Nutcracker: New Effect, Single strand Chases

[smeighan]

I am releasing the new effect class: single strand.


With this release you can pick the three different animated gifs to model you single strand.


The only effect class today is chases. In a few days there will be color-wash and fills


The 3 animated gifs are
1) Arches
2) Window
3) Roofline



In this example we use the same virtual strand on the 3 animated gifs. It is two x100 strings concatenated together to make a 1x200 strand.
Here are the sttings for the 4 segments , these settings were used on all effects

the only difference is the model of the animated gif.


ARCH

ROOFLINE

WINDOW

To use this:


1) Create a target model and select "single_strand".
2) Go to the seconf form and finish defining the model but telling nutcracker how many pixels each string has and how many segments you will make your virtual strand into.
in my example
2 strings of 100
4 segments


3) Now go to the effects screen, select the target model that was built as a single strand
4) select "single-strand" as the effect class
5) fill in first page of data and then go to second follow on form. This second form allows you to assign effects to each segment.
6) generate and export as usual.


Tomorrow, 7pm MST Thurs Sep 20 I will giving a tutorial on single strand effects.


thanks

 

[WayneKremer]

Sean, I tried using it but I was only able to view the first set of parameters screen. It never took me to the next page...and instead I get this error:
"/users/meighan.net/htdocs/nutcracker/effects/workspaces/417/ROOFLINE~ROOFLINECHASE.gp", line 36: warning: Axis range undefined due to improper data values. NaN? Inf? splot '../effects/workspaces/417/ROOFLINE~ROOFLINECHASE_d_1.dat' using 4:5:6:7 with points lc rgb variable pointtype 7 pointsize 0.6 notitle ^ "/users/meighan.net/htdocs/nutcracker/effects/workspaces/417/ROOFLINE~ROOFLINECHASE.gp", line 36: All points x value undefined

 

[smeighan]

i have created a quick tutorial of how to use single strand chases


http://meighan.net/nutcracker/images/2012-09-19_1637.swf

 

[WayneKremer]

I got it figured out! I didn't press the Submit form TWICE to create the model. That's a tricky one you may want to consider changing. Thanks!

 

[smeighan]

I got it figured out! I didn't press the Submit form TWICE to create the model. That's a tricky one you may want to consider changing. Thanks!

I agree, i need to figure out how to keep people from pressing twice. if i had a separate form, you would need to press teice, each press does something that the next form needs.


because i am using a self submit form, it ends up needing the double press.


ill work on a solution


in he meantime, press twice.


*smile*

 

[smeighan]

Sean how would you suggest I go about setting up my window outline - it's 10 sections:

[FONT=lucida console]+------1-------+-------------------2--------------------+-------3-------+
|              |                                        |               |
[/FONT][FONT=lucida console]|              |                                        |               |[/FONT]
[FONT=lucida console]|              |                                        |               |[/FONT]
[FONT=lucida console]|              |                                        |               |[/FONT]
[FONT=lucida console]|              |                                        |               |[/FONT]
[FONT=lucida console]|              |                                        |               |[/FONT]
[FONT=lucida console]7              8                                        9               10[/FONT]
[FONT=lucida console]|              |                                        |               |[/FONT]
[FONT=lucida console]|              |                                        |               |[/FONT]
[FONT=lucida console]|              |                                        |               |[/FONT]
[FONT=lucida console]|              |                                        |               |[/FONT]
[FONT=lucida console]|              |                                        |               |[/FONT]
[FONT=lucida console]|              |                                        |               |[/FONT]
[FONT=lucida console]|              |                                        |               |[/FONT]
[FONT=lucida console]+------4-------+-------------------5--------------------+-------6-------+
[/FONT]

I realize I could ignore parts 8/9 and simply copy 7->8 and 10->9 but it would be nice to use all 10 parts if possible...

A few ways come to mind:


1) Pick the roofline animation (ignore the fact that it wont look like your window.


mark segments everyplace you want the sections. If it were me, i would add some extension wires to skip the BLUE lines.


you could also just double back and mark the blue sections as new segments. Then just dont assign anything to those segments.

2) Here is a different flow, has one less blue wire

3) Here is a different flow, one less wire is shorter than option 2

if many people have this kind of window i will build an animated gif preview

 

[smeighan]

I have released a new version of single strand.


you now have fade_3d for color 1 and 2
you also have rainbow to override color 1 &2


this should also fix the artifacts.


I have not fixed the requirement needing to double click when you create the target model.


thanks
sean

 

[Blickensderfer]

Sean,
I think I've found a bug in the single strand effect. The colors and directions I have set for each segment do not render in the effect.
I have 3 strands ea with 39 pixels total of 117 in my roof selection. I have 11 segments and they are broke up in the following numbers:
seg 1 start: 1,Left,#FF0000,#00FF00
seg 2 start: 35,Left,#BB00FF,#FF8C8C
seg 3 start: 48,Left,#EEFF03,#1D0DFF
seg 4 start: 55,Right,#EEFF03,#1D0DFF
seg 5 start: 62,Left,#00FFFF,#FF59E3
seg 6 start: 73,Left,#EEFF03,#1D0DFF
seg 7 start: 78,Right,#EEFF03,#1D0DFF
seg 8 start: 83,Right,#00FFFF,#FF59E3
seg 9 start: 91,Left,#EEFF03,#1D0DFF
seg 10 start: 98,Right,#EEFF03,#1D0DFF
seg 11 start: 105,Right,#BB00FF,#FF8C8C
It generates everything from left to right, and the colors for all segments are the same #FF0000,#00FF00

Thanks,
Dan