Animation and fading

commo81

I'm creating an animation and want to have a lightning bolt "fade in and then fade out over several keyframes.  Is there a way to do this in the timeline? Currently, the only way I've figured out to make a lightning bolt appear and disappear is to drop it from the sky over a few frames, which in real time happens really fast, but I think if I can have it drop down and then fade in/out it would look better, just can't figure out how to do it.

Richard Haseltine

http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/scripting/api_reference/samples/elements/post_load_material_proxy_create/start
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/scripting/api_reference/samples/elements/post_load_material_proxy_link_properties/start

these show how to  use a script to creat a node in the scene that can control the material proeprties, and that can itself be animated on the Timeline.

3141592654

commo81 said:

I'm creating an animation and want to have a lightning bolt "fade in and then fade out over several keyframes.  Is there a way to do this in the timeline? Currently, the only way I've figured out to make a lightning bolt appear and disappear is to drop it from the sky over a few frames, which in real time happens really fast, but I think if I can have it drop down and then fade in/out it would look better, just can't figure out how to do it.

Follow what Richard said ... last I knew, the opacity setting was one of the things that cannot be directly keyframed in Daz Studio ... quite sad because it would be very useful. 

WendyLuvsCatz

Casual has a Matanim script

commo81

thx all and I'll look for that casual script.

WendyLuvsCatz

https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/matanim

sorry, Forum was too flakey to post it earlier

Togire

There is a brand new asset today that seems to simplify the use of animated textures. Haven't used it, but it may be worth a look.

https://www.daz3d.com/abas-animated-shaders-system

As the texture animation is very simple (fading), you can also do two series of render, one with the bolt and one without it and merge them in postwork. A simple shell or python script can create a new series of images by replacing progressively the images with the bolt invisible by the images with the bolt visible. I frequently do that with with imagemagick, but other tools can also be used.

WendyLuvsCatz

yes I use Blender Video editor to animate opacity of two image series screen blended, Hitfilm Express can do this too and no doubt other video editors.

Post production is usually the easiest choice.

there is also the wonderful Particle Illusion Standalone which BorisFX has made free, my choice for lightning and other effects overlayed on videos, I render out pro-res 4444 mov files with alpha of effects to use in Blender or Hitfilm, I can animate the scale and position on the timeline in both, in Hitfilm tracking is also possible