Movement - Particle Fountain 1.0,

Copyright (c)1993 Jason Linhart and Chris Minshall. All rights reserved.




For use with Lightwave 2.0 Copyright NewTek, Inc.

Motion Algorithms by Jason Linhart
Interface by Chris Minshall
Developed in SAS/C 6.0




****   Input Scene File Tutorial  ****
       -------------------------




This file will take you step-by-step in the creation of an input scene file for
use with Movement - PF version 1.0.


The main reason for the input scene file, is to tell Movement where you want to
launch the objects from.  You do this by loading an object into Lightwave and
placing it with 2 key-frames, one in the launch position, and one in the ground
position.  Some of the different launch types have additional parameters that
can be adjusted.  These are listed in the Movement.doc under launch types and
later in this file.



Example scene file set-up for Point Launch
==========================================


Steps

    1.  From the Scene Menu, Clear any scene file that is currently loaded in
        Lightwave 2.0.


    2.  From the Objects Menu, load the NULLOBJECT from your standard objects
        directory.

The first object that is loaded into this scene file is the one that Movement
is going to use as the launch placement object.  Additional objects can be
loaded after this, but Movement will just pass those into the output file
without modification.  The NULLOBJECT is probably the best choice for the
placement object, as it will not show up in the output file.  If you substitute
another object, that objects axis-of-rotation will become the launch placement
point.


    3.  For this tutorial, also load the Beethoven object from the
        Objects/Misc. directory.


    4.  Enter Layout.


    5.  Create a key-frame at frame 0 for the NULLOBJECT at  X =  0.0   m.
                                                             Y =  0.387 m.
                                                             Z = -0.119 m.

        You can enter this using the numeric input, or with the mouse.


The key-frame at frame 0 tells Movement the location that you want to launch
all of the projectiles from.  This can be placed anywhere in the 3D Lightwave
world. In this example, it is placed in the mouth of Beethoven.





    6.  Create another key-frame at frame 10 for the NULLOBJECT at X =  0.0  m.
                                                                   Y =  0.0  m.
                                                                   Z = -0.119m.


This key-frame at frame 10 tells Movement the location of the ground, or the
bottom of the objects flight path.  The frame number does not matter, it could
have been frame 5 or 105, but the second key-frame is always used for the
ground.


    7.  Place the camera so that you get a good view of the front side of
        Beethoven and create a key-frame for the camera.


    8.  Exit Layout.


    9.  From the scene menu, save the scene file as ram:Test.scene


This is the only information that is necessary for Movement.  Any other
information that you want to put in the input scene will be carried over into
the output scene file that Movement creates.


    10.  Run the Movement - Particle Fountain software.


    11. Enter the following parameters:



        Input Scene : Ram:Test.scene

        Output Scene : Ram: Particle.scene

        New Object:  Particle.lwob

        Number of Objects: 50

        Launch Type : Point

        End behavior : Repeat

                             High      Low 

        Launch Angle :        5        0

        Launch Direction :  280        260

        Launch Velocity :     3        1.5

        Frame Dispersion :   20        1


        Bounce :  45%


    12.  Press the Begin Movement Button.


    13.  The text window should display the conversion process.


    14.  After Movement is finished, Go back to Lightwave and Load the
         Ram:Particle.scene file.


    15.  If all went well, you should now have a animation complete with
         Beethoven losing his lunch.  : )





All of the Example scene files should be easy to understand, except for the
Linear Launch type.  The Input scene file set-up should go exactly like this
tutorial.scene.  There is one major difference,  After you have set the second
key-frame, or the one that represents the ground, go to the XZ view mode and
move the second key frame to a different X and Z location and Re-create the
second key-frame.  The line between the first key-frame and the second
key-frame in the XZ view, is the line that the particles will be launch from.
Check out the Linear.scene in the example scenes directory,  it should help you
to understand.



If you have any questions, comments, or just want to say Hi!, drop me a line.

Jason Linhart
C451687@mizzou1.missouri.edu