Animating a displacement using a height map

[Anonymous]

Hello. My high school students are making visualizations of plate tectonics and the dynamic forces involved in earthquakes. I suggested using a height map and displacement modifier to animate mountain ridges rising as the plates collide. I have attempted to animate the sequence but have been unable to do so. I found an old video blog which shows it being done but we are currently using the 2018 version of Max and that was done in 2013. Any help and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! M.Smith

[bobweb]

Hi, I am not sure how it should look in the end, do you have an example? But maybe I can provide some pointers in the right direction. You could try:

- Masking the displacement via volume select with an animated mesh, so the displacement is only visible where the mesh collides with the mountain model. Maybe animate the displacement strength and/or the map as well.

- Mixing two displacements with an animated black/white mask in a composite map, which is then used in the displace modifier

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply.  Sorry it has taken so long to get back to you. It was actually far simpler than I thought it would be. I got it figured out over the weekend. The student was trying to animate using Set Key. When we switched the animation sequence to Auto Key we were able to get it to work. Here is what we did.  We created a plane the size of the height map (60 x 100 cm) with 256 x 256 segments. We converted this to an editable poly. The height map image was then placed on the plane using the Displace modifier. To animate: We set strength to a percentage of the final amount. In this case, 2 out of 16, then 10 frames and auto key, increase strength by 2, auto key, another 2, auto key, and so on until the displacement reached the desired height. The plane animates properly now. I have attached files for you to check out. Thank you for your reply and help! It is much appreciated. My student sends her thanks!

Regards - M. Smith

[bobweb]

Ah, ok, I see, my solution suggestions were actually more complicated than it was necessary. 🙂 I am glad it worked out anyway.

Thanks,

Bob

[Anonymous]

Not relay because I tried a few of them and it allowed me to learn some new
ways of doing this. that is always a good thing as a teacher! I really do
appreciate you offing the suggestions.

Regards,
Mark