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New Animusic — Parallax Forums

New Animusic

ercoerco Posts: 20,256
edited 2013-03-05 14:07 in Robotics
It's all CGI, but what if...?

Duane's always bragging he can run a thousand servos off of a single cog... :)

http://www.youtube.com/embed/XlyCLbt3Thk?rel=0 (click here for full screen HD)

Comments

  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2013-03-04 21:20
    Wow! What an amazing animation of a fantastical contraption! You'll need at least a BS3 and some really clever slide actuators for some of the fingering mechanisms...time to hit eBay!
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2013-03-04 21:49
    mindrobots wrote: »
    Wow! ...time to hit eBay!

    @Rick: Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball!
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,934
    edited 2013-03-04 22:17
    That was one of my favorites when we bought those DVDs a few years ago. I played a few as intros when I did a series of backyard movie nights on a 20 foot wide canvas. My favorite is Pipe Dream (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QStm3ZyzgY0), so much so that it is my ringtone on my phone (starting at the 48 second mark)

    The problem with making it a reality is all the unwanted noise you will create from the mechanics. Can't wait until the new one comes out!
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2013-03-05 08:19
    I love the Animusic videos.

    Back in one of erco's and mine software vs hard arguments, I was tempted to say the best robots are all software. My not believing the statement kept it unspoken (or untyped).

    I know I've mentioned a couple of times I have a large Lego collection (which I plan to liquidate soon to make some room in our house that's being over run with robots). Back when I was actively collecting Lego, I used a program called "LDraw" (Lego Draw) that allowed one to create virtual Lego models. There was also software for converting a LDraw model to a the POV-Ray (a ray tracing program) file. After designing a model with LDraw pieces one could then have the model photo realistically rendered.

    I wrote a program in C that used the LDraw pieces and placed the various minifigure pieces in the poses needed to make the minifig look like it was walking. I wrote another program to move the POV-Ray camera and lights. One of my goals was to use algorithms to produce animation rather than do the animation with key frames. I thought if one could come up with some good algorithms, it would take a lot of the work out of creating an animation.

    Below is a very bad copy of the results of these efforts. The video starts with a single minifigure walking (all he does is walk for a couple of minutes) and at time 2:36 there's a group of minifigs walking.

    The above video was originally made in December 2008. Soon after making the above video I discovered microcontrollers. I found making things move in the real world more satisfying and practical than making virtual robots.

    I program my robots pretty much the same way I programmed the animations. I use an algorithm to compute position and/or speed of the various servos or motors. Instead of 30 frames per second of the animations, I use the servo's 50Hz refresh rate as a "frame".

    The Animusic guys used a MIDI file as a script to tell what parts to the animation to move when. Something similar could be done in the real world but as Andrew points out, the noise from the motors and actuators would interfere with the sound.

    They do have new player pianos that have an actuator on each key that can both record a performance and play it back on the same piano (or play back other performances) . The new player pianos have velocity control which I believe was lacking in the paper roll versions.
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,934
    edited 2013-03-05 10:56
    Duane Degn wrote: »
    They do have new player pianos that have an actuator on each key that can both record a performance and play it back on the same piano (or play back other performances) . The new player pianos have velocity control which I believe was lacking in the paper roll versions.

    Yes, the newer ones are really nice. PianoDisc (about 15 minutes from my house) is top notch among that field.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2013-03-05 14:07
    Duane Degn wrote: »
    The new player pianos have velocity control which I believe was lacking in the paper roll versions.

    True. But I'd still rather have my 1911 player piano than anything newfangled. It is a living piece of history and a real piece of art. Collecting vintage paper rolls is like a treasure hunt.

    And don't EVEN get me started on my Victrola record players and 78 RPM record collection.

    Or my 1960 Philco Predicta TV. You can pry that out of my cold dead hands...
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