Hiding parts of a Prop

Hiding parts of a Prop

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https://forum.reallusion.com/Topic357365.aspx

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By sonic7 - 6 Years Ago

Greetings....
I was wanting to get a little more camera room in a set (without the walls getting in the way).
Is there a way of turning off (making Invisible) parts of a prop?
In the iClone's scene manager, it only shows the entire prop with no further breakdown.
Yet when in 3DXchange, the full breakdown IS visible in the "tree structure".
Just wondering if part of a prop can be made invisible from within iClone itself.
Many thanks ......

By gordryd - 6 Years Ago

You should be able to solve this by using the 'Clipping Plane' feature of the camera (it ignores everything that is not within a certain range that you define). From the manual:

Clipping Planes of the Camera

If your actor moves in a building, you may want to ignore the walls or furniture between the actor and the camera, you may use the Clipping Planes feature. By defining the range consists of Near and Far parameters, you may see the actors behind the wall or relieve the load of your system. This feature can not be set as a key in the Timeline.

Rule of Clipping-planes

The Clipping-Planes provide two parameters, Near and Far, to define the render range of a camera.

Setting the Near Clipping Plane Value

If your actor is indoor, the wall of the room will always hinder the view. You may use the Near Clipping Plane to filter out the objects within this distance.

Go to the camera modify panel.

In the Camera section, click the up arrow of the Near Clipping Plane.

If you encounter Z-fighting situation (Two extremely close faces cause the flicking result), increase the Near Clipping Plane value by 1 or 2 may solve this problem.

Clipping Planes affects only the rendering result instead of actually cutting any entity in the project.

Setting the Far Clipping Plane Value

If your Terrain is so wide that it is beyond the camera's rendering range, you may adjust this value to solve this issue.

Go to the camera modify panel.

In the Camera section, click the up arrow of the Far Clipping Plane.

By sonic7 - 6 Years Ago

Thanks for your reply Gordryd ....
Only problem is the "Up arrow of the Near Cipping Plane" doesn't seem to be available to me (please see pic)

https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/31c4dfb6-15f8-426b-9929-7833.jpg

Not sure why though ....

By Slayerazazel - 6 Years Ago

I would suggest the following and see if it works

While in 3DXchange navigate the tree menu and find the particular parts of the prop that are in the way. Then highlight them, and use the make sub prop button and name it to what you wish. Then import to iclone as a prop and it should now show the new "Sub Prop as you titled it" in your dropdown list in iclone. From here you will have more control over that specific section (Delete/Hide/Opacity etc..)

That's just off the top of my head, as i am not at my PC to double check. Hope this helps and is what you are looking for.

By rgreenidge - 6 Years Ago

Sonic I have used clipping a lot. I wonder if you can't checked the clipping box because you are using a special back camera? I never understood why those camera models are added to iClone. I'm rendering a scene and can't help you right now. I used hundreds of cameras, and I can't see what's really the purpose because you can manually change you output size and ratios? Try seeing if you can clip without the special cameras.

By sonic7 - 6 Years Ago

OK .....
Thanks heaps to members for your help....
I couldn't get the "Clipping Planes of the Camera" approach to work (the grayed out "Show Range" might be the issue - can't say).
But Slayerazazel's idea DID work for me.
As he said, it's just a matter of selecting (in 3DXchange), the bits you want to toggle off or on in your set - making them a "Sub Group".
Once you've made the sub group (and this is the GREAT part), all you need do is click the "Apply to iClone" button and Voila! your complete modified prop is instantly sent back into iClone straight from Xchange!
Then, back in iClone, just delete the original prop version keeping the new version and the extra sub group is now there to toggle SHOW / HIDE.
So you don't have to even import it manually!

By gordryd - 6 Years Ago

Sonic, check to make sure you are not in 'Preview' mode. The 'Clipping Planes' apparently don't work in Preview -- you will need to 'create' a camera before you can use this method.

By sonic7 - 6 Years Ago

Hi gordryd....
Yes you were right; using the preview camera results in a grayed out box for "Show Clipping Pane Range"
After "creating" a new camera the box became available for ticking, - so I did. But where to from here?
(Please see pic)

https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/2eb83cb2-f51b-4fdb-90fa-ed15.jpg

By wires - 6 Years Ago

You need to expand the Modify panel to the right in order to enter in the values:

https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/b6d4c0de-26cb-4db8-b92f-138f.png

By sonic7 - 6 Years Ago

Ahhh ..... I see, thank you!
Yes I was hiding it from myself!
Thanks - Wires & Gordryd

https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/e5ea3b44-bfc4-46c0-bc8a-f290.jpg

By Cary B - 6 Years Ago

A technique I use on occasion is to go to the materials section of the prop, use the little eyedrop "picker" tool to see what material is in the way, then bring the opacity of that material down to zero. You can animate it, so the opacity comes back when you need it.