Learning to morph

[PKingRoch]

I'm spending some time with SuperStar and I'm currently trying to figure out morphs. My vizualization consists of 4 CCRs arranged as 8 arches, each with the controller on the left and split in the center for 2 arches per CCR.

looks like this:
// // // //
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

The numbers are the arches. / is the first half of the arch and is the second half of the arch.

I want to have an effect where I morph from 1a/1b on the first pixel of the first controller and morph to the last pixel of the last controller. In my grid, I have 4 lines with 50 pixels each. State 1 is 0,0 for 1a & 1b. State 2 is 3,49 for 2a & 2b.

Main start and end is 100 red, Tail start is red, end is black. Tail lenght is 1.00.

Instead of going across all 8 arches from left to right, I get the first half of the 1st arch, the last half of the 3rd, then the 1st half of the 6th and the last half of the 8th.

Any pointers on what I'm doing wrong?

[PKingRoch]

Hmmm, lots of views, but no comments. maybe a couple of pics might help?

Start with this:


End with this


Really want this to go across all 8 arches from left to right.

Attached files

[PKingRoch]

Sorry first image should have been this:

Attached files

[BrianBruderer]

Good question. The interface of the SuperStar software is designed around a grid or a matrix of CCRs. So when you do one morph with the start point in the upper left, and the end point in the lower right, it draws a line between those two points and makes the morph travel down that line. If you had a Layout of 4 CCRs in a grid or a matrix it would make sense.
In the case of 8 arches as you have, there are 2 arches for each ribbon, and each ribbon is represented by one row on the green sequencing grid. To do a morph that travels across all 8 arches requires 4 morphs.

1) To do a morph across your first two arches, create a morph that starts at the left end of the top row, and ends on the right end of the top row.
2) To do a morph across the 3rd and 4th arches, create a morph that starts at the left end of the 2nd row, and ends on the right end of the 2nd row.
3) To do a morph across the 5th and 6th arches, create a morph that starts at the left end of the 3rd row, and ends on the right end of the 3rd row.
4) To do a morph across the 7th and 8th arches, create a morph that starts at the left end of the 4th row, and ends on the right end of the 4th row.

To make it look continuous, you must start the 2nd morph where the 1st morph ends, start the 3rd morph where the 2nd morph ends, start the 4th morph where the 3rd morph ends.

Hope the above makes sense. I admit that this is cumbersome, but once you get used to the concept there are a lot of things you can do with it besides the traditional bounce across the arches.

[PKingRoch]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the reply. That explains why this is happening perfectly, thank you!

Next question. Is there a way to change the layout of the grid so that it reflects a series of arches, or is that just a limitation of the software since it was designed for a matrix layout?

I'm trying to figure out if the software will be easier for me than using macros in the LOR sequence editor.

What would be great would be some samples of what could be done with arches to help shorten the learning curve and give me some additional ideas. Maybe I missed something online, but it appears that most of the samples are geared toward a matrix.

Thanks again Brian!

[BrianBruderer]

Right now, the green sequencing grid is always a matrix and so you have to sequence a series of arches using the approach I detailed in my earlier reply.

I think what you are looking for is a way to treat the arches as one long string. I do not plan on taking that approach. But there is a similar problem if you want to sequence any other shapes such as circles. When I did "Deck the Halls" for 4 circles, I did some patterns that snake from circle to circle. To do that, I had to do a series of short morphs, and it is not real easy to do.

What I really wanted was to be able to click on the circles, or click and drag on the circles to define a path and have it do the morph along that path. For your arches it would be cool to be able to click on the arches themselves and define start and end points for your morphs. To make a morph that goes from the first arch to the last arch you would click on the left end of the first arch and the right end of the last arch.

I would like to have something like that done August but I can't make any promises.

As for if the current SuperStar makes it any easy to sequence arches compared to the LOR Seuqence Editor; I would have to admit that it is not a lot easier. However, you can do things like a "comet" with a tail in the SuperStar Sequencer. Morphs allow you to define a head and a tail. My favorite thing to do is to define a white head with a colored tail. That is something you cannot do in the LOR Sequence Editor.

[PKingRoch]

Thanks Brian, got it.

Is the clipboard format or XML DTD for the LOR sequences defined anywhere?

[BrianBruderer]

PKingRoch wrote:

Thanks Brian, got it.

Is the clipboard format or XML DTD for the LOR sequences defined anywhere?

That would be a question for the LOR support folks. I just looked at the XML and reverse engineered it on my own.