Active Object + Example

Here is a quick example of the fade feature in the ActiveObject+ Widget for MMF2.

It saves a little time and effort if you use it right. We are particularly interested in effects here. Using this kind of fade instead of transitions allows you to have movement and animation active while fading.

Personally, I would like to see auto-fade, with the same features as the behavior has, (maybe more) built-into objects in the future. You would set it up in a similar way and use simple conditions like, "Fade of Object a is done" --> Start fade of object b, etc.

This Widget also includes the drag feature from the Active Dragger Widget and will probably have more effects features added. I think we can make the Active Object even more active, especially for great special effects in games and in multimedia.

Also, there may be some more fade effects to add to the current ones: Semi-fades?

Note: for your own applications, use the Widget version in the Widget Forum for your library. I have decided to put each new feature in its own behavior for various reasons so there has been a minor update.

The key and challenge to doing this well is to get the most amount of features and function while using the least amount of Alterable Values. If you see ways to optimize that with your skills, please do so and share your new version.

Here are future ideas for ActiveObject+, if I, or someone else, can pull them off. I think it is obvious that having these kinds of effects available with the setting of a few Alterables is quite an advantage from eventing them each time you want them:

(subject to change)

Fade Behavior:

Semi-fades in/out/ghost

Rotation Behavior:

CW
CCW
Wobble - short, rapid two and fro rotation
Pendulum A - Back and forth
Pendulum B - Back and forth losing momentum until still
Quantum Clock - Sudden direction changes in degrees
Wheel of Fortune - spin in a direction and wind down to stop at a point (variable or preset)
Sticky Gear - Sticky, slipping back kind of rotation

Mode: Spin, Return, X revolutions

Resizing Behavior:

Normal to small
Normal to large
Pop - Normal to large to normal
Squeeze - normal to small to normal
Pop Squeeze - above two combined
Reverse Pop Squeeze
Expand until stop
Contract until stop

Affect height Only
Affect Width Only
Height to width ratio

Return to Normal
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I was thinking about potential, custom movements that might go well with title pages, presentations, etc.

If you have any ideas to add, please share them.

Here is a V2 Beta example, i.e., the actual object is not ready to post in the Widgets section and does not have the latest comments, etc. It does look rather cool and I think it is useful for quick effects that utilize the new AO features well.

It is progressing rapidly, but there are several features to add to each Behavior and a couple of things to work out. So, you can use the object in the example, but it is not "official".

In V2 of ActiveObject+ you now have auto-rotate and auto-resize with a few choices. Resizing requires more manual settings and they have to be done in the events because it seems that the AV settings in Properties won't retain decimals.

Known Issue: There is a problem with "rotate by x degree" that I could use help on since I use steps to set the speed and they have to divide evenly into the degrees, (and be below a certain amount as well). Perhaps there is a better way to do that and there are other effects that will rely on this, as well.

There are eight AV's left for the user and thirty-one flags leftover. I don't anticipate using any more, but it is possible. The Widget is meant more for visual effects, but you can remove the behaviors you don't need and free-up AV's. Plus, there is an extension that can add more AV's to your object, as well.

There will be a final V2 when all the settings I have ideas for are implemented. I will also include more documentation about using all the behaviors and settings.

Also Note: You get some interesting visual effects with combinations of fades, rotations, and resizing. The setting of your hotspot will determine the axis for rotations and the direction of resizing. I would like to have presets for basic hotspot locations, but they cannot be changed dynamically without loading in a graphic/animation. Maybe there will be a special version based on loaded graphics, someday. If dynamic hotspots are ever implemented in MMF2, that would allow for this, too.

I'm very interested in this one... thank you!

I'm interested in this as well. It's definitely a step forward to have quality animation effects in MMF2, in an easy way to make and control :D

Thanks! I am building this because I am lazy ;)

Well, that's in jest, but it really motivates me to use more visual effects when they are easy and quick to do. Of course, that is the reason for MMF2 and we all want to keep moving the idea forward. When you are creating professionally, time is always an issue.

Besides, Behaviors need a good exploration and I want to thank the contributors to the Widget section here for helping me explore these possibilities.

One side-effect is that we may see more potential for user-created functionality like that in future versions of MMF. In other words, what we call Behaviors now could expand into something more powerful.

The other benefit of doing this is we may just discover that "auto" features like this would make for a great addition to the actions in certain objects.

Here is the same example file that was uploaded with the new, ActiveObject+ V2, in the Widgets section.

You can comment on it here.

I think that the "wheel of fortune" could be a bit better, but improvements can come later for V3. In the next version, I, (or others) can fill in the effects ideas noted in the behaviors and maybe even add some more.

Let's see if anyone gets some decent mileage from this. Besides the ease-of-use and time saving, this would be a great file size saver for Vitalize! apps as well, I think.

Cool.. this is getting better! The wobble effect we can't control the speed yet, right?

I haven't checked the wobble speed to see if you can set it yet ;)

There are a few spots where some changes may need to be made in order to get the correct results. Some divisions into some degrees, etc., cause problems, but we will get that worked out.

Bug reports are helpful.