Cineversity

Hi, I will tell you how my cloners are setup before asking the question and explaining what I would like to do.
I have a project that has a cloner generating 13500000 clones. I am using two different objects that each has it’s own shader to generate what I need.
I am trying to bake them to keyframes. I saw that a quick way is to save out an alembic file since the xpresso and cappucino didn’t work.
I am assuming I would have to retexture the objects.

Is there a way I can separate the clones to know which is generated and where so I can have two separate object groups?

Hi Shadowgin,

I fear that I have not the cpu capacity to check out 13,500,000 clones. However, if the Alembic route works for you, perhaps
(brainstorming based on a missing small example file of your set up)
you replace the object A with an empty Polygon Object, and export, then do the same but instead of A—replace B in the same way, and export again.

You get two files, and each can be loaded separately in a different new scene, set up with the shader as needed, saved and merged into the file you like to work with.

I assume—it is not that simple, but I certainly have nearly no idea what your scene looks like.

Set up a small scene that represents your problem and I will have a look into it, if the separation option doesn’t work.

All the best

P.S.: to get out of the “brainstorming zone”, I tested it, and with my few clones (vs. 13.5m) it worked fine here.

But please note that any idea to select even half of the 13.5M clones will never work, as the limitations of selectable objects are limited to 100,000. (Which would require that the selections would have to be repeated 14+ times).

My best wishes.

Hi Dr Sassi
Thank you for replying to my questions. I think we just have too many clones to try and bake. Thank you for the tip. I think next time we will not use cloners but generate them using particles. This way we can bake it and save it outside of the cinema file.

Thank You Dr. Sassi

You’re welcome, Shadowgin.

Sometimes Hair can be a good solution as well, dependent on the target. Or group the areas, etc.  If you have to do it again, perhaps something similar, just set up a little test scene, and post it here. I’m not certain if I get always the best ideas ;o), but I know that more often than not, one idea creates the next. So, a little brainstorming is certainly not a waste of time.

Good luck with the project!