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ISBN: 007709820X
No. of Pages: 450
Published: October 2001

This beginner's book is framework oriented. It uses two frameworks within a single class library to support object oriented programming and design in graphics and animation. It is designed for programming students with an interest in graphics, interaction and animation, or vice versa. To provide a graphic-oriented route to programming, the first framework includes a small graphics subsystem that exactly mirrors basic Java graphics, but is much easier to use. The first part of the book uses this 'Grafix' subsystem to introduce object orientation and Java's main language structures. All examples generate graphic output, some of which is animated. The first framework provides classes for implementing sprite-based animations. It incorporates many of the features of the Java Graphics2D API including affine transformations and simple image processing. The sprites can be enhanced and made interactive using class extension. Their event-model is similar to those used in multimedia authoring packages. The second framework is a small library of components for engineering animation control systems. It is an open small-scale 'glass box' system whose inner workings are described in full as a study in framework design. The framework employs Java interfaces to establish the connection protocols between 'talker' and 'listener' objects, and is a good introduction to component-style programming. The book also introduces Swing event listeners and shows how to incorporate Swing components into animation control systems. Framework and system organisation are shown below:

The book is organised into three parts reflecting the way that the frameworks are used. Initially they are simply used as 'black boxes' that provide pre-built classes for creating ready-to-use objects. Within this section, four stand-alone 'interlude' chapters introduce the Animation Framework, the Graphics2D API, Swing and the Animation Control Framework . The next part looks at how Java interfaces are used to connect objects. It focuses on the Animation Control Framework and the Swing event model. The final part uses class extension to enhance both frameworks.

Book organisation
The contents can be followed in book order as a single longer course. Alternatively, it can be split into two shorter courses so that the first concentrates on building animations using class extension, with the possible incorporation of the Graphics2D API (left half of diagram below). The follow-up course would focus on the building of animation control systems using listener interfaces, with the possible incorporation of Swing and Threads. Students with a C programming background can leave out parts 1B and 1C which focus on flow of control structures - the Java structures being identical to those of C. This section can also be postponed, giving a quicker route to the design of classes.