Yippee !!!
It’s working !!! Thanks everybody !!!
It’s even starting to make some kind of twisted sense…
Presumably I could use other curves instead of Nurbs (I find them difficult to manipulate).
Despite Tordats massive and comprehensive explanation I still have questions… simple ones I hope.
For a speed IPO, am I restricted to only two vertices ? If not, how do I specify which one is at the endframe ?
Hmmm… I had more questions than that, but luckily for you, I forgot them already.[/i][/b]
well, the end frame would be the last one at the right (or the last one on the TimeLine, if you prefer). But, a path could run forever with the Cyclic option (in the IPO window).
Martin
Theeth is right, the most left and most right points define the time. Everything inbetween is up to you.
But try to get acquainted with nurbs. They have advantages. Since you cannot drag bezier curves as you could in Freehand.
If you want to create sharper curves and do not want to use the weight, then simply try to put some points closer together. The weight assignment seems a bit arkward to me, but maybe I lack some hotkeys.
Did you ever use the 3dbutton and the Tkey? Although it would be nice to disconnect the Twist from the point. I have problems to make something regular as a winded rope AND lay it out freely.
Flash could still learn a lot here. The paths are nonsense compared to Blender.
please remember your questions 
HH
There are advantages to both Bezier and NURBS, and one shouldn’t blindly believe that one if overly better than the other. NURBS are generally much smoother than Bezier (just increase the order if they aren’t). Bezier, are much more precize than NURBS, they go where you want, the way you want them too, with a lot more control.
Martin
I said nurbs have advantages. I did not say they are superior.
H.H. said :
But try to get acquainted with nurbs. They have advantages. Since you cannot drag bezier curves as you could in Freehand.
If you want to create sharper curves and do not want to use the weight, then simply try to put some points closer together. The weight assignment seems a bit arkward to me, but maybe I lack some hotkeys.
Did you ever use the 3dbutton and the Tkey? Although it would be nice to disconnect the Twist from the point. I have problems to make something regular as a winded rope AND lay it out freely.
Well, I can’t remember my original questions, but you’ve given me a whole host of new ones…
Freehand, weight, Tkey and possibly the 3D button are all still mysterious unknowns to me… got some fiddlin’ to do…
Theeth said :
well, the end frame would be the last one at the right (or the last one on the TimeLine, if you prefer). But, a path could run forever with the Cyclic option (in the IPO window).
Ah, thanks. Cyclic option, eh ? Sounds very handy.
Now off I go to tweak this wormhole animation.
twist:
put a path animation together as I described above. No speed ipo is needed.
select the curve and press F9key
find the little 3D button and enable it. Your curve is not restricted to two dimensions anymore. Roller coaster…
press F7key and be sure that curve follow is enabled.
now go into editmode, select a point and press Tkey. go with the cursor round the point as you would when rotating and then press LMB.
The effect is that you can rotate this point along its tangent axis. That affects bevel objects, as well as curve follow.
Funny, isn´t it?
HH
More precisely, it changes the tilt of the curve, rotating a CV (control Vertex) doesn’t change it. You can also see the effect of the tilt with the perpendicular lines running along the curve. These lines also marks equal interval of time on the path and can help you with the Speed IPO.
For example, if there is 20 divisions (even if they are not of equal length), each division would mean +0.05 on the Speed IPO.
Martin
Whoah, too fast ! :o
I only got this software two weeks ago, and I’ve never done any 3D modelling before ! Please go easy on me !
Right, thanks to you people, the speed and acceleration of the animation is now perfect. And if it isn’t, I can fix it. Yet the camera mysteriously rotates around the path (I used a path, not a beizer of nurbs curve, because they seem easiest to work with whilst giving precise, smooth “trajectories”). How can I stop it doing this ?
The 3D button I knew about… but where is the LMB button I’m meant to press for this twist thing ?
And what in the world is a “bevel” object ?
Keep those helpful comments comming… 
on the left side of your mouse 
second of all, I am sorry, it is of course ‘tilt’ and not ‘twist’.
Bevels:
add a curve
leave editmode
add another curve (a circle maybe). Leave edit mode, keep it selected.
go to the editbuttons and name the second curve in the field ‘active object name’ (left to the frame slider
the names are case sensitive!
now select the first curve
search for a field called BevOb:
fill in the name of the second curve.
maybe you have to press the Set-Button near the DefResolU: Button to make it visible
HH
HH
LMB -> Left Mouse Button
A Curve path is a NURBS curve already setup to be used as a path.
For the Camera problem, I would really have to see the blend to fix that, but using tracking would certainly help.
Martin
LMB -> Left Mouse Button
D’oh !
Powertracking with an empty seems to have no effect. This might be because I have to select the empty before the camera before I press crtl+T. For some reason Blender crashes when I select the empty, so the only way I can select an empty is by adding a new one. Grrrr…
HH : All well and good about Bevels, but what ARE they ?
try constraining. This relatively new feature is great. select your empty and name it (as described in the bevel part above). (I first confused object name field and datablock field because of working with 800x600 and wondered why the hell it wouldn´t bevel.)
then go to the constraint buttons (the little chainlike button between edit and sound)
select your camera, add a track to constraint, fill in the name of the empty and adjust the direction in the anim button (x,y,z-)
this should work.
constraints are great. I hope they get enhanced. Could easily be done.
HH
Waht are bevels?
They are sometimes something like that: 
Constraints and bevels (not a clue what they are but they look good ) are all very nice, but not a lot of use if Blender insisits on crashing whenever I select an empty… 
which system and which version?
I can promise that blender never crashed because of empties on my machine.
HH
Windows XP, versions 2.11 and 2.23. I tried reinstalling version 2.23 and it worked OK… but not for long.
I asked a friend also with XP and 2.23 about it earlier - he has no problems. Most odd and very irritating…
try to isolate error sources. first, run blender without having anything else running. especially not in the background (such things as real player). Compare your setup with your friend´s. and so on.
good luck
HH
This topic is hard work.
May I invite you for a cup of coffee ?
The steam is the worst, I know.
Heh heh, very nice !
Shame I’m a tea drinker…
I’m tempted to ask many questions about materials… but I have resolutely decided to wait until the animation problems are solved.
Off I go to systematically test many different versions of Blender (if the earlier ones are available anyway) without anything running etc…