Viewport Fade/Object opacity

[Dannyrudd]

I have an animation with an object fading during the rendering animation.

Is there a way to see this fade in the working viewports while scrubbing through the timeline?

Thanks,

Danny

3DS Max Design 2013

[darawork · Accepted solution]

Have tried to keyframe the transparency parameter on the material?

I just tried it there and it works fine.

Open the material editor (I always use the slate version), on an Arch&Design material note the default transparency is '0.0'.

Press the 'Auto-Key' button at the end of the timeline (next to the key button and the set key button).

Scrub your timeline up to 100 (or whatever lenght you want the material to fade over), then drag the A&D materials transparency up to '1.0'.

Turn off the Auto-Key button. Scrub back to frame 0 on the timeline.

Now when you drag the slider you will see the effects of the automated transparency parameter on any object with that material applied to it.

Works for me in Shaded viewport, probably the other types too. give it a go.

[spacefrog_ · Accepted solution]

For simple fade animations you don't need to animate the material.

Simply animate the Visibility value in the Object properties. This will be displayed in the viewport ...

[Dannyrudd]

Thankyou,

It must have been an underlying problem in the scene as one of the objects wouldn't fade.

I imported a new shape to try this out and the fade worked fine.

Anyone know what this could be, the materiall is an Autodesk Metallic Paint that is used on the object and the transparency parameter doesn't seem to work with it.

[darawork]

I just tried fading a Autodesk Metallic Paint sphere by automating the 'Visibility' parameter. It faded alright, as long as the viewport was in shaded or realistic view. If edged faces were turned on then the wireframe remained after the material faded. Same if the object was selected.

The Autodesk Metallic Paint parameter roll-out unfortunately has no transparency spinner alright.

[jbanasiuk]

Convert the imported object to Mesh or Poly.