A new cube challenge

[JRR]

Peter:

Amazing!!

WOW!!

I hate to think what the next challenge will be !

Thank you for doing this

[fh1805]

...Who would have thought all this action comprised of 12 slides total...

Stu,

Only twelve slides but those twelve slides are driven by a PTE project file that is almost 3MB in size. I haven't had the courage yet to turn PTE Reporter loose on that!

regards,

Peter

[thedom]

Congratulations Peter for this work.

I imagine easily the amount of time and effort. The result is great.

It would be perfect for a nice screen saver.

Could you please explain what you mean by the "smooth speed option"? What is it and what effect will it have?

I think you used the linear speed options for rotation/pan & zoom.

Instead of linear, if you set speed option to smooth (in O/A window, animation tab), I think the result will be even better with less abrupt animation.

[fh1805]

Dom,

The 3D animation runs across Quick transitions. Looking at the profile for smooth I feel that using smooth would cause the cube to come to a stop and restart across each Quick transition, wouldn't it?

I suppose I could apply it to the Layers when they are being rotated, though. I'll certainly give that a try.

regards,

Peter

[fh1805]

...Also the perfect song choice...

Tom,

I had two pieces in mind as I worked on the visuals: "Windmills of my Mind" and Strauss's "Blue Danube" Waltz (latter inspired by the space station sequence in the film "2001: A Space Odyssey"). In the end Windmills was an almost perfect length (I had to lose just 3 seconds of running time in the animation) and so I went with that.

To my mind, the choice of music is the most important aspect of a successful AV sequence. I know that I get a huge amount of positive feedback from my audiences over the appropriateness of the music that I use.

regards,

Peter

[thedom]

Peter, in my opinion, you can apply a speed option different from linear when the animation changes.

For example, try to apply a different speed option to the whole cube itself to deccelerate it at the end of slide 3 and accelerate it at the beginning of slide 4.

You will need to create your own custom speed option : try 0 - 80 and 20-100.

You could apply it to each row when it rotates too (beginning and end of rotation).

In this case, smooth speed option will be ok.

It's only little details but I think it's this kind of thing that contributes to a perfect animation.

[jevans]

Hi Peter,

Your rubic cube is just a stunning example of the potential of Version 6. I very much admire your ability and dedication in producing this show and would very much like to know how you did it.

Regards

[fh1805]

Hi Peter,

Your rubic cube is just a stunning example of the potential of Version 6. I very much admire your ability and dedication in producing this show and would very much like to know how you did it.

Regards

Jeff,

So, you want me to reveal the secrets of my wizardry? OK, I'll take some of the covers off.

There are three distinct build variants of the entire cube (Cubev1, Cubev2 and Cubev3). Then there are exactly twelve slides in the sequence as can be seen from the Slide Count comment. These twelve slides each have the following purpose:

• Slide1 is just black
  
• Slide2 carries the title/intro text
  
• Slide3 introduces Cubev1 and uses 2D Zoom, 2D Rotate with a displaced centre point and 3D Rotate to spiral the cube into the scene
  
• Slides 4-11 then keep the 3D animation going as smoothly as possible
  
• Slide4 sees the Top and Bottom layers rotate (one goes clockwise the other goes anticlockwise)
  
• Slide5 introduces Cubev2 and sees the Top and Bottom layers rotate (one goes clockwise the other goes anticlockwise)
  
• Slide6 introduces Cubev3 and sees the Top and Bottom layers rotate (one goes clockwise the other goes anticlockwise)
  
• Slide7 fades the coloured squares out revealing the actual image parts
  
• Slide8 uses Cubev3 and reverses its previous layer rotation
  
• Slide9 uses Cubev2 and reverses its previous layer rotation
  
• Slide10 uses Cubev1 and reverses its previous layer rotation
  
• Slide11 continues with Cubev1 and fades out the black borders
  
• Slide12 is just black
  

Each cube variant is built to the following structure:

• A controlling frame (Cube Controller)
  
• A child of that frame (CubeX where X=1, 2 or 3 - depending upon which cube variant was in use on that particular slide)
  
• As children of that cube: three sibling frames (Layer1, Layer2 and Layer3; one for each layer of nine small cubes)
  
• As children of each Layer: three sibling frames (Top Row, Middle Row, Bottom Row - simply to help me keep track of which part of the Layer each small cube belonged to)
  
• As children of each row: three sibling frames (CubeX, CubeY and CubeZ [where X, Y and Z were drawn from the numbers 1-27 and represented the 27 possible small cubes] - each cube representing notionally the left, centre and right cube on each row)
  
• As a child of each small cube: one, two or three frames (FacetX, FacetY, FacetZ - to represent the little squares [where X, Y and Z were drawn from the numbers 1-54 - representing the 54 possible facets on the whole cube])
  
• As a child of each Facet: A BlackBorder.png file sat above the actual facet image file (this allowed me to fade out the black borders at the end and reveal the whole image on each of the six faces of the entire cube)
  

There, that should be clear enough!

regards,

Peter

P.S. For the attention of all forum members:

Because of the amount of mental energy that was invested in this project (almost 100 hours of very intense concentration, thought and analysis) I do not feel able to release a template of this project. I will happily describe and discuss aspects of the design concept and of the detailed design - but I will not discuss any detailed aspect of the actual build or the details of the animation. If you want a Rubik's Cube of your own, you now know it can be done. I will guide you - but I will not build it for you.

[fh1805]

Hi Dom,

I really value your critical input. Thanks very much indeed!

Peter, in my opinion, you can apply a speed option different from linear when the animation changes.

For example, try to apply a different speed option to the whole cube itself to deccelerate it at the end of slide 3 and accelerate it at the beginning of slide 4.

You will need to create your own custom speed option : try 0 - 80 and 20-100.

Allow me to check that I understand you here. Are you suggesting allowing the cube to slow down and then speed up again across the slide3-slide4 transition? That would be contrary to my desire to try and maintain a constant angular rotation speed. I would welcome a more detailed explanation (via e-mail off-forum if you wish)

You could apply it to each row when it rotates too (beginning and end of rotation).

In this case, smooth speed option will be ok.

I've now learned how to do non-linear 2D animation and have applied it to all the 2D animation (Pan, Zoom and Rotate). I agree that the layer rotation looks much smoother.

It's only little details but I think it's this kind of thing that contributes to a perfect animation.

Again, I agree. I have actually re-built the entire sequence to a slightly different cube structure (simpler, with fewer redundant items) and have adopted a different approach to the 3D rotation. I used Excel spreadsheet to calculate the degrees of rotation based upon the duration of each slide; so that the angular rotation (3D Y) is almost constant throughout the sequence.

regards,

Peter

[jevans]

Hi Peter,

Of course I fully appreciate the amount of effort you have put into solving this problem and your very understandable reluctance to "reveal all". I am also grateful to you for your build hints. I will see what I can do now myself.

Kind regards

Jeff