HappyPolygon

Well.... I've asked (and still asking) for a Helix 2.0 with myltiple modes like Logarithmic. Archimedian and Double but primitives won't ever change in fear of compatibility break with older projects.

But you could try it just on a Symmetry Object ...
 

 

 

 

OK, this is very easy.
No XPresso I promise.
 
This is a step-by-step guide because there are *ahem* issues when uploading scene files...
 
Create your Rail Spline. When I test things like that I want to be sure it works for all possibilities so I chose an irregular Spline ... Sine Wave
Made it editable so I could elongate it 
 
 
Now put your guiding Null on a Cloner.
Object Mode. Assign the Rail-spline to it.
Make only two instances of the Null - we need only two guide nulls.
Adjust the End to bring the 2nd instance closer to the 1st. The distance does not matter we'll fix it later.
 

 
Make a Tracer and put the Cloner in it.
Set it to Connect  All Objects.
 
 

 
Now create the object to be sliding... I made this shit
 

 
Make sure you position its Pivot Point to the end/edge of it.
 
Make a new Cloner. Set that to Object Mode. Assign the Tracer to it.
Use one one instance.
 

 
Now adjust the End of the first Cloner to match the other end of the object as close as possible...
Mine was at 11.5%
 

 
Now if you animate the offset you get what you need
 

 
But if you want multiple objects to slide that's a different method, but shorter.
 
You'll need these ingredients
A Cloner
A Target Effector
A Geometry Axis Node
A Geometry Orientation Node
 

 
Set the Target Effector to Next Node and Use Pitch.
The Cloner is as usual to Object mode and fed with the Rail
This time I used just Cubes
You just need to adjust the End to regulate the distance between instatnces.
 

 
Yours won't look perfect with the first try, mine did not either. That's why I used the two nodes. The first was to adjust the Pivot of the Parametric Cube (you might not need it cause it's a custom mesh and you can move the Pivot wherever)
The second one was to properly align the orientation of My cube along the Spline as nothing else could fix it.
 
And there you have your train
 

 
You can use a copy of your spline to make the instances appear as if they are always just touching the "now-invisible" Rail or use a Plain Effector to Offset them a bit higher ...

Hopefully this works...
construction2.c4d
 
If there's something you don't understand, ask.
 
Meanwhile I'll prepare something less procedural (random placement) to match closer to what you have. 

There's allready a node in XPresso ...
 

I took the project to apply what I said but it seems there is a simpler way...

I also simplified the scene because I couldn't understand why you had baked the cloner...
 
you can limit the influence of falling debris knocking down neighboring pillars by increasing the Triger Velocity Threshold (Dynamics Body Tag). The sphere is very fast so a small value won't deter the pillars from getting knocked down by it but the debris generated from it will have an even smaller threshold as part of the kinetic energy from the sphere is transferred to the pillars to overcome their inertia, so the debris (with the right value of Triger Velocity Threshold) won't have the appropriate velocity to trigger further destruction.
 
Voronoi - Target Destruction Velocity Threshold.c4d
 
I noticed some fractures that were not a direct hit from the ball did not fall down and because I haven't encountered something like this before so I used the fields approach...
 
Voronoi - Target Destruction Fields.c4d

I guess you could plug a color channel animated noise to any parameter with the right mapping of 0-255 to 0-1 but that would require SceneNodes.
 
I don't think there is a faster way.
There is a slower way if you relate parameters to a vibrating Field .... : 
 
 
 
Or you can use the Signal plugin which I think does exactly that
https://greyscalegorilla.com/product/signal/
 

Nevermind... it seems the model it self doesn't have assigned textures to it just assigned empty materials...
But still it's weird that C4D insists on creating RS materials ...

Yes that's what i'm telling you.
Make your HUD of preference and in order to maintain it or to "transfer it" to an other scene just load the old scene using the Merge Object.

Keep your template empty project of the HUD but after you merge an other scene to it don't forget to overwrite the older scene with the template.

This is how I perceive your problem...

First of all your mesh and skin objects are lost in another universe... how did you do that ?


 
After that I had to think like a game dev... so what do they do ? They put their animation meshes inside an invisible box and have the box just move, no bones no deformations. I did the same thing with just a Connect

Is this OK ? character_path HP.c4d

Ah ! sorry, didn't see the scene file and assumed the deformed thing was the plane ...

Umm... you've mixed two different simulation methods.
The Sphere has a tag from the Bullet system while the Plane has a Collider tag from the newer system. You'll never see the sphere collide with the floor this way

But the weird deformation wasn't attributed to that. You had the "Self Collisions" enabled.

have you updated to 2024.2 ?

Control the weightmap of the objects using the field and then use the weightmap to control the transparency as a Vertex Map Shader

Wrong approach on distributing instances.
 
You should have used the Spline Effector 
 
Notice the order of Effectors applied on the Text 
 

 
Untitled 4.c4d

For me the simplest/fastest way is this.
I've never used Cineware though so I don't know if it really helps you in AE
 
hp.c4d

Now that I think of it I might not need this... We have the Mesh Deformer which is the same thing but with polygonal objects on which I have access to points.

I wouldn't be surprised if that ad was revealed to be done with C4D...
 
None of the rocks or any other element interacts with the ground or the sand.
Sand look very simple. They used the exact same radius for their spherical particles with the water scene and made them bubbles instead. I don't think they used X-Particles or even Thinking particles... simple perfect Sphere MoGraph dynamics should do the trick...
 
For nice textures you should look at CG axis. I'm very satisficed with their work. 
 
adv.c4d
 
I used a lot in this example. You have RedShift, you should use it on the Pyro.
Disable particles for faster preview.

I don't think this is possible without Scene Nodes or plugin.
The closest to a variable length is this but it's not random and very slow 
tracerPath2.c4d
 
I think Mesh-to-Spline can help you here https://rocketlasso.gumroad.com/l/mesh-to-spline-from-rocketlasso?layout=profile
But I'm not 100% it will work on splines. You might need to contact Chris for that first and ask him.

Chladni patterns.c4d

OK I'm just stupid. I didn't know you could change the Output ports' data type ...
 
That M though is weird... maybe a bug of the interpreter

What about PolyFX ?
Use it like a deformer on your spline. (Partial Polys Mode)

Make a huge sphere and distribute nulls randomly on its surface.
Put the Cloner under the Tracer.
Make a Sketch&Toon Material, and assign it to the Tracer.
Go to Render Settings -> S&T -> Lines and checl Splines.
Render -> Mode -> Include and put the Tracer in there. Disable Background Blend.
Animate the Sphere (simple rotate) to reveal star trails.
Go to the material and set color to white and enable Opacity with Along Stroke. Render. If the opacity does not follow movement disable Invert from Along Stroke.
 
star trails.c4d
 

Somehow the Connect object was responsible.
I broke it to two sweeps and the material stays fine. But broke the dynamic connections in the process.
 
c4d_core_ material_issue.c4d

Something like that
 
rotating steps HP.c4d

1) Move the scene "bit away from the" camera (can't be done if the animation path is not close to a straight line but contains turns)
2) Change "a bit" the camera Field of View (expect some slight differences)
3) You can edit the animation path on viewport by selecting the Object Mode or Animation Mode.
   
4) You can change an Animation Path to a Spline and vice-versa from the TimeLine window Menu. With a Follow Spline Tag you assign the spline to a new Camera as an animation Path.