Animated TV within an Animation

[jujubee]

I'm curious as I've never used a movie sequence within a Vray animation. I'm trying to create a movie playing on a TV as a camera passes by the scene.

1) Would I want to use a standard material with self-illumination at 100%?
2) Is it possible with a Vray Material or will it turn out dull?
3) Would I want to put a Vrayplane as a skyportal in front of it to project emanating light from the television source?
4) Should the movie sequence be split into individual frames using RAM player? I am using Linear Workflow and there's a message within Max help saying that gamma should be disabled for this.

Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

[TomC]

I'd apply it in a material with some self-illumination but would try to get some environment reflection in there as well so it doesn't stand out too much. Because of the reflections, the VRayMtl might be better?

If you do your test render and it looks fine, I can't see why the gamma would still mess things up later. I didn't check the source of your info so I might overlook something.

[joconnell]

Do two different surfaces - one with the image layer and another with the glass cover - it'll have a lot more depth and give you some nice edge details.

[Da_elf]

id render the screen on a different pass. in the 1st pass you can do it as back with slight reflection of the room. when you composite the seperately rendered self illuminated screen over the GI rendered pass then you have a screen with reflections

[Dynedain]

I've done it by using the animation as a bitmap in a self illuminated material. Then for the lighting from the screen, I used a projection light source with a much lower rez version of the movie clip.

[jujubee]

I used a projection light source with a much lower rez version of the movie clip.

Out of curiousity - what does that do to render times?

[Dynedain]

I was using QMC + lightcache anyways because I had animated geometry, so it didn't add substantially more to the per frame time.

I belive I turned off GI for the projection light as well, but I can't remember.

[muzzy]

I was using QMC + lightcache anyways because I had animated geometry, so it didn't add substantially more to the per frame time.

Dynedain,

What is the advantage of QMC+lightcahce for animated geometry ? If you don't mind, can you explain...

[jujubee]

I am curious too - I wish there was a button on this forum to split a 'hijacked' topic (no offense - I really am curious as well) to a new thread however... Wishlist item anyone?

[muzzy]

I am curious too - I wish there was a button on this forum to split a 'hijacked' topic (no offense - I really am curious as well) to a new thread however... Wishlist item anyone?

Even though it may look like that I jumped to another question but since your question is answered and then I asked my question.

Sorry if I did something wrong...

For splitting , I believe that why we have moderators...

[Dynedain]

I was using QMC + lightcache anyways because I had animated geometry, so it didn't add substantially more to the per frame time.

Dynedain,

What is the advantage of QMC+lightcahce for animated geometry ? If you don't mind, can you explain...

Well, if you have moving geometry (or lighting) you can't use irrmap because you'd get differences between each individual frame, and you'd have to set the irrmap quality level much higher than is feasibly usefull in order to get results that didn't have a "flickering" effect.

I've found that QMC + lightcache gives the best balance between speed and minimizing the per-frame differences.

[jujubee]

Sorry if I did something wrong

No not at all. I am a master thread hijacker myself and probably shouldnt be painting the kettle black.

I've found that QMC + lightcache gives the best balance between speed and minimizing the per-frame differences.

Do you prefer this over QMC/QMC? So I assume since a light (the tv in this case) is changing, it would be easiest to smooth out results with QMC/LC thereby leading to significantly higher rendering times.

[Dynedain]

I prefer QMC/LC over just QMC because QMC can get quite grainy. Using LC helps smooth things out a bit.

[muzzy]

I was using QMC + lightcache anyways because I had animated geometry, so it didn't add substantially more to the per frame time.

Dynedain,

What is the advantage of QMC+lightcahce for animated geometry ? If you don't mind, can you explain...

Well, if you have moving geometry (or lighting) you can't use irrmap because you'd get differences between each individual frame, and you'd have to set the irrmap quality level much higher than is feasibly usefull in order to get results that didn't have a "flickering" effect.

I've found that QMC + lightcache gives the best balance between speed and minimizing the per-frame differences.

Never thought this way. I will test it, thanks, Dynedain