Tips On Viewing Juggling Lab Animations

From JuggleWiki

[edit] This page is about seeing the animations.

This website assumes you have the Java program loaded on your computer,
and enabled in your web browser (usually in the browser's "Preferences").

What you should see the first time that a browser window is presented with an animation will be like this:

That is the version for Java 1.5 and others will be similar.
For a long page with many animations, it could be off-screen.
Wait for the application to load, as long as a few minutes on a slow computer and connection.
Trying to make something happen before that can make your computer lock.
If your browser or Java plugin has an option to turn on "Jar file caching", do that.

Expect to also see:

Note that Firefox may be set to start with the animation running.

If you see a "Java disabled" message instead of an animation box

Windows IE and Linux users can install the Java 'plugin' here.

If the juggler stick-figure appears full-size, but doesn't move

Try clicking on the animation, some browsers require this.
Clicking on the image area will generally start or stop the animation.
Move the pointer over the juggler -- each animation pauses when the pointer is outside its area.

This is a little test animation for you to check:

Try clicking in the area to see it stop or start.
When you have it running, move the pointer out of the area to see it pause.
Note that the frame outline you first see, you will not see again (unless very faintly, or if the file sets that option).

If the figure is small and will not move

This is usually not an indication of something wrong with the animation --
...you just need to Reload the page.
The tip is that the image is in the center of the box, it could be small anyway for high tosses.
That same file will then look like this still image:

Especially pages with many animations may have a problem downloading all of them to run.

The animation may pause unpredictably.

The Java program does that -- if it happens on your machine, you just have to get used to it.

If you see something that is obviously an error message, like

  or  

...there is indeed a problem with the animation file, too bad for that one.

Note that even if you thought you could possibly correct the program file to run,

you must be registered and logged in as a User to be able to edit.

When you are trying to click on the figure, a green design may show in upper left,
and if so, your click did not register as a click, but instead a Drag.
Dragging (especialy on the figure's head) will rotate the figure in 3-D "orthogonal projection".

This feature can be disturbing and confusing -- and will not often be useful.
It can be set in the animation file (by one axis), see Wheel.
The green design shows the geometric coordinates, and should be returned to show no "Y" line by dragging again.
(you are correct, the letters are wrong -- the vertical axis is labelled "Z")
When you get close, it may "snap" into proper orientation.

Note: the pause feature prevents more than one animation running.
That is the way it is, for each page.

And, the true 3-dimensional animations common for Passing patterns operate in the same ways.

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