Animation Maker Tool

A simple and creative tool for making frame-by-frame animations

By Nikki Rademaker

Overview

This project was created for the Creative Programming course. The goal was to build a creative tool in Processing. I chose to make an animation maker that lets users create simple frame-by-frame animations.

The Idea

I wanted the tool to give users creative freedom. Users can draw on frames using a brush, eraser, or basic shapes like circles, rectangles, and triangles. They can change the brush size, select colors, and fill frames with one color. Users can also copy, delete, and insert frames to control the animation flow.

The tool has a toggleable menu for drawing tools. Users can move between frames, see which frame they are on, and play their animation. When they are done, they can export the frames as images. The info box on the screen helps users remember the controls.

Below are a few examples of short animations people made with my tool.

You can download the processing application and code here. Make sure to open "Processing_FinalAssign_Nikki.exe" to run the tool.

How to Use the Animation Maker Tool?

Launch the tool to open a blank canvas. The info box in the top-left shows controls and the current frame number. Users can draw with their mouse by clicking and holding the left mouse button.

The menu:

• Press M to open or close the menu.
• Select a tool: Brush, Eraser, Circle, Rectangle, or Triangle.
• Adjust brush size and color through menu buttons.
• Click and drag to draw. Click to place shapes.
• Fill the frame using the 'Fill Screen' button.

The frames:

• N: Add a new blank frame.
• I: Insert a blank frame after the current one.
• C: Copy the current frame.
• D: Delete the current frame.
• Use Left/Right Arrow Keys to switch frames.
• P: Play or pause the animation.
• E: Export frames to the exported_frames folder.