I am new at creating POV-Ray animations and am getting frustrated with the
shortcomings of the clock variable. Is there a utility that will allow me to
create camera and object paths which I can graphically manipulate on the
screen. I am using Win95. (My aim is to be able to have a camera fly into
the scene to a certain point then change it's look at value and fly off to a
second point without any jumping.)

Thanks

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Andrew Reeves wrote in message <6k5e1v$quv$1@oz.aussie.org>...
>I am new at creating POV-Ray animations and am getting frustrated with the
>shortcomings of the clock variable. Is there a utility that will allow me
to
>create camera and object paths which I can graphically manipulate on the
>screen. I am using Win95. (My aim is to be able to have a camera fly into
>the scene to a certain point then change it's look at value and fly off to
a
>second point without any jumping.)
>
>Thanks
>
>
I haven't got a graphical animation utility for pov, But I have written a
set of pov inc files that let you do the same thing... Not as intuitive but
workable...

See http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/8549

Go into the Anim System to see it.. There is a sorta tutorial there as well.

To see what sort of anims you can create see the Anims page.

Cheers.. Fran,

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Thanks for your suggestion. I had a look at these files as well as a program
recommended by ReVerSi called spline.inc (Author Chris Colefax). While both
these programs? are obviously great tools, they don't solve my particular
problem. I have included a diagram help.

My scene object is the blue box. I want to be able to fly in from point 1 in
a straight line to point 2. Since I want the image to start as a spec and
come into sight, the camera path cannot be linear. It must use some form of
log function otherwise it will take a very long time to come into sight then
you will fly past it very quickly. I have managed to develop some log
functions that allow me to do this, but then I get stuck at the next step.
When I go in an arc from point 2 to 3, the speed of the camera changes and
becomes more constant and you see a visual speed glitch. I have tried all
sorts of functions and formulas, and always end up with glitches somewhere.

Using a spline like the above program, the camera path can be mapped
beautifully, however, the camera speed remains constant which is no good. As
the camera comes from 1 to 2, it must slow down. As it goes from 2 to 3, it
must speed up (to compensate for the moving away). I realise that in most
scenes constant paths work okay, however to keep a consistent constant
motion, they will not work in this case. I am using Moray and POV-Ray both
under Win95. My wish list would be to have someway of plotting the camera
course in Moray (or another program which could give a visual path) and also
set the speeds of movement.

Please forgive me for typing so much. I have spent many hours and late
nights and probably need to go to bed.  :-(

If anyone can help me, please!

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Attachments:
Download 'CamPath.BMP.dat' (61 KB)

Andrew Reeves wrote in message <6k6h9t$s7k$1@oz.aussie.org>...
>Thanks for your suggestion. I had a look at these files as well as a
program
>recommended by ReVerSi called spline.inc (Author Chris Colefax). While both
>these programs? are obviously great tools, they don't solve my particular
>problem. I have included a diagram help.


<description Cut>

>If anyone can help me, please!
>

OK.

With my system it is possible, easily.

Mine:

Set start point for camera.
Set Velocity is HIGH amount
Set Acceleration to -somthing
at time 2 set the acceleration = 0
and rotate.

Now for Chris's

Please note in the spline there is an assumed property that the time between
each point is the same, Therefore, set a group of points from 1 -> 2 that
get closer and closer together.

This will slow down the camera as it movies between them.

ie.
time 1                                         2
         mark                   mark     mark etc

then place some more in the curve wanted.

I hope that helps....

Fran.

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You can do this by using Spline.inc and clockmod.inc (also from Chris
Colefax). Hope this helps.

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Thanks, I think this might nail it. Much obliged to everyone.

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And here is a very small anim to show it. - Well actually it's in the
binarys.animations group

Subject    Animation Path Utility

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