Question

I would like to transform an element on a SVG canvas by a transformation matrix (that is decided on the fly). I can do it with JQuery-SVG animate() but it doesn’t result smooth at all. So I thought to use the native SVG animateTransform, and the question is:

• how can I make it start when I want (maybe beginElement()), and
• how can I set the parameters from the matrix on the fly?

thanks in advance 😀

Answer 1

Thanks for your answer!
Since i wanted to use native SVG animations I found this solution (still not working perfectly). This is a sort of version of the unexisting animateTransform(attributeName=”transform” type=”matrix”)

NOTE: i keep the svg transformation for each element in group.transform, and group.transform.matrix() returns just the transformation matrix of that element.

I first add these elements to the element i want to animate:

<animateTransform id="canvTranslate" begin="indefinite" attributeName="transform" type="translate" to="" dur="1s" additive="sum" fill="freeze"/>
<animateTransform id="canvRotate" begin="indefinite" attributeName="transform" type="rotate" to="" dur="1s" additive="sum" fill="freeze"/>
<animateTransform id="canvScale" begin="indefinite" attributeName="transform" type="scale" to="" dur="1s" additive="sum" fill="freeze"/>

Then i do:

 var tMatrix = transformation.matrix(); //this is the transformation i want to obtain
    var cMatrix = group.transform.matrix(); //this is the actual CTM of the element

    //getting the animations
    var animTrans = document.getElementById('canvTranslate');
    var animRotaz = document.getElementById('canvRotate');
    var animScale = document.getElementById('canvScale');

    //setting duration (it's got somewhere before)
    animTrans.setAttribute('dur', duration/1000+'s');
    animRotaz.setAttribute('dur', duration/1000+'s');
    animScale.setAttribute('dur', duration/1000+'s');

    //calculating the 'from' attribute
    var transX = cMatrix.e;
    var transY = cMatrix.f;
    var scaleX = Math.sqrt(Math.pow(cMatrix.a, 2)+Math.pow(cMatrix.b, 2));
        var rotate = Math.atan(cMatrix.c/cMatrix.d);

    animTrans.setAttribute('from', transX+','+transY);
    animRotaz.setAttribute('from', -rotate*180/Math.PI);
    animScale.setAttribute('from', scaleX);
    //end 'from'

    //calculating the 'to' attribute to set
    var transX = tMatrix.e;
    var transY = tMatrix.f;
    var scaleX = Math.sqrt(Math.pow(tMatrix.a, 2)+Math.pow(tMatrix.b, 2));
    var rotate = Math.atan(tMatrix.c/tMatrix.d);

    animTrans.setAttribute('to', transX+','+transY);
    animRotaz.setAttribute('to', -rotate*180/Math.PI);
    animScale.setAttribute('to', scaleX);
    //end 'to'

    animTrans.beginElement();
    animRotaz.beginElement();
    animScale.beginElement();

group.transform = transformation; and finally, to update the transform attribute of the element:

    setTimeout(function(){ //i will change this somehow better :)

        //this is a problematic step. with it animations work on Chrome, without it they work good on firefox and opera too
        $(group).attr('transform', 'matrix('+tMatrix.a+','+tMatrix.b+','+tMatrix.c+','+tMatrix.d+','+tMatrix.e+','+tMatrix.f+')');
    }, duration+100);

This final step is the problematic one. I can’t understand why with it works fine in Chrome, while the animation ends up much more scaled in Firefox and Opera (where not calling setTimeout works just fine).