I am excited today to announce the availability of the release candidate for version 1.1 of Trident animation library (code-named Bogeyman). Most of the new functionality in this version was driven by the user feedback, and includes the following:

• Reworked fluent APIs to interpolate properties
• Configuration APIs to extend the core functionality of the library
• Specifying custom pulse source to drive timelines
• Working with custom property interpolators
• Extended support for animations in Java UI toolkits

In addition to the bundled simple applications, Trident has two blueprint projects. These projects show how to use Trident to drive complex animation scenarios in Internet-enabled rich applications that show graphic information on music albums. Project Onyx is the Swing implementation (see detailed walkthroughs), and Project Granite is the SWT implementation (see detailed walkthroughs).

If you have Java 7 installed on your machine, click the button below to launch the WebStart version of Project Onyx:

You are more than welcome to take Trident 1.1RC for a ride and report any problems in the project mailing lists, forums or issue tracker. The final release is scheduled for October 12. Only bugs will be fixed until that date.