• Maxon Cinema 4D

  Changing geometry on a PLA’d object

  Posted by Brian Murphy on November 5, 2013 at 10:46 pm

  Hey all, got a tough one…

  I have an animated object that is keyframed with PLA. I need to adjust something on the object (the actual mesh) and have it carry through the entire animation.

  No way to do this with Pose Morph, correct? I tried and it worked on the frame I edited the morph on but then it screws the model up from the next frame on…okay, so I understand why.

  The best way I can think of is to use a Cloner object set to object mode with one null that is locked onto the polygon center of a polygon selection of the object. The null follows the model wonderfully by tracking the selected polygon but I need to lock the deformer to that null so it deformers that part of the model all the way through. I cannot get a CONSTRAINT tag to work or anything else…can deformers use tags like this? The deformer just stays, goes nowhere.

  Any other ideas? If you know a CONSTRAINT tag will work, would you be so kind as to list the settings?

  

  Thanks,
  Brian

  Darby Edelen replied 12 years, 9 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Brian Jones

  November 6, 2013 at 4:28 am

  it might be easier to use some expresso to stick the FFD to the Null — or dump the Cloner entirely and stick the FFD to the poly with expresso directly with a Polygon node
• 

  Darby Edelen

  November 6, 2013 at 4:33 am

  You might consider using the Mesh deformer. Theoretically you should be able to use the PLA’d object as a cage to deform your new geometry but there are some gotchas. You’ll probably want the new mesh to very closely resemble the old one or the PLA animation may cause unusual distortion.

  I’d recommend duplicating the source object and deleting all the animation keyframes but one “reference” keyframe. Add a mesh deformer to the new duplicate and select the old animated geometry as the Cage. In the ‘Advanced’ section of the Mesh deformer set External to “Surface” (or possibly Surface (Area) depending on your results). Then go to the reference keyframe and initialize the Mesh deformer.

  Now the duplicated geometry should follow the animation of the original geometry without any keyframes of its own. You should then be able to make any geometry changes you need to the duplicate without messing up the source animation.

  Darby Edelen

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