southpaw

As a 2nd approach, I've attached a scene file that has the Nulls animation baked in, and the external compositing tag attached the that. Now AE will import the .c4d file's Null keyframes correctly. I needed to use some simple xpresso to attach the global position and rotation of a Null to the plane and then bake the Null's parameters in the timeline. So you can use this technique or just import the .aec file in to AE. Hope this helps. Dynamic Label_0001.c4d

I had the same result as you when I imported the .c4d for in AE. But when I imported the .aec file into AE. That seemed to work, I needed to change the orientation of the sold along it's X xis to match the plane form .c4d, but other than that it worked fine.

@Rectro Sorry, I meant to mention you in the above comment, got you mixed up with Vector.

Usually, you would select the eye mesh, then Shift select the eye joint. Then from the Character menu select Commands/Bind. Try using the default settings of the Bind command and see if that works. There are a few users here that know much more than me about this stuff, @Vozzz, and @VECTOR are very knowledgable in Character based stuff. Maybe post a simplified scene, with only the joint rig and the eyes so someone at the cafe can take a look for you.

It might work if you separate each eye into it's one object, then bind each eye to it's own joint.

Have you tried binding one eye to the joint and then the the other?

For anyone who is interested, I've attached a scene file that seems to fix the problem I had with the joint goal slipping away from from the control null, and the problem of how to control a joint chain from either end using Joints and a Spline IK tag. Selecting the Spline IK tag, then in the Attributes Manager, setting Type to "Equal" rather than "Fit" seems to keep the final joint in the chain attached to it's target. I used Clamp constraints to prevent the control nulls from travelling past a given distance for one another, to avoid the stretching you get with dynamic spines. Hit play on the timeline, then move the control nulls around to see the effect. Hope this helps someone with a similar problem in the future. Spine IK.zip

@digivisions, Thanks for the reply. I was beginning to suspect this. Tried a few workarounds like adding a 2nd goal, and extra PSR constraints, but nothing has worked so far. Thanks again.

Anyone have any ideas on this?

I've made a simple joint chain with an IK tag that I want to be able to control at either end with control nulls. It works fine, until I make the IK tag dynamic, then the end joint falls away from it's Joint Goal, even though I have enabled "Keep Goal" and "Contstrain Goal". I'm trying to copy the same functionality you get with spline dynamics, where a spline can attached to an object at either end, and as you move the each controller the spline with dynamics moves accordingly, but the ends vertices stay attached to the controllers. Is the problem a priority order issue? Or is the joint IK just not meant to work in this fashion? The scene file is attached. Try enabling/disabling the Dynamics box and you see the end joint slip away from the Goal Null. Dynamic Joint Chain.c4d

@chadiabo It seems to work if you take your camera and the animated Nulls out of the main parent Nulll object.

Not sure if this is what you looking for but, with the Pose Morph selected, select the "Tag" tab in the attribute Manager, then try setting the "Mixing" dropdown menu to "Tangental", and enable "Post Deformers" check box. That should allow you deform the points on the mesh while maintaining the deformations from the rig. The documentation explains it much better than I can though. See the Tag section in the Pose Morph section of the help.

Ah yes, now i understand, thanks again for you help :) This was driving me nuts!

Thank you so much HSredelic, I've been trying to crack this for a while now. The only thing I don't understand is the need to subtract 1 from the frame node? I thought it gave the current frame, which should be zero, and so give condition node false or zero as a result. Could yo explain how you came up with that idea please? Thanks again for all you r help.

I'm trying to control a vertex weight map over time via xpresso. Initially all points should have a weight of zero, then each point has it's wight set to one over time. The problem is all points are being set except for point zero. Which seems to have a weight of 100% I've attached some screen shots and the scene file. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Vertex Map-Point Iteration.c4d

Another approach would be to create the text spline, set it's "Intermediate Points" to "Adaptive", and make it editable (or use the Current State to Object command) Then, from the "Mesh" menu, select "Spline/Project", in the Attribute Manager, set the projection to "View" and align you camera view so that it faces the text and the projection target object head-on. Then hit the Apply Button.

@jed, Thanks very much, it's much appreciated. They will most likely be way over my head, but i'll take a look and learn what I can from them.

@jed Many thanks for your reply and breakdown of the script logic. I'll definitely take a look at the links you've recommended. I didn't know about the drag/drop functionality, thanks again! I'm finding it a challenge to understand much about getting started in C4D Python from the documentation, but will persevere.

Thanks for sharing the source file. The comments are very helpful. I'm trying to learn some Python, which isn't too bad as I have a basic Python book which explains the concepts. Where it all falls apart for me is where to start in the C4D Python API documentation. Do you have any suggestions about where to look first? Or is it a case of learning more Python first? Also, regarding the source file you posted, how do you control the speed at which the circle moves to it's new position? I understand that the code finds a new vector every 2 frames, and that the previous position is incremented with " pos += v ". Is this value incremented on every frame? If it only has 2 frames to reach it's new location, then how does it reach the maximum distance set by the "limit" variable in time before a new vector is calculated.

You can use the "Instance Object" from the Create/Modelling menu. That way, when you change the parameters on the original spline, the rest of the instances will update automatically. (So you would have the original spline and 39 instances, based on your description of the project). Once the instances are set up, you can right click on the original splines attribute in the the Attribute Manager and select "Add to HUD". For instance, you could add the Interpolation type to the view port, and then control it form there. (See attached image on where to find HD in the documentation). There's also the "Render Instance" option in the Mograph Cloner settings (Attribute Manager), which usually helps to speed up heavy scenes.

A wonderful piece, lovely compositions and story telling. Thanks for sharing :)

Ah OK, thanks for the clarification. Think it will be apprentice for a while to evaluate.

Does the Indie licence work the same way as Adobe's subscription model? Whereby if you stop paying the annual fee you can no longer use the software? Or is it similar to MAXON's MSA.

Here you go. it makes more sense if you read Teknow's detailed break down above. Vertex Map To TP.zip

I've found a solution that might suit you, set the rest hold to a percentage e.g 50% in the dynamics tab, then scroll down to the Modifiers section and find the Rest Hold Graph, you can animate the points on this graph to control how far along each Hair Guide the Rest Hold parameter has an effect. Check the Hair documentation under the Dynamics section, read up on the Modifiers section, much easier than setting up the Xpresso solution.