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I did the animation part in Maya; the liquid was build from metablobs. If you?re unfamiliar with this term, a metablob is a 3D field of influence?it can attract or repel other blobs, and Maya, and other modeling apps, mostly) support spherical, tube-shaped, and boxlike metablob fields. They?re ideal for sculpting; you can get some realistic forms going with a fraction of the time and effort used to skin, deform, or otherwise fiddle with polygons or spline NURBs shapes.
Post-production is always a must! I used ImageReady as the GIF compiler; it enabled me to preview the massive amount of data loss necessary to pack the animation into a <100k GIF file. Additionally, I created the tile ground and the corresponding bump map in Xara and Photoshop CS2 (anyone want a review of CS2 posted here?). I used Right Hemisphere?s Deep Paint to create the no-skid rusty background. In a lot of respects, it really puts Painter to shame (again, I?ll review it here if you like).
Anyone else have an animation they?d like to share?
I used a combo of programs (being a good Application Converger) to create this 12-cel animation, which is sort of long for a GIF, and I had to discard a LOT of visual info to get it down under 100k!). First, I created the blue 8th note profile in Xara, exported it to Illustrator as PS info, and then extruded it using the new Illustrator CS Dimensions add-on. I then exported it with a clipping mask to Targa format to Flo? a pixel-twisting app that actually inspired Goo and Adobe?s Liquify filter (it?s bi-platform and the Macintosh version has a film option and will export layers) Flo? rendered Targa frames of the bending action as separate files, and I merged them into a multi-layer Photoshop file. I then grouped the frames (layers) and copied the group nine times. I repositioned the suckers, and slightly offset the layer order to make each note in the background appear as though it was behaving independently of the other notes.
The microphone design was based on clipart I downloaded thanks to a Google search (a wonderful way to quickly collect reference material!). I drew the basic profiles in Xara, and then exported them to trueSpace 6. I created an environment map in Photoshop using simple black and white strips, and then I used the Polar Coordinates Distort filter to mess with the stripes. There was no point to ray-tracing a scene that had no native reflections! I Flo?-ed the microphone render, and then put each still frame on a layer in front of the notes.
Would links to the more esoteric software be of use to anyone?
"Infinity" seems like a good concept to animate! [confused]
I created the spline in Xara, then offset it into three dimensions, skinned the spline, and rendered stills from Maya. Then I used ImageReady to compile it.
Um, actually, the microphone animation wouldn't be easier to create using the Liquify filter (or warping--is that what you're referring to?)--I tried it, and Flo' (or KPT Goo) have timeline editors, which make them ideal for creating animation stills.
By all means post your work, 2D or 3D animation! I, and I'm sure others, would love to see your work, and how you can squeeze a tiny story into 100K!
3D animation 
Linear Mode
