Cineversity

Hi Dr. Sassi, how are you- btw, yesterday, i posted a question concerning pose deformer which I could not get to work, perhaps you can please explain what I am doing wrong-ABOUT THIS PROBLEM , I feel that I am close-I want to use this with mograph, when a sphere, in a cloner approaches an object, I’d like to be able to control, intensity of light, and color. If I make my light, the child of the sphere in cloner, or make my light a child of stationary object.  In my attached file, my light gets too intense, and I can not control the color. Perhaps file to help me learn would be nice, Thank you, Craighttps://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31514862/light-proximity-object.c4d

Hi Craig,

The question yesterday discussed the use of a PoseMorph Deformer. I do not get the connection here. Please specifiy in the thread, http://www.cineversity.com/forums/viewthread/1637/

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Your set up works from the World Origin, and it uses the distance to it as input. I take that as a hint. IF the light is some place else, it doesn’t work. Further more, ignoring that you feed a “Vector” information into a “Real”, means that you could create a change of position in the object, without changing the calculated value, or you increase the value more than a direct distance measurement would be.
I do not write this down, to critic your efforts, I do that, because one important thing in XPresso is to know what runs through the “wires”. This is essential to know. Please check my series about, or just ask, what ever you like more, perhaps the manual is the fastest way, as it is more about definitions.

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When you place a Sphere into a Cloner Object, one would expect normally to get many Spheres, otherwise the Fracture Object would be used, to influence single object, which are supposed to be single objects. (But yes, one can produce a single clone.) If a single object is in question, than use the Distance Node between the two.

With a large amount of clones, it becomes more difficult. The first question would be, is this more work than to animate manually? If that is not possible, we need to set up a system. As we talk about PSR changes here only, the size of the objects is not included in a set typically. “…MGfo_01”.

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A solution with XPresso would have the need to request each objects position, once per frame, and evaluate this for your targets. Further more, it would just get the position of the object. To be more precise, one would need to calculate then the surface of an object to get that accurately.
In the example I checked all object distances based on their axis. I stored all values in an Object that I called RAM, and used it to simply figure out the smallest distance. I used a plane, made it editable, and after the first run, I deleted all points that were not needed. Easy to spot in the Structure manager, and done with a rectangle selection. One could also leave them there and run an iteration 5-441 to put them above, e.g, P.Y =1000.
The plane stored the distance as y value, with a Bounding Bow Node I request to give me the lowest point: the smallest distance. Anything more sophisticated than that needs Python, with a loop and memory/variables set up.
The file “…XPfo_01”.

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Let me suggest a simple working way:

You place the light in a Cloner Object and set the Transform>Color to black.

Then use any Effector that colors or change the intensity of light in that Cloner. See Example.

The Second Cloner is then used in side of that Effector as a Falloff Object. If you use Dynamics, you need to MoGraph Bake the situation, so the cloner works with PSR data, and not with dynamic data.

Lots of options and easy to set up. Would that work for you?

All the best

thanks Dr. Sassi, these were every helpful. The posemorph deformer and the lights/clones that is . The files concerning the clones are great. My objective is, and maybe not possible, is to have some spheres on a cloner, move along a path; as these spheres approach an object, the part of the object closest to the object lights up briefly . I tried this with a plain effector and it worked, setting the plain effector color mode on, blend to subtract, and a inverse linear falloff. But, when I tried to put the plain effector in a cloner, to have many “plain effectors” lighting up my object ( this will appear to flicker as each clone approaches the object)  it stopped working. So, if is not possible, I may just key frame some spheres attached to some plain effectors . Can you let me know if I am trying to do the impossible? ; )- thank you as always for your trouble shooting always a revelation for me, Craig

Hi Craig,

I try to make sense out of the PoseMorph/Cloner Object connections. So far I really have anything to work with.

Yes, effectors can’t be cloned. The cloner creates a copy and provides this. Any individually functionality, e.g., XPresso Tags will not work.

“…some spheres on a cloner, move along a path; as these spheres approach an object, the part of the object closest to the object lights up briefly”

Than is exactly what my file “…MGfo_01.c4d” does. What do I miss?

I have set up a file that follows the path idea.

What you need to explore is the Effector and its Falloff, as it is set to Cloner Object as Source (The cloner with the Spheres!) the Position of the spheres will be used as falloff in conjunction with the settings in the falloff.

—see file “…MGfo_11.c4d” :o)

All the best

thank you, you missed nothing but hit the mark-best, cz

I hope the file “…MGfo_11.c4d” helps.

Thanks for the feedback, Craig. I really like to get you the solution that works for you. :o)

Let me know if there is anything not clear.

Have a great weekend

No worries Dr. Sassi, you are living proof of the value of “validation” we all need it, and appreciate it!, even you ; )- many times I don’t understand what you are trying to teach me, which is a reflection of my short comings- BUT, I will explore the cloner>source>falloff, one of many things I have yet to try, but a revelation indeed thanks for making my brain seem bigger ; )-Best, CZ

You’re welcome, Craig.

Think of the clones of the Cloner with the spheres as pure information. They contain positions. These position work like a falloff “cage”, like the one you used in XPresso the other day, that yellow frame with the red layer in it.

Think of a falloff set to sphere. Anything useable that is set in the Source of the Effector Falloff, will be turned into a “sphere falloff”. For example, Particles could be used as falloff source. Each particle represent then a sphere falloff. Play with it, and I hope it will find a lot of use in the future.

Enjoy.