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User's Manual

Welcome! This manual is organized as a learning path: if you are new (especially if you are a math educator with little programming experience), just read Part I in order it takes you from zero to your first animation. After that, feel free to jump around; Parts II–IV are more of a catalog you consult as needed, and Part V is for the adventurous.

Part I First steps

  1. Using the editor Install the editor and create your first animation with snippets, Start here.
  2. A Groovy survival kit The dozen language ideas (variables, dots, loops...) you need to follow the rest of the manual. No programming background required (well...almost...)
  3. The basic flow of an animation What actually happens when you press F5: objects, the scene, play, and generating your final video.
  4. (Optional, for Java programmers) Using JMathAnim as a Java library Skip this if you use the editor.

Part II Objects and their looks

  1. Creating basic objects Points, shapes, LaTeX text, axes, grids, images... The big catalog.
  2. Arrows, connectors and delimiters Objects that point at, join or bracket other objects.
  3. Changing styles Colors, gradients, thickness, dashes, and saving your favorite combinations.
  4. Transforming objects Positioning, scaling, rotating, aligning and laying out objects.
  5. Adding labels Putting names on vertices, sides, braces and moving points.

Part III Making things move

  1. Animating objects The heart of the library: creation, transforms, highlights, movement.
  2. Adding effects to animations Combining animations, jumps, delays, and timing control.
  3. Dealing with cameras Panning, zooming, and objects that stay put on screen.

Part IV Mathematical formulas

  1. Mathematical formulas Writing, slicing and animating LaTeX equations step by step.
  2. Coloring formulas Coloring glyphs by rules ("all the x's in blue") with code or with the visual editor.
  3. Dynamic text. Linking Text that updates itself, like live coordinates of a moving point.

Part V Going further

  1. Calculus objects Function graphs, points on graphs, contour plots, density plots and vector fields.
  2. Constructible objects Geogebra-style constructions (and importing your actual Geogebra files!).
  3. Dealing with paths Bézier points, boolean operations, merging paths.
  4. Advanced topics Updaters, trails, sounds, and speeding up test runs.

Reference

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