[Brian Jones]

what is the original object? Spline/polygonal? pictures or an example scenefile please.

[Brian Jones]

okay here’s a file back at you.
I put a text spline in to get direct feedback about the random integer, not worrying about trying to follow the values in the xpresso window or the OM.
Changed the Matrix to Axis Distribution from Vertex for fewer particles generated just to speed it up for the test and most importantly dropped the Matrix to after (underneath) the Cloners. Since the Cloners and the Matrix are generators and (I think) the same internal priority and that priority is not settable then the order in the OM takes precedence. So this way the matrix generates it’s particles in the position where the cloners have moved to for the frame and not before the move as was happening originally. I think that’s what was causing the extra stuff in the display and would have been delaying (always a frame behind) the pyrocluster puffs in a render.

12591_eo1decoupledforum2.c4d.zip

[Brian Jones]

I’ve only had a short bit to look at it but why the extra xpresso – why an xpresso on each inner cloner and not just direct control of the inner cloner in the main xpresso on Mouth? Parts of xpresso like that can be a good way to organize but you start having to think about the expression priority… and for that matter perhaps you need to get the expression priority higher (lower?) than the cloner’s priority (which is Generators 100 or something, have to look it up tomorrow). Just some thoughts for starters

[Brian Jones]

ah, there you are – input lower is fine at 0 but if input upper is 1 any input above that breaks it

[Brian Jones]

given the result of the random integer and the range mapper are both 8 – what is it doing? Just clamping values? In any case percent won’t be an integer it will be a number between 0 and 1 i.e.. 50% = 0.5

[Brian Jones]

in the Emitter/Particle tab you have Birthrate Editor = 6000 and Birthrate Renderer = 9 those numbers should probably match. Normally the editor value is set lower to increase editor performance to give you an idea of what it will look like, then you see the full effect in the render with it’s (usually larger) number. The Preview render uses the editor values the Picture Viewer render uses the ‘Renderer’ numbers.

[Brian Jones]

you have to restrict the material to the outside by selecting the polygons on the surface you want it to be restricted to and do a Set Selection to create a Polygon Selection Tag on the object and use that in the Selection field of the Texture tag so it only shows on the selected polygons.

[Brian Jones]

the example looks not like a traced bunch of lines but very few (or only one) doing a ‘spirograph’ sort of pattern but spherical. If it’s only one line (or few) the color could just be a linear gradient along the length

[Brian Jones]

and a second guess, smoothness in polygon objects (especially outside the Render Perfect Sphere) is also controlled by the Phong tag which blends the surface normals over adjacent polys to make objects appear smoother than they really are

[Brian Jones]

or as Jim said, Sweep into a Fracture (Explode and Connect) then use a Variation shader. It’s also possible to use a Color Shader (with the Random effector still) inside a Variation shader…