[Randy Johnson]

I dont have a lot of experience with DXF so I cant offer any direct advice.
I generally go via Rhino so I am using 3dm files.

/Randy

[Randy Johnson]

Its pretty much the same. The export is dependent on what the CAD program is using.

You can some pretty strange results if you are using subdividers like hyper nurbs or clothnurbs …. so make it all editable or model “hard”.

Also a few times I have needed to triangulate the mesh before exporting.

/Randy

[Randy Johnson]

I seemed to have when missed writing my thought above. The second point was about using joints…. To get multiple bends you would need a couple chains and weight them appropriately.

I dont think Broadcast does dynamics… not sure though.

This guy did this animation with only bend deformers.
https://www.fantasyislandimaging.com/Fantasy/animation_15.html

/randy

[Randy Johnson]

I did not get what you wrote there but here is how to get a spline from a polygon object.

-Select the edge you want to convert to a spline.
-On the top bar menu select STRUCTURE
-Select EDIT SPLINE
-Select EDGE TO SPLINE

it will appear as a child of the object.

/Randy

[Randy Johnson]

*An animated bend deformer (or two) would be my choice.
*You can get a also unfurl …. then you can get the weighting exact. But I would assume its far more work than its worth.
*If you are using r12 you could use a softbody on the paper.
* If you are not on r12 but have mocca you can get some nice paper effects with Cloth simulation.

Thats all I can think of at the moment.
/Randy

[Randy Johnson]

Select the polys you want to copy and right click then choose Split. It will give you a seperate object with just those polys. THen you go back to the original object and delete those polys… they should still be selected. You should then go into point mode and optimize to get rid of the left over points.

/Randy

[Randy Johnson]

The buffer creates a mask for what ever has the buffer… So to remove the building you want it on the building.
Think of it as an alpha channel for what ever has it, your render will still include the building. The multi pass render will only be black and white…so you need to layer it all together in post.

In addition you can place different buffers on different objects and place the same buffer number on different objects to create groups… this is nice for color correction and so on.

/Randy

[Randy Johnson]

There is also the spline mask
There are several ways to animate the alpha channel of an object that will act as a mask. (display tag with back face culling is generally helpful here)

/Randy

[Randy Johnson]

In the compositing tag you want to use an object buffer. You also add this object buffer in the render settings (multipass option).

Be sure that it is visible to camera.

The object buffer will be your “mask” or adjustment layer in your compositing program.

/Randy

[Randy Johnson]

I render out the whole scene in as many angles and camera moves as I have time for so i would not say your daft at all. I generally render it out with out lighting and textures and stuff then edit and re render with all the extras. Even then the stage object does not always work since your disolves and other transitions need over lapping frames.

/Randy