[Rasmus Gerner]

I am currently not completely aware of any effect that lest you change color randomly in the same way you want.
Although something that might suit you. In a material you can use “Tiles”. You set the tiles as lines and make them random. The problem with this are it is only four-five different color. (This might actually work you, I haven’t tried it)
I looked a material>noise>mod cell but this only give two colors in different contrast.
I think you get most control/opportunity if each color is an object.
With that thought in mind. I tried creating an emitter that emitted from spline but with different objects. The problem here being the objects as it can only be done with the use of Python.
After being way over my head in both Xpresso and Python i was just about going to bed when i thought of a simple solution

Use a Cloner objekt on a cylinder for each color. The Cloner needs to be effected by a Spline effector. The effector have a section called Deformer not sure how it work yet but might be worth looking into.
(Warning this method may require the use of math).

Let me know how i works out.
Kind regards me

[Rasmus Gerner]

It is nice to see how you progress but it do not sound like you are using TP.
With Thinking particle you get way more control. So if you have a scene with the spaceship platform/stage thingy I would be happy to take a look. I am not much good with the pyrocluster. Actually having some problems with it myself at the moment. Yet I think should be able to get you going in terms of the particle system itself.

[Rasmus Gerner]

You can connect objects weld point using weldtool (hotkey M+Q). What you want is to hand animate each point. It will be easier to use morph tag if you have it.
You can also use cloth or a plugin like xbreaker depending on the structure of the cell.

Hoped it helped and have fun

[Rasmus Gerner]

It’s fun how such a simple fairly 2D image is so hard to recreate. I still have somewhat an idea of how to make it as will try to explain in very short phrases. Although i am not sure it will work.

Make splines. Clone them until you have a fair amount. Add dynamics to them. Gravity should be 0. Add wind to give turbulence (You might need to use some xpresso if they only may move along two axis). They should be pined to something so they do not fly away. Alternative you can use an Bell tool of some sort.

There is a good chance you can use hair for this as well.

Make all the splines into one object. Create a cylinder and every singe color as a material. With expresso make a particle emitter that emits from spline. The particles Should be the cylinder(2) and it should have a spline deformer effecting it. I believe you need particle geometry to display your cylinder.

It can be that every singe spline should be separated.

If you want more help you can just ask. I am a bit bored for the time being and it looks like a fun project.

– Rasmus

[Rasmus Gerner]

I know of a scene object in r11,5 yet I am not sure where it is keept at. So yes it is plausible to render from multiple cameras.
I am not sure about the editing at the same time when rendering. I do not think it will have an effect on the render what you do to the scene.
Make a test and see what happen.
I can’t really help you only say there is hope.

[Rasmus Gerner]

Have you tried making it as an IK-chain and put the goal as a child of the bone you want it being connected to. Better yet set the bone as your goal in the IK-chain.
You can also try using what i think is called a constraint or something alike. It can bind the movement of one object to another. You can find it if you right click and look under motion at least in R13 student.
If everything else fails you can always complicate things with the use of espresso.

Good luck & have fun.

[Rasmus Gerner]

I cannot do that as I have never tried Mac for 3D work. I can only say part of what you buy is the image of the product. So as hardware goes you do not get as much for the buck.
The quadro series from nividia are made for graphical work and the Radeon is like the Geforce.
I have not looked in the greater detail on the spec but all the components need to be in equal strength.
That is why i would pick the pc but i still don’t think there is gonna be a noticeable difference between the two.

[Rasmus Gerner]

I would go for the Boston if i was you because it is made for what you are requesting. Yet both are pretty silly machines. You will most likely end up needing more SSD space but they are easy to install.
You will end up more or less getting what you pay for with these. It is up to you what you want the most function or design.
There is not a huge difference between to two machine you mention.

Congratulation on your new computer whatever you may choice.

[Rasmus Gerner]

Short answer. Of course,
Particles in Cinema 4D is easy to lean hard to master.
You can use the standard build particle system to get a quick and easy result or you can do it with thinking particle to gain more control and complexity to the fire/smoke.

If you have never done something like this.
There is only few from cinema to begin,
1. Particle emitter
2. Environment
3. Volume tracer
4. Pyrocluster
You will find 3. and 4. in the material tap.
If you have more questions feel free to ask I am happy to help.

[Rasmus Gerner]

should not take long just using splines and duplicating/connection