Hi Derry and All,

Because of the dominant manner in which I have seen animation used on the Net, I have avoided it with a passion as nothing more than a tool to catch your attention or annoy you enough to act in some manner. Virtual Mechanics via the medium of SVG obviously had other plans for the technique, far more profound ones. Not that I can yet illustrate what I am claiming to be the pinnacle of SVG, but I see the potential without any difficulty whatsoever.

Now it is just a matter of hard, hard work in which the integration of my studies on shape, colour, perspective, and typography will, in a year or so, develop into a mature product. Graphic Design in the full sense of the term is a very serious and deep subject, and I treat it accordingly with little patience for those who avoid mastering the basics. I am not a sycophant and this is not a popularity contest: it is about learning.

May I offer my public apologies to Virtual Mechanics for the sarcasm and abuse which I have heaped over the months on their fascination with animation. It is not SVG vs Animation; or SVG + Typography vs Animation: it is rather SVG + Typography + Animation.

This I fully acknowledge must appear as utter trivial stuff to some or all of you. But as always I am mastering basics. The fancy stuff will come in time. Here is an example of Mouse Control over the (x,y) position of the rotation and scaling of two objects. (Do note the Kelptocracy font on an SVG sourced object. )

(embedded animated SVG: 800x600: SlimBrowser or IE)
muzzrpore/animathc.html

[This message was edited by RC on October 06, 2003 at 04:19 AM.]

Hello Derry and All,

Please start with the preceding post if this is your first visit to this thread.

Now things are starting to get interesting from the perspective of the use of symbolism and SVG. This again is primitive, but represents a significant advance over my first presentation on the subject. The cross is genuine Web Engine SVG with one of its two shading options set to near full transparency.

Once again both the horizontal and vertical position of the objects are mouse controlled. (Try it!!) Muzz is set to just scale. The cross is set to scale and change shading.

muzzrpore/animathb.html (Vanishing Cross)

I am playing for "keeps" here: the literal result is not important at this stage except in this sense. You cannot create this in HTML. (Not the shading itself; or the shading effect)

Cheers,

Muzz

The vanishing cross gets more complex with the addition of a third item which also vanishes and reappears.

muzzrpore/animathe.html

Once again, mouse controlled.

You know something Derry, if you let this thing run for about five minutes --nothing repeats--
even I am starting to get impressed and this is just the blooming start.

Muzz

[This message was edited by RC on October 06, 2003 at 09:37 AM.]

Hi Muzz... I trust that you receieved my email?

WHen viewing your last link I discovered that if you right click to bring up the menu you can zoom in & out...did you know that?
Andy
Ps... Is that an image of you?

Using Web Engine 2 Beta

Hi Andy,

Yes indeedy I did receive your masterpiece; and, if you don't object, would love to make general reference to it in a planned article entitled something like "Only Coistrels Don't Use SVG."

Well, I left click, but yes I did know about that capability for SVG. But do you know what Andy, it hadn't even remotely occurred to me to use it on the animation. That is a great idea, especially zooming out when the cross gets too large. Thanks a bunch for that one.

If you are referring to the rugged, good looking individual simply oozing character, yeah, that is one of the versions of Muzz I created.

This is definitely not as you say, intuitive, and I expect to be making a ton of feature requests or revisons, but this is the very first animation I have done absolutely ever so I proceed in blissful ignorance about its relative merits.

Now I shall give Muzz some rest and try to integrate Actions and Behaviours. Great hearing from you Andy.


animathe/(Revised)

Just revised this to try something out; so even I haven't seen it yet!!

...just watched it for about 5 minutes. Heck, these are blooming videos! Think maybe there is an Oscar at the end of the road?

Cheers,

Muzz

[This message was edited by RC on October 06, 2003 at 03:34 PM.]

[This message was edited by RC on October 06, 2003 at 03:48 PM.]

The above has been revised yet again (4:00 pm MDT, Oct.06) showing to me that the possibilities are virtually endless.

Because it is on continuous cycle there are more variations than you'll have patience to watch. But give it several minutes anyways and, when the cross gets too large, opposite click on the mouse to bring up the SVG menu and click on "zoom out."

I shall now move on.

Muzz

This is an experiment which has gone astray. It shall evolve over the next few hours. When I get where I thought that I was going I will publish a new link, probably later today.

animathf (Towards a Dynamic Sinc Function)

Muzz

Hi Muzz,

Very interesting effect - I like it. Is it possible to make the image a bit smaller. My old beast of a computer has a bit of a hard time rendering such a large SVG image.

- Derry

Hi Derry,

Two or three answers to that. First I'll remind you about what Andy reminded me about and what is one of the great features of Adobe SVG. "Opposite" click on the mouse and "zoom out" periodically.

More importantly I will slow down the scaling rate; the initial size has already been reduced.

So far, the only action option that I have been able to make work exactly the way I want is the "Mouse Control." But it is very early days yet! I don't have a clue how the key control works.

I know things are a bit on the simple side, but as is my way I am just making sure I really understand the basics. Microsoft will bomb you in an instant if you mix your commands for time and path control.

This at the very moment is absolutely static. But it is what a cardinal sine function would roughly look like in 2D if you imagine green as large numbers and the deep purple as small numbers.

animathg (Pending Dynamic Sinc Function)

Thanks for the support,

Cheers,

Muzz

Hi Derry and All, ......Back to the non-sinc Sinc Function. This has a bug in it; but you can only see it if RIGHT AT THE START you "opposite" click the mouse (cursor at centre of screen) and ZOOM OUT; and repeat the process quickly about 4 times. You will now have small images.

Watch the ellipse go off to the upper right. The blooming thing is supposed to come back!!! It is like a lost spacecraft.

animathf (Off to Mars)

Verbs and adverbs forming clauses linked by conjunctions to other clauses. Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Pot.

Muzz

[This message was edited by RC on October 07, 2003 at 12:53 PM.]

Well I am really impressed with that last one. I am going to give you something to add to it. I will send it via email. Please put it on!!!

Have you noticed that when you zoom right out it plays much faster...and you can see where the spaceship goes!
Andy

Using Web Engine 2 Beta

Yes, I like it too. I can imagine the theme to 2001 playing in the background

If you have found a bug let us know and we'll look into it.

- Derry

Thats exactly what I have sent him... in midi format.

Great minds think alike!

Using Web Engine 2 Beta

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the slow response--been running around the big city.

Sheesh! I blush. I was just fooling around. I think they played a lot of "Strauss" type music in 2001. Stanley Krammer sure had a knack for stretching a scene out --- just like this production. Now how do I get Hal in here?

Got your e-mails Andy and will likely have some questions later. I hope to have a new edition out by morning.

If I can find the Star Ship Enterprise on the Net......!!!! Or how about a tiny Muzz with big Spock ears.

Thanks a heap,
Cheers,

Muzz

Okey-Dokey Guys,

This is a prototype --- but good golly molly it works!!!! Published around midnight MDT.

I must have done it wrong 15 different ways because I assumed the sound would be linked to an object: not so of course. The trick is to publish the .svg file, embed it in an .html file, and then embed the .mid file in the embedded .svg file. Nearly blew my eardrums out with some of the howls of protest over my mistakes.

animathf (The Launch of Star Ship Enterprise)

Dedicated to Captain Andy Kirk Peters.

Don't forget to zoom out about four times first with the opposite mouse click, cursor in centre.

AND DON'T, OF COURSE, FORGET TO HAVE YOUR SOUND SYSTEM TURNED ON!!!

Cheers,

Muzz

Hello,

If you have just arrived, please refer to the previous post first. The sound track has been changed.

These are early days on this one, Andy. I am going to try work a timed link in. It may not work as the last time I tried it wouldn't override the continuous cycle.

Anyway, it is a start. (I don't imagine Gene Rodenb...y) is still around??)

Same zoom out protocol.

startkha (The Real Thing)

Cheers,

Muzz

Great! Should rename it the StarShip Muzz

- Derry

The deed is done. Modified version. Dont' forget that several of the objects are mouse control.

animathf (The Star Ship Muzz)

Best viewing if you don't zoom out until the "starship" starts to leave the screen.!!

Which exhausts me if not this particular theme for the moment.

Bkessings

Muzz

[This message was edited by RC on October 08, 2003 at 03:19 PM.]

[This message was edited by RC on October 08, 2003 at 03:37 PM.]

[This message was edited by RC on October 08, 2003 at 03:41 PM.]

[This message was edited by RC on October 08, 2003 at 03:42 PM.]

Cinematic!

Thanks Harpo,

I Promise To Fix It

(a) By way of quick background, in using a new system "cleaner" it did such a good job that I, in a LONG trail of consequences, now have two NON-PARTIONED versions of XP operating; and only five programs working. SO I will be gone for awhile to do the obvious.

(b) There are only three new things of note: this is now a mess; it shows that you can turn a non-action object [the one stationary polygon] into an "action" object simply by using its shading attribute as one of the pair being used by an actually defined action object; and, if you stop using a phantom shading attribute, and you clean, then it will be deleted --- even if you had plans to use it again somewhere else.

I will try fix this thing up again; but it was a "lesson for the learning."

Muzz