Animation Objects - Interactive Web-Based Virtual Reality with Java 3D - page 158

As can be seen from Figure 20, the weights have indices determined from the alpha
values. Specifically, with alphaIndex giving the next GeometryArray object to be formed,
the visual object will be made up of two GeometryArray objects, indexed by alphaIndex and
alphaIndex-1. Their contributions to the rendered shape will be determined by the values
of the elements of weights array with the same index. Note that the weight for alphaIndex
change from 0 to 0 that for alphaIndex-1 changes from 1 to 0. This way, the rendered shape
will morph from one geometry to another.
summary
This chapter has introduced the Alpha class and how it is used in animations together with
the important interpolator classes. In particular, the Billboard and the Level of Detail (LOD)
classes are useful for creating animation with reduced rendering. Lastly, the Morph class
has been presented with an example on a key frame animation.
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