What do you want out of a path API?
What do you want out of a path API?
- Subject: What do you want out of a path API?
- From: Darrin Cardani <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 09:44:38 -0700
FxPlug Developers,
I've been thinking about what a good path-related API would look like. I'm not saying we're going to implement one. I'm just thinking about how feasible it would be, so I'm trying to figure out what you would want out of one if we did.
When I say paths, I mean shapes that a user draws using the bezier, b-spline, or line tools. In Motion, these would be image masks that the user adds to their objects on the canvas. Looking at APIs for other apps which have this sort of access, I see the obvious things, such as enumerating the paths associated with an object or a project, getting the control points and tangents or weights for a particular path, etc. Those are fairly obvious things. (Or at least they seem obvious – I'd love to know if they're not at all useful!)
One set of functions I'm not sure is useful is the functions for getting the length of 1 segment of a path, or even the derivative of the length of one segment of a path. Is anyone out there using these sorts of functions? If so, what are you using them for?
Looking at our internal use of paths, it seems much more frequent that we need to get a point which is some percentage along a path. For example, if you're doing a stroke over time, and you know you're 38% through your time, you want to know the point that is 38% along the path.
Also, do you need to know the mode of the mask? (Add, Subtract, etc.) It seems like in most cases you're drawing something rather than actually rendering the mask and applying it in some way, since that's what the app does for you. But if that functionality is useful, let me know.
So if you're using paths in your plugins for other platforms, please let me know what you think of the above questions, and also if there's something missing from other APIs that you'd like to see, let me know!
Thanks,
Darrin
--
Darrin Cardani
email@hidden
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