need a little advice

A couple assumptions - your tree is done in vertical slices (the vast majority are) and a channel is from the ground to the top, not ground to the top-up-and-over-and-to-the-ground on the other side.

This is what I do -

First get an idea of how fast you want it to spin - music-wise anyway.  In other words, I tap out the beat in my head as I listen to the music and determine how often the tree should spin (for the perfectionist side of me, I think it should spin in sync to the music, right?). 

Then, put an event line at the beginning of each spin.

Now for a little math.  This one depends on how many slices you have in your tree.  My tree has 7 slices....but it's only a semi circle.  So if I had a full circle, it would be 12 slices - hopefully that makes sense.  I'll make an image if you want, but for simplicity, let's just say I've got 12 slices.

Another assumption - you want opposite slices to be ON as the tree spins (you can see this in my videos at themic.us - but it seems most spinning trees are done in slice pairs). 

Right click on a cell between 2 event lines using the selection tool (y), and choose split cells.  Set the number to 6 evenly spaced slices (number of slices divided by 2) and click OK.

That's the hardest part.  From here, you just need to put in the spin.  Assume 12 channels, O if off, X is on

01 XOOOOO
02 OXOOOO
03 OOXOOO
04 OOXOOO
05 OOOXOO
06 OOOOXO
07 XOOOOO
08 OXOOOO
09 OOXOOO
10 OOOXOO
11 OOOOXO
12 OOOOOX

Then just copy and paste those 6 events into the next cell:  Highlight the spin sequence, right click and select Copy.  Then click on channel 01 of the next cell where you want to add the next spin, right click and select Paste.  Use the paste option "Stretch/shrink to fit the highlighted area".  You don't have to do any splitting or anything like that.  Repeat for as many spins as you need.

As you familiar with it, you'll find that you can use the wave form to find the beats faster.  Also, after you've done the first spin, you can copy and paste to get 2 spins.  Then copy the 2 to get 4.  Then the 4 to get 8.....the editing starts to get very fast!!

Beyond that, you can use ramps to modify the effect.  For example, add a 3-cell ramp down after each ON event.  Copy and pasting gets a little tricky when doing this, btw, since you aren't always copying full ramps.

Hopefully that's clear as mud - lemme know if you have any questions.


Edit:  If you channels are up and over the top of the tree, just modify these instructions by leaving out channels 7-12.

Edited by deweycooter - 02 Jan 2008 at 9:55pm

Jeff - I'll see if I can put together a video showing what I mean.  I suppose that's a ton better than trying to make sense of a bunch of words, not to mention, it's something that can be used by lots of people.  I'll reply here when I'm done and it'll be in the wiki.

Ok - not sure how good I am at explaining things, but here's a quick mega tree spin tutorial (see the link in the References section).  Big file - 21 MB.  Let me know...