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Procedurally Reveal/Move Dots on Grid


jingles
Go to solution Solved by HappyPolygon,

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I'm wondering if anyone can shed some light on how to build the action in the Reference below where dots randomly appear and slide out and into place on a grid. I thought I had it figured out by driving it with a noise but get hit with a few issues. I've built this by snapping dots into place and using a delay to ease their movements.

 

Issues:

1. multiple dot's overlap on each other

2. dots shouldn't return to their original position but since driven by noise they do

3. dots ideally shouldn't travel diagonally. If possible they zig-zag (less important)

 

Any conceptual approaches would be helpful otherwise I'll likely keyframe the movements.

Thanks!

 

R21 SCENE: AutoMove_Test_A_004.zip

 

Screenshot 2023-05-19 132737.png

Edited by jingles
Move C4D file to top (see edit history)
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I would try to recreate this using particles with 0 speed, no death rate, no forces no nothing else. 

Since each pawn spawns from a previous one then having a particle emitter traveling on a predetermined path giving birth to a particle in constant time intervals makes more sense. 

To give the impression of a pawn giving birth to other pawns just make a pawn a child of the emitter and have it follow the emitter.

The hardest part will be to control the speed of the emitter to coincide with each passing through the center of each birth point, since spawning is strictly determined from time and no other C4D mechanic can influence it (Fields, Effectors etc.).



While writing this I had a better idea. Give me some time to test it,

 

Edited by HappyPolygon (see edit history)
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Gotcha, I briefly considered particles but for some reason though it was trickier. I've got XParticles and there is a network grid modifier to restrict to 90's too.

Hmm, OK thanks for giving this more thought too 🙂

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Alright,

There is a better and easier way to do it BUT it requires C4D > R23.

 

The following project file is completely useless because it was made in R20 but you can use it in more recent C4D versions to make it work by adding the following:

go.c4d

  • Enable Fields on the Matrix Weight Tag.
  • Insert the Box Field in that tag's Field List.
  • Expect to work properly when hit play

The concept:

The Box Field changes the Weight of a matrix element from 0 to 100, affecting its visibility (via the Plain Effector). This still works in R20 but their is a crucial difference. After the field has moved away from the matrix element its weight automatically drops to 0 again making it invisible. In more recent versions the inclusion of Fields in the Matrix Weight Tag enables the use of Field Layers. Using the (by default existent)  Freeze Effect the weight of the matrix element won't loose its weight value after the passing of the Box Field.

 

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While writing the previous one I had a better idea.

I hacked a bit the procedure to make it compatible to R21's capabilities.

go 2.c4d

 

You won't have to manually keyframe every move but you will have to manually draw the paths.

 

Procedural angular movement was an old problem I've been asking around here even to Rocket Lasso. For unknown reasons the Cell Noise in a Shader Field used under the Force Field won't do the trick.

 

Someone (I think Srek) had written a Python Script for this Py Random Walker.c4d but it won't help you much in this case.

Edited by HappyPolygon (see edit history)
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Straight wizardry! 🎩👌 Thank you this is incredible.
I didn't know you could use a tracer in the fields and am still wrapping my head around this and certainly wouldn't have gotten this on my own.

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