mbr Posted January 7, 2003 Share Posted January 7, 2003 I am going to try to do a sequential/transition animation, similar to " Re: Concept Animation (Charles Thomas)" in Finished Work. I would like to rotate around the building and mask/fade the structure in, then the glass, etc. I know there is a way to do it in Max, but don't have any ideas besides animating the transparency of the materials (no idea about masks). I can't do it in Premiere or AE because the glass will need to be transparent. Any suggestions of tutorials or ideas? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abicalho Posted January 7, 2003 Share Posted January 7, 2003 Option 01: Animate the Visibility Track of the objects Option 02: Make 2 animations, 1 with the objects opaque, other transparent. Overlay and animate one fade in the other, either in Premiere, After Effects, Combustion, or even in MAX itself animating the Mix Map with the 2 bitmaps in it. I prefer using Option 2 myself. Less thinking and setup, more computer work. Alexander Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted January 8, 2003 Author Share Posted January 8, 2003 That's how I was initially thinking of doing it, compositing afterwards. The piece is all glass, so I would like to be able to see through it, have the light go through it, reflections, etc. I'd also like it to be masked out and animate in, not just fade. Thanks, though, I'll look into the other methods you mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted January 11, 2003 Author Share Posted January 11, 2003 I am working on the animation using the visibility track. Thanks, didn't know about that, nice and simple. Not exactly what I wanted, but will do for now. I also forgot about the scalpel plugin from digimation (I don't own it, but used it at the firm I was at a few years back). That's a great tool, but just more cash. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted January 11, 2003 Share Posted January 11, 2003 Hi mbr, Careful though! One can get really bad results with slow fades because SM shadows will 'pop-up' whenever an object is slightly visible. So even a visibility 0.01% a harsh shadow will be cast. Another trick is to use an animated blend material on a second mapping channel. You'll have a tremendous amount of control (directions, speed etc.) at your fingertops, especially when using animated gradient ramps in the mask slot. Check out for the lead2gold tutorial somewhere in the inside max2/3 book from newriders rgds nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxlee Posted January 16, 2003 Share Posted January 16, 2003 Has anybody ever used Video Post in max for this, why does everybody seem to ignore it. I,ve been playing around with . The same transition, fade, etc can be accomplished with it , as well as comping several camera views at render time instead of in Premiere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted January 17, 2003 Author Share Posted January 17, 2003 Thanks for the responses. Nisus - thanks for the warning, but I was raytracing this model, so I haven't encountered any errors. foxlee - I've only used video post for lens flares and cameras, but I'll look it over a little more thoroughly next time, I'd like to figure out how to do this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quizzy Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 REMEMBER: raytracing (shadow) objects with a animated visibility track can increase rendertimes dramatically!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted January 17, 2003 Author Share Posted January 17, 2003 quizzy - thanks, didn't know that until it took 2 days to render 800 frames at 400x300! I'll try to post it when it's all done (if it looks half decent, of course). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxlee Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 now that I read this, i realize what you were asking,another possibility is adding a visibility track in the animation track view. find the object you wanna make invisible in the track view and add a visibility track it is blue then add key from where you want it to be invisible. what i struggled with is finding a way to fade from visible to invisible, though it must be possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxlee Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 I figured this one out at long last, did a bit of animation in past week and its definitely one area thats unexplored in visualization.If you want a step by step I can write it down some time. Go down the menu in track view until you find say the structure in building click on it, click add controller>down the list go to on/off controller. You shoul see a blue line which is visibility track above object track. Add a key at the beginning and at the frame where structure should fully appear.Now when you animate structure will appear and disappear abruptly. So go back, highlight visibility track ,click on it in side menu and add anothere controller called:linear float on top of this. now the structure will gradually appear from frame 0 to whatever frame you keyed the second. Hope you can use this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DelfoZ Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 i made some samples, maybe this is what r u looking for ? Tests just play with materials and submaterials .. and uvwmap [ January 17, 2003, 12:02 PM: Message edited by: DelfoZ ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted January 17, 2003 Author Share Posted January 17, 2003 Thanks, guys. The visibility track idea was mentioned above and that's what I ended up using. A great feature I was unaware of and it did almost what I wanted. I believe that the only way to really do it is with the scalpel tool, which I may buy just to test this (I think it is about $150 or so, not too bad). The firm I used to work for used it to create animations like this and it was quite simple to use. Just a plane that you animate, no real cuts in the model, plus, you could specify a color for the plane cut, making it look like a Form-Z section cut, but animated. Cool stuff, I was just hoping to get around buying it ; ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted January 17, 2003 Author Share Posted January 17, 2003 DelfoZ - thanks, but it didn't seem to do anything when I played it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DelfoZ Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 codec Divx 5.02 try in www.dix.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kainoa Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 Hey DelfoZ, Great effect! Could you pls tell us how you did the magical star effect and how you got the wireframe to grow upwards like that. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DelfoZ Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 sure, just givme this weekend , im working in some projects . monday i will post one mini tutorial with a .max (max5) File Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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