Cineversity

Hello Sassi,

I hope you are keeping well and safe these days.

From the scene file below I am wondering if there is a way to create geometry from the sphere that has a PNG pattern added to the Alpha channel of the applied material. Or is there a way to create a spline from this sphere for example? (I know of Vectorizer but this only works on the texture itself).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7560ghl0f60cz11/alpha-spline.zip?dl=1

Any ideas are appreciated,
David

Hi David,

I hope you are doing fine as well, considering what is going on at the moment. Yes, I “Stay Home” of course, to protect the ones who are risking their lives for others right now.

I think I always enjoyed the idea about tracing from images, but in the past 25 years, I haven’t really seen something that comes close to what can be done manually. Besides, I love the relaxing work of tracing from time to time. To get by with as little points as possible, to recreate a shape as elegantly has is kind of meditation and can let me slip right into the zone.

Speaking of minimal amounts of points to create the most elegant solutions is not the key here, as each point represents the only way to change the shape towards the sphere. So we need lots of them. The same is true for the sphere, the more points it has, the cleaner the projection will be. Hence my extreme value for the segments.

Your texture was tiled five-time. Since the Surface Deformer can tile, the needed information has to come from a Cloner. To create usable material, a Connect Object needs to be involved.

After all of that, I create a copy with Current State to Object, this gave me the solution that you will find below: [updated]
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/mVgCD3gEtgFOAebaSpQGBZu0roHu2nXypKiA5mCKTzE

Screenshot
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/KHZeQfRyhN1dORQ6JRXw85C0R4E2zGgA0373gLTgqTL

You will see a plane in the file, I used this to “draw” the one tile information.

I hope that helps. Let me know if something else is needed. I am, as always, happy to look into it.

Stay healthy!

Thank you Sassi for your help again. With this approach I can use the CV ArtSmart tool and copy/paste the spline from Illustrator directly.

I find creating geometric models in C4D meditative in itself. At least we have C4D to keep us occupied while we hibernate

Thanks again and take care,
David

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

Here is something for the hibernation time:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/IYNTSxIIBfeNr8jIPxR7UYIUGu4WzvUxP9Uvo6oKMds

During heavy times, my “mantra” is In-Through-and-OUT! 
(Whereby I visualize the Out part during the whole time.)

Take care, as well.

Brilliant! Just up my street, you are such an inspiration.

Is your mantra applied to the situation or to creating in C4D?

David,

The idea from the file above was given by a studio from Munich, Germany if I’m not mistaken. Those “balls” were part of a Maxon advertisement. But somehow, I never saw a file provided, so I made one. I used it a few years ago in hands-on classes.

In-through-out, that is for the current situation. However, I assume the real Covid-19 time will be ~18 months until a drug is found.

The Mantra for Cinema 4D that would be more: In, deeper, explore even more. After using it for nearly a quarter-century, I think that is fair to say. I see 3D as an international language, besides some cultural derivations, it might be the best communication tool we currently have. So, there is no Out, at least for me. In fact, I work on more material for the future even, but that is a story for a different day. The Stay-Home practice has allowed me to focus a little bit more than usual, and I made good progress.

Stay safe, stay healthy.

I enjoy these short philosophical side discussions stemming from a 3D software program. But it’s no surprise as Cinema 4D creates such an immersive environment for creating and resonating with geometry of the sacred.

“Mathematics is the language in which God wrote the Universe” - Galileo Galilei

Stay safe too!

Hi David,

Yes, I can see what Galileo Galilei describes here. For me, mathematic is a drill that allows the brain to recognize patterns, the relationship among things, and so much more. It allows us to see on another level. As my Professor told me once in our discussions, chaos is only visible if one can’t recognize the structure or the patterns.

In the context of 3D, this means, we regularly simulate things, or produce from our vision. To be able to do that, one must be able to read those or understand them (those/them: what needs to be simulated or to grasped, the vision one has, artistically).

On end, it needs to be defined in Cinema 4D if we focus on this tool. To put it into the space of Cinema 4D and be able to react to it, refine it, and perhaps even animate it. This creates great happiness.

ENJOY.