topic Re: Random Material (Color) of a plane every frame. in 3ds Max Forum

Random Material (Color) of a plane every frame.

PalmerStudios — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 16:12:50 GMT

How can I setup a plane to have a random color or material every frame or specified frame amount?

Re: Random Material (Color) of a plane every frame.

10DSpace — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 19:18:11 GMT

Let's assume that you have already assigned a standard material to your plane and that it is currently selected. If so, then running the following lines of maxscript will assign a random color to the diffuse slot of the material every frame from frame 0 to frame 35 setting animation keys at every frame:

with animate on
for i=0 to 35 do
(
at time i
$.material.diffuse = random (color 0 0 0) (color 255 255 255)
)

If you want to change it to a assign a random color every 5th frame then add "by 5" to the second line as follows:

for i=0 to 35 by 5 do

Obviously, it can be adapted to other materials as well.

Re: Random Material (Color) of a plane every frame.

PalmerStudios — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 00:53:10 GMT

When I apply it I get this error: -- Syntax error: at ), expected <factor> -- In line: )

Re: Random Material (Color) of a plane every frame.

10DSpace — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 01:16:30 GMT

@PalmerStudios

How are you running the script? If you copy and paste the code into a new blank script in the Max Script Editor (not the Max Script Listener which is why you get that error message) then run it via Ctrl + E (Evaluate All) it will run properly. The Max Listener doesn't handle multiple lines of code all at once which is why you are getting that message.

Re: Random Material (Color) of a plane every frame.

PalmerStudios — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 14:11:24 GMT

Hey I did that but I had to change "diffuse" to basecolor and than it worked like a charm! Thanks!