INTRODUCTION
The ability to read is an element that is critical to the success of children. It is not only important for a child’s education, but literacy has an impact on their ability to be knowledgeable about the world, function in society, and have a career. However falling behind in reading can negatively impact a child’s success. The importance of reading led to the creation of Zinnia, a kinetic typography story animation tool that allows you to ‘make your own kinetic story.’
SOFTWARE OVERVIEW
Zinnia features the ability to open a text file and view the story as animated words. The animations are based on a dictionary of animations, which can be created and edited at a high-level in the interface. Words that are not present in the dictionary are animated with a ‘default’ animation, which can also be customized by the user. New or modified animations can be previewed and added immediately into a currently open story. Zinnia features the ability to create associations, like a thesaurus for animations. Zinnia also utilizes a method for displaying multiple words on the screen at the same time. User’s preferences are saved to XML for future use.
FURTHER INFORMATION
For further information, please refer to the Zinnia Paper.
FINAL PRODUCTS
Paper (PDF)
LANGUAGES & SOFTWARE
Java
XML
Eclipse
Illustrator
Camtasia
TEAM
Michele Clarke
Colleen Koranda