1. How does HyperMatter work?

When you convert a Max object to a HyperMatter object, you can choose to convert the whole object, or just a part, into a HyperMatter Solid. In this way, one can utilise different ways of producing your animation; either handing control over to the HyperMatter engine completely, in the case of an Object-level Solid, or retaining key-framed control in the case of a Sub-Object Solid.

At Object-level, all the motion and deformation is determined according to Physical laws. The user then manipulates the object using HyperMatter Constraints. At Sub-Object level, the user retains control through conventional key-frame techniques, allowing HyperMatter to produce the ‘Secondary Animation’, so sought after in Computer Graphics.

The use of ‘Anticipation’ and 'Follow-through' of traditional drawn animation dramatically enhances lifelike movement, but still currently has to be produced frame-by-frame, at great expense. With HyperMatter, if you make a character from Rubber, then it will behave like Rubber, with lifelike motion created AUTOMATICALLY.

2. What is a HyperMatter Solid?

After conversion, HyperMatter initially replaces your object geometry with an identical copy embedded in an array of wireframe cubes closely fitted to the contours of the geometry. The user according to the animation requirements determines the resolution or accuracy of the fit.

It is these cubes that represent the HyperMatter Solid, and will respond to the forces involved in the scene. The original geometry is bound to this mesh, so that it responds in exactly the same way. Often extremely convincing animation is possible with the very lowest settings, allowing very fast performance.

3. What are the main differences between HyperMatter and other animation systems?

Most animation systems use a key-framed environment to accurately place objects in time and space with absolute precision; all objects will be in the right place at the right time, at any frame. HyperMatter is a little different.

Although it still works to frame accuracy, it calculates the deformation and motion of objects according to what happens to them throughout the animation, not just where they should be, which would be the approach taken by conventional key-framing software.

As collisions or other chaotic events may be involved along the way, one cannot just ‘jump’ to any frame with HyperMatter active; the engine must calculate the steps in-between to check what happens to the object before it arrives at the frame you want.

This is pure Physics in action, remember, not a crude approximation as with all previous systems.It is important to understand that the fundamental difference between HyperMatter and other systems, is the way it handles Time. HyperMatter uses a process called Time-stepping to calculate where objects will be at a given time and how they will deform on the way.

4. What is Time-Stepping?

Time-Stepping is a process whereby time is sliced up at a rate set by the user, in much smaller increments than the frame rate. It is this process, called the Sampling Rate, that determines how accurately HyperMatter performs its calculations.

In many simple cases, this is not required at all, but for animations of very soft objects accelerating quickly, or soft objects colliding, it is useful to be able to divide time into smaller chunks so that the deformations can be calculated accurately, otherwise the object may have changed shape or moved enough between one frame and the next to create inaccuracies.

5. How do I make different substances?

With HyperMatter, you can create any Substance you could possibly think of, and quite a few you couldn’t, too…In addition, a library of different substances is provided for immediate experimentation.By providing access to Substance properties through separate categories, such as Friction, Elasticity, Density, etc. the user becomes aware of the interaction between the different properties, and gradually learns to manipulate substances to make your objects do exactly what you want. Of course, you can animate them too…

6. Can I animate HyperMatter controls?

In keeping with the ethos of 3D Studio MAX, EVERYTHING in HyperMatter is animatable. You can make an slippery object get rough, firm objects go soft, elastic objects turn rigid and heavy, in any combination you want, as many times as you want, whilst still performing their desired motion.

In this way, HyperMatter actually goes one step beyond the Physical laws, by providing access to previously impossible domains; objects that can change their properties at will…

7. What exactly are Constraints, and how do I use them?

When you convert an object to HyperMatter at Object-level, any key-frame information it possessed previously is disregarded by the HyperMatter engine, and overall behaviour is now subject to Physical laws, such as gravity and friction. In the case of HyperMatter taking over at a frame other than 0, the very last piece of key-frame information is used as a start point by HyperMatter to provide an initial velocity and direction. In order to still maintain absolute control over the object, a series of physical controls, or Constraints are employed.

These enable the user to push, pull, swing or drop an object, pick an object up from any part, have the object follow other Max objects, spin, jump, somersault, skid, and many more, all by simply clicking a few buttons. The Collide constraint allows objects to bump into each other, off walls and floors, or themselves, if they are soft enough! The constraints can be switched on or off at any point during the animation, or can be active throughout an objects’ Lifespan.

8. What is the HyperMatter ‘Lifespan’?

When a HyperMatter object is created, by default, it ‘exists’ from the frame it was created, to the last frame of the animation. This time period can be edited in the Track View as the H_objects’ ‘Lifespan’, which can be defined as the period when the HyperMatter engine is calculating the objects’ behaviour. Outside this period, the object is effectively ‘dead’ with regard to HyperMatter and plays no part in the animation, although if it had previously animated as a MAX object, it will still posess its original behaviour.

All previously set Constraints are also inactive outside this lifespan. The outcome of this is that calculations can be drastically reduced by disabling objects when they currently play no part in the scene, simply by editing the range bars as you would any other Track View function.

Similarly, Constraints themselves have individual lifespans which can be edited either for efficiency, or to create a particular effect, as they often need to follow each other with frame accuracy.

For example, as collisions are so demanding on the engine, the constraint that controls them needs to be switched on and off only for the period they are actually active; an object that will not collide again no longer needs a Collide constraint applied. An object can also enter and leave a HyperMatter state, returning to a normal Max object at the users’ discretion.

9. How do I animate a character from an inanimate object?

Because of the way Constraints are applied, it is a simple process to set up an object to behave in an uncannily realistic way, even one with no discernible character features, such as a sack of flour. Internal body parts or movements are easy to apply, in a totally intuitive way, so that the sack can appear to have ‘feet’, and walk along quite happily, using the natural movement to fool the eye into seeing ‘Character’, the magic ingredient of all classic animation.

Think of the broom sequence in ‘Fantasia’, where an incredibly simple object, just a stick and some bristles behaves like a human, just by the way its movements are designed. It is this intuitive quality that makes HyperMatter so revolutionary; realism is no longer the preserve of a tiny elite, but anyone with imagination, and the will to create.

10. Is there a large processing overhead?

The more complicated an object you create, and at higher Solidified resolutions, you will undoubtedly encounter performance degradation, particularly if collisions are involved. However, HyperMatter provides some ingenious solutions to this.

For instance, Record objects are geometry objects that can be created on the fly from an existing HyperMatter animation, key-framed at any interval you like, to accurately reproduce the HyperMatter objects’ movement and deformation. They can then be loaded in to permanently replace the HyperMatter objects for maximum performance benefits.

Another way of drastically saving time is through the Geometry Manager, which allows the user to perform all testing and experimentation with a low-resolution geometry model, setting up HyperMatter to perfection, and then loading the final, high-resolution geometry for rendering. HyperMatter Solids themselves can also be edited manually for better fit, efficiency, or to create special effects.