3D Animation Q/A

[Capt.ArD]

Reactor isnt that hard you just need to sit down and learn it. the stuff it allows you to do is really sweet. I'll give anyone interested a rundown sometime if they want. Pm me about it.

[darkstar]

Anyone here?

[darkstar]

need help

[Damelvin]

Originally Posted by Capt.ArD

Reactor isnt that hard you just need to sit down and learn it. the stuff it allows you to do is really sweet. I'll give anyone interested a rundown sometime if they want. Pm me about it.

Which one is better cloth or reactor cloth, I heard anything using reactor can shutdown the program do to error. If i got time later I definetly would mind you showing me some tips about reactor.

[Capt.ArD]

To be perfectly frank, i never learned cloth, only reactor cloth, so i don't know which is better.

Yes reactor can crash max, but only if you do no set up the reactor correctly. basically reactor is a physics engine like what some games have, only it is a lot more accurate. the accuracy therefore makes the program a lot more picky about how things are set up.

a good example is how objects interpolate. in a videogame, especially an older game, some objects can go through others. one example i remember is in Tomb raider you can lock Lara's butler in a freezer, and his hands and face stick through the door. If any object does that in reactor, it goes crazy for a while then crashes. it looks a lot like the objects exploded. so you always have to be careful not to have objects overlapping. other problems arise from all the vertices in an object being coplanar, low substeps (which will need to be explained better later on), or odd environment settings.

The overall product of a good reactor job is a very realistic and lifelike movement or arrangement. It's also really helpful for arranging things in a random manner. if you have a desk, papers are usually scattered all over, and pencils and things are lying all over. instead of taking the time to individually placing each object, you can just put them about 5 inches over the desk and let reactor make them fall down, landing in a random and realistic-looking mess. plenty of other uses, too. it's great fun.

wow long post

[Damelvin]

Originally Posted by Capt.ArD

To be perfectly frank, i never learned cloth, only reactor cloth, so i don't know which is better.

Yes reactor can crash max, but only if you do no set up the reactor correctly. basically reactor is a physics engine like what some games have, only it is a lot more accurate. the accuracy therefore makes the program a lot more picky about how things are set up.

a good example is how objects interpolate. in a videogame, especially an older game, some objects can go through others. one example i remember is in Tomb raider you can lock Lara's butler in a freezer, and his hands and face stick through the door. If any object does that in reactor, it goes crazy for a while then crashes. it looks a lot like the objects exploded. so you always have to be careful not to have objects overlapping. other problems arise from all the vertices in an object being coplanar, low substeps (which will need to be explained better later on), or odd environment settings.

The overall product of a good reactor job is a very realistic and lifelike movement or arrangement. It's also really helpful for arranging things in a random manner. if you have a desk, papers are usually scattered all over, and pencils and things are lying all over. instead of taking the time to individually placing each object, you can just put them about 5 inches over the desk and let reactor make them fall down, landing in a random and realistic-looking mess. plenty of other uses, too. it's great fun.

wow long post

Some help would be nice on the bed cover since I can't get the corners to look like i want them too.

[Damelvin]

Saw a guide online on how to make simple valance/curtain and I was wondeering if waht I did could pass as a curtain or should I mess with cloth.

[Damelvin]

Just wondering why are mov and mpeg the only video formats taht can be used as bitmaps? It gives me teh slection of avi but wont let me apply it.

[BuddyB309]

Originally Posted by Damelvin

Just wondering why are mov and mpeg the only video formats taht can be used as bitmaps? It gives me teh slection of avi but wont let me apply it.

It should Ive used Avi before, It might be the compressor that the avi is using.

[Capt.ArD]

I know I have used Avi before as well. I don't know why you couldn't.

for the bed cover, if you want to reactor it i can help, but i don't have a lot of time right now. basically, look at the left side of the screen on max ant there is a button called "create rigid body collection" click and drop the icon anywhere in the scene, doesn't matter where. do the same thing for the cloth body collection. select the rigid one again and look at the modify panel. there is a little box where you can add objects from the scene to the collection. add your matress-thing object to that list. click the "cloth" object and apply the "reactor cloth" modifier to it. then add that object to the cloth body collection. you'll want to make sure you cloth has plenty of faces, 20x20 is pretty good. there, now the sene is set up, get ready to reactor it.

select the utilities tab at the top right of the screen (looks like a hammer) and slick on the reactor button in the list that apperas. open the first and last rollouts (should be animaiton and properties) next, select the cloth object, and in the properties rollout set the mass to about 1 or 2. this makes gravity affect the cloth. DO NOT give the mattress any mass. if you do the mattress will just fall out of the scene whene it calculates the the movement. while you have the cloth selected, look for where you define the boundary of the object and click the "define as proxy mesh" or something button. then select the cloth as the corresponding mesh.
my instructions are not clear, but you should be able to muddle it out. i'll be on CD or Gaim tommorrow night if you need better help.

when that is all set up, you can click on the "preview animation" in the animation rollout that you opened earlier. when you do, it will disaplay a list telling you if there are any errors in the scene. hopefully you will only see one that says that the object density is low. ignore it. then you will see a window with an untextured version of your scene. press "p" to initiate the simulation. your cloth shuld fall straight onto the matress, then drape itself around it. if it looks unrealistic, you can raise the substeps by using the menu at the top of that window. substeps ar the number of physics calculations per second, the more, the better. when you are pleased with the arrangement of the cloth, you can click the "update max" button at the top, and it will change your scene to cloth in its draped form.

like i said, this is a very superficial tut., but i can help more later on. my AIM is captainard2000. ill be on tommorrow night.

[darkstar]

Hi people, i need help with my tem's animation video. Does anyone know how to change from one background to another one in an animation video? If I don't reply you soon just pm me please

[Damelvin]

You mean like in the middle of a scene? Like you want to change one color from black to white during the animation. I would just turn on auto key and on material editor change the material or bitmap at the frame you want it to change. That should work. I have to do taht in my animation as part of a transition between scenes.

[darkstar]

Originally Posted by Damelvin

You mean like in the middle of a scene? Like you want to change one color from black to white during the animation. I would just turn on auto key and on material editor change the material or bitmap at the frame you want it to change. That should work. I have to do taht in my animation as part of a transition between scenes.

Right, because at the start we have to have it black for part of the requirements, but I could not figure out how to change the image I want as the actually background in the animation, from the black one in the very begining.

[Capt.ArD]

Are you trying to make your animaton all in one go? If so, then yes, what damelvin said will work fine.

I could not figure out how to change the image I want as the actually background in the animation, from the black one in the very begining.

do you mean the 1 second of black at the beginning of the animation that is required? i wouldn't bother animating that, just use a movie editing program to add 1 second of black. most programs can do it.

BTW, is your signature image within size requirements? it takes up about half of my screen

[darkstar]

Originally Posted by Capt.ArD

Are you trying to make your animaton all in one go? If so, then yes, what damelvin said will work fine.


do you mean the 1 second of black at the beginning of the animation that is required? i wouldn't bother animating that, just use a movie editing program to add 1 second of black. most programs can do it.

BTW, is your signature image within size requirements? it takes up about half of my screen

Actually it is five seconds with all that info. they want also. I'll try that material editor also though.