[Brian Hwang]

Hi Adam,

This is actually precisely the answer I was searching for. I was beginning to think that maybe it wasn’t even possible! Your help and project file are greatly appreciated.

As far as why I wanted to be able to do this.. I wanted the ability to control the shapes that a MoGraph cloner produces, without having to use the workflow of baking an image or using several steps. Basically, so that I can key and animate the spline/vector within C4D itself.

Thanks again,
Brian

[Brian Hwang]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the solution as well as the project file. Is there a method that involves using vectors? Or is there a way to use a live vector within the shader effector?

I did some additional searching and someone asks the exact same question, to which Adam suggests baking the texture and using the baked image as the matte:
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/19/872218

Some additional related links on the subject (for anyone that searches in the future):
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/19/879992

I also did some digging on C4D Cafe. It seems people have tried using the vertex shader but with not much luck. There appears to be a method that works involving TP but seems more complicated than producing the grayscale image. Here are the relevant links:
https://www.c4dcafe.com/ipb/topic/34931-cloner-shadereffector-vertexmap-fail/
https://www.c4dcafe.com/ipb/topic/66675-vertex-map-and-cloner/

I will go with baking/making my image in Photoshop for now as it seems to be the simplest solution for the time being.

[Brian Hwang]

Hello Ashish,

It seems my questions were more basic than even I realized, I appreciate you taking the time to help me out. I think it was a fundamental error in how I thought scaling works that I won’t forget in the future.

Regarding my spline mask question, I half figured out how to use it. I’m wondering now how I can use my spline mask to only show fully visible clones? Right now, the behavior is for the spline mask to make an exact silhouette cut out of the cloners.

I’ve attached a JPG to illustrate this and I can also create a project file later tonight to show the problem.

Thanks for your help!

[Brian Hwang]

Hello, I was running into the same problem as you and used Adam’s solution as well. However, I was wondering if you had found a way to better streamline this process? I’ve attached a screenshot to illustrate my problem:

For the connect function to work properly, it seems I need to select the rounding + caps of each object group. That is, if I shift select all the paths and connect, it will not work right. I have to manually twirl down each path/rounding, so that I am able to select all the caps+rounding+paths for it to properly connect.

This is a process that I’ve had to repeat countless times whenever creating a set of 3D typography. Was just wondering if you had found a faster or easier way to do this, thanks!