Changing the visibility of an object
 

i wanted to know how you can have an object appear in one frame and then not be visable in the next frame?, all ive done is move it out of the shot, but there should be a way to make it not visable? isnt there?
any help would be appreciated. ty in advance

Re: anyone help me?
 

OK, yes there is, however, since I do not have 3ds max installed on my computer, I can't give you detailed instruction. (If someone else can double check and add/correct some steps, that would be great.) So here goes:

1. Open the properties of the object and change the visibility from 100% (this will make a visibility property for the object when you open up the curve editor).
2. Open the curve editor (I don't remember how exactly to do this, but I believe it's in the animation menu). <offtopic>I've found that the curve editor is one of the most important tools for the animation, you have so much more control with it that with just moving key framing, that I had it as a dedicated window on a second monitor.</offtopic>
3. Find the object you want to disappear in the curve editor hierarchy.
4. Change the controller of the visibility track to a boolean controller. (If you want an object to fade in and out, you can leave it).
5. Add keys and change the values: 1 for visible, 0 for invisible.

Sorry about being so vague. I hope you could follow and I hope it helps.

Re: anyone help me?
 

cant you just hide the selection in that frame? then unhide it in the next?
or will it not show up in the render as hidden?

Re: anyone help me?
 

The first thing I would try to do is select the object and see if you can send it to the background. Usually things will not display when behind something. Assuming of course, there is a background.

Re: anyone help me?
 

Hiding objects is just for project management, you can't keyframe between hidden/unhidden. So unfortunately this will not work.

This is similar to the first solution (moving it out of the shot). However, moving it out of the camera's view is not the ideal solution. For example, if you had multiple cameras or a moving camera, you would have to make sure it stayed outside of the shot for the entire sequence. Trust me, the curve editor may seem a little wierd at first, but it gives you so much more control over the animation that it will payoff greatly in the end. The visibility control is only one aspect of the very powerful and helpful tool. The tutorial "Bouncing a Ball" (included in 3ds max) is a good start to learn its potential.

Re: anyone help me?
 

The two ways to control visablility are through the Visibility/Opacity Contols (as mentioned above) and through an Alpha mask (8bit image file) applied to an object. This is a way to control some pretty cool special effects. It sounds a little more advanced than what you need - which would be the first method, but you should play arround with it.

- Take an two overlapping objects (start with spheres), apply different surface textures. Apply an alpha map to outer object. This will make one object the reveal the second (UV mapping allows position persision of the map) this can be used for "Cut-away" views of a model (for example). (Note: The usage all depends on the situaltion and your creativity.)

This method allows for only parts of the object to be disolved.-

A simple use of this is to use a 32bit image/mov file and map it on a plane. Now you have a video that you can add to you 3d that is fully integrated into the scene. This used to be called a "Clip Map" as the alpha clips the plane to reveal the desired portion of the image.

We used this in 2003 animation to include a student in a space suite floating is space (suite and space are all 3D) and in 2005 to include me inside a house viewed through a window as the camera pulled out. as well as for the student's head in the bed (sleeping) shsrobotics.org Check out the media page to see what I mean.

Re: Changing the visibility of an object
 

ok, ill give an example..

if you have a ball in one frame and at the 10 second mark u want it to be gone from the shot, do you have to just move it out of the shot or can u change the visability of it for just that frame?

Re: Changing the visibility of an object
 

You can do either one, that depends on what's happening in your animation. If the ball is moving, then moving it off the screen is just fine. If it's not, then you'll have to make it disappear. Besides that, once things have moved off of the current camera view (and aren't going to return), it's usually a good idea to make them disappear anyway, so that they don't suddenly reappear if you move your camera.

As for making it disappear, you can either:

Animate the visability (as posted by rowe above) or animate the opacity of the material that's applied to it. Either way, you can use a combination of AutoKey and the Curve Editor to achieve success. As some else mentioned above, tutorials are your friend, in this case, the bouncing ball is a good choice to learn the curve editor.

Also, I'm assuming that you're a part of Team 65 the Huskie Brigade, which is Pontiac Nothern if I'm correct. Watch for emails and information from Randy Rockafeller and SEAM FX, which is a local, Detroit based group of professional animators who give workshops to FIRST teams, usually for free. I know Randy mentors a team, though I can't remember which one. I remember their animation involved a jungle trek, leading to a volanco with robot parts in it, that blew up and the parts fell together into a robot, or something like that, maybe someone else on CD knows which team that was and can help you out. SEAM FX is a great resource, they hold monthly meetings, and, for us anyway, they're local.

Re: Changing the visibility of an object
 

yes, im from team 65..and thank you for the info, i will try it out tomorrow

Re: Changing the visibility of an object
 

Also, when you keyframe an object to go out of the view of the camera, if you have motion blur on, you will see it blurred out for a frame or two before it dissapears in the render.