aurora
08-23-2005, 07:16 PM
I have finally called it good for a Version 1 release on a plugin I have been working on for a while called Aurora_Attractor. Basically Aurora_Attractor is a plugin that creates strange attractors in LightWave. What are strange attractors you ask? Well simple put they are a class of differential equations which generally have no analytical solution but does have numerical solutions. What makes them unique is that each viable solution for an attractor has successive points which orbit around one or more basins of attraction. Think of the classic demonstration of a marble circling around a bowling ball on a large rubber mat to demonstrate gravity wells.
So basically thats what Aurora_Attractor does, it draws out these attractors. There are actually two plugins right now, one for Modeler and one for Layout.
More info and on the plugins plus the downloads can be found here
Aurora_Attractor Home Page (http://www.auroragrafx.com/Software/Attr/index.shtml)
But more importantly for real information, updates and other things dealing with Aurora_Attractor as well as strange attractors and other artistic forms of chaos can be found at 3DRecursions (http://3drecursions.com/forum/index.php) .
http://www.auroragrafx.com/Software/Attr/Attr_Images/DemoMovie_1.jpg
http://www.auroragrafx.com/Software/Attr/Attr_Images/DemoMovie_2.jpg
http://www.auroragrafx.com/Software/Attr/Attr_Images/DemoMovie_3.jpg
http://www.auroragrafx.com/Software/Attr/Attr_Images/DemoMovie_4.jpg
The above images are from a short movie clip.This movie is just over a minute long and demonstrates a little of what can be done with Aurora_Attractor, both Modeler and Layout versions.
The first part is an animated attractor from Layout with only one parameter being animated. The same attractor was also created in Modeler using point polys which where then used to create the particle effects with the emitters set to emit from the vertex normal.
The second part is another single attractor with two different parameters being animated over time as the camera first moves around the attractor and then through it to show the dimensionality of attractors.
The third part is the bug genesis and was done in Layout using a single attractor with a single animated parameter. In addition the attractor used mirror symmetry and a projection to create the bug form. (A tutorial on creating the bug is coming shortly)
The next phase in bug genesis is the same attractor setup created in Modeler and rigged for animation. The ground plane is a second attractor.
The final phase of the bug genesis is the transform from the bug to yet another attractor and finally to the Aurora Attractor title. The transform was a short series of morphs which was orchestrated with TAFA (Timothy Albees Facial Animation Studio.) The path the bug transform follows is also an attractor that was created in Modeler using curves and then setup as a motion path. The title text and end credits are the only things that were not created with the Aurora_Attractor.
The whole project was render with the native LW renderer and comped in Digital Fusion.
The song is from 'More Then This' by The Cure, (LTD/BMG Music Publishing 1998).
Yes I know there are a couple of really jerky camera moves and the bug animation is weak at best but this was just a quick and dirty test demo to show some of the capabilities of Aurora_Attractor. Also note that no attractor was created with more then 10,000 iterations which is actually very, very low res for a decent attractor but provides extremely fast development and rendering. There's much, much more and better to come!
Download the clip here (right click save as)
AuroraAttractor_Demo Movie (http://www.auroragrafx.com/Software/Attr/Files/AAttractor_Demo.zip)
So basically thats what Aurora_Attractor does, it draws out these attractors. There are actually two plugins right now, one for Modeler and one for Layout.
More info and on the plugins plus the downloads can be found here
Aurora_Attractor Home Page (http://www.auroragrafx.com/Software/Attr/index.shtml)
But more importantly for real information, updates and other things dealing with Aurora_Attractor as well as strange attractors and other artistic forms of chaos can be found at 3DRecursions (http://3drecursions.com/forum/index.php) .
http://www.auroragrafx.com/Software/Attr/Attr_Images/DemoMovie_1.jpg
http://www.auroragrafx.com/Software/Attr/Attr_Images/DemoMovie_2.jpg
http://www.auroragrafx.com/Software/Attr/Attr_Images/DemoMovie_3.jpg
http://www.auroragrafx.com/Software/Attr/Attr_Images/DemoMovie_4.jpg
The above images are from a short movie clip.This movie is just over a minute long and demonstrates a little of what can be done with Aurora_Attractor, both Modeler and Layout versions.
The first part is an animated attractor from Layout with only one parameter being animated. The same attractor was also created in Modeler using point polys which where then used to create the particle effects with the emitters set to emit from the vertex normal.
The second part is another single attractor with two different parameters being animated over time as the camera first moves around the attractor and then through it to show the dimensionality of attractors.
The third part is the bug genesis and was done in Layout using a single attractor with a single animated parameter. In addition the attractor used mirror symmetry and a projection to create the bug form. (A tutorial on creating the bug is coming shortly)
The next phase in bug genesis is the same attractor setup created in Modeler and rigged for animation. The ground plane is a second attractor.
The final phase of the bug genesis is the transform from the bug to yet another attractor and finally to the Aurora Attractor title. The transform was a short series of morphs which was orchestrated with TAFA (Timothy Albees Facial Animation Studio.) The path the bug transform follows is also an attractor that was created in Modeler using curves and then setup as a motion path. The title text and end credits are the only things that were not created with the Aurora_Attractor.
The whole project was render with the native LW renderer and comped in Digital Fusion.
The song is from 'More Then This' by The Cure, (LTD/BMG Music Publishing 1998).
Yes I know there are a couple of really jerky camera moves and the bug animation is weak at best but this was just a quick and dirty test demo to show some of the capabilities of Aurora_Attractor. Also note that no attractor was created with more then 10,000 iterations which is actually very, very low res for a decent attractor but provides extremely fast development and rendering. There's much, much more and better to come!
Download the clip here (right click save as)
AuroraAttractor_Demo Movie (http://www.auroragrafx.com/Software/Attr/Files/AAttractor_Demo.zip)