Warp Effects


Summary:I have just completed a battle scene (ametureistic I might add) in space involving 2 spaceships, ship no1 swings round ship no2 and fires a missile at it. Ship 2 then explodes and then ship1 swerves to aboid the blast and then shoots off into warp... ( a flash is seen in the distance (lens flare) which symbolises the ship going into hyperspace). I also have a star field in this scene...

I would like to improve on this by making the camera follow behind the ship and when the ship enters hyperspace I want to make the stars strech some how making ti look something like starwars and others....

.........

1. I would like to know if it is possible for an object to start in for example frame 150 instead of always starting in frame 0, Or if it is possible to make the object invisible until frame 150.

2. I would also like to know if it is possible if I can make an image in the x axis (the ground) so I can then make a ship take off from a runway or something like that. I know that I can make background images but this is no good because it is along the y axis.....

For your warp effect probably the most effective method would be to make a circle of single-point polys, also called particles,and move them quickly toward the camera as the camera follows the ship through it. Set Blur Length in the camera panel to a fairly high value and turn Particle Blur on. Set the surface value of the particle to a high luminosity and turn glow on. Be sure to set the glow radius in the effects panel on. this should give a nice "Trek" look.

In response to your second question, the simplest thing to do to "ghost" an object, i.e., make it useen to the camera, but have still have it in the scene is to set the object dissolve in the objects panel to 100%. By using an envelope you can make that object become visible or "fade in" at any frame you want.

Regarding your third question, you would want to make a large square polygon extending into the +z and +x axes (in other words, flat) and map your ground or runway image onto it as the surface color map (set the projection to the Y axis). I hope the above was helpful.

Andrew Weiler

 

© 1998 Primordial Soup Animation