Importing 2d animation into a ligtwave scene & Global Illumination
by Stu Gamble
on
Jun 19, 2009 at 5:49:17 pm
Hi Guys,
Would be really cool if anyone could help me,
I have some 2d animation and I'm trying to do a number of things.
Firstly I need to import the animation (with alpha) into the scene, I've looked everywhere and can't seem to figure it out. What I'd like is for the png sequence to be visible inside the 3d environment. I don't know if i need to project it (i have tried projecting onto a plane but the geometry is still visible around the character) Is there anyway of importing the sequence in so I only see the animation?
Also, is there anywhere I can find a scene file that is already set up for Global Illumination? I'm very new to 3d (actually started today) I've tried a couple of tutorials but can't seem to get it to work.
The idea is to comp the 2d animation within the 3d environment with global illumination - I'd really like to get a different look to the usual 2d I try.
Re: Importing 2d animation into a ligtwave scene & Global Illumination by Matt Stewart on Jun 24, 2009 at 4:01:35 pm
First to get your 2d animation into lightwave you need to bring it in as 32bit png's or any other format that has an alpha channel. Then in the image editor you can duplicate the loaded sequence and set the duplicate to be alpha only. Now you have a seperate seqyence to apply to the transparency channel on your surface of the image plane you made. This will make your character appear to be in the enviornment with out the surrounding polygon its on.
About the GI thing though. Are you making a 3d environment using models? GI is really only going to work on 3D objects in the scene. It wouldn't do anything to 2d imagery.
Re: Importing 2d animation into a ligtwave scene & Global Illumination by Eric Chard on Jul 2, 2009 at 6:21:57 am
What Matt said, but START SMALL. Basically make ONE 'canvas' polygon and figure out the whole transparency issue with that one polygon, then move on to bring in the other aspects of your animation.
Believe me, this will reduce a LOT of confusion from the process.
Your main issue will be figuring out the PSD/transparency issues. Make sure your PSD layer has transparency, and DELETE the background layer from your layered PShop document before you import.
You might actually find using AE as a pre-processor before importing into LW the easiest way to acquire a nice clean edge to your assets.
Let us know how you get on.
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