POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.general : Spline animation vector question Server Time
2 Aug 2024 04:22:51 EDT (-0400)
  Spline animation vector question (Message 1 to 3 of 3)  
From: Rick Measham
Subject: Spline animation vector question
Date: 1 Feb 2005 09:57:56
Message: <41ff98f4@news.povray.org>
My flying shopping cart is completed and flaps its wings. My next 
challenge is to put the cart on a spline and have it fly round a 
predefined path.

I've no idea how to do that!

Firstly I need to define the path. That doesn't seem too hard as it's 
all just beziers.

Secondly, I need to somehow calculate the position on that spline at 
which the cart will sit in each frame. No idea on that one.

Thirdly I need to get the vector of the spline at that point so that I 
can point the cart in the right direction. No idea here either.

Fourthly I need to get the (stationary) camera to follow the cart as it 
travels around the spline. Figure I'll sit the camera at some point and 
point_at the position in the 'secondly' section.

Can anyone talk me through this, or better yet, point me to a simple 
tutorial on how to do it?

Cheers!
Rick


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From: ABX
Subject: Re: Spline animation vector question
Date: 1 Feb 2005 10:01:52
Message: <gc6vv0dmmflp9gb370sbv4b0t9q30lfuc2@4ax.com>
On Wed, 02 Feb 2005 01:58:01 +1100, Rick Measham <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Can anyone talk me through this, or better yet, point me to a simple 
> tutorial on how to do it?

There is splinefollow sample scene/animation in POV-Ray which does something
like this.

ABX


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From: Txemi Jendrix
Subject: Re: Spline animation vector question
Date: 1 Feb 2005 19:13:30
Message: <42001b29@news.povray.org>
Rick Measham wrote:

> My flying shopping cart is completed and flaps its wings. My next
> challenge is to put the cart on a spline and have it fly round a
> predefined path.
> 
> I've no idea how to do that!
> 
> Firstly I need to define the path. That doesn't seem too hard as it's
> all just beziers.
> 
> Secondly, I need to somehow calculate the position on that spline at
> which the cart will sit in each frame. No idea on that one.
> 
> Thirdly I need to get the vector of the spline at that point so that I
> can point the cart in the right direction. No idea here either.
> 
> Fourthly I need to get the (stationary) camera to follow the cart as it
> travels around the spline. Figure I'll sit the camera at some point and
> point_at the position in the 'secondly' section.
> 
> Can anyone talk me through this, or better yet, point me to a simple
> tutorial on how to do it?
> 
> Cheers!
> Rick

Maybe it's not your case but may help others reading this thread.
I discovered recently that you can use Inkscape to export your splines (or
paths) to povray. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure in this way you can
ease the process. At least you can define your splines in a visual way
(though limited to 2D).

Hope this helps.

-- 
Txemi Jendrix
www.txemijendrix.com


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