Core Animation for Mac OS X and the iPhone released
Posted by Dave Merten 
Nov 11, 2008 at 12:02pm
Have you seen Apple’s Front Row application and Cover Flow effects? Then you’ve seen Core Animation at work. It’s about making applications that give strong visual feedback through movement and morphing, rather than repainting panels.
Mac OS X Leopard introduces a fantastic new technology that makes writing applications with animated and cinematic user interfaces much easier. Core Animation for Mac OS X and the iPhone: Creating Compelling Dynamic User Interfaces will get you up to speed quickly and take you into the depths of this new technology.
Author Bill Dudney explains: “Consider how Apple integrates animation into its operating systems and applications. For example, when users start Front Row, the whole desktop changes to an animation-centric, three-dimensional look and feel with smooth animations and beautiful reflections. You’ll find animation even when you are working on something as simple as preparing a presentation in Keynote. When a slide in Keynote is moved to another spot in a presentation, the rest of the slides move around to get out of the moving slide’s way. Not only does this look great, but it also helps the user understand what their actions are doing. Subtly or dramatically, Keynote and Front Row are keeping their users informed with their use of animation.”
We’ll explore this new technology by starting with the familiar concepts you already know from the pre-Leopard development kits. Then we’ll see how they apply to the new frameworks and APIs. We’ll build on your existing knowledge of Cocoa and bring you efficiently up to speed on what Core Animation is all about.
With this book in hand, you can add Core Animation to your Cocoa applications, and make stunning user interfaces that your users will be showing off to their friends.
MacOSG members get a 35% discount off all O’reilly Media books. To get your discount code, just go here. Also, listen to the MacOSG Podcast, and if your member name is drawn, you can receive this book free! (see official rules) If you’re not a member yet, you can join here.
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Dave Merten
Dave was one of the founding guides at ‘The Mining Company,’ now known as About.com, in February 1998. Dave was their ‘Focus on Mac Support’ guide. In 2004 he started ‘G5 Owners Support Group,’ and in 2005, renamed it ‘Mac Owners Support Group.’ In 2006, he started the ‘MacOSG Support Corner’ column here at Macsimum News.
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