Way to create a self-building maze?

[luke]

Hi,

I need to create a maze that builds/draws itself as the camera moves along the maze wall. I have seen this kind of thing done a fair few times before but I have never done it myself so I was just wondering what the best approach is? e.g How should I make a structure that draws itself? I assume by using morphs or transparancy maps?

[dbolto]

I've never executed a task such as this, but my first thought would be to give the walls, floor, and ceiling endomorphs that would expand on my command.

dbolto

www.dbolto.com

[Lamont]

This should get some ideas flowingin your noggin.

http://www.eyelandarts.com/tut/pinarrays.html

[VWTornado]

Originally posted by Lamont
This should get some ideas flowingin your noggin.

http://www.eyelandarts.com/tut/pinarrays.html

Holy crap that is cool!!

[luke]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have had some progress with using images and gradients (linked to distance to object/camera) to create transparency and thus give the appearance of my maze growing. It is more fiddly than I thought though and I like the idea of using morphs as when I sit down with the designer I'd prefer to be able to make quick changes when - inevitably - needed. Unfortunately I don't know how to create a morph that will smoothly go round corners. Can anyone advise me on this? Is there such a thing as a rail morph tool that would perfectly morph along the shape of my object?

I have attached a .jpg of part of the maze in case anyone has a chance - and the inclination - to have a quick look. Any help would be much appreciated!

[VWTornado]

Can you post a pic of the entire maze complete...maybe that will help us visualize what you want a little better. That and maybe a description of how you want the maze to "appear".

[luke]

Here's an early shot of the 'maze' (in fact a logo). This one has a ball which the camera was originally going to follow towards the exit of the maze. The client has dropped the ball idea but still wants the camera to be 'inside' the maze and following the walls until it reaches the exit. They decided to have the walls of the maze appear/draw at the last minute after they got rid of the ball. The idea being that you start with one wall that grows from nothing, but by the time the camera reaches the exit, it can swivel around to reveal the complete logo.

Hope this makes sense!...

[VWTornado]

so the camera will be moving through the maze as its appearing? you could simply use an animated movie in the transparency channel couldn't you? ive never used displacement maps, but one in that channel might work also to have it grow from nothing (flat) to the logo, then the camera moves up out of the logo to show the whole thing done. i bet SplineGod (CGTalk forums) could tell you how you could use a spline guide to have the parts of the logo extrude along a guide...that might look cool and be "easier" then making an animated movie, then applying that movie to whatever channel to make the effect.

[luke]

I like the idea of extruding along a spline. I'll see if I can get some info' from SplineGod about that. As for the animated movies in the transparency channel. Do you mean create a movie (in say, After Effects) which is basically a moving black and white matte that will give me transparency where needed?

[Revanto]

You don't need a morph. You could have a null as a reference object for a displacement texture. You could also link the null with expressions to the camera so you don't need to adjust the null each time you change something (although, changing the null by itself is simpler)

Revanto

[Revanto]

Actually, if you are creating the maze along the walls, it might be harder than that. You might have to make an animated texture.

Revanto

[shelby]

You might try using this technique:

http://www.newtek.com/products/lightwave/tutorials/animation/clip-map/index.html

I did a modified test using an animated image map.

[shelby]

another image