[Brian Jones]

the example file I included has the shader effector example too, it doesn’t use Scale, position, Rotation those are disabled. It uses Visibility with a gradient in the Shading tab and Modify Clone set to 100%.

[Brian Jones]

a couple ways for sure. Either use a shader effector (linear falloff) with the clones to reveal the clones – the clones ‘pop’ in or assuming Sketch and Toon you could leave the clones alone and fade in the S&T lines with a number of methods, using a light as a modifier looked easiest to me here.

10746_clonerevealst.c4d.zip

[Brian Jones]

Here you go – don’t know if this is the distance out you want to go…

10745_proximalshader2.c4d.zip

with the proximal as a layer mask it needs to go in between the two shaders it’s masking (really it’s only masking the bottom shader out close to the source).
The settings in the proximal all make a massive difference – to see what’s happening turn off the other two layers (stripes and color) and set the proximal to Normal.
Try different Functions Linear and Smooth seem the best here but Square and Cubic could be good (the others don’t make any sense in this application but try them).
Blend mode in here doesn’t make much difference as long as it’s not Exclusion.
Distance – says % but it’s actually units (they keep it % because in polygon radius mode it does mean % – the help says 100% means 100m but that’s old and in your case where the scene scale is in centimeters it means 100cm). So your End distance needs to be pretty big.
Intensity will force more whiteness close to the object (camera in this case) but will also shorten the ramp from white to black (which when used as a Layer Mask shortens the blend distance).
Function, Start/End distance, Intensity values are where you are going to get results with this set up, just adjust them until you get the fade you need.

[Brian Jones]

the fewer points the less trouble in weighting typically – but you have to have enough points for the form, it’s a balancing act. In the help it says keep the points down for joint control and use SubD for smoothness after. Your model is not the standard figure they are thinking of but the general rule holds. Using an extrude means you are stuck with all the points from the original shape spline as well as triangles at the junction of the fillet and cap if the cap has Regular Grid turned on.
If it can be modelled from a simple object (cube probably) using SubD to smooth where you need but keeping fewer points to actually control it’s better. SubD surface modelling is something to investigate as well.

[Brian Jones]

it looks like weighting problems, too sharply defined areas attaching around the arms/shoulders for example – there should be a fade off in the outer areas where the weighting of the points goes from 100% arm-joint/0% spine or body or whatever you are using to 50/50 to 0/100 so you get a smooth transition.
It looks like some of the hip/back should be much more similarly weighted like the front so it curves with the front rather than the front punching right through it.
You might need to remodel (and hopefully not using an Extrude) with the fewest points possible to get the look you need (which is going to be a a fair amount) but keep the weight painting afterwards down to a minimum.

[Brian Jones]

if you double click on the Weight Expression tag on the “Connect” object then click on any Joint (either in the list in the tag or in the OM) you will see the weighting of the points to the bones. Notice the first joints weighting is all yellow-green and all the other joints have only the top/sides colored and the bottoms are all black (no weighting) so the points are not going to follow.
You can try to paint the weights in (good tools for that) but that’s a lot of points and really close together so probably a real pain to try.
I would try and remake it with a lot fewer points in the Sweep next time (use a Subdivision surface to smooth after) and make sure the bone chain goes perfectly up the center of the object before you bind it

[Brian Jones]

here’s a simple trial. Wrap deformer wrapping a cloner (could be a Fracture if you have a lot of prebuilt tiles) into sphere.

10725_dysonwraptest.c4d.zip

[Brian Jones]

this is closer to what I think I’m seeing in that clip but I don’t have a grip on the nice slowing of the first circles and how to stop the deeper ones but I haven’t had that much time to test.

10722_nestedcircles.c4d.zip

[Brian Jones]

you can use a single texture on a cloner and it will apply to all members of the cloned group that don’t have their own (different) texture tag.
A single texture on a group can also be limited to only parts of the groups objects by using Selection tags

10721_multishaderpartial.c4d.zip

[Brian Jones]

sounds like your Multishader is set to Indexed Mode. It would need to be color brightness (or one of the other color modes) then use a Random effector on the Cloner with parameter (scale/Pos/Rot) off and Color Mode set to On. You probably will want Blending Mode to be Add/Subtract/Divide not Default… you will also get different results with the various Modes in the multishader other than Color Brightness…