Animating Selection of Polys

[Anonymous]

Hey there,

I was hoping there may be something in the graphite side of Max but I cannot find it.  I want to select polys on a mesh to be used as an emitter as the mesh moves through a deflector (or something to trigger the selection).

So basically, to the left of the deflector, nothing is selected.. as it passes through polys are selected and then on the right of the deflector the whole mesh is selected.

Is this possible?

Thanks.

[hagen.deloss]

Hi @Anonymous 

You might be able to get something like this using a Data channel modifier, here is a video.

Let me know if I can help further!

[hagen.deloss]

I actually found a better video,

It looks like you can do a mesh soft select with a Node Influence operator. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that.  In the video the narrator is referring to the object as a grid, which I assumed was just a plane with with an edit mesh modifier on it.

But as I am following the vid the geoquartise modifier does not break up the plane into the segments as it does in the video.

I thought ok maybe it is a grid object, but then you cannot turn the object into a mesh so failed there also.

I downloaded the file from the vid but the stack is already collapsed so I am not sure what the key is to actually make the poly react like they do in the video.

Have a crack at the first few minutes with a plane converted to an editable mesh and see if you can come up with just the first part of the effect.. that not working impacts the whole thing.

I totally put my hand up for being an idiot, just not sure what I am missing.

S.

[Anonymous]

all good, I selected the edges and split it and put my data channel on top.

Stand down 🙂

[hagen.deloss]

@Anonymous 

Looks like the data channel operator "distort" will actually separate the mesh in the tutorial, check out the other sample scene in that same project, the data channel isn't collapsed in the finished scene. 

I have attached a sample of something a little more simple. The "node influence" operator is key to getting the result you want i think.

In this demo I also added a "vertex output" operator that is set to Vertex Selection, which selects all the vertices dependent on the radius selection in the node influence operator. 

I hope this makes sense 😛 

[Anonymous]

I figured out what I was doing.. didn't assign the node.

I still use the split as the test objects are all just nice poly objects.  Not sure how this is going to pan out for something like text made from splines the poly mesh'd.

Still would like to get the operator working as it does in the vid.

Anyway, posted some renders in the showcase 2019 thread.. a max liquid torus, using data channels for poly scaling.

S.