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Animating hundreds of objects efficiently to follow a pattern


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Curious if anyone has any scripts or ideas on how to easily animate hundreds of objects to follow a pattern as seen in the provided example...I have an animation to do showcasing the ability of this lighting system to be programmed to move. About 0:56 into video....

 

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That would be great to pull off.

I think the answer may lie in using Forest Pack, possibly some RailClone.

See this video where the grass growth/animation is controlled using maps...there are certain points in the video where it looks exactly what you might need, but not positive on that.

 

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Thanks. I did come across this video and i email itoo. So we will see if it can manage what we need. I think this is a very close potential solution.

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My initial guess is something to do with making your own distribution map for each light (white dots), than for different patterns making a gradient map that goes over each light (dot on distribution map) and then animating the opacity of that custom gradient map...which in your case would just be all white over the lights you want to move, black where you don't. You'd have to do that for each different pattern. That being said, that's just a simple solution for moving up and down at the same time/level, which is most likely not what you need. Making the transitions in between patterns would be the "fun" part.

 

I am definitely interested in hearing/seeing what you come up with, good luck.

Edited by charris
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Using the bitmap option in Volume Select on a plane with high enough segements ?

Put a linked Xform modifier above to do the vertical movement using a control object

Put a lattice modifier on top to generate the balls ( pflow of course would be cooler :) )

Animated the volume select assigned map using a mix map to blend between two different flag images ...

all dynamically adjustable ( simple increase segs of the plane to have more lightballs etc.. )

 

See attached video and zip file including the max + bitmaps for the sample

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tu1vePGqW-s

 

lightballs.png

 

Lightballs_Max2020.zip

Lightballs_M2014.zip

Edited by spacefrog
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Josef,

 

Mind uploading a 2016 version?

I tried to recreate it based on your steps but i'm clearly missing something.

 

I can get to the animated mix map that transitions from 1 flag to the other, but not sure how to animate the individual balls during the Mesh Select part.

Edited by charris
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  • 4 weeks later...

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