Cineversity

Hello Sassi. This is a variation of a previous question around clones and the step effector.

In the scene file below I have cloned and animated the rotation of a torus and applied a step effector with a time offset to give the animation you see.

As you know when using a cloner and scaling in iterative mode, it scales the radius of the torus with each count, but I do not want this.

In the setup in the null called “blended cloner”, I have blended two tori with the same radius and the appearance of the clones is what I want - each torus has the same radius.

But I cannot see how to apply the step effector with the time offset to the blended clones to achieve the same animation as the iterative cloner. I’ve played with using nulls and hierarchy order but cannot find a solution. Is it possible?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1el5p86trrj293f/delay.c4d?dl=1

Thanks,
David

Hi David,

Please have a look at the three files in the link:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/ra0eeNCI8h2bVufZ417S3B54wfNx73JeJOBglv7Nua6

File 01 uses the clone’s ID to progress the rotation (flip), based on the animated f value in the Formula Effector. Since this is an instant process, the Delay Effector set to Blend will slow down the transition for each.

The file 11 harvest the Step Effector results and shares it with the next Cloner, to produce the desired effect.

To be complete, the file 21 uses the Blend results (made editable) from a Previous Cloner and then uses these individual child-objects as Clones. Less parametrically, but simpler perhaps.

There is no way, to my knowledge, to use the Scale parameter in the Cloner, while using specific values (e.g., Torus> Pipe Radius), to counter the scale. I’m also not aware of an option that would mix the animated parameters of two (or more!) objects in a blend set-up.

I hope the examples help to find what you need. Let me know if there is any question, I’m happy to look into it.

Cheers

P.S.:  Perhaps not intuitive, this is done with the least amount of objects: [31]

Project file
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/uLsx0TQ2e38pV8vuzVw8Qcgcbo0uf0Ey3xQZkfmz6n5

Check the tabs Effector, and Parameter, in the Attribute Manager of the Step Effector.

A more “geek” version is here: (file and screen-capture)
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/3BW5OaCWCtGxAgsyWOBGzyQzKAL7pNs14zQckcjREAi

ENJOY.

Thanks for showing the options here and confirming, as far as you know, there is no way to counter the scale when iteratively cloning. This could be a handy feature possibly (is there a wish list or email to send feature requests?).

A question on file 21 - I understand the re-use of the 14 blended clones (made editable) have been placed under a cloner. But the cloner itself has a count set to 14, so how come we still only see 14 objects?

Thanks,
David

You’re very welcome, David, thanks for the reply.

File 21 shows 14 clones as it is set to fourteen. It will iterate through them. If there are fewer child objects than clones needed, it starts over. If there are more child objects than clones needed, it stops and will not show the used child objects.

Yes, the counter scale actions for some parameters would be helpful. I guess the complexity it would create, is perhaps too much, given that a simple interruption of the information flow could stop it. For that, the Primitive Torus needs to be built out of a few objects. Since I never know if the Torus is a place holder (i.e., example file), I try to get it done with the given objects.

If the Torus is the targeted object, the scale could be applied only to a portion of its own construction, of course, which allows organizing the information flow (scale) more precisely.

Example:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/NGoHkd5YakaXo7pK4gAbszqACl0ZZ9vRDnYhnRkpWNa

All the best