Wheeling Spheres

I saw this in a couple of You Tube videos as an optical illusion.

I thought that it must be possible to do on PowerPoint, and it is. I did it ages ago but then left it. On seeing the You Tube videos again recently, I though I'd give it another go, starting from scratch. I couldn't do it. I struggled for a long time with positioning and sequencing etc, but I just couldn't replicate it.

At the point of giving up I tried searching all the different drives on my PC using different potential file names as I'd forgotten what I'd called it. Eventually I found it, saw how it worked, kicked myself for being so stupid in not being able to replicate it, then produced a new version - this one.

This is a version with the animation at a fairly simple level. I think there might be possibilities of making more complex animations with multiple wheeling spheres with other types of background and fill.

Let me know if you would like a tutorial on this one.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you:


WHEELING SPHERES

Wow!  That's actually pretty cool!  How did you spin each individual sphere, but move them all in the same rotational direction as if they were all grouped!

JadeJohnsonGames wrote:Wow!  That's actually pretty cool!  How did you spin each individual sphere, but move them all in the same rotational direction as if they were all grouped!

Simple:
Each sphere has a linear path. As it is following the path back and forth, the spheres are also rotating. You would need to work out the timing of each of the motion paths so that they maintain their form.

What I originally thought was that each sphere had a circular path with a rotation (which would also achieve the same effect, but probably wouldn't be as impressive of a feat like this!) The optical illusion John is referring to is one where you think this group of shapes is spinning around, but actually it is a well timed group of individual items following a linear path back and forth. By the way, check out more of brusspup's videos of optical illusions, really neat things he does!



You can do some pretty cool tricks when combining animations. I've done something similar with my Arduous Arrow Adventure - Halloween Edition. You can see some of the bats follow circular paths that look grouped but aren't rotating, which made for an interesting effect.

That is so cool!  I am very impressed, both with the YouTube video you shared and your own work as well!

Thank you. So now all you've got to do is check out the new CHALLENGE!

Oh yes, I've seen it.  However, my company and I are finishing up with building the online infrastructure for our latest gaming innovation, and we need it all to go off without a hitch.  So I may not be able to participate in this one.

Ok. No worries. If you want to give it a try after the deadline, it won't matter too much.

Good luck with your new online infrastructure project. Does your company have a website I can look at? I'd like to get an idea of the scope of things your company does.

Not exactly:

I have a personal website that helps me cope with my autism, but neither I or the other admins really keep it up to date, because my company's main site currently exists in a private group on Facebook.  I can add you if you desire though.


For what it's worth though, my website is at:  http://fbenson.webs.com/ .

Please enjoy!