Core Animation: Simplified Animation Techniques for Mac and iPhone Development

by Marcus S. Zarra, Matt Long

Apple's Core Animation framework enables Mac OS X, iPhone, and iPod touch developers to create richer, more visual applications-more easily than ever and with far less code. Now, there's a comprehensive, example-rich, full-color reference to Core Animation for experienced OS X and iPhone developers who want to make the most of this powerful framework. Marcus Zarra and Matt Long reveal exactly what Core Animation can and can't do, how to use it most effectively-and how to avoid misusing it. Building on your existing knowledge of Objective-C, Cocoa, and Xcode, they present expert techniques, insights, and downloadable code for all aspects of Core Animation programming, from keyframing to movie playback. Zarra and Long thoroughly review similarities and differences between Core Animation on the Mac and iPhone, helping you write code that can easily move between platforms. They also present a full chapter of innovative techniques and proven "rules of thumb" for optimizing Core Animation's real-world performance. Coverage full advantage of Core Animation's lightweight layers and views Using keyframes to gain complete control over your animations Creating startling effects with Core Animation transforms Leveraging Core Image's powerful filtering capabilities from within Core Animation Playing QuickTime movies using Core Animation's QTMovieLayer Using the OpenGL layer to achieve greater control over movie playback Integrating advanced Quartz Composer visualizations into your user interfaces How to use helper layers to draw gradients, composite shapes, and replicate sublayers Adding mouse and keyboard user interaction points, and much more...

264 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 24, 2009

Reviews

[Hussein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Core Animation is an amazingly powerful framework that makes adding life to your application really easy and fun!
This my first time ever I want to use animation more in my applications.
The sample projects are really good and educational.
I recommend this book for every one doing OS X/iOS development and want to make his applications more user friendly and sexier.
Happy animation!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book, but a little outdated. The material focuses mostly on osx, with small mentions of ios.