Cineversity

I’ve got a couple general questions about the Take System that was introduced in R17. I’m working on an animation that involves using different camera angles and showing/hiding particular objects to illustrate how something works. Up to this point, I have been breaking my project into separate C4D files. I have come to the realization that I could be using the Take System for what I’m doing, so that I’m not cluttering my hard drive with a bunch of different variations of the same scene.

1) Is it possible to combine the separate C4D files into one master file as different Takes without redoing the animations I’ve done up to this point?

2) In the attachment, there’s a very basic tree of takes. On my Main take I have actually created a bunch of animation of my object (this was before I realized I could use takes). My question is, is it possible to move this animation down to one of the child takes, then delete the animation on the Main parent take so that everything is basically “reset” to a default state on Main? I have tried this, but obviously deleting the animation on Main will delete the animation on its children. Is there a way around this?

Please let me know if I need to clarify my questions! Thanks so much!
Matt

Hi Matt,

Let me have two lines how I understand it, perhaps this helps to go through your questions:

To have several scenes combined in one, and to be able to switch among them, this would be the XRef Object’s duty. Which is like a second crew worked in Studio B and now we sitting in for the dailies and watch all footage shot from the day, from all teams.
The Take System is more like the “Take” on a film set, where all actors and cameras are kept, but “let’s try/add another version”.

.

If you chose to load (merge) all scenes in a new master scene, while each scene is perhaps on a Layer or under a Null, the following would be possible

The take system allows to chose among all cameras available. So, any camera or render setting that was placed into a take, will be available during the “Merge” options. You can drag it into the “Destination” field.

Objects and animations or settings of objects will be not merged, AFAIK. So, if you set all the Scene Nulls to “not visible” (editor/render), then you can switch the specific scene on while the take is active.

While you merge a scene, you will be asked which Takes you like to keep or which one should follow existing Takes.

.

To have complex animations with the exact hierarchy (scene under a Null) one could use the Animation clips and store those animations in clips, then switch among them for each take. Set the Animation clips then to Layers, to keep it simple, and switch the Layers off (all animation parts)

All in all, it is simpler to separate from a master scene separate files (Take> File> Current TakeTo New Document) than the other way around.

I understand your idea of question two, but I guess I either miss something, or that needs to be suggested to MAXON:
https://www.maxon.net/en-us/support/suggestions/

Perhaps there is a way, but any change of the Main Take, would lead to a problem with the Child Takes, as they have only the change in their “memory”. Note that each object has its very own ID number, and if that has changed somewhere on the way… Copy and pasting or merging alone will often change the ID already to keep things working.

All the best

Thanks so much for your response Dr. Sassi. I think I’ll take your suggestion and not try to merge previous scenes into one. However, moving forward, I’ll make use of the Take System. There have been times when I’ve wanted to change a texture, and it’s been a pain to have to adjust it in every C4D file.

Thanks again!
Matt

You’re welcome, Matt!

It is certainly an interesting question and it took me a while to explore it.

BTW, if your textures are stored central, you might just rename the old one and name the new one as the previous was named. While the new one needs to be in the same location. This should do it quickly for all scenes.

My best wishes