Cairyn

As for the Patreon: When I started "Python: Spoonfed" three years ago (or so), I had a certain scope in mind, covering the main features of Python itself plus all API calls needed for scripting and simple command plugins. Most of that has been covered by now (plus many additions, like the switch from Python 2 to 3), so we're closing in to a planned end of this endeavor (within a few months). As indicated in an earlier poll on the Patreon, I am thinking about necessary updates to earlier chapters, so collecting it all into a book has actually a good chance of happening. This would have the advantage for the Patrons that they don't need to download all chapters themselves, have a searchable resource, and will not be forced to remain Patrons when the orientation of the Patreon changes (just to read content they already know). I could also offer that book separately for all those people who have shied away from a Patreon. Naturally, there are many more topics that could have been covered beyond that original scope. There are Python tools and objects et al. (which we still may touch briefly, but which are actually more suitable for C++ implementation). The API we looked at is now called the "classic" API, and Maxon is offering the new core API (which I have never used, so I'd be less suited as teacher on the topic). We have scene nodes which are competing with Python and C++ implementations in many cases. And more, since C4D is not standing still. Covering all of that in the Patreon (and staying up to date with already-published content) would require a full-time job, however, which consequentially would require a full-time salary (which also pays for a C4D subscription then to keep stuff current). That is far out. At the moment, the Patreon nets me a whooping 60 bucks (a month!) after taxes, mandatory insurances, and fees. So, this can never be more than a hobby project, and the time I can invest in it is very limited. (Maxon itself already has the PluginCafé, which is a great resource for programmers with some experience.) What will happen to the Patreon after I transfer to Blender? It will stay online, but the direction changes; I will post some experiences and projects there which will be closer to the furry character animation that I originally wanted to do. I don't expect the current Patrons to stay around for that, and most content will be free anyway until I find a consistent direction and do full projects again. Once I get proficient enough in Blender, I may be able to show interesting stuff again (although I will probably never offer a course in Blender Python programming; there is too much competition on that market, and I have too much other stuff to do). We'll see where I and this forum and that Patreon and Blender itself go...

It's not so much the five bucks, it's the pointlessness of spending time. Years ago, when I swapped my Amiga (reluctantly) for a PC, I said I would keep it and use it and love it more than the PC ever, but the Amiga never got anywhere after that and I quickly abandoned it altogether (should have kept the hardware though... ah well). With a license that is not up to date, I am in a similar position with C4D; I could tell myself I would keep it forever and love it more than Blender and my heart belongs to C4D, but it's an illusion. I don't have the time to continue reading about features I don't have, techniques I cannot follow any more, functionalities that I'll never own. Even now I already hesitate to ask questions on the PluginCafé because I cannot verify whether the issues I found are actually still issues, or have been fixed in the four versions since. It just makes more sense to spend my time on Blender specific forums, make a clean cut, and throw out all C4D forums from my "Daily Tabs". I ain't a spring chicken any more, and I must concentrate on something to achieve something. It's clear that Maxon changed direction and expects a different audience for C4D (professionals only), and while most people here seem to be in that group, I am not and will not be for a long time.

Hello, or maybe should I say goodbye; after almost two decades on Cinema 4D I have decided to part ways and concentrate solely on Blender (no, not gonna start that discussion here again). My account here will lapse with the next payment cycle in a few days, so I will no longer be able to post, read or answer messages. Upholding a presence on a paid forum that has mostly C4D content just doesn't make much sense when you're stuck on R23 forever and there is not all that much Blender content yet. I may return when that changes. Until then, thanks for the years of mostly civil discussions. For those who are not going the subscription route and are stuck on R25, here's a little "parting gift": I have uploaded two of my tools to Gumroad for a 0€ price. They are not going to get any updates any more, but if you stay with R25, you may find them useful: https://cairyn.gumroad.com/l/CollieSymmetryHelper https://cairyn.gumroad.com/l/CollieMouse (The first one is the symmetry tag which is no longer needed for C4D 2023 and beyond; it was developed for a character modeler who's not on the forum; the second is the space mouse controller that has often been discussed but never quite made a dent against the built-in one. I do have a lot of Python scripts as well but they are becoming obsolete with growing C4D version numbers so I won't make them public; documenting them would be another chore I don't need right now.) If we had a personal discussion before, you will have my email for continued contact. Until later, peace!

Collie Variant Generator does randomization too - I guess it wouldn't be too hard to make it create animations in this specific case, as the number of results is not that big. (Although perhaps the asset juggler can do it out of the box already?)

While the idea looks simple enough (for Blender), and you could write a plugin that just does the same (save locally, copy to server), there are quite some difficulties: - C4D uses a whole directory structure (not just .c4d, but also textures and most likely caches), where Blender stores a .blend file with everything in it, so just doing the same for C4D means you would just get the .c4d on the server - It would still change the way C4D saves data, as it is a wrapper around the normal save on GUI level. So, you would need to trigger the plugin when you want to save. This would not affect the "save incremental" and "save as" etc. methods, which would need a wrapper each. Also, any plugin that writes the data directly would not use this wrapper. - What about the Asset Browser and other scene/object managers which may want to write data somewhere? - You need to keep a local proxy directory all the time, and take care that files of the same name are not saved at the same time, overwriting each other It may be useful to have, but it's not quite the same usecase... you'd need to think exactly about the repercussions.

I'm not sure what you mean there, maybe a typo "replaced by the new layer"? Anyway, the layer system allows only one layer per object, regardless of what type the object is. This is necessary so you can e.g. control the visibility by layer; if you would allow two or more layers the visibility settings of the layers would conflict with each other. I once had a plugin that allowed to put objects into groups, with more than one group per object and inheritance of the settings. That is, however, a different concept and only supports a temporary "set visibility now" command and no permanent setting. It may seem different for materials since you have the "All" tab, but that is an internally handled listing of the material manager which just ignores the layer settings.

Sorry, I interpreted it as aggressive as it seemed apparent to me that C4D doesn't do anything like that, and to me it's so obvious that it modified the undertone completely. Since you rate the difficulty of the ideas, I sort of assumed that you are aware of the capabilities of a simple script (which doesn't come with any interface). No, the Python versions that exist also need the user to enter the variables in the script itself. A script can theoretically have a dialog as interface (which would be fairly easy to add but triple the line count) but that would not be interactive; you'd just enter the parameters and press a "Generate" button, and the creation part of the script would run. You could also make the script read some user data that you add to an object, instead (but then you are saddled with creating that object and the user data first... not too practical). But if you want a live preview, you need at least a non-modal dialog that allows C4D to refresh the viewport during execution, even better: an object plugin that is controlled by parameters. I suppose that's all more C4D interface programming than math demo so the author didn't include that. It would be mostly the same for all generative plugins here, anyway.

Why that aggressive tone? I didn't claim any of that - just reiterating stuff the author wrote on the page, as not everybody here speaks German -, and quite obviously the Python versions are just translations of the COFFEE ones which were done as math demo.

Actually, I just had a look at one of the pages (mathematical surfaces and bodies), and the German text says the author had another look at the plugins in 2020 and already rewrote them in Python. I looked at one of them http://www.3d-meier.de/tut3/Python/Moebius_Strip.txt an lo, you only need to rename the txt into py. ...and rename xrange to range if you are on Python 3 ...and perhaps put any print arguments into brackets (that's not used in this script but maybe in others) if you are on Python 3 There we are.

If they take in too little money, that's hardly an issue of perpetual vs. subscription. They could go broke on subscriptions too if they charge twenty cents per month. I understand that they are trying to go the cheap route though - they compete with the Adobe quasi-monopoly, which is an incredibly tough market to get into. If you start out, you don't have the numbers (can't beat the established software), you probably can't compete function-wise (especially when the existing solutions are mostly function-complete), and the market leader will have the advantage of habit. You can only gain a foothold if you do things fundamentally different, have a highly specialized advanced function set, or are dirt cheap so people can just buy and try. (And frankly, for checking out a software, subscriptions are beneficial - get all of the soft without committing to full buying price.)

This discussion is pointless, since the subscription fans and the perpetual apostles weight their arguments differently, and therefore they come to different conclusions which are totally clear and unavoidable for them, while being unable to convince the other group of anything. It is regrettable that Maxon ditched the perpetuals altogether, and thereby probably lost a certain percentage of users to other solutions. But that's how it is, and obviously this percentage is not remotely high enough to make Maxon worry. Now, shall we increase the amount of Blender content on this site a little? I'm still looking for high-quality Blender forums that warrant daily visits.

Use the function GeListNode.ChangeNBit() with the flag NBIT_OHIDE to hide an object in the object manager. Afterwards, it will be inaccessible so you will need a second script that goes through the whole tree and makes the objects visible again. (I do not guarantee that this is a safe flag to use.)

Indeed. It took me many years to become proficient in C4D, both on the operative side and on the programming side, and essentially it's all for the birds now. People tend to say "if you know what a UV map (etc) is in program X, you will be able to apply that knowledge to program Y as well" which is true but only for the most basic of concepts. Sure, Blender has UV maps. Sure, Blender has Python plugins. Sure, Blender has a 3D space to operate in. But all the details are quite different, and if I sit down to program Blender plugins now, I am a complete newbie, beginner, noob, know-nothing. (Same with any other 3D-related skill.) I did not want to get out of C4D (although I smelled the **** from years away and never upgraded beyond R23, and even that only for certain functions), and I would have been happy to pay Maxon the yearly MSA for years to come (despite this being a hobby, not a major source of income). But I am not their business any more, shame. It makes me somewhat sad that certain people on this forum are smug and happy to tell me to finally **** off. Okay, there was never much demand for my specialized skills here, and I'm sure there will be others to fill this tiny gap. Off to different shores.

Sweet. I have a 16Mbit download (maximum), even less upstream, and they're going to go fiber somewhen next year, maybe. Government thinks that is state of the art anyway, because Germany is somewhere between Uganda and Svalbard on the internet savvyness list. Your 2Gb are nice but won't happen here in the next ten years, unless a miracle happens. Anyway, I do not know what will happen with PCs in the LONG TERM since I lost my crystal ball. I can just say that being at the mercy of a total online system will be a nightmare situation even worse than the internet shitshow we currently have, and I will buy some more PCs and store them securely and hope I'm dead before they are all broken.

Yeah, have fun getting all your files held hostage in "the cloud" (other people's computers). Also, getting all your files scanned for illegal 3D printed weapons data, nude kids, oh well nude anythings because the US puritans are going to crack down hard on the world, address connections to known terrorists to the nth degree, and of course your real or imagined copyright and trademark violations (and new ideas that someone wants to steal and mine in China or Vietnam or wherever). Glorious, glorious new world where other people own your data. Oh, and once you notice that you saved the 80$ for a local backup harddisk but still have to buy a 1600$ graphics card because there is no way in hell your internet connection will be able to keep up with a local display, it'll be too late anyway.

In 2 more years, you'll start saving by buying a brand new Perpetual... it'll be cheaper than upgrading.

Without trying the code, I suspect you should use some other filter than c4d.SCENEFILTER_0, maybe SCENEFILTER_OBJECTS to actually get objects loaded?

Well, if you see it that way I now voted Yes, since I sure ain't using Houdini. (I do use Blender too, however, I don't come here for Blender information, that's a section that needs a lot more content before it becomes relevant.)

Ah, sweet sweet hardsurface. I should only do robots.

Meh - it's not really on topic here, but since you asked... Every time I seem to make progress in any field, another field raises its ugly head to prove I have no idea about CGI, or CGI is working on the wrong concepts. At the moment it's rigging, namely of multi-rotational joints with high range of movement, like shoulders and hips. No matter how many tutorials I watch, no matter how much I experiment, it's all for the birds. Rigging is conceptually wrong. If you rig/weight stuff, you set the amount by which a surface point follows a bone/joint movement. That surface point is not sufficiently constrained by the basic process, so the moved polygons can happily intersect and overlap and penetrate, and there is nothing to prevent them to. The so-called "skin" is not really a skin over a mass that is moved, it is a hollow shell that reacts to movement worse than an empty rubber rabbit (there, at least, you have a tension between surface points). So, you either go ahead and blend/smear your weights until the joint looks like soft plastic (up to a certain point of movement, after which it breaks anyway). Or you riddle the model with helper bones to force it into shape, which are all connected with a complex system of motion (but not like a real skeleton, as they are not really bones under the muscles but supports for the outer skin, which is a contradiction in itself). Or you set up tons of corrective shapes (which is a nightmare by itself) and then you jump out of the window when you notice how terrible your corrective shapes blend when you move the joint around several axes. Or you buy a muscle system and put those needed masses underneath the skin (may work, but at the expense of a ton of additional work). Or you live with the limitations and weight the model differently for each scene and actually used motion range. Or you bake the skin and smooth it over after the animation. Or you cheat with the camera. In any way, it is madness. Madness, I tell you. And it doesn't have rhyme or reason. And I haven't even started to put dynamic jewelry on clothes or hair over a furred body with a full set of layered clothes with belts and connectors. I don't dare to think of the craze.

Yes? But that's only when you drag the tool itself into the HUD. Not necessarily what you did. Try something different: go to the Attribute Manager, select mode "View Settings". Go to tab "HUD", click checkbox "Active Tool". This toggles a HUD setting where the tool is visible as well, with the menu items you describe. This looks more like what you have.

I didn't vote because the question is unclear. "Using" in the sense of "opens occasionally to fool around", or "earns daily money with it"? For me, the whole 3D world has become an exercise in frustration and futility lately (regardless of the platform) so I'm actually spending most of my time on my job, which has little to do with CGI. Am I using C4D? Well, in a way... mostly for my Python patreon though, so in the end I can't show a portfolio... which equals "not really using" in my book...

If you toggle the visibility for the same objects repeatedly, I'd recommend adding them to a layer, where toggling is one click. If they can't be on a layer (e.g. because they are already on layers for different purposes) you can at least speed up the selection by creating a selection object to select them all, then use the attribute manager as Fritz says to change the visibility.

The shortcuts should be in the same directory as prefs/shortcuttable.res. (Note that I am still on R23, and Maxon has done changes to their directory setup, so my information may be outdated.) I don't know about Redshift, don't have that. But actually... as long as you install the same version that you had before, copying the (content of the) full preferences folder into the generated preferences folder from the installation should work and restore all your settings and plugin installations. (Paths to external plugin directories would come with the preferences, and plugins addressed through an environment variable should be fine by default.) The way to specify a non-default location for the preferences used to be adding(!) the following parameter to the call link under Target: g_prefspath="your path to the preferences folder" At least that was the case in R23. I basically keep all manually edited stuff off the C drive but that's just the way I like it 😉

Your settings (and actually all user specific stuff like most plugin installations) reside in a separate directory that normally is in the <Username>/AppData/Roaming/MAXON directory and is named with a hex code, like "Cinema 4D V23_D0807BAB221". You can find out where it is by looking at the settings dialog, it's in the bottom line. You can theoretically put that directory somewhere else, but I guess you haven't done that (or you'd know about it). Sadly, the user directories are normally located on C too, so you probably just formatted all over it.