Mirror disco ball ?

madrobot · Post by **madrobot** » Fri May 01, 2009 8:00 am

Here's one for you!

I want to make a mirrorball (like in a disco)
preferably one which I can rotate.

Any ideas?
I was thinking maybe make a 3d obj,
and use that for the lines only, with alpha
then do the fills in AS, and do an action with the rotation
so the highlights move etc.

Am I dreaming?
Do I EVEN DARE??

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Fri May 01, 2009 8:13 am

You can notice that the mirror ball has the same shape every 360/N deg rotation, where N is the number of mirrors in the Ecuador of the ball. So probably you'll need only three or four steps to make it rotate. Actions can do the trick.
Also notice that the shine and shade effects are static (most of the cases) so you can apply them using masking.

Alternatively you can use my 3D rig and create a 3D ball. It is perfect for that kind of objects. I think I have an example of a 3D eye around. The file might help you. Using that you can custom your mirror ball and make some of the mirrors different, what would make it more cool.

-G

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Fri May 01, 2009 8:43 am

For reference see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkisenZ1OL8. You could do the 3D ball concept. Depending on your project's style you could try some other ways. In any case, whatever ball you use: the reflections are, as Genete says, mostly static. I'd do them in a switch layer on top of the ball, set to loop.

Here's my fast test for this: http://www.slowtiger.de/examples/disco.html. The anme file is here: http://www.slowtiger.de/examples/disco.anme.zip. As you'll see, I set the transparency of each little square individually on the switches, instead of putting them all into a blurred mask. This way you could make them more individual. I didn't add blurry shiny bits though, you'll know how to do that, they should only appear for 1 frame on a layer.

I placed the squares freehandedly, you could of course use any 3D model or just a picture as reference to get the perspective.

madrobot · Post by **madrobot** » Fri May 01, 2009 11:35 am

I freehandedly high-five you both, with vigour.

elbramtsol · Post by **elbramtsol** » Fri May 01, 2009 3:08 pm

Hey! Well, it has no individual reflections but maybe it could help you!

Here's the File:
http://emamix2.googlepages.com/discoBall.anme

Acochran_89 · Post by **Acochran_89** » Fri May 01, 2009 4:07 pm

sorry, I know this is off topic, but elbramtsol, you should post in the Animated Avitar Club forum that synth started and enter your avatar in the contest it's good!

sorry i know that had nothing to do with the original post...carry on!

madrobot · Post by **madrobot** » Mon May 04, 2009 4:52 am

Thanks guys
I ended up going with a combination of elbramtsol's setup (Whoah!)
with Slowtiger's flickering mirrors to get an effect I'm pretty happy with.

Thanks again!!