Transparency issue

[Ty Catt]

Hey y'all,

Here's my problem:

I am rendering a human heart within a male model body object. The heart has several surfaces (the focus of the animation), and the male is one solid surface. The male is "transparent" at certain head-on angles with an incident angle gradient.

The transparency gimmick is blown however, when we view the model from the side, and his arm and fingers become distracting. (second attachment, weird "white ovals" in right of render)

My question is, is there a way to "dissolve out" the foreground arm and fingers using an other transparency gradient using "distance to camera"?

Can this work?

Should I obtain this effect by other means?

Or other methods?:help:

Thanks, guys,

Ty

[jameswillmott]

Yes, distance to camera should work fine to dissolve him out, or you could use a weightmap to fade out his arms anyway, since the focus is on whats inside him...

[Scazzino]

You could also use a distance to object gradient to dissolve anything a certain distance from the heart...

[Ty Catt]

Thanks, guys.

Just a follow up-

In regards to using Distance to camera, how would that work if when the male model viewed from the side, there are two arms to be faded out- one far off in the background, and one in the foreground closest to the camera. So what input parameter would work when you need to dissolve out two area with the heart still visible between them?

Also, distance to object won't work for the same reasons, in particular, the camera moves in and out towards the male model, so that distance is blown.

Finally, I know there is a weight map selection for input in the gradient field, but how does that work? I put weight maps on both arms in modeler (100%, red), but then what?

Nothing seems to work.

Still new to LightWave, sorry to be a bother.

Thanks!

Tyler