rasputin

Hey guys, Take a look at my attached screencap: Yes, it's that infamous "Geoboil" type object I'm experimenting with. You use a Collision Deformer to make the balls poke out from the sides of your Torus, right? I then used the Phong Angle Select tool in order to select only the torus, minus the balls. Gold metal material applied to that. Then, using a simple Invert Selection, I created a selection of only the balls, then gave them a green glass material. All very straightforward texturing. However, I'm not liking the region where the two materials abut on the object; because of polygon structure, I'm getting a jagged, sharp delineation between the two (see circled in red pencil); this is to be expected, of course. But is there a trick, a more advanced texturing operation, that will make the two materials softly and smoothly and seamlessly change from one to the other? Help me put my thinking cap on... Thanks, ras

Thanks so much, Cerbera... I so appreciate your wisdom here. I don't think I would've solved this mystery on my own. I have never fiddled with those settings under Shadow quality... like Sample Radius and Bias... because I have no idea what those controls mean, or what they do.

Here ya go: softbody descent.c4d

Hey guys, I'm currently doing an animation using C4D Physical as my renderer. For this scene I had taken a Plane primitive and turned it 90deg to face the camera, to serve as a simple flat background. (see attachment) It is textured only with a simple Color and with simple noise in the Bump channel. But something is causing this dark pattern to be visible on render: it is apparently the outline of the poly edges, along with a diagonal across each poly. It's just a Plane that had never been made editable. This isn't what I wanted... just wanted a flat/smooth basic "wall" in the background. Do you know how to eliminate this unsightly artifact? Thanks, ras

Hey guys, A basic animation question. It's like this: In Smith-Micro POSER 11, I've got a human figure to whom I've given a BVH (mocap) action of 700 frames. Basically, a woman dances for 700 frames. I now would like to pull that figure + animation frames into C4D, so I can texture, light and render her as I please. (ie. with C4D Hair and Corona render). POSER can export those frames/objects in a variety of output formats. What format would C4D recognize? And as a "sequence" ? It occurs to me that all frames after Frame 001 would be morph targets, yes? Please help me wrap my head around this problem. Animation is the C4D subject I've least studied over the years. Thanks, ras

Hey gang, It's January 2022, and I am in the market for a new desktop computer with which I can use Cinema4D. I especially want to be able to home render C4D frames as fast as possible. I have $2300 to spend. No more... a strict ceiling on $2300 US. I'm not a gamer at all, so gaming is not part of my criteria here. I just want a (Windows 11 x64) desktop that renders C4D projects as quickly as possible. I also use Adobe After Effects a good deal. What combination of processor...memory....videocard can you recommend for me, with a strict ceiling of $2300 ? Naturally, I want a setup that will not obsolesce anytime soon. I use a cabled modem Ethernet to work the Internet. Thanks, rasputin

Wow, I see. Very cool. Thank you.

Thanks, Cerbera. Say, what kind of "magic" happens when your curves and crevices are textured differently than the object's other planes?

Hey guys, A bit of a dumb question, maybe: I made this glass cake-stand object using the Volume Builder procedure. I see that the Mesh Builder has given me a Vertex Map which it calls a Curvature Map. (see yellow arrow in screencap) What exactly is this Curvature Map, and can I use it to add increased realism to the render of this object? Is a Curvature Map especially related to the Volume Building procedure? Is a Curvature Map a trick that only advanced 3D practitioners make use of? If the subject is too big to be discussed here, can you kindly point me to a tutorial/explanation online somewhere? Thanks, ras

Am I the only one never thrilled with the process of converting a spline into a hair guide? Results are very hard to predict, because: resulting Hair guide always seems to pop up in strange places, even when you've specified a polygon selection it's supposed to grow out of variations in Axis of new guide is always catawampus, with no seeming ability to correct its Axis The Hair produced by the new guide is always very strange looking; it doesn't look like the usual Hair you get from an original (planted or grown) Guide, but appears in 2D and has weird segments (?) In short, the Spline to Guide process seems to create more problems than it solves, and never gives me usable results. Now I can't think of any situation in which I'd employ it at all. Your thoughts?

Thank you so much, cerbera!

Hi guys, I have a very basic question about the icons in the upper strip menu, above the viewport. I am in the process of organizing that strip palette of icons to my own customization. Sometimes I'll want to add my own custom icons to that palette. I know how to do that, no problem. Notice how the C4D default layout includes some "unfoldable" icons, bearing a tiny black arrow. You click that icon, and a whole sub-menu of several icons becomes visible. But when I add my own custom icons up there, I can only place "single use" icons. Question: How can I configure things such that I can also place my own "unfoldable", multi-icons up there? For example, I would like to have one icon up there unfold to reveal several HAIR-related Tools. I hope this makes sense. It may be that there's something more I need to understand, and that's appreciated, too. Thanks, ras

Of course... let me do that...

Thanks, Srek, let me try that. 👍

Hey Gang, I've used C4D Cloth dynamics for many years, but I've never used the "Cloth Cache Tool" function. The Helpfiles describe how you can animate your Cloth object in a more predictable or desirable way. It involves this process of first hand-selecting points on your Cloth object... then drawing little "guide splines" in the Viewport which are supposed to make your Cloth fall/drape in a particular way (see my screencap of Helpfiles page) Try as I might, I can't seem to make this process work for me... Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Have any of you managed to make Cloth Cache work? All thoughts and hints welcome here. ras

The trick is manipulating two of the Hair dynamics parameters: Rest Hold, as Rectro points out, above; and also Drag. The higher your assigned Drag percentage, the more restrained and predictable is your animated Hair's fall... ie., the hair droops in a more uniform, graceful way, with no wild "flyaway hairs". Of course, if Drag is TOO high, your hair starts looking like it's moving in heavy syrup. 10% Drag is all you need here.

I'm using Corona as my renderer, and Corona 6 does indeed have a shader that purports to be Triplanar. It does seem to disguise the seams in objects assigned a Cubic UV mode...