3d Max 2010 - Phaser Array Annimations

Posts

• Melak332 Posts: 0Member

  July 2010 #2

  

  Hi there, glad you found the tut helpful
  
  1: I've never done phasers with particles, but what I can tell you is that using the cylinder is more likely to give you a "clean" looking phaser. You can add some sort of noise to the beam object as I described in the tut, but the mental ray glow itself will be pretty uniform.
  
  If you use particles on the other hand, it should be relatively easy to add a few noisy things in the beam.
  
  
  2: What exactly do you mean - do you want the phaser array to stop firing, and the beam to move away from it, not disappear instantly?
  I did a test anim with my phaser method, completely solid colour beams though, no noise at all (any fuzziness you may see is merely video compression): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHCKK6h6_tU&fmt=22
  
  Instead of a cylinder I used I believe an "oil tank" primitive - essentially a cylinder with round caps. I deformed the caps with an FFD Box modifier a bit to make it more like a pulse, but did not collapse the object. I moved the objects pivot somewhat behind the beam's geometry.
  Then I scaled the beam along the length axis til it was completely inside my phaser array, and to fire it I did the following:
  Over one frame, return the beam to its original scale; then over 30 frames or so, increase the "height" property in the base object, making the beam taller; then increase the scale along the length axis - because the pivot is behind the geometry, this will make the aft end of the beam move away from the phaser array; and finally return height parameter and scale to the original "stowed away" settings.
  
  It's a bit complicated, but worked for me. Also I assigned a lookat rotation controller to my beam object and made it look at a helper object.
  
  
  Edit: Look at me yapping I'll just attach the file here once I get home
• [Deleted User]2 Posts: 3Member

  July 2010 #3

  Hello Melak,
  
  Thanks for getting back to me.
  I've been playing around with the Particle system and part of your tut(the glow and the other bits) and its come out pretty well, only problem i have with it atm is that sometimes if i don't do it correctly it bends or spreads.
  
  
  
  ok Beam on the left is the tanker u said about and the one of the right is the particle.
  I'm gonna do a quick render of the particle system going shortly and i'll post the end results.
  
  the video u posted i had seen before just didn't know where but its something like that.
  again i'm grateful for the reply.
• Melak332 Posts: 0Member

  July 2010 #4

  

  There should be an option for particles, I think in the birthing operator, to inherit emitter movement; that should make them move as the emitter does. I don't know at the moment if that completely fixes them to the emitter - so if your starship suddenly stops and reverses, the beam might still bend or tear, but its worth a try.
  
  Particles might be easier to make the beam stop once it hits a target, simply put a deflector object there. with the cylinder you might need to time it exactly frame by frame per hand, or render the beam in a separate pass and mask the ends with black objects.
  
  I'll be going home soon so I could still upload the scene file of the animated beam if you'd like.
• [Deleted User]2 Posts: 3Member

  July 2010 #5

  Thanks for replying again Melak,
  
  i haven't gotten to the bit of moving a ship yet so i'm not sure whats gonna happen with the Particle beam but i'm sure to find out.
  
  about the Scene file thats upto you m8 as its your hard work.
  
  again thanks for the reply
• Melak332 Posts: 0Member

  July 2010 #6

  

  I'm online all the time anyway
  
  Here you go.

  Anim_Phaser_Run03.zip 24.7K