ing a texture via geometry.
 

ok if i wanted a texture to change on the spot where an object has touched or if it had intersected something.
how do i go about doing that?


sory i messed up the title

Re: ing a texture via geometry.
 

I assume you're talking aboput texture maps.

Instead of a still frame texture map (JPG, TGA, GIF) you could map a video texture map (AVI, MOV) into the material. Show the change in the video map & it'll be applied to your 3d part.

Re: ing a texture via geometry.
 

well i need a peice of geometry to gover a plane and leave a different color trail behind it.
and how would i do that?

Re: ing a texture via geometry.
 

"gover"?

Re: ing a texture via geometry.
 

Very simple concept, Basically you need an animated diffuse map in your material editor slot. So basically you have a movie file as a texture instead of a single frame picture. What you need to do is create the texture by either rendering out the texture trough 3ds max. Or use combustion to but together some layers and make a video that way. Then in the diffuse slot you have have to match up the time when the color changes on the ground.

This process involves max to create a Mask to use as a Matte in the diffuse channel of the material editor.

First visualize what the changing color will look like. I think its most likely going to look like a cone on a path deform? So what you are trying to do is render out a top view of the actual shape of the color change. and use that as your "stencil" to tell max what and where the underlying color (AKA: the changing color) is going to show through. This is done with black and white. The White is what is going to show through and the black is what is not going to show through.

Whew! So if you are still keeping up with me here is what you need to do. Think of how the shape of the color change will look. Then create an entirely new file and max. With this file you are going to render out the animated shape of the color change and render it out from a flat view. I would suggest keeping a high quality with the render so use quicktime with the animation codecc. The background needs to be completely black and the object needs to be completely white with self illumination at 100. Then take that video file into your material editor slot and set it as the mask. The underlying material will be the color change that shows through.

Its how we got the color change effect on the ground in our video last year. view it right here