animating transparancy

# 1 17-09-2006 , 10:24 PM

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I've got text on a plane with an alpha map so only the text is visible. Now I wish to fade in the whole text plane from complete transparancy. How do I do this now that the transparancy node is already taken?

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# 2 17-09-2006 , 11:18 PM

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any ideas?

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# 3 18-09-2006 , 05:06 AM

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What you need to do is make a series of .tga or .jpeg's or any other picture formats into the fade away animation. then label them as fade001.tga, fade002.tga ect.

use the first one as your transparency file and check the box that says 'use sequence'. you may have to configure some stuff to get it to work (I dont have maya up at the moment).
When you press play it should fade.

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# 4 21-09-2006 , 07:17 AM

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do it in post.... then you can adjust the fade as you want without re-rendering.

Otherwise what colour is the background of your scene? If it is black for example then just paint your text map with a black background. Then you wont need to use the alpha channel. You can then use the transparency as normal.

I would do it in post though. It offers much more control

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# 5 21-09-2006 , 07:24 AM

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Yeah I was thinking that myself PM, though my background isn't a standard 'fill' colour, it's a gradient. I'm now tossing up the idea between learning after effects, or just modelling the text itself.

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# 6 21-09-2006 , 07:41 AM

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it wouldn't take long to model the text. Although it would be pretty simple to do in post as well

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# 7 21-09-2006 , 08:07 AM

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How for instance do I create a 'hard' edge, ie at 90 degrees when using the cv curve tool other thande selecting the curve and drawing another? I know this is very, very basic but so far haven't managed to stumble upon any useful info.

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# 8 21-09-2006 , 09:48 AM

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click 3 or 4 times in the same location (a lot easier to do if you're using the snap-to-grid)

i hope you're not actually drawing your text though, cause there is a text tool. or at least i swore there was one... i would usually just import text vector paths from photoshop (after exporting the text - but you have to make sure they're paths - to an adobe illustrator file) and *poof* the text appears, as curves, and you can easily rebuild the curves if they're not to your liking

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# 9 21-09-2006 , 09:53 AM

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Hmm...you lost me when you said export as paths, could you run through how to get them out of ps and into maya if you don't mind.

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# 10 21-09-2006 , 10:38 AM

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sure. i believe you have to have photoshop 7 or later to convert your text directly to paths, but don't quote me on that... anyway, create the text you want to export (color doesn't matter, but keeping your size over 30 ensures that you don't lose detail... click the check mark to commit your text, then while still in the text tool, right click over your text and choose 'create work path'. double click on the work path (renaming it doesn't really matter) and click ok. then, click file, export, paths to illustrator. choose the path you wish to export and hit save (it should be saving it as a .ai file).

in maya, choose file, import (options box) and change file type from best guess to adobe illustrator. scale factor doesn't really matter cause you can scale it later, but i choose to group just for ease.

just in case: if you can't right click on the text and choose 'create work path' then switch over to the rectangular marquee tool (or the lasso or magic wand, just something that selects) and then while holding ctrl, left click on the thumbnail of your text layer. it should select only the text. right click inside the selection and choose 'create work path' and go from there.

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# 11 21-09-2006 , 10:52 AM

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Took a couple of attempts for me to suss it, but I've got it user added image

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# 12 21-09-2006 , 01:41 PM

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hey if it gets me away from my work for a few minutes i don't mind explaining things the long way user added image

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# 13 21-09-2006 , 02:33 PM

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I think I'm doing this the long way lol. Ok, I've got my font into maya, I duplicated them and offset them a small distance right, then I've lofted between the offset curves. Which is great except for the front face of the font is 'open'. Now i create a planar loft, combine the two meshes and 'frig' join the verts together, and repeating this for every letter :S

Tell me there's a quicker way to get 3D text out of the curves lol. user added image