Hello all in ForumLand
I’m hoping someone can give some advice with a would be MoGraph rig - though I’m not 100% convinced this shouldn’t be done using particles instead of Cloners/Matrices.
The effect I’m looking to achieve would be an animation made up of 7 stages (A - G) something like what’s in this screenshot below.
To clarify things a bit, these are my general intentions for each stage:
A - Animation begins with a simple rectangular grid of clones (or particles) whose visibility ‘wipes on’ from one end of the grid to the other along one axis. I’d assume to achieve this with a simple moving PlainEffector effecting the Scale value of the clones.
B - Once the grid is fully apparent, the clones rise up randomly along the world Y-axis to form a little random-looking point cloud / cluster. I’d assume to use a RandomEffector or Field effecting the Y-position
C - Once the clones’ Y-positions are sufficiently randomized along Y, the cluster begins to move toward X+ along a drawn spline path. The movement here should be something like a delta pattern. The clones in the middle of the cluster move first up the path, and then are followed by the clones at the edges of the cluster, until all the clones are moving along the path.
D - The cluster continues along the path. The randomness of the clustering continues, but spread of the cluster tightens up a bit so that the clones are closer to the line of the path, and the whole cluster looks somewhat long & thin, like a comet, where the head is a bit more dense than the tail.
E - the path, which was a simple straight vector at the start, starts to gently curve sideways & downward toward Z- and Y- world axes. At the same time, the path begins to helix, and the clone ‘comet’ cluster follows the path of the helix.
F - Once the cluster comes out of the helix / bend, the path straightens out again and a portion of the clones (maybe 20 of 300) have a cluster of target objects waiting for them (in this case, they are circles). While most of clones continue south along the path THROUGH the cluster of circles…
G - a few random clones hit their targets and ‘explode’. Each clone that hits a target will “explode” in 2d radial pattern of new clones, which form small-ish circles around their target points, a bit like fireworks. Something like this: https://media.giphy.com/media/wX9VpOwOzPQSIqdoC5/giphy.gif
My first stab at this has me at using InheritorEffector, to run a basic morph through each phase (except for the last phase where the clones are supposed to explode into circles). Results are about as wonky as I’d expected so I’m looking for other options.
It’s particularly important that the cluster of clones follows the path in a way that looks consistent - meaning that each clone should generally keep a consistent distance from the centerline as it travels, and bank and rotate accordingly, rather than favoring a particular axis, the way a clone cluster tends to do with a SplineEffector. I’m wondering if I should be using a Deformer instead to achieve this.
I’m also wondering if the whole rig wouldn’t be better served as a set of particle fx, rather than using Cloners and Matrix Objects.
I’d assume the technique for doing the ‘explosion’ stage toward end of animation will depend on how the previous stages are setup, so this can be of lesser priority for now. That said, I’d imagine we’d want to specify some point indexes with a manual selection or an Xpresso node, and then match point positions to the origin point of each target object - though again, I’d think the technique should not be determined until the initial setup and animation are working well.
In any event, hoping someone out there has done something like this and can offer some pointers.
Many thanks
NpF
Link to C4D file: