Looping a TG animation.

[TheBadger]

Hello.

When I get my tax returns, I have the ambition of animating a 360 video in TG. I intend this to be a kinda mood piece where you simply sit there and turn your self in a swivel chair and just hang out and relax.

It will have a little wind (slight breeze mostly visible just in clouds/mist) And I will add sound and maybe some music in post.

However, I cannot see in my mind how I could loop the animation so that I only have to animate about 5-10 min. If it is looped than you can sit there as long as you want, and because it is 360 you can always have some place to turn your head so that it stays new and interesting (hopefully).

I need to understand a way that I can make the cloud movement begin at the same place it will end.

[Upon Infinity]

You could introduce a second layer of clouds at some point in the animation.  You could have it enter the scene with very little coverage.  At the same time, you could begin lessening the first layer's coverage.  Over time, keep increasing the coverage of the second layer, while decreasing the coverage of the first. You could span out the transition over time so that it isn't perceptible to viewers.  And then just have the second layer 'finish' exactly where the first one 'began' and exactly when the first layer goes out completely.

[TheBadger]

Something like that may work. I know that you can do stuff like that in after effects. That in after effects when doing motion graphics this is a normal idea. I'm Not terribly comfortable breaking ground in TG though.

[bigben]

Think of it from the perspective of a looping animation.   You want to change over time but you want to end at the point that you began.  So you need an animation that changes over time, and a second animation that changes over time AND ends at the point that you began. 

Cloud setup 1. Starts with clouds looking the way you want. For sake of example, lets say we're just animating the cloud PF upwards 500m. So at the end of the animation your cloud fractal is 500m higher and you gradually fade out the cloud to nothing... e.g. coverage to 0 or colour adjust shader on the PF increasing the black level from 0 to 1 (assuming cloud PF is clamped to 0-1)

Cloud setup 2. Duplicate cloud setup 1 but reverse the fading and cloud PF starts at -500m, so that at the end you're back where you started.  Then animation proceeds in the same direction (cloud is always moving upwards) but it ends where it started.

[TheBadger]

Thanks. I am working on the scene that I will try this on (a remix of my iceland entry). I will try this as soon as the scene is in a better place.
I have about two weeks before my oculus gets here. Hope to be ready by then. Got so many ideas I want to try and see how badly I can fail! 

One thing Terragen teach-ed  me, is to cheat as hard and as much as I can. And I have some simple ideas I want to try with TG and one of the game engines to get a lot of bang with no bucks. we will see though. Anyway, its a no lose situation for me... Even if I can't make shit work with the oculus, ill still have an oculus.    And a looped TG animation, so two cool things to play with.

Dont be surprised though if when the time comes, I am back here crying for help.

[bobbystahr]

Kind of like a mobius strip or an Escher cloud....

[ndeewolfwood]

Maybe a simple merge shader could do the trick.
I 've try a some stuffs like that in other softwares very successfully to loop animated smoke made with voxel simulation.
The main idea is to feed the 2 merge shaders input with the same cloud fractal but animated with a time offset for the second one.
For example with 1000 frames.
Input 2 at frame 1000 should be at the same position than input 1 at frame 1.

Then in the merge node.
Frame 1 full input 1
Frame 500 50% input 1 and 2
Frame 1000 full input 2.

[bobbystahr]

Maybe a simple merge shader could do the trick.
I 've try a some stuffs like that in other softwares very successfully to loop animated smoke made with voxel simulation.
The main idea is to feed the 2 merge shaders input with the same cloud fractal but animated with a time offset for the second one.
For example with 1000 frames.
Input 2 at frame 1000 should be at the same position than input 1 at frame 1.

Then in the merge node.
Frame 1 full input 1
Frame 500 50% input 1 and 2
Frame 1000 full input 2.

good one...i like this. We had a similar technique in Imagine 3D.....years back....

[TheBadger]

Thank you guys. I have bookmarked this thread.

Really what worries me is just that the only way to test this is to render animation. I just get so irritated with the down time involved in 3D work. All the waiting for *detailed* feedback... You all know how it feels.

I just have to time this with the excitement of getting my rift so that I can can keep my energy up, and hopefully get this working and then fine tuned in one day.

Sitting in a chair all day starring at a monitor is one of the hardest parts of working in 3D. The waiting can really kill you. You know?

[Dune]

Use a renderfam like Pixelplow; you get results in no time! I got no shares