11/30/07

I made a better, more detailed animation of what Dr. Northcut needs, but it's too cartooney for her tastes. She recommended that I find 'rolling hills on a golf course' and try to emulate them. Google Images was no help, so I gave up on that. Our next idea was to create and animate a 3D topography map. I found a great website (http://www.forgefx.com/casestudies/prenticehall/ph/topo/topo.htm) for creating 3D topography maps, but was unsuccessful in trying to animate them. My next idea was to use a 3D modeling program - 3D Studio Max, for example - to create the animation. I found a good 3D Studio Max landscape tutorial (http://pilning.net/manual/buildinglandscapes.htm), but as with ForgeFX (the 3D topo program), animating it turned out to be the problem. Running out of ideas, Dr. Northcut suggested animated GIFs as a possible alternative. This is where we are currently, although I believe that a further-developed version of my most recent Flash animation would be more professional (despite its cartooneyness).