This is a working draft of a specification of animation functionality for XML documents. It is part of work in the Synchronized Multimedia Working Group (SYMM) towards a next version of the SMIL language and modules. It describes an animation framework as well as a set of base XML animation elements, included in SMIL and suitable for integration with other XML documents.
The first W3C Working Group on Synchronized Multimedia (SYMM) developed SMIL - Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language. This XML-based language is used to express synchronization relationships among media elements. SMIL 1.0 documents describe multimedia presentations that can be played in SMIL-conformant viewers.
SMIL 1.0 was focused primarily on linear presentations, and did not include support for animation. Other working groups (especially Graphics) are exploring animation support for things like vector graphics languages. As the timing model is at the heart of animation support, it is appropriate for the SYMM working group to define a framework for animation support, and to define a base set of widely applicable animation structures. This document describes that support.
Where SMIL 1.0 defined a document type and the associated semantics, the next version modularizes the functionality. The modularization facilitates integration with other languages, and the development of profiles suited to a wider variety of playback environments. See also "Synchronized Multimedia Modules based upon SMIL 1.0" (W3C members only). The Animation Module described herein is designed with the same goals in mind, and in particular to satisfy requirements such as those of the Graphics Working Group.