Cineversity

Dear all

I’m fairly new to the world of cinema 4d and i’m having some problems with an animation i’m doing. I’ve created a scene where 6 soft body letters are floating around and bumping in against eachother. As you can see my soft bodies have some ‘creases’ on their edges. (not sure if crease is the right word). I’m already at version 12, and not sure how i can eliminate them to get nice and smooth edges. I’ve tried giving them a bevel but this doesnt seem to work.

HELP!

Hi JanSidgwick,

I have sent you an upload link to your Cineversity Private Messages Box.
At the moment the file is uploaded, I will get an email, and have a look instantly into it.

All the best

Thanks for the file, JanSidiwck.

I have attached two files in this link:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/gzPARPGox6qHaOqABUFGL6hHkgsfBEkB5yXLsfNmoNp

The first file (…_01.c4d) contains a quick workaround, with practically not modeling effort at all, just procedural.
You need to find a balance between dilate/erode and smoothness, given by the growth in volume you are targeting. Perhaps not the aesthetic you are after.

The second file (…_11.c4d) shows clearly the source of the wrinkles, or as you can see on the left side, how to avoid those.
In short: the model needs to be based on a clean flow of Quads (four-sided polygons) and those preferably in a similar square size.

Screenshot:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/3nZTXAsYnuCgrny2uGhHg1YPDuof72DuJTq8BFBdGPN

The model on the right in this file was very quickly modeled, and it shows, there are artifacts, but not as much as in the native MoText object.
Especially with the font you use here, I can’t really see a quick fix in terms of modeling, to blow them up smoothly.

The Weight Tag is an option, not a piece of the mandatory information, but since there is typically a welding-seam, it has more influence on the final shape.

All the best

P.S.: to use the letters:
https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaytut/polygon_pen_part_07

Thank you so much for having a look at my files!
First I’m going to try with the workaround. But basically you advise to remodel the letters instead of using motext?

Thanks again!!

You’re very welcome, JanSidwick.

A clean model will undoubtedly improve the results. So, yes – and of course, I love to show other options.

One would be to just use the Bevel of the Caps and animate those. (…_21.c4d) Perhaps not really what you are after.

But, there is always Plan B. In other words, you create a low polygon object that covers the letter roughly, with some space around. Blow these up instead. Cache this and use them for the technique described below.

The rough animated model goes then as an information source into the Mesh-Deformer and deforms the Letter. I used here (…_31.c4d) the Letter N, which is not the most complex, but it will work for the other letters in the same way.

Scene-files
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/xtZerpPGJFjjGSGT65yThIlgkIvh9kOsPLs8TyvJpB5

If there is any question, I’m happy to look into it, in the morning.

Here it is past midnight, and I call it a day.

Cheers

Hello

Could you please inform me how you made this geometry? Starting from N-gons and creating inner extrude and the knife tool?

Hi JanSidwick,

I assume you have the file from post #4 in mind.

I used the letter from your file, for both as a base.

To create the Mesh, I went through the Volume process. From there, I made via Current State To Object a copy. This copy was then placed under the PolyGon reduction to achieve the low-density mesh I was after for the Mesh Deformer. This low-resolution mesh allows for a quick simulation in the Softbody setup. Here the low mesh blurs details, which includes as well those wrinkles (mainly).

The visible (render) letter was set up with a MoText> Attribute Manager> Caps: Regular Grid (twirl it open to have more parameter)
Note that the MoText> Attribute Manager> Object> Intermediate Points and the Regular Grid should be seen as a complementary set of parameters. I would suggest using the option Subdivided.

You can have both tabs (Object and Caps) open at the same time, so the adjustment is rather intuitive.

If that was not the object you had in mind, please specify. I’m happy to have a look at it.

All the best