Some of the special effects you can create include:
1) Animation ( scaling, translation, rotation ) of objects, cameras, and lights
2) 3D Morphing ( dynamically changing the shape of freeform objects )
3) Shader animation ( color, transparency, highlights, etc. )
4) Animate other attributes of Designer® ( lighting effects, camera zoom, etc. )
2.0 How to use
1) Create and save any scene you want to animate using Designer. This first scene will be one end point (keyframe) for the animation.
2) Change the scene to reflect what you want to animate. For example, to have an object move from left to right in your animation, position the object on the left side in the first keyframe and on the right side in the second keyframe. Save the second scene under a different name than the first scene. This file is the other end point (keyframe) of your animation (note: make sure you read the section on one to one mapping).
3) Close the scenes or Quit Designer and double click Animorpher. Note: You can run Designer and Animorpher at the same time if you have enough memory. Leaving Designer open saves time since it takes a while to start up and quit.
Select the file containing the start point of your animation using the Open Keyframe ... command in the File menu. Select the file containing the endpoint of your animation using the Open Keyframe... command again. The window will display the differences in the two keyframes. Select the Save Animation... command from the File menu. You will be prompted with a standard file dialog where you type in the base name for the animation files. Animorpher will append a frame number on the end of this name for each animation frame. Animorpher will then ask you to enter the number of animation frames. The animation files are then written to your disk.
4) Quit Animorpher. Select the Batch Queue option in Designer. Add the animation files that Animorpher created to the batch queue and render them. You can use the settings... button in the batch queue to change the rendered frame size. It is usually a good idea to render the first try at something small like 320 X 240 pixels. As the files are being rendered you will be able to see the results of your animation.
If you are using Movie Converter make sure you set the batch file naming parameters in Designer preferences to add a prefix not a suffix (available starting with version 3.0.4). This will preserve the filename ending in sequential numbers that Movie Converter requires.
3.0 One to one mapping of keyframes
A brief understanding of how Animorpher works is necessary in order to understand why the keyframes must have a one to one mapping. Animorpher doesn't "understand" all of the actual objects in the Designer input file. A few of the structures are handled in a special way (like rotations) but most structures are just interpolated from one keyframe to the next. To understand all of the structures considering the complexities of Designer would be an awesome task. Another bonus of simple interpolation is that Designer with its extensible architecture may add new structures in the future. This current version of Animorpher will interpolate them as long as they maintain a one to one mapping.
Here is a basic list of rules to get you started:
Animation do's:
- Move an object or group
- Rotate an object or group
- Change the size of an object or group
Animation don'ts:
- Change order of objects in hierarchy window
- Change mirror ( objects will appear as set by keyframe 1)
- Change grouping of objects ( use any grouping you want just don't change it )
- Add or delete objects ( if you want an object to appear in your scene, you could 1) vary its transparency from 100% to 0%, 2) change it's size from 0 to normal, or 3) move it into camera view )
3D Morphing do's:
- Drag a point in the cross section, path, or envelope of a freeform object to change shape
- Change a bezier handle
- Rotate a cross section up to 90 degrees ( more than 90 and Designer automatically adds a cross section which violates the mapping )
- Change the text bevel size, letter spacing, word spacing, or kerning
3D Morphing don'ts:
- Add or delete points ( see tricks on how to avoid this problem )
- Add or delete cross sections
- Change the type of object ( like from sphere to cube )
- Change the text font or point size
Shader animation do's:
- Change any value ( color, highlight, shininess, reflection, transparency, refraction )
Shader animation don'ts:
- Change texture maps ( see tricks )
- Add or delete attributes
- Change attribute types ( like color value to color texture map )
Remember that you can start with any Designer file as the first keyframe. Then Saveas to create the second keyframe. Edit the second keyframe to make your changes. Of course, when you use Animorpher to create the animation frames you can use either file as the first keyframe.
If you have changed something that affects the mapping of the two keyframes you will get the error "The number of lines in the files are different" when Animorpher reads in the second keyframe.
I could have limited the operation of the program to only allow the do's listed in animation and this would have greatly simplified the choices. I chose to allow people to experiment with more of the fantastic effects of Designer. This exposes the downside of allowing the user to change things that don't work as expected. At first, work with simple scenes and check to make sure that each step in your editing still works. Try saving the file you are working on under a new name after each unfamiliar editing step. Then you can go back to earlier steps if you have unknowingly created a problem along the way. This is also a good way to discover exactly what editing step created the problem.
Hints & Tricks.
- When doing 3D morphing of a simple form to a complex form, create the complex form first. Then drag the vertices of the complex form to create the simple shape. Don't delete or add any vertices. This works great for turning a wine glass into a "lump of clay". This also works for turning a spiral object like a spring into a straight pipe.
- To have the appearance of animating texture maps you can apply two texture maps to the object. Create a shader that uses the mixer to blend from one texture map to the other. To animate the textures vary the mixer value in the two keyframes.
- Make totally different objects (like a sphere and a cube) appear to change shape by starting with one small and one large overlapping at the same point in space. The smaller object is hidden inside the larger one. Then increase the size of the smaller object and decrease the size of the larger object until their sizes are reversed.
- Try editing slider values for marble and wood procedural shaders for some interesting effects. The wood grain grows and twists!
4.0 Checkboxes and special items
Don't change a checkbox or a popup selection (like wood grain direction). These operations only make sense to Designer when they are on, off, or at a particular state. Most of these are caught by Animorpher and forced back to the keyframe 1 state. If they aren't caught, Animorpher will interpolate between the integers and generate a fixed point number that gets imported back into Designer. When designer reads a number type different than expected it will report a file error and refuse to read the file. Another limitation exists for a few slider values that can only be integers:
- Number of times to tile a texture
- Number of checkers
These two are trapped so they are left in the keyframe1 state.
Version 1.0 does not allow animation of ambient light, background, or atmosphere. Animation of these parameters may be added to Animorpher at a later date. In version 1.0 these values will be left in the keyframe 1 state.
5.0 Animation Log
The low level data from the Designer keyframes is displayed in the Animation window. In most cases this data is absolutely useless and can be ignored. If you are curious you can see each line that is different in the two keyframes (up to the 32K text edit limit). I thought it might be useful to help debug problems with having the original keyframes. You can save the animation log as a teachtext document. You can also print it.
6.0 Out of memory
If you open large Designer documents ( usually ones that contain huge texture maps) you may run out of memory. Use the "Get Info" command in the finder to increase the memory allocation for Animorpher. The approximate amount of memory required is: keyfile 1 size * 1.1 + keyfile 2 size * 1.1 + 200K + 100 bytes per structure that is different.
7.0 Legal
This program is offered as shareware for $25. Try it and if you use it more than 15 days you are obligated to send me the shareware fee. When I receive your check I will send you a registration password that will make the registration dialog disappear. You will also receive a floppy disk of the latest version and more fun examples. You are free to pass an unregistered copy on to anyone as long as you include the read me files and examples with the program. A registration form is included for your convienience. Please make the check payable to Gigagraphica and send to:
Gigagraphica
958 Vetch Circle
Lafayette, CO 80026
Please refer all questions and correspondence to Gigagraphica at the address above. You may also send them to the screen name Gigagraph on AOL ( gigagraph@aol.com if you are not on AOL ) or post them in the Animorpher folder on the Raydream bulletin board on AOL. PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANY QUESTIONS TO RAYDREAM TECHNICAL SUPPORT !
Ray Dream Designer® is a registered trademark of Ray Dream, Inc.
Using this software indicates your acceptance of the following terms and conditions. If you don't agree don't use the software.
This program is provided as is without warranty of any kind, either express or implied. You assume the entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program.
In no event will I be liable for any damages resulting from any defect in the software or its documentation, even if I have been advised of the possibility of such damages.
Please use only copies of your files with Animorpher. It shouldn't modify the keyframes anyway but lets be safe.
7.0 Have Fun !
You can create some fantastic animations with Designer and Animorpher that just aren't possible with any other existing Mac programs ( maybe some exist but I don't know of any ). Enjoy ! ! !
