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Autodesk Multimedia Forum · IPAS Usage

#Highlight

11 messages in this thread

#117311From: JMH CommunicationsAug 9, 1994 6:50 PM

I just got highlight and can't seem to get it to work for me. I read the documentation. What is the trick? For example, I selected hue 32 for my gold,, which was a 32 hue, and had a reflection map set at 50%. brightness set at 202 and Var at 1. Stars at 4 and angle at 45. perframe angle at 0 brightness at 70 and pixels at 13 for a 640 by 480 image. The key was set at hue and filter the whole image. (I tried about 30 other ways with no luck) I am using 3ds3. I understand that some of the older ipas's don't work well with 3ds3. So is it me or the ipas. help… Jerry

#117316From: Yost GroupAug 9, 1994 7:11 PM

You can't use reflection maps with hilite objects. The only material parameters that you can use are the diffuse color (both ambient and specular need to be set to 000) and self-illumination (must be set to 100%). That'll do it for ya. – G

#117394From: Richard J. SmithAug 10, 1994 12:44 AM

Is this true, I have the IPAS but have never used it right I guess. This all seems rather useless, Is there a Highlight type IPAS that is controlled by Object to get a sparkish type effect?

#117470From: Yost GroupAug 10, 1994 8:53 AM

Digimation sells a sparks/fairy dust IPAS called Magic, but it really requires my hilite routines to make it look "magical". – G

#117405From: Jim LammersAug 10, 1994 1:25 AM

RE the highlight IPAS – I saw Gary's reply, and for carefully placed highlights, you must use the key-color approach he describes. However, for gold/chrome type highlights that occur randomly on the bright areas of a metal object, use the brightness threshold. Anyone who's seen the Digimation video tutorial for 3D Studio may remember the Lexus piece (also on the 94 siggraph reel) with the rotating brightness-keyed highlights. Jim

#117423From: ARA GREGORIANAug 10, 1994 2:24 AM

ok. but can this method be used on not just shiny objects but on refective objecs as well?? thanks ara

#117536From: Jim LammersAug 10, 1994 2:45 PM

>>but can this method be used on not just >>shiny objects but on refective objecs as well?? Well, the routine just looks through the rendered frame pixel by pixel. If a pixel's luminance (brightness) exceeds the threshold set in the IXP dialog, the HILITE IXP will paint a highlight at that location. Hilite.IXP (and any IXP created thus far) doesn't care what's in the 3D Scene or what the materials are because it only looks at the pixel RGB values. I've heard that R4 allows the IXP routines to access the Z-buffer data, so new IXP IPAS routines may interact more with 3D aspects of a scene in the future. Jim

#117664From: ARA GREGORIANAug 10, 1994 11:36 PM

thanks. i am all clear now ara

#118132From: Marion K. MarksAug 13, 1994 5:04 PM

R4 allows .IXPs to reference the Z-buffer? YAY! This means that a distance-keyed BLUR2.IXP which can simulate depth-of-field focusing will be possible!

#118180From: Don LandisAug 14, 1994 4:57 AM

Or rack focus (animated zones of focus for you non-camera people)?

#118375From: Jim LammersAug 15, 1994 3:45 PM

>>This means that a distance-keyed BLUR2.IXP >>which can simulate depth-of-field focusing will be possible! Bingo! Ought to open up lots of IXP possibilities. Who is M&M/who are you, anyway? I'm Jim, a KC-area animator/FX guy. Jim