Connecting the Dots

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Picture taken from a page by the National Research Council of Canada
A friend is on a project that requires animation that resembles a constellation diagram, with glowing dots joining up and forming a pattern with lines. This has to be done to several geometrical shapes that will only be confirmed in later in the project.

 Helping him break down and plan the project, I foresee a need to create a workflow where I can take any geometry, create dots and then making lines to join the dots. How can this be done?

I will attmept to write a script to procedurally create spheres and tubes on vertices and edges of any geometrical object. The spheres and tubes should follow the edges and vertices of the object as it transforms and deforms. 

 Also, there should be controls that can influence the thickness and size of the spheres and tubes in order to change their appearances in the render. There should also be a slider that controls the tubes to grow from zero length to the full length of the edge it is "attached" to.  

Stay tuned for updates! ;)

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