Please take the file below “…_21.c4d”, do a test render for the frames 0-25. Use Standard and Physical, either way. Both (different colors) render similar)
Then check the red spheres which I have integrated in “…31.c4d”. It shows the movements per frame for the original “Spline New Anim”. One might argue it is not that point of the object followed by the spheres, but it is the frame by frame difference horizontal.
Either way, the Spline has a very different movement from one to the other frame, and it shows. I use in “…31.c4d” the “Spline New Anim” and have even added a rail to avoid any “euler flips” on the SWEEP.
It shows drastically in the Motion Blur [Physical].
It starts all with the “Spline New Anim” and given the fact that it doesn’t help to use spline after it, as it segments the curve, it might show more.
In the scenes I have replaced the Joints with Null objects, to get a lot of processing out of the scene.
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Another approach could be to place the Nulls on a Spline. Align to Spline. Try this, take a single Null, add an “Align to Spline” to it and place the Spline you like into the Tag. Then copy it, copy both, again and so on until you have the right number. Select all the tags and enter in the position field
100/(tot-1)*num
This should place all the Nulls in order on the Spline. On the print head place two Nulls (child) one where it connects and one a little bit away from it, to have a stable connection. All these nulls on the spline and the head are needed in the Tracer, in the right order.
Just an idea, test it if it works for you. Spline animation and head should be in “sync”. But the ribbon, will stay connected.
All the best