Cineversity

I’m looking to do a multiple cube clone linear effector that the cubes release themselves (in order) gradually floating up out of screen….. I would like to texture each cube with a jpg image and am not sure how to do that.  I know that once I make the clone editable and that creates multiple cube polygons, that I can apply images on front face of the cube,  but they then lose the effector movement.  Is anyone able to point me in the right direction for a solution or shine some insight on my approach.  Thank you in advance.  >Ron

Hi Ron Humer,

I’m not certain if you like the same jpg on each or on each cube a new one. I also don’t know if you like to have the jpg only on one side of the cube.

Cubes can be build in many ways (one of my starter drills in my “Hands on Classes” back in time…), so have a look to the file. Which allows to specify the front side (C1) for example.
To have the same jpg always is not a problem, as is a sequence of such, but it needs to be a linear cloned set up—intitially, a Grid wont work.

Would you mind to share some details and perhaps the file you have so far?
IF the attached scene file works, let me know if there is a question :o)

My best wishes

I really appreciate you getting back to me so promptly. 

I would like to have 1 side of EACH cube (front) to have a different photo (jpg) applied to it.  The grid of cubes have a random Z depth initially and then they float up one at a time..

I have a grid as the basis of the clone…

The image I posted was to show where I got stuck having all of the cubes with the same image (which I don’t want)

I am attaching the project. 

Thanks for your help with this.

Ron

Thanks for the additional information, Ron.

You might open the file first, otherwise the text below might appear too cryptic.

The idea in the attached file is to use the Formula Effector and animate the cubes from there. Well, they get a changed “Weight” value from it. The Weight they have is then used instead of the weight of the Inheritance.start to allow for the move between the Grids {start/end]. The Change of weight makes them move to the other Grid. (Grid is introduced to teh Cloner Object via the Inheritance Effector. So, moving the Grids (Matrix.end or Matrix.start) will change the start of end position of these.

The Formula Effector just asks is the ID of the clone larger or smaller than the “f” (which is animated below, the slider called “f’.) if the formula results in a true “?(id<f;1;0),” the formula effector will change the weight to the clones. Watch for the weight sliders/values of the other Effectors, it is critical.

The Delay Effector is set to “Blend” so the transition is slow, and not like a switch.

The whole set up works, as the Cloner Object produces a linear group of Clones, so each has a unique ID. If the Cloner would have been set up as Grid from the start, many clones would have the same ID, and then we would work with a Falloff animation, row by row. (Too much work :o)

As I created the “cube” with an Spline and Extrude [NURBS], it allows for set up work to use the spline only (time and refresh is better). More importantly, the Cap can be set as default Sletion in the Texture Tag, here “C1”, the other Cap would be C2. As a nice side effect, you can set the spline as well the Extrude to create some Bevels, to catch some light and perhaps to look more appealing… which is an artist call of course.

To have a slight random z value, I set up four child-objects under the Cloner Object, have a look, it is easy to spot in the Extrude Movement and in the Cloner Object>Clones>Random.

Good Luck

Sassi

I understand about the selection tag being set to C1…. but I don’t understand how I can assign multiple jpegs to the 4 extruded rectangles within a single clone ...

thanks…
Ron

The idea of the suggested set up is based that you need one image per cube. Hence the idea to use the Cap default selections, which is C1 or C2 as the Extrude [NURBS] has two caps as option.

This (C1 or C2) goes into the Texture-Tag selected: Attribute Manager>Tag>Selection. (See image)

If you need more, then there is no other way than to go with the option to create for each image an Polygon, applied to a cube (matrix), see attached scene. In the scene have a look to the MoGraph Selection. Switch the Plain Effector off, to have all six sides, or if on, have only the front sides.

I hope I got your question correctly. If not, let me know. I presume that you know the MoGraph Multi Shader.

Best :o)

Image for the Extrude. The scene file is not connected to the image! Two cases.

Ok… I failed to notice your multi-shader deriving it’s images from a qt file. That is what I was looking for to solve my dilemma… awesome thanks… Did you have to manually program the 90 textures or is there an easier method? 

big thanks,
Ron

Great that we found what you need, Ron.

The MoGraph Multi Shader has the option to do it all manually, or load a movie in the first layer and then press the “To Layers” button, or you use the “Add from Folder” option.

Have an eye on the “Mode” option. As mentioned above, the Cloner Object needs to be in a linear set up initially (Linear, or Radial), so each clone has its own “ID”. If Grid is selected from the start, many clones will have the same ID.

BTW, I used a QuickTime movie here for no specific reasons. It’s just the file that I use “always” for those examples.

My best wishes for the project, and if something is not clear, let me know.