Thinking Particles and Pyrocluster?

[visualboo]

The best way to think of NLA is to think of Premiere. You have clips of video (or whatever) and basically you can move and edit them separately. Just think of the timeline.

[Grey]

oh?

Okay, here's how I'm understanding non-linear animation.

I set up a particle fountain.

I set up a wind deformer

I move the wind deformer across the particle fountain and the particles react to the wind deformer when they are in the deforer's influence... rather than me having to key the deformer to affect the particle stream, it's done based on the position of the deformer... (or whatever other rule I apply)...

If I'm correct, this isn't really anything revolutionary... it's just an expansion of dynamic rules. Sort of a 3D spreadsheet.

Also, is this the same Pyrocluster and Thinking Particles that are going into Cinema4D or is it a completely different plugin?

[Roger Eberhart]

Non-linear animation has nothing to do with particles and dynamics per se. What it means is having the ability to mix or transition between different animations. This allows you to have a library of different animations and combine them to get what you need. You could have walk cycles, run cycles, a jump, etc. Then you could, for instance, transition from a run to a jump, without having to come up with a separate animation of a character running then jumping. C4D has had non-linear animation capability since version 6. Cinema calls it something like motion mixing or synthesizing (I don't have my manual with me at the moment, so I'm not sure of the exact terminology). I'm not sure how well C4D's NLA stacks up against other packages. As far as I know, SoftImage and Animation Master have the best implementations.

[kiwi]

Grey a friend sent me a link to that site the other day :) I think what it does differently is that with thinking particles you could say define individual particles/areas which dont move with the wind whilst having all other areas/particles conform to the wind derformer.Dont quote me on that by any means though,but I took it as much more control over how your particles behave compared to how they do now in C4D :)



I might not be mentioned because the page has not been updated for a while,or Maxon have asked them not too.



Not sure if its the same as the Pyro we know and TP we are told will be in 8 or not.I suppose that could be commercially sensitive at this time :)


Stu.

[kiwi]

Ah ok different link :D


http://www.cebas.com/products/products.asp?UD=10-7888-33-788&PID=15



Seeing Cebas seem to be in the mix well and truly my guess would be ya its the same app :thumbsup:


Stu.

[Grey]

It would be difficult for me to believe that Pyrocluster and Thinking Particles come from one company for Max and Cinema just happens to have two plugins by the same name and be unrelated...

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out...

[Roger Eberhart]

Cebas makes quite a few plug-ins that are used in both C4D and Max. C4D's renderer is based on an older version of FinalRender for Max (thus no HDRI and Sub-surface scattering). Pyrocluster is available on both platforms and now Thinking Particles. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised to find that the features are not exactly the same. For instance, I expect Thinking Particles for C4D will be improved over the Max version because it will be the latest version.

[LucentDreams]

Originally posted by Roger Eberhart
Cebas makes quite a few plug-ins that are used in both C4D and Max. C4D's renderer is based on an older version of FinalRender for Max (thus no HDRI and Sub-surface scattering). Pyrocluster is available on both platforms and now Thinking Particles. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised to find that the features are not exactly the same. For instance, I expect Thinking Particles for C4D will be improved over the Max version because it will be the latest version.

The cebas plugins for MAx are what were used for this example. Thinking Particles and Pyrocluster are available for R8 throught the modular system are a basically the same (the not totally) so they were developed along with Cebas.

As for Maxon's rtenderer you statement is totally false, it is not a previous version of C4D's renderer at all. It is C4D's renderer, and Cabas helped in the development of the GI/caustics/blurred reflections and little more. The AA is totaly different and farr better in XL, and they overall are quite differejnt, especially speed.

TP I can't say will be better or worse as I have no experience with the max plugin, and little with R8's, but one advantage R8's version has is that it is integrated right into R8's expresso editor.

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