Hello.

I'm trying to animate a light to show it off then on by have a blue sphere made of glass with a light in it.  For the first 25 frames the light is on then the next 25 frames the light is off.  However, when I render the small animation the light does not show to go off and on.  This approach has worked for me in moving objects but this time I an not moving something I am only changing a property of it.  How do you animate the changing of a vue object property that has nothing to do with movement?

If I want to blink a light, I usually animate its power. For example set power in Frame 1 to "100", set a keyframe. Go to the frame where you want to switch it off and set the power to zero. Add a keyframe. The default will cause a gradual transition from 100 to 0 for the intensity. To blink on/off you need to adjust the time spline. Go to the timeline and select the light in the left panel. Under the light you find its properties. Select power to see its keyframes and curves/time splines (you might have to switch them on). Edit the time spline so that you get a step like transition or load one of the pre-defined time splines. See my screen shot above.

TD

Hello thd777.

I'm having a problem trying to adjust the power settings for the point light.  All appears fine before I try to assign it any animation properties because I am able to set the power value and it stays as I touch other objects on the screen.

However, once I have the point light selected, pull up the animation window, set first keyframe at frame zeo to power keyframe and set power to 100 then slide the time line arrow to the next target key frame and set the light to 0 power then set keyframe power the light reverts back to 100.  It won't accept the zero setting.

Hmm, sounds pretty muchn like what I am doing and it works fine here. If you haven't done so already, check this tutorial aboutr animating lights at Geekatplay:

http://www.geekatplay.com/flvplayer/player.php?pathinfo=animation/11animatedlights

Maybe there is a step you are missing.

Ciao

TD

okay will do.  Might also be that I'm actually not using a point light but a light panel.  I would prefer to use a light panel because I am lighting up a rectangular box with letters on one side.  Gives an evenly distributed light.  But it looks as though the keyframe options for a light panel are different than those for a point light.

Yes, that is your problem. The power of a lightpanel is not one of the animatable properties. You can check which properties are animatable by selecting the object and then looking at the list in the time line. Only the listed properties can be animated.

Depending on your situation you might be able to use a work around like this: Place a plane primitive in from of the light panel and give it a suitable texture for the "lights off" stage. Then animate the material to start at 100% transparency and switch to 0% transparency when you want the light off (you need to adjust the time spline to be a jump rather than a slow transition). You could also embed the light in a cube/box and use the same trick for switching it on and off.

Ciao

TD

Hello thd777.

thanks again!  I will check out your idea.  By the way, that tutorial link you provided is absolutely awesome. I had never thought of changing the material property luminosity and others like glow intensity to also simulate an objecting lighting up.  I tried it on the text I had on the one side of the box and it also looks not too bad and is animatable.  So far the options are looking good.  Once I get an update to Camtasia Studio for Windows 7 I'll be able to record what I'm doing so others can see what problems I may have.  I used to do that a long time ago but unfortunately the version I now have won't work on Windows 7.  Well, once again, thanks!

 

yes, the tutorials are very good. Check out the rest of the site, too. There is alot of basic as well as advanced advide there.

Indeed, Luminosity (you can increase it beyond 100% ! to get a stronger effect) is another way to achieve the effect you are after. However, in order to get it to light up the environment, you need to use GI or Radiosity (if you want the color to be visible in the bounced light) for the render. That might be too expensive in terms of render time for an animation. Try some test renders and see.

Ciao

TD

I got some help a few months ago with blinking lights.  The main thing is to use a filter with a box - or inverted squared off "U" shape, going from 0 for a period, then to max for a period, then back to 0 for a period

Thanks redtrek.

If its not one thing then its another. I exported my blinking text as a .vob file and imported it into another scene.  The problem now is that I don't want to blinking to begin until about 20 seconds into the video but it starts blinking at the begining of the video because its looped.  Anyone know of a way I can control a looped animation's start time? I tried importing the object 20 seconds into the video but I still don't really want it to start until a certain other object in the movie does stomething.  I tried moving the keyframes over to the 20 second area but that did not do it.  I wish there were a an animation start and end time line for each animated object, not just the whole scene.  Is there?

I find that the easiest way is to edit the time spline. Check the example in the screen shot above. The light stays constant at 100% power until 1.2s and then starts to blink. You might have to manually add a few extra key points to get the exact setup you want.

Ciao

TD