Animating the Blob Effect with Biospheres

Biospheres are polygon spheroids which will interact with each other in some very unique ways. They have an energy setting that will make them attract to each other or repel from each other depending weather their energy is positive or negative, also known as energy and inverse matter. The higher the biosphere's energy the more attracted to other biospheres it becomes. Energy setting below 0 makes the biosphere invisible and repels from other ( positive ) biospheres. They are traditionally used for creating custom shapes for modeling. Although you can't make highly detailed objects with them. You can create custom basic shapes which would be impossible to make in other programs or even using FX or sculpting tools. Then they can be turned to mesh to put in details and finishing touches in other workspaces. With Amorphium Pro's ability to apply materials and animate biospheres they can do some very versatile things you might find impossible to do in other programs.


This effect can be seen at EI Amorphium web site in the Gallery/Animation /Blob done by Vince Parker. This example will show you some what how Vince did the blob. The same basic technique can also be used to do the lava lamp or the effect at the top of EI's Amorphium's flash site

First create a new biosphere in composer, using the biosphere tool.
composer biosphere tool

Select the tool then click and drag in the workspace window.
composer biosphere

Then go to the Biosphere workspace, to make it easier use the Quad View option found in the bottom left corner of the workspace, Click windows and select Quad View. ( window option may be hidden in the shadow of the light tool )
This will enable you to see what's happening to the sides and back of the biosphere as well as the front.
window option

Most of the work will be done in the front view window.
blob1

Using the add biosphere tool add six or seven more biosphere about the same size and around the original.
The add tool is used by clicking and dragging, just like in composer.
add tool

Position them around the original using the move biosphere tool. It is possible to move more then one biosphere at a time by selecting them with the select tool, then use the move tool to drag them. But for this object you should move 1 at a time into position by selecting the tool then click the black square in the center of each biosphere and drag them.
move tool

You should have something like this in the front view window.
blob2

Now go back to composer and scale the biosphere smaller using the xform scale tool.
Composer scale tool

and turn it so it's facing the perspective camera, using the xform rotate Y tool.
composer rotate Y tool

It should now look something like this in composer.
blob 1 composer

Now go to the time line and move it to .50
timeline

Go back to the biosphere workspace and you'll noticed the window is grayed.
blob3

This grayed out can mean many different things from the object can't be worked on with the selected tool or something is missing, in this case it's a keyframe. So select one of the tool and click in one of the windows. A box will pop up to give you the option of adding a keyframe.
blob4
Select Add KF
This is a very easy way to add keyframes, move the timeline and let Pro add them.

Now using the energy tool.
energy tool
Make 2 or 3 bioshere's energy greater, and 2 or 3 less, or even 1 or 2 to the negative. Do this by grabbing the lever coming from the center of the biosphere , and pull right for positive and left for negative. The best effect is done with the energy tool, but you still need to use the biosphere move tool and move each one just a little in different directions.

And size (radius), each one a little. Click on the little lever and pull right for larger and left for smaller.
radius tool

You may want to oblateness one a little. This tool is used the same as radius tool.
oblateness tool

And rotate it some using the orientation tool. At this point only rotate any biospheres
that have been oblateness. The orientation tool is used by grabbing the extended lever and spinning clockwise or counter clockwise.
orientation tool

So now the mass has been adjusted for the first keyframe. Yours may not look like this but that's ok. The effect will still be there.
blob5

Keep repeating these steps of moving the timeline .50 at a time and adjusting the biospheres a little, using mostly the energy tool. Moving and adjusting the biospheres with the other tool needs to be done, but keep it to a minimum for the best effect.
Once you get to 2.00 on the time line pop one of the biospheres out the back side of the mass using the move tool. Do this in the top view window.
blob6
Select the orientation tool then grab the lever on the one you pop out, and rotate it about 90% .
Remember to adjusting the mass in this keyframe to.

On the next keyframe move the popped out biosphere to the side of the mass and rotate it again about 90%. It's easier to move the popped out biosphere in top view and easier to adjust the mass in front view.
blob7

Then on the next keyframe move the popped out biosphere to the front of the mass and rotate it 90%
and adjust the mass.
blob8

For the next keyframe rotate the popped out biosphere and move it back into the mass on the front side, and adjust the mass.
blob9

Adjust the mass for one more keyframe but make the changes rather settle.
blob10

To make the animation appear to be a loop, for the last keyframe go to 0.05 on the timeline then right click on the biosphere name. On the menu that pops up select add keyframe.
blob11

Then grab this keyframe ( only the edge of it will be visible ) with the mouse by clicking and holding down then drag it to .50 past the last keyframe, which should put it at 4.50

time line 2

This will be close enough to the first shape so the animation will look like a loop playing over and over.
Now drag the time line and watch in the window, if you see something you don't like select that keyframe and go to the biosphere workspace and change it. Do a quick animation test render with low setting to see how it looks. Once your happy with it go to the materials workspace to apply a material to it.
blob

Here's the animation I came up with writing this tutorial

Amorphium Pro Tutorials