3D-Pangel

I thought maybe you could get around this by using a vertex color map that used a solid field to feed it a texture....but alas, it did not work.

100% agree. Elegant and endless. The opportunities for exploration are mind boggling. You could even tell during Chris' 4 hour video that he was struggling to decide what to discuss simply because all the possibilities with the new particle system are difficult to wrap your head around. The best analogy I can think of is being handed 8 musical notes and then realizing all the music that you could make with it. Amazing! Dave Not sure if Chris follows Core4D but I do wish he got the 4K version posted. So far, I can only find the low rez version on YouTube and was hoping the 4K version would be posted on his website. Also, with ALL the new capability that has been added to C4D since Recall was released with S22, has there been any testing of Recall with R2024.4?

As the 7950X is unlocked for over-clocking, if you intend to do that than you might want to rethink the fan based cooler and move to liquid cooling. Even without over-clocking, the AMD spec sheet recommends liquid cooling for optimal performance. Personally, I am not a fan of over-clocking from a long-term reliability perspective. One other thing I tried to find out about is whether the 9750X supports 4 or 8 channel multi-channel memory configurations. If it is 4, then you are well configured. If is 8 (which I am beginning to doubt as only their older CPU's support that....I think), then you might want to consider 8 x 16Gb modules. Relative to wedging in an older GPU.....my understanding is that the memory configurations need to match for most programs to appropriately manage passing data to both GPU's. I could be completely wrong about this. Given that it is 5+ years old GPU, my gut is telling me that it may be more trouble than it is worth. Relative to additional drives, a separate boot drive is nice but you may want to consider either an internal or external RAID 1 SATA drive for long term - and cheap - asset storage. I hate cluttering my high-priced SSD's with assets that I am not using. Not sure if fluids are in your future, but those caches can get huge (more than 300Gb are easily possible for a 30 second animation) and you may want to keep as much free space on the SSD for holding multiple versions of cache until the job is finished. After that, delete them and moved the finished scene to the SATA drive for archiving. Another option to consider is cloud storage --- though I have never looked into the long-term cost-benefit analysis of renting cloud storage vs. my own RAID set-ups. Another consideration to throw into the mix is that upload/download speeds from the cloud can match the R/W speeds from a SATA drive provided you are on a premium service plan from your ISP. There have been debates on this in the past...which I hope not to repeat here. Given the cost of the system, have you also considered putting some money into a very good combination surge protector/UPS. Your UPS needs to provide at least 85% of the wattage coming from your power supply for however long you think you will need to complete a frame render, exit the software and power down safely. I have separate UPS for the monitors and my workstation as they each have different power consumption needs. I also have a separate one for the modem/router/IP phone. Kind of nice to be on a conference call, have the lights kick-out then tell everyone that we need to wrap this up in 20 minutes before I go completely off-line. Of course, if you have high confidence in the reliability of your power company, a UPS may not be justified....but still think about a power conditioner/surge protector. Dirty power is always an issue (run the clothes dryer, and you get a spike. Refrigerator or boiler kicks in, you get a spike, etc). It all helps with longevity. Overall, your configuration and price are very good! You are definitely getting a monster for a fair price (IMHO). Dave

This whole thread is very entertaining!!!!!

Paul (and I got his name correct this time 😁) is a class act. I would never imagine he would talk about turmoil or intrigue from a company he gave 25 years of his life to and help turn into what it is today. Personally, I am sorry to see his departure from Maxon. I was also sorry to see Per Anders leave as well. But it is what it is and all we can do is wish them the best. Dave P.S. +1 for The Laurel Canyon Band. Californian rock from the 60's and 70's was the best!!! Rock music today can't hold a candle to it (IMHO). Just look as its longevity ---- 50 years is it?

Congratulations Vector!!!! That is a major accomplishment and well deserved!! When you look at the close-up photos and see all the details, you realize the amount of work that was involved not only in modelling (how did you curve back the shoe's tongue?) but the texturing as well. Amazing!!!! Dave

Quite happy to feel the angst only because it always leads to something good. But...with that said....I would have preferred that the photo was of a STRONG cup of coffee being POURED into the glass. Not sure what is in the glass.....it looks like the vinegar you use to clean the coffee pot. So not the most encouraging click bait of what is to come. But as the angst always leads to something good, I am going to assume it is a shot glass of tequila. Don Julio 1942 perhaps? Probably not as it is too light but I still like the idea of it being my favorite drink. Dave P.S. Is tequila big in Germany? I do a lot of business in Mexico and that is where I developed my appreciation for good tequila. One of the more memorable moments was drinking "the Mexican flag" cocktail (a shot of lime, tequila and grenadine which represent the green, white and red colors of the Mexican flag) while a co-worker raised in Guadalajara and a bit of a historian was explaining the history of the Mexican emblem on their flag. That was pretty cool.

Nice touch managing the reflection of the person holding the phone in the render. I looked for that as its absence would be a clear indication of it being faked. Honestly, I did not see it so I am glad they pointed it out.

A particle update would be exciting to be sure so bravo if that is the case as it does point the way to even more exciting simulation possibilities in the future...in particular liquid fluids. So, any guesses as to what his next "cheeky" Twitter post will be? Honestly, he could have a lot of fun with this if his tweets were less obvious. For example, how about pouring himself a cup of coffee? Not CG...a real cup of coffee. No message, No tag, just a cup of coffee. That would definitely leave us all guessing. Nevertheless, like reading the stars in the sky to determine the future, he has successfully cultivated a bunch of "watchers" on his X feed of people trying to figure out what is next at Maxon. Very clever indeed. Dave

Sorry...it was a busy morning yesterday and in a post-Super Bowl haze I convoluted "Paul" with "Babb" and got "Bob". That is what happens when you try to crack off a quick email of remembrance and appreciation without proof reading. Though I did have a good laugh about this morning. Dave

Coupled with his energy level, then this would imply that leaving Maxon was not his idea. So, are you sure? I actually met Paul at a Maxon/Adobe integration tour in Boston. I had no idea who he was, but I got to the event earlier than expected (traffic was with me that day) and introduced myself. He just said, "Hi. I am Paul" and then we started talking. So what makes that unique? Well, I have run across a lot of VP's and most of them have their whole ego wrapped up in their title so their introductions usually go like "Hello. I am {insert name here}, Vice President of {insert fancy organization name here} for {insert company name here}." It wasn't until I got home and looked him up that I knew his position in Maxon. Nothing in his demeanor or in how his coworkers treated him gave any indication of a senior leadership position. That appreciation for him being "just Paul" never changed over the years. Every company needs someone who is both humble, enthusiastic, high energy and focused on something other than themselves and their position. Whatever the circumstances for his departure, I am sure Maxon employees will feel his absence. Dave

Yes. I have thought of that. Just frustrated because I am trying to do some which (IMHO) is very basic: An Xpresso control to fire one particle (and only one particle) at a time that can be tied to a conditional node and exist throughout its lifespan. Just to be clear, look at the laser cannon firing from the original Star Wars movie in this clip. That is what I am trying to recreate (note that the guns recoil and then recover only to fire again, recoil and then recover): Pretty basic (and one of the first shots completed by ILM --- though it was a shot of the turbo lasers firing during the trench run). But I guess particle systems are just not built that way which may explain why it is so difficult to do. While easy for a fledgling VFX study in the 1970's (build a model and hand animate it), the power of CGI is no match for it. So, if a Maxon employee is telling me to look at TP, then I guess no easy solution with basic Xpresso exists. BTW: Memory node does not hold whatever you feed into it as it is geared around positional data of an animated object. Dave BTW: Blender can do it

Thank you Daniel, The problem though is that once the gun recoils back, the particle animation comes to a complete stop. When the gun is fully recoiled, its relative position is 686. When it is fully extended (the position at which it fires), its relative position is 736.15. So as I only want the emitter to eject a particle when fully extended, I use a compare function to compare the gun position to the value and if it is equal to 736.15, then output a 1. If not, output a 0. This value is then pumped into the emitter birthrate so that it should emit just 1 particle. No need for anything else. This should work particularly when you consider how the gun is animated (shown below) but instead this is what happens: This is counter-intuitive because you would think that once a particle is "birthed" that it would continue to live as the particle life is set to 600 frames. Instead, it freezes in position. I thought maybe start emission and stop emission would work but I think it is looking for a frame count or time rather than a binary value of 1 or 0 (even if those values are set as real). So, you could use a time node to read the animation frames. But this would get tricky because you would have to set the start emission value to the current time based on when you have keyed that frame for the gun to be fully extended. Then hold that start time in memory, add 1/30 second to that value, and then feed the result into the stop emission. So there is a memory node and more research is required. But before I go there, am I reading the problem correctly? This should not be that difficult as all I want to do is emit one particle based on a condition. X-Particles has a 1 shot mode....so I could use that, but I don't want a reliance on plugins to do something which appears very basic. Dave

Very valid point! Here is the updated file to what is currently in the download section: Death Star Laser Cannon_v2.c4d Any help would be greatly appreciated. The best I can achieve is to turn off visibility rather than turn off particle emission. Dave

Try 63 this year (...and he complains about 36). Remember: The goal is NOT to live to a ripe old age. The goal is to die young as late as possible!!!!! Enough said....now get off my lawn!!!!!😀 Dave

Big fan of Lenovo personally. Honestly, for the cost PLUS a five year all inclusive warranty can't be beat if you are going to drop that much money on a PC. Having 40 years' experience with high-end electronic manufacturing companies and the impact of how they are built has to product life -- anything over 3 years is must (IMHO). With that said, last year I built a system with an AMD threadripper and the biggest GPU at that time (RTX-A6000 with 48 Gb VRAM). Now there are better GPU architectures out there but you would have to use Nvlink to get anything with that much VRAM. I wanted a good-sized GPU as I really wanted to handle large fluid simulations. You may not need to worry about VRAM if your focus is only on rendering but even at 48Gb, I have created pyro sims that ran out of VRAM (they were epic though). So the workhouse now is the GPU. The CPU is nothing but the traffic cop managing the speed data moves across the PCIe lanes. So a fast SSD (M.2, NVME, etc), a fast multi-channel memory bus, etc is all important. The AMD I selected can handle quad memory channels (unlike some of the Intel's). Also, when working with Lenovo, you want to select models that are designed by the OLD IBM team (they are marked by red accents on the PC case). For example, on the P620, there is a separate support to hold the top of the top-heavy RTX-A6000 securely in place. Plus, each memory stick has its own fan. These are little build quality touches you won't find in other Lenovo products. Can the PC handle large scenes? Ohhh....yes. I was working on a huge pyro scene because I wanted to push the GPU as much as I could. The VDB cache topped out at over 320 Gb....but the machine was calculating and caching a frame a second --- each frame's VDB file size being around 60Mb. So that GPU was calculating and writing to the SSD over 60 Mb/sec. Now GPUs are rated in FPS rather than write speeds, but I was still impressed. Ultimately, I went with this last year during a Lenvovo sale for about the price range you were hoping to stay under Model Thinkstation P620 CPU AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3945WX (12 core, 4GHz) Memory 8 x 16 Gb DDR4 3200MHz RDIMM ECC (128 Gb total) GPU Nvidia Quadro RTX-A6000 (48 Gb) Boot Drive 2TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 TLC Opal First RAID Array RAID 1 First Storage 2 x 4TB 7200 HDD 3.5" Optical Drive Slim DVD-RW Flex Bay Slim ODD Kit (for Optical Drive) Wifi Wireless LAN Adapter Intel 9260 802.11AC (2x2) & Bluetooth 5.1

So I am adding some more Xpresso controls to the Death Star Cannon currently available in the download section. Current Xpresso controls manage gun tilt, pivot and recoil. The recoil controls are where I want to add the capability to fire a laser bolt particle from an emitter placed at the point where the guns are fully extended. I only want the guns to fire at full extension and NOT during recoil. Here is a visual explanation of what I am looking for: Here is the Xpresso set-up that I am modifying: So how do I convert integer values of 0 or 1 into a command that says "Don't fire a particle" or "Fire a particle"....or is there some other node similar to the compare node whose output speaks in "on" and "off" commands for nodes directly? Thanks, Dave

Ever since I tripped across the wParallax site, I have been intrigued by window box shaders and waited for Redshift to get this capability natively. At that time, only Octane could support OSL shaders but not Redshift. But about 3 years ago, OSL shader capability started to appear in Redshift. So, I ran off to GitHub and waited for something to appear. Unfortunately, it took another year or so for jiWindowBox.osl to be listed at the Redshift GitHub site. Using the free parallax maps at wParallax, I gave it a test --- no go. So I stopped looking. But then I tripped over the ShadersBox website. Their prices are higher than wParallax but they say that their OSL shader is supported by Redshift (as well as Octane). Is it the same as the one found at GitHub? I have no idea. Now, I would have stopped there, but ShadersBox sells a sample pack of their rooms plus their own OSL shader. But I decided to give it a try as I was interested in seeing if their OSL shader worked (whereas the GitHub one did not) and the cost was only $5. And hooray! It works in C4D!!! The pack also includes 6 rooms (or sets of parallax maps in exr format) in day and night configurations and in 1K, 3K and 4K resolutions. Two rooms from each of their commerce, office, and personal living collections are in the sample pack. Definitely worth checking out for those into modeling 3D buildings. Dave

Amazing as usual....I loved all the intersecting curved surfaces and the thought put into making the mechanics look plausible. But I do have one serious objection. 2014 is recent history at my age. It is not even close to a throwback year from my perspective. So, thank you for making feel very old this morning....you young insolent pup!!! 😀 Dave

Actually, when you look at all the other New Years celebrations from other parts of the world, the Time's Square celebration looks to be a bit on the tame side. Its only draw is tradition simply because that is the place to be on New Years Eve. Not sure the Kia billboard made it worth standing outside in the cold, wearing a diaper (as some do due to the lack of public toilets for that many people) for 12 hours or more.....and that is from someone who lives in NH and is used to the cold. Were there any fireworks at least? Even my neighborhood had fireworks (they are legal in NH --- our state motto is "live free or die" after all) If not, then I guess that is about all NY can afford right now due to a number of issues which are best left to discuss in other forums. Nevertheless, Happy New Year to everyone. I hope all your celebrations were with family and friends and filled with optimism and hope for the coming year. Dave

Interesting quote: "AI is not a tool for the artist but a replacement of the artist" Well....I agree...partially. AI is a threat to the artist....but only to the artist being paid to create art for someone else's benefit. AI is absolutely NO threat the artist who creates art for themselves. I do foresee a threat to pre-visualizations artists in the future. If you watch the behind-the-scenes videos enough, what you hear is the Director telling the pre-viz artist what changes to make to their initial concepts. Just as easy to type those directions into the AI program that created the original image. So, concept artists, pre-viz artists, etc may be impacted. But they are talented individuals and there is still a market for original artwork created by an original artist. Of course, the first few AI images that were half-decent have fetched a high price but as more and more of that work floods the market over time, the prices will drop. Pretty soon AI art will be a commodity. So here is my prediction for the near future (or within the next 5 years): AI art (be it 2D or 3D in nature) begins to change how artists are employed by media firms. Artists who are being paid to create art for someone else will find themselves losing their positions. If a business can increase its profits by replacing 10 concept artists with one AI program with no discernable loss of quality, output or threat to delivery, they will do it. A good portion of those displaced artists (those who are in the bottom to middle tiers based on their skills) will find other jobs and leave the industry. They will now create art for themselves in the way that brings them the most pleasure. In short, they will become hobbyists. AI art continues to flood the market. Soon, the thrill of owning something created by AI will diminish. AI will become a commodity and it will only be used by producers and directors in all forms of media to help them hone their vision. There will be very little "human" created art or very little that people can definitely say "this was hand crafted". Hooray for NFT's! The top tier artists who embrace NFT and can therefore prove that their work was created by human hands will become the new rarity! Their work is what people are now clamoring to own: They key being that they can prove via an NFT that their art is original and created 100% by their hand. In short, top tier talent will always find a way to be in demand and make a living. Dave

Actually, you are ONLY offered the C4D + Redshift option from the main BUY window - which is how I was basing my arguments. I did not realize that after clicking that option you can then decide to keep C4D + RS or either upgrade to Maxon One or downgrade to just C4D (no Redshift GPU). Interesting that just the C4D option was still available. Now, with that option to just get RS CPU with C4D, you have to ask how often do I need GPU rendering? If you feel you can get by with CPU rendering for most of your work, then go with just C4D. You can still build and test your RS renders in the CPU version and should you need GPU rendering then just purchase a monthly license of RS at one-sixth the cost of the annual license. Honestly, that would be cheaper way to go if you feel you only need GPU capabilities for less than 6 months out of the year. Dave

It is not correct that RS in the latest release of C4D is NOT GPU enabled. It was at one time when you could purchase C4D without RS but no longer. You only have to look at the pricing to convince yourself that RS is now GPU enabled in C4D. Here is why. Maxon raised the prices of an annual C4D subscription from roughly $720 USD to $983 per year with the latest 2024 release (maybe it was the 2023 release, not sure). That is exactly $263 more which is about equal to the annual subscription price for the full stand-alone version of RS at $264/year. Oddly enough that increase is also equal to the annual subscription cost for Octane which is $264.4 USD (at this time as Octane is only priced in Euro's). So, if Maxon is increasing the prices for C4D + Redshift (the only option they offer for C4D now), then you are getting the full RS which means with the GPU renderer. These facts also fly in the face of the arguments of people switching to Octane if they are forced to pay additional for RS as part of the C4D bundle. Cost is removed from that argument if you are a render engine agnostic (e.g. no render religion). This may be why RS was bundled with C4D to begin with because if you are only looking for a GPU enabled renderer, then C4D now has one and therefore removes the financial need to look elsewhere. Getting Octane for C4D is now an additional cost on top of the C4D + RS subscription in achieving that goal. You can still have that choice between Octane or RS at cost parity, but only if you want to stay with C4D R25 (the last perpetual license) or earlier. And honestly when you look at all the advancements made with C4D since then (pyro, new improved physics' system, some great modeling tools, capsules, etc.), then you have to rethink your entire DCC kit of tools because staying with C4D R25 is NOT the best choice for keeping current (already 2 years behind). Therefore, the choice between Octane and RS is NOT a financial one. It is whether or not each renderer is meeting your personal and artistic needs. The personal needs come from ease of use, stability and speed. Which is more valuable to you? Honestly, this is something you can't argue simply because it is personal. I don't think RS is that difficult to optimize and I like the control it gives me. If I am rendering with motion blur, then do I really need to worry as much about noise? Probably not so let's cut back on the ray count to decrease render time. I also love the fact that I can import an old C4D scene, and the materials automatically convert to RS. This keeps all my old assets relevant. Now is the conversion 100% perfect? Well, it is getting there, but at least the integration with C4D gives me a very good starting point and removes a ton of work for large scenes. Does Octane convert old C4D AR scenes to Octane materials? Not sure but that would be good to know. So, if you leave ease of use and speed off the table, then the argument comes down to stability and artistic fulfillment. Simply, which renderer produces the better image with the least amount of effort. Note the emphasis on effort. Why? Well in the hands of a true master, you can get great results out of any render engine. Now that is a discussion worth having! Dave

Not sure what the overall blocking is for the camera flyby. Is the camera starting from far away and zooming close to ground level or will it always be flying just above the treetops or always be close to the ground? I ask because Gaea is a great piece of software, but it only truly shines when you need to see a vast landscape from thousands of feet in the air. That is where you can see the realistic effects of wind and water erosion on the landscape. If the camera is going to be no further away than the treetops, then you could get by using the landscape modifier in C4D and play with the scale a bit. In that type of scene, the focus should be on the vegetation, trees and rocks rather than the contours of the terrain as they may not be noticed that much (or at least only noticed as far as slight rises and dips in the surface). If you need both in the shot (wide shot to a close up), then you have to worry about over-all polygon count and probably in need of a program that has been optimized for instancing. While no longer the popular program it once was, Vue has been improving and working on its integration with Redshift. From a spec perspective, Vue and PlantFactory will give you all that you need to get the job done and they offer a monthly subscription. So, apart from the learning curve, it may be the cheapest path (e.g., pass through the learning curve with the demo and buy a one-month subscription when you are ready to create something). Other considerations are Forestor if the focus will be plants and trees. While they started development of RockGen for landscapes, not much came of it. There is also Laubwerks which makes SurfaceSpread for distributing their plant catalogs across terrains. Personally, I find them rather pricey and the original developer of SurfaceSpread left Laurwerks and went to Insydium. But it is an option. Now, all these options are about as expensive or more expensive than going back to World Creator which is now have a Black Friday sale for their professional license. It appears you are familiar with WorldCreator, so why not go back it? I hope this helps. Dave

And that was only a partial listing of the sites I have bookmarked over time: With the exception of the folder on Amazon Music and "Pay Sites" (which I keep for reference as sometimes these sites offer free months), all the sites listed stream for free. The only music streaming service I pay for is Amazon Music Unlimited which is rather amazing (IMHO) for $8 USD a month. Amazed at how I can find and stream almost anything via Amazon Music Unlimited which is pretty cool if you want to explore other works by some of your favorite artists. One of the upsides of being able to work from home since 2012....you get to play your own music whenever you want and in whatever genre you're in the mood to hear. Dave