Animate objects in a list / grid individually & sequentially

Hello!

I’m trying to build a grid of objects, and then animate each object in that grid individually, I guess with a wave node. I’ve created a frankencomp from various bits I found on this very old post but the cubes in the grid are flickering. Tried many things but again this is an instance where I’m fundamentally not understanding how to utilise the build list and process list nodes - esp. when it comes to animating the objects in the list.

The longer goal would be then to link (for example) the opacity or colour of an object in this grid to audio.

Is something like this possible? I’m struggling in general with iteration and sequential animation of lists.

Tried to find some examples, this is not specifically what I’m after but more conceptually, being able to sequentially animate objects in a list / grid - hope I’m explaining correctly. To start I thought I could use a wave node but in future I thought I could play with different easing types maybe with the curve node or try noise nodes to create some interesting “patterns”.

Thanks again in advance!

Dave Whyte on Instagram: "#tgif #processing" and Dave Whyte on Instagram

Iterate.vuo (22.2 KB)

Sent you an email with a question ;)

I wasn’t sure what you meant by “animate each object … individually”; “sequentially animate objects.” Here are two demonstration compositions. In using Build List or Process List, all the events that flow within the these loops need to come from inside the loop. That generally means that values you need from outside the loop should be used in the loop through a Hold Value node, where the Update input port uses an event within the loop.

The first composition picks one of 27 cubes to rotate. In Process List the cube is rotated a set amount. Then the next iteration of Process List rotates the previously rotated cube again. The second composition uses a Wave node to indicate the degree of twirl that one cube should be twisted during that Process List iteration.

animate-grid-object-progressive-rotate.vuo (6.4 KB)

animate-grid-object-with-wave.vuo (7.23 KB)

A couple of examples of moving multiple objects independently of each other — File > Open Example > List > Wobble Eggs and FeedbackList-random.vuo from this discussion.

Great example the Wobble Eggs.

By email I suggested Joëlle to try with Calculate List nodes because they allow so much possibilities.

Also, using Build List I could guess it’s not as powerful for larger amount of copies, for example in the joined modified WobbleEgs composition, with 200 copies, on my older MBP the Build List version bottlenecks at 30 Fps, whereas the Calculate List one stays smooth at 60 Fps.  

Build List - WobbleEggs.vuo (8.74 KB)

Calculate List - WobbleEggs.vuo (7.8 KB)

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Ah yeah. I totally forgot about File > Open Example > Math > Move Dots with Perlin Noise :-) Searching vuo.org again for examples of moving objects independently, I found a couple more that might be useful: MalevichBlocks - Lerp List Magneson 1.1 from this discussion and Move Images Randomly from this discussion.

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@Joëlle,

Building on @Bodysoulspirit’s suggestion of using Calculate List, I’ve included three compositions that show how to build grids of objects that move individually.

  • One by creating a basic list of different values for the Calculate List node
  • One by adding logic to the Calculate List node
  • One by switching out different lists for the Calculate List node

My colleague then went on to refine the concept using a Make Parametric Grid Points node instead of a Calculate List node.

Hope you find these helpful.

animate-grid-object.vuo (11 KB)

animate-grid-object-withlogic.vuo (11 KB)

animate-grid-object-withselect.vuo (12.5 KB)

animate-parametric-grid-object.vuo (7.25 KB)

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@jmcc

Nice ones ;)
The parametric one takes things to the next level ! :)  

@jmcc thanks so much for these, so cool! Sorry for the late replies - this gives me a great foundation along with BSS ones

Yah the parametric one is super hypnotic, love it!

very interesting to see this technique hashed out in Vuo 2. @jmcc and @bodysoulspirit with some solid techniques for shaping lists.

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