The Interpolation Widget

A Digit Widget Zscript Tutorial

I thought I would save Juandel's great tutorial on using this script to make an Earth/Moon image. Here it is

I wanted to find out if i was able to use Digits superduper interpolation script for something "on purpose" this time and decided i’ll give an earth/moon/phases pic a try (i assume the distance-ratio to be mucho perverted and the pic to be everything but a realistic representation but for those who are interested in exploring the script but have not done so up-to-now i’ll give some settings below anyway

So here is what i did using Digits interpolate script for doing an orbit like the one above

• On a layer of its own i "created" earth in a second by applying texture 24 to a sphere. by default it’s center is set at z-depth 0. while in transformation mode i hit the "use current" button in the davey "nose pointer" section of the script’s commands in order to make the moon face the earth in the same way from all directions (as i think that is what it does in "reality", too). (PS: in other cases it might be appropriate to leave this step out and instead use the rotate-functions, that Digits implemented in his fantastico script... in order to do so you might want to set the objects at mark1 and mark2 and the attractor point(s) (see below) each with differing rotations and press the C-rotateit instead of the C-point button in the last step below
• i created a new layer and the moon by applying texture 28 to a smaller sphere which i drew beside the earth to have it’s center a z-depth 0, too. i hit "w" and dragged it to the left (only a small part of the gyro was still visible). i went to the "curve objects interpolates" section of the script’s commands and clicked the "3point" command, thus activating the load point_1 command, which i clicked, too. doing so, i saved the "attractor" for the curve i had in mind.
• i dragged the moon back into view again and moved it in front by dragging the cursor downwards outside of the gyro several times. while doing so i kept an eye onto the z-settings in the transform-palettes info-panel and when i had reached -800 (for instance; as you probably know, negative values indicate, that pixols are getting in front) i hit "e" to be able to scale the moon. i enlarged it to what i thought to be double size (but as you can see i did not enlarge it sufficiently ), hit "w", dragged it into the lower right corner and snapshot it. furthermore i hit the save-button in the "position marks" section of the script after making sure, that "selectMark1" was active. with this, i set the position from which the curve would start (Mark1).
• i started dragging the cursor upwards out of the gyro until the z-depth in the info-panel read about 800 (positive to make the pixols sit "behind" the 0-level that earth was sitting on). i dragged the further away moon a bit upwards, hit "e" to be able to scale it and by dragging the cursor outside of the gyro i minimized the moon. i snapshot it and in the "position marks" section of the script hit the m+ button, so selectMark2 showed up... followed by a click on "save" to save the settings of the endpoint of the curve (Mark2).
• end of setting the settings!
• now for the fun: back into the "Curve Object Interpolates" section of the script’s commands: i activated C-moveit, C-sizeit, C-snapshot and C-point and hit "run interpolation"... ploinkploinkploink, here they come! if you are not satisfied with the number of moons (or whatever you are interpolating) make them disappear with command-z (after leaving transformation mode) and change the settings in the Ctime box. draw a new moon anywhere and try again by hitting "run interpolation". i think i did it at Ctime .18 but playing around with these settings is mucho fun so don’t miss it.

Digit's Notes

Also you can let Digits Widgets Scale the size of the moon for you

Before you make your position markers

1. place the moon at 0 Zdepth and size it
2. Since you selected +-800 units of Z for your start and end, locate the "Zdepth Area Size" section of the script. Make the "MaxZdepth" about 1600 and press "RefObject". This sets the work area at +-1600 so that your moon at +800 will be 50% larger and at -800 it will be 50% smaller.
3. Make Position Marker 1 by placing the moon at -800 Z and the correct XY then press "SizeObject" This will correctly size the moon 50% smaller. Press the Position Marker "Save" to create Marker 1
4. Move the moon to +800 Z and XY and press "SizeObject" this will make the moon 50% larger than it was at 0 Z. Press the "M+" to increment the Position Marker to #2 and press "Save" to save it

I might mention that you can use the "ZdepthMult" to further control the Zdepth size. If you set it to 1.5 in the example above at +800 the moon would be 75% larger not 50%. You use this to control the magnitude of the depth curve to your liking.

Now you are ready to do the rest. As you mentioned you could use the "C-Rotateit" switch to interpolate the rotation from Marker 1 to Marker 2 but the "C-Pointit" function is mucho better for this.