought the Attribute panel from the Layout Editor into the Motion Editor. The Attribute panel includes handy visualizations for Constraints as well as all the attributes set on each view in the Motion Scene file.

Constraint visualization in the Attribute panel

The Attribute panel is also where you can create custom attributes. You use custom attributes when you want to animate view properties that are not part of the ConstraintLayout or MotionLayout APIs, such as backgroundColor. We made it easy to create custom attributes with autocomplete and input validation for all view properties.

Preview panel

We wanted to make it easy to quickly edit and get immediate feedback when working on animations, so you can view animations right from the Preview panel. Now you don’t have to recompile and redeploy your app every time you want to make a small tweak to your animation.

We also added a number of features to the Preview panel to make it easier to understand how views are animating. You can preview animations with the Design view and Blueprint view to get a clearer idea of how your views are moving with fewer visual distractions.



We also added visualizations for the paths views take across the screen, including markers for keyframes. We hope these features make it easier to parse complex transitions and simplify the creation experience.



The Motion Editor is available in Android Studio 4.0, give it a try and let us know what you think! We are eager to see what the community builds with MotionLayout and the Motion Editor. The Android Studio team is constantly gathering feedback to improve the experience of using our tools, so if you have any ideas for new features or run into any issues using these tools, please file a bug.

The code used in this example, along with several other MotionLayout examples, are available on our GitHub sample page, found here.

For more information on MotionLayout, see the following links:

New UI tools and a richer creative canvas come to ARCore

Posted by Evan Hardesty Parker, Software Engineer

ARCore and Sceneform give developers simple yet powerful tools for creating augmented reality (AR) experiences. In our last update (version 1.6) we focused on making virtual objects appear more realistic within a scene. In version 1.7, we're focusing on creative elements like AR selfies and animation as well as helping you improve the core user experience in your apps.

Creating AR Selfies

Example of 3D face mesh application

ARCore's new Augmented Faces API (available on the front-facing camera) offers a high quality, 468-point 3D mesh that lets users attach fun effects to their faces. From animated masks, glasses, and virtual hats to skin retouching, the mesh provides coordinates and region specific anchors that make it possible to add these delightful effects.

You can get started in Unity or Sceneform by creating an ARCore session with the "front-facing camera" and Augmented Faces "mesh" mode enabled. Note that other AR features such as plane detection aren't currently available when using the front-facing camera. AugmentedFace extends Trackable, so faces are detected and updated just like planes, Augmented Images, and other trackables.

// Create ARCore session that support Augmented Faces for use in Sceneform.
public Session createAugmentedFacesSession(Activity activity) throws UnavailableException {
  // Use the front-facing (selfie) camera.
  Session session = new Session(activity,  EnumSet.of(Session.Feature.FRONT_CAMERA));
  // Enable Augmented Faces.
  Config config = session.getConfig();
  config.setAugmentedFaceMode(Config.AugmentedFaceMode.MESH3D);
  session.configure(config);
  return session;
}

Animating characters in your Sceneform AR apps

Another way version 1.7 expands the AR creative canvas is by letting your objects dance, jump, spin and move around with support for animations in Sceneform. To start an animation, initialize a ModelAnimator (an extension of the existing Android animation support) with animation data from your ModelRenderable. 

void startDancing(ModelRenderable andyRenderable) {
    AnimationData data = andyRenderable.getAnimationData("andy_dancing");
    animator = new ModelAnimator(data, andyRenderable);
    animator.start();
}

Solving common AR UX challenges in Unity with new UI components

In ARCore version 1.7 we also focused on helping you improve your user experience with a simplified workflow. We've integrated "ARCore Elements" -- a set of common AR UI components that have been validated with user testing -- into the ARCore SDK for Unity. You can use ARCore Elements to insert AR interactive patterns in your apps without having to reinvent the wheel. ARCore Elements also makes it easier to follow Google's recommended AR UX guidelines.

ARCore Elements includes two AR UI components that are especially useful:

  • Plane Finding - streamlining the key steps involved in detecting a surface
  • Object Manipulation - using intuitive gestures to rotate, elevate, move, and resize virtual objects

We plan to add more to ARCore Elements over time. You can download the ARCore Elements app available in the Google Play Store to learn more.

Improving the User Experience with Shared Camera Access

ARCore version 1.7 also includes UX enhancements for the smartphone camera -- specifically, the experience of switching in and out of AR mode. Shared Camera access in the ARCore SDK for Java lets users pause an AR experience, access the camera, and jump back in. This can be particularly helpful if users want to take a picture of the action in your app.

More details are available in the Shared Camera developer documentation and Java sample.

Learn more and get started

For AR experiences to capture users' imaginations they need to be both immersive and easily accessible. With tools for adding AR selfies, animation, and UI enhancements, ARCore version 1.7 can help with both these objectives.

You can learn more about these new updates on our ARCore developer website.

Game Performance: Layout Qualifiers

Today, we want to share some best practices on using the OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) that can optimize the performance of your game and simplify your workflow. Specifically, Layout qualifiers make your code more deterministic and increase performance by reducing your work.

Let’s start with a simple vertex shader and change it as we go along.

This basic vertex shader takes position and texture coordinates, transforms the position and outputs the data to the fragment shader:
attribute vec4 vertexPosition;
attribute vec2 vertexUV;

uniform mat4 matWorldViewProjection;

varying vec2 outTexCoord;

void main()
{
  outTexCoord = vertexUV;
  gl_Position = matWorldViewProjection * vertexPosition;
}

Vertex Attribute Index

To draw a mesh on to the screen, you need to create a vertex buffer and fill it with vertex data, including positions and texture coordinates for this example.

In our sample shader, the vertex data may be laid out like this:
struct Vertex
{
  Vector4 Position;
  Vector2 TexCoords;
};
Therefore, we defined our vertex shader attributes like this:
attribute vec4 vertexPosition;
attribute vec2  vertexUV;
To associate the vertex data with the shader attributes, a call to glGetAttribLocation will get the handle of the named attribute. The attribute format is then detailed with a call to glVertexAttribPointer.
GLint handleVertexPos = glGetAttribLocation( myShaderProgram, "vertexPosition" );
glVertexAttribPointer( handleVertexPos, 4, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, 0, 0 );

GLint handleVertexUV = glGetAttribLocation( myShaderProgram, "vertexUV" );
glVertexAttribPointer( handleVertexUV, 2, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, 0, 0 );
But you may have multiple shaders with the vertexPosition attribute and calling glGetAttribLocation for every shader is a waste of performance which increases the loading time of your game.

Using layout qualifiers you can change your vertex shader attributes declaration like this:
layout(location = 0) in vec4 vertexPosition;
layout(location = 1) in vec2 vertexUV;
To do so you also need to tell the shader compiler that your shader is aimed at GL ES version 3.1. This is done by adding a version declaration:
#version 300 es
Let’s see how this affects our shader, changes are marked in bold:
#version 300 es

layout(location = 0) in vec4 vertexPosition;
layout(location = 1) in vec2 vertexUV;

uniform mat4 matWorldViewProjection;

out vec2 outTexCoord;

void main()
{
  outTexCoord = vertexUV;
  gl_Position = matWorldViewProjection * vertexPosition;
}
Note that we also changed outTexCoord from varying to out. The varying keyword is deprecated from version 300 es and requires changing for the shader to work.

Note that Vertex Attribute qualifiers and #version 300 es are supported from OpenGL ES 3.0. The desktop equivalent is supported on OpenGL 3.3 and using #version 330.

Now you know your position attributes always at 0 and your texture coordinates will be at 1 and you can now bind your shader format without using glGetAttribLocation:
const int ATTRIB_POS = 0;
const int ATTRIB_UV   = 1;

glVertexAttribPointer( ATTRIB_POS, 4, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, 0, 0 );
glVertexAttribPointer( ATTRIB_UV, 2, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, 0, 0 );
This simple change leads to a cleaner pipeline, simpler code and saved performance during loading time.

To learn more about performance on Android, check out the Android Performance Patterns series.

Posted by Shanee Nishry, Games Developer Advocate