Sketcher and SketchPad

[ printable version ]
 Make your Sketch
 If you would like to get an Animated Sketch of yourself or your family done professionally, let me know.

Sketcher & SketchPad

An applet and an application to make and share animated sketches. The files generated/ used are in a compressed format. It can also be used as a tool to explain concepts for online presentations. Those who cannot draw well can use its trace feature to get better results.
Sketcher

An applet that allows you to display animated sketches (demo). The sketch can be drawn using the SketchPad. It is Java 1.1 compatible and will work in any brower with a 1.1 or higher version JVM.
Features:-

  • Displays/ Animates a predefined color sketch
  • Multiple sketches can be shown in order
  • Multi-threaded to load sketches and images in the background
  • Display a background/ reference image with each sketch
  • Highly customzable
    • Settings for ALL or one sketch possible
    • Scale factor of the sketch
    • Offset for the sketch
    • Background Color
    • Background Image
    • Offset of the background image
    • Interval time between sketches
    • Loop the sketches
    • Clear or drawn over for each subsequent sketch
  • A set of Viewer controls
    • Pause
    • Control animation speed
    • Go to next/ previous sketch
    • Restart
  • Compatible with JVM 1.1

Controls:-

  • Bring the applet into focus before using the controls (click on it)
  • Ctrl + F : Faster animation
  • Ctrl + S : Slower animation
  • Ctrl + Z : Previous Sketch
  • Ctrl + Y : Next Sketch
  • Ctrl + R : Re-start from the beginning
  • Ctrl + P : Pause (Toggle)

Usage:-

 <applet code="com.mullassery.sketcher.Sketcher" 
    archive="sketcher.jar" width="480" height="500">
    <!-- Input sketch Files, played in order -->
    <!-- The ONLY required param is the "file1" -->
    <!-- Suffix the params for the sketch file with 
    the order starting with "1", eg., "file1",
    "image1", etc. All paths are relative 
    to the codebase (where the sketcher.jar is)-->
    <param name="file1" value="sketches\abey.skt">
    <!-- An image to be loaded in the background while 
    sketching the "1"st sketch. -->
    <param name="image1" value="images\abey.gif">
               
    <param name="file2" value="sketches\ashwin.skt">
    <param name="image2" value="images\ashwin.gif">
               
    <param name="file3" value="sketches\daisy.skt">
    <param name="image3" value="images\daisy.gif">
    <!-- A scale specific to this sketch. It overrides
    the global scale if present -->
    <param name="scale3" value="0.65">
    <!-- An "x" offset (horizontal) specific to this sketch.
    This will override the global "x" -->
    <param name="x3" value="100">
    <!-- An "ix" offset (horizontal) specific to this image.
    This will override the global "ix" if specified -->
    <param name="ix3" value="10">
    <param name="iy3" value="2">
               
    <param name="file4" value="sketches\bosco.skt">
    <param name="image4" value="images\bosco.gif">
               
    <!-- Interval between each sketches in 
    milliseconds -->   <param name="interval" value="1000">
    <!-- Delay in the sketching animation. "0" makes it
    very fast -->
    <param name="delay" value="1">
    <!-- Loop the sketches once it reaches the end 
    of the list -->
    <param name="loop" value="TRUE">
    <!-- A global scale value -->
    <param name="scale" value="0.8">
    <!-- Background color specified as a number 
    (Hexadecimal) -->
    <param name="bg" value="0xFFFFD7">
    <!-- An offset for all sketches, default values 
    for x is "0" and y is "0". -->
    <param name="x" value="50">
    <!-- An offset for all images, default values 
    for ix is "0" and iy is "0". -->
    <param name="ix" value="5">
    <param name="iy" value="5">
    <!-- Clear the screen after each sketch -->
    <param name="clear" value="true">
</applet>
SketchPad
To make one of these sketching animations yourself, use the SketchPad application.

Open the application. Scribble something on it (Use digital tablets & pen for better control). Save it using the dialog that pops-up on closing. Pass the file as a parameter to the Sketcher applet. You can pass multiple files to be played one after the other.

If you are bad at drawing, don't worry. You can open an image file that will be the background of the Scribbler and you can just sketch/ trace on it! Note that the image will NOT be part of the sketch

You can also specify an optional image and sketch file as arguments.

On windows:

  • Double-click on sketchpad.jar if javaw.exe is associated with ".jar" files
  • javaw -jar sketchpad.jar

On any platform:

  • java -jar sketchpad.jar
  • java -jar sketchpad.jar [-file file-to-open.skt] [-image image-to-trace.jpg]
  • java -cp sketcher.jar com.mullassery.sketcher.Scribbler [-file file-to-open.skt] [-image image-to-trace.jpg]

for eg., java -jar sketcher -file old.skt -image myPhoto.jpg

Features:

  • Advanced Swing based Application
  • Generates very small files ~< 50KB for 640 X 480 sketches.
  • Can load and merge multiple sketches
  • Select a different color for each line (stored in the sketch file)
  • Select a background color (not stored, must be specified in the Sketcher applet)
  • Load an image for reference or to trace
  • Temporarily hide/ show the image
  • Scale the Sketch
  • Move/ Drag the entire Sketch
  • Move/ Drag any single selected line
  • Delete any selected line
  • Move/ Drag the background image
  • Move/ Drag Image and Sketch together
  • Undo above operation without affecting the animation
  • See the final animation on a click
  • Optimize the sketches (generates smaller files)

Controls:

  • Click on a line segment to select it
  • (Alt + Mouse drag) - Moves a Segment/Line
  • (Ctrl + Mouse drag) - Moves the Sketch
  • (Shift + Mouse drag) - Moves the Image
  • (Ctrl + Shift + Mouse drag) - Moves the Sketch and the Image
  • (Ctrl + P) - Play animation
  • S - Scale
  • O - Optimize


I am eager to know your comments. Send all comments to abey-at-mullassery-dot-com.
 

 

 


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