Robert Inventor

Lissajous 3D - Pattern Transformations

You can change the curves to line segments to get a string figure type effect like this:

Hazy sea creature screen shot - Movie as Animated Gif

To find this feature in Lissajous 3D, go to Pattern | Ribbon | Steps per cycle, and set that number low

Combine a small number of segments with wide ribbons and you get this sort of effect:

Tipsy Poly screen shot - Movie as Animated Gif

You set the width again in the Ribbon window.

You can make the ribbon so wide that it spans right across the middle of the pattern:

Morphing CD screen shot - Movie as Animated Gif

- set the ribbon width parameter to somewhere around 90 degrees to achieve this effect.

You can just show a fragment of the pattern at a time, which swoops around tracing the shape of the curve. In this example, the colour changes as it swoops because the pattern has varying colours:

Autumnal colour leaf screen shot - Movie as Animated Gif

To find this feature in Lissajous 3D, go to Pattern | More Shape Opts | Swoop around the curve

Another thing you can do is to show just one step of the pattern, and let that swoop around, using tubes, you get spinning and moving patterns dancing in a kind of a ballet - this example uses a tube with a star shaped cross section:

twisted star polygon visitors screen shot - Movie as Animated Gif

To find this feature in Lissajous 3D, go to Pattern | Ribbon | How many cycles to show, and set this low, e.g. to 0.01 (or more, depends on the steps per cycle). Set it to show a tube, and to get several of them visible at once, vary Steps across Ribbon. For the star effect, choose a small number of sides, and set the number of Star poly cycles to more than 1.

You can twist the tubes, and if you twist them by exactly the right amount, you get a bead type effect:

Pearl necklace at dawn screen shot- Movie as Animated Gif

To find this feature in Lissajous 3D, go to Pattern | Ribbon | Tube, and then use the Make Beads button.

If using ribbons instead of tubes, the ribbons naturally vary in width because they are made by shifting the parameters that make the pattern - the ribbon is wider in places where the pattern is particularly sensitive to the change in the parameters:

ruby and gold broad ribbon screen shot - Movie as Animated Gif

To find this feature in Lissajous 3D, go to Pattern | Ribbon | Quad or Triangle strip - and set the Ribbon width fairly large, e.g. to 30 degrees, and the width will naturally vary. For additional variation try the Width ripples (which also works with the tubes)

Then you can add magnetism, or gravity, as with:

magnetised golden spiral screen shot - Movie as Animated Gif

To find this feature in Lissajous 3D, go to Pattern | More Shape Opts | Other force at. For an approximation to magnetism, choose 3 for the other force power rule - or use the button to convert it to a dipole.

This feature applies magnetism to any of the Lissajous patterns, so transforming it - you can also add an initial velocity to the pattern.

Here is another example:

magnetised Lissajous screen shot - Movie as Animated Gif

For an explanation of how this feature works see the Lissajous Manual entry on the magnet and planet.

Or friction, making a pattern that gets smaller and smaller:

mountain vista screen shot - Movie as Animated Gif

To find this feature in Lissajous 3D, go to Pattern | More Shape Opts | Friction

Or vary the formula for the waves:

Squarish waves effect screen shot - Movie as Animated Gif

To find this feature in Lissajous 3D, go to Pattern | More Shape Opts | Alternative wave shape

You can turn the pattern inside out (invert in a sphere):

Simple 3D Lissajous with inversion in sphere screen shot - Movie as Animated Gif

To find this feature in Lissajous 3D, go to Pattern | More Shape Opts | Turn inside out - invert in sphere

You can also make the materials transparent to get various effects like this:

Day full of promise screen shot - Movie as Animated Gif

To find this feature in Lissajous 3D, go to Pattern | More Shape Opts | Colours | Enable Transparency

Example Patterns

The program comes with many example patterns, exploring all its features and various ways of using them, as you can see here:

Pictures for Lissajous 3D

You can use those as a basis for your own patterns. You can copyright your own patterns made from them, and though you can't copyright the example patterns, you have my permission to use them yourself, including commercially. For more about my policy on commercial use see: Acceptable Use

Randomiser

You can also make new ones using a random mix of the parameters of all the files in a folder This tends to produce nice patterns as it uses values of the parameters that have already been selected because they work well for other patterns.

To find this feature in Lissajous 3D, go to Mix | Randomise Now or to configure how it works or do it more manually: Mix | Get & Randomise

Freeware / Shareware status: This feature is free when you use the program in windowed mode.

If you want to run the screen saver, make the flash movies, save large images, or show your image full screen, then those are shareware features.

To read more about Lissajous 3D, go on to:

Epicycles ("Spirographs")

To get the program and the screen saver, download and install Lissajous 3D.

The program comes with a Free Test drive with all the features completely unlocked (start the test drive at any time):

Download your free test drive of Lissajous 3D

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