I’ve recently been experimenting with the Bullet physics library on iOS. It’s a great way of adding 3d collision detection and realistic looking movement to your OpenGL apps and games. I’m working on a full blog post with all the details, but in the meantime, here’s a quick look at what I’ve been doing: a simple 2.5d ragdoll character running on the iPad simulator.
Continue reading Sneaky peek: Physics on iOS
Category Archives: Graphics
Minilight renderer in F#
Continue reading Minilight renderer in F#
Creating an iPad flip-clock with Core Animation
As part of the sliding puzzle game I’m developing for the iPhone and iPad (well, I can’t survive on the profits from BattleFingers forever), I looked for a way to represent a numeric score and time display in an interesting way. One of the nicer visual effects you could use for this is the “flip-card clock” style, where each number consists of a top and bottom part, and the top part flips down to reveal the next number. It’s been used in a few other places including the home screen in the HTC Diamond device, and its physical, realistic style fits well with the iPad, so I set about creating a version for the iPhone and iPad using the built-in Core Animation library. Read on for more details.
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iPad – The rise of the naturalistic user interface
It was fascinating to see Apple unveiling its new iPad hardware recently, and one of the things that caught my eye were the interfaces of the various apps that were demonstrated. They look different from apps on other platforms, and even from the equivalent apps on the iPhone. It seems to me as if there’s been a change to a more naturalistic style of user interfaces. Why is this, and what is it about the iPad that makes it suited to this kind of UI?
Continue reading iPad – The rise of the naturalistic user interface
Highlights from onedotzero – wow+flutter
I took a trip down to London’s Southbank on Sunday evening to see wow+flutter, a showcase of short, digitally-themed animations that are part of onedotzero, an annual festival and tour celebrating “adventures in moving image”. I’ve been several times before when it was based at the ICA (it’s now moved to the BFI National Film Theatre), and I always find it really inspiring. Normally, I can never remember the details of the films I’ve seen – it’s pretty intense; with over an hour of back-to-back shorts each lasting only 1-3 minutes – but this year they provided a list of the films details, so I can report on some of my highlights and provide links to some of the films.