animations for fun

[SheilaG]

Hi Everyone,

I've uploaded a short AV sequence, to Dropbox. It's just less than 2 minutes in length.

It's nothing more than a trial to try out the different 3D animations I've managed to make, so far. I made it just to see what the possibilities for using shapes and animations, within a 'real' sequence, might be. Obviously, there's an overkill of effects but that was the object, in this sequence. Some of the timing really needs tidying up but, please, bear in mind that this is experimental!

My real thanks have to go to Lin Evans, whose generosity in making the projects, for the cube and the square based pyramid, available, put me on the right tracks. I'd probably still have been tearing my hair, otherwise!

I also managed to create a triangular based pyramid but, so far, and I can't work out why, I can't get the base to fit perfectly when it 'tumbles'.

Regards,

Sheila G

animations for fun

[ContaxMan]

Very impressive effects - I particualrly like the pyramid.

Perhaps you might coinsider sharing the zip file or doing a write-up of this for others to learn from your work?

[paulziets]

Sheila,

I see that I have a long way to go! Well done. Apart from the base, as you mentioned, it looked good to me. To give me an idea, what sort of work time did that take you?

Regards,

Paul

[fh1805]

Sheila,

I suspect that the problem with your triangular pyramid is that the Zoom and Pan settings are not quite right. Have you tried increasing (very slightly) the zoom value for the pyramid's base. Sometimes I find it necessary to manually rotate the object until I can see the problem, then add a keyframe at this point on the timeline for that object and set about adjusting the Pan, Zoom, etc. values. Once I seem to have resolved the alignment problem I then make a note of those values on paper, delete the keypoint that I added and apply those values to whichever of the original keypoints now need them. The other thing to check carefully: are you certain that the dimensions of the triangles are all correct?

regards,

Peter

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Sheila

Excellent show, wish I had the time & patience to learn how to do what you have done. When are we going to see the Saddleworth Band Contest?.

Regards Eric the Diggle Dynamo or

Yachtsman1.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Sheila!

By golly you're getting the "hang" of it pretty well - LOL. It's fun playing with the possibilities, isn't it? Keep at it and you will find other creative ways to use animation. You might think about creating a triangular mask and putting a video on one of the pyramid faces just for fun. Put the video in the mask and treat it just as you would a still image ......

Best regards,

Lin

[SheilaG]

Hi Everyone,

First off, It never ceases to amaze me how quickly someone gets back to you on this forum!!

To try and respond ......

I was a bit alarmed to be asked for the project ........ it's not the 'tidiest', and the more competent amongst you will find a great many places where I've got it wrong or just 'fiddled around' until something fitted! Apologies already! Anyway, for what it's worth, I've uploaded a .zip file containing the project. I've removed the music and replaced the background file so that everything in it is now entirely my own. I've also added an extra keyframe point, on the triangular pyramid section, so that it can be see from the top, as well.

I hope some one might find the project helpful.

If anyone can throw some light on why my triangular base won't stay in place, I'll be very grateful!

Paul .............. how long did it take? It's almost like asking, "How long is a piece of string?" When I've made AVs for my club etc., it's taken me weeks as I play with the soundtrack and narrative until I'm happy that they complement the images to the best of my own abilities.

For this sequence I played around with bits and tried out ideas, some of which worked and some of which were disasters! Then I put together the best 'bits' for today's upload. I have a lot of patience and perseverance when I'm doing something like this ........... I enjoy the challenge although I find anything a bit 'technical' very difficult!!

Peter ........ thanks for the suggestions. Dimensions correct? .......... yes, I've checked and re-checked! I constructed the triangular pyramid, in objects and animations, with two sides in view so that I could get a better idea of what I was doing but the base has me beaten. I've tried every combination in the settings that seems possible. The problem becomes even worse when Rotate Y is given a value of 360 ........... the base seems to have a mind of its own!

Yachtsman ............ the full Saddleworth AV, along with one on the Peak Forest Canal, is on the 'back burner' for the time being. I'm enjoying 'playing' too much at the moment!

Lin ............ as I said, you made life a lot easier for me! Video ............ I've downloaded the beta PtoE but haven't actually had a play, yet, although it's something I'm keen to try. First of all, though, I need to borrow my son's video camera and film something!

Regards,

Sheila G

project zip file for animations

[fh1805]

Sheila,

I think your problems with the base of the triangular pyramid (technically called a tetrahedron) stem from the size and shape of your face images. The geometry of shapes other than those of cuboid shape are not as simple as they might appear to our eyes. Take a look at this page on Wikipedia (and don't get overawed by the formulae): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahedron

The text talks about a "regular tetrahedron". This is one made up of four "regular triangles". A regular triangle is an equilateral triangle. Equilateral triangles have all three sides the same length and all three internal angles are 60 degrees. The table of "specifications" shows that, for such a tetrahedron, each side must make an angle of approx 54.73 degrees with the base edge that it sits against. Your triangle sides make an angle of 73 degrees with the base edge (90 degrees minus the 17 degrees of X rotation you have given them).

It seems to me that you have two ways forward:

- you can keep your three side faces and build a custom base that fits the hole that they leave (that could involve a lot of trial and error)

- you can rebuild your individual faces so that they conform to equilateral triangles, and then be guided by the values given on that wikipedia page for the amounts of rotation to give each side

You might want to take a look at this Wikipedia page about equilateral triangles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equilateral_triangle

You are so very nearly there that I think it is worth your persevering with this project. If you can succeed you will have a good working knowledge of three different shapes that you will be able to re-use in other sequences should you wish to do so.

regards,

Peter

[fh1805]

Further to my last post...

Adobe Photoshop's "Cookie Cutter" tool has a Triangle shape which can be constrained to be equilateral via the Shape Options. (This is true of Photoshop Elements v9. I assume other versions will also have this feature)

regards,

Peter

P.S. No need to thank me for this info. I've learned something new and potentially useful from this research.

[SheilaG]

Hi Peter,

Yes .......... I do need to thank you!

On first reading your post I think I can see where I'm probably going wrong. I shall now work on your suggestions, and read the links you've added. I shan't give up if there is a solution to be found! A dog with a bone has nothing on me!

Regards,

Sheila G

[Lin Evans]

Hi Again,

You're doing fine and with more experimentation will find lots of neat things to do.....

Here's a quick and very "dirty" example of a video running in the pyramid. Notice that as the pyramid rotates, the video has disappeared and been replaced with another "kitty" triangle. This was done simply by having "two" options on that pyramid face. #1 was the video running inside a triangular "mask". Then as that face goes out of sight, it is keyframed to zero opacity and the second option is keyframed from zero opacity to 100% opacity while it is still invisible because of its position.

By this "video" method, you "could" have one of your slideshows running on a face or even on each face of your pyramid, etc. There is no "resource hit" for running the same video on all sides so you could simply replace the pyramid faces with the video running inside the mask and have your video running concurrently on all faces of the pyramid. This same "principle" could be used to create a rotating object (pyramid, cube, whatever) which changes images each time a side faces the audience. Simply using multiple "options" on each face and keyframing them to be visible or invisible would allow some multiple variations and keep the animation interesting.

I didn't take a great deal of care in creating the mask so it's not "perfect" and just picked one of my videos as a quick example. I made it very small (400x300) to keep the size down but it's sufficient to demonstrate the possibility. If you watch, just let it run long enough to see the video and for that side to come up again - it ends abruptly at 3 minutes because I didn't try to "polish" it - just a quickie.....

http://www.learntoma...yramidvideo.zip (about 18 meg)

Best regards,

Lin

[SheilaG]

Hi Lin,

Thank you, yet again! Now my head is properly spinning!

I've really got a lot of homework and head-scratching for the next few hours (days!!)

Regards,

Sheila G

[fh1805]

Sheila,

There's a Bank Holiday coming at the end of the month; perhaps you need to pray for wet weather! Then you will have the perfect excuse to stay indoors and "play" with your cube and pyramids.

regards,

Peter

[ContaxMan]

Thanks Sheila for sharing the project - I'll try to get my head round the way it all works!

Thanks Lin - a very nice demo - perhaps you might choose to finish it off?

[Lin Evans]

It was just a five minute quickie - If I get time, maybe I'll make a real one with a more accurate mask, etc...

Best regards,

Lin

Thanks Sheila for sharing the project - I'll try to get my head round the way it all works!

Thanks Lin - a very nice demo - perhaps you might choose to finish it off?

[SheilaG]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks to the invaluable input on this forum I've now managed to pin the base of my triangular pyramid (tetrahedron) firmly in place. Now I can go to bed and sleep!!

I went back to look at it again and realised that part of the problem lay in the rotation point of the side triangles. I pulled the point to the base of each triangle and that did the trick.

I still can't get my head round the maths of it and worked out the angles just by trial and error!

I've uploaded the project for you to look at.

Regards,

Sheila

tetrahedron

[Lin Evans]

Nice Sheila!

You've discovered that there's more than one way to "skin a cat" - LOL

Best regards,

Lin

Hi Everyone,

Thanks to the invaluable input on this forum I've now managed to pin the base of my triangular pyramid (tetrahedron) firmly in place. Now I can go to bed and sleep!!

I went back to look at it again and realised that part of the problem lay in the rotation point of the side triangles. I pulled the point to the base of each triangle and that did the trick.

I still can't get my head round the maths of it and worked out the angles just by trial and error!

I've uploaded the project for you to look at.

Regards,

Sheila

tetrahedron

[MikeL117]

Well done Sheila

You can do the next Awards show at OPS

I knew you would beat it into submission once you got your teeth into it but this abundance of patience, where do you keep it locked away?

Thanks for sharing and keeping it simple enough for me to understand. Thanks also to Lin, Peter and all the others, too numerous to mention, on the forum for all the help with getting to grips with this amazing piece of software Igor and his team have produced.

BTW did Igor manage to publish the API for PTE. The O&A with 3D would really benefit from some way to generate the numbers to plug in.

I look forward to seeing your next 'play'.

MikeL

[SheilaG]

Hi Mike,

Thank you for those kind words!!

No .......... you keep Awards Evening! you know you do it better than I could!

You make in 5 minutes what it takes me 5 hours to do!!

Sheila