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Results are great, thanks for the demo!

Hi Cerbera, Thanks so much for your detailed response and taking the time to put it together. this is a great technique I never thought of. I have to make a big apology though, I actually have upgraded to a full subscription and am using R25 (I've made the changes in my profile, but sorry it's too late, I'm so sorry!). So maybe if I have R25 I do it with Volume Builder? Maybe do a hybrid of your technique above with Volume Builder? Thanks, MG

Hi All, I'm trying to create a scene that emulates or has the same feeling of the files included and I'm looking for ideas on how to approach the webbing or sinewy element that happens on/between the spheres. The only way I can think of is to create a single surface that represents the surface of the spheres, created by draping a plane (cloth) on the spheres, and then applying a procedural noise that in the color/visibility channel that would act as an alpha as well to mask it out. Is there another way? Maybe a plugin I don't know of? Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if I didn't explain it clear enough and there are any questions. Thanks in advance and thanks for checking this out!

Thank you both for your responses, much appreciated. I don't have a specific instance at the moment that I can post, which makes all this vague and hard to answer in any definitive way. The best example I can give is that the director of our projects works in AE, and when he sees footage brought in from C4D he wants to change camera angles/movements in AE. He doesn't like the fact that a rendered scene is final and wants more control as described (tweaking camera shots, maybe motion of objects in a scene). We don't motion track, he just wants to control the shot framing / movement more. Given that, maybe it's easiest to import the C4D scene to AE, reshoot with AE cameras and then export AE camera back into C4D to render?

Hi All, I've been tasked with exploring cineware for use in workflows. My director lives and breathes AE and he wants to use C4D in AE. How does anyone use the two, or when does such a thing make sense? The best integration example I saw was with motion tracking a 2d video, which was interesting and useful but not something we typically do. Are there other uses or what am I missing? From my experience, getting everything set up in AE and then doing a preview takes more time then is worth the effort. And rendering from AE takes 4x longer, maybe more (at least the projects I've been rendering that has physics/particles). My director keeps talking about changing camera angles. Is it easiest to import your C4D files into AE and then make an AE camera and use this as the animation camera, and then exporting that AE camera to make your final render in C4D? That's the only workflow benefit I can imagine. Any feedback would be really helpful, even if there is some video you found really helpful. I've spent the last week watching tutorials and something isn't clicking on how this can save time or improve a workflow. Thanks in advance!

yes, I agree, I haven't tried anything yet but was imagining some sort of line initially. Maybe would have had to keyframe some sort of alpha in time with the bullet. More work than I'd care to do for sure.

Hi Cerbera, Thank you very much for the response. My original thought was similar to what you are saying I think. I imagined modeling a tunnel and having it scaled to 0, then as the bullet moved through it scale it to bullet diameter (1), and then have it softbodied or have a deformer run through it in time with the bullet. Or maybe If it were a walled cylinder (instead of a cubic volume) where the interior could be collapsed to 0, giving the impression of a solid, and then opened/deformed as bullet travels through the center. The good news is I'm supposed to be getting the current version very soon (next week or so), so when I do get it I guess I'll look into volume builder to see how it can be applied. Thank you for your input!

Hi All, I'm trying to animate something along the lines of this video, but a simplified version not so complex in the sense of waves of deformation. Im interested in a bullet going into a block of gel, the bullet creating a cavity and the gel expanding, and then retracting in waves until still, leaving a cavity where the bullet passed. Maybe even expand and contract just one cycle if too complex. I've never done anything like this before and was wondering if there is something within dynamics that can simulate this. Or is this something where I should model a channel and have it expand via a deflector? Looking for any and all ideas on how to approach this. Just looking for some ideas that point me in a direction. Thanks in advance!

Hi Deck, I finally got around to playing with this technique, and I do think it's a much simpler way of achieving a look I'm going for. I'm struggling to get it completely random looking but it's much faster and easier to animate. I might just layer a bunch of passes and this should get me close enough. Thanks very much for the help! Best, Mike

Hi Dan, I'm amazed at your persistence with this, truly amazed! Thank you for sticking with it!!! What a strange thing that soft selection would have this impact. I was using it for some other aspect of the project I was working on and just didn't think to turn it off. It's especially strange as I was able to select individual points with no indication of a soft selection, found a bug.... You've given me such great input regarding posemorph, it's greatly appreciated. Many thanks!!!!! -Mike

Hi Dan, I can't thank you enough for this info. I've been learning the hard way best practices, as they never are quite spelled out like you have done. I really like pose morph and you're explanation of theory/use is greatly appreciated. I'm coming to 3dsMax so I'm trying to use it like a similar modifier, The way you've explained the process has changed how I'm looking at the different modifiers, hopefully for the better. One additional question I have is when using the sculpt brushes to modify verts, sometimes the brush picked up verts in the background unintentionally and changed their position. Is there a way to control this or select only verts to be modified? I can't thank you enough for your input, it's really changed how I see working with different aspects of c4d. Much appreciated!!!!! Thanks, Mike

Hi Dan, Thanks for the fast reply. Could you explain what you mean by manually adding keys, or what was wrong? I was adjusting the morph at different keys or frames in the animation. My thinking that as this joint is rotating, it needs to deform at different rates in different points in the rotation. I might be using pose morph all wrong. Maybe I should have gone to the most extreme point in the pose and adjusted it there first, then control the % of the pose being used at any frame? The way I was creating the pose was by moving the points by hand (individually repositioning), and I still can't do that, but I can use the brush to move points. Should I only be using the brush to move points in posemorph? And my apologies this is a first go with posemorph (I really like it). Thanks, Mike

HI All, I added a posemorph to a rigged character, it's a flexing leg (right) and I wanted it to deform properly. I got it to work and then started animating some other objects. I noticed later on I wanted to add another pose to the posemorph tag. I added a new pose but none of the points move. Weird. I then tried to edit an existing pose, and I couldn't do that either. I select a point, try to move it and the XYZ indicator moves (not the point) but on release it goes back to the original position. Based on what I've read, it might be due to the rig I'm using, but I can't tell. Maybe I hit a key by mistake? Maybe something else? And yes the posemorph is in edit mode. I've attached the file for reference. The rig is kludgy and much more than I need it for, my apologies. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks! MausSolo_01.c4d.zip

Thank you Deck, force/follow was a parameter I definitely did not look at. Seems to do what I was describing as well, many thanks! When you mention a noise parameter, are you talking about setting up something in xpresso? Is the noise applied to the random or to the particle being cloned (or other)? I'm going for a look of particles randomly floating around, but gently and slowly. I think I tried noise in the pass but the movement was more jerkey than fluid. Is there a way to make noise transitions smooth? This was done changing the scale parameter of object. Thanks for the help and suggestions!

Hi All, I'm having some trouble with a current setup (see attached), where I'm trying to animate a cloner that has random particles. What I'm trying to do is have a cloud of random particles (everything in null 00) floating in the camera frame. The camera moves, and I'd like the cloud (null 00) to move with the camera. The motion of the camera is aligned to spline but when it moves the cloner/particles stay in place. I've tried the following: Aligning 00 to spline Parenting 00 to camera Keyframing 00 Aligning cloner to spline Parenting cloner to camera Keyframing cloner I've tried ticking boxes, and nothing is happening. I'm not sure what it is exactly but guessing it's the dynamics can only be calculated from a fixed point, or that the dynamic properties are keeping everything in place, or that I'm going about this totally wrong. If there are any suggestions on how I can do this with the current setup, or in a totally different way, I'd appreciate just pointing me in a direction or any suggestions, etc. Thanks in advance! cloner_demo.c4d