adamSpline

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I have had some success using the methods you suggested, but still some problems. Let me explain a bit more.... When I try the above technique, I am not able to perfectly key out the color because of anti-aliasing around the edges of the "clipping object". When I key it out, there are some of the clipping object's color is still visible. So, to be more exact, I really do not want the "background color", but I want no color when the clipped object is rendered. For example, in AM when you render as a png, it gives the background color an alpha value so that it is really invisible. So, if you have an object in the middle of the scene and render it as a png, the resulting image is simply an that object, with no color in the background... this object can be easily composited in an editor because the background has an alapha that makes it invisible. I want to do something similar with this clipping object... whenever pixels are to be drawn from this object, it simply renders them to an image alpha that makes a hole in the image in the shape of that object... the same thing that is done with the background for png, but do it with an object.... is that possible? -Adam

Yes, that is basically it. The scene is rendered as normal, except that where ever the "clipping object" is rendered , it renders the background color. But I am not just talking about a 2D layer, it is a real 3D object that might be partially in front of some object and partially behind other objects... except that when it is rendered, it's visible pixels simply show the background.

Hi all, I am creating a scene in which I need an object clips out the rendering of other objects. So if the clipping object is in the foreground, it will alpha out anything behind it. I imagine there is a way to do this using compositing layers and other software. But it there way to simply designate an object so that it can do this? Thanks, -Adam

Thanks all for your suggestions. I will give it a try and see what happens.

I have recently made a scene in which I used sprite particles to create leaves on a tree. On a still frame, I am happy with the results. However, since it is a particle system, if I jump to future frames, the leaves will move (according to the particle system). So here is my question: does anyone know a simple way to "freeze" a particle system, so that it looks the same regardless of time. I have the same problem when I was using a particle system to create clouds (how do I freeze the particle system so that the clouds are not moving from frame to frame). Any ideas? Thanks.

Hi All, Just thought I would introduce myself on the board. About 10 years ago I started using Hash3D and then Animation Master. I kind of got out of it for a while and started focusing on graphics programming. Well, I have recently gotten back into Animation Master from a hobbiest perspective. I hope to gain some insights from others. -AdamSpline