Creating a Morph

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In the Light-O-Rama SuperStar Sequencer, a "Morph" consists of the following:

 

Layer: Defines priority if there are collisions (future)
Acceleration: The morph can accelerate as it goes from "State 1" to "State 2"

 

State 1 and State 2 each consist of:

 

1.Start point and end point of a line
2.Color
3.Time
4.Trail length

 

Ramp consists of:

 

1.Start color
2.End color
3.Time length

 

Here is an example of how to create a morph:

 

Get a new screen
Launch the Morph dialog box
Observe the default settings
Add first morph
Play the morph
Set a simple morph with a different start and end color
Modify the morph
Play the morph
Add a trail length
Modify the current morph
Play the morph again
Change the State 1 line to a vertical line
Change the State 2 line to a vertical line
Set color of the State 2 line to 100% green
Set the time to 2.00 to 3.00
Add a second morph
Play the morph
The morph twist
Save your morph
Morph summary
The length of a morph

 

Get a new screen

 

Click on the toolbar button that has a picture of a piece of paper on it.

 

Launch the Morph dialog box

 

Click on the Tools menu and select Morph.  The Morph dialog box will launch, and the Scene dialog box will automatically be shut down.  Whenever the Morph dialog box is launched, the "Morph" mode is automatically selected, and the black toolbar button with horizontal lines on it will be depressed.

 

Observe the default settings

 

By default, a red line for State 1 will be at the top of the pixel grid, and a red line for State 2 will be at the bottom of the pixel grid.  The time duration will be 1.00 to 2.00 seconds.  The trailing ramp start color will be red, and the time length will be 1.00 seconds.

 

Add first morph

 

Press the "Add" button to add the morph.

 

Play the morph

 

On the toolbar, press the Play button.  At 1.00 seconds, a red line will start from the top and go down to the bottom, leaving a trail that fades to black in one second.

 

Set a simple morph with a different start and end color

 

Leave the start color at red.  Set the end color to blue.  Set the Trailing Ramp Time length to 0.00.

 

Modify the morph

 

Press the "Modify" button to modify the selected morph.

 

Play the morph

 

On the toolbar, press the Play button.  At 1.00 seconds, a red line will start from the top and go down to the bottom.  The line will change from red to purple and then to blue by the time it reaches the bottom at 2.00 seconds.

 

Add a trail length

 

The trail length defaults to 1.  Make the morph leave a trail by typing in a number in the Trail Length field.  For this exercise, change the State 1 Trail Length to 2, and change the State 2 Trail Length to 10.

 

Modify the current morph

 

Click on the "Modify" button.  This applies your changes to the currently selected morph in the morph list.

 

Play the morph again

 

This time, the morph will leave a trail of two lines at the top, and will change to leaving a trail of 10 lines at the bottom.

 

Change the State 1 line to a vertical line

 

The State 1 line is defined using a click and drag with the left mouse button.  Note that one end of the State 1 line is labeled "1a"and the other end is labeled "1b".  The start of the mouse drag will be "1a" and the end will be "1b".  Make a vertical line by dragging on the left side of the pixel grid.  Make your selection from top to bottom.  When you are done, the top of the line should be labeled "1a", and the bottom of the line should be labeled "1b".

 

Change the State 2 line to a vertical line

 

The State 2 line is defined using a click and drag with the right mouse button.  Note that one end of the State 2 line is labeled "2a" and the other end is labeled "2b".  The start of the mouse drag will be "2a" and the end of the drag will be "2b".  Make a vertical line by dragging on the right side of the pixel grid.  Make your selection from top to bottom.  When you are done, the top of the line should be labeled "2a" and the bottom of the line should be labeled "2b".

 

Set color of the State 2 line to 100% green

 

The color of the State 2 line is controlled by the right color controls.  Set the right Blue control to 0% and the right Green control to 100%.  This will change the State 2 line color from blue to green.

 

Set the time to 2.00 to 3.00

 

You can do this with the mouse on the time scale, or you can type the values into the dialog box.  State 1 time is the start time, and State 2 time is the end time.

 

Add a second morph

 

Press the "Add" button to add the second morph.

 

Play the morph

 

On the toolbar, press the Play button.  At 1.00 seconds, the first morph will play as it did before.  At 2.00 seconds, the second morph will start from the left and end at the right.

 

The morph twist

 

Set the Trailing Ramp Time Length back to 1.00 seconds.  The Trailing Ramp start color should be 100% red.  Redefine the State 1 line by doing a mouse drag from bottom to top.  Now "1a" will be on the bottom, and "1b" will be on the top.  Click on the "Modify" button.  Play the morph.

 

This time, the line will twist as it travels across.  The effect will be that the line will become shorter in the middle and then get bigger.  This is because as the morph progresses, point "1a" moves to point  "2a", and point "1b" moves to point "2b".

 

Save your morph

 

Click on the File menu and select "Save As".  Save the morphs you have created as a file named "MyMorphs.sup".  Note that files can contain any combination of scenes and morphs.  In this example, you saved them separately, but you could have saved your scenes and morphs together into a file of any name you choose.

 

Morph summary

 

Are morphs cool or what? You can do a lot with morphs.  In the exercise, we morphed between two horizontal lines and between two vertical lines.  You can also morph between diagonal lines.

 

Trail Length and Ramp can end up giving similar effects, but are applied differently.  Trail Length leaves a trail that is a certain number of units long. Ramp is applied after the Trail effect, and is on for a fixed period of time.  Experiment with different Trail and Ramp settings to get a feel for how they work.

 

The length of a morph

 

Most people won't care about the details of the total length of a morph.  But for those that really want to know, there are three parts to a morph:

 

1.Root: This is the time for the leading edge of the morph to travel from State 1 to State 2.
2.Trail Length: The State 2 Trail Length will add the length of the trail at the end of the morph.  This trail will take some time to travel past the end location of the morph.  State 2 Trail Length includes the leading pixel, so State 2 Trail Length of 1 really ends up creating a trail of 0.  For a Trail Length to be as long as the Root, the State 2 Trail Length should be 1 longer than the length of the morph.  For example, if the morph goes the entire length of 50 pixels on the ribbon, then a State 2 Trail Length of 51 will double the time length of the morph.
3.Ramp Length: The ramp length is in seconds, and is applied after the Root and Trail.

 

The length of the Trail and the Ramp are displayed on the timeline as a narrow rectangle.  Note that only the root can be selected.  Clicking on the trail or the ramp will not do anything.