The Bong....

	Ok, so I was stoned one night and made a bong.. This is my
first try at character style animation. Most of my previous efforts
have been along the lines of photo-realistic type work. Lots of
Raytracing and shit.. This started more as a joke, and a way to
better understand bones..
	The main tube is set up with 8 bones anchoring each end,
and another 7 up the middle. The 8 in the middle can be sized
to create the swelling (taking a hit) effect, or moved to make
it dance or sway. The face is anchored to a null object for easy
replacement and rotation around the bong's tube. The eyebrows
contain 5 bones each, to alow for fluid facial expressions. The
eyes are two seperate objects, inner eye and outer eye. The inner
eye is parented to the outer eye for easier manipulation.
	The lips are just two stretched out sphere's which have
been ajusted with 7 bones. The face itself isn't really supposed to
be connected to the bong, just floating around it. I might later
add hands and feet, but it depends if I ever really use this object.
	I had alot of fun making this object. The Boston summer is
as harsh as the winter was, so I've been forced to spend alot of time
in my room (in the basement, where it's cool...) avoiding the heat.
	Please don't use this object in any commercial productions
unless it's use will help legalize pot, or you have contacted me
and gotten permission. (Just say yes!) Not like anyone actualy
listens to these messages though....


	The objects, images and scene files were created over a two
day period in Lightwave/Modeler, and ImageFX on an 020 based Amiga
1200 with 25mhz fpu and 8 megs of ram. Boy is my machine slow...

					Jason Booth
					(617)983-2844
		Boston Computer Sociaty (617)729-2843 (9600-28.8)
					(617)729-7340 (2400-14.4)
		Fintastic Computers     (617)769-3172 (2400-14.4)

	   My kingdom for an internet address.. well, I could call Bix I
	guess.. 

	V1.1
	----

	I've extended the script file to include several motions. First,
the bong smerks and raises his eyebrows at what is about to come, then
the bong takes a hit (the smoke rises through the chamber as it expands,
then puffs out the top). Then the bong does a little dance and spins
it's head around in glee at a job well done. 
	The smokeball object is just a sphere being stretched about with
some more, yes, more BONES! I love these things. Also included is an image
map - for more of an effect take it into a spline based morphing program
(like ImageFX's CineMorph) and make it wiggle a bit. I made a 6 frame
anim like this for my rendering. It works fairly well too! If anyone
knows of a more effecient way to make smoke like this please let me
know. I'm teaching myself this stuff, as are most animators, and love
to hear other peoples ways of doing things.
	I hope you like the flexability of this object. Being my third
real object (we've all made planets and shit, they don't count!) I think
I've done pretty well. The other two objects I've done are:

	Flicker.lha   -   This is an Imagine 2.0 oil lamp with
			  a flickering flame. It casts awsome
			  shadows in raytrace mode.

and a book with pages etc.. which won't be released because it was
made for a custom project which wouldn't be usable by anyone else.

	Anyway - enough dribble. Have some fun with my bong! And take
a hit for me - I just finished my bag!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!