Fractal Architect 4 Help Index

Keyframe Video Animation

Applies to:FA 4

See also: Keyframe Window
See also: Video Rendering Topics

Keyframe Animation

New ! This animation is created from a list of keyframes by morphing from one keyframe to the next keyframe. So the animation sequence for just two keyframes is:

Keyframe Animation is actually the same as the older Loop Morph Animation style without the looping video frames.

Each thumbnail image now has a Frames text field so you can control how many video frames are used to morph to the next keyframe in the sequence.

Keyframe Animation Pane Controls

Keyframe Animation Pane Controls
Keyframe Animation Pane Controls
Video Frames (Per Animation Segment) for Looping and Morphing
Smoothing
Determines if spline smoothing is applied.
Curve Type
One of:

Linear Ramp

Ease In Ease Out Ramp

Ease In Ease Out Ramp2

Fast In Fast Out Ramp

High Quality Video

For each keyframe, a single animation segment for morphing is created. You can choose to break up the rendering by just rendering a subset of the animation segments.

The actual number of interpolated video frames for each animation segment is determined by adding up the individual Frames video frame count for each keyframe. The Frames text field is just below each keyframe’s thumbnail image. The number of video frames for each morph animation segment does not have to be the same.

You have the choice of directly creating a video or saving the interpolated frames to another flame file. If saved to another flame file, you can use the File menu > Render Keyframe Image Batch later to create a batch of image frames and create a video then.

Make Video button
Opens the Direct Video Rendering panel to make Quicktime movie.
Make Frames button
Opens the Direct Video Rendering panel to render video frame image files into a folder.
Start slider
The starting index of the first animation segment to interpolate (first = 0).
Length slider
Number of animation segments (not video frames) to interpolate.
Rendered Video Frame Count
The number of video frames that will be rendered based on the Length value.

Loop/Morph Animation

This animation is created from a list of keyframes by first “looping” each keyframe and then next morphing from that keyframe to the next keyframe. So the animation sequence for just two keyframes is:

What is looping?

If you open the Triangle Editor for a keyframe, the list of transforms each have a Rotates checkbox. When checked that transform will be “looped” during a Looping animation. If unchecked, then that transform is unchanged through the course of the Looping animation. Note: if no transform has its Rotates checkbox checked, the Looping Animation does nothing to the fractal.

On the Triangle editor, you can use the Animate CCW or Animate CW buttons to see the effect of the Looping Animation. You either need to specify the degrees of rotation (in the ComboBox below the set of buttons) or you can press the Interpolator button next to the Animate buttons to see an interpolated set of fractals with the Looping Animation.

The Looping Animation applies a rotation to the transform’s triangle (but only if its Rotates checkbox is checked).

Loop Morph Animation Pane Controls

Loop Morph Animation Pane Controls
Loop Morph Animation Pane Controls
Video frames (per Animation segment) for Looping and Morphing
Looping
Number of video frames to interpolate for each Looping segment.
Setting Looping to zero, gives the same result as Keyframe Animation.
Morphing
Number of video frames to interpolate for each Morphing segment
Total
Number of video frames total to interpolate for both Looping & Morphing.
Looping %
Slider for the percentage amount of Looping versus (Looping + Morphing).
Setting Looping % to zero, gives the same result as Keyframe Animation.
Smoothing
Determines if spline smoothing is applied.
Curve Type
New ! One of:

Linear Ramp

Ease In Ease Out Ramp

Ease In Ease Out Ramp2

Fast In Fast Out Ramp

High Quality Video

For each keyframe, two animation segments are created, one for looping and one for morphing. So if there are 6 keyframes, there will be 12 animation segments. You can choose to break up the rendering by just rendering a subset of the animation segments.

The actual number of interpolated video frames for a single animation segment is set with the Video Frames controls. You can create a long video in short pieces and merge them together using Quicktime Player or iMovie. a 5 minute video with a 30 second frame rate will have 9000 rendered image frames in it.

You have the choice of directly creating a video or saving the interpolated frames to another flame file. If saved to another flame file, you can use the File menu > Render Keyframe Image Batch later to create a batch of image frames and create a video then.

Make Video button
Opens the Direct Video Rendering panel to make Quicktime movie.
Make Frames button
Opens the Direct Video Rendering panel to render video frame image files into a folder.
Start slider
The starting index of the first animation segment to interpolate (first = 0).
Length slider
Number of animation segments (not video frames) to interpolate.
Rendered Video Frame Count
The number of video frames that will be rendered based on the Length value.

As-Is Video Animation Pane Controls

This pane is for creating video from pre-interpolated source frames. No extra interpolation is applied.

As-Is Video Animation Pane Controls
As-Is Video Animation Pane Controls
High Quality Video
Make Video button
Opens the Direct Video Rendering panel to make a Quicktime movie.
Make Frames* button
Opens the Direct Video Rendering panel to render video frame image files into a folder.
Start slider
The starting index of the first frame to include in the video (first = 0).
Length slider
Number of frames to include in the video.
Rendered Frame Count
The number of video frames that will be rendered based on the Length value.