Sean Meighan
Software => Nutcracker Effects => Topic started by: jck49 on March 24, 2015, 04:36:57 PM
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can someone tell me about what the morph effect does or is there a video on this
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If you have one effect and want it to make a softer transition to a new effect then you would select morph as an option and then the first effect would 'morph' into the second effect without a sharp transition from one to the other.
It is the same as taking a picture and morphing it from one thing into another, except here you are morphing two effects together.
Does that help?
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there are two "Morph"'s now
1) a Morph button. This has been there for the last year. It acts as a cross-fade from one effect to teh next
2) A brand new effect called "Morph". Gil Jones created this to create some SuperStar like effects
see Gils description of the new effect here
http://nutcracker123.com/forum/index.php?topic=931.msg5036#msg5036
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Yeah the effect is operational but not quite finished. I've been so busy fixing other things I haven't taken time to make a video showing all the aspects of it. To start out with it and get a feel for it put it on a layer but don't drag it out too long. It will look like it's moving really slow if you make it like 30 seconds so try 3 seconds to learn about what it does. I don't think the defaults are set good right now. Try unchecking the Link points box on both the start and end tabs. Then on the start tab put all the sliders to the left except X2 put all the way to the right. On the end tab put all sliders to the right except X1 all the way to the left. That should create a morph that covers the entire model. From there you can experiment with different colors and move the sliders around one at a time to see how it affects the morph. You are basically defining the start and end points for a vector that moves across the model. Make sure you check 4 color boxes.
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The morph effect is great! Here's one setting I'll share for now.
This will give a nice blast from top to bottom. Pick any 3 colors and black as the right most color on the picker.
Set the x,y sliders full as follows:
Start End
L L
R L
R R
R L
Length to about 20% and unlink the points.
Can't wait till the effect presets is working so we save this stuff!
Until then I'm creating a sequence with nothing but effects done so I can later copy/paste/save/share etc.
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We do have sort of an undocumented copy/paste. If you click on an existing effect and then drag an icon of that same effect you can get a copy of those settings in the new effect you dropped.
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Here's my version of a cheat sheet for a mega tree morph effect.. The settings create a ribbon, or whispers of smoke. Modify the settings with an asterick to adjust the thickness of the ribbon. Layer a few of these, staggering the start and stop of the effect, throw in a few sparkles and it may produce something interesting. All of the numbers are indicating the position of the slider, from 0 - 100 (L - R).
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I'm having issues getting the head color correct. I have a morph that sweeps right across 12 mini trees. I have 3 colors, red, green, and black. I use black to better fade. On options, nothing is checked. The effect is over 3 seconds in length. I can have head duration turned all of the way up, and yet, the color red only shows very briefly.
The main issue, what shows in the sequence is not representative of what plays. To me, if it shows 2 seconds of red, it should be playing red.
Can this be looked at further?
James
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If you believe that this is a bug you should post this in the issue tracker located here:
https://github.com/smeighan/xLights/issues
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It's working fine. You probably don't have the end length for the head long enough to see it. There is a starting and ending length for the head. It can grow and shrink.
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If you think the length is fine then it would have to be something to do with the grouping of the mini tree cause I know the effect works fine on a matrix for all numbers and colors. I've been through it with a fine toothed comb there are no bugs in that effect.
I don't really look at the issue tracker anymore it got too clogged with frivolous observations.
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If you think the length is fine then it would have to be something to do with the grouping of the mini tree cause I know the effect works fine on a matrix for all numbers and colors. I've been through it with a fine toothed comb there are no bugs in that effect.
I don't really look at the issue tracker anymore it got too clogged with frivolous observations.
I posted in Github.
I have played with the morphs for an hour. I have a house outline, eaves, sides, windows, etc, all in a group. I added in the sequencer with several layers. I can tell you, there are some issues. If I use one color, it's fine, but as soon as I start adding colors, things just don't line up. Also, revealing into other layers doesn't work well.
This might be an issue that will require a teamviewer session, so you can see for yourself.
James
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How can you say it's not right? It's FREE. It's open source. Feel free to download the code and troubleshoot.
It's from the kindness and time away from family, church friends that the programmers put this together for us. The Morph effect definitely works but not the way you want it to?
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How can you say it's not right? It's FREE. It's open source. Feel free to download the code and troubleshoot.
It's from the kindness and time away from family, church friends that the programmers put this together for us. The Morph effect definitely works but not the way you want it to?
Seriously? I'm trying to help.
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Try it on a single model. If it works there then it's not the effect that has the problem. You keep mentioning a model group. Have you tried other effects that sweep colors on that group? I tested that scenario before I left and the effect was working right with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 colors selected. Try 4 colors and set the first 2 to the same color because they both apply to the head. If that doesn't work then we know it's a problem with the models and not the effect.
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Try it on a single model. If it works there then it's not the effect that has the problem. You keep mentioning a model group. Have you tried other effects that sweep colors on that group? I tested that scenario before I left and the effect was working right with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 colors selected. Try 4 colors and set the first 2 to the same color because they both apply to the head. If that doesn't work then we know it's a problem with the models and not the effect.
I will try those things. So, only the first two colors link to the head? Is this the first two boxes, or first two selected, or both?
James
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Technically a morph always uses 4 colors: head start, head end, tail start, and tail end. If you select less than 4 then we try to make smart choices. If you only choose 1 color then that is assigned to all 4. If you choose 2 colors we assign the first color to the two head colors and the second color to the two tail colors. If you select 3 colors we assign the first color to the two head colors, the second color to the tail start color, and the third color to the tail end color. If you select 4 colors its a 1:1 mapping. Only the boxes with checkmarks feed colors to the palette choices.
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Just to be sure, is this how the colors are mapped for morph???
(http://stevesimages.com/xl4/morph-colors.jpg)
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Yep that's how they will map if you select 4. I usually like the head to stay the same color so using 3 works for that.