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Creating a Flashing Light

porthos62porthos62 Posts: 48
edited December 1969 in Carrara Discussion

Hi all.

I want to create a sphere or maybe a bulb that i can make flash by changing it's shader over a time period. Similar to a green/red flashing light on a ship or aircraft. I can do this but want to repeat and animate it over a 30 second period so that it appears to constanly flashes.

Do I need to create a NLA clip and if so how ?

Thanks in advance.

Comments

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited January 2014

    You make invisible your bulb to the first image, then visible from 2 til 4, then 5 invisible.
    You select these five keyframes, you push on “Alt” by slipping these copies with, for example 1 second.
    You repeat the operation until the end (you can select more keyframes when you evoluate in the timeline).
    Caution: interpolation between invisible keyframes should be linear, if not there is a risk which it slightly lighting between the two.
    You can make a NLA track if you want for a next use.

    PS: If it's the same light using two colors, you can do that in the shader channel, but if it was me, I duplicate the bulb, change the color and reverse the keyframes (Visible vs invisible)...

    Post edited by DUDU on
  • porthos62porthos62 Posts: 48
    edited December 1969

    Thanks for that. I'll give it a try. :-)

  • PGrePGre Posts: 95
    edited December 1969

    You can also do this with two key frames and an oscillate tweener. Scroll down in the sequencer tray and select your object's shader from the master shaders list. Make a key frame at the end of your animation (30 sec) and adjust the shader to its alternate color. Now select the grey area between the key frames and change it from the default (Linear) to oscillate. You can then adjust the parameters to get the amount and type of flashing you desire.

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited December 1969

    pgre said:
    You can also do this with two key frames and an oscillate tweener. Scroll down in the sequencer tray and select your object's shader from the master shaders list. Make a key frame at the end of your animation (30 sec) and adjust the shader to its alternate color. Now select the grey area between the key frames and change it from the default (Linear) to oscillate. You can then adjust the parameters to get the amount and type of flashing you desire.

    He, that also functions with the visibility!
    I had never thought of it, Thanks !

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    pgre is spot on with his oscillate tweener suggestion.

    I used the oscillate tweener to get the running light on the back of the chopper (just behind and below the rotors) to blink at a regular interval. In the case of the chopper is was a glow channel, with red for the glow and black for off.
    http://youtu.be/WqkRvyKYDgo

    I used the oscillate tweener in this video to change the visibility of the electric bolts.
    http://youtu.be/K9qgGcraH8s

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    Forgot this one! I used the oscillate tweener for the muzzle flash and the bulb light I used. So two of them to help sell the effect.
    http://youtu.be/KQhoy3hB9J0

    I would also suggest that if you have something that is swinging or bouncing, and you want it to slowly stop, you can use either the sine option or the bounce option to good effect.

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited December 1969

    Yes Evil,
    One day, I made a lamp flash on a helicopter too (on the tail) and the scene was in the night, the flash was to clarify part of the helicopter, therefore I had to use a bulb 800% into a semi-transparent plastic, I placed keyframes for “visible-unvisible”, but I could have used the tweener for the light (800%-0%) as you has do it for “just Cherry” but I had not tested yet the tweeners “oscillation” at this time.
    This topic recalls me that I must look at your tutorial about your torch…;-)

  • porthos62porthos62 Posts: 48
    edited December 1969

    Thanks for all the great information. Much appreciated. I'll give it a try.

  • josefgivenjosefgiven Posts: 6

    porthos62 said:

    Hi all.

    I want to create a sphere or maybe a bulb that i can make flash by changing it's shader over a time period. Similar to a green/red flashing light on a ship or aircraft. I can do this but want to repeat and animate it over a 30 second period so that it appears to constanly flashes.

    Do I need to create a NLA clip and if so how ?

    Thanks in advance.

    Please forgive the thread exhumation, but is this possible in Daz? I notice this was originally posted in the Carrera forum.  I would like to be able to automate the transparency of an texture so that it fades from invisible to visible. Ideally, being able link shader values to keyframes would be great

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