[John Rockstad]

.3ds is Max’s native format, so that would be the best one to start with. The important thing is to have a good sense of what to expect in terms of the limitations of bringing a scene from one 3D package to another, which it seems that you do. If you have a relatively simple model and you just need someone to be able to manipulate your polygons, that shouldn’t be a big deal. You might download a trial of 3ds Max so you can experiment for yourself and see how the different formats C4D can export to work with it, but I’d start with .3ds.

[John Rockstad]

If you’re using the Studio version of Cinema 4D you have access to the PyroCluster module, which is intended for exactly these kind of effects. Essentially you create a particle emitter with a special PyroCluster shader and another object to act as a container for the effect, typically an Environment object in the most common scenario, which you then apply the PyroCluster Volume Tracer shader to. It’s pretty easy to get started with if you know a bit about particle systems already, but approaching an effect such as in the picture is definitely going to take some time if you haven’t really done this kind of work before.

The popular third-party solutions for volumetric / fluid effects are TurbulenceFD, DPIT Effex, and the reigning king of fluid simulators, RealFlow. These of course come with the usual tradeoffs of being more expensive (assuming you already have access to C4D Studio) and complex but with a greater degree of flexibility and power. Whether these are worth it really depends on what you’re going for, how much time you have to put into it, and how much of this kind of work you foresee doing in the future.

In any case, it’s definitely best to start out with PyroCluster and see how it works out for you before diving into anything else.

[John Rockstad]

Take a look at the F-curve graph in the timeline, you’ll probably find some over/undershoot between those keyframes. From here you can just drag the handles on the keyframes to straighten them out, but the more precise method is to go into the keyframe attributes, deselect Auto Tangents, then change the Left / Right Value on each to 0.

Hope that helps!

John

[John Rockstad]

Thanks for the reply Brian, I’ve been playing around with the different noise patterns and should definitely be able to find something workable.