Cineversity

my last question was concerning the tracer, as the paths are created by the tracer, what if I want to change my pen/path, are the splines created auto. when auto keyframes are on ? thx

Hi Craig,

The splines are not directly based on auto-keying they are generated each time. Forget the auto-keying for the tracer, that is not connected.

If you change the pen’s path, the result of the Collision Deformer (or tracer) will be different. Change it again - and the results will change.

Set up a small scene and play with it. One of the biggest mistakes that I have seen here for over 15 years now is too little play.  Starting with a big important scene takes the learning out of the equation because one might be too careful, and it’s slow, so slow. Learning and getting experience with the tools is the basis for everything.

Just a tiny scene of no relevance and start exploring, stress the parts until they break. The time spent will pay off big times later on. In different words, starting with a big slow scene will not give you the feedback to see what a tool does, its dependencies, and results. A small scene will give you fast feedback, and there is no stress to break something. It is, after all, a test scene. PLAY!

Enjoy.

thx good advice, but this is for a job! little/no - as I’ve asked, if i were to start a fresh project w/tracer, how is the tracer path created? thx

Craig,

Let’s try this time with a screen capture: (I have answered it several times, so lets try it visually)

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/0bZx4aWDwjmefeEGuOdTw9bgjCido9D1xGTUI9Kxfxo

The Spline from the Tracer is generated, with NO keyframes in the Tracer.

The Pen is animated and moves the Sphere. The Sphere is “traced” by the MoGraph Tracer.
The Sphere’s movement is noted in each frame, and this information creates the Spline.

If the Pen changes its movement, it will consequently change the results of the Tracer, with no extra input.

The Collision deformer works in the same way. If the events from the pen movement change, it will change the outcome.

Enjoy Thanksgiving and my best wishes for your project.

skadbone2 - 01 December 2021 10:39 PM

Hey Dr. Sassi, I have a question about last week’s problem solving; when I use the vol mesh/builder/tracer setup, is is possible to have the “gauging out, or carving” into the block be tighter around the cylinder? I can not seem to get the path to be a tighter fit, the carved path is spread out, too wide, is this possible? thank you, Craig

Hi Craig,

Either the size of the “Subtract” object needs to be changed, or the Voxel size needs to be changed. I do not think that the smoothing (layer) could be the source of it.

The Volume places little “virtual cubes” into the space of the objects. Then connects all the Cubes to a mesh (Simplified!)
https://help.maxon.net/c4d/en-us/#html/OVOLUMEBUILDER-ID_OBJECTPROPERTIES.html?TocPath=Volumes|Volume Builder|Object Properties|_____0

The smaller these “cubes”, the finer the details, but also the more draw this will have on the computing power of your machine.

We are mixing themes here; please keep threads on the topic so it is readable for anyone. Hence why I answered here.

Cheers