Cineversity

Hi!  I’m trying to animate a deck of cards and I have it setup where the deck is fanned out and relatively random.  I’m using an inheritance effector with a mograph selection tag, a Matrix Object, and a spline to separate the cards by suit. The problem comes when the cards get to the final location.  Several of the cards are on the same matrices and some are empty.  This is leaving me with 8-9 cards visible and gaps where the cards should be. The little bit I found online points to an issue with index numbers where it lines up some but is confused with the ones that don’t match. I don’t where to begin to force the cards to the matrices or to re-index the cards/matrices so they can line up. I’m open to other ways to get the cards to move easily. I have one more move to do at the end of the animation so I’d like to not have to animate all the cards individually if I can avoid it.

Thank you!

Mike

Hi Mike,

Since we experience some problems with the Attachments, I have sent you an upload link. (Cineversity> Private Messages)

Sorry about the extra work.

Cheers

I’ve uploaded a stripped down file (no textures but all the animations) and a screen capture of the Matrix Object and the clones unevenly spread out.  Let me know what I can do to try and fix it or if there is a better way to approach it.  I’m not very familiar with Xpresso or Python and I’ve been trying to read up to find a solution with those but I have to admit that I’m in over my head for this project.  Any help is much appreciated!!

Thanks!

Mike

Hi Mike,

The problem that you encounter is pretty clear, the position of one cloner is applied to the positions of another. The main part is here that the Clone ID stays the same. It doesn’t become a clone of that other Cloner, you just ask for the PSR values of it. The clones stay child objects of that initial Cloner, and again, the ID remains.

The tricky part is, you exclude Xpresso here, (Python as well, but that would be then a question in the Developer Forum.)

I use Polygon Objects and a Connect to have an individual object for the Object mode in the Cloner when I encounter a problem like this. You have four stacks of cards, each needs 52 polygons to create the necessary IDs. Which would be a lot of work. To generate the setup below, was certainly more work than to just do it manually, but each change would cause nearly the same setup work in the manual case. So I made you a little production setup.

Have a look here how to use it: (file included)
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/SCdtnso62qBJQiQKrwy3Hh4NBShLovqAGVhd4vfTsSN

The retrieved Object can be deformed (e.g., Bend) as you need it, or any other Deformer. Never use the Optimize function it. It would delete all un-used IDs.

Please check if all works as it should, it is certainly not tested long enough.

All the best

Thank you very much!!!  That is awesome!!  I will try it out tonight!

I do want to add that I didn’t mean to necessarily exclude Xpresso and Python, just that I’m a real noob when it comes to the programing and I don’t even know where to begin.  If you think there is a better way to do it with either, I’d be willing to give it a try. 

Thank you!

Mike

Hi Mike,

I explored this for a while, to be able to give you a clear explanation of why that is quite a difficult task.
It looks on the screen perhaps very simple, and on the other side, use something that would be useable manual as well.
The Xpresso set up did work first as I had hoped for, as the MonoFlop doesn’t react on the same signal at all (counting) when it is repeated, hence the second Iterator (min0, max1) to just allow for that extra impulse to trigger. In this way, I was able to map the selection with a sequence like 3, 7, 23, 45 to 0, 1, 2, 3.

(I’m not trying to solve anything with Python here, but that might be easier with a list or a dictionary. I’m not sure if one can change the ID without losing the initial state. Anyway, Python is in great and skillful hands over at the Maxon Developer Forum.)

Such a clone delivery to “Sub-Cloner” objects would be a great function to have natively, which could be suggested here:
https://www.maxon.net/en-us/support/suggestions/
Your example is perfect as a communication base. Perhaps worth the time to do it?

Cheers