Cineversity

Hey there guys!

Found something quite cool on DALLE that I want to recreate in Cinema4D - I really love how the pillars in the image converge to a centre point. This seems to be able to be achieved by reducing the size of the pillars sequentially on the Y Axis, and also converging on the X axis.

I have a cloner object with pillars inside. I’ve achieved the step reduction in the Y Axis with a Step effector on the Cloner. However, I was wondering how I’d achieve the converging of the pillars to a centre point on the X axis? I’ve tried a few things now and nothing seems to work!

I’ve uploaded my C4D file and the reference image here - https://we.tl/t-bd1sEYLPZr

Plz help

J

Hi J.,

Thanks for the link, and using Wetransfer.

Please have a look here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/scq8v7j5ek7yctx/CV3_S26_drs_22_MGcm_01.c4d.zip?dl=0

Is that helping?

All the best

Thanks so much for sending this over! Very nearly there. I’ve attached a little sketch to give you more of an idea of the shape I was hoping to achieve. The example you sent over is on the left, and what I’m trying to achieve is on the right.

The example C4D file sent over does converge on the X, but it does so linearly (if that’s a word?!). I was hoping to achieve a curved effect with the pillars, like the drawing on the right. How could I achieve this?

In the reference image, although it’s clearly all smushed and weird, it feels like the pillars are curving in to the centre point rather than moving into it in straight line, which I’d love to replicate.

Thanks a bunch for getting back to this! Hope it makes sense

J

https://we.tl/t-fxse0y3ZZF

Wetransfer here of that sketch in case it didn’t come through on the attachement - I couldn’t see it.

J

Hi J.,

Thanks for the sketch; very clear, and thanks for using Wetransfer.

Please have a look here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yxden11thx0qdrf/CV3_S26_drs_22_MGcm_11.c4d.zip?dl=0

Is that more what you like to have?

Cheers

That’s exactly it - thanks so much!

I didn’t know about the spline effector, what a find. Will find so many other uses for this now.

I do have one question out of interest - to what purpose does the ‘spline rail’ serve? I see that you’ve created a spline rail with an instance of the original spline and placed it in the spline rail section of the Spline effector, but when I hide and show the spline rail layer, it doesn’t affect the scene.

Thanks a bunch again, especially for creating the sample scene for me. It’s a huge help.

J

Hi J.,

Thanks for the feedback.

The Rail is typically an orientation for the clones, Like a target. I use from time to time the Instance for a spline and pull the Instance up (if that is the correct direction.

This allows (more often than not) to change the spline, and the Rail follows naturally.

Just move the Instance in your scene to see how it changes the outcome. (do it on a copy)

Sometimes the Spline Rail is also used for other changes (e.g., Sweep)

All the best