I wouldn’t use the Cylindrical lens for anything that isn’t flat OR flat like a cylinder projection). I saw also in some tests some artifacts of that while the space around is filled with objects. There is always the Spherical Camera, so far I have seen only problems with Post Render parts, as well with Hair and such renderings (Incl. X-Particles.)
Right, I didn’t realize we couldn’t render any tracer splines. It seems to be the same for the Spherical camera.
So for your Equirectangular approach, how would you set up camera resolutions for a 13725x1080 render? Would you just take the height and make a square of that?
I’m going to give it a shot!
Alex, that is why I have translated the Tracer or the XP-Path into a Sweep.
The Ae equirectangular conversation needs a Horizontal Cross is a 3 height and 4 wide pattern. (Other patterns are possible, i.g., 2x3) The horizontal dimension divided by four. Make it a little bit bigger than 13725 is not really a useable format. To be safe, have it at least dividable by 8 or better 16 (Not only for compression advantages).
Since there will be a conversion-process, I would use at least squares of 4k (4096). The height of these four horizontal (single) squares would be 4K normally, or whatever you need to cover. Example: the Particle-ring render could be smaller, perhaps even 1K only (again height. In Ae, it should be 3x4K high and 4x4K wide. Convert this, and from there, set the final resolution as you need it.
I hope that makes sense. Since I have the feeling that I know only a portion of the project, I hope all suggestions so far will work.
Hey Sassi
I tried sweeping the tracer, but no luck…I tried in R20 as well. I can see the geometry in the Perspective view, but not in PV. Maybe the same bug as what I had earlier? I could try your Mospline solution maybe.
For the camera question, basically what I’m trying to achieve is this :
I have a scene made of stars in AE. At some point the stars start moving and leave a sort of trail, as you would see in a long exposure astro photography (example here : https://www.dropbox.com/s/5kmnh929spulc06/02-Don-Pettit-star-trails_o.jpg?dl=0)
So what I’m trying to do is just create enough clones in the scene to get a decent amount of trails, and have these rotate.
Since this will be projected on a large cylinder in the real world, I want the star trails to not “clip” at the end of the flat raster I’m working in, I want it to seem as if they are spinning around without beginning or end.
I could also do this in AE with something like Trapcode Particular maybe, but I think I might run into the same problem?
So if I understand you correctly I could render 4x 4k renders that are 4000 Pixels wide and 1080 tall? Do I need to make squares or will rectangles work?
I hope I clarified a bit more…I really appreciate you taking the time to help me figure this out
Alex,
…my question was: what is S&T in the project and what is standard render, or even based on any kind of Particle/Hair render.
You need to know that I have only a minimal idea about the whole project of yours, and I can’t see what you have envisioned as a final outcome. All of these as 360º results? I really try to follow and put the pieces together, but it is not simple to just assume. Some techniques work, some not with specific setups.
I assume that all the questions lately cover one project since I saw a lot of different rendering results, I don’t want to set up test renderings again, only to get later, that I used the wrong one.
I suggested a circle, as you didn’t want endings, but I have to guess, you want to have the star as the starting point? This might be clear to you, but there are often shots from the Milkyway, for example, that create circle based trails in the final image. I can see both, so which one is it?
Perhaps a Spline Arc (animated) works better.
I’m sorry that I’m being confusing!
Yes, all the projects are for the same overall project, but different parts. There is only one part of this project where the content has to “wrap” seamlessly around the whole 360 projection.
I think the only thing I need to achieve here is the following : start with a series of dots spread across a cylinder. These dots start moving a create a trail. As they move, the only thing you see is trails of different lengths, until, at some point, the trails take up the whole cylinder and you just see lines of slightly different shades of white and light blue. Basically as if you took a long exposure shot of the stars.
I was using S&T just to test, I’m not married to any particular approach or renderer. Whatever is fastest and does the job. I tend to use Standard Renderer because it is faster and my canvas is quite big…
I hope I am being clearer? Apologies for any confusion, and thanks again so much for taking the time to help with this. It is really invaluable to have you as a such an amazing mentor with this endless learning of C4d
I have created an entirely new approach. It renders the 13725x1080 image sequence directly. It is also horizontally tile-able. It starts with few stars (dots) and creates trails until these trails show just an image of stripes.
The idea was to have multiple splines that cover more than the camera view. A MoSpline is multiplied with a distance of the Field of view, based on this multi-segment-spline. In other words, what is missing on the left is placed from the right with a copy?
The MoSpline is responsible for the slow creation of the Trails. (End Parameter). The camera moves then slowly along the copies, which are growing during that time. Super simple, and with any single image render (Photoshop offset), it is without a seam.
I hope that short description makes sense, at least after you have seen the file in action.
The Material is here Hair, with the Color set to Variety.
This is absolutely perfect! I’m scratching my head trying to understand exactly what you did though…
Let me see if I can break it down :
You created geometry that produces a series of lines with a tracer. You baked the tracker once it reached a point where the lines fill the screen. Then you cloned a mospline that is using that baked spline but grows it.
Where I lose you is where you say that “what is missing on the left is placed on the right with a copy”? Basically you mean that the beginning of the frame on the right and the end of the frame on the left are matching?
This is definitely the solution to my project, and a very elegant one!
Thank you!!!
Keep in mind that the Tracer-result will show only the tip of its splines, to create the stars. In the example scene, this is replaced with a growing gradient.
The Tracer can be taken from any duration, if 24 frames, then scale it to twice the “frame”, whereby 48 frames should cover it nicely.
Note the >•< sign, which shows that the copies of it need to be placed accurately in Field Of View distance. The left >•< and the next copy on the right >•< should match, so an infinity effect (tile-able) is achieved.
With this, the camera move in X, as well the growing effect can be set freely.
So if I want to modify this (for example add more points), I would go back to the original plane, add more points, trace for 24 frames, and then bake the spline?
What do you mean by scale to “twice the frame”? You mean add another extra 24 frames?
