[Mylenium]

You shouldn’t worry too much about the other parameters. Nobody really uses them except for very, very rare occasions as there often are other ways of achieving the same result and if you wanted e.g. to slowdown footage and make it shake using wiggle, you’d pre-compose anyway. The octaves represent the number of overlapping sinus/ cosinus patterns of the underlying Perlin noise – the less octaves, the smoother you wiggle is. Amplitude multiplier and time do just what they say – you could feed alternative values e.g in time to make your wiggle slower or faster.

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[Mylenium]

[Adam Trachtenberg] “I’d disagree that Modo/Silo/Hexagon are way ahead of Cinema in terms of poly modeling. The first two are probably a little ahead, but it’s largely a matter of workflow and taste. I bought Hexagon because it was so cheap but I rarely use it. I find modeling in Cinema much more fluid (and stable).”

Mmh, I guess it boils down to that. My main problem with C4D are its quirky selection modes, making poly modeling terribly slow. Also you don’t have things such as the workplane and the action centers as in modo, but instead redundant tools such as normal move, normal scale, various deformers etc. – in modo those are just the standard tools combined with falloffs and action centers which is far superior IMO as it is much more flexible and logical than explicitely coding every tool. This will become even more apparent once those fallows, action centers and effector/ generator combos are put to use with animation, which of course is not yet implememted. Still, everyone expects great things of modo and I’m a believer, too.

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[Mylenium]

You need to remap the values. Find the maximum aamplitudes in your layer and then use this:

amplitude=thisComp.layer(“Audio Amplitude”).effect(“Both Channels”)(“Slider”);
amp_max=700; //maximum actual audio level
amp_min=100; //minimum actual audio level
pos_max=100; //maximum position offset you want
pos_min=-100; // minimum position offset you want

X=position[0]
Y=position[1]+linear(amplitude,amp_min,amp_max,pos_min,pos_max);

[X,Y]

The above example will only vary the Y position and gives you the option to manually place the “center” of your mouth and even animate it with keyframes in addition to the expression.

Mylenium

[Pour Myl

[Mylenium]

You need to remap the values. Find the maximum aamplitudes in your layer and then use this:

amplitude=thisComp.layer(“Audio Amplitude”).effect(“Both Channels”)(“Slider”);
amp_max=700; //maximum actual audio level
amp_min=100; //minimum actual audio level
pos_max=100; //maximum position offset you want
pos_min=-100; // minimum position offset you want

X=position[0]
Y=position[1]+linear(amplitude,amp_min,amp_max,pos_min,pos_max);

[X,Y]

The above example will only vary the Y position and gives you the option to manually place the “center” of your mouth and even animate it with keyframes in addition to the expression.

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[Mylenium]

A circle is defined by sinus and cosinus, so your setup could be expressed as

center=thisComp.layer(“Center”).position;
radius=500;

X=Math.sin(degreesToRadians(360/(thisComp.numLayers-1)*index))*radius;
Y=100;
Z=Math.cos(degreesToRadians(360/(thisComp.numLayers-1)*index))*radius;

[X,Y,Z]

If applied to positions, this will create a radial array of layers based on the number of layers in the composition. for the orientation, simply use auto-orient or re-build the functionality using e.g. code from my World Map tutorial.

If you want, you can even automate the fading based on the current angle of a layer using something like linear(angle,start_angle,end_angle,100,0) (it’s a bit more complex to actually derive usable angles, but you should get the idea)

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[Mylenium]

A circle is defined by sinus and cosinus, so your setup could be expressed as

center=thisComp.layer(“Center”).position;
radius=500;

X=Math.sin(degreesToRadians(360/(thisComp.numLayers-1)*index))*radius;
Y=100;
Z=Math.cos(degreesToRadians(360/(thisComp.numLayers-1)*index))*radius;

[X,Y,Z]

If applied to positions, this will create a radial array of layers based on the number of layers in the composition. for the orientation, simply use auto-orient or re-build the functionality using e.g. code from my World Map tutorial.

If you want, you can even automate the fading based on the current angle of a layer using something like linear(angle,start_angle,end_angle,100,0) (it’s a bit more complex to actually derive usable angles, but you should get the idea)

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[Mylenium]

From what I’ve read they’re the two best modeling programs available

No, most definitely neither of the two qualifies for that position. On the SDS modeling side both are surpassed by modo or Siloeasily and there are spline based modelers such as Rhino, which make C4D’s and LW’s tools pale in comparison. However, if you are looking for good generic modeling tools, both programs are appropriate. You should also look into Hexagon for modeling, though i believe they are no longer selling it for 1 buck but rather the full price again, so it may be out of the question.

Specifically I’m looking to create an opening 3D animation for my production company. It’s a flying phoenix (from what I’ve read it’s going to take me a awhile to learn how to do this now matter which program I choose, I’m fully aware of that). I want make the phoenix fly (obviously) and have a full flame skin. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Here things begin to look unfavorably for C4D. Yes, it could do what you want, but most likely you will have to buy extra modules such as Thinking Particles and Pyrocluster for the fire and perhaps even MOCCA for the bone deformations once you start to animate. These modules would substantially add to the cost. Only if you buy at least the XL Bundle, it begins to look acceptable again. In LW you have all tools you need from the start – Particles and Hypervoxels for the Fire as well as an acceptable (though far from perfect) boning system including full support for weightmaps and with the recent offer to pre-order LW 8 plus the free upgrade to v9 it was pretty cheap.

If it’s just for a logo and you don’t plan on forming a long-term relationship with 3D, you possibly would not need to invest any money and could try to learn Blender which is free. If you’re serious, you should have a long-term strategy and make your buying decision based on that rather than the immediate problem at hand.

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[Mylenium]

Try my World Map tutorial. It contains the basic math in 3D, you just need to expand it to work for 3D layers by adding the same formulas to the Z position and rotation parameters. If you want to use the Beam effect instead, you need to use layer space transforms such as .toComp(), the usage of which has been discussed several times. do a quick search.

Mylenium

[Pour Myl

[Mylenium]

Try my World Map tutorial. It contains the basic math in 3D, you just need to expand it to work for 3D layers by adding the same formulas to the Z position and rotation parameters. If you want to use the Beam effect instead, you need to use layer space transforms such as .toComp(), the usage of which has been discussed several times. do a quick search.

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[Mylenium]

Heave you tried “building” some Z-Depth? Find Edges –> Invert –> Unmult –> Minimax –> Fill (White) –> Blur, then use the original keyed footage as a matte. When you use this modified setup, your Displacements should look much more convincing. In addition you could further modify your ghost by using the b/w footage with Alpha Bevel or even as a 3D-Displacement for Digital Anarchy’s 3D Layer.

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