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List of Experiments
1. Study of MAYA software 2. Study of FLASH software 3. Creating
a Flash Banner 4. Creating animation with Flash:
a. Creating a ghost (unshaped) 2D object b. Creating animation
with moving objects c. Adding sound to the animation (with play
button )
5. Creating a game using action script 6. Creating a flash based
presentation (4/5 frames) with UI controls 7. Study of VLC player,
its setting, streaming and non streaming techniques. 8. Study of
VRML 9. Creating a 3D object using 2D and show special effects for
the same
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LAB MANUAL
MULTIMEDIA SYSTEM DESIGN
Sem VIII (Revised)
B.E. Computer
RAMRAO ADIK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Prepared by:
Gaurav Sharma
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EXPERIMENT - 1
Study of MAYA software
AIM: To study the MAYA animation software in brief THEORY:
Introduction:
Maya is the 3-D animation software that provides a number of
tools for creating complex characters and animations. Maya's
powerful feature set gives us the flexibility to create any kind of
animation. The functionality of the Maya software can be extended
with the use of MEL (Maya embedded language). MEL can be used to
customize the user interface and write scripts and macros.
Maya can create objects, lights, cameras and textures. Any
object, light, camera, or just any entity can be animated by
changing the value of its parameters in time. We can use Maya, to
create effects or animations or movies, commercials, architectural
animation and forensic animation. Interface:
Maya user interface looks provides a large number of functions
and the scope to add more functions to the user interface which
provides the real flexibility to the program. Along with the common
functions there are set of functions dedicated to a more specific
task like modeling, texturing, animation, rendering etc. The
default Maya user interface can be divided into the following
sections.
Main Menu Bar Tools and items are accessible from pull down
menus located at the top of the user interface. In Maya, menus are
grouped into menu sets. These menu sets are accessible from the
Main Menu bar.
Status Line The Status Line, located directly below the Main
Menu bar, contains a variety of items, most of which are used while
modeling or working with objects within Maya. Many of the Status
Line items are represented by a graphical icon. The icons save
space in the Maya interface and allow for quick access to tools
used most often.
Shelf It contains different tools and commands which are used to
organize commonly used functions and tools into groups. Different
shelves can be created for different functions like modeling,
animation, texturing etc with the required tools for each
function.
Tool Box Maya Tool Box contains common tools as well as layout
buttons for changing views and layouts. The tool box contains: -
Select tool to select a particular object or a group of objects
together.
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- Lasso tool is used to draw a free hand border around the
objects to be selected. - Move, Rotate and Scale tools are used for
transforming objects in Maya. - Soft Modification tool is used to
select the sub-object elements and modify them by moving, rotating
or scaling in a way that the neighboring sub-objects also get
affected by this deformation with the effect being an inverse of
distance from the primary selected sub-objects. - Last Selected
tool section shows the last used tool for easy access. - Single
Perspective view button lets you view the workspace as a single
large view from a single perspective. - Four Views can be used to
view the workspace in four sections with each section containing
the three orthographic views top, side and front and a perspective
view respectively. Other combination options below these tools are
used to divide the workspace into different section in such a way
that one section contains the view of the scene and other contains
an animation or rendering editor so that you can edit the
attributes and watch the results simultaneously.
Workspace The Workspace displays by default in a perspective
window or panel. The purpose of using workspace is to view your
scene. The workspace can be divided into sections to accommodate
the orthographic and perspective views of the scenes as well as the
different editors for animation, texturing and rendering etc.
Panel Menus Every view panel has a common set of menus at the
top.
Time Slider & Range Slider The Two Sliders are for
controlling the frames in your animation. The Time Slider includes
the playback buttons and the current time indicator. The Range
slider includes start and end times and allows animators to focus
on a specific part of the animation.
Command Line The command Line lets you enter the MEL (Maya
embedded Language) commands to perform various functions. The left
side is where you can type MEL commands and the right half displays
system responses, error messages, and warnings.
Help Line Like several other applications, you can look at the
help line for descriptions, instructions, and other useful
information. While a tool is selected, the helpline gives out a
brief description for "how to" and "what for".
Channel box The Channelbox is on the right side of the screen.
In this menu you will find all the properties of selected objects,
and you can change those properties. If you apply a certain command
on an object, Maya will remember this. This is called the history
of an object and that is also shown here.
Layer editor It helps in working with different layers in an
animation. Objects can be placed in different layers and can be
edited using this tool.
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Components:
1. Fluid Effects
A realistic fluid simulator effective for simulating smoke,
fire, clouds and explosions.
2. Classic Cloth Cloth simulation to automatically simulate
clothing and fabrics moving realistically over an animated
character.
3. Fur Animal fur simulation similar to Maya Hair. It can be
used to simulate other fur-like objects, such as grass.
4. Hair A simulator for realistic-looking human hair implemented
using curves and Paint Effects. These are also known as dynamic
curves.
5. Maya Live A set of motion tracking tools for CG matching to
clean plate footage.
6. nCloth nCloth is the first implementation of Maya Nucleus,
Autodesk's simulation framework. It gives the artist further
control of cloth and material simulations.
7. nParticle nParticle is addendum to Maya Nucleus toolset.
nParticle is for simulating a wide range of complex 3D effects,
including liquids, clouds, smoke, spray, and dust.
8. MatchMover This enables compositing of CGI elements with
motion data from video and film sequences.
9. Composite It is an interactive node based film composing
solution.
10. Camera Sequencer Camera Sequencer is used to layout multiple
camera shots and manage them in one animation sequence.
Maya Embedded Language:
Maya has its very own cross-platform scripting language called
Maya Embedded Language. MEL is used not only for scripting, but
also as a means to customize the core functionality of the
software, since much of the tools and commands used are written in
it. Code can be used to engineer modifications, plug-ins or be
injected into runtime. Outside these superficial uses of the
language, user interaction is recorded in MEL, allowing even
inexperienced users to implement subroutines.
CONCLUSION:
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EXPERIMENT - 2
Study of FLASH software
AIM: To study the Flash software in detail. THEORY:
Introduction:
Flash is a drawing and animation package designed to work with
vector graphics. It creates animations which can include sounds,
music and interactivity, and which are optimized for use on the
web. Hence, the files it produces are small and designed for
streaming. Furthermore, all the elements which form part of a flash
movie are embedded within the movie. This means that, unlike a
standard web page which relies on the fonts and resources on the
client machine, as long as the user has the flash player installed,
the movie will play exactly as you design it. The default file
extension for a Flash file is .fla. Flash movie files can also be
published in .htm, .swf, .jpg, .exe, .png or as a projector
file.
Layout:
Toolbox:
The toolbox contains all tools necessary for drawing, viewing,
colouring and modifying your objects. Each tool in the toolbox
comes with a specific set of options to modify that tool. The
diagram below outlines the grouping of tools.
1. Arrow tool: It is used to select a single or a group of
objects.
2. Lasso tool:
It is used to select objects by drawing either freehand or
straight-edged selection area.
3. Text tool (A): It is used to include custom text with various
options like selecting a font, colour, style, etc.
4. Line tool:
It is used to draw a line with options of line width and
style.
5. Oval tool: It is used to draw an oval object. Ovals can be
filled with colours and outlines can be customized.
6. Rectangle tool:
It is used to draw a rectangular object.
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7. Pencil tool:
The Pencil tool is used to draw lines, shapes or freehand forms.
The pencil tool has three modifiers: straighten, smooth and ink.
Flash straightens or smoothens the freehand drawing made by this
tool.
8. Brush tool:
The Brush tool allows you to draw brush-like strokes for
creating special effects, including calligraphic effects and
paintings with an image. The brush tool has the following
modifiers: paint options, fill colour, gradient, brush size, brush
shape, lock fill.
9. Paint Bucket tool:
It is used to change the colour of the existing paint and fill
empty areas surrounded by lines.
10. Inkbottle tool: It allows to stroke lines and shapes with
only solid colours but no with no gradients or bitmaps.
11. Eraser tool: It erases lines and fills. It can also erase
selected items such as only lines or only fills, etc.
Timeline:
The timeline indicates what frame you are at and also indicates
the number of frames in your movie. Within the timeline you will
find layers - you can have any number of layers within a movie and
it is within these layers that you put your graphics, text, and
sounds.
Work Area:
The Work Area is not viewable when you play your movie, so it is
a place to work on objects or if you want your objects to fly in to
your movie then start them from the Work Area.
Stage:
The Stage is where all viewable objects lie. Anything on the
stage is seen by the user and will be seen in the animation.
CONCLUSION:
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EXPERIMENT - 3
Creating a Flash Banner
AIM: To study the process of creating a custom banner in Flash.
THEORY:
Introduction:
A web banner can be a form of advertising on the World Wide Web
that can be placed onto a web page. It is intended to attract
traffic to a website by linking to the website of the advertiser.
One way of creating a banner is using Flash banners are often used
as they can contain animation, sound, or video.
Steps for designing a simple Flash Banner:
1. Set the dimensions of all the images as per the size of the
banner with an image-editing program. Save and close the files and
the program.
2. Create a new Flash document and set frame rate and the
dimension. 3. Select the first frame of "picture 1" and press
"CTRL+R" to import an image to the stage. 4. Align the image to the
center of the stage using the "Align" panel (CTRL+F3). 5. Add
frames by pressing "F5." 6. Press "Insert layer" in the timeline
panel and to add new layers. 7. Insert a keyframe by pressing "F6."
8. Use the "Free Transform" tool from the "tools" panel. 9. Use
"Shape Tween" from the contextual menu. 10. Use these steps to
create custom flash banner.
Steps for making the Banner clickable:
1. Insert a new layer above the existing layers and rename it
"button." 2. Draw a rectangle with no stroke and the same
dimensions as the stage. 3. Select the rectangle and press "F8" to
convert it to a "Button" in the "New Symbol" dialog
box. 4. Enter the new button symbol by double-clicking the
rectangle. Drag the keyframe from "Up"
to "Hit." 5. Click on the Scene and select a frame of "button"
and press "F5." 6. Select frame 1 of "button" and press "F9" to
open the actionscript panel. 7. Type the following in the
actionscript panel:
on (release) { getURL ("http://www.anylink.com","_blank"); }
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8. Press "CTRL+ENTER" to test the finished Flash Banner.
CONCLUSION:
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EXPERIMENT - 4
Creating an Animation with Flash
AIM: To study the process of creating an animation with 2D
objects, motion and sound.
THEORY:
Introduction:
Flash allows us to create custom animations with still images,
moving objects, sound, text and special effects. Custom unshaped 2D
objects (ghosts) can be created by combining two or more predefined
objects or by using freehand tool such as the pencil tool.
A. Steps for creating an unshaped 2D object by combining
predefined objects:
There are 4 ways of combining objects, using the Combine Objects
commands in the Modify menu (Modify -> Combine Objects):
1. Union: It joins two or more flash drawing objects. Before
union, there are two objects which are united together into one
single object.
2. Intersect: It creates an object from the intersection of two
or more drawing objects.
3. Punch: It removes any part of a flash object which is
overlapped by the top-most object, and deletes the top-most object
entirely.
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4. Crop: It keeps any part of an underlying flash object which
overlaps with the top-most object, and deletes the other portions
of the underlying objects.
B. Creating animation with moving objects:
1. Set up the Stage. Set your Flash project to a size
appropriate to the animation you want by choosing the
menu Modify -- Movie from the menu bar, and then entering the
appropriate numbers into the boxes. Background color can also be
selected now
2. Create your Objects. You can create your own objects using
various freehand and shape tools or import image
or graphic elements by choosing File -- Import; from the menu
bar. You can also add text.
3. Animate the Objects. You can animate several aspects of an
object:
location: move the object from one place on the Stage to
another. transparency: make the object fade in and out of the
scene. rotation: make the object spin. size: make the object get
bigger and smaller.
4. Animating Location.
When you create or import the object, it goes into frame 1 in
the Timeline. The steps to make the object animate are as
follows:
1. Create or place the object on the Stage, where you want its
animation to start. It should show up in frame 1 on the
timeline.
2. Choose Insert -- Convert to Symbol from the menubar, and
convert the object to a Graphic symbol.
3. Create a keyframe in frame 15, by selecting frame 15 in the
timeline, and then choosing Insert -- Keyframe from the
menubar.
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4. With the keyframe (frame 15) selected in the timeline, choose
the black arrow tool, and then move the object to where you want it
to end its animation.
5. In the timeline, select frame 1. 6. Choose Insert -- Motion
Tween from the menubar. 7. Use the Control menu to rewind, and then
play the animation. 8. Watch the object move across the Stage.
C. Adding sound to the animation (with play button):
1. With Flash open, click "Menu->Import to Library." 2.
Locate and select the audio file that you want to play in your
Flash movie. 3. Select the file and click "Import." 4. Create a new
layer for the audio to keep your various functions separate on the
visible
timeline. 5. Insert a blank keyframe on the new layer where you
want the audio to start. If you want the
audio to stop after a certain number of frames, insert another
blank keyframe further down the timeline.
6. In the "Properties" panel at the bottom of the screen, click
the "Sound" dropdown menu to expand a list of the available audio
files in your library.
7. Select the name of the audio file that you imported. 8. If
you want to add sound effects, choose an effect (such as "Left
Channel" or "Fade Out")
from the Effects dropdown menu. 9. Choose an option from the
"Sync" dropdown menu, including "Event," "Start," "Stop," or
"Stream." 10. Enter a value for how many times you want the
audio to loop.
CONCLUSION:
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EXPERIMENT - 5
Creating a Game using ActionScript
AIM: To study the process of creating a game in flash using
ActionScript. THEORY:
Introduction:
Flash is widely used online for having banners, interactive
menus, animation for websites and so on. But one of its most
popular use for creating small standalone interactive games. Flash
games can use different types of multimedia element are generally
not very system intensive.
ActionScript:
ActionScript 3.0 is an object-oriented language originally
developed by Macromedia Inc. It has the same syntax and semantics
as JavaScript), and is used primarily for the development of
websites and software targeting the Flash Player platform, used on
Web pages in the form of embedded SWF files.
ActionScript was initially designed for controlling simple 2D
vector animations made in Flash. Initially focused on animation
with very few interactivity features it has evolved for adding
functionalities allowing for the creation of Web-based games and
rich Internet applications with streaming media (such as video and
audio).
Steps for creating a game using ActionScript:
CONCLUSION:
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EXPERIMENT - 6
Creating a Flash Based Presentation with UI Controls
AIM: To study the process of creating an animation with 2D
objects, motion and sound.
THEORY:
Introduction:
Flash is a popular platform independent format. Creating your
presentations in Flash enables you to playback your PowerPoint
presentations without installing any specialized software. Flash
presentation can also be viewed in any internet browser with flash
plug-in. Generally, flash based presentations require lesser space,
hence, can be distributed easily. All types of multimedia
components such as images, graphics, video and audio can easily be
incorporated in the presentation. Also, flash based presentations
can be made interactive.
Steps for creating a flash based presentation:
CONCLUSION:
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EXPERIMENT - 7
Study of VLC Player
AIM: To study the process of creating an animation with 2D
objects, motion and sound.
THEORY:
Introduction:
VLC media player is a free and open source media player and
multimedia framework written by the VideoLAN project. VLC is a
portable multimedia player, encoder, and streamer supporting many
audio and video codecs and file formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and
various streaming protocols. It is able to stream over networks and
to transcode multimedia files and save them into various formats.
It is a cross-platform media player, with versions for Microsoft
Windows, Mac OS X, GNU, Linux, BeOS, MorphOS, BSD, Solaris, iOS and
eComStation.
It can play:
MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 / DivX files from a hard disk, a
CD-ROM drive, and so on DVDs, VCDs, and Audio CDs From satellite
cards (DVB-S) Several types of network streams: UDP/RTP Unicast,
UDP/RTP Multicast, HTTP, RTSP,
MMS, etc. From acquisition or encoding cards (on GNU/Linux and
Windows only)
VLC can also be used as a streaming server.
Interface Elements:
1. File Menu
File menu is used for opening files and media.
Quick Open File Open a file quickly from your computer
Open File This option essentially gives you the opportunity to
open any kind of media from a disc, across the net, or from your
computer.
Open Directory This will open a directory and play each file one
after the other.
Open Disc Open a disc. This can be a DVD, audio CD, VCD etc
Open network Stream Open a file on the internet (usually a live
stream).
Open Capture Device If you have a webcam or other camera/sound
device, connected to your
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2. View Menu
The View menu allows you to see various VLC information
windows.
3. Settings Menu
All the settings and preferences are set here.
4. Audio Menu
This allows you to control the audio played back when listening
to a media file. Nothing will appear in this menu unless something
is being played back.
computer then you can see/hear it via this option in VLC.
Wizard This is used for creating streams, or converting media
formats (transcoding). This is really for the more advanced
user.
Exit quit VLC
Playlist If you have loaded many items to play in VLC then you
can see and manage the playlist here.
Messages Messages on the operations of VLC are displayed here
including useful error messages.
Stream and Media Info Information about the media playing
now.
VLM Control VideoLAN Manager - allows you to send several
streams at once through vlc. This is really an advanced function
and shouldn't be attempted by those with weak hearts.
Switch Interface
VLC has more than one graphic user interface type and you can
choose your favourite from this list.
Add Interface
Apart from the graphical interface, VLC can be controlled
through many other methods including through its very own webpage,
and through the command line. To use these features you'll need to
be a bit of an 'advanced' user.
Extended GUI
Beyond the default interface you see when you open VLC there is
an extended interface available with more options. These options
allow you to control the color (brightness, hue, contrast etc) of
the video played, as well as the quality and volume of the
audio.
Bookmarks Bookmark your media like you would bookmark a webpage
with a web browser.
Preferences All the preferences for every function.
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5. Video Menu
This allows you to control the video played back when watching
to a media file - the most interesting feature is the full screen
video mode. Nothing will appear in this menu unless something is
being played back.
6. Help
Basic information about VLC.
Streaming with VLC Media Player:
The easier way to start streaming with VLC is by using one of
the graphical user interfaces: wxwindows for Windows and GNU/Linux,
the skinnable Windows and GNU/Linux interface or the MacOS X native
interface.
Streaming using the GUI
A second way to set up a streaming instance using VLC is using
Stream Output panel in the Open... dialog of the wxWindows (Windows
/ GNU Linux), skinnable (Windows / GNU Linux) and MacOS X
interfaces.
To stream the opened media, check the "Stream output" checkbox
in the "Open File/Disc/Network Stream/Capture Device" dialog and
click on the "Settings" button.
Open file dialog - wxWindows interface
Output methods
Play localy: display the stream on your screen. This allows to
display the stream you are actually streaming. Effects of
transcoding, rescaling, etc... can be monitored locally using this
function.
File: Save the stream to a file. The Dump raw input option
allows to save the input stream as it read by VLC, without any
processing.
HTTP: Use the HTTP streaming method. Specify the IP address and
TCP port number on which to listen.
MMSH: This access method allows to stream to Microsoft Windows
Media Player. Specify the IP address and TCP port number on which
to listen.
UDP: Stream in unicast by providing an address in the 0.0.0.0 -
223.255.255.255 range or in multicast by providing an address in
the 224.0.0.0 - 239.255.255.255 range. It is also possible to
stream to IPv6 addresses.
RTP: Use the Real-Time Transfer Protocol. Like UDP, it can use
both unicast and multicast addresses.
Encapsulation method
Select an encapsulation method that fits the codecs and access
method of your stream, among MPEG TS, MPEG PS, MPEG 1, OGG, Raw,
ASF, AVI, MP4 and MOV.
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Transcoding options
Enable video transcoding by checking the "Video Codec" checkbox.
Choose a codec from the list. You can also specify an average
bitrate and scale the input.
Enable audio transcoding by checking the "Audio Codec" checkbox.
Choose a codec from the list. You can also specify an average
bitrate and the number of audio channels to encode.
Miscellaneous options
Select methods to announce your stream. You can use SAP (Service
Announce Protocol) or SLP (Service Location Protocol). You must
also specify a channel name. The Mac OS X interface also allows you
to export the description (SDP) file of a RTP session using the
internal HTTP or RTSP server of VLC, or as a file. This can be done
using the according checkboxes. The SDP URL text box allows you to
give the url or destination where the SDP file will be
available.
CONCLUSION:
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EXPERIMENT - 8
Study of VRML
AIM: To study the basics of Virtual Reality Modeling Language.
THEORY:
Introduction:
VRML (pronounced vermal) is a standard file format for
representing 3-dimensional (3D) interactive vector graphics,
designed particularly with the World Wide Web in mind. VRML is a
text file format where, e.g., vertices and edges for a 3D polygon
can be specified along with the surface color, UV mapped textures,
shininess, transparency, and so on.[2]URLs can be associated with
graphical components so that a web browser might fetch a webpage or
a new VRML file from the Internet when the user clicks on the
specific graphical component. Animations, sounds, lighting, and
other aspects of the virtual world can interact with the user or
may be triggered by external events such as timers. A special
Script Node allows the addition of program code (e.g., written in
Java or JavaScript (ECMAScript)) to a VRML file. VRML files are
commonly called "worlds" and have the *.wrl extension (for example
island.wrl). Although VRML worlds use a text format, they may often
be compressed using gzip so that they transfer over the internet
more quickly (some gzip compressed files use the *.wrz extension).
Many 3D modeling programs can save objects and scenes in VRML
format.
Features of VRML 2.0:
The overarching goal of VRML 2.0 is to provide a richer, more
exciting, more interactive user experience than is possible within
the static boundaries of VRML 1.0. The secondary goal is to provide
a solid foundation for future VRML expansion to grow from, and to
keep things as simple and as fast as possible for everyone from
browser developers to world designers to end users. VRML 2.0
provides the following extensions and enhancements to VRML 1.0:
1 Enhanced Static Worlds You can add realism to the static
geometry of your world using new features of VRML 2.0: New nodes
allow you to create ground-and-sky backdrops to scenes, add distant
mountains and clouds, and dim distant objects with fog. Another new
node lets you easily create irregular terrain instead of using flat
planes for ground surfaces. VRML 2.0 provides 3D spatial
sound-generating nodes to further enhance realism, for example, you
can put crickets, breaking glass, ringing telephones, or any other
sound into a scene.
2 Interaction No more moving like a ghost through cold, dead
worlds: now you can directly interact with objects and creatures
you encounter. New sensor nodes set off events when you move in
certain areas of a world and when you click certain objects. They
even let you drag objects
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or controls from one place to another. Another kind of sensor
keeps track of the passage of time, providing a basis for
everything from alarm clocks to repetitive animations. Collision
detection ensures that solid objects react like solid objects; you
bounce off them (or simply stop moving) when you run into them.
Terrain following allows you to travel up and down steps or
ramps.
3 Animation VRML2.0 includes a variety of animation objects
called Interpolators. This allows you to create pre-defined
animations of a many aspects of the world and then play it at some
opportune time. With animation interpolators you can create moving
objects such as flying birds, automatically opening doors, or
walking robots, objects that change color as they move, such as the
sun, objects that morph their geometry from one shape to another,
and you can create guided tours that automatically move the user
along a predefined path.
4 Scripting
VRML 2.0 wouldnt be able to move without the new Script nodes.
Using Scripts, you can not only animate creatures and objects in a
world, but give them a semblance of intelligence. Animated dogs can
fetch newspapers or Frisbees; clock hands can move; birds can fly;
robots can juggle. These effects are achieved by means of events; a
script takes input from sensors and generates events based on that
input which can change other nodes in the world. Events are passed
around among nodes by way of special statements called routes.
5 Prototyping In VRML 2.0, you can encapsulate a group of nodes
together as a new node type, a prototype, and then make that node
type available to anyone who wants to use it. You can then create
instances of the new type, each with different field values, for
instance, you could create a Robot prototype with a robotColor
field, and then create as many individual different-colored Robot
nodes as you like.
CONCLUSION:
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EXPERIMENT - 9
Creating a 3D Object using 2D Object and show Special Effects
for the same
AIM: To study the process of creating a 3D object using a 2D
object along with special effects.
THEORY:
Introduction:
Flash is extensively used for creating different types of
animations, presentations, games, etc in 2D. However, flash does
not support 3D but we can create the impression of 3D objects using
2D objects There are many different degrees of 3D you can implement
into a Flash movie. This can range anywhere from a simple zoom in
and out of a movie clip to a completely drawn spinning 3D
object.
The basic 3D from a normal, static view revolves around the
concept of perspective scaling in which the position of the object
in a 3D space is simulated using the position and scaling of the
object in the 2D space.
If there are more than one 3D objects then we have to make sure
that together they all correctly overlap each other to show
correctly who's closest and 'on top'. This is the adjustment of
transposition or overlapping.
CONCLUSION: