Cineversity

Does anyone know a quick way to generate random text in MoText?

Hi michaelsvirsky,

One way would be to use a MoText object and fill in any text, to describe the space you like, in terms of length and amount of lines.

This MoText is then made invisible and used as Mode> Object in a Cloner.

The Clones are MoText objects with a single letter in them. Which might be painful to set up A-Z, a-z and perhaps numbers.
So, I created a simple XPresso, that does this for a single MoText object. Which can be copied and pasted many times very quickly. Then select all the XPresso tags and type in the User Data “num”. Which sets each User Data to a unique number, counting up.

Inside of the Cloner object the setting must be Clones: Random. Dial in the Seeds for variations.

Scenefile
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/HHKcMKVivjOboa2qeyJJwLlJaWXgSF6LHYfNIfeDgoV?ref_=cd_ph_share_link_copy
One minute clip to give a glimpse how it works
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/345BQtBMoY2zGMjV7b7ZFaumdE2gJua86f3cOnmJoNS?ref_=cd_ph_share_link_copy

I tested the font “OCR A std:, with good results, as matrix font, any non-proportional/mono-spaced font will do …

All the best

P.S.: perhaps some other options?

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/3yFtQLLDEuuIokR0ky7gXj383N5PiUtwJ7edY10B5K0?ref_=cd_ph_share_link_copy

Thank You. I’m amazed that there isn’t a preset. I would think that a random character generator would be a since.

Hi michaelsvirsky,

Yes, would be nice, certainly useful from time to time. But that needs a little bit more. Anyway, since you are the first one who in fact ask about that, to my knowledge, in the past two decades, it is certainly time to check out what would be needed, just to support your idea:

Well, let’s have a closer look. What would be needed to have this working? First of all the text would have a frame that makes it kind of “fluid” so one could drag and adjust easily, with an automatic fill if it becomes larger. The simple version would have to have two parameters, length of line and how many lines, will give only a stiff idea of it, perhaps animatable. :o)

This is normally a feature of an “Authoring” application like InDesign. To my knowledge not even Illustrator has it, there is only a 3rd party plug in available or Illustrator, or do I miss something? So, next item on the list, it should work in all local version of Cinema 4D, the Japanese as well the German version (With its very long words.), and many more, certainly in the US version. Often a recognition of “syllables” would be needed, to have that text floating in the best way. Perhaps many things more, like multiple text frames, all connected with the option to have an image (object) floating/text wrap etc. Automatic-Kerning, per font information or optical (with text block prediction) and other things to have that “Equal Gray Impression” of a perfect text.

All of that is perhaps somewhere as an open source option available. If many people would need that, it would be requested and end up maybe high enough on the “most wanted list”, of the developers to-do list.
So, please suggest the feature here, make certain to include best or worse case scenarios description and why it would be important to have:

https://www.maxon.net/en-us/support/suggestions/

Perhaps you trigger others people’s interest and it might come soon, MAXON is certainly listening to the artists using Cinema 4D.

My main impression is, that most uses of the text-options are based on single words or headline use. Besides that, it is easy to produce a text and copy it in, which I think would be the mindset of many people, a wild speculation, I admit. Here I would see, that I good amount of request will be needed. I hope you are on to something, and you get what you need.

My best wishes.

Hi Dr.Sassi,
I guess I was thinking of something real simple, like a Character Offset expression in After Effects - ( here’s the expression : random(26) ) - i’ve attached a screen grab
It seems to me that in XPresso there should be a ‘character offset’ node/command that in this particular case could be driven by a random generator with a range mapper between 1-26.
This would animate any single or string of type characters. To animate it back to an actual word, you could substitute the 26 with a Null controller and animate the random from 26 down to 0, to reveal the actual word or string of words.

Thoughts?
Thanks,
-ms

Hi michaelsvirsky,

With 26 you get all small or all capital letter of a certain language, several languages have way more signs. As I mentioned, Maxon has to work in many countries.

Do you have looked at all into the scene file? The work I have done there is based on the idea of creating this in the fastest way.I tried any other random option.  I’m not aware or anything that connects letters with a number by default. Yes in the Font description you have 256 characters in one Byte Fonts, not true for open font or even newer ones. But: That could work, well, I’m not even sure if Python has access to it, any other native tool has not.

My best suggestion at this point is to use the Maxon > Suggestion option.

All the best

Yes, I have the files open - thank you for all the work and suggestions.
Although, I still see this as a much simpler issue/solution - that simply requires a ‘Character Offset’ function in MAXON.
It doesn’t matter if you’re offsetting the character by 1, 2, 26 or 33 (Cyrillic) this would depend on the font, language or content of the word -  the point is to autonomously animate text.
Thanks again,
-ms

I certainly try to support you, michaelsvirsky, but I really haven’t found how to address a character in XPresso, so I could offset those as you suggest this.
How to produce a long number or string first? IT becomes kind of complex. Yes, even the Math Add node allows to combine Strings. Eventually an iteration. The 26+ characters could be read out in a string command. etc etc.

In Python you could have a txt doc (placed somewhere in a fixed place in the Prefs or Maxon folder, e.g., tex) as a read out option and since the path isn’t changing, one could read out this document more or less. Suppress the return/break command and replace it based on a fixed number.

In FXPHD, the C4D Python course explained how to access a document and how to read it out. Perhaps that would be a way.

All of that, might lead to the Cineversity Toolbox team with their great motivation and skill set to do something like that. Perhaps you suggest it there as well?

My best wises

Thanks again for your help.
-ms

You’re welcome, michaelsvrisky.

Sometimes it is just “brainstorming” and trying to see each other idea, before it finally “clicks”. Let me know if there is anything else. Perhaps we get this working for you, which is always my target.

All the best

Dr. Sassi,
The Random Integer node in XPresso doesn’t seem to work on its own in R18 - I’ve tested it in previous versions but nothing in this.
Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks,
-ms

…I tried Integer as the Data Type but still nothing .

Hi michaelsvirsky,

Try this file, it is R18 and works. If not, I can offer to look at your file and then perhaps (if it doesn’t work here) you need support. Have you pressed the key A, to refresh?

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/WtxmAYpq9t7HH11k7wZawaKoIG5SJ2hThgC2pK5bk5z?ref_=cd_ph_share_link_copy

Your result is set to “Real”, but that should work as well, as Integer is kind of a subgroup of Real.

My suggestion would be to focus on the ACII code or how to address single letters. If you find this, the numbers and random versions of those will be not the big problem.

All the best

Yes, the Random node works fine, but for some reason the Random Integer does not.
I need the Random Integer node because it has various inputs that I would like to use.
Thanks.

Just unpack the “Random-Integer” and use it. (RMC on it). It is na XGroup with three nodes in it. The main part is a Random Node.