Think of Spinning a coin 360, only having scanned in 2 sides, as a gif &/or flash.

On Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:08:30 -0800 (PST), FishyThoughts wrote:

Think of Spinning a coin 360,
only having scanned in 2 sides,
as a gif &/or flash.

Including 3 sides, & making it look like a 2 sided coin would even be more fun….

Not a problem – just add the odd face as an animation after the head and tail faces.

What programs will fit the bill (Winders/Linux/Mac)?

For stunning results, use a rendering program, such as POV-Ray, which is free and multi platform, and can simulate a 3D coin, in perspective, with a bump-mapped metallic texture that reflects light in a realistic way. Photoshop Extended may have features that I don’t know about that could accomplish this. Bryce is a popular, fun (commercial) program that can do a good job in this regard.

If you’re not ready to tackle rendering yet, here’s a simpler way. Photoshop can do a decent job quickly, using the transform tool in the horizontal direction only to create an animated gif. This will simulate a two dimensional surface rotating.

Here’s how you would scale a 12 frame animation of a spinning coin, where H is the coin’s heads image and T is tails.

Frame 1 (30 degrees): T * 50% (image T, scaled by sine(30) horizontally) Frame 2 (60 degrees): T * 86%
Frame 3 (90 degrees): T * 100%
Frame 4 (120 degrees): same as frame 2
Frame 5 (150 degrees): same as frame 1
Frame 6 (180 degrees): H * 0% (edge of coin)
Frame 7 (210 degrees): H * 50%
Frame 8 (240 degrees): H * 86%
Frame 9 (270 degrees): H * 100%
Frame 10 (300 degrees): same as frame 8
Frame 11 (330 degrees): same as frame 7
Frame 12 (360 degrees): same as frame 6
(loop)

If you change the number of frames, the percentage is calculated as the sine of the angle the coin makes with the viewer for that frame. So for example, if you want 30 frames, you would use sine(12), sine(24), … sine(360) as your percentage values.

With a little more work, you can also add a reflection, or a shadow in Photoshop.
—
Mike Russell – http://www.curvemeister.com

On Dec 16, 2:53 am, Mike Russell
wrote:

On Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:08:30 -0800 (PST), FishyThoughts wrote:

Think of Spinning a coin 360,
only having scanned in 2 sides,
as a gif &/or flash.

Including 3 sides, & making it look like a 2 sided coin would even be more fun….

Not a problem – just add the odd face as an animation after the head and tail faces.

What programs will fit the bill (Winders/Linux/Mac)?

For stunning results, use a rendering program, such as POV-Ray, which is free and multi platform, and can simulate a 3D coin, in perspective, with a bump-mapped metallic texture that reflects light in a realistic way. Photoshop Extended may have features that I don’t know about that could accomplish this.  Bryce is a popular, fun (commercial) program that can do a good job in this regard.

If you’re not ready to tackle rendering yet, here’s a simpler way. Photoshop can do a decent job quickly, using the transform tool in the horizontal direction only to create an animated gif.  This will simulate a two dimensional surface rotating.

Here’s how you would scale a 12 frame animation of a spinning coin, where H is the coin’s heads image and T is tails.

Frame 1 (30 degrees): T * 50% (image T, scaled by sine(30) horizontally) Frame 2 (60 degrees): T * 86%
Frame 3 (90 degrees): T * 100%
Frame 4 (120 degrees): same as frame 2
Frame 5 (150 degrees): same as frame 1
Frame 6 (180 degrees): H * 0% (edge of coin)
Frame 7 (210 degrees): H * 50%
Frame 8 (240 degrees): H * 86%
Frame 9 (270 degrees): H * 100%
Frame 10 (300 degrees): same as frame 8
Frame 11 (330 degrees): same as frame 7
Frame 12 (360 degrees): same as frame 6
(loop)

If you change the number of frames, the percentage is calculated as the sine of the angle the coin makes with the viewer for that frame.  So for example, if you want 30 frames, you would use sine(12), sine(24), … sine(360) as your percentage values.

With a little more work, you can also add a reflection, or a shadow in Photoshop.
—
Mike Russell -http://www.curvemeister.com

I would have given an answer, but Mike’s is soooooooo good that any attempt to help would seem weak in comparison. Great response, Mike 🙂

gary in Saint Petersburg

On Dec 16, 2:53 am, Mike Russell
wrote:

On Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:08:30 -0800 (PST), FishyThoughts wrote:

Think of Spinning a coin 360,
only having scanned in 2 sides,
as a gif &/or flash.

Including 3 sides, & making it look like a 2 sided coin would even be more fun….

Not a problem – just add the odd face as an animation after the head and tail faces.

What programs will fit the bill (Winders/Linux/Mac)?

For stunning results, use a rendering program, such as POV-Ray, which is free and multi platform, and can simulate a 3D coin, in perspective, with a bump-mapped metallic texture that reflects light in a realistic way. Photoshop Extended may have features that I don’t know about that could accomplish this.  Bryce is a popular, fun (commercial) program that can do a good job in this regard.

If you’re not ready to tackle rendering yet, here’s a simpler way. Photoshop can do a decent job quickly, using the transform tool in the horizontal direction only to create an animated gif.  This will simulate a two dimensional surface rotating.

Here’s how you would scale a 12 frame animation of a spinning coin, where H is the coin’s heads image and T is tails.

Frame 1 (30 degrees): T * 50% (image T, scaled by sine(30) horizontally) Frame 2 (60 degrees): T * 86%
Frame 3 (90 degrees): T * 100%
Frame 4 (120 degrees): same as frame 2
Frame 5 (150 degrees): same as frame 1
Frame 6 (180 degrees): H * 0% (edge of coin)
Frame 7 (210 degrees): H * 50%
Frame 8 (240 degrees): H * 86%
Frame 9 (270 degrees): H * 100%
Frame 10 (300 degrees): same as frame 8
Frame 11 (330 degrees): same as frame 7
Frame 12 (360 degrees): same as frame 6
(loop)

If you change the number of frames, the percentage is calculated as the sine of the angle the coin makes with the viewer for that frame.  So for example, if you want 30 frames, you would use sine(12), sine(24), … sine(360) as your percentage values.

With a little more work, you can also add a reflection, or a shadow in Photoshop.
—
Mike Russell -http://www.curvemeister.com

Mike — i meant to say this before; you’re right about the 3d functionality in PSCS4. The rendering tools (and results) are outstanding. Totally outside the 2D we’ve all come to know, love, and work around 🙂 If you email me back () i’ll send
you some stuff we’ve done for our CS4 books about the 3D thing in CS4 (http://www.againsttheclock.com to see the CS3 books). The books are just ready to ship in about two weeks. We’re in the school market, so releasing our books is more related to semester starts than software release dates.

It’s only one portion of one project (they’re project-based books), but it covers enough to let you see (pretty much) what can be done with rendering real 3D objects. It’s hot. I can see why Adobe felt it was worth the difference in price between regular PS and the extended version.

gary