[X3D-Public] my musings on O3D and JavaScript on the web

[Joshua Smith]

I think that depends on how you define "people".

Interpolators come from the world of "Key Frame Animation" which goes  
all the way back to flipping pages with charcoal drawings on them.  So  
the concept is immediately familiar to anyone in the "Animation" side  
of the world (people who use tools like After Effects, Shake, Flash,  
etc.).

But as you rightly point out, interpolators are completely useless  
when defining "Simulations".

But you don't have to use them for that, do you?  I'm not VRML/X3d  
expert, but can't you set up routes and fire whatever numbers you want  
into the scene graph's transform matrices?

Any good 3D scene graph API really should define both, although  
technically, you can create interpolators from routes, but you cannot  
create routes from interpolators (except in a weird, bounded fashion).

-Joshua

On Apr 28, 2009, at 6:28 AM, miriam wrote:

> But one thing I *must* correct is Len's statement that  
> "Interpolators for example, are a pretty good authoring hedge  
> because most people get the idea of clock ticks and points on a line."
>
> No way! Len, I think you are the greatest, but boy, are you wrong  
> here! Interpolators are great for the browser programmers but they  
> are actually antithetical to how most people think and it takes  
> quite a bit of mind-stretching to get used to them. Ask someone how  
> they want to move something and they'll generally say something like  
> "that direction at that speed", whereas interpolators require start  
> point, start time, end point, end time, and if the movement is not  
> constant then one or more inbetween point and inbetween time too.