I need to make one of the small towers that are outside the drawbridge disappear for a few frames so it doesn't block a moving camera's view.

I was thinking of using muscle mode animation to just bend it out of the way but the towers are not an explicit part of the set but are populated there as action objects by an action, so that direct control over one tower doesn't seem to be an option.

What would be the best way to do this?

I was going to suggest embedding the action and deleting that tower out....then put it into the chor separately but there may be changes made to the action before the movie's done.

Sooo....what about putting a transparency pose on that tower?

Or just copy and sub the model. Copy the model file to <model file name>-special-001.mdl then delete whatever towers you want. Then, in a copy of the project file, sub in this modified model (change the shortcut) and re-render the frames (or shots) where you want the adjustment. Its all broad and blunt steps. Wham-bam; fast, straight forward, easy, no complexities, hard to screw up and its even a few less steps (Its like a perfect one-night stand!). You try to craft a friggin pose... whoops! the specularity is still there or... darn! the decals rendering differently were we have the transparency or... whatever -- you're changing the original model.

r

Edit: I'm envisioning this as a model used in more then one or two shots or scenes. It depends on your situation really.

You can access the action objects, in the bones folder of the model the assembly action is applied to, in the chor (show more than drivers). There you can set the object inactive.

When I say "for a few frames" I really mean for a few frames, not the entire shot.

I'm thinking I may have to make a copy of the action, delete the one tower action object and then switch between the original action and the altered copy during the shot and hope that no one changes the original action later without me noticing it.


AFAIK It's not possible to apply a pose to one of several instances of an action object in an action. I haven't succeeded in getting a pose to affect an action object.

Copying and altering the set model won't work because the towers are not in the model available for altering, as noted above. Altering the tower model would change all of its instances not just one


That sounds like it ought to work, but can you show an example of actually animating the "Active" of an action object on and off in one shot? I haven't succeeded in getting that to stick.

I don't know why you are having problems doing this, it's quite easy to do.




Oh, it is quite possible to do this. Access the action object the same way as I told you and find which instance you want to modify with the transparency pose, with the pose slider window open or go to the instances user properties and set the pose. This will only affect the one instance, not all of them.

What a lousy, crappy response.

Sorry Robert, it wasn't meant to be. I was just stating that I didn't know why you were having problems doing it, that's all. As you can see, it is possible by the movie clip I posted.

Personally, I think your response was more lousy and crappy. Next time I'll just let you figure it out on your own.

Now Now boys the both of you play nice