This software is provided “as is,” with no warranty, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. It is not supported by Specular or any other party. Technical Support is not available for this software.
Distribution
This software is freeware, meaning it may be distributed freely without charge via electronic bulletin boards and on-line services as long as it is accompanied by this document. It may not be distributed on any media or with any package for which there is a fee.
Installation
This Animation Assistant is a plug-in module for use with Specular Infini-D™ 2.6 and later. It should be placed in the “Animation Assistants” folder, which is found in the same folder as the Infini-D application.
If Infini-D is running, you must quit and re-launch it for the Animation Assistant to be recognized.
If you do not have an “Animation Assistants” folder, you should re-install from the original disks in order to have access to the Assistants that originally shipped with Infini-D. Alternatively, you may simply create a folder at the same level as Infini-D named “Animation Assistants.”
Instructions
The “Explode” Animation Assistant breaks up a model into it’s constituent objects, over distance and time, giving it the appearance of exploding. It often looks more realistic than the typical object explosion effect, which turns everything into unnatural-looking triangular parts.
You must have a model which is linked hierarchically for this Assistant to work. The more parts in your model, the better the Assistant will look. The Assistant performs best if *ALL* child objects are at the same level in the hierarchy (i.e., one parent object, 50 child objects).
To use this assistant, select all the Eventmarks for the hierarchical model at a single point in time, except for the parent object. Select “Explode” from the hierarchical Animation Assistant menu. You will be presented with a dialog requesting time, in seconds, for the parts to explode, and distance, in Infini-D units, that the parts will travel.
It is often easiest to explode the object at the very beginning of the sequence and then move all the resulting eventmarks (which are already selected) further out in time to make animation before the explosion.
Eventmarks that exist after the last selected Eventmark will remain intact, producing undesirable effects. This Assistant creates new eventmarks.
To further enhance the effect, try compositing your resulting Infini-D movie with a fire explosion from the Pyromania™ CD using Adobe Premiere™.
