Animation in 3DSMax R3

Submitted by MoonUnit on
Forum
Artists

i know its a bit old but as ive mentioned previously in other threads its all i could get.

the project here was to create a model of a bullet and render a video of the bullet spinning, with a blue background so it could be layerd over another video file in some editing software with the blue screen that will create a transparent background

my problem is ive got no idea about animation and ive created what i have purly out of stuffing around. But when i render the video the bg colour slowly goes from black to blue frame by frame. How can i fix that and have it stay blue without changing colour at all, start to finish.

thanks for any help :)

Submitted by Aven on Wed, 14/01/04 - 8:06 PMPermalink

I can't remember it perfectly, but Max3 should be able to render it's frames with alpha channels stored in them. This means that the background colour doesn't make any difference at all as it would be stored as transparent data. When you composite it over a live footage plate, you just have to make sure that it's alpha channel is turned on and it will work perfectly. Just make sure that the frames are rendered out in a format that supports alphas (tiff, png, rla)

As for the animating bg. It sounds like you had the animate button turned on with the time slider further on in the movie. You then changed the bg colour. Quick fix is to make sure that the animate button is turned on again, take the slider to frame 0 and then change the bg colour to the value you want. It will still be animating the bg colour, but it will animate it from one colour to the same colour. Long way is to open up the gtraph editor and find the keys for it. Delete the keys and start again.

Note: I haven't used Max for two years now, so my memory isn't the best :)

Submitted by MoonUnit on Wed, 14/01/04 - 10:22 PMPermalink

yeah it appears that the reason was to do with changing the bg colour on the last frame (as that was where it was sitting because thats where i just animated it). Ive now got my spinning bullet ready to go into film, thanks a lot :D

Submitted by codyalday on Thu, 15/01/04 - 12:53 AMPermalink

After its done, can you post a link to the bullet, like record it please, and congradulations

Submitted by codyalday on Thu, 15/01/04 - 12:56 AMPermalink

After its done, can you post a link to the bullet, like record it please, and congradulations for getting your bullet in film.

Submitted by MoonUnit on Thu, 15/01/04 - 2:18 AMPermalink

i dont have anywhere to host a film, ive made a 300x240 version but thats still 5 megs (heh not the master of compression me). Its not that interesting really, its just a bullet that spins... its for the purpose of a slow motion shot which will be much more interesting in full.

Submitted by MoonUnit on Thu, 13/05/04 - 7:19 AMPermalink

well the bullet? yes. The film? No.

i offer a forwarning to anyone who plans on making a film with your mates, be certain there in it for the long run, now i see why people have "employees" instead :P
i organised the whole thing with everyone but people just lost interest. To nurture that creative bone in my body im looking into machinema (specifically, with the unreal engine).

Posted by MoonUnit on
Forum
Artists

i know its a bit old but as ive mentioned previously in other threads its all i could get.

the project here was to create a model of a bullet and render a video of the bullet spinning, with a blue background so it could be layerd over another video file in some editing software with the blue screen that will create a transparent background

my problem is ive got no idea about animation and ive created what i have purly out of stuffing around. But when i render the video the bg colour slowly goes from black to blue frame by frame. How can i fix that and have it stay blue without changing colour at all, start to finish.

thanks for any help :)

Submitted by Aven on Wed, 14/01/04 - 8:06 PMPermalink

I can't remember it perfectly, but Max3 should be able to render it's frames with alpha channels stored in them. This means that the background colour doesn't make any difference at all as it would be stored as transparent data. When you composite it over a live footage plate, you just have to make sure that it's alpha channel is turned on and it will work perfectly. Just make sure that the frames are rendered out in a format that supports alphas (tiff, png, rla)

As for the animating bg. It sounds like you had the animate button turned on with the time slider further on in the movie. You then changed the bg colour. Quick fix is to make sure that the animate button is turned on again, take the slider to frame 0 and then change the bg colour to the value you want. It will still be animating the bg colour, but it will animate it from one colour to the same colour. Long way is to open up the gtraph editor and find the keys for it. Delete the keys and start again.

Note: I haven't used Max for two years now, so my memory isn't the best :)

Submitted by MoonUnit on Wed, 14/01/04 - 10:22 PMPermalink

yeah it appears that the reason was to do with changing the bg colour on the last frame (as that was where it was sitting because thats where i just animated it). Ive now got my spinning bullet ready to go into film, thanks a lot :D

Submitted by codyalday on Thu, 15/01/04 - 12:53 AMPermalink

After its done, can you post a link to the bullet, like record it please, and congradulations

Submitted by codyalday on Thu, 15/01/04 - 12:56 AMPermalink

After its done, can you post a link to the bullet, like record it please, and congradulations for getting your bullet in film.

Submitted by MoonUnit on Thu, 15/01/04 - 2:18 AMPermalink

i dont have anywhere to host a film, ive made a 300x240 version but thats still 5 megs (heh not the master of compression me). Its not that interesting really, its just a bullet that spins... its for the purpose of a slow motion shot which will be much more interesting in full.

Submitted by MoonUnit on Thu, 13/05/04 - 7:19 AMPermalink

well the bullet? yes. The film? No.

i offer a forwarning to anyone who plans on making a film with your mates, be certain there in it for the long run, now i see why people have "employees" instead :P
i organised the whole thing with everyone but people just lost interest. To nurture that creative bone in my body im looking into machinema (specifically, with the unreal engine).