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Make objects invisible as they pass behind non rendering geometry
I have a rather interesting challenge today.
I have a cylinder that animates along a track and passes through several small tubes rotating tubes. However, I need to render each of these elements out individually (with an alpha background) and then recombine them in a program that lacks any real masking capability.
So the problem I’ve found is that when I recombine all the layers, since I can’t use masks, the cylinder will either be on in front of or behind the loops rather than passing through them.
I know 3DS max has an alpha matte material that can be used to solve this problem, and I’m wondering if C4D has something similar so that I can render out these loops in their own pass, but they will still become transparent when the non rendering cylinder passes in front.
Sorry my question is a little convoluted, it’s an easy thing to visualize but difficult to vocalize.
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4 Replies
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Could you not run it through After Effects, using Object buffers to mask what you need, and then import the results with alpha channels back to your non-masking software?
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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 18GB RAM, OSX 10.5.8C4D 12
AE CS5 (10.0.2.4)
FCP 7.0.3
QT 7.6.4 -
You’re right, that would solve the problem.
Upon further reflection I’ve come to realize the source of my grief lies entirely in the program I have to assemble all the animation in.
Thanks for the help
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No problem, glad to help when I can. Sometimes all you need is another set of eyes on the problem 🙂
Just curious, which program are you assembling in that doesn’t use masking?
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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 18GB RAM, OSX 10.5.8C4D 12
AE CS5 (10.0.2.4)
FCP 7.0.3
QT 7.6.4 -
Microsoft Expression Blend. It’s a program for making silverlight applications.
I’m working on a sporting event animation that would introduce players, and they want to use a silverlight application to pull all the information about the players from a list.
I did some more research and found that the program can create some limited clipping masks, but it turns out my problem isn’t limited to masking. My animation contains several rotating elements and a cylinder that enters, pauses in the middle while all the player information is played, and then leaves. The real problem I’ve discovered is that in expression blend these would be three separate animations that would be played back to back driven by code. However I have no way of knowing how long the middle section would need to loop for all the player information to be displayed. So while I can easily make a very long looping version of the middle animation, the big problem is that when it finishes and tries to play the animation of the cylinder leaving, it isn’t properly synced and all the objects that spin throughout the whole animation have a noticeable twitch from the wrong keyframes being played next to eachother.
I can’t think of any way to avoid this, so right now I’m more or less starting the whole project over again.
Again, I apologize if this post is hard to understand but it’s gotten to the point where it’s hard for me to even properly think about the problem myself much less explain it.
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