Tutorial: Dissolve Material Effect

[Piranhi]

*Posted in right sub-forum now*

Not so much a project, but I thought I'd share this with the community. I remember looking on Eat3D a few months back and I saw the material transition effect DVD. I thought the effect was amazing but I just couldn't afford the DVD so I tried to make the effect myself but without any luck.

Last night I was laid in bed and I had a 'Eureka' moment, whacked open my laptop and had another go and I almost got the effect. I had another go this morning and I nailed an effect that I like. I have no idea how similar this is to Eat3D's but as far as I'm concerned it works just as good. It reminds me of the vampires dying in Blade.

[SHOT]http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/1859/dissolve1.jpg[/SHOT]

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dLl04iHaSQ
Note: Video is in GoW version of Unreal3 but it does work in UDK

Anyway, how to do it:

The Material

[SHOT]http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3939/dissolve.jpg[/SHOT]

You then need to create a Material Instance Constant of that material, then add a MaterialInstanceActor to your level and link the two. Then, in Kismet link up whatever sequence of events you want to activate the material into a Matinee, in my video it was when the spawned actor died. Then in the matinee, create a new group and link it to the MaterialInstanceActor in your level, create a new 'Float Material Param', then create a keyframe on 0:00 with the value of 1, then create another keyframe however far down the line you want the effect to last and change the value to 0.

And there you have it. The effect can be added to anything really, it still needs a bit of tidying up, but I'll leave that to you.

[micahpharoh]

It looks really nice. I'll have to try it soon.

Care to post a vid of that material on a wall?

[Piranhi]

Sure, I'll knock one together now

[Piranhi]

Ok, New video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPb5RwiELSE

Picture also added to the top.

[micahpharoh]

it looks fantastic

[HavocInferno]

hey Piranhi
a friend of mine is currently setting up a tutorial homepage for UDK tuts...may we could use your tut? of course we'll name you and link to the tutorial's website...
see more here: http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=721760

[Piranhi]

Hey, yeah sure, that's fine by me. Good look with the website

[HavocInferno]

thanks man

feel free to visit the website...we'll release it soon

[Shelke]

This is absolutely fantastic! Thank you very much for sharing.

* Plays the video again *

Its out of this world, actually.

In the video made with GOW, there is a light effect played around the dying character that lits up the bsp under it. is that made by the material(Does emmisive have that ability?) or is it part of GOW?

[Piranhi]

Cheers!

In UDK you have the ability to set the emissive material to emit light, but in the GoW version I just teleported a light and upped the brightness in Matinee.

[Shelke]

Ah I see, thank you!

[toxicpanther]

this could be very interesting for many different enviornments,i have one question though,is the geometry for the wall still there when the material dissolves it?

[Piranhi]

Yeah it is, but you can remove the collision, and if you're completely finished with it you can remove it from game entirely with kismet.

[Jagnot]

Whoa, this looks awesome! I have a question though, if you have a second to answer it:

What is the node that's directly to the 'Param 'opac' (0.5)' at the very end of the material? I've been trying to figure it out but no luck so far.

P.S. Can you tell me how you did this part?

Then in the matinee, create a new group and link it to the 
MaterialInstanceActor in your level

[Piranhi]

Cheers

The node is a 1 minus, the shortcut in the material editor is (o and then click (not the number 0, the letter o)).

I wrote up a full tutorial here: http://udkc.info/index.php?title=Tut...aterial_Effect which might walk you through it a bit better clearer. Hope it helps.