Laser Brun-In effects
7 messages in this thread
I've just been reading your chapter on Laser Burn-In in the 3D Studio
Special Effects book (nice effect BTW!) and have a quick question (if
such a thing exists in 3DS <vbg>) for you if you can spare the time
to answer me.
I want to use the effect w/ my own text (ultimately I'd like to burn
things other than text also) and am trying to figure out a
quick'n'easy way to make the opacity map .flc to mask the text holes
in AniPro. I'm having trouble figuring out how to associate the text
objects in 3DS to the .flc in AP. I've thought about rendering a gif
image looking straight down on the text and then using it as a
templet in AP draw the .flc but that seems a bit crude and open to
distortion errors. Even I did it this way I'm not sure how I'd line it
back up in 3DS.
Got any tips you could pass along?
Along the same vein, you say that the .flc is also used to control shininess
(bottom of pg 92, left column) but I don't get that part at all. Where the
opacity map is transparent the shininess comes from the object below and where
it isn't the shininess comes from the general 3DS settings themselves doesn't
it?
Pardon me if my questions seem kinda (read: real) dumb. I'm a 3DS newbie.
Thanks a mil in advance!
– Ernie Jackson, Written 03-Jun-1995 @ 12:29:03
Using: Windows NavCIS PRO 1.62
Ernie,
glad you enjoyed the chapter and I really hope you find it useful for your own
animations.
>> rendering a gif image looking straight down on the text and then using it as
a templet in AP draw the .flc <<
that's basically how I did it, except I created a flic initially. I believe I
keyframed a little circular "marker object" following the path of the laser.
This helped guide me when I was painting out areas of the opacity map in
animator pro. You'd render this in the top view and also you'd map it back on
the text in the top view. A tip I find useful, since no actual mapping proxy
exists, is to make your opacity map a background image in the 3d editor and
turn on view background (alt-G). You then move geometry into place over the map
by using the pan and zoom viewport icons. Eventually you should have the
geometry perfectly lined up over the proxy view. Then you can assign mapping
co-ordinates by doing a region fit around the viewport safe frame guide (the
yellow box – use alt-E to toggle it on/off).
>> Along the same vein, you say that the .flc is also used to control shininess
<<
transparent objects can also be shiny, but in this case you don't want to see a
shiny areas where there is supposed to be nothing there – rather defeats the
illusion, eh! That's why you use the same animated opacity map to control
shininess. It's just another mask to control when the shininess appears.
Good luck, mate <g>.
>> that's basically how I did it… <<
Thanks for the info!
– Ernie Jackson, Written 05-Jun-1995 @ 06:49:57
Using: Windows NavCIS PRO 1.62
I just got the Special Effects book and looked at your laser burn job – great
effect!
I have a stupid newbie question which I'm sure should be obvious to me, but
which is not, so
how about a hint: I don't understand why you had to fuss with a separate
element for the burned out
letters and map it exactly the same as the front panel to dup the wood grain,
line it up exactly, etc.
Why couldn't you just use one solid front panel with the wood grain (no letter
holes in the geometry),
then apply the animated opacity and shininess maps to this front to reveal the
burnt holes over
time??? I don't get why the separate front with holes and disappearing holes
front were required.
Try not to hurt yourself laughing if this is TERRIBLY obvious!!(g)
Dennis
P.S. I know in other chapters some things that didn't make sense began to make
sense after
I tried to go thru the exercise myself, but I don't know when I'll
have time to go thru yours,
so how about it!
Dennis,
>> Why couldn't you just use one solid front panel with the wood grain (no
letter holes in the geometry) <<
not really sure now, it's been well over a year since I created the exercise.
It may not have been necessary at all, but then it may not have hurt terribly
to do it that way either. There's more than one way to brew a pot of tea. Off
the top of my head, I think you might get cleaner lines and edges with shaped
geometry than a flat plane.
I suggest you try it with a flat panel instead of the letter cut-outs and see
if it works as well. Please let me know if it does. The main block does need
physical cut-outs to reveal the inside, but the geometry that has the animated
opacity map may have been superfluous in its complexity.
Martin
Martin,
<< try it with a solid front and see what happens >>
OK – I'll try to work that exercise into my schedule (let's see, my wife gets
out of summer school in
4 weeks, then it will take me 4 weeks to catch up on all the other stuff I'm
neglecting, so I guess by late
summer I might have a try at it!(g))
Dennis
Dennis,
>> so I guess by late summer I might have a try at it!(g) <<
better late than never <g>.