Is there a way to reveal/mask another actor

andrewm2211

Hi all,

First off I know I've been asking a lot of questions lately, and I just want to thank everyone for their quick and helpful responses.

What I want to do, is to have a laser shoot across the screen. and I want it to look like it's getting longer until it reaches the end.

Would it be possible to recylce the laser actor to the emmision point, then put another actor on top made the laser transparent and revealed the laser?

Otherwise I'll just recylce it in segments and have a animation for the tip to cover it up.

Thanks

tenrdrmer

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19180586/LaserGun.zip

Click in the scene and the laser beam will shoot out. You could also use replicate or the tile method as TSB mentions. however you can have the most realistic image with the anchoring method. Since you can have a one end of the laser beam larger than the tail for example. You would simply draw your final beam how ever you wanted it and then anchor it properly in the actor.

Hope that helps
Cheers

jamie_c

This might be too simple, but couldn't you stretch your laser actor along it's X axis to make it grow across the screen?

Jamie

andrewm2211

that's what I'm doing now, and it looks fine with my placeholder actor(just a solid color) but if I put some details in wouldn't it stretch out?

jamie_c

It will stretch but maybe you could create it so it works.... maybe just a red line with glow or something. I think you'd have to experiment and see what works.

Jamie

tenrdrmer

You could fix the image in the actor and anchor it to the right then as your actor grows you would see the laser growing out of the gun. I'll make a quick demo for ya. be back in a few

andrewm2211

Awesome, thanks guys! Those are both great solutions! I really appreciate the amount of effort you guys put in your responses!

I think my artwork will be the deciding factor.