I am looking for some guidance and suggestions as to the best approach towards animating some elements of my goal - before I jump in and hack around in "the wrong" or awkward direction.
WHAT I AM TRYING TO ACHIEVE
I want to animate a travelling sine wave - with a graph view like an oscilloscope.
In other words unlike:
- a traditional graph diagram
- where the leading point of a wave travels forwards
- (to the right)
- from the 0 point on the time axis
- a typical "history" graph
For the end result, I want:
- the wave to travel from right to left
- the leading edge of the wave to remain at a fixed point on the time axis
- (on the far right edge)
- which is effectively the current time
- so it's more of a "live view" - like an oscilloscope
- (or the machine that goes ping!)
Here is a sample target end result:
(modified) animated GIF image that I culled from Wikipedia
[ Thank you User:LucasVB/Gallery ]
WHAT I AM COMFORTABLE WITH
I should be fine with:
- the stationary frame
- pretty trivial/straight-forward
- the leading edge plot point - the red dot
- add a red sphere element of an apropriate size
- use a location driver to move it up and down the Z-axis
- python math sin(radians(current_frame))
ASSUMPTIONS
What is the simplest approach you suggest I should use for the:
1. The moving red sine wave
I'm thinking of:
- generating a long stationary sine wave element
- (length as long as the number of cycles as I need for the animation time)
- use an X-axis location driver
- current_frame
- to move the element from right to left
Then I would need to:
- mask the portions of the sine wave that lie outside the graph frame
- left & right
2. The moving graph background
Pretty much the same approach as above.
- generate a long background axis "strip"
- move it as above with a driver
- mask the portions of the background axis that lie outside the graph frame
- left & right
1 & 2 Together
I could combine the two elements above into a single moving strip
- and mask the portions of the single moving strip that lie outside the graph frame
- left & right
REQUEST
Does anyone have any better suggestions for me ?
Simpler, faster, neater ?
As usual, I'm happy to read up if I am given some pointers.
I just want to make sure I use the best or most effective technique to skin the proverbial cat.
Thanks