[Mark Simpson]

YOu mean like in an RLA file? What data are you interested in exporting?

[Mark Simpson]

all I can say is you must have ‘a lot’ of pieces for it to be an issue with the explosion FX, either that or a pretty outdated system… My experience with that deformer is that it is pretty light on the processor requirements….You do know that you can create selection sets, and have them remain intact during explosion, right? This will allow you to have larger and smaller chunks and fewr pieces as a result…

What kind of system are you running cinema on? And what is the poly count of the object your’re trying to explode?

[Mark Simpson]

Cinema probably has a more intuitve and easier to learn workflow and toolset than either maya or Lightwave….I would suggest downloading demos of all the packages you are considering, and get to know them, each app has strengths and weakness when compared to the others….once you become proficient with all the demos you are considering, I’m sure you will have a clear idea of which package you want…I this sneaking feeling that you’re gonna like cinema though….it’s just so dang easy to use…. 🙂

[Mark Simpson]

I have always just created a duplicate spline to the one my camera is on, and had a target null travel along the duplicate just in front of the camera….the camera always points at the target null just in front of it……which is of course traveling throught the tunnel…You can advance the starting point of the duplicate so that itis always one point in front of the camera..however if the points are spare, this will cause obvious problems….I find it easier to just stagger the animation keyframes just slightly between the two splines….

Mark Simpson

[Mark Simpson]

It might be possible to do using caustics as that uses refraction within cinema…I ‘think’ I’ve seen light dividing, but not sure..It is probably not very controllable, and would definitley be render intensive….Probably a lot easier to just ‘fake’ it using multiple colored light sources..and careful positioning…you can also use materials in cinema lights, so you might be able to create a rainbow colored image and apply it to one light to fake the effect…..

Mark Simpson

[Mark Simpson]

you could always just animate the visibility..

Mark Simpson

[Mark Simpson]

make sure the quality switch for the layer in your timeline in ae is set to ‘best’ quality. Make sure your composition window is set to full resolution also…

short of that, check your AA settings in the render dialog of Cinema…you might have to up them..
Also make sure that you have ae interpreting the alpha correctly (in the footage window..command>F)

MArk Simpson

[Mark Simpson]

I’ve done similar things like this before using booleans…..

You use a large invisible (boolean visibilty switches turned off) boolean object that completely envelpos the object to be revealed…then you animate the position of the boolean o that it starts to move away from the object to be revealed…As the object being revealed moves outside of the boolean object, that portion becomes visible…

The cool thing about this method, is that you can use a rough surface on the boolean object, and that rough profile will be transferred to the object being revealed at the intersection of the tow…If you animate the surface of the bolean object or rotate it or whatever, then this rough intersection will change as the object is being revealed….giving a very organic look to the reveal…

Also, another cool thing about using the boolean method, is that where the intersection occurs, any material applied to the boolean object, will be visible at the intersection…YOu gan make it look like the intersection is on fire or glowing or whatever…..

Also, when using the gradient alpha method, the reveal, leaves the object being revealed hollow until the reveal is complete…..With the bboolean method, the intersection is always closed, gving a sense of volume to the object being revealed, as well as the different texture…

Have fun…

Mark Simpson

[Mark Simpson]

Are you using net render?

Mark Simpson

[Mark Simpson]

I know what fractals are…but there are million kinds, and even moore ways to use them….for instance noise is often fractal based…You used AE as an example……the fractal noise effect is fractal based, as is the lightning plug in, psunami, and many others…..

I would guess that cinemas noise generators are fractal based…..

As far as having cinema create actual objects that are fractal based, that would quickly overwhelm your ram and processing power, unless you could limit the itinterations….

You might take a look at Jenna, as it will likely let you simulate what you described…..

I’ve long been hoping that a plug for cinema would one day be developed that would create tree/vein like fractals……fractals that would grow over time….Ideally fractal based splines, the could then be extruded/swept……

You could do all kinds of cool effects with such a generator…like growing roots, or mold, or growing veins, or cool borders, veins, etc…

Mark Simpson