circular interpretation mode

Can circular interpretation mode be used to create a circular movement between 4 points (placed in diamond formation) ? The name suggest to me that it could be used for a circular movement, but I tried it, and it did not work out at all.

Update: By changing easing modes (Ctrl-E) it looks somewhat ok. Not a circle though. It was not until I changed interpretation mode to sinusoidal a smooth circle movement appeared.

If sinusoidal interpretation is used for circles, what is then circular interpretation used for? Any practical applications?

  • Wayne Dixon replied

    Hi Goran.

    Sine and Cos curves are what will get you a pure circle.  And a Cos wave is just a Sine wave that is phase shifted.  This is because of the properties of triangles and circles in mathematics - SOH CAH TOA - sound familiar?

    That's right, Pythagoras was one of the first 3d animators.

    "Circular" is the shape of the curve in the Graph Editor, which does not represent a circular shape, it will really tight spacing at the end and fast in the middle.

    What would you use it for.  You probably never will.

    In fact, you will most likely only ever use Bezier, Stepped and Linear.  

    You might use elastic or bounce if you need to be quick and lazy in some circumstances.  But most of the time you actually need to control it more precisely than what you can do with these effects.


    Hope that makes sense.


  • Goran Svensson(radianteld) replied

    Hi  Wayne. 

    It makes sense to me, I was trying these interpolation modes yesterday. In the simple bounce (animator boot camp) I did three bounces with different interpolation to compare spacings.

    * sine
    * beizer + linear (or auto-clamped + vector)
    *circular

    When I reviewed the result, I perceived the sine version made the top turn around too quick, whereas the circular did it too slow. The one I created myself with beizer and linear  looked best to me and it was somewhere in the middle of sine and circular.