Using the editor
The easiest way to use JMathAnim is to simply download the latest release for your operating system (Windows or Linux).
You can find these downloads on the project's releases page.
Download the installer for your OS. It will create a JMathAnimGUI entry in your menu. If you execute it, you will see a window like this:
The left side is the editor window, where you can edit Groovy code to define your animations. Let's see a simple example. Write this in the editor and press F5 (or select the green play button from the toolbar, or go to Run → Run (preview) from the menu):
def c=Shape.circle()
play.showCreation(1,c)
The program will ask you to save the file, and after that, it will play a brief animation of a circle being drawn in the preview screen (the right one). Several log messages will be written in the log window (below the preview screen).
Note in the log output the message INFO: Loading config file #dark.xml. This means JMathAnim is using a default color palette suitable for a dark background. In Settings → Preferences you can change this default behavior to light or manual. In any case, this can be overridden by simply adding this command at the beginning of the script:
config.parseFile('#light.xml') // or #dark.xml, or your own color scheme...
If you are satisfied with the result, you can select Run → Production (or press Shift+F5) to generate the final video in 1920x1080 at 60fps by default. The generated video will be stored inside the media folder where your script is saved (the folder will be created if needed). You can open it from the program with the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+M or from the menu Run → Open Media Folder.
LaTeX preview editor
JMathAnim uses the excellent JLatexMath library to generate LaTeX formulas. For example, let's add these lines to the script:
def c=Shape.circle()
def t=LatexMathObject.make(r'$A=\pi r^2$')
scene.add(t)
play.showCreation(1,c)
JMathAnim uses the special string definition r'string' (or r"string") to write LaTeX code properly without worrying about escape characters like $ or \. In a normal string, Groovy assigns special meanings to these symbols and will throw an error. The script preprocessor converts these strings so that Groovy can handle them correctly.
If you place the cursor inside the LaTeX string and select Tools → LaTeX preview (or press Ctrl+Shift+L), a window will open where you can edit the LaTeX code and preview the result almost in real time (you can use Alt+C to generate the formula). If you make any changes, the Insert Code button will replace the old string with the new one.
You can also drag an area or click individually on the generated glyphs (Ctrl+click adds to the selection). This will allow you to copy the generated indices with the Copy Selection button, which will be useful for some commands like slice or setColorToIndices, as we will see later.
And that is the basic use of the editor. In the following chapters we will cover the syntax of the library and how to create objects, transform them, and animate them.