Synth MooVier is a little application that let you create QuickTime¬ movies. You model the actors in a 3D scene, then you specify the parts of every actor, you select some movie parameters (like quality and frame dimensions) and Synth MooVier generate the desired result.
A Synth MooVier document is a textual description of the initial scene (actors and their attributes), and of its transformations (the actors' parts); you could view (and edit) it even with a simple text editor (like TeachText or SimpleText).
An actor is built by assembling solid primitives (spheres, cubes, etc.) in a cartesian space. You can set geometry, color and type of rendering separately for every solid of every actor in the scene. You can set your own coordinate systems to manage very complex interactions between the various solid of an actor, and between the various actors.
A part is a linear transformation of one or more attributes of an actor, in a specified temporal interval (you can smoothly change positions, dimensions and color of your objects). For example, you can transform a red sphere with diameter 5 in. in a green sphere with diameter 8 in., starting at 2.3 seconds and ending at 3.8 seconds from the beginning of your movie. Every part has an attribute section (the new geometry of the object, or its new color,...) and a time section (which comprises the start instant and the duration in seconds).
A coordinate system is a cartesian coordinate system: every solid primitive must belong to a coord. system; in this way, you can group related objects (e.g., four wheels and an engine), and you'll be able to move them synchronously by moving the coord. system only, or by rotating one of the system axis.
In order to add a solid to your scene, you must select a coord. system in the tree view (explained below).
The virtual camera plays a fundamental role: you can set its focal length, move it, and rotate it by modifying the pan and tilt values (see fig. below). The default position (pan = 0, tilt = 0) corresponds to the camera looking towards the positive direction of the Z axis.
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Once you have created a movie, you can play it with your favorite player (Synth MooVier doesn't include playing capability).
Please read the "User Manual" document in this folder for further information and Legal Stuff!
