Short: Mobius strip of Cogs (Imagine 2.9)
Type: gfx/anim
Uploader: jay@tyrell.demon.co.uk (Jason Jack)
Author: jay@tyrell.demon.co.uk (Jason Jack)

Try to imagine a Mobius strip made from 9 intermeshed cogs.  Now make the
cogs turn each other, make them roll along the strip, and make the flex of
the strip go around the other way.  

Done in Imagine 2.9 mainly by using the Conform (Object|Group) to Path 
alignment option in the action editor, plus a morphing double looping path, 
and a morphing group of cogs.    

The path with the twist has to have two loops otherwise the front (or back) 
of the group 'falls off' the path.  Make it any size and then scale it in 
the Stage until the head cog meets the tail cog.  I used an open path 
because I wasn't sure what end behavior a closed path would have.

The group of cogs was morphed by rotating all the odd cogs one way and all
the even cogs the other way.  I used 0, 120, and 240 degrees as I don't
trust 180 degrees.  Likewise for the path.

Morphing cogs and path: I used States for one and traditional actor morphs
for the other.  No reason - they are interchangeable in this case.
                                   
Thanks to: the IML, the metals texture, and Mr. Mobius.

Format is 150 frames, HAM, 320x256 - should look okay on NTSC as there is
plenty of border.  Designed on the trusty A2000 and rendered in about 2
hours on the DX66.  Uncompressed size 2045628 bytes.  Global brush map is 
a closeup of a piece of pyrite.


Enjoy,
Jay


mobicogs.ham may be freely distributed so long as this readme stays with it.  

mobicogs.ham is Copyright (C) 1994 Jason Jack.  All rights reserved.
May not be used commercially without the written consent of the author.