There are different ways of doing this. millions maybe.
One simple way is, export 2 files... one alpha and one of the flame it's self.

Press "M" for the material editor to appear:
copypaste:
[Link to www.rockisland.com]

Make your material:
1)Click on the diffuse box that says "none," click.... then select "bitmap." Now browse and find your, flames_vid.avi (orwhatever it's called).

Now we have to go back and set an opacity mask. Look for the "go to parent" button, which looks like a black arrow. Click on that tilll you're looking at this again:
copypaste:
[Link to www.rockisland.com]

2)Click on opacity's box that says "none" and select, "bitmap," then chose your file that's flame_mask.avi...or whatever you named it.

This is important! Select the object you want to apply this material to! NOW click on the button "Assign material to selection." It's this button that the RED ARROW is pointing to: [Link to www.webdesign.org]

Your model should be painted with your new material and is probably messed up looking... in which case you need to set your uvw maps in your modifier stack.

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Awesome. Thanks a lot that worked a treat!

If you dont mind can i aask you a couple other things, which im sure youll find simple to solve.

My scene I have been given to work with it animated. basically its a room which rotates slightly. Is there anyway to lock my object with the fire texture on it to the room so that they both rotate equally.

Secondly is there anyway to make an object not accept lights. My mirror looks pretty good when there are no lights shining on it it, however once i add my orange lights (to simulate the flame) the mirror kinda washes out a bit. So basically I want to light the room minus the mirror. I looked in object properties and under advanced lighting there is a check box to not accept lights, but this doesnt seem to do anything.

and thirdly is there a easy ay to add a displacement map to the fire to simulate the heat ripples.

Sorry for the bombardment of questions, but i really appreciate the help.

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1) connecting objects
Use this button to connect one object to another. [Link to billysalisbury.com] Press button, click on object 1 then drag to object 2.

2) Light excluding:
Depending on what light you have this might work:
Select the light you're using. Go to it's modifier stack. Under "General Parameters" find the button "exclude" then use that UI to choose what not to illuminate.

3) VFX:
To be honest i like to composite effects in a video editor more than spending lots of rendering time on something as simple as heat ripples, in max. Max is just slower for some stuff. If 3dsmax was the solution to everything, no one would buy combustion 4 or flame 9. And it sounds like you already know AE.

If you must have good looking vapors/heat ripples done in max then there are refraction effects you can do with a bump map masked with a gradient. And there are other methods i know with particles that look good. But to be honest it sounds like there's a lot you need to learn. Please sit and watch all of these straight threw [Link to www.youtube.com]

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