-
iest_rob 1,671 posts
Hi all, how would you animate a cut? This meaning, cutting a plane, like you would with a knife/ scalpal. Ive looked everyware and i cant seem to find anything.
What i want to create is a black screen, then the black screen is being cut into and spells out a word, and as it's cutting, light comes fliying through the holes the cut is making as it goes along. Any help?
Many thanks
Iest
-
Franklyn 553 posts
use an animated opacity map and raytraced shadows.
-
iest_rob 1,671 posts
Hey Franklyn, sorry but how would you create an animated opacity map? This sounds promising! Thanks
-
Franklyn 553 posts
use flash or any other kind of animation program like image ready ....set the bg color to white and then draw the lines for your cut in black. export it to avi and you're set
-
iest_rob 1,671 posts
Hey, ahh i see, my bro has very good Flash experience, i'll ask him to help me out, thanks man. I'll let you know how i get along.
-
iest_rob 1,671 posts
Just a quick question, I want the background to be pure black and the writing to be transparent - how would you do this?
-Iest
-
Franklyn 553 posts
opacity maps work according to a grey scale map ... the white parts are rendered and the black parts are transparent . it works in conjuction with the difuse map . so put a normal black difuse on ur model . make sure ur opcaity map has the text in black and the bg in white and put it in the opacity map slot and it should work.
-
iest_rob 1,671 posts
Hey Franklyn, is it possible if you can explain exactly how to do this? Im new to this Opacity Map buisness, i've done a quick search for any tutorials etc on how to work this but i can't get anything. Much apprichiated.
-Iest
-
iest_rob 1,671 posts
Hey - i've played around a bit with this, and i've managed to get the 'cut' i wanted to be transparent, which is pretty cool. But - how on earth would i map the animated cut and for it to be transparent? When i import an image sequence to the transparent chanel of e.g. Blin, it does'nt play.
Also another thing i want to do is, when a cut appears i want a beam of light to come shooting through that cut, how would i create this? I've played around a bit with Spot light with an optical FX glow, but this doesnt seem to come through the transparent part of the polygon plane, it comes through the plance where ever the camera is!
Thanks
-Iest
-
Franklyn 553 posts
the material editor will not recognise image sequences (as far as i know) u need to export the animation to avi and add the video to the opacity map slot then look around for a good volume light tutorial.
-
Myk 7 posts
With the image sequence, make sure it's in either the form filename.tif.# or filename.# , and that you have the 'use frame extension' option box checked (if it's not automatically set, you might need to add a frameExtension = frame; expression).
As for the opticalFX, I'm pretty sure that as it's a post-process effect that it is occluded by all geometry even if transparent. You might have to look at doing the glow as a seperate pass or completely in a compositing app (probably via judicious use of alpha's and radial blur).
-
iest_rob 1,671 posts
Hey guys, thanks a lot for replying. I can get the image sequence to play ok in the 'Colour' Slot, but not in anything else, but when it's in the colour slot, it's not transparent, when i slot the image sequence into the 'transparent' slot (is this the opacity slot??) i can only load in one image, when i try to do an expression (=frame) in the image sequence i get an error, and it does'nt load. How is it possible to play the sequence using the transparent slot? Just to confirm - which one's the opacity slot?
Thanks for the info on the lighting - i'll have a good look around for volume lighting tutorials, and if i cant get any, i'll play around with after effects. Thanks guys.
-Iest
-
Franklyn 553 posts
oooh ...i forgot that i was in the maya forums i followed this link from the active posts section. sorry about that.
-
iest_rob 1,671 posts
Ahhh, are you a Max user?
-
Myk 7 posts
when you say 'play back' are you talking about the viewport or renders? The hardware texturing defaults to show colour, you can set it to display transparency/opacity by changing it under the hardware texturing tab of the blinn material.
-
iest_rob 1,671 posts
Hey Myk. Playback meaning in the viewport. Is it possible, if you've got time, to explain exactly how would you go about doing this?
What i want to do is animate a cut in a plane and as the cut forms, light comes beaming through the cut, so the more the cut, the more light comes through.
I've done the basic cut in Image Ready (easier than i thought actually!) and now i want to import this into Maya. Would you just map the image sequence of the cut that i've made in Image Redy onto a plane, and put itno the 'tranlsprent' slot? If so - how do you get the image sequence to play? I can only get it to play in the 'colour' slot of the material.
Another thing - i've noticed in your signuture you've got escape studios, how is it there? Im thinking of going around September next year to do the Comprehensive Maya course. Just thought i might ask.
-Iest
-
Myk 7 posts
It should be possible to see it by changing the setting in 'hardware texturing' on the blinn to 'transparency' rather than 'colour' (the default). If all else fails, copy the opacity map to an alpha channel (you can probably do this in ImageReady) and save as a TIF file - if you map a TIF file containing an alpha to the colour slot maya will automatically use the alpha information as the transparency (and link it for you).
(sorry if i'm being a little vague, i don't have maya to hand at the moment and i'm having to explain this from memory
)
As for Escape, the setup there is great (dual xeons....mmmm), the lecturers know what they're talking about and the general atmosphere is cool. I don't know first hand what the comprehensive course is like, but the guys in my class that did it rate it highly. Perhaps even more importantly they seem to do loads of stuff to help you find work as well, almost acting like an agency (without the part where they nick your pay).
-
iest_rob 1,671 posts
Hey, thanks a lot for replying, that's an excellent overview man, i'll try and play around a bit more to see what happens beore i try to convert them to an alpha channel in Image Ready. Thanks a lot.
Excellent about Escape, im really looking forward going there, thanks.
Merry Christmas - Iest
-
benstein 1 posts
Hello, I'm not sure if it's too late, or you have found another solution, but I recently did an animated cut with the Edit Polygons->Cut Faces tool with "Delete the cut faces" turned on then animating the manipulators position. It cuts a straight line across a polygonal object.
-
iest_rob 1,671 posts
Hey there Ben, welcome to the forum!
Thanks a lot for your help, i will try it later on when i go home, and i'll let you know how i get on. Sounds pretty simple!
Many thanks
-Iest
