mograph - multi shader and quicktime ?

[Mylenium]

hi

can anyone tell me if there is a way to use the multi shader with a quicktime file but instruct the shader to select a frame at random from that video file.

and thats thats not all . . .

after that random frame is selected and allocated to the cloned object either pause at that random frame ( there-fore makeing a still graphic ) or play into a looped state from that random frame ?

those who know trapcode particular might have done the same thing with a custom particle.

hopefully my post is clear.

cheers

pedro

Mmh, maybe with XPresso, though I think it's a bit crazy. Messing with this type of stuff could be a major pain - as there is no "play" and "pause" functions for animated textures, you'd have to adjust the range start and end dynamically. I also believe you have to have a separate material for each occurence because of that.

Mylenium

[tcastudios]

What you describe should be possible using the RTEv2 coffee originaly by AG at C4dTreff.
It uses picture series (you should use that in any case instead of streaming movies).

It can be dloaded via my sign, then ->xfiles.

I few notes about it.
1 Its fast, realtime.
2 The pictserie(s) as per instructions must be in a tex folder by the c4d file.
In essence a Save Project setup.Otherwise it will by default use the main tex folder of Cinema
3. Since it only loads -one- particular pict per RTE/per frame from disk into Cinema memory you have to manually copy the pict serie to the new tex folder when doing a SaveAsProject (for NET etc)

I tried three RTE's in the test movie. One for the full 150 frames, one looping frame 0 to 10
by animating the SCRUB and a third randomly selecting a pict.
Those are all the same pictserie from disk.

Have a look at this 300k QT (http://homepage.mac.com/tcastudios/tempfiles/RTEcustom.mov)

Cheers
Lennart

[Per-Anders]

Yes it's possible and not that complex, however I would recommend that you change the file form quicktime to frame sequence because Cinema is a loooot faster at opening frame sequences than quicktimes.

Here it is in four easy steps -

1) What you do is this, load in the sequence/quicktime into the multishader. Click the "to layers" button, let it do it's thing (if it's a quicktime then go away make a cup of coffee or tea or beverage of your choice, drink it, maybe read the paper, get some taxes filed... (this sends each frame to a seperate layer so that it can be accessed, as cinema does not allow random seek/search at rendertime of a quicktime or frame sequence). You'll notice the setting at the top is Color brightness, this means it takes the color of the clone and uses it's brightness to determine which shader/layer will be used i.e. white is at one end of the list and black at the other end of the list.

2) Now apply your material to your mograph object, be it a cloner, instance, fracture or whatever that accepts effectors.

3) Leave the object selected, add a random effector (that applies the random effector to the object).

4) In the random effector, go to the parameter tab, turn off position, and under Color change the color mode to "Effector Color and Alpha".

And that's it really, render and you're away. The reason it works is the random effector is changing the clones colors, and the multishader is using the clones colors to pick which shader is being used. You can then play with the settings in the random effectors page to control the randomness.

Be warned though that if you use a quicktime it will take an intolerable length of time, dont' fear your computer hasn't crashed it's just super slow both to start rendering and to load those frames in becuse of the way cinema handles quicktime, so once again use a frame sequence for speed!

[robotbob]

thanks guys

once again i am in debt to you two.

pedro

[howzit]

Yes it's possible and not that complex, however I would recommend that you change the file form quicktime to frame sequence because Cinema is a loooot faster at opening frame sequences than quicktimes.

Here it is in four easy steps -

1) What you do is this, load in the sequence/quicktime into the multishader. Click the "to layers" button, let it do it's thing (if it's a quicktime then go away make a cup of coffee or tea or beverage of your choice, drink it, maybe read the paper, get some taxes filed... (this sends each frame to a seperate layer so that it can be accessed, as cinema does not allow random seek/search at rendertime of a quicktime or frame sequence). You'll notice the setting at the top is Color brightness, this means it takes the color of the clone and uses it's brightness to determine which shader/layer will be used i.e. white is at one end of the list and black at the other end of the list.

2) Now apply your material to your mograph object, be it a cloner, instance, fracture or whatever that accepts effectors.

3) Leave the object selected, add a random effector (that applies the random effector to the object).

4) In the random effector, go to the parameter tab, turn off position, and under Color change the color mode to "Effector Color and Alpha".

And that's it really, render and you're away. The reason it works is the random effector is changing the clones colors, and the multishader is using the clones colors to pick which shader is being used. You can then play with the settings in the random effectors page to control the randomness.

Be warned though that if you use a quicktime it will take an intolerable length of time, dont' fear your computer hasn't crashed it's just super slow both to start rendering and to load those frames in becuse of the way cinema handles quicktime, so once again use a frame sequence for speed!


would you have a scene example file for this? I just got MoGraph and this would be really good to help find my way around and leant it a little please......

[tcastudios]

I tried it to the point and missed one important step ( not -specifically- noted but natural)
If (and you should) you use pictseries, you have to (or at least I had to) load as usual in the first slot. Select the texture and do the Calculate Animation route.
-Then- click "To Layers"
I had 150 small jpg's and it took several minutes to load.
A small note, all layers have then the same name (xxxx_000.jpg i.e) .

It does then work, but, you have to work blind folded in the editor, there is no editor preview......(that I could get going)


Cheers
Lennart

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