Creating a character out of lots of pictures (squares)

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Do you have Element 3D?

[Cassius Marques]

Thats easily doable in Cinema 4d. And probably doable in a same fashion with Element 3d (as Kalle suggested). You’d have to populate 2 shapes (groups) with the same number of particles and transition between them with the animation engine. You can have it transition to more shapes if you do it in pairs. You wont have total control in the motion to get a “liquid feel” as you would in C4d though.

[Lasse Lyhne abild]

Hey Kalle,

Thanks for the reply
No Element 3D, but I’m willing to purchase it, if it gets the job done in an easier fashion, than what I’m currently doing!

I guess there’s a learning curve to E3D, I have some experience in Cinema4D – would that help? The look i want is not 3D but 2D – is that a challenge, or does it just require a bit of learning?

/Lasse

– – –
Head of Postproduction @ Nerd Productions, Denmark

We do
Videoproduction in Copenhagen
Corporate videos

and whatever our imagination tells us!

[Lasse Lyhne abild]

Hey Cassius,

Thanks for the reply.

Ok so Cinema4D would be a way to get there – I have some experience with that, so that could be my approach from here. Quick question – as I just replied to Kalle, I’m going for a 2D look – how would you go about that?

Also – do you know of any tutorials or tips, that would help me complete my goal?

Oh – one more thing – I only have the cinema lite edition – is that gonna cause me any problems in relation to the animation?

Thanks again,
/Lasse

– – –
Head of Postproduction @ Nerd Productions, Denmark

We do
Videoproduction in Copenhagen
Corporate videos

and whatever our imagination tells us!

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Actually, the method I was going to suggest is the same that Cassius suggests above for C4D, so if you already have experience in Cinema 4D, that is probably the way to go. I don’t have experience in C4D, but I would have done it in a similar fashion in Element, that is: create two grid shapes (3D objects) that form the beginning and end shapes, then animate between them. The shapes need to have the same number of vertices (which means same number of squares in this case), otherwise some of the images will be missing. Element (and apparently C4D) can populate particles for each vertex point and animate between two (or more) such shapes.

[Cassius Marques]

sorry I’m not sure which of the mograph modules(if any) are available to the lite version. You need to make sure you can clone to a shape volume and use the inheritance effector to transition between them. (not sure if theres another way to do it, thats how I usually do)

As for the 2d look, c4d won’t impose any limitations, you may as well use a parallel camera. not sure if the tracer is available too… having white stroke lines following some of your photos would help sell the animation. The spring effect of the delay effector is also a plus.

As for tutorials on the animation, just search for terms like “morphing between cloners”.