Thanks Tulse. Nitpicks are welcome. I’ll see if I can turn off the shadow projection, or at least reduce it. I haven’t worked with plasma’s enough to know whether they cast shadows or distort light rays passing through it. There are other questions I have about the plasma field and whether it really would look like this sequence. It’s what I imagine. A hat tip though, to Torulf Greek and his animation skills for showing how the DPF works. I’m just trying to develop a style to it, as if it were dressed up, polished and on display somewhere in the future. It’s a little cartoon like, but a lot of gamers out there will appreciate that. Just like the “communicators” from the Star Trek days have now become ubiquitous as cell phones, I’m trying to portray FoFu-1 as something cool looking that we’d really like to have for real….
Funny you should be working on this. I’m trying to find the literature that relates to the ion beam in linkable form on the web. Also lit relating to the filaments coming out in reverse spinning pairs. It would be good for a link from your animation to the peer-reviewed lit on the topic.
Another thing that isn’t clear in either our earlier animation or this one is the gas, and that it’s in a vacuum. Any way to zoom in through a vacuum chamber to realize your inside something? And show the gas input from the cannister outside.
Because it’s current + gas that makes the plasma and travel over electrodes that gives it the desired arrangement.
Yes, my next chapter in this simulation is to wrap the “Onion” around the DPF, which will open as if it has a rotating aperture door within. I have a problem with making the plasma look more gaseous with my software. The rendering time goes up exponentially if I try to make it look more ephemeral through blurring and then it’s still not quite “gassified”. It’s a learn as you go process…but I’ll try to do a zoom through view too.
What 3D package are you using? I have been meaning to learn Blender (http://www.blender.org/) for ages. It can do really good glowing plasma effects (with some effort). I think the reason your one still looks a bit odd is the copper is too shiny, the mirror-like reflections in it should be much more diffuse. If you can’t go the whole way of having the plasma itself as the light source, then it should just be lit by a global ambient light rather than the one casting shadows.
Is the anode really that thick? In this image http://focusfusion.pmhclients.com/images/gallery/DSC_5494_medium.JPG
and others it looks about the same thickness as one of the cathodes, with about 3½-4 thicknesses empty space between the outer edge of the anode and the ring of pins, with about the same space in the center. Also, are those two gaps in the anode circle real? They look like structural features, not just light effects, in your rendering.
Thanks for the input. There are two issues going on here. One is my learning curve with the 3D program (Carrara). The other is artistic. This isn’t supposed to be a CAD design, it’s more of an illustration. I’m trying to represent reality but have it come across with heightened visual impact. It’s merging science with art. The art side is subjective. I am trying to make this have a wow factor, rather than a be an engineering mock up, although I may stretch the scientific credibility a bit. I know there are actually more cathodes in FF-1 for example. I know that the surface is not as polished. It’s also upside down from what the current set up is. But what I’ve created is how we artists think. Leonardo designed his helicopter with a rotating disk. People may have said it couldn’t fly because it wasn’t the shape of a bird wing. But he wanted it to fly, in his mind! He committed his idea to sketch for the future. People flying, what a crazy idea! I am weighing all your input and do welcome it and will incorporate the criticisms to some degree. But I’m also gearing this more toward dramatic art to attract people’s attention to the concept and think about it. Tell me though, if I’m too far off with it! It should be something that’s useful to people to explain the functioning of the device and the physics behind it.
Carrera has got most features you could ever need, but as with any 3D package there are so many controls & different ways of doing things that they take years to master. You’re doing pretty good so far. I agree a certain amount of artistic license is needed when trying to make something visually appealing. Particularly things like your choice to have less cathodes as it makes the whole thing less cluttered and easier to see whats going on.
However, like Brian said I think if you can get a little closer to the shape of the anode in the photos of the real FF-1 it will be easier for people to relate them.
I found this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYH-ZVNGXVE of someones demonstration of using objects as a light source in Carrera - it would be so cool if you can do this with the plasma.
One last comment.. the sheath part of the plasma seems to go back down a bit at the end, rather than carrying on and fading out. Essentially the sheath needs look as if it is collapsing into, and becoming, the filaments. Then when the filaments reach the focus you want a bright flash before the beam shoots out.
The music is a good start, but since we’re trying to reach people with no DPF background, a voice-over mentioning (very briefly) what’s going on in each step could be a solid foundation for further refinements. fiverr.com has some people who specialize in roughly 30 second professionally recorded voice-overs for $5. Another site I’ve heard of is tenbux or something similar.
Great start! Sounds like you’re making great progress through a rough learning curve.
I see what you mean, Vansig. I’ve looked it up in Wikipedia. The problem for me is adjusting the coil (paths) manually to make it circular will be very difficult. I can key in a math formula in the 3D program I’m using, which I’ve never done before. I’m searching the web for the handy formula that will just generate the correct coil, but haven’t found it yet.
I see what you mean, Vansig. I’ve looked it up in Wikipedia. The problem for me is adjusting the coil (paths) manually to make it circular will be very difficult. I can key in a math formula in the 3D program I’m using, which I’ve never done before. I’m searching the web for the handy formula that will just generate the correct coil, but haven’t found it yet.
... does your"helix” command have an option that’s something like “around curves”?
If so it might save you much time if you draw the wire that runs through the core of the coil as a flat circular curve first and then tell the software to wrap the helix around that curve. Hook it all up and “pipe” should do the trick.
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