Hi All,

This is the "Once in a Blue Moon SVG Paving Company" at work. ,,,,Preliminary DRAFT.

THIS gives at least a glimmer of what SVG is all about. To be sure, just a glimmer, but it is going to be a blazing light one day.

It utilizes, to this point, the polygon editor, the path editor (spline function), and the action editor (linear motion; scaling). Not fancy, but not just motion for motion's sake.

embedded SVG: 800x600 full screen: should centre on any size page.
http://members.shaw.ca/rrsknox/dedicaha.html

SVG download link if you need it:
http://members.shaw.ca/rrsknox/khportal.html

Bricks or bouquets welcome. Suggestions, questions, ...whatever. SVG is the future; the chief competitor to Flash. Make people talk about Virtual Mechanics instead of Macromedia.

Cheers,

Muzz

Updated midnight MST. You now need speakers.

Dedicated to the guys who used to sit in 110 F heat on the asphalt machines paving the Okanogan highways in the '50s.

The sides now need some perspective.

http://members.shaw.ca/rrsknox/dedicaha.html

Cheers,

Muzz

Well Derry and Bruceee, that will have to do for now. My usual comment applies: it matters not a great deal for purposes here whether or not you like it; only that you grasp in some fashion the power of the tool(s).

The reddish orange "figure" beneath the blue moon -- a real phenomenon apparently -- is symbolic to me of a ripe peach sitting in the hot sun of south-central British Columbia where I grew up. Everything in this creation has a purpose; and the simplicity is deliberate.

There are many kinds of web-sites; but two styles stand at the limits in my mind: information sites and artistic sites. The challenge I am tackling is learning how to combine the two formats. I see little point in having a 32 bit colour monitor and then creating a page which is 80% white.

Bruceee, SVG only represents about 40-60% of my toolkit; the other major format which I utilize being .jpeg and sometimes .png. It is now time to attend to other business.

Cheers,

Muzz

Nice work, as always Muzz.

- Derry

Hi Derry,

Your comment is much appreciated, but I am afraid that this is proving to be a Q.E.D. situation (to borrow a math expression) and I now have to concentrate my efforts on several outstanding obligations and at least one related business opportunity. My source of income supplementary to my pension comes to an end in less than 10 months. The value of time, as previously stressed, is thus immeasurable.

You well know that I have long felt that both my style and interests are, for the most part, inappropriate to this forum --- and I am not here discussing situations where I was outright obnoxious or immersed in personal matters. I have rather in mind things such as linear perspective (an integral component in optimizing SVG work); SVG per se (surprisingly); 3D work with Image Analyzer; two dimensional image processing with a focus on time series analysis; typography; my tendency to focus on "vision" issues; and so forth.

You also know well enough the current limitations in Web Engine's SVG capabilities, especially in animation as well as enhancement features available in Real Draw Pro and Ace Design Pro which I currently access in .jpg format and massage in such programs, for instance, as Image Analyzer, EasyPeg, Makaha, XnView, Irfan View, SmartMorph, and JPEG Wizard. Thus, yet again, I state my intention to restrict my activvities to focusing on "bugs."

I regret my manner of handling the Opera situation and the confrontation, however minor, it created between us. I have traced many of my current problems with Opera, MathType, and my up-loaded Web Pages to a denial of access to the Times New Roman (Plain) font. The reason for this is quite clear to me, but a solution is not yet on the horizon for what is a very serious state of affairs.

I am not deserting the forum, simply optimizing my use of time.

Best wishes as always,
Cheers,

Muzz

Hi Derry,

This is the final edition with new material:

http://members.shaw.ca/rrsknox/dedicaha.html

Known bugs, all I think previously reported except one possibility,

(a) Path of highway extends (scales) backwards into the moon if you watch long enough.

(b) Extra objects are being created and this time I suspect the action editor rather than the vertex editor, or an interaction. In any case I generated quite a number of dummy files which needed deleting.

(c) Jpeg file brought in via "tile" in shading editor, but not used, continues to be uploaded and inaccessible for deletion.

(d) Full page (i.e. the end result) reveals itself at beginning which negates effect of animation. This may be an embedding issue.

Cheers,

Muzz

[This message was edited by Muzz on March 12, 2004 at 07:55 PM.]

Hi Muzz,

Well, I think it is brilliant, but then I might be a bit biased

As for the bugs, if you believe you have uncovered a specific problem, please document and let us know the steps to reproduce, as always.

- Derry

Hi Muzz
Very nice effect and I'm not biased

I notice in IE6 that when you scroll with the browser scroll bar, a white rectangle flashes in the middle of the screen. Think it is the media player -- it may be possible to hide it at a screen edge.

Cheeers
Bruceee

Hi Bruceee,

Thanks yet again. Not quite a Q.E.D. situation.

I will look into the opening appearance; the embedding html page is what you see first, so I will simply hide the midi behind the SVG object.

I do worry about the word "effect," which Derry also has used in for such pages. If that is what it seems to be, and I treat word usage very seriously, then I have not suceeded in my goal of presenting a theme illustrated by symbolism.

The ultimate theme and significance of the blue moon and a highway being paved and the peach ripening in the sun was my tribute to the efforts and vision of Steve White. If the animation is successful, then it should seem every bit as natural as any other item on the page. This raises a pregnant question. Is 2D-animation an art form or will it always be perceived as a "gimmick."

A challenge, me-thinks, ....a challenge indeed, and one with which I sincerely hope that you will become involved. SVG is so much easier to work with and offers so many more options than HTML that once you have had a taste of it you never want to revert to the exclusive use of the latter.

There are operational problems in using SVG to be sure, but they are minor in the long run compared to the benefits it offers in the graphical field. As mentioned elsewhere, it is my hope that VM SVG will one day become as popular an expression as Macromedia Flash. The potential is certainly more than a pipe dream, SVG is truly that good. But promotion is crucial.

All the best Bruceee,
Cheers,

Muzz

Hi Derry,

I believe that I have already mentioned most of those items under "bugs" with acknowledgement from Harpo.

In all my reformatting I have lost your e-mail address to be used for such matters. Please post or e-mail it to me when convenient.

Are "Events" distinct from "Actions," or are they always to be integrated. I haven't yet had any success with the Event editor, though I can't say that I have persisted with it. Its offerings look interesting and could be key to achieving more useful animation results.

Cheers,

Muzz

If you have unreported examples of bugs and the steps to reproduce them, send them to vmsupport@virtualmechanics.com

Yes, you can create a 'behavior' without having to go through the 'action' editor.

- Derry

Thanks Derry, ...I was using "support" instead of "vmsupport", and you know how I react to rejection.

It is my understanding that you are "revamping" the animation interface, so I haven't made a great effort at documenting problems. In general terms, I think that the action editor needs a fairly severe overhall. If you are looking for input let me know....no more unsolicited trouble from this hombre.

Cheers,

Muzz

Don't worry about UI issues at this time, just functional problems.

- Derry

Hello, ...A bit of a puzzle. I have just deleted the "Once in a Blue Moon Paving Company" from my RRSKnox account. I may upload it somewhere else, ... however-

It came to my attention again because the .svg file was eating up over 900,000 kb of my webspace. I say it is a bit of a puzzle because from the perspective of structure and embedded text, it is really not much more complicated than my Knox dedication .svg page which only uses about 77,000 kb of webspace.

That leaves the factor of animation as the major difference. I don't have time to persue the matter right now, but it is indeed a major issue.

As we develop the SVG capabilities further in Web Engine, you should start to notice a reduction in file sizes.