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Ripping Paper
Posted: 22 December 2012 02:21 AM   [ Ignore ]  
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Greetings Fellow Cinephiles,
  I found the GenArts Showreel clip on Maxon’s site to be impressive (http://www.maxonexchange.de/video/stories/broadcast/genarts/GenArts.mov) and would love to master the demonstrated techniques. In this animation, a swath of paper rips and curls into a roll, revealing text behind it.
  At first I thought the best approach would be to use the cloth tag in conjunction with the bend deformer. But I don’t see a way to make each 360 degree iteration of the bend deformer spiral increasingly inwards. Also, after considerable tweaking, I couldn’t succeed in making the ripping of fabric resemble ripping paper.
  I also tried bezier nurbs, loft nurbs, sweep nurbs with thin wide rectangles along a spiral spline, etc. Each method I tried worked to a degree, but seemed to hit a dead end in one way or another.
  Have any of you tried and succeeded with a technique to model ripping and curling of paper? GenArts has demonstrated that this CAN be impressively created. Hopefully a discussion of this will be interesting to others as well.
  Thanks for your input!

  - Larry

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Posted: 22 December 2012 03:01 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 1 ]  
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Hi Larry,

As usual, we try not to simulate reality here for the sake of doing it exactly like we “see” it. It only need to look in that way. In this case: I would not even bother to think of ripping anything apart in C4D.

What I see here, is a simple technique, based on two textures of (prepared real paper or a good drawing of the edges of ripped) paper. Two objects, preferable planes, might work here just fine.

The Bend deformer does a good job to roll things, you need to set it up a little bit shear to each other. Have an eye on the angles in which I have placed the “Plane” and the “Bend” deformer to each other! Some Displacement might help to get a more “organic” feel into it.

I have in this rough sketch a Gradient introduced, perhaps not really needed, but it might help to compose the parts better (in c4d or later in post).

(Note that I used here two different colors to illustrate the process, I got that it should be the same color and perhaps texture. The blue texture underneath might be third plane and is unveiled by an alpha channel as well. If you take the gradient animation, this need to be used for the main surface (not the blue one in your example, the blue in mine) as well

All the best

Sassi

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Dr. Sassi V. Sassmannshausen Ph.D.
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Posted: 22 December 2012 04:59 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 2 ]  
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P.S.: I was interested in finding a different method to roll the paper. It is a little bit more tricky to set up, but with the “Spline-Interface” of the Range-Mapper, a pure fun to animate.

The “Rig” looks large, but it is always >>copy all Polygon-Objects, and add the copies and again<<, 32 copies are very fast established. Please check the Axis position first in the attached file.

The “Iteration” goes through the “Link-List”, and as each object in the Link-List has an ID, the ID (or counting number) of the iteration results, based on the Range-Mapper, then in an Angle (R.P.). As the Rig is hierarchically, each polygon object, rotates all following children, which is then additive and leads to the roll-aniamtion.

More tricky is the texturing. I use a Plane in the Rig as guide for the “Fit to Object” (flat) projection; Sub-Objects included. Then “Copy all Tags to Children”—here the Texture Tag. I have deleted first all UVW Tags. Then, secondly, I selected all Texture tags, and used the Generate UVW Coordinates (Here I declined the “Sub-Objects-Included”.

The other Plane-object is treaded in the same way. Then the texturing should fit seamlessly.

As I said, it is a little bit tricky, but pure fun to animate after all. :o)

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Dr. Sassi V. Sassmannshausen Ph.D.
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Posted: 22 December 2012 09:54 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 3 ]  
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Hi Dr. Sassi,
  Your detailed information on how to approach this project is appreciated. You put some time into this and even created project files! The project files provide much clarify.
  I’m especially intrigued by the Xpresso version, because it rolls the paper multiple times. I’m increasingly using Xpresso in my animations, but have much to learn. Hierarchically stepping through each polygon and rotating all of its children makes sense.
  I have C4D version 12. When I click ‘Play’ on the timeline of your Xpresso version, nothing happens. The paper is already rolled starting with frame 1. Am I missing something, or is the rolling of the paper not yet animated?  If it is not yet animated, how do I go about telling Xpresso to cycle through the polygons based on the timeline?
  Thanks for your great insights on how to do this!
  Larry

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Posted: 23 December 2012 01:36 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 4 ]  
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Hey Larry,

You’re welcome.

It doesn’t work (in r12), as the Spline Interface has been re-written. However, to replace the “Range-Mapper” node is a simple task. The options in r12 to animate this in a similar way are given, but different. Have a look in the scene file, keep in mind that you can just place a new “Range-Mapper there, connect the two ports, take the “wires” from the other one, and store a new animation there. In that way you can create alternatives.

Good luck with the project

Sassi

(I found in animating again, this version is more natural, as the animation with the spline allows for an very “non-procedural” look)

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Dr. Sassi V. Sassmannshausen Ph.D.
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Photography For C4D Artists: 200 Free Tutorials.
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Posted: 23 December 2012 02:22 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 5 ]  
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Hi There,

I have prepared a “Joint-Rig” version of this idea. Think of the “Spline Curve” in the “Range Mapper” like the X value from 0-1 is equal to joints 0 to 31. The position Y on the curve results in an local angle (OUTPUT!)

I have set the out put here to 45º to -45º, which means a local angle of zero equals a Y of 0.5

As each Joint is moved by the one parent to it, curves, spirals and rolling is an easy adjustment.

For alternatives use several Range Mapper and connect each as you go. (If you are on an older version, replace the Range Mapper with the one in your package.)

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Posted: 23 December 2012 07:15 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 6 ]  
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Hi Dr. Sassi,
  Your solution is brilliant! Having a working version to dissect has helped me see how it works - I never would have thought of doing it this way! Also - using 31 joints to control the 31 polygons is great original thinking.
  I’m excited to try this technique out on a project that I can polish and refine. Thanks for expanding my mind!

  May You Have a Special and Meaningful Christmas,
  Larry

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Posted: 23 December 2012 03:02 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 7 ]  
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Hi Larry,

Thanks for your feedback. Very nice of you.

I see the real magic of C4D in the combination of different options and techniques. All of that is based on good basics AND the willingness to explore, play and to be creative in any way (Creative as a term is used here as placeholder, as usual :o) I like it as it will never end to surprise and motivate me to dig deeper. Enjoy the ride ;o)

May I add that I use mostly 32 objects (Xpower2), as I copy (double) them, but based on the ID numbers in XPresso, which are mostly starting with zero, I end up with 31. There is a reason for the zero start number. So far I was told, in the old days, and memory (RAM) was expensive, expensive enough to not ignore the binary zero (ones and zeros), so they started with the first “object” with a zero, instead of one. Perhaps you know that, but as I write in a forum, I try to be complete.

My best wishes

Sassi

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Dr. Sassi V. Sassmannshausen Ph.D.
Cinema 4D Mentor since 2004
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Photography For C4D Artists: 200 Free Tutorials.
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