EAlexander

Lots of marketing leading up to AIA, then all I saw was an Instagram clip from Rick. Is there any other information about this tech/product?

I think Maxon is trying to get into the market of Arch viz and compete with Chaos. Look at AutoDesk - best I can tell from unvetted sources on the internet - there are around 15,000 Maya subscribers vs. 7,5000,000 AutoCAD subscribers. Archviz seems like a good market to go after. Also - Nemetscheck, which owns Maxon, owns Vectorworks, so there is a natural fit there, though it seems they want this new tech to eventually open up to all BIM software. Only time will tell - we should know more at the end of this week after AIA demos. e.

It's early days on this still - they are just marketing and building hype. The first demos will happen June 6th. They just sent emails today looking for potential beta testers. I would guess that the actual product is still a ways off for delivery.

I don't know anything, but I would guess that is just a marketing strategy. Maybe with the idea to expand Cinema's reach into Archviz more (?). Maxon is owned by Nemetschek which also makes Vectorworks. Redshift was added to Vectorworks a few years ago, but not a full implementation, so there are benefits to be had from both sides, I think. They also mention wanting to eventually open it up to other CAD/BIM solutions, so Vectorworks is just a starting place. I use Cinema for Concert design - can't say it was really made for that, but it works great, so I wouldn't read too much into it. Right now there is a SEND TO CINEMA4D button in Vectorworks - I think this is a larger progression of that concept, like live linking. All will be revealed in a few weeks.🤷‍♂️

As a heavy Vectorworks users, I'm watching this closely. Thanks for posting.

Yes - thank you! Plain effector did the trick.. Knew I was missing something simple!

Hi - another simple UI building question. I have an assembly of objects inside a null. One of the objects has a custom Display color set so it stands out in viewport - in the screengrab example here LINE is red. When I put all this into a cloner - the cloner overwrites this display color with its own. Is there any way to override this override? 😂 Just to be totally clear - this isn't about materials I'm only talking about how it displays in the viewport. Thanks! e.

Thanks @Cerbera Yes, I tried it with a new slider - same result. I tried copying the User Data Interface directly from the helix object itself too - same result. I can't share that particular file but I made a sample file for you and I get the same results. Thanks for submitting! I'm running: 2025.1.3 (Build 2025_1_3_0a0b3ff81417_1654727740) Win -e. User_data_column_scaling_v01.c4d

Hi - please see attached. Working on a custom interface - nothing fancy. When I add a button and a float slider to a group with 2 columns, the width of the Height slider is getting crushed for no reason that I can understand. As you can see, the Link field above it for Target object is going full width, as are the sliders below that aren't in groups. I tried switching the order in the group and putting the slider first and then the button second, but that doesn't help expand that slider. Any idea how I can expand that slider? Thanks! e.

Thank you Hrvoje! That illuminated my problem. I had the random effector listed above the Target effector in my cloner and moving it below the Target in the Order of Operations solved the problem. Thanks for your time! Thought I was losing my mind 😂

Hello! I have a concert audience that is made of cloners - very standard stuff. I'm using a target effector and a Blank Null as the target, so I can focus all the clones to look at the same place. Here comes the issue - I want to add a Random Effector as well to give them just some slight rotation variation, but still respect the Target. Right now they are a bit too precise/perfect. The random effector is working for scale and position, but I can't get just a few degrees of random rotation out of this. I've tried adjusting the stacking order of the effectors in the cloner - no change. I've tried lowering the strength of the Target effector, but that just affects all the clones evenly, so doesn't really help. I don't think it matters, but I'll mention that there are Plain objects along the floor and each cloner is set to Polygon Center - this way I can change the number of plain segments and adjust my crowd numbers. There is also a Plain effector in there with box fields to create the aisles. I don't think this matters in my problem, but wanted to make sure I mentioned it. Attaching some images - yes, I know it's repetitious, but these are seen in very low level lighting from a low angle. Any ideas would be welcome. Thanks!

Never mind _ I figured it out 🙂 I didn't have my input range set to degrees. Nothing to see here - move on.

Hello! Please see attached. I'm working on a theatrical spotlight again with custom User Data controls. Here is a simple version of it: I have a spotlight inside a cylinder (with no bottom cap). For a certain amount of cone angle, this is fine (01), but when the light reaches a certain angle, it can't go wider since it hits the inside of the cylinder. I want to be able to slide the light down in Z slightly (02) as the user raises the cone angle, thus allowing more light out of the cylinder. It's a small amount of movement, so I want the light to move a short distance relative to the cone angle adjustment and have it be seamless for the user. I have some experience with Xpresso and the range mapper, but I'm not clear how to set this up. Any guidance appreciated! -Evan

*wrong info - my idea didn't work 😂

Love this guys stuff. Some of the best made tutorials out there.

I don't think there is a way to automate the tag cleanup, but I'd love to be pleasantly wrong about that and learn. Is it possible to put the assembly into a Connect generator instead of Connect Object and delete? Would keep it parametric in theory.

My ML Light Kit: The Full Kit is on sale for $50 for Black Friday until December 1st. These are Xpresso rigged Stage lights for concert, performance, and theater light renderings. Use code MLFRIDAY at checkout. https://www.evanalexander.com/ml-lightkit

Not at a computer right now, so bear with me. I don't believe there is a key modifier for this, but in the preferences, you have some control over where new objects get placed e.g. Right above the current selected object or right below the current selected object. But.... This will affect ALL new objects, not just generators. Look around, can't remember the exact location of this in your prefs.

Hi, Probably a few different ways to do this, but I would start with a spline and a very small circle and put them into a sweep - then you can animate the end growth of the sweep and the cone will "draw" itself for you. See attached. I would make a luminous texture for the cones "light rays" that would use an opacity mask to drive where we see it and where we don't. The original lines that draw the cones - I would think of those as separate geometry from the cone - so it could be a cylinder or a cube even that was animated to rotate around the bottom point and aligns with the sweep revealing itself. Hope that points you in a direction - others might have more efficient ways. Only downside of this is the sweep circle has to have some radius, so you don't get a true mathematical point on the cone, but it could be small enough that no one would notice. Cones_01.c4d

Very nice work Matthew!

Nevermind - I'm dumb. For future reference, If you right click on a Layer name - there is an option called: Take Assignment. Why do I always find it right after I post 🙂

Is it possible to use layers with Takes? I have a bunch of geometry scattered about the object manager in a large scene and I'd like to put them all in a layer and then control Viewport and Render visibility on/off of that layer in various takes. Is this possible? I can't seem to sort out how. Thanks in advance! -Evan

looks cool! Let us know how you get on with it!

Hard to say without seeing the scene or the models in question. Of course, adding bump and displacement makes for more math, more light calculation, etc. But I would hardly think that is the tipping point. Are the car models all triangulated meshes? You could run remesher on the major parts (body, Hubs) to try to get to better quad topology and reduced numbers. There are so many factors at play with lighting setup, material builds, your hardware specs. You might have to do it in smaller batches and then comp together in post.

I did wonder about that (the Matrix approach) as I've seen other studios do that workflow. Is it more efficient? I've never tested it out first hand. Curious what others think.