I am working on what I thought would be a simple animation of a 3 x 3 grid appearing rod by rod. The first frame would just have an empty background and then add one vertical rod, then the next, then the next. After the three vertical rods, the next horizontal rod, the next and finally the sixth rod. I thought that I could just start with no rods in the first frame, add a rod in say the fifth frame and set it as a keyframe, then every fifth frame add a new rod in a new keyframe. But what happens is that once I add each new rod it appears from the first frame onward. What am I missing?

The Bryce documentation does not do a very good job describing how to use the tools to do an actual animation. They just describe what each tool does and leave you, the reader, to figure it out. Is there somewhere I can get some good tutorials on actually doing rudimentary animations such as the one that I am attempting to do?

I'm not sure how you are adding your rods, but my suggestion in any event is to place an additional keyframe at the frame just before you are making your change. So, if at frame 5 you are going to make a rod appear, then make sure to put in a keyframe at 4 that completes your original scene. Then, your frame at 5 .... then one at 9 that shows both rods again, then at 10 put in your third rod .... and on like that.

When things are still there in frames of an an animation when I intended them not to be, I have a simple quick fix, select the object click on the attributes 'A',and but a -1 in front of the number in the Y position box. If the position was 30.1 change it to -130.1. This effectively buries it deep underground until it is needed again. To get it back change it back to 30.1.-Ken

Simple really though tedious. Note the x,y,z size of the object then for those objects you don't want visible set the size to 0. 1 frame before you want it to appear set a keyframe then go to the next frame and set the size of the object and a keyframe. Do this for each object. To make objects disappear reverse the above. Another way is to put the objects out of the camarea frame then set a keyframe before it's to appear, advance frame, move it and set another keyframe.

Depending on the object, I think the only REAL way to animate appearing/disappearing is to use the Material Lab. You cannot set up a "Create" keyframe in Bryce, Ricky... And unfortunately, you cannot animate the "Hidden" attribute. Go into the rod's material, Rnollman, and "Copy" the mat you are GOING to use to the clipboard, using the tab right below the quick-preview window. Next, set the object to "Blend Transparency", and turn the transparency up to 100, no refraction necessary. If it's noon auto-keyframe, ADD a keyframe here. Your rod will be invsible. Then just advance to the correct key where you want that particular rod to reappear, add a key, and click "Paste" form the clipboard menu. Boom! Using this technique, you can also fade objects in and out as well...

Hmmm ... well, I never tried it with creating myself, so I wouldn't know. I have done it by creating a material that I call invisible and applying it. HOWEVER, it is still necessary to do start and end keyframes or else the object fades into and out of view rather than appearing or disappearing.

Well, at least I am not crazy and/or stupid. I could not figure out why such a simple thing should be so complicated, but your replies indicate that it is not intuitive. Surprising for Bryce -- which I find to be very straightforward.

Great suggestions. This is something that everybody who animates will face sooner or later. Word from the experienced will save newbies alot of trial and error.