[HN Gopher] Motion Canvas - Visualize complex ideas programmatic...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Motion Canvas - Visualize complex ideas programmatically
        
       Author : matijash
       Score  : 115 points
       Date   : 2023-02-22 16:05 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | runemadsen wrote:
       | Also! https://mechanic.design/
        
       | localhost wrote:
       | This is a much better link than the GH repo - it contains
       | examples and the docs. https://motioncanvas.io/
        
         | karmakaze wrote:
         | Why don't repo READMEs have these example links when they're so
         | readily useful for visual things?
        
         | jessems wrote:
         | This video from the author is probably the best explainer:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTUafAwrunE
        
         | jagged-chisel wrote:
         | Agreed - much better link.
         | 
         | However, I "Try the editor" and then I can't find source.
         | Clicking "GO TO SOURCE" in the properties window doesn't seem
         | to do anything. Am I missing something?
         | 
         | FF and Chrome on macOS.
        
           | mcguire wrote:
           | It looks like the source editor pane (which was in the intro
           | video?) has gone away. It's using the code from
           | https://motioncanvas.io/docs/quickstart.
        
       | billconan wrote:
       | so is this like a fancier manim?
        
         | gaetgu wrote:
         | It is more like remotion than manim, though the two are not the
         | same.
        
         | mcguire wrote:
         | Or possibly a more programmatic Synfig.
        
       | rekttrader wrote:
       | I miss flash.
        
         | rimher wrote:
         | There's also www.rive.app
        
         | CharlesW wrote:
         | If you happen to mean the authoring tool, Adobe Flash
         | Professional is now Adobe Animate.
         | https://www.adobe.com/products/animate.html
        
       | mthoms wrote:
       | This really needs examples. There's a single one on the homepage
       | but that's all I could find.
        
         | MrBoomixer wrote:
         | I believe on the website the YouTube video linked is using this
         | library throughout the whole video to give you visual
         | references based on what the person is talking about. It's a
         | pretty good demo..
        
           | vsviridov wrote:
           | https://www.youtube.com/@aarthificial
        
             | mthoms wrote:
             | Thanks. The game dev videos here are very well done.
        
         | james-bcn wrote:
         | I second the need for samples. This looks great, but when there
         | are no examples of it in use I have to wonder if it's really
         | been tested in real use cases.
        
         | cloogshicer wrote:
         | There seem to be some here: https://github.com/motion-
         | canvas/examples
        
       | bogwog wrote:
       | > Visualize Complex Ideas Programmatically
       | 
       | That has got to be the most inappropriate tag line I've ever
       | seen. This is a 2D animation library and editor.
        
         | sam1r wrote:
         | Ironically, I was searching for just one visual or gif on the
         | GitHub or documentation, to understand what it does.
        
         | Oliver_Rust_5 wrote:
         | This is called marketing, a way to differentiate. Instead of
         | telling what the product is "a 2d animation library and
         | editor", you tell what it's purpose is.
        
           | weego wrote:
           | More accurately, you're supposed to connect with people by
           | stating what problem they have that this solves.
           | 
           | 'the need to solve complex ideas programmatically' is a
           | problem that people have.
           | 
           | This product does not solve that for any reasonable
           | interpretation of the tag line, unlike say processing or
           | openframeworks.
        
       | zyang wrote:
       | Using generators to control animation flow is genius. Having used
       | Remotion a bit it's heavily dependent on current frame count in
       | complex animations. Generators is a more elegant solution.
        
         | royjacobs wrote:
         | This pattern has been used for GUI toolkits as well. I
         | specifically recall seeing it in the Caliburn.Micro framework
         | for C#. It takes a bit of getting used to but it's pretty neat.
         | 
         | A quick Google found that this tutorial shows the technique off
         | a bit: https://www.atmosera.com/blog/jounce-
         | part-15-asynchronous-se...
        
       | philsnow wrote:
       | On the "pro" side, uses code instead of pointy-clicky, and the
       | integration with the audio source and waitFor looks really nice,
       | useful, and intuitive.
       | 
       | I don't know typescript so much of the youtube demo (linked from
       | here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34900161) was magic to
       | me. I have worked with OpenSCAD some and prefer its declarative
       | approach over imperative approaches. I don't know what all the
       | author doesn't like about declarative, but the one example he
       | gave in the video was that if you want to change the time of one
       | keyframe, you have to adjust the time of all the keyframes that
       | come after it, but that doesn't seem implied by a declarative
       | model, maybe by some other particular tools?
        
         | mcguire wrote:
         | Most animation software (i.e. Synfig) have that keyframe thing.
         | For example, if you want to synchronize an animation sequence
         | with audio.
        
       | matijash wrote:
       | I also wonder how this compares to
       | https://www.framer.com/motion/, anybody tried both?
        
       | breadchris wrote:
       | I have been playing with this a bit recently and it is
       | incredible. Very well written docs and anything they don't cover,
       | the code is really easy to read. I am excited to use this more
       | and see where the project goes.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2023-02-22 23:00 UTC)