Human interface for modifiers

by **Mac** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 1:51 pm

The title is admittedly tongue in cheek. However, the modifier feature (useful as I'm sure it is) seems to be missing the easy user interface of the rest of the program. Let's face it, every movement involved in the program is a series of mathematical calculations, but we only have to dig into that type of effort with modifiers. As it is, I think that part of the program is incomplete.

by **trulytango** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 12:10 am

Hi Mac

I have to agree with you on this! Even getting into modifiers - no particular tab (that i know of), just the right click business, is rather clandestine :roll:

Enter at your own peril :lol:

As far as modifiers go, I have just about managed to make individual objects twirl, shake, bounce and flash/shimmer consistently - but that was after a lot of trial error. I've yet to combine it all with key framing - I'm sure my hair will be completely grey by the time I accomplish that!

TTFN
Iris

by **BarbaraC** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 3:37 am

I delved into modifiers, couldn't figure out the math even though I'm fairly decent at math, couldn't predict any of the results because there's no explanation of which thing does what, and finally, in a grand act of protecting my sanity, I gave up.

Yes, modifiers should be given a much, much friendlier countenance!

Barbara

by **Mac** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 4:04 am

trulytango wrote:Even getting into modifiers - no particular tab (that i know of), just the right click business, is rather clandestine

To be honest with you, this is what I think Photodex is doing: I think they released the modifier function early to satisfy those demanding professionals who are capable of navigating these kinds of functions, while they are in the process of designing a more user-friendly way to use them, hence the secret right-click-handshake for now.

BarbaraC wrote:in a grand act of protecting my sanity

And here I was thinking you'd be the first one who'd say there was nothing there to protect! :lol:

by **HunnyB** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 5:43 am

I have to admit that I know nothing about modifiers. I have not even tried to figure them out.
Is there a tut. somewhere that would help?

by **BarbaraC** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 5:58 am

I think one or two of our brave men did a bit of teaching, but sadly, I was quickly lost. Maybe Jennifer still has her tutorial on her site about how to use modifiers to make a beating heart.

Barbara

by **cherub** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 6:22 am

Well, I've been using modifiers, but like Iris, only for stuff that is repetitive in nature, and in keyframes would be extremely tiresome to manage - repetitive motion and adjustment effects of all sorts.
Lately I've been trying to use modifiers in real motion too, in what I call "Follow me" effects, but that's a real pain...
I think that the problem is that modifiers are not implemented as WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get),
and everything about them is a guess work, or hit and miss.
Personally I think that there are still some calculation problems with them too, particularly in panning, but since my knowledge is so limited still, I can't be sure.
But mostly I hate not being able to see what I'm doing unless I hit the preview button and watch the whole slide.

by **trulytango** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 8:00 am

cherub wrote:...everything about them is a guess work, or hit and miss... particularly in panning

I know what you mean... I just spent an hour getting some cartoon cat's eyes to look from left to right and back again, throughout the duration of a slide. In the end, I think it would've been easier to do it with keyframing, although the one advantage of using modifiers is I can set the slide time to whatever I want and the speed of the modified bits will stay the same. Here's what I came up with - it's partly in anticipation of my little nephews' Halloween pictures:

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewshow?fl=3136316&alb=142138

TTFN
Iris

by **cherub** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 8:17 am

It's very cute Iris!
But why was it so small even in full screen preview?
I can't be sure, but I think that the eyes of the cat on top are not centered, or something. They look funny somehow.
As I said, it's very small, and my eyes are not as sharp as they used to be, so I may be wrong.

by **BarbaraC** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 8:19 am

Iris, that's wonderful!

Barbara

by **trulytango** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 8:27 am

It's the right size my end (4:3 Standard) and fills the screen. But then again... I am cross-eyed having viewed the modifier preview a hundred times to get thus far...

And you, Barbara? I presume your tired eyes can see what I can?

Maybe Presenter is playing up at Mona's end?

TTFN

by **cherub** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 8:31 am

Could be Presenter in Google Chrome. In Firefox I couldn't see it at all.
If it's OK, then it's OK. As I said, I don't see too well.

by **debngar** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 8:51 am

Iris, that's brilliant. Looks simple but I'll bet it was harder than it seems. Good application of modifiers. I would not have thought of that. What about taking a similar approach to making an owl's eye blink? That's sort of Halloween related too.

by **BarbaraC** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 9:12 am

It looked perfect to me, Mona. I wonder what the devil is going on at your end.

Owl, cackling witch, oh, and let's not forget eye of newt!

Barbara

by **cherub** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 9:21 am

BarbaraC wrote:It looked perfect to me, Mona. I wonder what the devil is going on at your end.
Barbara

Nothing at my end. Just the usual busy internet hours of US versus the rest of the world. It's evening here.
Problematic time of day for the internet. I can't watch any show in Firefox, nor in IE. Chrome seems the most effective of them all.

Human interface for modifiers

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