Cineversity

Hello Colleges,
I made an animation of mechanical flower opening, controlled by my custom User data panel on the root null “FLOWER”.
Now I cloned that same flower with cloner (2 flowers in the back) and applied step effector with the time offset, but they still bloom in the same time (see image on the lower link).

SCREENSHOT

Any idea how to solve this offset?
Or is there a way to make an instance of that original flower and somehow offset instance animation?
Thank you.

Best regards,

ZG

Hi ZG,

Typically direct parameters of a clone child will work, but User Data not. You might bake the data to the direct parameters. Do it with a copy.

I can also set up an upload link. Images do not tell me a lot, scene files do. I use and click only on certain safe servers (DropBox, Google or Amazon), sorry a cloud with the domain with hr on the end is not known to me.

Let me know if you need an upload link.

Scroll down to the “TIP”
https://help.maxon.net/us/#OESTEP-ID_MG_BASEEFFECTOR_GROUPPARAMETER
Baking can be done just for the parameter in question.
Timeline> Function> Bake Object
https://help.maxon.net/us/#32180

Other options:
Perhaps Animation Clips can help here. I will explore your set up, if I can get a copy of it.
Bake as Alembic would be an alternative, which is is a guess here.

All the best

Hi Dr. Sassi,
I tried to remove User data and EXpresso tag/links and animated elements directly and it works as it should.
No bake needed since there are only 2 keys for every animated element.

Well anyway, I’ll probably need to place copies of the flowers manually in space when I get the footage and then I can move keyframes in time for each flower. I only hope that scene does not get too heavy with those direct clones

It would be nice for a situation like this to have instances with some kind of an option of animation delay in time.
Well, I learned something new, not to use user data/expresso on clones
Thank you.

Best Regards,

ZG

Hi ZG,

The problem with Multi-Instances would be, that there is no individual animation possible. So the Cloner must produce a new copy, and perhaps with a few clones that might make not a big difference.

The drawbacks of Multi Instances are based on the fact that they are handled as a single object internally.  Drawbacks of Render Instances are listed here (scroll down)
https://help.maxon.net/us/#OINSTANCE-ID_OBJECTPROPERTIES

It always depends on the animation one likes to achieve, sometimes “Sorting” through static child objects of a Cloner, might be an alternative, to have an animation (like stop motion, more or less), hence why I always ask for a scene file. To say things just in general will perhaps overlook options for a given scene.

A quick overview:
https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaytut/c4d_r20_work_with_millions_of_clones_using_mograph_multi-instances

My best wishes for your project.

Hello Dr, Sassi,
tried to send a private message but it said that your inbox is full so I’m not sure you got the message.

Please try again, I made some space. Sorry about that.

HI ZG,

Here is an example file, well three similar, as you asked (in the PM) for ideas.
Scene files:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/US6DlPSU4ak4xHEkyzYQ80Js77yiGKcIBTpqopa0Zft

Enjoy