I'm always wondering what a production house with some serious animators could make from my primitive "hypertoon" concept.
The idea is a simple one: think of a smooth transformation between A and B, nevermind yet what exactly is transforming. Label A and B as "key frames". Now imagine scenarios A to C and B to C. We now have a triangle. A point D with scenarios to A, B, C would now complete a tetrahedron.
A "scenario" could be like a cuboctahedron (A) twist-contracting into an icosahedron (B) ala the Jitterbug Transformation. That icosahedron (A) could then spin around 31 axes (opposite corners, mid-edges, face centers) yielding a great circle network (C). The network (C) could then shift, with some circles staying, others forming, others fading, to give the 25 great circles of the cuboctahedron (D). Add A to D. D to B might involve some kind of global sharing.
The hypertoon "playhead" displays scenarios between key frames. When it gets to a key frame, a decision is made, perhaps randomly, perhaps weighted, and a next scenario gets played. There's a sense of smooth transformations throughout, as the viewer visually tours the "space" of interconnecting scenarios. The network might be compared to a spaghetti ball.
Key frames that link to themselves, i.e. that start and end on the same frame, might sometimes run a number of times in a loop.
Search on "hypertoons" in the search box at the upper left for more, including some running examples.
