Combine sprite animation with path movement with CALayer - animation

In Monotouch, I need to create a basic animation of an image moving along a path while animating it's image content with a sprite sheet or replacing the content CGImage, everything i try i can't combine both animations. I tried subclassing the CALayer and animate custom properties or combine animations in group nothing seems to work. What's the best way to produce this kind of animation?

To get a smooth animation, you want to think of what CAlayers represent: they are a handle to a texture that live in the GPU space. To get smooth animation you can control a few of their properties, but arbitrary changes like rendering the data again wont work fine.
What you should do is put all of your images in the sprite sheet, and then animate the ContentsRect property of the CALayer.

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What is the correct way to optimise scrolling performance of NSImageView and NSView

I need to improve the scrolling performance of a view for annotating on top of an image.
Currently I have the following:
- annotationView (custom NSView)
- imageView (NSImageView)
- contentView (custom NSView)
- clipView (NSClipView)
- scrollView (NScrollView)
The images are quite large PDFs and PNGs and scrolling is poor unless I make the imageView layer backed, which I am just doing in Interface Builder. Scrolling is then pretty smooth.
However the PNG images override everything on top of the imageView, whereas the PDF images remain correctly in the background.
Why is this and how can I fix that?
To get even better performance I would also like to make the annotationView layer backed as well but if I do that the entire view becomes black - with the exception of the annotations being draw on the annotationView. How can I make this layer backed view transparent but still allow for the shapes to be draw on it. It seems I can make it transparent but then everything becomes transparent, including the drawn shapes.
Is there a better way to achieve this? The annotations are simply shapes and text that need to be placed at specific positions over the image which I am currently just drawing in response to mouse positions.
The short answer is to use layer backed views and use CGContext for drawing and not the simpler NSView drawing APIs.
By default macOS does not use GPU based graphics, unlike iOS.
macOS provides a high level API that uses the CPU rather than the GPU for graphics operations.
So in my case I switched everything to layer backed NSViews - you can set this in Interface Builder or simply add 'wantsLayer = true' in the NSView initialisation code (init()).
Avoid using NSImageView, instead use a layer backed view and set the layer.content = NSIMage, you may have to also set the layers background colour or you might get some areas of the background not being cleared when scrolling.
This works for me - I have big PDF images in the background - building layouts and a layer backed view on top of that for placing annotations.
Scrolling around is now buttery smooth. Images seem to load instantly.
For the most part its pretty easy - just set up right from the start and save yourself a lot of headaches.

Unity 2D animation seems blocked

I have an animation in Unity, its 2D, made from Sprites.
My animation is blocked, I mean, I can't add a new sprite, click play button, or add a new Property.
In order to animate an object in Unity you have to have a valid object selected, that is to say, the object can be animated.
This is typically a game object that is selected in the hierarchy.
Without this, how does the animation window know what it can and can't animate? That is the way that properties are animated in Unity, it needs to know what it is supposed to be animating, the valid object tells it what can be animated. Without this knowledge, the animation window will lock down certain features, adding keys and playing the animation.
In your case, select the game object that you want to have animated and, if you have a valid animator controller in place, the animation window will set itself up with all the necessary bits and pieces, namely the animation clips. Then you can animate to your hearts content.
Here's the animation window reference:
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/animeditor-UsingAnimationEditor.html
Hopefully this answers your question.

Unity Image Component for 2D Animation

I'm developing a 2D game in Unity (Version 5.1.2) which has an animation.
The animation is generated by flipping through the sprites in the sprite sheet.
My problem is that the animation is playing as it should in the "Scene View" but not in "Game View".
I normally create animations by using the sprite editor and then drag & drop all the sprites on the screen (Scene View).
It creates a Sprite Renderer to switch the sprites but I would like the Image Component to flip through the sprites. It seems like only sprites in the Image Component is being displayed in the "Game View".
Is there any way I can get some assistance on this please.
Its really strange that you are only seeing that in your Scene View. If the animation is your default animation? Otherwise, make sure that you are sending the right parameters to your animator. A good way to test it is opening your Animator windows, checking all transitions, and manually filling the parameters to see how it works wile the game is running. Also, check if the transitions between animations has exit times and transition durations, and disable them.

Drawing on CATiledLayer or CALayer with pdf in iOS

i have a scrollview which contains a pdfpage rendered with CATiledLayer, i want to draw stuff onto the pdf page so i created a overlay layer, i need the graphic to look vectorized so i decided to use CATiledlayer for the overlay layer. Only problem is that it is very slow to draw (I'm using beizerpath to draw), then i tried to optimize it by creating the overlay layer with the visible height and width when zooming in and out, so i don't need to create the overlay for the whole content bound. But still no luck , i want to try CALayer but the draw path just becomes blurry and pixelated, so i'm not sure how i can improve on this. I also tried drawinrect but for some reason it doesn't seem to work.
I suggest not using bezierpath to draw annotations since it requires you to redraw the whole path every time the pen moves. It would be better if you draw only the current line segment using CGContextAddQuadCurveToPoint.
At touchMoved, get the current point and 2 prev points
Using those points, get the area where the line should be drawn
draw at that area in drawRect using setNeedsDisplayAtRect
inside drawRect, go to the end of your path and add your new line using CGContextAddQuadCurveToPoint

masking with an image in iOS

I'd like to take an image and use it as a mask for a view on which I add numerous image views. I know of the quartz CGContextClipToMask() call but what would be the best way to approach this? Can I override the drawRect method of a container view, call CGContextClipToMask() within it, and then expect its subviews to adhere to that clipping region? It doesn't seem to work.
Do I need to instead add some blocking mask image over top?
Instead of subclassing or overriding drawing functions, I chose to overlay the images with an image that had transparency in the viewable portion. i.e., if my 'surface' was an image of a parchment, and I aimed to draw a bunch of images on it. I would have the parchment image, then a container UIView for any images to be put on that parchment, then a masking image over top of that which was the original parchment image but with the parchment itself converted instead to full transparency, while the surrounding area is left exactly as the background the parchment is on (then all other UI widgets over top of that).
This seems a viable solution in all cases except if one were to need some image to visually animate around and behind the parchment (not my case).

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