Cineversity

Hello Sassi - is there a way to control the distance or gap size of the history count of the MoSpline tool, without having to increase the speed of movement? I’ve searched around but cannot find anything.

Thanks you,
David

Hi David,

Would you mind to share a scene file? This is a quite cryptic question
I have no idea what you are talking about. L-System perhaps?

Cheers.

I’m so sorry - my bad, I meant MoInstance!

Link to scene file below. Press play and you will see a trail of circles. I’d like to know if it’s possible to control the distance between each circle of the history depth.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hb9ihszrlspqs1b/MoInstance.c4d?dl=1

Thank you,
David

Thanks for clearing it, David.

I see, you had History Depth and the amount in mind, which merged then to history count. Got it.

Think of the MoInstance as an Particle Emitter which creates per frame a clone where the MoInstance has been moved to for this particular frame. 
If you open the scene file below
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/nSFyUaEcgHqzZM5FC9bPOnSajdp69YYJOCpIP1cC79k
you will find that I have set the MoInstance always in a Torus, each frame I moved it forward to the next. IF not further moved, as on frame seven, it will create more clones with the same position and orientation.
While the amount of clones is given in the History depth, you will see clones in the same amount in the scene, again, no movement = increasing number of clones on the same position and orientation.

Each time a new frame is given, a new clone is produced, until the History depth “count” is reached, then the “oldest” clone is deleted.

based on that, the distance among all clones are dependent on the movement of the MoInstance, if the original object (the clone source or Object Reference) is not animated by itself. This will introduce a new complexity.

In the scene file I have placed the Object (reference) under a Null (set to invisible: Editor/Render). In this way only the Clones are in teh scene and the MoInstance has no clue about the Null and its setting, hence the clone is visible (Editor/Render).

The speed in the example scene is set to 5fps - to allow for a better observation.

Is this answering your question?

P.S.: you added a scene file later on.

The MoInstance rotates around itself, full circle. If I get your intention correctly, this should work like a loop.

The first observation is, that it starts to slowly accelerate, and slows down to zero at Frame 75. If a loop is wanted, it should be a linear interpolation (not spline), so it doesn’t accelerates and decelerates. This change of speed leads to different distances, and a noticeable point around frame 75 and 0. Perhaps this is wanted, … I have no input from you on that.

This would then, since frame 0 is a full frame, lead to the following formula: 75/76*360 = 355.263° As frame 0 would be practically frame 76 for the observer. So, the Object orientation shouldn’t be stopped with twice the same orientation during the loop; A common habit to type in just 360º.

In this case I would go even further, as the rotation is based on a symmetrical object, and so, use this formula (which can be typed in to the P.H field directly, Cinema 4D will do the math): 75/76*180=177.632 ° or shorten even the loop to 38/39*180=175.385 ° based on the symmetrical object.
You had a negative in front of the numbers, this can be just added later.

I have done all the steps mentioned above for the file, see below
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/hLKoc9dAENIVenV1C9FgFWENHqeBzLejRjaFaByy8ag

IF you check out the Attribute Manager> Formula Effector> Effector
You will see a formula and in the F slider a number.

The formula reads as follow:
?(mod(id;f)=0;0;1)

If (?) the Modulo of the ID (clone id number) with the divider f results in zero, then the factor used for the effector’s parameters is zero, otherwise it is 1 (or 100%).

So, if f =8 then you see only every 8th Spline. With that, the distance to each Spline clone can be determined (increased). The larger F, the larger the distance.
It draws each frame a spline, but based on the formula, only a few are not scaled to invisibility.

All of that is shortly demo’d here
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/7cadEjK7frIcGqAIjs8WzHA4jMuS1moRttQEFzUbRkb
You can download the clip, for a better viewing experience

All the best

Your assumptions were correct regarding the loop and my scene file was mainly to show the history depth parameter with my question.

Thank you so much for the detailed reply Sassi.

Kind regards,
David

You’re very welcome, David, thanks for taking the time.

I like to share whatever I imagine could be helpful for the given question/project. Of course there is always the concern that I could over share (but after all, this is written in a forum addressing many artists with a wide variance in experience) and on the other side there is the concern that suggestions could be received as critique (certainly not my intention).
My hope is, that I provide exactly what I would have loved to receive at a certain time in my life.

So, thank you for your feedback, easing out my concerns.

Enjoy your projects!