Crittercube Mac and PC

[Lin Evans]

Just a little demo of some things possible with Version 6 Beta 21+

About 2.2 meg

http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/crittercubepc.zip (PC version)

http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/crittercubemac.zip (Mac version)

Lin

[Ken Cox]

smooth on mine

ken

[Lin Evans]

Hi Ken,

Good to hear - it doesn't use too much in the way of resources so "should" be pretty clean on most systems. It actually looks decent on Youtube here:

http://www.youtube.c...d&sa=0&sq=&dm=1

or here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Z2wcVUtqA

Lin

smooth on mine

ken

[susiesdad]

This is great. Runs very smoothly on my PC.

Did you construct the 3D cube within PTE. Are all the sides children of one, so that when it rotates they move with it? If so, I presume the cube is within an invisible frame that is moved around the screen. Please tell us the secrets.

Alan

[Lin Evans]

Hi Alan,

Good to hear that it runs smoothly!

Yes, the cube was entirely constructed in PTE 6 beta 21 from the elements first seen in the opening sequence. I believe there are several logical ways to construct such a cube, but I did it by making each of the six sides children of a controlling frame as well as children of each other. The frame controls rotation on the X Y axis in 3D space while both the Pan Z and conventional zoom parameters are used to control size and placement. The 3D X and Y transform controls the position of the pieces respective of each other while the 3D X and Y parameters of the controlling frame controls 3D rotation of the whole.

On the opening sequence, all six images are children of a controlling parent frame and their individual "depth" separation is controlled by their respective "Pan Z" settings and the 3D Transform Angle Y of the frame controls their collective position angle.

Best regards,

Lin

[thedom]

I believe there are several logical ways to construct such a cube

Hi Lin,

I made it an other way but I am totally unable to explain how.

Compared to your version, I only added a text description for each side of the 3d cube and a black border around each image.

But the result is the same.

This is so easy now with 3D transformations !

Please download the exe for a much better output quality than the exe.

-

For those of you who are interested, they can download the FREE template.

To open the template, you need PTE Version 6 beta 21 (or higher).

[Lin Evans]

Hi Tom,

Unfortunately, transparency (opacity) is not an "inherited" attribute so the only way to alter transparency is to change it for all six sides evenly via keyframes.

It would be possible to add duplicate cubes by copy and paste of the frame then change the frame's 3D transformations for different effects. It would also be possible to add different images via substitution or "name change" but I didn't actually design it correctly (I should have named the slides image1.jpg, image2.jpg, etc.) for that purpose.

I suppose it could be made into a template, but probably I should design it from the ground up for that purpose for the best results.

Yes, Jean Pierre did indeed post the first six sided 3D rotation and it was "much" more difficult and complex before the 3D transform feature which greatly simplifies building the cube. It's a pretty straight-forward task now. The future of different animated effects via PTE is looking very bright these days.

Best regards,

Lin

[Lin Evans]

Hi Dom,

Nice one! It is great to have the 3D Transform feature available and definitely simplifies creating some great effects.

Best regards,

Lin

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Dom

I'm afraid the cube rotations were jerky on my laptop. I played it through twice in case it was a you tube anomoly but it was the same.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1

[Henri.R]

Hi Lin,

The cube is like a balletdancer on my iMac, very smooth en good picture quality too...

Are you really considering making a template?

regards,

Henri.

[Adda]

Hi TheDom!

I am very impressed about your template.

Thank you very much.

I never would had the idea for that,

but it's very easy to rebuild it for myself.

Unfortunately at this step of the capability oft 3D it seems not possible to make a 3D-Shadow for the whole cube-object.

With best regards

Adda

[thedom]

"should" be pretty clean on most systems. It actually looks decent on Youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Z2wcVUtqA

Lin, I think the link you provided is not correct.

Hi Dom,

I edited it above - hope it's correct now...

Only for exceptions, imho, this effect should not be included in a slideshow.

But it demonstrates how easy it is now to build objects with a realistic depth.

It gives me ideas for other demonstratrions. I will try a make a complete 3D book animation better than my previous version ( http://www.thedom.fr...ile&file_id=304 )

Eric, you should try to download the exe instead of watching the YouTube video.

It's perfectly smooth on my system.

Adda, you're welcome about the pte project. But the 3D cube rotation is not my idea.

Hehehe, I tried to make realistic shadows, for the cube and the text but didn't succeeded. I gave up.

[Ken Cox]

Lin's show

try

http://www.vimeo.com/7103742

let it load before running for optimum results

ken

[Lin Evans]

Hi Henri,

That's great to hear!

I will try to do it if I get a few moments. I think the one Dom posted will work perfectly though. There are a number of logical ways to build the cube and all seem to work equally well.

Best regards,

Lin

Hi Lin,

The cube is like a balletdancer on my iMac, very smooth en good picture quality too...

Are you really considering making a template?

regards,

Henri.

[Lin Evans]

An interesting observation....

I copied and pasted the controlling frame for the crittercube demo and simply moved the start point for the duplicate. The interesting observation was how moving the starting location for the cube movement nicely shows how position on the screen affects timing and motion in 3D.

Just as it should, the cube on the right side has a slightly different 3D position and slightly different timing than the original, even though they are absolute duplicates except for starting screen position. This demonstrates how 3D works in relation to "where" on the screen the motion or animation takes place.

Interesting! Crittercube dance in Mac and Windows version....

http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/crittercubedance.zip (Windows)

http://www.learntoma...ubedancemac.zip (MacIntosh)

Lin

[Ken Cox]

An interesting observation....

I copied and pasted the controlling frame for the crittercube demo and simply moved the start point for the duplicate. The interesting observation was how moving the starting location for the cube movement nicely shows how position on the screen affects timing and motion in 3D.

Just as it should, the cube on the right side has a slightly different 3D position and slightly different timing than the original, even though they are absolute duplicates except for starting screen position. This demonstrates how 3D works in relation to "where" on the screen the motion or animation takes place.

Interesting! Crittercube dance in Mac and Windows version....

http://www.learntoma...ercubedance.zip (Windows)

http://www.learntoma...ubedancemac.zip (MacIntosh)

Lin

still perfect

ken

[Ken Cox]

Tom

no distortion on my system -- perfect squares

ken

[thedom]

Here is a variation of the 3D Cube rotation.

But this time you are INSIDE the cube.

What do you think ?

You can watch the video but I really recommend to download the exe for a much better output quality.

-

Tom, as Ken, I do not notice a distortion on your cubes.

Anyway, they look natural to me.

[Ken Cox]

Dom

the show is a beautie

your kids as well -- so full of innocence

ken

[thedom]

Thanks Ken.

Only two of them are my kids. The others are my nephews and nieces.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Tom, Dom, Ken,

Sorry, I've been gone most of the day working on setting cement board for putting tile in the kitchen of the place we will be moving into. It's a real mess right now. Four years ago we bought carpet for the entire little house but it wasn't cleaned out and we ran out of funds to continue working on it. Now that we are loosing the ranch to foreclosure, we are forced to get it into condition to live in. The company we purchased the carpet from sold it because we couldn't install so we lost about $800 in credit and the price of carpeting has doubled since then. They were nice enough to give us $2,064 in credit which is just enough to carpet the living room, hall and family room. The kitchen had been carpeted but trashed so I've had to put in a new sink, new garbage disposal and have to paint the entire house inside and about half of the outside. I ripped the carpet out of the kitchen and just finished laying the cement board and will tile the floor tomorrow. I've only got another week to finish the painting inside before the carpet layers will be out so will not be around too much on the forum for the next week or so. I still have to put tile in two bathrooms and change some light fixtures, replace a toilet and repair lots of really trashed doors, closets, etc. The water heater had burst and flooded the living room and hall so have to replace that as well. Too much work for this old rancher - LOL - I'm feeling my age tonight!

Tom,

I don't know if it's going to be possible to animate the face of a cube because of the front/back thing, I'll have to think some about how to proceed. It's easy enough to mask off the area but I'm not certain whether I can keep the snow/water from being seen through the other sides of the cube yet. I tried yesterday but was not successful so need to ponder on it a bit - LOL....

Best regards,

Lin

Very nice Dom. Being inside the cube gives a feeling of immersion. Now the last thing is to figure out how to animate a snow globe or waterfall on one or more cube faces.

Lin?

Tom

[thedom]

Hi Lin,

Good luck with your ranch, I hope everything will be back in order quickly and with minor pain.

[thedom]

I uploaded a modified version of the "3D cube rotation" to make it more like a template.

The animation is a little bit different. It allows to see the pictures better and is shorter.

I corrected it too because I realized three of the pictures were flipped.

This template still can be very easily updated to modify the cube rotation as you wish.

For those of you who are interested, they can download this FREE template HERE.

To open the template, you need PTE Version 6 beta 21 (or higher).

[goddi]

Thedom,

I have been playing with your template. I was going a bit nutty with your first template because a few of the images were coming out backwards. I was about to ask about it when I see you created a second template. It is working much better and has corrected the backward images.

But I have another problem that I can not seem to fix. I want to edit your 'text' and move it down to a corner of each image. However, when I try to move the the text block, I can not drag it to a new location. The text block handles disappear. Is there a way to grab the text block and move it???

Also, I don't have any idea how you made this template. It is driving me crazy trying to understand it!!! But, thankfully, you can do it. My wife saw me updating your template with our own images and she was impressed and asked if she could have it has a screen saver. Of course I said 'NO, it was just an exe file'. But then I remembered that PTE has the screensaver function that I have never used before. I tried it and your 3D Cube makes a GREAT screensaver file.

Thanks much. Gary

=========================

I uploaded a modified version of the "3D cube rotation" to make it more like a template.

The animation is a little bit different. It allows to see the pictures better and is shorter.

I corrected it too because I realized three of the pictures were flipped.

This template still can be very easily updated to modify the cube rotation as you wish.

[thedom]

I want to edit your 'text' and move it down to a corner of each image. However, when I try to move the the text block, I can not drag it to a new location. The text block handles disappear. Is there a way to grab the text block and move it???

There is no reason you couldn't drag the text objects to a new location.

Are you sure you selected the keypoint of the text object before moving it ?

Great idea to make a screensaver. I'm wondering if I will not make one for me too.