NeverEnding Thread

[svetlik]

Still trying to get this "thread" effect to work. Robcat's clever animated gradient material almost worked but didn't get the "end of the snake" of the thread I needed to follow the moving thread. (see attached) Tried adding two animated gradient materials but couldn't get that to work.

i then reverted back to animating them with booleans but they caused a buttload of problems in the chor. so now i'm trying to animate a regular decal along the length of the threads (which are then reshaped in the chor.) and cannot get anything to happen.

So my question at this point is How can I animate a decal's position along a model? Have tried doing it in Action but nothing happens.

Any help appreciated.

[robcat2075]

Cool scene!

Is the end of the thread intended to be a fade out rather than a hard stop?

[svetlik]

Yes just a sharp end of the rope, so to speak. The booleans almost work but since these two objects overlap in the chor the booleans are interacting with each other in ways I don't want, even though these are two separate objects. Also discovered that booleans alter/shift the rendering on any object they overlap in the chor. even unrelated objects. This makes me very sad.

That's why i'm now trying to animate a decal (transparency map) across the object to get the same effect that your animated gradient material could do.

So, my question, how do I animate a decal in x or y axis to achieve this? Or is this not possible?

[robcat2075]

Quote

Yes just a sharp end of the rope, so to speak.

I'm confused. That is what it looks like now. You do want sharp or you don't want sharp?

This looks like a sharp end...

 

It's not clear from your description why the animated gradient wasn't working.

 

Animating decal placement is not possible.

I need to understand what it is you want before I can know what to tell you to try instead.

[svetlik]

This clip wasn't done with the animated gradient. This was done with the booleans and you can see all the weirdness where they join/overlap onto the loom. There's also a lot of rendering anomalies that aren't clear in this clip with many objects in the chor that the booleans intersect with Totally unrelated and separate objects. (but that's another topic)

The animated gradient worked great except it couldn't give me the "end of the rope" that I needed so I went back to the booleans.

Hope that clears that up.

[robcat2075]

Use another gradient inside the first one to control the end transparency..

Here is an example...

Thread Reveal07 ReVealUnVeal.prj

 

 

[svetlik]

Absolutely brilliant. I tried making 2 gradient materials but didn't know how to nest them as you did. Still trying to comprehend exactly how it works. Bravo robcat and many thanks again.

I'm still curious though is it possible to move a decal along a model by animating the numbers somewhere or not? (without having to resort to a sequencial animated map)

[robcat2075]

A decal stamp can not be altered to change position

A projection map material  can look like a decal and its position can be animated. See my post in this thread.

I don't recall if a projection map can be be used as a transparency map.

[robcat2075]

4 hours ago, svetlik said:

 I tried making 2 gradient materials but didn't know how to nest them as you did.

I think un-nested could work if they are in the right order in the PWS. I haven't tested that however.