This about as smooth and random as I can figure out how to make it:
http://www.backwater-productions.net/_test_platform/Layer_Bl end_Modes/

Multiple problems though, for one...way too fast. Now, I know what
yer thinkin, pull the frame rate down or reduce the movement
factor...yeah, I could, but then it winds up looking herky jerky.

Now I know what yer thinkin next, use partial number incriments like
..25 for the movement...yeah, I could do that, but at slow speeds the
edges wind up looking REALLY blurry and if I turn off smoothing it
winds up looking blocky.

Problem two...too circular. I've thought about switing over to say a
figure eight type pattern but the problem with a pattern is, well,
it's a pattern, it's too formulaic looking and doesn't look natural.

Problem three...too wide an area of movement, when you go to click on
something the thing might suddenly move 4 or 5 pixels out of range.
But if I reduce the area of movement, it limits my options as far as
natural movement.

So I think for now my whole plan of having the screen "float" around
in place like a lily pad is just gonna have to be put on hold until
the technology can catch up to what I want to achieve.

I've been thinking I might go for an alternative effect where the
screen is resized back and forth randomly between say 95% and 100%,
it'd give it a kind of 3D effect, like it was moving towards the user
and then away from the user.

Another option would be to limit the movement transitions to only when
a change is occuring like Alex does on his Dunwoodie Architecture and
Design site:
http://www.dunwoodie-architectureanddesign.co.uk/main.php

*shrugs*

Any thoughts or ideas? Suggestions? Lame ass poser n00b comments and
jealousy inspired hate rants?

--

Onideus Mad Hatter
mhm ¹ x ¹
http://www.backwater-productions.net
http://www.backwater-productions.net/hatter-blog


Hatter Quotes
-------------
"You're only one of the best if you're striving to become one of the
best."

"I didn't make reality, Sunshine, I just verbally bitch slapped you
with it."

"I'm not a professional, I'm an artist."

"Your Usenet blinders are my best friend."

"Usenet Filters - Learn to shut yourself the fuck up!"

"Drugs killed Jesus you know...oh wait, no, that was the Jews, my
bad."

"There are clingy things in the grass...burrs 'n such...mmmm..."

"The more I learn the more I'm killing my idols."

"Is it wrong to incur and then use the hate ridden, vengeful stupidity
of complete strangers in random Usenet froups to further my art?"

"Freedom is only a concept, like race it's merely a social construct
that doesn't really exist outside of your ability to convince others
of its relevancy."

"Next time slow up a lil, then maybe you won't jump the gun and start
creamin yer panties before it's time to pop the champagne proper."

"Reality is directly proportionate to how creative you are."

"People are pretty fucking high on themselves if they think that
they're just born with a soul. *snicker*...yeah, like they're just
givin em out for free."

"Quible, quible said the Hare. Quite a lot of quibling...everywhere.
So the Hare took a long stare and decided at best, to leave the rest,
to their merry little mess."

"There's a difference between 'bad' and 'so earth shatteringly
horrible it makes the angels scream in terror as they violently rip
their heads off, their blood spraying into the faces of a thousand
sweet innocent horrified children, who will forever have the terrible
images burned into their tiny little minds'."

"How sad that you're such a poor judge of style that you can't even
properly gauge the artistic worth of your own efforts."

"Those who record history are those who control history."

"I am the living embodiment of hell itself in all its tormentive rage,
endless suffering, unfathomable pain and unending horror...but you
don't get sent to me...I come for you."

"Ideally in a fight I'd want a BGM-109A with a W80 250 kiloton
tactical thermonuclear fusion based war head."

"Tell me, would you describe yourself more as a process or a
function?"

"Apparently this group has got the market cornered on stupid.
Intelligence is down 137 points across the board and the forecast
indicates an increase in Webtv users."

"Is my .sig delimiter broken? Really? You're sure? Awww,
gee...that's too bad...for YOU!" `, )

I can't get to a server to upload a SWI or SWF .. but if you put this script
on your shape, you'll get some nice floating...

>>
onLoad() {
//
// easing
ease = 0.99;
//
// no movement to start with
movetox = _x;
movetoy = _y;
//
// we have two points following a semi-random
// path, and position the object at midpoint
// rotating based on angle between the points
//
// random start position
tx1 = random()*360; // starting time for x
ty1 = random()*360; // starting time for y
tx2 = random()*360; // starting time for x
ty2 = random()*360; // starting time for y
//
// limits for movement
dx = 23; // how far can it move sideways
dy = 17; // how far can it move up and down
//
// speed of mvement
vx = 5; // how fast does it move in x
vy = 3; // how fast does it move in y
//
// position of our two points
x = _x; // starting y
y = _y; // starting y
//
// how much rotation
a = 0.15; // smaller means less rotation
}
onEnterFrame() {
//
// move the two points
xnew1 = x-_width/2 + dx*sindeg(tx1);
ynew1 = y + dy*sindeg(ty1);
xnew2 = x+_width/2 + dx*sindeg(tx2);
ynew2 = y + dy*sindeg(ty2);
//
// object is at midpoint
_x = (xnew1+xnew2)/2;
_y = (ynew1+ynew2)/2;
//
// rotate based on angle between
_rotation = atan2deg(ynew2-ynew1,xnew2-xnew1)*a;
//
// randomness
tx1 += vx*(0.5+random()*0.5);
ty1 += vy*(0.5+random()*0.5);
tx2 += vx*(0.5+random()*0.5);
ty2 += vy*(0.5+random()*0.5);
//
// ease movement
x = movetox-ease*(movetox-x);
y = movetoy-ease*(movetoy-y);
}
>>

NOTE .. if you set movetox and movetoy to some other value, then the object
with this script will flaot its way over there
--
Jeckyl

On Tue, 6 Feb 2007 22:31:29 +1100, "Jeckyl" <noone [at] nowhere.com> wrote:

>I can't get to a server to upload a SWI or SWF .. but if you put this script
>on your shape, you'll get some nice floating...
<snip>

Well, it's a slight improvement...it pretty much still has all the
same problems though, they're just slightly less noticeable. Actually
though it also introduces a new problem in that sometimes it looks
like it's being skewed out of proportion (or rotated slightly).

A good try, but like I said, I don't think it's possible with the
medium, at least not with the kind of effect I'm looking for. If it
was something that could be prerendered and then setup as a video
sequence, that might work. I might try importing the image into Bryce
or 3DS Max and see about doing it that way.

--

Onideus Mad Hatter
mhm ¹ x ¹
http://www.backwater-productions.net
http://www.backwater-productions.net/hatter-blog


Hatter Quotes
-------------
"You're only one of the best if you're striving to become one of the
best."

"I didn't make reality, Sunshine, I just verbally bitch slapped you
with it."

"I'm not a professional, I'm an artist."

"Your Usenet blinders are my best friend."

"Usenet Filters - Learn to shut yourself the fuck up!"

"Drugs killed Jesus you know...oh wait, no, that was the Jews, my
bad."

"There are clingy things in the grass...burrs 'n such...mmmm..."

"The more I learn the more I'm killing my idols."

"Is it wrong to incur and then use the hate ridden, vengeful stupidity
of complete strangers in random Usenet froups to further my art?"

"Freedom is only a concept, like race it's merely a social construct
that doesn't really exist outside of your ability to convince others
of its relevancy."

"Next time slow up a lil, then maybe you won't jump the gun and start
creamin yer panties before it's time to pop the champagne proper."

"Reality is directly proportionate to how creative you are."

"People are pretty fucking high on themselves if they think that
they're just born with a soul. *snicker*...yeah, like they're just
givin em out for free."

"Quible, quible said the Hare. Quite a lot of quibling...everywhere.
So the Hare took a long stare and decided at best, to leave the rest,
to their merry little mess."

"There's a difference between 'bad' and 'so earth shatteringly
horrible it makes the angels scream in terror as they violently rip
their heads off, their blood spraying into the faces of a thousand
sweet innocent horrified children, who will forever have the terrible
images burned into their tiny little minds'."

"How sad that you're such a poor judge of style that you can't even
properly gauge the artistic worth of your own efforts."

"Those who record history are those who control history."

"I am the living embodiment of hell itself in all its tormentive rage,
endless suffering, unfathomable pain and unending horror...but you
don't get sent to me...I come for you."

"Ideally in a fight I'd want a BGM-109A with a W80 250 kiloton
tactical thermonuclear fusion based war head."

"Tell me, would you describe yourself more as a process or a
function?"

"Apparently this group has got the market cornered on stupid.
Intelligence is down 137 points across the board and the forecast
indicates an increase in Webtv users."

"Is my .sig delimiter broken? Really? You're sure? Awww,
gee...that's too bad...for YOU!" `, )

> sometimes it looks
> like it's being skewed out of proportion (or rotated slightly).

That's because the script is set to rotate it slightly .. there's a in the
onLoad where you get set a = 0 for no rotation

> at least not with the kind of effect I'm looking for.

That's part of the problem .. as I don't really know what it is you are
wanting to achieve. Its probably one of those 'I know it when I see it'
things :)
--
Jeckyl

On Tue, 6 Feb 2007 23:14:25 +1100, "Jeckyl" <noone [at] nowhere.com> wrote:

>> sometimes it looks
>> like it's being skewed out of proportion (or rotated slightly).
>
>That's because the script is set to rotate it slightly .. there's a in the
>onLoad where you get set a = 0 for no rotation

Ahhh, I see...I didn't actually look at the code I just threw it in to
see what would happen. I'll take it apart later and reassemble my own
version of it, see if I can't make it work more like I need it to.

I'll tell ya what it ~could~ work for, teh grumpus lily pad! I've
been playing with the idea of creating a kind of "character" or
mascot, this little floating lily pad:
http://www.backwater-productions.net/_images/_Scraps/Random_ Ideas.png

And basically he'll float around on the screen and then if you "touch"
him with the mouse he'll get all upset and try and "get away" from
you. He'll have little sayings like, "Go Away", "Leave Me Alone",
"Hiss Hiss" and "Quit Molesting Me"...it's gonna be pretty damn
entertaining.

His movement needs to be pretty fluid and he has to be ably to rotate,
so once I take apart the code I should be able to rebuild it for use
with that...if I decide to use him. I'm still trying to figure out
what direction I want to take with the Backwater site. So far I just
have found like ~the~ style, not like with the new CB site where the
current style is just like ~perfect~ (at least as far as my tastes).

>> at least not with the kind of effect I'm looking for.

>That's part of the problem .. as I don't really know what it is you are
>wanting to achieve. Its probably one of those 'I know it when I see it'
>things :)

Well, it's basically like a lily pad in water with a string tied
underneath it going to the bottom. So it would sorta float like your
code (sans the rotation), but it needs to be bounded more and with
less movement or more subtle movement, sometimes not even really
moving at all for a few seconds. See the idea is to give the
interface a more natural or "living" feel but it still needs to remain
function, which is why I can't have the thing just floating all over
the place, it needs to be restricted to like no more than 3 or 4
pixels in any direction from its original point.

I'll try and play around with your code though, see what I can do with
it.

--

Onideus Mad Hatter
mhm ¹ x ¹
http://www.backwater-productions.net
http://www.backwater-productions.net/hatter-blog


Hatter Quotes
-------------
"You're only one of the best if you're striving to become one of the
best."

"I didn't make reality, Sunshine, I just verbally bitch slapped you
with it."

"I'm not a professional, I'm an artist."

"Your Usenet blinders are my best friend."

"Usenet Filters - Learn to shut yourself the fuck up!"

"Drugs killed Jesus you know...oh wait, no, that was the Jews, my
bad."

"There are clingy things in the grass...burrs 'n such...mmmm..."

"The more I learn the more I'm killing my idols."

"Is it wrong to incur and then use the hate ridden, vengeful stupidity
of complete strangers in random Usenet froups to further my art?"

"Freedom is only a concept, like race it's merely a social construct
that doesn't really exist outside of your ability to convince others
of its relevancy."

"Next time slow up a lil, then maybe you won't jump the gun and start
creamin yer panties before it's time to pop the champagne proper."

"Reality is directly proportionate to how creative you are."

"People are pretty fucking high on themselves if they think that
they're just born with a soul. *snicker*...yeah, like they're just
givin em out for free."

"Quible, quible said the Hare. Quite a lot of quibling...everywhere.
So the Hare took a long stare and decided at best, to leave the rest,
to their merry little mess."

"There's a difference between 'bad' and 'so earth shatteringly
horrible it makes the angels scream in terror as they violently rip
their heads off, their blood spraying into the faces of a thousand
sweet innocent horrified children, who will forever have the terrible
images burned into their tiny little minds'."

"How sad that you're such a poor judge of style that you can't even
properly gauge the artistic worth of your own efforts."

"Those who record history are those who control history."

"I am the living embodiment of hell itself in all its tormentive rage,
endless suffering, unfathomable pain and unending horror...but you
don't get sent to me...I come for you."

"Ideally in a fight I'd want a BGM-109A with a W80 250 kiloton
tactical thermonuclear fusion based war head."

"Tell me, would you describe yourself more as a process or a
function?"

"Apparently this group has got the market cornered on stupid.
Intelligence is down 137 points across the board and the forecast
indicates an increase in Webtv users."

"Is my .sig delimiter broken? Really? You're sure? Awww,
gee...that's too bad...for YOU!" `, )

> Well, it's basically like a lily pad in water with a string tied
> underneath it going to the bottom. So it would sorta float like your
> code (sans the rotation), but it needs to be bounded more and with
> less movement or more subtle movement, sometimes not even really
> moving at all for a few seconds.

There are settings for how much it can move in z and y direction (eg you can
make it only move in x direction, or reduce the movement etc)

Hmm .. prob could add another slower changing factor for overall movment, so
the overall amount of movement would swell and decay
--
Jeckyl