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animated arrow
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animated arrow // Archive: Tech Forum
Post by Emmanuel // Aug 28, 2007, 8:46am
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Emmanuel
Total Posts: 439
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I have some difficulties finding a solution to animate an arrow.
The yellow triangle is easy to animate : look ahead and path tools does the job very well.
But how can I make the red part to grow along the path ?
In the past I had to achieve a similar thing and Tom suggested to use the standalone deformation tool. It worked. But the standalone does not deliver a professional look :
1- it creates some jerky effect
2- it is not suited for tortured paths because the deform tool we use to model the standalone deformation object does not work for complex paths with multiple bendings.
I wish I could get an object that would get built vertex by vertex and frame by frame, along the path.
Do you have an idea, someone ? |
Post by spacekdet // Aug 28, 2007, 3:13pm
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spacekdet
Total Posts: 1360
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Can you animate the transparency? |
Post by Jack Edwards // Aug 28, 2007, 4:15pm
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Nice solution, Spacekdet! :) With careful UV mapping that should work well because the arrow head would hide the transition to transparency. It would need Dele's script to animate the alpha map though.
Another physical geometry method would be to create a script object that scripts the object creation to follow the path adding sections per frame.
The manual approach would be to save the object at each stage of the modeling process and then just cycle visibility for each of the objects for each frame.
I think Spacekdet's is the simplest solution.
-Jack. |
Post by Emmanuel // Aug 28, 2007, 9:19pm
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Emmanuel
Total Posts: 439
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Very good idea !
I just tried and it works.
An since the UV of the tail created with the Macro/Sweep tool follows the path, there is no additional UV mapping/edition work.
Thanks for the tip Spacekdet :jumpy: |
Post by Emmanuel // Sep 5, 2007, 12:18am
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Emmanuel
Total Posts: 439
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Problem with transparency is that it is hard to adjust arrow head speed and to match motion with the exact transparency limit.
So, I was considering a plugin developpement for this particular case (and I am still considering it), but I have found an interesting way to create that animated arrow with existing tS tools. See :
1- Create the head and animate it (path and look ahead tools),
2- Save the path to library,
3- Add a particle emitter in the Scene (trueParticle tool),
4- Animate it with the same path,
5- Set particle Motion Speed to zero, Emit stop, Display Until and Life to the duration of the anim, Set Spin to zero,
6- Set particle type to a sphere,
Next run the anim.
You have an animated arrow with body made of a 3D dotted line :jumpy:
Okay, design is different from the one planed, but it does not hurt.
That's all. I just wanted to share the idea with you friends :) |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 5, 2007, 1:12am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Cool idea Emmanuel. :)
Shame the other idea didn't work out.
-Jack. |
Post by Emmanuel // Sep 12, 2007, 12:30am
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Emmanuel
Total Posts: 439
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I am back on this topic because I have found the way to do exactly what I had in mind.
Here, the key tool is Greg Bassett (http://blackknightproductions.com/) 's ObjectEffect plugin I just purchased from him.
The trueSpace pages of his site are down but you can still find a description of this tool here (http://www.alabsoft.com/bkp/oe.htm).
So, here is the trick :
1. create a path array of cylinders with tS's Path Array tool
2. extract the curve and save it as path inthe paths library
3. create the arrow head and attach the path to it, with look ahead turned on (now arrow head is animated)
4. turn the cylinders array into a group object
5. run ObjectEffect's "type" command
this makes the cylinders appearing in the scene one by one, all along the path. Since it is a dense array, you just see a solid arrow body being drawn !
See video attached.
I am glad Greg plugins are still available.
Note that he also develops tools for tS/Modeler on demand. Good news for all Modeler afficionados :) |
Post by SteveBe // Sep 15, 2007, 9:34am
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SteveBe
Total Posts: 282
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Some interesting approaches to this problem. I set up a real time arrow that can
be used in workspace. The slider on the object goes from 0 - invisable,
to .5 fully drawn path. You can keyframe the arrow movement as well.
I'm using 1 texture with alpha map and moving the texture simalar to the
torus knot,
The object itself is a tS NURBS created with a path and profile.
Scene File Attached |
Post by Emmanuel // Sep 15, 2007, 11:59pm
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Emmanuel
Total Posts: 439
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Very interesting work SteveBe. Thank you.
I am always impressed at LE-built-objects.
This one could be very usefull in a truePlace/truePlay project to indicate a visit path in multi-users places :jumpy:
Spacekdet was definately on the way ; my mistake was to take the head and the body as 2 items.
But well, here we are still with a texture/transparency trick. Working with solid objects adds more flexibility I think...
BTW, I have been playing some more with Greg's ObjectEffect plugin and it seems full of possibilities. Its web page only shows text effects, but it is a very usefull tool in many other situations. |
Post by Délé // Sep 16, 2007, 3:06am
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Délé
Total Posts: 1374
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Nice one Steve! :)
This thread caught my attention too. I tried to make a script similar to the plug-in Emmanuel mentioned. I didn't quite get it working good. Just messing around. I did get it to make copies of an object along the path though. The only thing is, it's more accurate if the arrow moves very slow. This path thing is an interesting idea though. I think it might be possible to create real-time trail effects and such.
In the scene below, if you check the "Draw" checkbox and move the arrow, it should copy the cube along the path of movement. If you want to delete the path, select the original cube and press the "Clear" button. If you want to use a different object to copy, select that object and press the "Capture Copy Object" button. Then you can set the scale of the copies to whatever you want with the scrubber.
If you try the scene, I HIGHLY recommend you turn the bridge off. |
Post by remnar // Aug 16, 2008, 7:44pm
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remnar
Total Posts: 105
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I had an idea like this a long time ago. The idea I had was to sweep the face the number of frames of the animation, where the face didn't move so you would only have vertices to animate via a plugin or script. So basically the script would have to take a selected face and create flat extrusions to the number of frames along the path. The script or plugin would have to keep track of which vertices were made. So your vertex data would be like vertices[sweeps,vxs] where for every sweep you had a set of vertices(vxs). Using this 2 dimensional array would make it easy to keep track of which vertices to animate. Sort of like keep track of cross sections. All the animated vertices would start at frame 0 unmoved, then at frame one, they would be moved to the next path frame node. then for the 2nd, you leave behind the first [sweep,vxs] then move the rest. This is hard to explain w/o being visual.
I have included a file that shows how the data works along the path. The square is a face with 3 sweeps at the same location as the face. The vertices are indexed so you get the idea on what vertices you're working with. The dots are animation path frame nodes as would be seen on in the modeler and are labeled a-d. To the right is how the vertices would move along each frame. I hope this is understandable. |
Post by Emmanuel // Aug 16, 2008, 11:52pm
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Emmanuel
Total Posts: 439
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Yes, that make sense.
Basically the user workflow would be :
1. select a face
2. select a path (from the path library)
3. clic a "record button".
4. a "create copy" checkbox would allow for undo.
I can't wait to use that tool ! I see so many possible use for it ! (growing plants, animation of snail antennas, etc...) :jumpy:
But the more I think of it, the more I see a possible issue :
In trueSpace (Modeler I mean), if you
1. create a path with the Path tool, then
2. save it to the Path Library, and
3. make a shape with the Macro/Sweep tool using that path,
then you don't get planes really perspendicular to the path/node... and the Bend button doesn't help.
See screenshot below.
The only way to get a constant thickness is to draw the path with the Add Curve tool, then save it in the Paths library (not the Curves library) !
Weird, but it works :)
But here comes an other problem : since the Curve tools create NURBS curves and trueSpace automatically generate the segments when saving it as a path, then there is no way for the user to guess/adjust the number of segments and thus, the speeds of his "sweeped animation".
What do you think ? Is there a workaround I am missing ? |
Post by Emmanuel // Sep 1, 2008, 1:17am
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Emmanuel
Total Posts: 439
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I think I have found a solution regarding the bend issue.
Since trueSpace only makes keyframes perpendicular to the path direction, the solution was to make every frame a keyframe... And Chikara Kojima created a plugin for that purpose a wile ago.
So here is the workflow, and the plugin :)
Now Remnar the light is green :D |
Post by transient // Sep 3, 2008, 1:09am
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transient
Total Posts: 977
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@emmanuel - I've been trying to do your objecteffects trick, but I must be missing something. Whenever I apply the type tool to the array, it goes through the process okay, but then I get stuck.
Once the type tool is applied, nothing seems to change in the scene and nothing seems to get animated. It still renders as the original block - not as a sequence. What am I doing wrong? Do I have to set the keyframes first? I know it's probably be something obvious, but I can't see it.
This is a great thread btw, very interesting. 6.6 still has many functions that may never get into workspace. |
Post by Emmanuel // Sep 3, 2008, 4:14am
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Emmanuel
Total Posts: 439
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Transient, did you pressed the "convert array into a group of objects" icon before using the ObjectEffects plugin ?
ObjectEffects will not manage the array as an array but as a group only. |
Post by transient // Sep 3, 2008, 4:58am
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transient
Total Posts: 977
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I forgot to set auto-record. Thanks for the quick reply, though. :)
That's a really nice plug-in, it would take ages to keyframe. |
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