How Do I Morph Between Shapes on an Oscilloscope?
To morph between shapes in BeamTracer OSC-1, choose CREATOR, open SHAPE TOOLS → MORPH SEQUENCER, and load GEOMETRIC. Drag POSITION from 0% to 100% to move through a circle, triangle, square and pentagon. Record the running display through EXPORT → VIDEO → RECORD LIVE INPUT to save the morph as WebM.
Hi, I'm Trina with BeamTracer.com. Pause halfway between two slots and look at the outline. You can leave the curve between two stored shapes, then sweep back through the same path.
The ORGANIC preset: circle at 0%, heart at 50%, circle at 100%. POSITION is swept manually. These examples are silent.
How do I morph a circle into polygons?
Load GEOMETRIC in the Morph Sequencer and sweep POSITION. Each slot holds a shape at a position along the slider. Between slots, OSC-1 blends their paths into an intermediate outline.
- Open OSC-1 and select CREATOR.
- Expand SHAPE TOOLS, then MORPH SEQUENCER.
- Choose GEOMETRIC to load its four shape slots.
- Enable the XY Scope display if the XY trace is hidden.
- Drag POSITION slowly from 0% to 100%, then back toward 0%.
- Open EXPORT → VIDEO, choose a shape and resolution, and use RECORD LIVE INPUT followed by STOP RECORDING to download WebM.
GEOMETRIC places the shapes at 0%, 33%, 67% and 100%. The square is drawn on a corner, so it looks like a diamond.
Move slowly enough to see the path between each pair. A quick jump to a slot gives a different performance: the picture heads straight for that stored shape instead of spending time on all the intervening positions.
Which preset makes hearts or stars?
Choose ORGANIC for a circle-to-heart sequence or SHARP for increasingly pointed shapes. Loading a preset replaces the current slot collection, so record or save useful work before changing it.
| Preset | Shapes along POSITION |
|---|---|
| GEOMETRIC | Circle → triangle → square → pentagon |
| ORGANIC | Circle → heart → circle |
| SHARP | Triangle → five-point star → eight-point star → twelve-point star |
SHARP uses four slots. Watch the outline between the stored stars as the slider moves forward and back.
These clips show a hand-controlled sweep. Loading a preset does not perform the sweep for you; move POSITION during the take. The M beside POSITION opens MIDI Learn for assigning an external control. The MIDI setup guide covers controller setup; the demonstrations here use the slider.
Can I change when each shape appears?
Double-click a slot's percentage, enter a new value from 0 to 100, and press Enter. The percentage locates that shape along POSITION. Moving a slot closer to another shortens the slider distance used to morph between them.
Click a slot thumbnail to jump to its position. ADD inserts another shape, up to 16 slots; the × on a slot removes it. For example, move the heart away from 50% if you want a longer approach from the first circle and a shorter return to the last circle.
How do I save the moving result instead of one outline?
Use RECORD LIVE INPUT while you move POSITION. That captures the performance in real time. Pause your sweep on the last shape, then choose STOP RECORDING. OSC-1 downloads a WebM file.
The downloaded ORGANIC recording, with sound removed for this looping example. Control panels are not part of the recorded artwork.
An SVG export saves an outline, not a recording of your slider movements. Use the video export guide for recording choices, or the transparent oscilloscope video lesson if you want to place the moving trace over footage in an editor.
Start with a circle and sweep toward a heart.