mrittman

11 minutes ago, srek said:

You are describing what Xpresso offers

Are there plans to revamp the Xpresso UI?

16 hours ago, Mike A said:

 

A premiere tool - but Maxon won't upgrade it?
 

I'm curious about this too @srek, is Maxon planning to give xpresso a facelift, being it's an integral part of C4D?

Someone on Discord suggested disconnecting that front face, then using the "Project Object" command (camera aligned Z). I think this was the best solution for what I was trying to do. I do wish the Project Object tool had a bit more control, for example selecting the particular object you're projecting onto, more camera settings, etc.

*Thanks @akramCord for this screen capture.

Thank you @HappyPolygon, I'll try messing around with the Collision deformer a bit more. I appreciate it.

For what it's worth, I thought maybe a formula modifier in the Field list set to pz, would restrict movement in the Z direction, but that didn't the way I had hoped lol

Anyone know if there's a way to restrict the Shrink Wrap deformer to only move points in the Z axis? I'm trying to preserve the cylindrical shape as best I can. I tried messing with some fields, but didn't see anything pertaining to axis constraints.

Hands down AEC4D PRO

https://aescripts.com/aec4d/

15 minutes ago, srek said:

Maybe use TP Move on Spline with Use Offset enabled instead

Thank you srek, I will check that one out

5 hours ago, srek said:

TP Follow Spline has two main parameters to adjust how the particles follow. Tangent Velocity defines how quickly they adjust their direction of movement to the direction of the spline, this works fine for you. The second is Point Velocity, this defines how close to the spline the particles try to stay. You need to increase this value. To high values can lead to the particles getting stuck, so you have to tune this a bit. I tried and a value of 30 should be ok for you. If you want to use much higher values you need to increase the Precision (Sample count) so the particles do not get stuck.

You will always get a bit of overshoot though.

Thanks so much for taking a look at this srek. I was able to get something similar, but yeah it had the overshoot at the bends. I was also hoping to keep the particles spread out, and not sucked to the spline.

Basically what I am doing is a gas flow through a narrow tube. I also tried another technique I found online with the Spline Deformer. Basically remaps the standard particle emitter clones/Matrix TP onto a spline. Then I was able to throw in a Random Effector to give it some variation.

I saw that Dave had posted some fire sim stuff on Twitter. Crossing my fingers some of this will eventually be possible without thinking particles .

Hey all, I've created a simple Thinking Particles setup purely based on the included presets. I just have the particles following the spline. I noticed if you increase the particle speed, the particles tend to fall further and further away from the spline curve. I've tried adjusting all the settings, but nothing really works that great. Mostly the Point and Tangent Velocity in the TP Follow Spline attributes. I know some pretty basic xpresso, and trying to mess with some of this more advanced stuff is beyond me. Anyone have any ideas on this one?

tp-follow-spline.c4d

1 hour ago, Icecaveman said:

It's always a question of value. I automated virtually every organizational process for multiple non-profits. (Work wasn't 3d, or motion graphics). I helped the execs win government funding through reporting functions. Etc. That's vital bottom-line stuff. I just wanted to emphasize that some non-profits have surprising funding.

 

You have to ask what is the value of such a video to one of these academies? Can they turn it around somehow and make money with it or significantly upgrade their service? Can they protect themselves from legal action? Can they better market themselves with it? How does it uniquely add value?

 

While I agree w/Mike that you don't want to under-rate yourself or your services...ultimately the consumer determines the ultimate commercial value of a product. If you get repeatedly ghosted at $200 than that tells you something. Save those contacts for a "Black Friday" sale and recalibrate.

 

Thanks Craig this is certainly something to think about. It really does come down to what value they think they’re getting. Really appreciate all the responses on this. It’s been very helpful.

1 hour ago, Icecaveman said:

It's a mistake to think "non-profit" organizations don't have money, and won't spend it. Some of them have plenty.

 

Over the past ten years I made about $300,000 from a single non-profit organization...at a nice fixed hourly rate. When I think about it, 2/3 of my income over the past decade is from "non-profit" entities.

Ah crap, now I’m even more confused lol. I will say that none of these companies are gonna pay more than $200 to use my videos. I know because anytime I’ve used a number like that in my email response to them, I just get ghosted.

9 hours ago, Icecaveman said:

-Have you done any market research to see what similar training videos sell for?

 

-Is this a small niche training video, or something with wide audience?

 

-Is this a single entity Academy or a chain of many academies?

 

-Just my opinion, but no way I involve a lawyer until I knew there was significant profit potential.

 

-In business you gotta keep things simple, especially if you don't have much experience on your own. Keep things simple for you and absolutely you gotta keep things simple for your potential buyer. You will quickly scare people away with complicated contracts, discussion of lawyers, etc. Put yourself in the shoes of the buyer.

 

-If you have a decent product it might be better to find a distributor/reseller. It would take a huge amount of time to develop a list of potential buyers and get any traction in winning them over. Either that and jump in with the mindset of learning a lot and profiting (initially) only a little.

 

 

I've really struggled to find pricing of similar training video. It's just really all over the place
I'd say it's a smaller niche training video for single entity academies.
Yeah, just to get a lawyer to draft my license agreement was $500, and I don't think I've even made enough on licensing to cover that cost lol.

2 hours ago, Mike A said:

Well if they are commercial - they would be making money from your work : )  Your work looks good > Customers impressed > More sales > More profit for them : )

Now if they are a non-profit, and if you want to support them - fair enough. But to be honest if that is the case I would request a large and obvious credit and contact info to be presented, with a clear copyright statement made, and let them use it for zero dollars. Let them know you're giving them an expensive gift. 
On the other hand, licencing it for $20 or whatever is pretty much the same as you standing in front of them and saying:  'I don't think it's worth much'.

 

Don't undervalue yourself.

Thanks Mike, this is really helpful. I'll certainly do more research in finding out if these business are commercial or non-profit the next time one approaches me. I think this is where it gets tricky, is because some are commercial and some are non-profit.

But great idea on the copyright statement. Maybe I'll insert a notice at the beginning with my contact info for the non-profit folks.

This is has been really helpful guys. Just trying my best to balance what to charge these academies while also providing value to them, but also not undervaluing myself.

2 hours ago, Mike A said:

 

Is the Training Academy a commercial business?

Not 100% sure haha. What would you suggest if they’re commercial vs non-profit?

Yeah and I think that’s where I am getting stuck. These people that want to use it aren’t making money off it, per se. They’re just wanting to show it in their classroom as a supplement to their other training material.

I’m thinking of it from the perspective of a classroom teacher. I don’t think they’d pay $1000 or even $100 for that matter. Just for a 3-5 minute video…

Hey all, I’ve had some firearm training academies reach out to me asking if I sell/license my videos. I really have no idea how to go about this. Anyone ever sell their videos like this before?

I did hire a lawyer to draft a license agreement. But I feel like asking a training academy to pay $100 for a 3-5 minute video is too much. They’re probably thinking more along the lines of $20. But then I am also using music in my videos that was purchased and is not sub-licensable. Things can just get real hairy, real fast.

If anyone has had any experience whatsoever, it would be very much appreciated!

5 minutes ago, Jeff H1 said:

At least let someone say, "Yo people, we're still working hard on the Scene Nodes, and while you haven't seen much lately, we may be showing some tests in the near future."

I have to agree. At least let us know they're still being worked on, if indeed the case. It's quite draining constantly being in the dark about it.

I don’t think you can switch Takes, but you can use xpresso with the Layer system if that helps at all.

8 hours ago, bentraje said:

That is why I don't really believe Maxon listens to the feature request unless maybe you are "in" the circle.

Yeah in my experience, it certainly feels that way as well. I’ve submitted quite a few requests over the years. Some of which I know would be relatively easy to implement. Not one has ever made it into release. Yet folks like Chad Ashley can throw a tweet out asking for green checkmarks to come back, and look what happened…

Will it finally be enough to warrant an upgrade from R21… 

Assuming nothing like this still hasn't been implemented 

Thanks @bezo, I appreciate the input man! I think I got something usable. Essentially a condition of another condition lol. I was gonna do something with XGroups, but I think that is unnecessary in my case.

Yeah I've seen that animation  It's really really well done. I was just gonna do a similar version in my style.

I kinda cheated a little bit with the modeling. It is my own model, but I found a CAD model online that I based it off of. Still a ton of work to remodel it, but it certainly helps to get things in proportion when you have a CAD model to use as reference. You can see my progress on my YouTube community page: https://www.youtube.com/c/MattRittman/community

Hey guys, I am rigging the rotation of a gun hammer, and wondering if there's a better, more organized approach to this.

The hammer's rotation is essentially driven by a bunch of different conditions, as highlighted in the red boxes. Like for example, it starts on the far left and the hammer's rotation is driven by my user data I've created. If the hammer is at 100%, then the bolt carrier will drive the hammer rotation. Then it just keeps going to the next set of condition nodes.

If you look at my user data controls (upper left), I've got a Rifle Model selection. If I choose a different model, the hammer rotation will need an almost entirely different set of condition nodes. If you look at my image, I have all my xpresso nodes inside its own XGroup to keep organized. I think I can just add an "On" port to the last Hammer rotation node to essentially disable everything if I have a particular Rifle Model selected in my user data.

Anyway, I'm probably making this WAY more complicated than it needs to be. If anyone has any tips, it would really be appreciated!

8 hours ago, Mike A said:

I hope Maxon can keep up the pace for future releases, because they need to. It's good to see the useful updates in S26, and positive to see the start of Redshift integration, and the inclusion of Zbrush in Maxon One at no cost increase - but the big issue remains. What's the progress on moving fully to the new core? Silence.

Capsules are currently a stopgap: scene node native performance 'internally', but choked as soon as they are dropped into the object manager. When will we see a fully 'scene node native' object manager and the speed increases that have been promised year after year?

Definitely agree with Mike on this. I do think S26 was certainly a step in the right direction. It brings a lot of value to the software. I love the idea of nodes/capsules and the capability they provide. But yeah, I’m curious, will there actually be a performance boost when it’s all said and done?

I also think Maxon should be more transparent about the whole core/nodes progress. I feel like we’re at least owed that. I understand it’s a very time consuming process, and will be implemented through several versions. But talks of the core rewrite started with R16. We are really in the dark. Like are we talking at least another 10 years?

Again I’m not trying to devalue all the work the devs put into C4D. It really is amazing software, and I’m always so anxious to see what is added with each release. But for the asking price, it would sure be nice to not be left in the dark.

Yeah I gotta say, this is a very impressive update. A lot of great modeling enhancements I’m excited for. And just a lot of nice QoL updates in general. The new simulation framework gets me excited for the future. Great work on this release Maxon!

5 hours ago, Papa Lenny said:

Looks very sweet. The integration of Corona always impressed me. And I live the "slicer" - their version of render booleans.

 

Anyone use it for small animations?

I use Corona for all my animations

https://youtube.com/c/MattRittman