Here I have an animated green cube, inside an animated blue cube inside of an animated pink cube. This is a Triple Nested Animation. My apologies in advance, because some of the tutorial repetition makes doing this tutorial a bit lengthy. I can get the entire thing done in under an hour. Your time may vary!

EDIT: I modified the tutorial with minor rewording and pictures, to hopefully make the tutorial easier to follow.

I will work on a script to animate the process. My script writing skills have been dormant, so it will take a while.

Thank you so very much for this tutorial! I hope I don't drive you crazy with questions as I am a novice at animation. Thanks again.

Fear not! It's no bother at all. I like it because it makes me feel useful!

Thank you so much PhotoMaster for your tutorial which promises to be very interesting. Thanks for your time and interest.

Incredible. A script would be awesome!

Bravo ! Thank you for this tutorial.

PhotoMaster: I worked long and hard on this tut but I still have some glitches. I don't know where as I could not find them. I will attempt this again, but not for a few days. I may have some questions for you before I start. Anyway, here is what I was able to do.

Pat, you got it! Good!

Does anyone know why I get these error messages ? I'm running GIMP 2.8.20 with Windows.
I decided to try out the tutorial but only got as far as step 3 (well, 4 really)..
I run the Rubik's Cube script, set "Frames for Animation" to 36 and... it does the following (see pic.) .. basically just repeats the layer and stops, I've tried it with a flat colour surface too, get the same errors.. Thanks for help.

Pat,
Great work!

On frame #23*, (#14 from bottom) an extra shadow layer got merged on top of the cube. I've done that quite a few times myself. If you still have a copy of the 2nd (Red) animation, just re-run the Rubiks script on layer #23*, (#14 from bottom) , add the shadow and background to it and use that single image to replace the layer with the shadow error.

On frame #17* (#20 from the bottom) it looks like you pulled frame #21* (#16 from bottom) from the intermediate animation created in steps 27 and 28. Just re-run the Rubiks script on layer #17*, (#20 from bottom) , add the shadow and background to it and use that single image to replace the mismatched layer .

By pulling those two layers, the animation works fine. It will be smoother if you replace the 2 layers I deleted.

Your cube is excellent!

* Because the animations run from the bottom to the top, when I loaded your gif the layer numbers were different.

I only have the file that I posted as you instructed to delete the others as used so I may not be able to fix it. Also, I wondered that I started on the correct "top layer" as when doing the repititions, there would always be listed Rubik's cube at top, then a G'mic layer without the numbers after it, and then a layer with #1 after it. Was I supposed to start with the very top layer, or the one numbered #1. I started with the very top one each time.

Also, in the instructions, when you state to repeat 14-40 for each new animation, do you mean to repeat #15 again to change direction? It had just been changed in #32. I got confused as to what I should change #15 to as it had already been changed to clockwise and counterclockwise. I think I chose 180 degrees. Was that correct?

Sorry for any confusion. You did select the correct layer "Rubik's Cube". You are right, the second time through steps 15 and 32 should be 180 degrees. In step 14 I mention saving the animations. I should elaborate that I save each of the three animations with with the names Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3. I will go and fix these in the tutorial.

Thank you so much for your idea to add more detail in your tut. I get lost just when I have to start the second cube. So if you could add any shot of the layers when main steps it would be very helpful. Thank you PhotoMaster. This effect of yours is really nice.

Thanks PhotoMaster for an amazing tutorial and good luck with a script I found it requires real concentration because a single lapse shows-up in the end result.
Like some of the others I got a bit lost at where the second and third nests (phases) come-in.
I assumed the nesting was happening from the larger cube to the smaller cubes
I did get an OK result but at over 3Mb I feel it's a bit large to upload.

After looking at the cube again I think it's actually 'The Animated Rubik's Cube Droste Effect'
which leads to mathmap. For me that is a scary thought.

Updated the tutorial with clearer wording and some pictures. Please feel free to ask me any questions you might have.

Hi PhotoMaster.
Have had another try at this. I somehow rotated the cube without
the rubik's segments. I don't know why that happened but it's actually something I would like to achieve.
I would like to have nested stuff rotating in other stuff without the constraints of the rubik's cube.



The image is graphene in alcohol (no alcohol involved)
I was unable to drag a layer from one xcf to another.
Instead I had to make all layers invisible except the top one.
Then Edit > 'copy visible'
On the original xcf Edit >'paste as' >'new layer'
Also I am losing the rotation when I go from one phase to the next. I end-up with just the last phase rotating.
I know it's my error.

I'm quite surprised that it gave you the cube without the Rubik's segments. I can see you used the Rubik's script because of the flip error in the bottom layer. ( Script error not your error) I've done many spinning cubes using Filter all layers and map object, but it is not working correctly in the latest Gimp versions.

If you can't drag a layer from on image to the next, you click the layer you want to drag and hit Ctrl+C to copy it. Select where you wanted to drag it and hit Ctrl+V.

I assume that your initial cube did spin. Steps 17 to 24 creates your first frame of the outer cube. Steps 25 to 31 create the second in the same way as the first but uses layer 2 to create the new layer 2. Step 32 is just to repeat this on the remaining layers. Layer 1 was for creating layer 1, 2 for 2, 3 for 3 all the way up to 36 for 36. I know it can be tedious but I like the result. If you use layer 1 for each new layer your inside image will be stationary within the new cube. I hope this makes sense.

Hi PhotoMaster
"I'm quite surprised that it gave you the cube without the Rubik's segments."

I discovered what I did.
Open an image > duplicate layer > make the first layer active > apply Rubik's Cube script to this first layer.
Thats it.
Interested if it works for others.

A triple nested animation without the Rubik's segments. It follows PhotoMasters tutorial.
Removing the segments adds a few extra steps as I outlined above. Overall it doesn't make much difference.

PhotoMaster has made an excellent tutorial. I was making a mistake at step 28 and not pasting the layers
into the correct sequence. The keyboard combinations are pretty cool with memories of text editors like Vim.

I found it was best to untick 'resizing' on the dropshadow steps. Any resizing can be fixed quite easily.
I put no dropshadow on the outer cube.
I think the bug I found in the Rubik's script is actually a 'feature'.

Tas_mania: if I ever get through Photomaster's cube without error's I'll ask for instructions on your forest cube. Really nice!