city out of cardboard boxes mograph

[JoelOtron]

Not sure about exactly what you need--but One way to do it--or to start:

Create a polygon cube (not a primitive), and drop it in a cloner--set it for ONE single clone.
IN THE CLONER under the transform tab, animate the Y scale of the box from 0 to 1. Make sure the axis is cenetered on bottom of cube (y-axis). If you would like this effect--add a delay/spring effector to that cloner.

Add another cloner--and drag the first cloner into it. Set the cloning method to grid (x and z count to whatever you need, y count to 1) Add a step and a random effector and use the time offeset features, and any other features you want o use. Heres a movie and a file.

MOVIE (http://www.betatronstudios.com/joel/BUILDING.mov)

FILE (http://www.betatronstudios.com/joel/CITY GROW.c4d.zip)

[Rantin Al]

Nice one Joel. The link to the file has an extra 'http'.

Cheers, Alan.

[JoelOtron]

Nice one Joel. The link to the file has an extra 'http'.

Cheers, Alan.

WHOOPS

try now!

[Rantin Al]

'Nice one' was in reference to the file, not the duff link.
Already downloaded after masterful use of the delete key.:D

Cheers, Alan.

[barbapapa]

hi man really nice post. yes this is similar to the results im getting. but the effect. the way they appear is too random...the guy here, wants like something that goes frome one cube two the whole city... think more ore les like the transformers´ cube but backwards....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUSWs0mfGrY&mode=related&search=

and into a city , not a cube jeje. no rotations or anything just the boxes poping up. and forming buiildings. (buildings formed out of several boxes).

Any ideas?

[Mylenium]

hi man really nice post. yes this is similar to the results im getting. but the effect. the way they appear is too random...the guy here, wants like something that goes frome one cube two the whole city... think more ore les like the transformers´ cube but backwards....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUSWs0mfGrY&mode=related&search=

and into a city , not a cube jeje. no rotations or anything just the boxes poping up. and forming buiildings. (buildings formed out of several boxes).

Any ideas?

That's a tricky one. If you look closely, each box is tied to the previous one. this behavior is impossible to mimic a 100% with MoGraph. It's not a lost cause, either, though. Use the basic setup Joel suggested or whatever else you are using, but expand it. Use a Random Effector on ly to affect the weight of a clone, but not other parameters. Instead animate the Falloff of a normal Step Effector and move the falloff. For even more control use Shader Effectors. Tie them to a proper material which is being placed in world space, then animate e.g. an expanding circular gradient. To align the cubes, use a Target Effector set to Next Node, so each cube points to the next one. The real trick will be to correctly place the cubes and using a simple Grid is unsuitable. you need to work with your Cloner in Object mode. A good idea would for instance be to have a spline that follows a regular sharp serpent pattern - it looks like a grid, but each cube will grow organically along the splien. Lastly, stack multiple such setups where the first cloner becomes the base for the next one etc. For this you need the Connect object or DiJoiner to turn a Cloner into valid "object" geometry.

Mylenium

[Rantin Al]

Is it something like this GO BIG (http://stashmedia.tv/feed/GO_BIG_web.mov) from Tronic on Stash Feed you are after?

Maybe it will give someone an idea whether it is viable in C4D.

HTH, Alan.

[JoelOtron]

Myelenium seems to have the answer

Heres a quick test (still) using random effector with falloff.
The buildings are cloned on the surface of the cube--but at their initial state they are facing INWARDS 100%. The random effector pushes them out backwards from the surface of the larger cube. This could be a cool one.

Dont you hate it when the client/producer always seems to want that one little extra detail which thows a wrench into the entire production?

EDIT: Heres a quick MOVIE (http://www.betatronstudios.com/joel/boxessmall.mov)

[barbapapa]

hi Rantin Al yes is just like the GO BIG thing what this people want.
Hey joelD thats a really cool effect man. similar to the results im getting here. but i cant get the go big one..... arrrgg yes i hate this little details that get in your path time to time..... Mylenium , thank you very much fot the post has given me some ideas to get the effect done..
Im trying to see if maybe with particles i can go somewhere. is just matter of experiment untill i nail this.

[JoelOtron]

Is it something like this GO BIG (http://stashmedia.tv/feed/GO_BIG_web.mov) from Tronic on Stash Feed you are after?

Maybe it will give someone an idea whether it is viable in C4D.

HTH, Alan.

That is INCREDIBLE!! WOW.

Now I see what he's after. Im shrinking back into my cave....

[barbapapa]

no no no, dont go back to the cave! great ideas are popping up here.

so you guys think this cant be done on c4d? please dont tell me this only can be done in houdini :sad:

What a puzzle arrg

The main problem that i have found now is generating the boxes one on top of the other formig the buildingsand shapes... in some tests they start appearing randomly... im in a bit of a dead end. if any of you guys have any other ideas it will be of great help

[JoelOtron]

Im thinking it might be better to work this out linearly rather than procedurally.
Start wth your end state city and work your way backards--then go back in and add some cool dynamic effects manually or with mograph where you can.

At least you know (I hope) that you can get from point A to B that way and will have the most control. A lot of work--but may be just as much work as working it all out procedurally.

[Rantin Al]

Renato's N.O.T.A. lite plug in can manage the effect mentioned by Mylenium using a 'Serpent Spline'.
MoGraph should be able to do it, possibly even more-so with the range of effectors available.

I'll see if I can get it working at a basic level and chuck it into the ring for a mauling. :)

Cheers, Alan.

[LemonNado]

Just got reminded... NAKD made this a while ago:
http://lumeneclipse.com/gallery/03/nakd/index.html
Rainer

PS:Don't forget that this is not stuff you do in an afternoon... Not even n a week... and not alone... Expect: PAIN!

[barbapapa]

yeh i know... when i saw the story board i order my self a whole box of aspirine and another one of morphine just in case. yeh lemonado a think they got the idea aout of that spot but they didnt knwo the name of the companyin fact the first box has to build itself and then start cloning. this is gonna be one painfull efect to pull off.

Hey JoelD yes man i agree with you. lienarly would bee the best way to do it .That was my first thougt ... the problem is that knowing this client they might go over changes, and sadly im not the one calling the shots on changes policy on this project....thats why i went the procedural way.. or at least as close as i can get to..damn..

Rantin Al thanks man, if you can give it a shot would be great! any ideas are more that welcomed

[Rantin Al]

Rainer, that is brain mushing stuff.:thumbsup:

OK, first basic cubes along the serpent spline.
Two nested Cloners, one along the spline for the starter build. The other for creating the walls.
It should be easy enough to re-direct the spline to build in the window frames etc.

Come out of that cave and join the fun. :)

Cheers, Alan.

[LemonNado]

:)
Unfortunately I can't join right now.... I am routing some wood with my new self build CNC in the garage. C4D to create the geometry. But the weekend is near!
Oooopssss.... tool change...... Where is that router bit......

Happy Box'ing!
Rainer

[barbapapa]

wow Rantin Al man i think this is the way to go! great one! this is what i got using a step effector offseting time. thank you very much man

If any of you guys ever need something please ask or at least ill get you a beer

cheers!

[JoelOtron]

Cool stuff guys.
Good luck with it.
If you are allowed to--please post the results.

[Rantin Al]

He-He! It's only a starting point. It's not that spectacular and I'm sure that someone will come up with a real gob-smacking edition.

Virtual beers are the prefered currency.:)
Must go play some more.

Cheers, Alan.

[Joseppi]

Joel Dubln: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE!

That Go Big is insane! Never saw that before... cool...

Joe

[Spekulatius]

Hi,

It seems MoGraph does the job, but this problem was too interesting for me...so I tried to solve it with good old TP:

www.illustrato.de/TP_boxes.mov (420kByte)
www.illustrato.de/TP_boxes.c4d.zip (56kByte)

The boxes are only scaled in the beginning, better would be a little animation of a unfolding box...maybe later.

Jochen

[Rantin Al]

Jochen. Outstanding. :thumbsup:
I love the 'Maybe Group'.

Cheers, Alan.

[Taxman9]

Hmm.. something you could use in conjunction with other methods is a display tag for turning visibility on off on each object linked with Xpresso to the camera.. Then, the distance from the camera can affect the visibility... meaning as the camera moves backwards through where the boxes should be they appear to pop up in front of you.. I tried to do this but my Xpresso skills are lacking..

just and idea
Josh

[AdamT]

The GO BIG spot is very cool looking, but if you step through it frame by frame I think it becomes clear that it isn't all *that* intimidating to do. The bridge is far and away the most sophisticated effect. I would attempt that one by using multiple cloners in object mode and animate an effector with linear falloff affecting visibility to make the thing appear.

The buildings are generally done in two or three frames, with one or two exceptions. Again, I'd use cloners in object mode as before. The key would be to build the underlying object out of an evenly divided mesh, with each face being the same dimensions as the cloned cube. Not too much of a problem as all the buildings are based on rectangular design elements.

Lots of work for sure, but doable.

btw, I think TimC has an example on his website of a procedural mograph bridge.

[Rantin Al]

btw, I think TimC has an example on his website of a procedural mograph bridge.

I couldn't find the Bridge example on Tim's site. I think it was originally posted on a CGT MoGraph thread.
But there is a tutorial on the technique using the Animation Offset (http://www.hypa.tv/tims/animoffset/animoffset.html) to create a fence. Easily adaptable to box building.

Cheers, Alan.

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