Cineversity

Hi,
Is it possible to create a seamless loop from hair animation in C4D similar to how cloth animation can be looped?

Regards,
Ihab Ali

Hi Ihab Ali,

Typically I would say, not by default.

But you could for example “harvest the guides” by setting the Hair amount as the Guides, and Generate set to Spline.

While your Hair was cached, look for “key”-moments and make a copy of the Hair Object. Press c while this copy is active. Compare in the Structure Manager the amount of points of the Spline, they must be the same.

Set up to one of the Splines a Pose Morph and drag the other spline results into it, as relative copy.

Use the Hair Render Tag to create the interpolated Hairs as needed.

Then utilize the Pose Morph with the same settings during start and end, then animate anything in between.

Scene File:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/SLBXCn6wfarg9y6rzPtJ9EDb1DMBl8omejHhIxjnNXO

All the best

P.S. an alternative version would be, to create key-poses, as shown in the one minute clip below:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/HiKOphvbwmB07U7ZXkJTgYdCB7cNe4Uox7cxRvTnyvt
Scene file:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/w7o37u9Fl6rMPd0trqr0iBF0d8YcvBM2BIp1piBiBOP
… and then use MoGraph to blend through the sequence of these key-poses. A copy of the first will allow to have the end equally to the start, resulting in a loop-able set up.

If the Hair was cached, move along the time to key poses (poses where one movement ends and another starts, as in changing directions) and create a copy and press c (the “Current State To Object” command will result in a different outcome, so use one or the other, never mix in this set up.)

Each of the key-poses can be manipulated as you go (make a copy, just in case you liked the previous version more)

I think this allows for a much better workflow than the version that I have posted above, but each has its benefits!)
Since the interpolation, or blend, is linear, it might be a good idea to have some sub-key-positions stored in the sequence as well. (Mostly the point between two key positions. Since I haven’t seen your project, that is pretty much all I can share.

All the best