Filed under: OS, Software, Leopard
Leopard's Core Animation to herald more than shiny tricks
Steve Jobs demoed some exciting features last year that are coming in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, but one of the most fundamentally cool that might have been overlooked is Core Animation. While it certainly isn't quite a feature that us end users can directly click on and use, it is an entirely new set of user interface paradigms and tools Apple has developed for 3rd parties to build into their apps (i.e. - stuff we will be able to see, click and and say 'wow' to). Since Apple has been putting developer builds into the hands of people that need them, some of the most notable of these devs have announced Leopard-only versions of their apps, including Allan Odgaard (TextMate), Wil Shipley (Delicious Library) and Gus Mueller (FlySketch and also VoodooPad). Citing various reasons for going Leopard-only, Core Animation has remained one of the constant but underestimated factors for diving into Leopard and not looking back.
To help explain more of just what is so interesting in Core Animation, Wired's Scott Gilbertson has just written up a great piece elaborating a bit more on just how much Core Animation will change how user interfaces in both Mac OS X and 3rd party apps are thought about and designed. Gilbertson includes a few choice quotes from notable 3rd party developers, and even manages to point out that, in a few ways, the so-called 'Delicious Generation' might have been a little ahead of their time by experimenting with animation and new forms of UI.
Gilbertson's article is a great read for anyone who can't wait until Monday to get another peek into how much potential Leopard holds for changing the face of computing and user interfaces as we know them.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Johnny said 2:32PM on 6-08-2007
I can't wait to see how Apple implements Core Animation into their own software - especially Finder. I guess we'll find out on Tuesday!
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Johnny said 2:38PM on 6-08-2007
I meant Monday... even better. (So used to it being on a Tuesday).
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Thomas said 2:51PM on 6-08-2007
To paraphrase something my brother used to say as a kid in relation to the build up to an exciting event - only 3 more sleeps until WWDC!
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Rory said 3:05PM on 6-08-2007
I think the 'Delicious Generation' are claiming far too much credit, it's not like they produced the first applications with a 'pretty' interface, and using animation in the UI has been there since OS X 10.0, back when the genie effect and zooming dock icons were the big thing.
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King Fysel said 3:55PM on 6-08-2007
Hmm, sounds like gratuitous Flash animation taken to the next level. Were I a religious man I would pray there's a special corner of Hell reserved for bad interface designers.
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dacloo said 6:00PM on 6-08-2007
Bullocks! Again and again websites are preaching '3d interfaces' as if it's the new desktop metaphor.
But as long as we keep using a mouse, keyboard and monitor, this 3d stuff will get in your way of doing things, not help you. The desktop metaphor is ment to be 2D. Why should we put a 2D based metaphor in a 3D environent?
As an example take the ALT-TAB on Windows Vista. It's unusable since it's placed in perspective. Expose is "2D" and is actually very handy because of that.
Time Machine is a very clever exception. It uses "time" for the z-axis, and doesn't get in your way since the windows itself are still on X and Y.
As long as I don't see new forms of input devices (3d hologram monitors, multi-touch interface replacing the mouse, etc.) I'm going to be very sceptical on "flashy 3d interfaces".
When the first websites were on the Internet, they made you navigate like a book (forward, backward...). The first car looked like a horse trailer with motor. The first Photoshop images contained ugly lens flares...
Core Animation will be a disaster until developers evolve in using it.
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steve said 3:58AM on 6-09-2007
on the one hand i'd hope that most developers are smart enough to avoid tacky "because-we-can" interface designs... but then i see the gilbertson article gushing over an app that apparently occludes your desktop in smokescreen. why does a non-interactive process like disc burning require an interactive fluid dynamics simulation? it seems for every 1 way animated feedback could improve productivity, there are 10 ways it could be abused to create time wasting distractions. don't get me wrong: core animation is a great tool and i'm glad apple is laying the foundations that it is --but i am distressed by notions that weird and funky should replace consistency and structure.
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hmurchison said 1:44AM on 6-10-2007
Core Animation is more about animating UI either in a 2D or pseudo 3D space. As with any technology there's the chance it will be abused but there's also the chance that some unique ways of presenting data or modal changes occur. CoverFlow is a great example of a "3D feel" that is nicely applied to a 2D workspace. I'm not excited about Core Animation...I'm excited by the new way of displaying content that it provides.
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