Java Reference
In-Depth Information
How it works...
This recipe shows you how to animate a shape to morph it to another shape smoothly using
the
DelegateShape
class. This class is a descendent of
Shape
. It does not represent an
actual shape itself, however, it uses its internal
Interpolator
instance to calculate the
necessary in-between shapes between a start and an end shape.
In our code snippet, we declare three starting shapes: a
Rectangle
, a
Circle
, and a
Polygon
. Although these Shape instances are
Interpolatable
, it is impossible to
interpolate between them, as they are of different types (Interpolators can only interpolate
values of the same types). The
DelegateShape
class, however, can be assigned an object
of type
Shape
through its
shape:Shape
property. That object instance can then be
interpolated to another instance of
Shape
over time.
In the code snippet, the
ShapeDelegate.shape
property is initially assigned an instance
of the
Polygon
shape. Using a
Timeline
, the
ShapeDelegate.shape
is interpolated to
a
Rectangle
over a period of two seconds. At four seconds,
ShapeDelegate.shape
is
interpolated from
Rectangle
to
Circle
. Lastly,
ShapeDelegate.shape
is interpolated
from
Circle
to
Polygon
two seconds later. The entire animation produces a smooth
animation of the shapes morphing from one figure to another.
See also
F
Introduction
F
Creating simple animation with the Transition API
F
Composing animation with the Transition API
F
Building animation with the KeyFrame API
Using data binding to drive animation
sequences
As you create more elaborate animation, you will run into situations where you want to
synchronize object movements in your animation sequences. You can do that by declaring
several instances of
Timeline
, or you can automate the synchronization of your objects
using bound variables. This recipe shows you how to use data binding to update object
properties automatically during an animation sequence.
Getting ready
This recipe uses the
Timeline
and
KeyFrame
classes to create animation sequences. If you
are not familiar with keyframe-based animation, review the recipe
Building animation with
the KeyFrame API
. This recipe also includes the notion of data binding covered under
Using
binding and triggers to update variables
in
Chapter 1
,
Getting Started with JavaFX
.
