Simple chase.

[Gilrock]

I guess unless I do a video no one will understand what I mean.  I have a candy cane group in the lower left corner or my display.  I placed an upwards moving morph on the cane group.  When you watch the morph repeat in the preview there is a huge delay from when it ends to when it starts.  That's because the morph is traveling across the virtual representation of the model group which is like 6 times taller than the models.  I had to limit the Y travel to 16% to get it to repeat immediately.  If I place a Fan effect in the center it won't even show up on the cane group unless I make the outside radius really large.  A model group is the size of the entire layout screen.

[flyinverted]

Here is an explanation of how effects are generated when applied to a WHM or Model Group.

http://tinyurl.com/pnnfb7p

[Gilrock]

Here's the simpliest way I can show it.  Inside the blue box is my Candy Cane group.  This picture shows what would be happening inside the program when you drop a Fan effect on top of that group.  The effect is not going to be centered on the group unless you change the X/Y positioning.  You have to imagine this for all effects you drop on a group.  Effects that sweep the entire model usually aren't an issue because they will hit the nodes but like in this photo that Fan will never hit any the nodes in that model unless you make the outside radius of the fan super big.

[JonB256]

Now I know what "grid size" is good for in the group dialog

[Gilrock]

To be honest I'd really like us to add an option where when I define my candy cane group its restricted to the boundaries shown in that blue box.  I think that's what everyone expects and is the source of most of the confusion.  So I've mainly been trying to explain how it works but not saying I like how it works.  If I want my candy canes to be represented in relation to the whole page I'd group them with everything on the page but when it's just them I expect the bounding box to be the limits of where they sit.  To me it really doesn't make sense to do otherwise but now its out there and people have sequenced with that method so we are stuck with it.

[mararunr]

To be honest I'd really like us to add an option where when I define my candy cane group its restricted to the boundaries shown in that blue box.  I think that's what everyone expects and is the source of most of the confusion.  So I've mainly been trying to explain how it works but not saying I like how it works.  If I want my candy canes to be represented in relation to the whole page I'd group them with everything on the page but when it's just them I expect the bounding box to be the limits of where they sit.  To me it really doesn't make sense to do otherwise but now its out there and people have sequenced with that method so we are stuck with it.

agree, so is there a way to add a parameter checkbox that allows us to say just apply to elements versus the grid?

[flyinverted]

I've been experimenting with the group layout mode settings. It's definitely got some potential.  I think this is what you're looking for.

[Gilrock]

Yeah I tried those briefly during the Expo but didn't figure out exactly what they do.

[flyinverted]

Well it appears changing the grid size still leaves the effect to render from the center of the display, so models on the edge will get the show edges of the effect where models in the center will get the center of the effect.

[Gilrock]

My interpretation was changing the grid size didn't change the fact that it still covers the whole screen it just changes the resample size.  So if you have a smaller grid two nodes might fall into the same bucket so to speak.

[danj]

Picture's worth a 1000 words!!!!    Thanks to all who responded to this one.

[dkulp]

Just added a "Minimal Grid" option to the group type which will make the grid that is used just over the bounding box of the models that are selected for that group.   That should make some of the effects easier to use on the groups.

[mararunr]

Just added a "Minimal Grid" option to the group type which will make the grid that is used just over the bounding box of the models that are selected for that group.   That should make some of the effects easier to use on the groups.

+1

[gerry]

Just added a "Minimal Grid" option to the group type which will make the grid that is used just over the bounding box of the models that are selected for that group.   That should make some of the effects easier to use on the groups.

Wonderful !!

Which effects would these particularly apply to ?

What I am trying to ask is something along the lines that if I am going to drop a {morph/xxx/yyy/zzz} effect at the group level , then ensure that the minimal grid is set to "nnnn/new value" (ie adjust and try out as required). For other effects, the impact is less/minimal.
 

[JonB256]

I just tried "Alt-dragging" a set of ON effects to create a chase.

While it worked, just like the video, I had two problems.

1.  My model has 23 nodes (it is a non-pixel Marty Fan) and I could only work with the first 11 nodes or the last 12 nodes, but not all 23. Wouldn't scroll down to select more nodes.

2.  If I "Alt-drag" too far (past my desired end point), it wouldn't let me go backwards.

Is this normal? Using latest version 4.1.13