Problem with a Pan

[fh1805]

I'm struggling to achieve the effect that I would like with a pan. I want the object being panned (a PNG file) to accelerate toward the end of the motion. I have programmed the keyframes as follows:

A - Start position (Pan -65,-30; Zoom 60%)

B - End position (Pan 90,0; Zoom 9%)

I then inserted keyframe C approximately 1500ms before keyframe B and let it take the pan and zoom values that appled at this point on the timeline.

At this stage all three keyframes are coded as Linear mode. I want the acceleration to occur only between keyframes C and B. So I changed keyframe B to be Accelerate mode. But this caused all the keyframes to assume Accelerate mode.

How do I get the Accelerate mode to apply only to the motion between keyframe C and keyfame B? Can it be done? Or is this a "New Requirement" request?

Hope somebody out there can help me!

regards

Peter

[stardealer]

Hi Peter,

to apply different modes of movements between keypoints you should follow the tutorial of Lin in the PTE made easy section named "Basic Non-Linear". But keeping in mind that you are a very experienced user, I assume you already knew that.

The problem in your specific goal is that acceleration everytime starts with zero movement. So the best that could be achieved with non-linear implementation is: Between A and C it is linear then stops and accelerates to B.

I don't know a way to avoid that and it can be distracting.

But looking at your description you can achieve the imagination of speeding up by just inserting keyframe C approximately 3000 ms before keyframe B and then without changing pan and zoom value slide it 1500ms to the right. Combine this with "Correct perspective for zoom" ticked or unticked to your liking.

It is not high quality, but maybe suits your needs.

Regards, Frank

[davegee]

Peter,

My initial reaction was that this COULD be possible by having two images - the real one and another SHADOWING the real one in zero opacity.

The REAL image would be in LINEAR or whatever and the SHADOW would be in ACCELERATE.

At the point C where you want the change over you could drag the end keypoint to 1 unit away and change the REAL image from 100% opacity to 0% and, in a similar way the SHADOW image from 0% to 100%.

The FLAW is that, because of the different modes the real and shadow images are in two different places at the instant that you want the change to take place.

If you can make their paths coincide with their pan and zoom settings as you want them it would work. To do this you would need to bring the start point (keyframe) of the SHADOW closer to the point at which it is going to take over.

I'm close, but not exactly there at the moment.

It might be a case of "bring out the spreadsheet"?

DaveG

PLEASE Igor - is a speed option like this possible?

[xahu34]

Peter,

Let the object to be moved be a child of a transparent frame and program the movement (pan) as a superposition of two movements, a linear one (frame), and an accelerated one (object). Both movements should stop at the same point of time. The linear movement should be kept all the time, while the accelerated one should start at an intermediate point of time. This seems to be a model which leads to a speed which stays linear (constant) for some time and which later shows acceleration.

Best regards,

Xaver

[davegee]

Hi Xaver,

Have you tried that?

DaveG

[davegee]

Hi Peter,

Within the present setup in 5.6 you can only have two speed options between two points - slow start - level off - slow finish; or variations on that theme.

The diagram shows what I think would work if a way could be found to define the point at which two different versions of the same image would converge if one one was Linear motion and the other Accelerated.

Earlier I suggested moving the START point of the Accelerated version. On rethinking you might have to move the END point of the Linear version AND the START point of the Accelerated version to get the point of convergence where you want it.

Good luck!!

DaveG

[xahu34]

... Have you tried that ...

Hi Dave,

Not before you have asked. But it works!

Regards,

Xaver

[stardealer]

Peter,

Let the object to be moved be a child of a transparent frame and program the movement (pan) as a superposition of two movements, a linear one (frame), and an accelerated one (object). Both movements should stop at the same point of time. The linear movement should be kept all the time, while the accelerated one should start at an intermediate point of time. This seems to be a model which leads to a speed which stays linear (constant) for some time and which later shows acceleration.

Best regards,

Xaver

Tried it and it works as intended. You need some attempts with preview when moving the image out of the frame to speed motion but keep the direction intact (grid is helpful in this situation).

Much better than my suggestion and not too complicated

Frank

[davegee]

Hi Xaver,

Well done!!

EDITED:

If the child stays in the same place relative to the parent frame then no acceleration is seen. But if the frame is moved out of black area and the child brought back in to its end position and an intermediate keyframe added, by making the first part of the child's speed option linear and the second part accelerated a diiference in speed can be seen.

DaveG

[fh1805]

Hi Guys!

Thanks for all the suggestions and help. I should have thought of using Frames myself. That was how I solved some of the complex animation problems in my sequence "Kaleidoscope". Although adding the extra object (the Frame) feels like adding more complexity, it actually makes the programming easier by keeping the two different motions separate.

I really must try and remember this little "trick" of using Frames.

Once again, thanks fellas.

regards,

Peter

[davegee]

One caveat with regard to the Frames - Parent/Child approach to this problem:

You cannot alter any of the pan/zoom parameters in the intermediate position of the PNG file Wierd things start to happen.

Brian made it clear that he did not want to do this anyway but, ever the tinkerer, I decided to try it.

I suspect that the position of the intermediate keyframe is also fixed and that moving it would also cause unexpected results ( I haven't tried it though).

DaveG

[xahu34]

Hi all,

Here is an easy example!

Regards,

Xaver

ForPeterAndDave.zip

[davegee]

Thanks Xaver - that's how I did it - eventually.

And I also realised that using an intermediate keyframe in the frame's path allows for a change in zoom settings.

DaveG

[fh1805]

Dave,

You've just gone along the learning curve that I went along when building "Kaleidoscope" - but then I forgot everything I had learned until Xaver reminded me in one of his posts above.

The use of Frames (sometimes as nested Frames) is a great technique for controlling two or more overlapping animations on the same object. Now, if only Igor would give us the option of declaring Opacity as an inheritable setting for a child object, I'd be totally happy! (But that's another story and another subject)

regards,

Peter

[davegee]

Nice demo Xaver!

The possibilities are endless.

As Peter found out, it is REMEMBERING to use it is the problem!

DaveG

[xahu34]

Hi all,

Here is a new version without the restriction to horizontal pans. The pan can be turned into any direction. Frames show color in order to demonstrate the effects.

Regards,

Xaver

ForPeterAndDavePart2.zip

PS: The version published a few minutes ago (now deleted) contained an error!