Synth MooVier is a freeware application capable of producing 3-D QuickTime™ animation.
The first step you should accomplish is to model the actors in the scene, by assembling solid primitives, and setting their attributes, like position, dimension, color, material properties.
Some special primitives allow you to control the scene illumination, by positioning multiple lights, and setting their color or type (point, directional and spot lights are provided).
Another special primitive is the View Camera; during your animation, you can pan, zoom, and move it with maximum flexibility.
After you built the actors, you should define their parts, that is, their behaviors along time: in short, you can change an actors'attribute in a specified time interval. For example, you can turn a red sphere into green, starting at 0.5 seconds and ending at 2.0 seconds: the color will be smoothly changed, with an interpolation process. All the attributes, included geometric values, material properties and rendering type, can be managed in the same way.
Some other parameters let you choose the preferred movie quality (in frame per second, from 1 to 25) and the frame dimensions in pixels.
As a side capability, Synth MooVier lets you export your 3-D scene in VRML format (1.0 compliant), for browsing it with a VR browser of your choice; the resulting file corresponds to a fixed (user-selected) instant in your animation.
For a quick look at movie quality, you can check the movies in the Examples folder (see Quick Start).
What's new in 2.1.1
Over 2.01 version:
• new, outstanding examples;
• optional use of Pict file as background;
• export of single frame to Pict file (see Goto window);
• new solid primitive (rotation object).
Hardware/Software requirements
Macintosh model with 68020 processor or better (FPU not required);
8-bit/256 colors video card (16-bit/thousands recommended);
768 kb of free RAM (1Mb recommended);
MacOS 7.x or better;
QuickTime 1.5 or better.
The application has been extensively tested on an LC 4/40 with 512Kb VRam and no FPU, and it's quite usable on that machine.
Quick Start (Examples folder)
This chapter explains how to compile the examples in the Examples folder to obtain the corresponding movies. After that, a brief description of each example is given.
To compile movies from the Synth MooVier docs included in the "Examples" folder, execute the following steps:
1) launch Synth MooVier;
2) open the File menu and select Open...: look for the desired file;
3) open the Movie menu and select Setup...: choose quality and frame dimensions;
4) re-open the Movie menu and select Make...: rename the destination document and wait for Synth MooVier to finish (a progress window shows every frame as it's created);
5) switch to the Finder;
6) launch a viewer application and see the results (double-clicking the movies launches Apple Movie Player, if installed).
If you have a slow machine (like my LC...), you can make a preview movie by selecting Make preview... in step 4).
Remember that Synth MooVier doesn't release your Mac attention while it's "MooVing". So, be patient…
Here is a brief description of the documents:
Hello World
Miscellanea of tranformations capabilities of Synth MooVier (geometry, color, rendering of various solids are changed).
Molecula
Example of lighting capabilities.
Robot
A possible use for multiple coordinate systems.
Giostra
A complete example of cyclic transformations.
Pinocchio
The famous Collodi's character.
Clown
View the resulting movie in a loop.
Running Woman
A good example of hierarchical coordinate system to achieve smooth movement (courtesy of Peter Doern).
Teapot
State of the art in Synth MooVier image quality (5 minutes for compilation on a 7200/90).
Candlestick
Tricks for surprising light effects (view movie in Loop mode).
Tutorial
In this section, we present a step-by-step lesson to produce an example movie. It would be better to open Synth MooVier and directly execute the steps below (or you could print this chapter).
1. Open Synth MooVier
Select the Synth MooVier icon in the Finder window and choose File - Open or double-click the icon.
You'll be presented with a little splash window: click the OK button and three windows should open. Select the window on the right (the tree-window): in this window, there is a representation of the hierarchical relationship between the actors in the scene. In an newly created document, only default actors are present; camera is the view camera through which the scene will be seen; background is the colored background of the scene; rooT is the world coordinate system (explained below).
2. Add a new actor
In the Actor menu, select the item Parallelepiped from the submenu New>; this will be the floor of our scene. Put a name of your choice (say ‘floor’) in the top input field (hereafter we refer at it as the label field): this is the name by which you'll refer to your new actor.
The four triplets of input fields below the label represent the cartesian coordinate (XYZ) of four points that uniquely define the geometric attributes of parallepiped (for more info, see Actors reference); fill in the fields with these values:
origin -5 -5 -.1
side 1 10 0 -.1
side 2 0 10 -.1
side 3 0 0 -.2
and click the OK button. The tree window is updated with the insertion of the new actor, appended below rooT.
3. Verify the geometry of the scene
Select the central window (stageC) and click the Apply button. The Stage window on the left will be updated, showing the floor in wireframe view. Adjust the stage camera by setting the focal field at 0.025 and clicking Apply; the field of view is slightly widened. All changes in the stage controls (camera, point to, focal, T1 and T2) must be explicitly activated by clicking on the Apply button.
4. Modify actor's attributes
Select floor in the tree window (a thin rectangular outline show the currently selected actor). Choose from Actor menu the Modify>Attributes item; a dialog opens, from which you can set the initial settings for color, rendering and material attributes. Fill in the Red, Green and Blue fields each with a value of 155 (an RGB triplet of 155-155-155 corresponds to a light gray), and click OK.
Select camera (in the tree window) and choose Modify from the Actor menu: fill in the position fields with 10 10 5, to align the camera actor with what you see in the stage window.
5. Preview the final result
From the stage window, you can verify only the geometry of the scene. To have a true preview of what your movie will look like, choose from the Window menu the Goto… item. Set off the quick toggle button and click the Go button: the floor appear.
6. Add other actors
Select the tree window, choose New>Sphere from Actor menu, name it ‘Sphere’ and set the ray to .9 and subdiv. to 5. Click OK. Select the Sphere in the tree window, and choose Modify>Attributes from the Actor menu. In the Attributes dialog, set the color to 255 (Red) 55 (Green) 55 (Blue); from the Render pop-up, select the Wireframe rendering: click OK.
Clicking Apply in the stageC window will confirm the insertion of Sphere in the scene.
Clicking Go in the Goto window will show a faithful preview of the movie.
Now, let's rapidly add a Pyramid (Actor-New>Pyramid) with base 3 .5 0, top 3 .5 1.5, ray .8, 8 sides, plane XY; change its color attributes (Actor-Modify>Attributes) to 55 155 255.
7. Add a user defined coordinate system
Now, we want to add a cube to the scene, but we need to insert it in a separate coordinate system (we'll see why in the section 13). In order to do that, select New>Coord;System from the Actor menu, set the origin to 0 3.5 0, and confirm with OK. Note that in the Stage window (after you clicked Apply), the new coordinate system is shown as three perpendicular dotted lines. Select the new system in the tree window (click on its icon, and it will framed with a thin black square); add a parallelepiped, changing only its origin in -.5 -.5 0: name it cube; set its color to 55 255 55. The cube should be appended in the tree window under the new coordinate system. Check the stage window (Apply). Check the Goto window (Go). Given we haven't defined some light yet, Synth MooVier gently puts a standard light in the point of view (camera origin).
8. Improve the illumination
Select rooT in the tree window, and add a light (confirm the default values). Refresh the Goto window and see the difference. The light is shown in the Stage window too, but you should set the focal to 0.02 and the origin to -10 -10 5. The circle represents the light source, and the line joins the source with the point to what the light aims.
9. Animate the pyramid geometry
Select the Pyramid in the tree window. Choose from the menu Actor the item Show Parts; the Part window opens. Select Actor-Add Part>Geometry: in the opened dialog, you must set the desired geometric transformation for the actor. Set the top fields to 4 .5 1; in this way, you instruct the application to move the top vertex of the pyramid to the new location, starting at instant 0 (the start field) and in an interval of 1 second (the duration field); click OK. You should see the new part in the Part window.
In the Stage window, you could verify the behaviour of the actor in two different instants: set the T1 field to 0 and the T2 field to 1: click the Apply button; you can see that the actors whose geometry doesn't change from T1 to T2 are drawn in yellow, while the pyramid is shown in the two position, corresponding to T1 (orange) and T2 (green).
Now select the Goto window: note that the scrollbar at the bottom is now enabled, because adding the part causes the movie to span a range between 0 and 1, and the scrollbar lets you select the particular instant to preview; the label time shows the currently selected instant. Move the scroll thumb to the end (time: 0:1.00) and click the Go button: you see that the pyramid is now skewed, with a shift that corresponds to the part you defined.
To restore the pyramid position, choose Actor-Add Part>Geometry, and fill only the start field with the value 1; in this way, you're stating that the pyramid will resume its original position in one second, starting at instant 1.
10. Animate the cube color
Select the Cube in the tree window. Select Actor-Add Part>Color: in the opened dialog, you must set the desired color transformation for the actor. Change the Red field to 255 and the duration to 2; this means that your cube will turn to yellow in two seconds, starting at instant 0. Color parts could be verified only in the Goto window: check it.
11. Animate the sphere rendering
Select the Sphere in the tree window. Select Actor-Add Part>Render: in the opened dialog, choose Flat from the pop-up menu and set start to 1; this means the sphere will change its rendering type to flat at instant 1 (for render parts, duration is not meaningful). Again, you could check in the Goto window the difference before and after instant 1 (actually, the render is changed only after 1).
Add another render part with start 2 and rendering Phong.
12. Animate the sphere material
Select the Sphere and choose Actor-Add Part>Material. From the pop-up menu, select Shiny: this will change automatically the value in the fields below. Set start time to 2. This part will gradually change the material of the sphere from Plastic to Shiny, making the specular reflection sharper.
13. Animate the cube coordinate system
Now we'll see why the cube was put in its own coordinate system: we want it to rotate about its Z axis. Select coordSys in the tree window, and choose Actor-Add Part. Set the rotate Z to 180, and the start to 3. In the Stage or in the Goto window, check the part.
14. Animate the light
To simulate a gentle fading of the light, select it in the tree window, choose Actor-Add Part>Geometry and set the intensity to 25; set start to 3.
15. Make a draft movie
In order to control the general setting of your movie, you could create a draft movie, that is, a movie in which all actors are rendered in wireframe. Select the Movie menu, and the make Preview… item; the Progress window opens, showing the frame as they are produced. Now you could see the produced movie with a player of your choice.
16. Setup the movie
As you see, the frame dimensions are quite small (160x120). To control the general parameters of the movie, you should select the Setup… item from the Movie menu. In the setup dialog, you could change the frame dimensions, the quality in frame per second, and the creator file type of the movie (the default type makes your movie playable from Apple MoviePlayer with a double-click from the Finder).
When you save the Synth MooVier document, setup informations are saved, too.
17. Make the final movie
Well, now it's time to produce the final movie. Select the Make… command from Movie menu, wait a bit (depending from desired dimensions and quality),and voilà, the movie is done! (Note: if your monitor is set to 8 bit depth - 256 colors, the image will be dithered; nonetheless, the resulting movie will be 16-bit depth, and it will show in its full glory on a properly set monitor).
Appendix. Produce a VRML version of your scene
If you want to produce a file browsable with a VR browser, you should open the Goto window, select the instant of interest (with the scrollbar), and then click the VRML button. A VRML 1.0 Ascii file is produced.
The WebAnchors example
In this section you'll learn how to use Synth MooVier in order to create VRML documents linked to Web content. To do this, you must have a VRML-capable browser (for example, Whurlwind from Apple plus Netscape Navigator 2.0, or Navigator 3.0 with Live3D plug-in: for more info, check the VRML repository at SDSC - http://www.sdsc.edu/vrml, in the "Browsers and Viewers" section).
Open the WebAnchors document (located in the "Examples" folder), select refSys0, and double-click on it: in the dialog, you'll see the VRML check box set, and the field below filled with a strange formula (technically speaking, this string is the content of the WWWAnchors object correspondent to the reference system). This text is a URL which can refer to a document everywhere in the WWW.
The current string should be
"file:///yourPath/User%20Manual.html#sphere"
To follow the example, you must substitute "yourPath" with the path corresponding to your installation of Synth MooVier documentation. Suppose your "Docs" folder is inside the "Synth MooVier 2.11", which is on the "Macintosh HD" disk: then, you must substitute "yourPath" with
Don't worry about "%20"; it's the URL way to say 'blank'; Synth MooVier automatically translate every blank character in the string as "%20". The resulting string is the UNIX-style translation of the previous info. Now, repeat the substitution of "yourPath" in all the refSys of the document.
Open the Goto window and clic on the VRML... button; drop the .wrl file produced on WhurlWind, or open directly from Netscape if you have Live3D: in WhurlWind, if you click on an object in the scene, Netscape will load the corresponding section of the referred document (the User Manual, in this case, but you can apply this technique to every Web document. Simply insert the correct URL in the text field for the reference system, and you're done).
Geometry of the Scene
In order to produce a movie, you must assemble your actors (picking the appropriate solid primitives, and setting theirs attributes), and position them on the scene.
All points are defined in terms of 3-D cartesian coordinate, with the possibility of creating user coordinate sub-system; a good technique is to group related objects in the same system, so you'll be able to move them synchronously by modifying the coordinate system only. Background objects can be put in the default system (rooT, which you cannot modify).
You can insert any number of child coordinate system in any system, obtaining a tree-shaped structure (with the coord. system as nodes and the solids as leaves); the transformations of every system are relative to those of its father, and Synth MooVier cumulates them as it traverse the resulting solids hierarchy.
An actor of type light is treated as a normal actor; to maintain its position fixed with respect to the scene you should put it in rooT reference system. If you want it to ‘stick’ to a particular actor, you can put both in the same user sub-system and move them together by moving only the reference system.
In order to achieve a good quality in your movies, you must careful choose an appropriate view of the scene: this is accomplished by setting parameters for the view camera. You can control all camera setting over time defining appropriate transformation of them (like changing the point of view, the focus, rotating the camera, or zooming in/out); for every transformation, you must define a part, for example “set focal length from actual value to .050 (50 mm) in 2 seconds starting at instant 3.5”. Note that camera coordinates always refer to rooT system.
