Motion Canvas Core

Disclaimer

The API is a subject to change and may vary drastically in newer versions.

The current documentation is still lacking and will be expanded in the following weeks.

Using Motion Canvas

Check out the getting started guide to learn how to use Motion Canvas.

Authenticate to GitHub Packages

Detailed information on how to authenticate.

1. Generate a PAT (Personal Access Token).
   1. On github.com, go to Settings > Developer settings > Personal access tokens.
   2. Click Generate new token.
   3. Enter the note for your token, for instance npm.
   4. Choose read:packages from the available scopes.
   5. Click Generate token
   6. Copy the generated token.
2. Log in using npm
   1. In your terminal, enter the following command:

      npm login --scope=@motion-canvas --registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com

   2. Answer the prompt. Username is your GitHub username, Password is the token you just generated. Email is your GitHub email address. For instance:

      > Username: Jacob
      > Password: ghp_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
      > Email: [email protected]
      

Developing Motion Canvas locally

The project is maintained as one monorepo containing the following packages:

Name	Description
core	All logic related to running and rendering animations.
2d	The default renderer for 2D motion graphics
create	A package for bootstrapping new projects.
docs	Our documentation website.
e2e	End-to-end tests.
examples	Animation examples used in documentation.
player	A custom element for displaying animations in a browser.
template	A template project included for developer's convenience.
ui	The user interface used for editing.
vite-plugin	A plugin for Vite used for developing and bundling animations.

After cloning the repo, run npm install in the root of the project to install all necessary dependencies.

Developing Core & 2D

When developing the core, start both core:watch and template:serve.

This will pick up any changes you make to the core package, automatically rebuild the template project and refresh the page.

Similarly, when developing the 2D package, start 2d:watch and template:serve.

Developing UI

If you want to develop the UI, first build the template project by running: template:build. Next, start ui:serve.

Developing Player

Like with UI, to develop the player, first build the template: template:build. Then, start player:serve.

Contributing

Read through our Contribution Guide to learn how you can help make Motion Canvas better.