Post by coelacanth on Dec 23, 2011 3:48:55 GMT -4
This has nothing to do with Apollo, hoaxes, or even spaceflight in general, but I thought this might be a good board at which to ask, given the number of engineering types who pop in.
I recently figured out how to make simple animations in PDF files. This involves (at least the way I do it) creating a picture frame-by-frame, using software called gnuplot. I then compile a LaTeX file that includes the images using an animation package file. I have generally gotten much better results by using PostScript images rather than PNG; whether this is a general feature of the two file formats or a specific property of gnuplot, I do not know. I also do not know how exactly it is implemented inside the PDF file; I know the inputs I need to create the result, but I'm not sure exactly how that result works.
I'm trying to move it up a notch, and include three-dimensional images, although obviously what would be included are actually two-dimensional images that are supposed to look to a human like three-dimensional objects. Nothing too fancy; the images would generally be relatively simple geometric shapes (intersecting lines, planes, curves, ellipsoids that sort of thing). The animation could come about for one of two reasons. Either the sizes and shapes of the objects depicted could change, as they grow, move relative to one another, etc., or the observer's point of view could change, as we move the POV around the objects to see them from different angles.
So, does anyone have any suggestions for software to produce such images? Something that could produce three-dimensional looking representations of simple geometric shapes in encapsulated PostScript format would be ideal; then I could just include them in the LaTeX file and compile with the animation package. As there would be hundreds (or maybe thousands) of frames in a particular animation, the software that creates the images should be programmable or scripted, rather than interactive. Or maybe something not PostScript-based would work equally well. I'm open to suggestion.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
I recently figured out how to make simple animations in PDF files. This involves (at least the way I do it) creating a picture frame-by-frame, using software called gnuplot. I then compile a LaTeX file that includes the images using an animation package file. I have generally gotten much better results by using PostScript images rather than PNG; whether this is a general feature of the two file formats or a specific property of gnuplot, I do not know. I also do not know how exactly it is implemented inside the PDF file; I know the inputs I need to create the result, but I'm not sure exactly how that result works.
I'm trying to move it up a notch, and include three-dimensional images, although obviously what would be included are actually two-dimensional images that are supposed to look to a human like three-dimensional objects. Nothing too fancy; the images would generally be relatively simple geometric shapes (intersecting lines, planes, curves, ellipsoids that sort of thing). The animation could come about for one of two reasons. Either the sizes and shapes of the objects depicted could change, as they grow, move relative to one another, etc., or the observer's point of view could change, as we move the POV around the objects to see them from different angles.
So, does anyone have any suggestions for software to produce such images? Something that could produce three-dimensional looking representations of simple geometric shapes in encapsulated PostScript format would be ideal; then I could just include them in the LaTeX file and compile with the animation package. As there would be hundreds (or maybe thousands) of frames in a particular animation, the software that creates the images should be programmable or scripted, rather than interactive. Or maybe something not PostScript-based would work equally well. I'm open to suggestion.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions!