I'm still doing the murmuration but yesterday whilst trying to create a Bezier curve for a target to follow so that in turn the Starling flocks can follow the target I stumbled upon Animation Nodes. Having had a quick and baffling look they seem an excellent sub programme. So far I can only find them, load them and make a mess with them, anyone who would like to know more then look for tutorials, there are a few on Youtube. If I can help I will. It doesn't only produce mathematical curves but seems to do lots of other arcane stuff as well. Few folk can remember trig functions but Wolfram Math have a good selection. I have had an unsuccessful play at creating a Celtic Knot. I get so far but the knot won't close at 2π this causes a problem as 2π is the limit in trig functions. Pi is also a problem as Alt 227 doesn't work anymore and using the character map takes ages. Bloody computers.
Here is a quick video.
Have a good weekend.
Here is a quick video.
Hi Adrian - try alt960 for pi. Works in 'word' but doesn't seem to work in blogger. I'm just going to try 'copy and paste' from word - π - yep, works that way!
ReplyDeleteJust had an idea (I do occasionally, but most are as crackpot as this one!) - rather than try and remember all those alt codes, why not have a 'Word' document with them all in, and at the ready so you can just cut and paste.
ReplyDeleteThat is an excellent idea the only one I use regularly is degrees ° Alt 0176 but ° Alt 248 works as well. I'll do a crib sheet with theta, square, cube and pi; just add to it when necessary.
DeleteThank you Richard.
I've got most of them printed out on paper - never thought, until now, that I should just copy them off the PC - durrr! The others that I sometimes use are copyright alt-0169, quarter alt-0188, half alt-0189, three quarters alt-0190, the male symbol alt-11, and female symbol alt-12
DeleteRichard I did have PDF but it disappeared when I had or the machine had a massive crash about a month ago. It cleared out a lot of rubbish but I did lose some stuff. Little numbers at the to and bottom of the font are useful if you are using roots, logs etc. I tend only to use them in emails when trying to explain stuff to folk. ° is a bit dangerous as all computers calculate in radians but modern software will accept degrees and sort the job out. Older CNC machines won't so one has to be careful. Older software will not accept 360° rotations as it sees it as zero and won't shift. Okay if you are talking rotation but if you are animating a tool path or an orbit it is a little disconcerting when nowt happens. Latest versions of Blender accept 360°. Earlier versions would accept 359.75° which was near enough for a video animation. I wish I was born twenty years later, I'd know this stuff and also have half a chance with the haircutter lady. Mind, if I had the haircutter to entertain I wouldn't be bothered with this trivia.
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