Graphics

How do I mask a crawl so it doesn't go across the entire page? It has a background on a seperate scene and I want it to stay within the bounds of that material. After many attempts of masking it is still playing across the bottom of the screen.

Hi,

It is perfectly possible to mask off a crawl. However it's just not so easy to explain :-)

I assume you're building a crawl by creating a scenegroup and adding textscenes as childobjects of that scenegroup?

On the SceneGroupscene itself (the scene on top of the scenegroup, where you also specify if it's a crawl or a roll), you can also add elements such as a background, textfields or masks.

When you have added your masks to that scene your text should be hidden on that position.

However, in the scenes containing the text, please check that the Render Order Priority of the textobject is also set to Normal. Otherwise it will not work.

Good luck,

Kenneth

#XPression

I am having a problem with this

I create a scene group

Add a layer object - put a quad with mask material

To test I place a text object into the layer object - Moving it around proves the mask is OK

I then add text scene to group - add text - make sure it is Render Order Priority is Normal

When I play the scene the text crawls but ignores the mask

Have played around with different z values (on text and on mask quad)

Any ideas what I am doing wronge ???

Joe

#XPression

Joe, the MASK in the layer object will only mask objects in there. Since all you have is the mask, it wont do anything cause the Scene that is a child is not inside of the LayerObject.

Just get rid of the layer object but keep the mask in the Scenegroup and also place it on Position 1 on the x axis. Then try running the SceneGroup again.

Neil

#XPression

Tanks for the quick reply - But No luck I'm afraid

Started from scratch - created a Scenegroup

Placed a quad with a mask material (black and white image with alpha)

Created a child scene with just a text object

When I do a take the text crawls across ignoring the mask

Position 1 on the x axis - do you mean X-Scale = 1.00

Any samples available ??

Help

Joe

#XPression

ILL UPLOAD SOMETHING

#XPression

BTW, there are free tutorials on Ross Video's Site here: http://www.rossvideo.com/graphics-system/xpression/xpression-u/index.html

and on my company site here: http://www.wireframegroup.com

note: you need to register for free then you get access to the tutorials and downloadable textures at the top navigation

#XPression

download this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2lroaywi30n44ob/text_mask.xpp

Neil

#XPression

Thanks Neil

Not sure what I was doing wronge but everything good now

Is there a way in Xpression to extrude a flat sports crest to made it look '3d' ish ??

Joe

#XPression

nope, you'll need to use a program like 3ds max or Cinema 4d to do that then import into Xpression as a .obj or.3ds

#XPression

Hey Neil, I was also curious how to mask off a crawl. I've been able to mask the crawl but it masks EVERYTHING IN MY SCENE GROUP (including the crawl bar). So, what I need to do is have the crawl bkg bar all the way across the screen from left to right. On the left side I have my channel id where I want my crawl to "disappear" behind (i'm using a gradient mask). I have played with the Z position of all elements and still can't get the look I want... I know that a LAYER GROUP will mask only the elements in that group, but when I place one (with the mask) in my SCENE GROUP the crawl ignores it.

So I guess what im trying to achive is:

Crawl bar at z-position -1.0

crawl (masked) at z-position 0.0 (crawl will disappear behind channel ID using the mask).

Channel ID at z-position 1.0

Does this make sense?

Thanks

Steve

#XPression

Hey Neil, I was also curious how to mask off a crawl. I've been able to mask the crawl but it masks EVERYTHING IN MY SCENE GROUP (including the crawl bar). So, what I need to do is have the crawl bkg bar all the way across the screen from left to right. On the left side I have my channel id where I want my crawl to "disappear" behind (i'm using a gradient mask). I have played with the Z position of all elements and still can't get the look I want... I know that a LAYER GROUP will mask only the elements in that group, but when I place one (with the mask) in my SCENE GROUP the crawl ignores it.

So I guess what im trying to achive is:

Crawl bar at z-position -1.0

crawl (masked) at z-position 0.0 (crawl will disappear behind channel ID using the mask).

Channel ID at z-position 1.0

Does this make sense?

Thanks

Steve

#XPression

I'm close to having this work how I'd like it to but having an issue with the "separator" between the ticker lines.



Here you see a background to go behind the text, a mask on the left and right sides, an extra material on top of those masks for the left and right sides of the ticker. In the top/rendered image, you see an X on the far left, that is in the second of four scenes in the scenegroup (1 and 3 are text for the crawl, 2 and 4 are separators). In that separator scene, there's text "XX" and a red quad (that'll later be an image but using that as a placeholder). I put the XX in there to test and make sure it shows up, and it does. The red quad does not. Somehow there's something wrong with the depths of everything. If you look on the far left side of the ticker in the rendered image, you can see that red quad showing up where there's a very small gap between the masks, background, and edges.

The BG is at Z = -0.001

The text is at Z = 0

The separator quad is at Z = 0.001

The masks are at Z = 0.003

The edges for the left and right side of the ticker BG are at Z = 0.004

The separator won't show at 0.005, but does show at 0.006. And I see this behavior in the scene with it not overlapping the text until 0.006, so maybe I'm just missing a setting somewhere? Any ideas?



The separator should look like this. You see how it ends up rendering on the far left of the crawl in the image at the top.

Unrelated, what would be the simplest way to have the crawl go through each line of a text file via Datalinq and loop from there? Do I need to build a scene for each possible line?

#XPression

Any tutorial on this subject would be greatly appreciated. I know there are 3 ways of dealing with transparency but I don't understand any of them. My teacher thought you need images with alpha but that is not true. Black and white PNG will do.

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