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EnigmA AMIGA RUN 29 (1998)(G.R. Edizioni)(IT)[!][issue 1998-07 & 08].iso
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moving_letters
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1998-02-19
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Date: Thu, 2 Oct 1997 05:21:16 -0500
From: "Stephen G." <sgiff@AIRMAIL.NET>
Subject: Re: [IML] Quest: Just some simple moving letters.. +FADE effect
At 04:31 PM 10/1/97 -0500, you wrote:
>>Right now splines do not morph but if you could have objects flowing down a
>>path and then have the path twisting and turning you could create some real
>>nice effects that would be virtually impossible without this feature.
>
>I thought about this for a minute and I have a question for you S.G. Now,
>an object can only be at one infinetly small point of the path at any given
>frame, so instead of having the path morphing as the object is traveling,
>why not just design the path at the beginning to the shape that it would be
>as the object travels it? When just watching the rendered anim, whether
>you were morphing paths, or had one single path, the object could move
>exactly the same way.
>
Do you remember the movie Ghostbusters. They used plasma guns that
effectively were long tentacles that moved as the electrical particles
traveld down the path. Unless you have a path that can morph, you can not
achieve this effect. That is to say having multiple objects traveling down
a path as in the case of the original idea that was brought up about having
letters follow a path. The easiest way to explain this is to say that a
static path or spline will always look static if you are having multiple
objects follow it. If the path can morph while the objects are moving then
it creates a completely different effect. Another use of this would be to
have bubbles traveling up from the ocean floor. You wouldn't want a series
of bubbles all traveling the same exact path so you could save time if the
path morphed.
I also have desired the ability to make an object conform to path without
it having to travel it's length as well. This could be good for seaweed
or tentacles or lot's of different effects.
Going back to the bubble issue, I once made a request for an new Stage
effect that would cause an object to float like a balloon in a random
direction but with some control.
----------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 1997 10:36:42 -0400
From: Phil Cook <Philcook@AOL.COM>
You can get objects to conform to paths in the Stage Editor without having
them travel the path's length. I've used this quite effectively on several
spentine-like-creatures. Instead of boning a Dragon-like model, I conformed
it to a path in the stage editor and morphed the path. The Dragon model bent
very smoothly conforming to the gracefull curves of the spline. It was fast
and very serpentine smooth. You can add other elements of motion--like
expanding bellies--by morphing a deform tool that envelops selective parts of
the model.
----------------------------------
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 1997 08:32:20 -0400
From: Phil Cook <Philcook@AOL.COM>
Stephen,
What I do is create the first Path.iob in the Stage Editor and save it. Then
I set my object to conform to to that path on frame by frame basic instead of
one bar across the whole time line. That way the object doesn't travel the
path, it only conforms to it. Copying and pasting those little bars in the
Action Editor saves a lot of time.
I then go to the frame where I want the path to morph. I edit the path to
the shape I want it and save it under the name of Path2.iob. Then you pop
back into the Action Editor and insert at the appropriate frame Path2.iob in
the same time line as the original Path1.iob. They're separate objects, but
they'll morph because they have the same number of control points. When you
return to the Stage you'll see that your object has conformed to the morph of
Path1.iob and Path2.iob. You basically work your way through the entire
animation this way: building new paths; saving them under different names;
and then inserting them in Path Timeline in the Action Editor.
Later, you can scroll to the key frame of each path and tweak it further.
Save the path after editing. Refresh the stage frame and your object
conforms to the new settings. For somethings it's a lot faster than boning
models.
----------------------------------