Flickering Problem in Max

[Jason Matthews]

Hi all. I am having a problem with flickering in animations from max 6. I am animating a drill bit coming down while it is spinning. I have the "process advanced lighting when required" on. It just seems to flicker a little.

 

I am using radiosity with daylight system. Logarythmic Exposure control.

 

Here is the link. Thank you in advance.

 

http://class.dcp.ufl.edu/arc6913/jmatthew/

 

It is called drill bit 3.mov

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Hi all. I am having a problem with flickering in animations from max 6. I am animating a drill bit coming down while it is spinning. I have the "process advanced lighting when required" on. It just seems to flicker a little.

 

I am using radiosity with daylight system. Logarythmic Exposure control.

 

Here is the link. Thank you in advance.

 

http:class.dcp.ufl.edu/arc6913/jmatthew/

 

It is called drill bit 3.mov

 

i have never done this before, but i think the way to approach this would be to remove the drill bit from the radiosity solution. i am not at a computer with max, but i think this might be under right click properties. it should be a check box that says something about including it in the radiosity solution.

 

then add lights to the scene, and tell them to only effect the drill bit, and ignore the rest of the scene. then remove the lights from the radiosity soultion, in a similar fashion that you did the drill bit.

 

if all works out, your drill bit will be lit nicely, and your scene will be lit nicely, and everything will render fine.

 

...i don't know how you are calculating the radiosity solution, but they often use random samples. the scene will be effected by the location that the samples are taken from. this is probably what is causing the flickering. your scene is calculating the radisosity solution. for the drill bit each frame it moves on, but the rest of the scene does not need recalculated because nothing moves.

 

i don't know if any of what i said is true, but if i was approaching the problem, that is how i would try.

[Bishop]

I believe the problem is the exposure control. It is adjusting the exposure when the scene changes causing the brightness of the scene to change thus flicker.

 

Not sure about the solution but heard somewhere that using Linear Exposure might solve the problems. Give it a try and post your results.

 

Hope this helps.

[William Alexander]

Try lowering (zero) the radiosity overide for the reflectance scale, as the drill bit is in the shadows anyway, this would stop the additional radiosity light, from a very shiny and reflective metal drill bit.

 

 

Bit looks good!

 

WDA

[Scott Schroeder]

A better solution would be to not use radiosity all together. It is overkill for a scene like this. The 3 light system would work much better. If you don't know what that is, its a key light, a fill light and a backfill light. Use the standard max lights for this, and only have your key light cast shadows. You scene will look the same and render in 1/2 the time. Also if you dont have it already, get "Digital Lighting and Rendering" by Jeremy Birn, it's the lighting bible.

[Jason Matthews]

Thank you for the reply guys. I am rerendering now, using a bit of each of you suggestions. I just put in the order for the book. I have been looking for a book like this for a while. I don't know why I just didnt ask anyone.

 

Thanks again.

-Jason