Welcome to movecraft, my little slice of motion graphics heaven on the internet.

Matt Asked:Hey colin... quick c4d question. Is there a quick and dirty way to take a model and turn it into a 3D representation made out of little spheres? I replied: Sure! You'll need the mograph module to do it down and dirty.Place your sphere geometry as a child of a Cloner object in "Object mode" then select the geometry you want to assign to in the object link in the Attributes manager. You get some good mode options: Clone to Vertex, Clone to edge, Clone to the center, to the surface, or per the volume. Then, create an effector to push your clones around for animation. I used a random effector. Here's a file, with an Object and the Object made editable in case you don't have MOGRAPH module. c4d r 11
SaintEfan Asked:I have a bunch of planes (cards) randomly positioned around a sphere using the Cloner object with some random scaling (Random Effector). I would like each of these cards to have a different image on it. In Maya I would create a tiff sequence of all the different images and have each instance go to a random frame of the texture's animation. Is there an effector that could help me do this in C4D (Mograph perhaps)? Or is there a way to control the time of an animated texture (like in Maya) that I can use in an exp​ression? Or is there, maybe, no easy way to do this and I should go back to Maya for this project? I Said:Here's a quick file of the multishader setup. Notice it is is a post effect, to see it you have to render. It's not exactly what you are looking for, you would have to set up your movies as the different multishader layers, this is using photoshop layers. The Random Effector Randomizes the color of the clones which the multishader maps bitmaps based on the luminance values of the randomness.
swaggerStudios asked: Does anybody know a good way to create realistic dust particles in After Effects? I want this to be a 3-d layer the camera can move around and through. I responded: Dust in the air occludes what is behind it, doesn't add light to it. That means your fractal noise layers need to act as luma mattes for a ramp, as opposed to creating fog, which bends the light. We can simulate that in AE with blur on an adjustment layer. Here's both examples in file. No particle generators used. The expression slider drives a multiplier for the turbulence amount, in the fractal_generation comp. AE-CS3
Max A Asked: Ok so i am running into a problem, i am working on my thesis project and i have some layers in AE 3D space. I want to add alittle Drop shadow to them, but when i do things get crazy and they seem to lose there 3d Postions. I responded: If you have applied the dropshadow effect to 3d precomps, you just ran into AE's "Collapse Transformation" workflow. 3D precomps will all exist in the same worldspace until you apply an effect, at which time, they are calculated as 3d, then converted into 2d composite layers and then composited. AE calculates your artwork in with this methodology- it starts at the bottom of the timeline, and works it's way up. However, if layers are 3d layers, it will include all 3d layers into the same "world" until the 3d layers have been broken by a 2d layer (like an adjustment layer or null) or have an effect applied on a precomp (parenthesized). In precomp 1, both of the collapsed precomps are working together in the same 3d space. Notice that the "behind" precomp is above "front" in the timeline, but still visually renders behind, because it's world space position properties are back in Z space. In precomp 2, Both of the collapsed precomps are working together in the same 3d space, however, they are being rendered as 2d layers, first "front" then "behind" because AE renders from bottom up. In precomp 3, It is working the same as precomp 2, but it is visually fixed because they are in correct composite order "behind" with "Front" above it. AE-CS3
ryanhamilton asked: Hi folks, I've been trying to figure out how to have an object move from one position to an other and when it reaches that point have it bounce and decay to a stop. Basicly how you can do an ease in or out bounce in AE using expressions. I Responded: Here is the problem solved with expresso. We're massively over thinking a little bit of animation, but here is the theory anyway. Bounce and spring are essentially the same thing except Bounce (sin wave mapped to values) is ran though an absolute function. C4D r-11
bretleon asked: Hello all, i am trying to achive the starbust effect. however i want to do it entierly in After Effects, how do i do that? Grundly said:Playing around for a few seconds, pretty much got it going grid> then warp. Add two grids at different sizes for the different size style. Use a feathered alpha matte on grid on two separate layers, pre-comp, then add warp if you want feathered, multiple size ones. Ianfreeze said: Create a circle with the Ellipse tool. Make sure it has a "stroke" around it. Twirl down the ellipse menu and delete the fill, then in the "stroke 1" twirl down click the plus sign next to the "Dash" parameter. That gives you two new effectors "Dash" and "Offeset" slide dash out to 50 or so. Go back up to "Stroke width" and increase it until it meets in the middle.I said: Here's both concepts in file! AE-CS3
I said: I am trying to build a simple count up timer in c4d. briought in a text object, fired up expresso, created a time node-> a range mapper-> and plugged it into the text input properties on the text object. Easy. (counts from 40, 000 to 60, 000). Now the client wants a comma at the thousand mark. dang. I can't figure it out. Split the value into the first half (40) created a math:add node in string mode, added a (",") and then got the last string to enter a ("0") but I can't figure out how to get it to output ("000"). I know how I'd do this in AE Expressions (thanks to Mr. Graymachine) but don't know enough coffee to just write a simple logic gate to output either a zero or a string with a space in it. And I think this is the totally most retarded way to go about adding a stupid comma or some zeros. Srek responded:Check the X-Pool, it includes a number of string functions. To convert the number into a string use a universal adapter set to string. Cheers Björn I said: Thanks! Got this working with midString node from Xpool. c4d-r10
I needed a coverflow animation for a client... How to build this in AE? I went onto creative Cow and there was an example, but I wanted to make it more global. Here's version 2! AE-cs3
An interesting use of Cameras, CC, and Scribble. Visual Design. AE-CS3
iline said: I used a null with Motion Sketch to make a motion path. I then parented a graphic of a spray can to this null and animated the rotation of this null as if a hand was holding it and spraying. To the motion null, I parented a second null which represents the hole in the nozzle where the paint comes out, and it rotates perfectly with the parent. The spray paint I want to generate with Particular by linking the position of Null 2 to the Position XY input of Particular. BUT NULL 2 does not generate global co-ordinates because it inherits its position from Null 1. Even if I negatively offset the Y output of Null 1 into the Position XY, the rotation is way out. Someone suggested I put a red dot on Null 2, render out a video with alpha, and track it. Not only is this clunky and not dynamic, it also means the nozzle cannot leave the edges of the screen (which it does). How can I describe the relationship between the two nulls with exp​ressions? Or how can the parenting maths become available to generate the XY co-ords I need for Particular? i said:Layer space transformations are your friends. On the particular emitter, target the final null in the chain. on xy: pos = thisComp.layer("Null 2") wrld=pos.toWorld(pos.anchorPoint); [wrld[0],wrld[1]] on z: pos = thisComp.layer("Null 2") wrld=pos.toWorld(pos.anchorPoint); [wrld[2]] to get it into world space or thisComp.layer("Null 2").toComp([0,0,0]) to get the values to 2D comp space. further reading: http://motionscript.com/mastering-expressions/lst-lens-flare.html

Useful Files.

I tend to create demo and source files for my students to pick apart and also occasionally create files when answering posts on message boards. It occurred to me that they are a lot more useful posted here then cluttering my desktop.
© 2011 Colin Evoy Sebestyen | Resume | Contact Me