Animating Electrical Impulses

[Osiris9650]

Ok, I did some looking around on this site, and it appears Google doesn't search through everything. I have found a couple of posts about animating electricity. Sorry!

If anyone has anything to add, I always appreciate any advice on this subject!

[wwswimming]

workflow

1. create cylinder as simple fuse model. the cylinder needs to have enough height segments to allow a volume select modifier to work.

2. add edit poly (or convert to poly, i prefer the former.)

3. add volume select, set to "select by face". animate the gizmo, velocity direction parallel to major axis of cylinder, so that selected faces varies with time.

4. add material modifier, which allows you to set material idea for selected polygons to "2", changing them from the default mat ID 1.

5. create multi-sub-object material, with white for mat ID 1 & black for mat ID 2.

result, Max 9 file
http://www.wwSwimming.com/images/voL-seLect_031709b.max

anyway, that gives you control over individual poly's at the mat ID level. in this case, the polygons within the Volume Select Gizmo turn black as the gizmo moves, then back to white.

you can also pass the selection up the stack to another modifier for other effects.

[Osiris9650]

Thanks wwswimming! Great explanation. I opened your max file and I think that will work well for my purposes.



I had already put something together using an omni light with a short falloff, path constrained to a nurbs point curve, then used a lens flare (final flare) effect on the omni.



For the general electricity I used Splutterfish's Blur plugins. The end result looks ok, but I think your solution will be more effective for the light traveling through the axon, as the omni seems to "disappear" at some points due to the lack of opacity of the maps as the animation progresses.



I think it looks pretty cinematic, but the flare effect needs to be toned down quite a bit.



Atached is a jpeg from the file (rendered with Final Render). I will try your method and post a shot of the result from that rendering. Thanks again for the help!

[wwswimming]

i was wondering if you were going to add cinematographic effect and make the neuron "swell" a little bit, like you would with an FFD transformer.

which i guess could be made to look more like a glow with self-illuminate materials etc.

will the scene have different neuron effects for different thoughts ? e.g. checking email = normal brainwave activity, pretty girl walks in the room or a shark fin pops up in the water = hyperactive brainwave activity.

[Osiris9650]

Yeah, I was thinking of using a push modifier to create a slight swell when it fires.

And no, no different neuron effects for different thoughts. That isn't the angle I'm shooting for. I want to demonstrate axonal shearing for a Diffuse Axonal Traumatic Brain Injury. I will create a neuron network. I will add some camera shake after riding down the axon terminal with the electricity flowing, then demonstrate twisting and pulling of the axon so that the synapses separate from the dendrites and nucleus, while making the electricity stop and the opacity increase (to demonstrate a "dead" neuron).

It will be a tall order, but hopefully I will get it done in time! Thanks for your help! Stand by, because I may have another question or 2 (if you don't mind!!)

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