GazzaMataz

@Cerbera The scene was my Halloween flick with the skeleton walking down the alleyway to the pumpkins I posted the other week. It seems that the witch character was the item causing a major slowdown. It still seems that when you have several characters rigged with the advance character rig in a scene things slow rapidly…

Hi Peeps I have finally got around to installing C4D 2024 on my workstation and was looking forwards to a speed-up in the viewport for my animations. So I loaded my last Halloween flick which was achieving 5-6fps in C4D 2023 and was rather disappointed to get only 6-7fps in C4D 2024… Am I doing something wrong? Is there a switch or a setting I need to configure? I was really hoping to get more of an improvement and the scene I am testing isn't that busy with characters.

OK hot on the heels of re-jigging this character I have started work on another of my characters. I had a comment that my characters had eyes that all looked a bit scary so I have made them round rather than oval, it also makes it easier to use the toon rig. Here is a sneak peak, not sure if I have made the character too adult now… And I do need to sort out that mesh topology around the mouth, it's a bit messy.

OK Zack I have downloaded and looked at your model but I am using C4D 2023. Your rig it not the greatest I am afraid to say… Some of the joints are in the wrong place and you need a few more spine joints. Not only that the mesh is not bound to the rig so it will not deform and you need to add a control rig. Are you using C4D R13 or later? If you are then you can use the Character tool to create a rig that will bind the mesh for you and add a control rig. There are tuts online to show you how. Again if you need to scale the rig once done make sure you use the Object Tool and not the Model Tool or your rig will mutate. One other thing when creating anything in 3D DO make your models real world sizes it makes life easier. At the moment your skeleton is 23cm tall. I also found that the Vibrate tag didn't work, but then I copied and pasted your model into a new document and then it behaved. Hope this all helps. Please ask if you need further help. I have done a few skeleton animations lately for Halloween if you haven't seen them already 🙂

When you want to scale a bound mesh/rig DON’T use the Model tool! Use the Object tool 🙂 Also if your vibrate ain’t working group the null and vibrate that 🙂

OK I finally took the plunge and started dabbling with Blender to see what it was like and since I do mainly character work these days I thought it would be good to compare with C4D. Apart from the y-axis being different I found the mouse navigation a bit annoying since you cannot set it to match C4D. Anyway, I watched a tut using the Human Meta Rig by creating a simple mesh character, applying the armature and then the meta-rig, but it didn't work… It applied the rig but it wasn't matching the actual armature. The only way I could get this to work was to scale my mesh and armature up to suit the mega-rig. Am I doing something wrong?

Hot of the heels of 'Dancing In The Graveyard' here is another Halloween flick I created - I just love a Victorian setting! 1334365552_HalloweenAlleyHB800v01.mp4

Interesting stuff peeps thanks for all the replies. Looks like Maxon is doing better than I thought. I also wonder if all the layoffs, strikes and reduced budgets are affecting the TV/film and games market more than all the other corporate and run-of-the mill work? I suppose it wouldn't hurt me to learn Unreal or Blender and add that to my software arsenal. I already know a bit of Maya although I rarely use it - it costs a lot too!

Well peeps I love 'The Season Of The Witch' so much I thought I would create a silly Halloween flick. Hope you all like it! Made me laugh anyway… Happy Halloween! 2020691599_GraveyardDancingHB600v01.mp4

Well I am not looking for a precise topic as such more like feedback as to how people here feel about C4D's future and whether it will fade away. I mean I have been using it since 1999 so it has been running a long time. I have learnt other DCCs like Maya, Animation Master etc but C4D is my favourite. As for the future of the CGI industry I think that is in a bit of a state at the moment and I think that the amount of jobs out there will shrink as AI makes a big impact. It all unerves me…

I hope this topic hasn't already been discussed, apologies if it has… I just wanted to ask what peeps here think about C4D's future. The reason I ask is having spent a bit of time on the internet and looking for work all I seem to see is Blender and Unreal coming out on tops all the time with Maya in there too. There seems to be a distinct lack of C4D mentioned or asked for. Plus I keep getting told learn Blender, learn Unreal… Personally I am fed up with learning new DCCs and quite happy to continue using C4D but I have a feeling that I might get left way behind. I would love to know what others here think?

Cool! Thanks peeps mucho appreciated!

Rather than me spending hours trawling the internet I thought I would be lazy and ask here first 🙂 My question is can you export a rigged character into UnReal or do you export only the model and then rig it in UnReal? I have only just started to look at UnReal so am a complete novice. I have dabbled with Unity and it seems very similar. Any pointers greatly appreciated 🙂

Right didn't get around to adding the bump maps cos I wanted to tweak the animation, it’s subtle… Alf Animation Test SR HB v03.mp4

Went to BodyPaint having UV'ed everything and started the paint work. Not finished yet but looking better I think? Needs a good bump map and some hair! Alf Animation Test SR HB v02.mp4

OK having watched a Maxon CMotion tut I wanted to put it to the test. First I tried it with the Advanced Character Rig and it was relatively easy. It's useful for figures in the background walking. With the Toon Rig it's a bit more involved. You have to add all the controllers and their parameters into the CMotion object and set them up, it takes time but it can be done. Don't think I will use it much but it was worth learning. Here is a little flick of what I did. Hopefully this will be of use to all the character animators out there who use C4D. Alf CMotion Walk HB v01.mp4

Well couldn't bothered to do the texturing yet since I want to get to grips with the Toon Rig. So here is a preliminary pass. It will need extra bits turned on but I am feeling confident with the rig now 🙂 The eye highlights seem to have gone a bit wonky… Alf Animation Test SR HB v01.mp4

Right! I started refining the UV maps but noticed that there was some more modelling required on the hands so I had to re-jig the UVs. Here is what it looks like. If anyone see anything that they think will not work please let me know 🙂

Thanks Vector. I think I am happy with this now. All I need to do is redo the UVs. Then re-apply the Toon Rig and get animating. Oh and add some texture maps - that might help 😛

Thanks for this Vector. I have been tweaking still and have a new version shown below. I did try your eye shape but I realised that I could achieve this with the rigging tools in the Toon Rig. I've gone for a slightly more rounded eye perhaps less lidded… And I have reworked the thumb and tweaked the number of loops on the neck.

OK, so I went in and added integrated eyelids and whilst I was at it I reduced the polygon count since it was way too busy (this model was done twenty years ago in Animation Master originally). Initially I liked it but now now the eyes seem to have lost a bit of that devilish look. He looks a bit more friendly, perhaps even tipsy? I have spent quite a while on the eyelids reshaping them but they are not quite there I think…

Gee fanx Vector! I also forgot about the 'Fit Circle' tool, too stuck in my old ways. I am modelling an accurate watch at the moment that tool would have helped quite a bit on that. I kinda figured integrating the eye mesh into the head was a better option, I mean I made this character over twenty years ago and want to revamp him so he is defo going to look at least a little better 🙂

OK Hrvoje! Here is a wireframe version. You can see that it might involve a fair bit of work integrating the eye into the head but might be the better option.

OK I have been meaning to do this for a while and have just re-visited this character that I created over twenty years ago. I originally created and animated it in Animation Master but recently decided that I wanted to port it over to C4D and use the Toon Rig to create a few animations with it. I want to see what I can do with the Toon Rig on this character. Now the bit I have had trouble with is the eyes. Originally I just stuck them on, but because of their oval shape they are very hard to create blinks for using the Toon Rig (I have tried). So I was thinking integrate the eye into the head. So I have attached renders (no texturing at this stage BTW) to see what peeps here think. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

I think that the problem with this model is that it is actual size and some of those edge loops are REALLY close i.e. 0.01cm and so C4D finds it hard to calculate. Where the knife is cutting the polys on the back is probably me switching off 'Visible Only' and forgetting to turn it back on again… I get so focused that I miss things!