Zzot

The Get->Primitive commands are available in all modules except Tools. They let you define primitive objects which are basic objects with a fixed geometric structure.

For detailed descriptions of polygon mesh objects, curves, and surfaces, as well as the modelling tasks you can perform with them, see the Modelling User's Guide.

The Get->Zzot command allows you to create effects like sparkles and lightning.

Procedure

1. Create a source model and a destination model. Both models may be curves or polygon meshes.
   
   Note:
   
   The Zzot effect does not work with patch objects.
   
2. Choose the Get->Zzot command. The Zzot dialogue box is displayed.
3. Set the parameters as desired.
4. Click Ok.
5. Select the source model.
6. Select the destination model.

A new model is created based on the parameters set, and on the source and destination models.

Parameters

Objects

The number of objects to create. If creating more than one, the first object is the parent of the others.

Points

The number of points of the first branch of the generated curve or object (the curve detail).

Depth

The depth of the lightning (a tree structure). If this number is 1, a single branch is created.

Fecundity

The probability for each branch to be created. A low value cuts many branches, while 1.0 outputs the entire tree.

Heritage

The percentage of magnitude and number of points that each child inherits from its parent. A value of 0.5 means that each branch is half the length of its parent.

Scale

Defines the amount of roughness on the object. A value of 1 creates a straight line.

Smoothness

This value describes the amount of local roughness of the curve (fractal dimension). A value of 0 means a high degree of roughness, and a value of 1 is a smooth line.

Children

The number of sparkles generated by each parent.

Min. Angle and Max. Angle

The solid angles where the branches can expand. For example, if Min. Angle is 89 and Max. Angle is 91, all the branches are normal to the parent's direction.

Seed

Determines how the random number generator is initialized. If you create two Zzot effects with the same source models and the same seed, the simulations are always the same (that is, they use the same random numbers to calculate the effect). With different seeds, the random number changes, producing slightly different effects. You can use any number from 1 to 100 as a random seed.

Seed Increment

This number sets the increment for the random number generator if you have more than one object.

Name

This text box lets you specify a name for the model that is created by the custom effect. You can modify the name of the model again later, using the Info->Selection command.

Model Type

• Spline creates a curve (spline). You must select the desired curve type: Linear, Cardinal, B-Spline, or Bezier.
• Mesh creates a polygon mesh strip.
  • Size is the thickness of the resulting strip.
  • Size Heritage is the percentage of thickness that each parent inherits from its immediate parent.
  • Single Mesh creates a single polygon mesh.
  • Hierarchy creates a hierarchy of objects.

Notes

• You can tag points on the source and destination polygon mesh to define a path that the main branch of lightning or sparkles travel. By default, the main branch of lightning or sparkles travels from the source centre to the destination centre. The other branches travel according to the parameters set: otherwise, the tagged points attract all the branches.
• One-branch lightning with the same number of points and different Seed, Smoothness, and Scale values can be easily animated using Shape interpolation, which creates sparkling visual effects. More visual effects can be added by generating two sequences of sparkles created using the same parameters, but modifying the Size width of the sparkle to make one bigger than the other. You can then blur the width using tools like Painterly Effects and composite the thinner one over the blurred one.

Last updated 02-apr-1998