Cineversity

Project attached.

I have an animation set up in which a cylinder slides in and connects to a short pin. I cloned the animation so that the pins appear on the surface of a wheel (a sweep object), and the cylinders slide in and connect to them. So at the end it appears that the cylinders are now riding on the wheel.

My intention is to set it up so that the animated clones move in one by one in sequence rather than all at once, as the wheel rotates by the camera. To that end I added a plain effector with a delay of 45 frames (or so) and animated the wheel to rotate through the falloff. My expectation was that as the clones entered the falloff zone (where the camera is looking) the animation would launch and the cylinders would close in and connect. A brilliant sequence!

It starts out exactly as I expected, but after 45 frames all the clones move at once, not in sequence anymore. If I stop the playhead after the animation is complete, and rotate the wheel manually, I can generate the effect I want (more or less), but once I start the playhead, everything snaps back to unison.

I’m sure it has something to do with my ignorance of fields. I did this same effect back in R18 days and was able to get it to work properly, but the new fields configuration has me stumped. I tried cylinder, sphere, cone, linear, radial, etc. all without success.

Can you spot the goof?

Hi mford610,

The set up has 60 frames of offset. The 60 frames are excluded from the clones inside of the Linear Field. You can see that based on the yellow color introduced by the Linear Field. (Yellow means here that the Field is working and provide the 60 frame delay.)

The animation that you see working during the beginning is the result of being more and more free of the 60 frames offset.

However, the time is ticking, and after 60 frames of scene time, all can now move in.

Set the offset to 500 frames, and you can see that they are not moving until the Linear field allows the clones to move finally. Since time moves on, the animation progresses. In other words, it comes closer to the current camera position.

===

Please have a look a the file below:
Project file
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/Ta8Au0FULapUmpjFBr7o0KxCf5U3jBFuL3fkv8zFbgQ

I have used the animation and split it in the start and finish. The Parent Cloner blends between the two, based on the Plain effector/Linear Field.
The top Cloner multiplies the clones then.

Note that I have set up the linear with a curve, see picture below. This curve can be altered to adjust the progress of the animation.

Since after 500 frames, the animation doesn’t move the first clone into the Plain effector/Linear Field, this should work. Otherwise, the animation would go back. If that is not wanted, more steps are needed.

All the best

Yes, that is exactly the effect I was looking for. However, I am now more puzzled than ever how it was achieved. If I understand correctly, increasing the offset pushes back the start of the animation dictated by the keyframes. So if there was no movement around the wheel, everything would just sit there for 500 frames and then move all at once. But if it rotates and the individual clones enter the linear field, the animation is triggered at that juncture only, and somehow cancels the delay?

I don’t understand how/why the split and the cloner.blend improves/influences the action (which is exactly what I was going for). I’m going to have to give that some concentrated study.

Thanks for the reply, mford610.

The part above the === explains what happens with your scene. Why it is not really working toward your goal.

The part below the === in my reply above uses an entirely different approach! Nothing to do with offset, nor with any animation of the cylinders.

You need a specific animation to a particular location, and that is precisely what this does.

Here is a simplified version of it.
Project file.
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/V46DbuTLUOfQzpAapyjhrmSCKU3rk2kQIRgzA47PtTk
…more about this
https://help.maxon.net/us/index.html#OEPLAIN-ID_MG_BASEEFFECTOR_GROUPPARAMETER

In the Cloner.Blend, it is set to one clone and Blend.
In the Plain Effector, it is set to Modify Clones. (Parameters>Others.)

The states of the objects need to be a copy and have the same parameter option, but with different values.

The Field.Falloff of the Plain Effector set to Modify Clones, changes the amount of “Modify”.

Perhaps explore the file, I hope it will give you the answers. It is a classic but powerful animation technique of MoGraph.

All the best

Thank you! The cloner.blend configuration is a new approach I had not heard of before. I see how it adds another level of control that could be very useful (once I figure it out how to use it).

A complication (of course): The connecting cylinders in this template are stand-ins for more complex mesh models that have their own internal animation. That is, as the forms come together, there is a mechanical latch mechanism that is triggered to animate the connection - i.e. a “snapping together.” I don’t think that can be managed with a blend between two states. So I will have to experiment on that. However, using the shader fall-off I was able to achieve the desired level of control for my current situation, and for that I am very grateful!

Your innovations always push me to a new level - thank you!

Hi mford610,

The effect is not limited to two copies of an object or group. So far, I know you said this latch is under NDA, which means: I will not ask for a file. But if you have a dummy, I will look into it.

Example:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/YBIieK5Bh7Gl04uLipG9Ow4jkP9fcHUcuYmfbjvqsib

Alternative:
You should have a look here for animation trigger:
https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaylist/walking_through_fields_triggering_animation/walking_through_fields_triggering_animation_trigger_clone_modifier_layers
Of course, the whole series, but I guess this part gives you a good idea about the great idea about this series.

If you search in the tutorials with the term Trigger, you might find other options as well. But I think this link above reflects current options and simplicity of use in the best way.

BTW, the Step Effector comes to mind with such setups, mechanical sequences.

All the best

P.S.:

Since you asked, I found that there should be an option to trigger an animation with the fields. The idea that I found and share here is simple.

A Blend/Modify set up moves through a cube, which gives a 1% into the mix, stored by the Freeze layer (set to update).

This value will be added to each frame if the clone stays there. The larger the slider value, the faster it grows. The Formula’s value will be added if the clone is inside the trigger or not anymore.

But since the question was about clones moving along a trigger point, I used a Subfields entry in the Formula Layer (not Field!). The formula reads as: if the entry is above a specific value, if so, it adds value to it. How much – can be set in the formula and adjusted by the slider on the right.

It needs only a single frame inside the cube (or any other fields that adds a little value) from there it grows based on the Formula settings. No need to be inside the cube anymore.

Project file:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/yIvnimp9qH1ZtskJ7D9xpoTrRvDbQoXzxyRsA7kOF4k

I have set up an animation, which was then saved as Alembic. Start and endpoint for the Modify/Blend were set, with the number of steps (frames) needed. Then made editable. This resulted in the 25 Alembic-Object-containers. The Blend/Modify moves along this list, while only one Alembic file is on record.

Enjoy.

P.S.S.: perhaps more mechanical:

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/wwO0hqBVS7qsuJNa5AB4Ya3q60YJO1PlJB0P5R75DwT

Let me know if there is any question.