Metier

Hi, I am looking to create a rig where I can connect clones (e.g. a cloud of small spheres) to one another with splines, generated by their distance to one another. I'd like to be able to control the visibility (& other properties if possible) of the clones & their connecting splines using the same effectors & fields. I've explored using the NetCreator plugin but cannot get the clones & their splines to be controlled by the same effectors & fields. Any assistance or ideas on how to achieve this would be great! Thanks! Mograph_network_dev_01.c4d

Sure - even when I change the shape of the falloff & duration of the animation, the particles are either on (visible) or off (killed). It's the same with the xpChangeGroup. I'm open to another method of achieving a similar result (pretty new to XP!) if you have any suggestions? Thanks for taking a look!

Thanks for the encouragement! This is as far as I have got so far: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1hcwmclyx92df3c/XP_network_dev_07.c4d?dl=0 I'm also looking animate the xpChangeGroup & the xpKill modifiers more smoothly - e.g the particles fade to their new colour with a gradient & scale down as they die - any ideas on that? (I'm *much* more experienced in MoGraph but certain aspects of the setup I describe are really difficult using that approach - mainly the connections)

Hi, Is there a way of 'smoothing' the animation of an xpChangeGroup or xpKill modifier which is controlled by a falloff? I have a scene which uses both with spherical falloffs - but currently the particles are either on or off / or in group 1 or group 2 - with no 'smoothing' of their change in status. Any ideas on how to do this welcome! Thanks 🙂 XP_network_dev_07.c4d

Great - that is helpful - starting to understand groups a little more 🙂. Essentially I'd like to fill an invisible sphere with particles - then select 3 'regions' of particles (imagine 3 smaller invisible spheres within the main one) within this & to change the colour of these particles. Then I'd like to make the particles NOT in these regions disappear, leaving only the 3 regions. I need ALL the particles in this system to be connected to each other by lines (the constraints / trails example) - but would like to be able to 'grow' these connections on and off organically. (I'm a beginner with X-Particles but it seems more appropriate for the problem I need to solve than Mograph maybe?) Thanks again for your help so far.

Is there away to select a group of particles from within an emitter & set them as a selection to then be targeted by modifiers?

Thanks for this - really helpful! Having a look now :)

Hi, Is there a method by which you can control the scale of an object relative to the position of the camera? Eg. the objects always stay the same size (or between two defined scales for example) regardless of how close the camera is to them? I'm looking to zoom in and out of a cloud of particles, each one with some text attached & would like the text to remain the same size regardless of how close the camera is. Any ideas would be great, Thanks 🙂

Hi, Can anyone recommend a method by which I can ensure clones (in this case planes) will always face the camera & remain 'level' (the planes will feature a material with text so need to be remain level)? I've played with the target effector & target tag on my clones but can't quite get it to work. Thanks in advance 🙂

I'm looking to create an animation where a large cloud of particles represents 'data'. The particles will need to drift around subtly, with some being connected to one another by lines (depending on their group), to be re-organised into other groups & to change colour / material. I've used X-Particles very briefly in the past - but was wondering if the above animation & behaviours are relatively simple enough to achieve - and if so which parts of the software would I need to play with to create this. (appreciate this is a vague post - thanks for your time in advance!)

Hi, Is there a way of activating a cloners dynamics settings using fields / effectors? I’m looking to use an inheritance effector / matrix with a linear field to ‘morph’ clones from one position to another, but for dynamics to stop the clones intersecting during the animation. If anyone has any tips or advice on how to do this, that would be really helpful. Thanks :)

Thanks - have been trying a little of that as I go a long to try to troubleshoot things. Have a feeling its the glass material on the chandeliers that is causing the issues!

Thanks for the advice - much appreciated. I have tried cloning area lights onto the geometry - resulting in about 80 lights - which does indeed appear to slow the render up massively. I'm now trying adding an incandescent material to this geometry (giving the appearance of there being lights), while lighting the room with a huge area light in the ceiling. This seems to be much faster to render ... My next challenge is how to create a series of 'chandeliers' (not my idea - this is some architectural visualisation that needs to be accurate!) - essentially thousands of glass spheres suspended from the ceiling, each with a light inside (which can be randomly switched on or off) - ideas on that welcome too! 😬

Hi, I'm looking for some advice about lighting a large interior scene using Redshift. I have an architectural model of a room which is lit entirely by artificial light (no natural light) - think a large sports hall with a large number of small overhead lights. I have set this up some lighting using a cloner and a grid of small area lights - however this seems to take a long time to render / preview in the IPR & I am not sure this is the most efficient method. I ultimately have to render animated sequences of this scene so am looking to light this in the most efficient way in terms of render time. Can anyone recommend anything I can do to make this scene more efficient in this regard? (Or even recommend more active forums for discussing C4D & Redshift - as much as I love C4D Cafe!). Thanks for your time 🙂

Hi, I am looking to convert a series of several hundred separate objects in a single scene so that each object is a single point / null (so I can then clone onto these points). Can anyone suggest any tips on how to do this? Essentially I want to select hundreds of objects simultaneously and convert them to nulls at the original objects axis point. Any help would be great! Thanks

Sure - that's looking pretty decent 🙂 Are you 'squaring' up on the individual panels first, then doing a 'fit to region' to get a general fit, before tweaking?

Thanks for the advice - very helpful. I think I'm going to have to UV this properly to get the results I am after though 😔.

Hi, I'm trying to texture a soccer ball (specifically and Adidas Tango) - but am struggling to place the graphics correctly on the panels. I've uploaded my progress so far, but if anyone can help with some advice on how to place the graphic accurately, that would be great. I'm currently using a cubic projection and having to adjust the material placement on each panel manually, which is giving me some strange results. Any tips would be great, Thanks 🙂 Adidas_tango_soccer_ball.zip