Cineversity

I want to animate an object, imagine a cube in the middle of the air at the beginning of the sequence; dynamics on, it falls to the ground and bounces a bit. Then I want to animate it manually to float up into the air again and then fall to the floor with dynamics again.

How do I do this? it seems like animating the “enable” tickbox or the dynamics on or off doesn’t help.

Another way I could ask this is, how would I manually animate an object after dynamics have already enacted (IE after falling to the floor.)?

Sample scene:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vssn0jawsmbu126/cube-animate.c4d?dl=0

Thanks!

Hi ryanc,

Thanks for the file. Since the middle part will determine the end of the first part and the start of the third part in your animation, perhaps use keyframes all the way

I would set up the first dynamic and use Character>Manager>Cappucino, to get the initial dynamic into key-frames. Set the range to User [Start/End]. Click on the Cappucino Start Realtime button, then click and hold on the object in question until the keyframes have been created.

Create a null object and move the Dynamic tag to it.

Animate the object as you need it until you get to the point where dynamic has to kick in again.

Move the Dynamic Tag back to the Object and use again the Cappucino, with the Range>User set to the current Frame [Start] to the final frame you need [End]. Leave the Time slider on the frame after the manual animation and click in the Cappucino the Start Realtime button.

If you need to make changes, perhaps the Reduced Modification Curve in the F-Curve manager allows for an more “organic” change of all keyframes in need of adjustment.

One minute overview clip:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/Xg8Aw23KQ68CFN5TAMCLIs7FDGmSjZ9nF5hb7Jy6oLq

Please let me know if you have any question to that process.

All the best

Ok great, thank you I understand. It’s basically just cache-ing the dynamics then manually animate then more cache.

Could this same method be used somehow to manually animate first and have dynamics take over in that direction? Such as “throwing” a cube like this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/agz57j74o2a6d9q/cube-animate-throw.c4d?dl=0

Thanks again for the file, ryanc.

I’m not really a fan of switching the Dynamics on and off, to be honest.

If you like to throw a ball and have a result in a dynamically way after that, I would go with the Attribute Manager. Force> Position Follow for the initial part.

Scene file:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/e6eVDZphdWVItbVwEmhYk14n2D3ChD1Y5cxxxu2TONc

In the file from post #1, where the manual part is in the middle, I would really use it.
There is a sweet spot, from my point of view, when to focus on the result (key frame) or when play with dynamic the field. I would say anything in general here. Make tests, and what feels best for the outcome will be used.

My best wishes.

Great thanks! I get it. “Follow position” to keep object on track/on keyframes, then turn follow position and rotation down to 0 to allow dynamics to take over, use cappuccino to bake dynamics into keyframes.

You’re welcome, ryanc!

The Cappucino is only needed to get everything into Keyframes. If it renders fine, it is not needed.

There are as usual many ways to get it done. A simple yet effective way is to use the Mix Node in Xpresso.

Example: …_12.c4d
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/BGszO5OWx2XmIvGGJtDNOJQdHr6LySihCvKPjN84aOw
(Yes, I switched on the dynamic tag, but not on and off. I found that was a source of trouble in the past. I have to find a good example why…)

However, animation is certainly a process of refinement and art-direction. Hence why I have had put together this series a while ago.
During the series I touch most of the most used animation techniques and bring them all into a system that works like film-editing.
Please check out the introduction:
https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaylist/animation_techniques_for_teams/animation_techniques_for_teams_part_01_course
The idea is here to have each motion segment like a take on set, just edit, blend or overlay those, stretch in time or squeezed.

ENJOY

Excellent, i will add it to my list. Thanks again

Please feel free to share any further questions, ryanc, other will certainly have a benefit from it.

Asd I mentioned above, I have to find a good “worse case” scenario. Here is my first attempt to screw it up:

Scene file:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/KPuH8CluZUxiLJUqU2qT4jHzt7fRfxNURJRgMzWRllD

As you can see there is a vibration, as the scene is not solved between “Position Follow” and pure dynamic. That might be fixable, but the idea here is to show how it might affect the result. Instead of falling down, the vibration kicks it up. Again, deliberately wrong, for the sake of demonstration. In the moment things are separated first, and after “solving” mixed, the results are clean and fast. Even if used with ridiculous high steps/iterations values, it is not “clean”.

My standard tip is here, is it really needed to have the whole animation in one take? Would the audience not rather have a more impactful experience if the single take would be resolved in three parts, given the example above. The amount of cuts in advertisements tells me it does. Editing is done well, if the impression is, that we do not miss anything, and that leads typically to a one take animation, but it is not the optimized version most of the time.

My best wishes