Mathematical Equations and Video/Images

SephirothJenova · Post by **SephirothJenova** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 4:43 pm

I was wondering if Premiere, Photoshop, or After Effects had a way/special plugin that alls them to read mathematical equations. I've wanted to create different images in Photoshop to use for track mattes other than the old straight line stuff.

Example:
How would I create an image using two spirals of Archimedes? The equation is r = n(Angle), where r is the radial distance from the pole and the angle is the angle measurement from the polar axis (This comes from knowing polar coordinates.). This is only any example, but isn't what I really want to create.

Any ideas on how to implement these complicated equations or functions without actually graphing out each point individually?

Can you tell that I'm a math geek? I'm actually in love with Physics!!

Sephiroth

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 4:59 pm

I don't think so

Illustrator is good for making curvy shapes and stuff though. Even has a spiral tool.

Kalium · Post by **Kalium** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 5:14 pm

You could use a graphing program, and save the output in a picture format. Then you could import this into Premiere/whatever and use it there.

Bote · Post by **Bote** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 5:42 pm

3D studio Max has such features. I'm still getting to know it's use with AMV's. Didn't try the shapping you mentioned, but that gave me an idea for something.

Brand new effect! *stucks his head on the timeline*

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Sun Apr 04, 2004 7:23 am

POV-RAY has several tools that will allow you to create 3D models based on quartics and quintics. It will also allow you to take 3D slices of 4D Julia sets and do animation and plots with them. See http://www.povray.org

If you want faster modeling I'd recommend that you take a look at the MAXIMA CAS. It, like most CASes, is much more suited for symbol manipulation, but it does have a fairly decent 3D renderer. If you have access to higher-end software I'd recommend Maple (another CAS; I've used versions 8 and 9, and while I can't say that I LOVE Maple, I find that it does work pretty well), Mathematica, or MathCAD. I'd say that the only way that you could get either Maple, Mathematica, or MathCAD "legally" is via academic pricing, though; both tools are crazy expensive otherwise.

Every bit of software I've listed is basically a programming environment. None of them are hard to learn, though.

badmartialarts · Post by **badmartialarts** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 6:24 am

I second POV-ray....it's very fun (though I haven't used it in a loooong time....) and can do some really impressive things, given it's street price (free!).

Dannywilson · Post by **Dannywilson** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 5:22 am

Try seeing if you can program your functions into AE's "Motion Math" section. The damn thing is far beyond powerful in some respects, I haven't even explored some of the functions of this (almost) unknown part of AE yet.