Pocket Sundial

[simsmj]

'Lo, Doug, thanks for the kind words. Actually, there is a tutorial explaining the method, as applied to another project, an X-Wing fighter.
http://talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=6312.

The basic idea is to apply an animation of four frames, Swing for example, and pause it, usually on frame 2. This freezes the shapes in mid-swing, at their maximum deflection. For Swing, you can highlight an object and specify an axis of swing and a deflection angle. Enter double the angle you want, as the object swings once in one direction,then swings back and out in the other direction, so to move something by 90 degrees, enter 180. By freezing in frame 2, you are capturing the max swing at the first side of the cycle. Frame 3 would be back to flat, and frame 4 the max swing in the opposite direction.

I've attached a short note about the sundial, which in conjunction with the X-Wing thread should give you a good idea about how animations and pausing them can extend the scope of Xara3D.

Mike

[esanabri]

As always I'm impressed...

I found some interest on Ulead Cool 3D, but ha vent downloaded the demo, I also am way to in love with Xara to sometimes make the time investment...

Cool 3d promises more capabilities but in a more complex environment... have any of you tried it?

[Soquili]

I tried Cool 3D several years ago. It has a steep learning curve, that I never completed. I found Truspace and Cinema 4D to be more in tune with my way of thinking.

[Ken Berry]

FWIW, I have been a long time (5 year) user of first Cool 3D, then Cool 3D Production Studio. It is an excellent program and produces some great results which I use exclusively for video titles. Its one great flaw though, IMHO, is the almost impossibly long rendering times to export the finished product to an .AVI. It will usually take from 30 minutes to over one hour to render a 10 second .AVI (the time varying depending on the complexity of the animation used). I find this time ridiculous since my computer is relatively powerful, and I can, using Adobe Premiere Pro, render an hour long video project in about 1 hour 15 minutes! That is why I looked around for another 3D product and found Xara 3D. I have been impressed with the product -- not to mention the speed of authoring an animated title to .avi -- to the point I bought the full program.

[Ron Duke]

Awesome job, Mike. Wish I had your know-how.
ron