CompuServe Messages

Federic, I just recently ran into that problem myself in attempting to create a flashing light for an aircraft. I ended up creating a small (100×100) flic in Animator Pro that went from black, changed to white for a few frames, and then back to black. The pulse or flash rate can be tweaked by changing the number of frames that are black (off) and the number that are white (on). I then created a material for the sphere in 3DS that used my black to white flic as a self-illumination map. If you dont want the sphere to be visible when the light is not on, you can use the same black to white flic as an opacity map for the sphere material, causing it to be transparent when not "on". If the light from the sphere is supposed to illuminate surrounding objects, place a spotlight on the spere, with the target on the objects to be illuminated, and activate the projector option for the spotlight, choosing the black to white flic as the projected bitmap. The brightness of the flash can be controlled by the multiplier variable when creating the spotlight. Sounds like a long process, but it really wasn't bad, and allowed a lot of control over the final appearance. Good Luck, Craig Fries