In this tutorial, Tim Clapham takes you through the process of building a controller for a deformer object. In this example we take a null object and then use the position values to drive the strength of a bend deformer with a basic Xpresso setup.
Bend Controller
Once this simple example is complete, the setup is enhanced by calculating the angle between the source object and the controller which is then used to drive the angle parameter in the bend deformer, thus the deformer always bends towards the controller.
Xpresso Setup
This type of setup has many uses particularly for animation and the setup can easily be expanded upon to allow control of several deformers directly in the editor viewport. As an example, Tim takes the setup one stage further by adding the MoGraph Delay Effector into the equation. This allows you to add a spring effect or a nice ease into the deformer strength.
I recently had a question of how to create TP from dynamic collisions when using a Cloner Object. In other words how do you create an emitter at the collision point of each clone. If you haven’t seen the original tutorial on this then please check this post.
It isn’t actually that tricky once you understand the basic principle. What you need to do is to iterate through each of the clones in the cloner and then by using the Dynamic Body State node you can output the dynamic position of each object (clone).
Xpresso Setup
In your Xpresso setup, output the Object from the Cloner Node, then link this into a Dynamics Body Node, you can then output the Count. This number corresponds to the number of clones in the cloner. Use this as the Iteration End value in an Iteration Node. Now you have an iterator which will iterate through all the clones. You also need to link the Cloner Object Output into another Dynamics Body Node. In this second Dynamics Body Node you can link your Iterator Output into the Object Index, this will then link the iteration value to the index of the clone. In other words it will count through each clone and check the dynamics state.
Particles From Clones
Once you’ve done that you can link the object output into one of the Object A / B inputs of the Dynamics Collision Node, just as I did in the original tutorial. You should find that all your clones will emit particles when they collide with the other specified collision object.
In this collection of tutorials created for Maxon’s You Tube channel, I explore techniques you can use when working with Cinema4D Multipass rendering in combination with the After Effects exchange feature of Cinema4D.
C4D To AE Basic
Taking you step by step through the process, the tutorial starts by covering the basic principles of working with multipass rendering and exporting 3D information from your Cinema4D scene over to your After Effects projects. Ensuring you use the correct colour management for outputting from Cinema4D and configuring your After Effects projects to make sure the files are composited in the right environment.
C4D To AE Advanced
The second tutorial then moves on to some more advanced techniques including the use of Xpresso to export 3D information from specific clones and outputting lights as separate render passes. This information is then imported into After Effects and the 3D data used in combination with third party effects such as Trapcode Particular and Video Copilot Optical Flares.
AE To C4D - Camera Tracker
Finally I take you through the process of transferring your After Effects information over to Cinema4D. Using The Foundry Camera Tracker, you will track and solve some footage, resulting in an After Effects camera and reference nulls being created. This camera and null information will be exported from After Effects into Cinema4D and used to build some basic proxy geometry for catching shadows and reflecting the environment. This is then output using Cinema4D multipass rendering and composited back over the original footage in After Effects.
AE To C4D - Camera Mapping
The powerful multipass rendering and compositing exchange features of Cinema4D allow you to access the individual render passes such as reflections, shadows and lighting from your 3D scene directly in your After Effects compositions, allowing you to grade and enhance your renders with ultimate control. Access to 3D data taken directly from your Cinema4D scene and imported into After Effects ensures precise fidelity between native After Effects 3D elements and rendered elements from your Cinema4D scene.
C4D To AE - Light Passes
As well as discussing the exchange feature in-depth, I’ll demonstrate many useful techniques for working in Cinema4D and After Effects, including scene management, basic lighting, MoGraph Color shader, MoGraph Multishader, Cloner Object, Effectors, Rigid Body Dynamics and much more.
C4D To AE - Comp with Effects
To download the assets required to complete these tutorials please follow these links…
Oh, I think I forgot to mention that all of this is free, thanks to the awesome team at Maxon. The iPod model is something I made specifically for this tutorial, it isn’t the greatest example of modelling, however it is native C4d with lowpoly mesh, hyperNURBS and other generators, it has a UV map and best of all it’s free for use in any of your projects, commercial or otherwise. It would be nice if you do use the model in any renders or on your site if you could please link back to helloluxx. The model is not free to distribute in any form and I’d appreciate it if you sent people to this page instead, thanks.
C4D To AE Basic: Part 1 (~25mins)
In the first part of the tutorial Tim shows you how to install the Cinema4DAE plugin into After Effects. Walks you through the setup for the free iPod model. In Cinema4D, you will animate the iPod model and a scene camera, manipulate the animation curves in the F-Curve manager. Create some basic materials and use the Layer Browser for organising the scene.
C4D To AE Basic: Part 2 (~32mins)
Setting up some simple lighting for the scene. Optimising the render settings for speedy preview rendering. Working with multipass rendering and using colour management combined with Linear Workflow when outputting your renders. Using the compositing tag to isolate reflections to specific objects and assign object buffers. Flight check the render settings in the Picture Viewer to ensure there are no mistakes before committing to the high quality render. External Compositing tag and AEC export for transferring 3D information from Cinema4D to After Effects.
C4D To AE Basic: Part 3 (~20mins)
Importing the AEC file into After Effects. Correct colour management settings for working with Linear Workflow and multipass compositing. Screen replacement on the iPod model. Colour correction opportunities. Compositing the rendered shadow and reflection over After Effects layers.
C4D To AE Advanced: Part 1 (~30mins)
Setting up a Cloner Object to create a flow of hundreds of objects along a spline. Using the MoGraph Multishader and the MoGraph Color Shader to create multiple coloured versions of your clones with corresponding coloured screen graphics. Adding variation to the animation with the Random Effector.
C4D To AE Advanced: Part 2 (~17mins)
Animating a camera using nested null objects. Basic lighting. Configuring multipass render settings to output various light passes.
C4D To AE Advanced: Part 3 (~24mins)
Using Xpresso and User Data to determine the index value of clones and then linking objects to the position of these specific clones. Baking object animation using the Bake Objects function. Exporting and then analysing the AEC exchange file.
C4D To AE Advanced: Part 4 (~30mins)
Importing the multipass renders and 3D information from Cinema4D into After Effects. Using the imported lights with Trapcode Particular and VideoCopilot Optical Flares. Adding After Effects 3D solids and effects to match the Cinema4D imported camera. Returning to Cinema4D to explore a technique for isolating mattes from individual objects within a Cloner Object.
AE To C4d: Part 1 (~18mins)
Using The Foundry Camera Tracker to track some footage in After Effects. Set up a ground plane and reference nulls. Export the 3D information to Cinema4D.
AE To C4d: Part 2 (~28 mins)
Create some proxy geometry in Cinema4D for catching shadows and reflecting onto objects using the reference nulls and solids exported from After Effects. Add a dynamic particle system of spheres which interact with the proxy geometry. Output multipass renders and return to After Effects to composite the render over the original footage.
Align to spline is no doubt an expression that most Cinema4D artists will have used at some time or another. The problem with the built in expression is that it is clamped and you can only animate the position parameter from 0% to 100%. If you want the object to loop or wrap around the spline it is not so simple.
Align To Spline Xpresso
There are other solutions available within the application, you could use MoGraph and clone onto a spline. Then use the offset parameter. However in this tutorial, I show you how to build a loopable align to spline expression using just Xpresso. The advantage here is you can use this setup with the most basic install of Cinema4D and also the object is still in it’s original state as it hasn’t been passed through a generator.
Align To Spline User Data
I show you how to include a tangential option and the addition of a pop-up menu to define the axis you would like to align.
Anyway enough of my waffle. Check out the tutorial below or click through and watch it over on the helloluxx channel on Vimeo
Here’s another little tip for working with Cinema4D, specifically Thinking Particles. I offer up a solution to what appears to be quite a common problem with TP and hopefully this small tutorial will stop a lot of head scratching.
This time around, I show you a simple technique you can use to stop the pulsing you sometimes see with Thinking Particles when your emitter is moving too fast and you get those big lumps of particles emitted on every frame rather than a nice smooth emission.. Yes – you guessed it, this is sub-frame particle emission.
Of course this tutorial doesn’t cover many of the different ways that you can emit particles using TP but hopefully it gives you some idea of a solution that you can adapt to your own TP scenes.
If you ever wanted to work with high and low resolution models in Cinema4D then this tip should come in handy.
Using the Instance Object combined with a simple Xpresso setup, this shows you how to create an object that allows you to work with a low polygon model and then swap this out for a high polygon version whenever you need to render or preview the final result.
This technique will keep your workflow streamlined, and allow you to perform tasks such as dynamics simulation and caching without the overhead of polygon heavy scenes. Once the caching is complete, you can switch out the object for the detailed version and render away.
Once created, this simple object will become a vital part of your Cinema4D library. You’ll never know how you worked without it!
Kudos to Kai Pederson who originally showed me this trick.
For more in depth and detailed tutorials, check out the Learn Dynamics for Cinema4D training collection. Over 10 hours of intensive training for working with Cinema4D and Dynamics. Available to purchase online here
