One of the first HTML5 designer-friendly tools

Two former Apple employees have joined forces under the name Tumult to code and release a "designer-friendly" authoring tool for HTML5 animation called Hype. With a feature set that will seem familiar to those who have worked with Macromedia Director in days gone by, Hype lets users create interactive elements and web animations entirely in HTML5, making it instantly friendly on all modern web browsers and mobile devices, including the iPhone and iPad.

The program uses an intuitive keyframe-based animation system, with no coding required (though the program can use and work with JavaScript for further flexibility), and uses WebKit -- the technology at the heart of Safari and Chrome -- combined with CSS3 styles to visualize WYSIWYG animations, movements or interaction.

The app outputs standard HTML5 code, and users need only copy a few lines of it into their existing web documents and move a resource folder containing the assets. In addition to local publishing, Hype supports exporting to Dropbox for easy sharing.

Hype can automatically record and play back a user's changes, or users can manually re-arrange keyframes. It supports multiple timelines (useful for animations based on mouse or keyboard events), and uses CSS3 (or JavaScript as a fallback) transitions. Users can create unlimited numbers of scenes, and changes to the inner HTML are rendered on the fly for live previewing. It comes with a full Javascript API for custom function coding.

Jonathan Deutsch and Ryan Nielsen, the two developers, say the product is targeted at designers who want to add effects to their sites, but keep iOS compatibility as well as use the new HTML5 standard as an alternative to Flash. The program tries to preserve fidelity across as many web browsers as possible, from IE6 to Chrome 12. The program's output automatically generates a warning if it detects a browser that doesn't support the animation.

The program is exclusively available through the Mac App Store, meaning it requires Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later. It is priced at $30 for an introductory period.

by MacNN Staff