I am going to use a Pre Set Formula for this, so Everyone can follow
along.
Open the Library, and highlight Base, then Fractals. Double
Click
on the Formula titled "Glynn" to open it in a "Detail View" Window.
Notice the Horizontal Line in the center.
This is easily removed
by moving the image slightly. Just click and drag it a very
short
distance in any direction.
Now the image is smooth and ready for Animating!
I always begin by making myself comfortable with the
workplace. I
maximize the Detail Window and resize the key areas like this:
I raised the bottom bar because it makes the tabs on the sliders down
there easier to "grab" with my dyslexic old eyes.
The three "Bullseye" circles on the right are the interface for
altering the fractal.
They are not clearly labeled, and sometimes vary from image to image in
terms of which one does what, but in this case the top one is the
equivalent of a "Stretch and Skew" feature. Clicking in the
center and dragging the mouse will stretch or compress the image along
that axis. Straight up or down dragging, for experimenting,
will
reveal how this parameter effects the image. It assumes a rectangular
coordinate system. If you wish to distort it along Polar
axes,
look for the little box labeled "Polar" and click it. The
Real
and Imaginary parameters are replaced by Angle and Length thus making
for an alternate way to "Sculpt" your images.
The next two interfaces effect the image in ways I can't clearly
explain. But I can give easy to follow directions so you can
duplicate the sample animation and have the skills needed to make your
own!
I'm going to keep this simple, and make an advanced animation tutorial
later.
The bottom bullseye (hmmm... we need a word for
these...
I'll call them "Parameter Adjusters" even though it is not the word I
want) OK, so it's now the bottom Parameter Adjuster. Click in
the
center of that and drag the mouse straight to the right, trying not to
move up or down too much.
The image develops a hole, then forms a teardrop shape which extends
off screen to the right.
When making mine, I initially had an asymmetric teardrop - like this:
To correct this, if it happens to you, just click in the center of the
circle and drag diagonally to the right again. This will
allow
you to "slide" the shape into symmetry.
Now, right click on the image to see something like this:
It extends off-screen a little. You can left click and drag
the whole picture into place.
To make an animation out of this is easy.
First, think like an animator! Make a plan and have a general
idea of what you want to do.
A direct interpolation of this metemorphosis would be
awkward.
The hole forms rather fast and has some interesting effects as it
breaks up! So we want that part to run slower than the rest
of
the animation.
In this early stage of Mutatorkammer's development there is no way to
edit a "key-frame" so we need to be careful and be ready to start over
if a mistake is made!!
The sliders along the bottom are how animations are controlled in terms
of timing, while the Parameter Adjusters control the action.
Specifically, we could just tell it to animate this transformation by
setting a maximum number of frames, moving the "Frame" slider to the
end with the ">|" button, and then open the file menu - choose
export animation as sequence - and save! (compiling the
animation
for viewing and sharing is an entirely other topic... for now
just download "VirtualDub" from http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/
and use the image
sequence feature to import the pictures, then make an avi animation).
Anyway... There is a 1,000 frame maximum and I always enjoy
getting the most out of anything, so we'll leave the max frames alone
(users of older and slower computers {and impatient people!}
may
use any ratios of these numbers they like, but the end results will
vary from this tutorial!).
The first thing is to reset the image. If the reset buttons
don't
restore the image to where you opened it (often the case when one
changes the zoom, hopefully this will be addressed in a future release)
then you will simply have to close the detail window and open "Glynn"
again.
I liked what I saw in that beginning so much I gave it 30% of the
animation. Click and drag the "Frame" slider to around frame
300.
Then move our Paramater Adjuster just like we did in "Practice" but
only until just after the hole forms. I stopped here:
Then move the Frame slider to near the end, I chose roughly frame 850,
and adjust the image back to our zoomed out teardrop.
Note that you MUST move the "Frame" slider BEFORE moving the Paramater
Adjuster!! Otherwise all this will go in the previous "key frame" and
ruin everything!
So... why not go all the way to 1,000?
Well, with short animations, and at 30 frames per second you don't even
get 1 minute out of 1,000 frames, I like to make them loop.
That
means the last frame must be identical, or nearly identical, to the
first frame. That way it can loop seamlessly.
To do this in Mutatorkammer is Easy thanks to the reset buttons!
First, drag the slider to frame 1,000.
Then press the reset button over the Paramater Adjuster we used.
This should give an image something like this:
That's pretty close to where we started, but zoomed out too far.
To zoom back in, hold down the Shift Key then Left Click and define a
zoom area like this:
That should zoom to an area that looks thus:
A little use of the Stretching and Skewing feature in that first
Parameter Adjuster should help get the image more exactly like the
first frame.
Compare the first and last frames for similarity with the "|<"
and ">|" buttons.
Once satisfied, be sure to move the slider to the first frame (frame
zero) before exporting! Then click on the File Menu and
choose "Export Animation as Sequence" - create a new folder
for this so it's easy to work with - and give it a name, then hit save!
Go get a cup of tea or something... It needs to render 1,000
images now.
When it's done, Mutatorkammer's Work is finished. Now just
find a way to compile it all. VirtualDub is my choice.
It's free and easy to use.
Just open Virtual Dub after the images render and from it's File menu
choose Open Video File. Below that is a drop down menu for
options. Select Image Sequence, browse to the first image in
your folder, and click Open.
VD comes with a codec called "PicVideo M-JPEG VfW" and it works best of
the default CoDecs for compressing the file (uncompressed files are
HUGE!).
Select it from the "Video > Compression" Menu.
Tell it to save as avi and you're done!
You now have an animation file that should closely approximate the one
given as an example!
This is just a rough Draft of my First Tutorial.
Feedback is Welcome and Encouraged!!
I can be contacted at the Mutatorkammer Forum on the Fractalmovies.com Website, FractalForums.com, and some kinky adult websites I'd be better off not mentioning!
Visit Fractal Movies.com to Download the latest Beta Version of Mutatorkammer!
