How to make a object appear from a portal?- HELP!

[jaidek]

I am attempting to make my character basically pull a sword out of empty space, such as a portal of some sort. But I DON'T want it to just "appear" (visibility=on/off). I've experimented with animating an extrude, but that's just not going to work with my sword because of the detail involved. So, as if it was coming out of a FLAT, portal, how would I do it?

[tinus]

I think you can make a flat planel for the portal, assign a shader to it, in matte opacity select blackhole,
only problem is you'll have to compose your character onto the background.. the plane "cuts" a hole in the background!

hope it works for ya

Tinus

[dsunder]

or try animating the transparancy with a ramp or a fractal

"I wouldn't want to be so cool in a world that's about to freeze"
-Jawbreaker

[jimc]

If you don't have too may shaders you can make it dissapear with solid projection maps. You can do with as many shaders as you like but it just becomes a whole lot of work, and it easier to composite it.
1) Create a PlanarProjection Ramp
2) Make the Ramp all white.
3) Position the solid projection to cover the entire area you want the sword to dissapear in.
4) Then turn off the WrapU and WrapV off in the Ramp's place2dTexure node

It will become transparent only in the area covered by the placement node. Move the place3dTexture node flush with the mirror and test it. The transparecy works but I'm sure you're getting highlights and maybe reflectionmaps where you don't want them. To fix this continue on...

5) Create an Utility>General>REVERSE node and assign it to the specular of the Shader

6) Then drag and drop ( from the Hyperview ) the Transparency's Projection node on to the REVERS INPUT.

The new render will not have the current higlights now.

Good Luck
Jim C.