THINGS
April 2009

NOTES:

Each Thing gets 'keys' : these are the frames of it's life.
For a certain Thing to have other things happening in sequence, e.g:
 Yellow appears, tweens along
 Orange fades in later.
 Yellow fades out
You need to have each of those things as their own Things and put them into another Thing (call it a container). The container will have only 1 frame, but could have more.

Yellow:
keys: #---------------#-------#------#
      appear tween            fades
Orange:
keys: ..............#---------------#
      not visible    fades in


A "THING" is ONE timeline for any number of children.

SVG notes
1. Set Inkscape to use Transforms -> Preserve. 
   This forces the use of transform="translate(x,y)" attributes. Better than having path 'd' elements hard-code their x,y positions.
2. Basic formula:
  i. Draw a "frame guide" -- make it bigger than the intended sprite/loop.
   a) Draw it and be sure to keep clearing transforms in the XML editor. i.e. make sure it's at it's own default position - wherever that is.
   b) Group it. Give it a label of 'hidden'
   c) MOVE it to the TOP LEFT of the page -- better yet, move it's CENTER to the TOP LEFT.
  ii. CLONE the frame-guide. Do NOT move it. Give it a 'hidden' label.
 iii. Draw a random circle on it. Group the clone and the circle.
  iv. NOW you can move that group.
   v. Give it an id - like 'alien' or 'walk1' -- whatever it is to be.
  vi. Enter that group and draw what you need. WATCH that the xy coords seem to make sense -- that they are relative to the GROUP.

INKSCAPE NOTES
1. Set page to 1/4 size of app.
2. Draw + at top left - make it size of app
3. Draw a backdrop on lowest layer.
4. TOP LEFT is 0,0

THINGS: app
1. *CANNOT* have keys -- i.e. can't give it frames or tweens etc.
2. It's PURELY a holder to ADD OTHER THINGS TO.
