Chris Smith
Forum Replies Created
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Here, I made an object for you to try:
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com/GrowObjects.c4d.zip
Load it and hit play. You’ll see I made a sample building that grows with cubes over time.
In the attributes manager, you can delete both cube object to do your own thing.
If you click once on my GrowObjects object you’ll see 4 parameters:
Surface object: Make a very simple polygon building with the points placed where you’ll want “Bricks” to be. Hit the ‘c’ key to make it editable so it actually has points. Drag that object to this parameter.
Instaned object: Create your actual Jenga or lego block and drag it here.
Instance size: Brick size
Rate: How fast the building builds.
Unfortunately I don’t know how to force what order it builds in. I’m sure pros know how to change the order of the point index, but I’m a C4D newb and have yet to learn it.
Have fun.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
If it’s a simple building, you can create a simple shape that is like a building. Then use Xpresso and TP to assign jenga blocks to the points of the simple building. Then feed the point node index input with frame count. So that over time it assigns new particles to each point. Then just slap a Pshape node in there to instance the Jenga blocks.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Did you click on the Pshape node then drag your blood cell to it’s object box? It needs to know what object to instance.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Yes. Make some greyscale animated mattes in AE and save them out. Load them into C4D into the alpha channel of a material. Go to the movie whithin the material editor under the animate tab, hit calculate so it knows how many frames the movie clip is. If your AE movie has an alpha channel then click on ‘use alpha channel’ if you are using the RGB to be a matte then turn off the check box. Then you’ll see the reveal when you render.
Today I made a library for myself of greyscale reveal movies in AE to use on text and other objects in C4D.
For example, go into AE, create a white solid. Then go under Effects>Transition>venetian blinds. And add 2 instances to your solid. Then animate the transition amount over 20 frames or so on both instances. However change the venetian blind settings so that the size is different than each other over time. So that it looks a lot more stylized than just vertical stripes. Then for fun, map this to the alpha channel of a Torus in C4D. It does really cool and complicated reveals.
One thing I’ve been doing lately (which I copied) is to make a stroke reveal matte of some text in AE, then put that in the alpha channel of actual geometry in the same form as the text. So the text looks like it’s being “Writed On” but it’s an actual 3D object.
Other note is to also blur your transition mattes if you want softer grad effects when it reveals.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Oh, man. No you gotta do RAM previews to watch real time. That is one of the absolute fundamentals of using AE is understanding your RAM preview options. Right now, hit the ‘0’ key on your extended keyboard (num pad zero key). AE will pre render your comp and play it in real time straight from RAM. Just hitting play will almost always run slow because it IS trying to render each frame as it goes. AE works very different from an NLE. An avid AE user will have worn his 0 key down from hitting it every few moments to see his/her work. I had a friend that didn’t know the RAM preview existed for a few years of having a full time job of making DVD menus with it. He would render out to a Quicktime everytime he wanted to watch real time. I showed him the RAM preview and he was both elated and furious that he had wasted so much time and effort.
G5: Make sure your side door and clear plastic shield is firmly attached. Make sure the G5 has enough airflow area both front and back. It doesn’t HAVE to be on a desk, but it’s gotta be able to cycle air through it or it WILL get too hot.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Well, AE won’t raytrace so you create the illusion by mirroring your content upside down. Then apply a touch of blur to the upside down mirror, and use a feathered mask or ramp effect to fade it out near the edges so it has the illusion of drop off.
my take.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Are you doing a RAM preview or just hitting play?
As far as the G5, even when all 9 fans are going it shouldn’t sound too loud. With the exception that when you take off the side panels, the fans kick in to “overdrive” to blow wind directly on the components now that they don’t have a specific channel for air flow. I suppose it’s possible it got hot enough to kick it in that mode without the door removed. But I really don’t think that “heavy number crunching” is going to do that. I wonder if the G5 is placed where it has enough air and can keep itself cool. I’ve bogged my G5s down many a time by rendering and even trying to do real time effects, but I have never heard any of them sound like a jet under normal circumstances.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
1. Yes and no. AE is not made for it so you need to use Zaxwerks invigarator which will load some objects. It’s usually a better workflow to use 3D objects in a 3D application, render out passes and comp them in AE. If you need matching camera then import the cam data from the 3D app.
2. https://www.turbosquid.com
https://www.3Dcafe.com3. Well, yeah. But, Zaxwerks is not too bad. Usually the render time hits in 3D land is from raytracing, Refractive index transparency, displacements, etc. None of which Zaxwerks does as far as I know.
Also look in the Cow archives. This question is asked everyfew weeks it seems.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Yeah, use the spline tools to draw a long arrow. Create an extrude nurbs object and drop your spline in it. Set the extrude nurbs to a nice thin amount so it is an almost flat arrow. Create a path spline for the ribbon to travel on. You can just use a attach to spline tag for the movement, but to get it to deform and flow with the ribbon, you use a plug-in. I believe ‘path deformer light’ is a good one for it.
Once again, I don’t know why path deforming is in other 3D apps and not built into C4D. Strange.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Well, 5.5 is a couple years old now. Current version (6.5) works perfectly with QT7.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com