Um aims to explore neglected possibilities of computer based drawing and animation. If the underlying grid based character of bitmapped images is typically hidden (via effects of resolution, antialising and the like), Um takes the opposite approach. It foregrounds the grid. At the same time, the fundamental grid elements are conceived not as neutral building blocks but as discrete, dynamic and differentiated things. The grid can be filled with all manner of drawing shapes and the shapes can be animated and rendered in all kinds of different ways. The software invites abstract plays of pattern, scale, motion and texture, but also opens up an idiosyncratic dialogue with photography. Photographs can be sampled to provide the color for grid squares (and drawing shapes), enabling a combination of photographic and vector based elements. Finished images can be rendered at any resolution as either still images or animation sequences.

• Windows (11.6mb, 15/01/2010)
• Mac (11.5mb, 15/01/2010))
• Linux (10.8mb, 15/01/2010) (if not working, try IzPack installter below)
• IzPack cross-platform jar installer (7.3mb, 15/01/2010)

• create polygonal, oval and bezier drawing shapes
• create sets of drawing shapes which draw simultaneously or successively
• set shape color from rgb chooser palette or from input images
• define and set animators for shapes
• define renderers for drawing shapes.
• set image and grid dimensions
• draw on the grid with shapes
• select background redraw or no redraw
• modify grid dimensions on the fly (which changes size/proportions of drawn shapes)
• transform overall grid: flip, mirror, etc.
• select grid squares
• modify selected shapes (or all shapes if none selected)
• render at any resolution (within the limits of RAM) via the capture multiplier
• capture rendered images as stills or sequences of stills
• save projects
• detailed help section
• includes Java source and javadoc

• Java runtime (minmum of Java 1.5).
• 2Gb RAM
• minimum monitor resolution of 1280X1024

License: Creative Commons: Attribution Non-Commercial
Brogan Bunt: January 14 2009