Animate the view and render visibility of a branch or multiple objects
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Summary
Animating the View and Render Visibility of a branch or multiple objects presents a limitation in Softimage|XSI. It is not possible to animate the parent's Visibility node and have all children follow, as was the case in Softimage|3D. Each child's View and Render Visibility node must be keyframed locally. There is however a quick workaround to this problem using simple expressions.
Steps
Lets say you have Cube1, Cube2, and Cube3. You want Cube1 to control the View and Render Visibility of all other cubes.
- Open Cube1's Visibility property page and lock it.
- Open Cube2's Visibility property page, don't lock it.
- Drag Cube1's View Visibility icon over Cube2's View Visibility icon. The Expression Editor pops up and the expression is created. You don't have to modify anything within the Expression Editor, simply minimize it in a corner so it does not pop up in the future.
- Now drag Cube1's Render Visibility icon over Cube2's Render Visibility icon. The expression is created and the Expression Editor remains minimized.
- Select Cube3. By default, Cube2's Visibility property page should now be replaced by Cube3's Visibility property page.
- Drag Cube1's View Visibility icon over Cube3's View Visibility icon. The expression is created.
- Drag Cube1's Render Visibility icon over Cube3's Render Visibility icon. The expression is created.
- To control more objects, simply repeat steps 5, 6 and 7.
- Toggle Cube1's View and Render Visibility, all other cubes will follow.
Tip: Once you've setup your objects or hierarchy, you can create a Custom Parameter Set named Cube1's View and Render Controls. Drag and drop Cube1's View and Render Visibility icons into Cube1's View and Render Controls. You can now animate your objects' View and Render Visibility through a Custom Parameter.
Applies To: XSI 1.5 on NT,Win2K,Irix
Posted: 7/13/2001
