This 9-node network makes a very boring movie of a counter. But the concept it illustrates is pretty cool.
As shown in the screenshot, the network draws all 100 frames of the movie at once and arranges them in a 10 x 10 grid. Although you can see all the frames when you zoom out to 1000 x 1000, the document size is only 100 x 100 (the size of a single frame). Every time the frame counter advances, a Translate node moves the entire collection so that only the next cell in the grid is in view. The result is a 100-frame movie.
The ability to draw and see all the frames of a movie at once makes it easier to create certain kinds of animation. You could arrange shapes by hand in each frame to create a stop-action animation. You could import all the (SVG) frames of a movie produced in some other tool and then use NodeBox to fiddle with them. Even for normal NodeBox animations, this technique allows you to create a still image showing all the frames of your movie in a single view.
Replace the numbers with anything you want. By adjusting the grid and the document size you can scale up to larger frame sizes and/or longer movies. This is a new way of thinking about animation in NodeBox; the possibilities are endless.
If anyone makes a movie using this technique, please share it here.
Enjoy!
John
