Making an object appear out of nowhere

[MasterFunk]

Hey I'm trying to make a fire sprite system that i created appear in the choreography during the middle. I dragged it into the CHO window at the frame i wanted it but it apeared at the beginning of the CHO. How can i make it disappear until the frame i want it at?

 

Thanks for the help,

MasterFunk

[KenH]

In the properties for the sprite model, there's an "Active" option. Just turn it off at the start and on at the frame you want it to appear.

[MasterFunk]

In the properties for the sprite model, there's an "Active" option. Just turn it off at the start and on at the frame you want it to appear.

 

I tried that but when i click on the On button next to Active it doesn't change. It just stays blue and won't change. Any suggestions?

[Rodney]

I tried that but when i click on the On button next to Active it doesn't change. It just stays blue and won't change. Any suggestions?

 

Right click on the option and make sure it is set to time based.

 

If its set to 'Constant' or something other it won't animate over time.

[KenH]

I don't think "Active" can be animated over time.....like to fade out? I vaguely remember something like that before but was it about "Active"?

 

I'm not sure what the problem is....try these:

 

Make sure you have the Animate icon on (pressed in).

Try it in director mode (megaphone icon at the top).

 

Other than that, I'd probably need a screen shot.

[johnl3d]

very rough explaination

 

To make a object appear one way is to set it in place where you want it to appear and make it transparent. here I set the tranparency of the sphere to 100% at frame 0 and the frame before it was to appear. The next frame I set the transparency to 0 and it appears. reverse to make it disappear To delay the sprites I set at frame 0 the emission rate to 0 and again at the frame before they began I set it to 0 then at the next frame I set it at 100% emission rate in the sprite system and then set it to 0 when I wanted it to stop. I had the life set to 10 frames so they would disappear before the sphere did

 

appear1.mov

 

scroll the qt back and forth to see the effect

 

appear1.zip

 

There is more detail as to why I did what I did just not sure how much info is needed

 

Hope this helps...and there are other ways to get the same results but I use this one

[Rodney]

I don't think "Active" can be animated over time.....like to fade out? I vaguely remember something like that before but was it about "Active"?

 

Transparency may be the better way to dissapear an object. Note that this is a bit off topic as Master Funk would be better served by animating Transparency.

 

I got some odd results as I put the attached movie together to demonstrate but the Active attribute can be animated over time.

 

The most important aspects of animating the Active option is to use Dopesheet Mode (the timeline graph won't show the keyframes) and to ensure you've changed the Attribute to 'Time Based'.

 

The attached is not so much a 'How to' as it is proof that the option exists.

Scroll through frame by frame as its not in real time.

ActiveOnOff.mov