8

Exporting Animations 585
8.
Now you can load the blocks or materials from
the ex p orted file.
Exporting Animations
You can select multiple frames to be exported
in multiple Lightscape Preparation (*.
lp) files.
Lightscape provides batch utilities to process
and render the files to produce animations. This
technique is expensive, and should be used only
when you need to animate color bleeding and
indirect lighting effects between moving object s.
See the
Animation panel (page 3–596) in the
Lightscape Export Preparation File dialog.
Animating Multiple Frames in Lightscape
TheLightscapeexporterisabletooutput
Lightscape Preparation files for multiple frames.
YoucanprocessthesefilesthroughLightscape’s
batch utilities to produce animations.
The process is described in these procedures:
•
To animate daylight: (page 3–585) How to set
up your scene to animate daylight in Lightscape.
•
To animate views: (page 3–585) How to set up
your scene to animate your view in Lightscape.
•
To set up lights and daylight: (page 3–585) How
to set your lights for the best results.
•
To export animated objects: (page 3–586)
The exporter exports multiple Lightscape
Preparation files, one for each frame of the
animated objects.
•
To export nonanimated objects: (page 3–586)
The exporter exports a single preparation file
containing the objects that are not animated.
This file is merged with the animated objects
during Lightscape processing. This reduces
the disk space requirements and speeds up the
export process.
•
To export parameters: (page 3–586) Processing
parameters are saved for the scene.
•
To override parameters: (page 3–587) Here
you use a sample frame to set the processing
parameters for the radiosity simulation.
•
To batch-process the LP files: (p age 3–587)
This step merges the non-animated objects, the
animated objects, and the parameter files from
the previous steps. The merged file is processed
and images for each frame are created.
•
To create the animation: (page 3–588) The
images created in the previous step are put
together into an AVI or MPEG animation.
Procedures
To animate daylight:
1.
To animate daylight, you must animate a light
that follows the path of the sun. Use a Sunlight
or Daylight system.
2. Set the light color to the color you want for the
sun.
3. When you export the animated objects you will
select the animated light on the Daylight t ab.
To a nimate views:
• To animate your view, simply make sure that
theactiveviewisusingananimatedcamera.
To set up lights and daylight:
When s olving multiple Lightscape s olution files
for animation, the settings of lights and daylight
are important for good results and performance.
1. Doapreviewofyouranimationin3dsMax.
Lights and daylight that are moving or cast
moving shadows need to be ray traced during
the rendering of the animation. Other lights
don’t need to be ray traced, and ray tracing
them will slow down processing.
2. In 3ds Max, select each light. If the light needs
to be ray tr aced, turn the light on, turn shadows
on, and choose Advanced Ray Traced as the
shadow type. If the light does not need to be