Is there a length limit on the 15fps animation? If so, what is the maximum length? Does the length of animation affect battery life? Thanks.
I’d be curious to other designers experience. But from what I’ve heard and read the size of the animation makes a difference in battery life but the length of the animation does not.
Ron
Samsung Developer Program
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In one of my latest watch faces I included a 25 sec moon animation without affecting the battery life too much. On a galaxy watch I am able to get 2,5 to 3 days (wifi off and no aod).
The animation is consisted of 360 images (one per degree) which significantly increases the size of the tpk. Overall the face ended up being 35mb which is insane but in my tests and also based on the feedback it runs smoothly.
Here is a video:
Hope this helps
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Wow, you really pushed the envelope and the result is great! That’s a cool looking watch face! Thank you for sharing your experience on animation. 
Thanks for your kind comments, I am glad that you like it. Yes this watch face pushes a bit the boundaries with the size however I chose to go for it. People were in the beginning skeptical because of the size but after a couple of positive comments it was easier for them to digest.
Now to your question, I think what you have to take into consideration is the screen timeout. If I remember well it is set at 10 seconds by default. I would limit the animation length to this time in order to have a full animation circle till the screen times out or AOD kicks in. I believe that this way the content will be more engaging and appealing.
The above will also depend on what animation you have, in my example it doesn’t really matter when the user will see it because it is a spinning moon, but if you have a linear animation then the set up can be different.
Hope this helps
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The last I checked the time out for AOD was 20 seconds on my Watch3.
Ron
Samsung Developer Program
Hi Ron, I guess you are right… I reduced it to get more battery life… Thanks for correction!
Many thanks for your inputs, much appreciated.
Hi Ron, do you know if numbers of animations on a watch face matter on battery life? For example, a 6 seconds 200x200 px vs four 50x50px 6 seconds animations. Which one uses more battery? Thanks.
Tizen OS like Windows or iOS is an interactive operating system which means it runs continuously and it takes very little power to change images.
The reason you can’t do animations in AoD (Ambient Mode) is because the system slows down to 1 second interaction not that it draws too much power.
The biggest draw on power is going to be light emission.
Ron
Samsung Developer Program
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Hi MKWatch, I am curious how the various double-tap buttons work in your watch. My understanding is that a button has to be on the top-most layer of a project. How do you get the double-tap to work for so many parts of your watch?
Hello,
It has been designed with GWD 1.6 which is one of the last versions that allows to place an image in a certain location and display it in another using tag expression.
This functionality has been disabled in newer versions of GWD and GWS.
Hope this helps
Kind Regards
MKWatchface
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