There have been a lot of questions about how Mathieu Martel did this awesome animation for the “Circle and Spheres” Five Second Project. He actually did this animation with ndynamics in Maya. But, I wanted to replicate it in Cinema4D to show you how to set a scene like this up and make it available for download so that you can play around with it. So, download it below, pick it apart and have fun.
Cinema 4D Mograph 2 Attractor Scene File
DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILE HERE
Requires Cinema 4D 11.5 and Mograph 2
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39 Comments
Knowing how he did it in maya would be awesome too, yeah?
The Gorilla on October 23rd, 2009 said...
Yeah, but you may have to ask him to show you…
I mentioned it, so he may have a scene file up soon.
Mike Erla on October 23rd, 2009 said...
sexyy
Cool, I also tried this last week, just to see how it’s done.
Wow, awesome, downloading it right now. Thanks for sharing Nick.
nice one nick , thanks
Thanks a ton for taking the time to set this up, Nick. This type of thing is even more helpful than tutorials in some ways because you have to sort of reverse-engineer things by looking at them through the Attributes, etc. One thing I notice that is super-complex is the Expresso-generated lighting. Zoom out on that puppy and you start to get a feel for how complex this scene really is. Trying to reverse-engineer the Xpresso and all the relationships there might be a daunting task; what does Xpresso do there generally that couldn’t be accomplished without it, complex cloud lighting?
The Gorilla on October 23rd, 2009 said...
The Daylight Xpresso based lighting is from CS Tools. CS Tools is a set of free plugins for C4D that help set up your scene easier. Learn more here: http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/category/cinema4d/cstools/
VancouverMan on October 23rd, 2009 said...
Danke!
Amazing! Thanks for this, Nick!
thx man.. merci bien ami:)
Wow! Had no idea that people were so interested in seeing how it was done. Its actually quite simple… I’ll put up my scene file when I’m back home for people to check out, and write up a how to.
Thanks all, and thanks Nick!
can you explain the attractor a little more? not understanding why it sticks to the sphere more than other objects i put in
The Gorilla on October 23rd, 2009 said...
Sure, The attractor only attracts object that are clones. Drop your new objects in a cloner object or a Fracture object to have them be effected by the attractor.
Hi Nick, big fan of your blog!
I’ve been learning Ae for a while now, thanks to you and other sites, and now I’ve started to look into C4D. Something I don’t get yet though is the bridge between the two. Could you, if you have the time and will, go trough how exactly you continue working on a C4D project in Ae? It also would be awesome to see your workflow on this subject, since most of your C4D tuts doesn’t continue into Ae.
Keep on rocking/blogging (brocking!) man!
finemotionvision on October 25th, 2009 said...
check this out. might get you started http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/maxon-cinema-4d/how-to-export-3d-camera-data-from-cinema-4d-into-after-effects/
Just i love it!!!!!!!!!!!!
but how can i replace the sphere with a logo or something else??
Thanks nick you are my guru in cinema!
The Gorilla on October 23rd, 2009 said...
You can add anything to be attracted too. Just add the Rigid Body Tag to it and adjust the Attractor size to compensate.
phacyde on October 23rd, 2009 said...
Seem tricky with a logo because attractor is always toward the center. It work well with a sphere but I can’t manage to have something good even with a simple shape like a triangle. I try to clone the attractor to the object (vertex, surface, etc) but no luck too.
Any help ?
Thanks for the file. I just have on question. I opened the file and got an error saying that the “Rigid Body” plugin was missing. Thing is I can add the tag by right clicking on an object and adding said plugin. Any idea why this is happening? I can not see the true setup as a result.
G
The Gorilla on October 24th, 2009 said...
You may need Cinema 4D 11.5 or the Mograph 2 plugin.
eskile on January 16th, 2010 said...
hi!
I’ve got the same problem, but I do have the 11.5 release installed on my pc…but no RigidBody tag appears on my right click…
can you help me?
great tutorials! thanx!
The Gorilla on January 17th, 2010 said...
Do you have Mograph 2.0 installed? That is required as well.
Is r11.5 needed
wish I had already my Cinema4D 11.5
Oh thats cool will check it out later
.
Hey all, heres a link to download my scene file for those interest in how it was done in Maya.
After I got the particles set up the way I wanted, using an emitter that shot them onto the floor, and then changing their initial state, I made the main big sphere a passive rigid body.
If you go to the attribute editor of the sphere, and bring up the nRigidShape attribute tab, there is a twirl down menu called Force Field Generation.
All I did was keyframe the Field Distance and Field Magnitude so it sucked all the ndynamic balls towards it over about 20 frames, and then turned off over a frame or two. Magnitude will either push or pull the particles towards it, and Distance is the area of effect.
Anyways, check out the scene file.
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1192041/circles_and_spheres.zip
The Gorilla on October 24th, 2009 said...
Thanks for the maya download Mathieu! That’s awesome!
Ben on October 26th, 2009 said...
Just tried to open the file and it comes up with an error in reading the file
. I have Maya 2009 on my machine, any fancy plugins that i should have installed?
Its interesting reading how you have achieved this effect. If it were me, i would have probably made a nurbs sphere a goal object (per vertices) and then animated the goal weight and attenuation for the particles. To further add some interesting effects you could have then given the particles differing goal weights using expressions. However that would probably make things unnecessarily complicated tbh!
Cheers for the upload and the good work!
MD on October 26th, 2009 said...
The file doesn’t work for me either.
But from your explanation it was possible to re-create your setup.
Thanks a lot for that!
Nick,
The project posted is a r11 file, correct? Even though it can be opened in r10, the attractor object does not seem to work – at least I think it’s a different way to do it in 10 since 10 does not have the Rigid Body base tag (it has the Rigid Body Dynamic tag which works only in Solver Objects???). Could you please point out a quick way to use the Attractor in r10? Been trying it all day and can’t seem to get it working! I know how to get gravity, emitters, wind etc to work, just not the Attractor. ;(
Some help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Komo
That’s awesome Nick, thanks! But I also have C4D R10, so there is no Rigid Body Tag!
if you don’t have Mograph you can use thinking paticules it works really well. here is my example : http://www.vimeo.com/7213155
sorry for my bad english.
Juan David on May 26th, 2010 said...
hi ericdesig… can you explain..
how you made your video ?…… could explain it to me.
you used … because with a particle generator, which will associate a sphere, and the attractor I put in a text … comcretamente in a number 5, and start hitting balls and not get stuck to the object.
ericdesign on May 26th, 2010 said...
this is for you check the file is more easy for me because my English is limited
http://www.mediafire.com/?kimuje3weyo
have fun and send me feedback thx.
Thanks for this Nick, a real insight.
I wanted to try and change the spheres for Lights, but the attractor doesnt work on them, any hints? cheers
Hey Nick, couple of great C4D and AE learning links I think that could maybe help to go on the sidebar of your site could be motionworks.com.au, and pariahstudios.co.uk (pariah has some great explanatory c4d tutorials that are free and excellent and even host project files)
Hey Nick, link is down
man, they’re making it so easy to make things look freakn good..
Great one, Project files are always great to have.
We need a community website just for cool project files, that’d be great.
For those having a problem opening my file in maya 2009, just open the file in text editor (or the equivalent in windows, not sure what that is sorry) and for every instance that you see 2010, change it to 2009 (just to a find and replace).
hi Gorila, i know how generate a extrusion in curve, as it is in the video Fast food Thanks from Colombia! sorry for my english language :{
Nick,
What is your list of top 10-15 programs or equipment you cannot live without for motion and video design?
Thanks,
Jessica
Hi Nick, Amazing work
One question….Where can I dowload the plugins that I dont have for make your exercises? because I try do it but I cant.
Your page is wonderfull, thank´s for help…and excuse my english…jeje
Maya link is down, any chance for a re-upload. Would love to check this out.
Thanks so much
Mathieu Martel on December 6th, 2009 said...
Hey Ryan!
Sorry, I must have moved that file around in my horribly disorganized dropbox during a shuffle I’ve been in for the last month! heres the link again:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1192041/circles_and_spheres.zip
cheers!
Hey,
thanks for the files and for the hard work, i’m wondering if it’s possible to use an object as an attractor, i mean a more complex shape then a sphere on which the spheres would distribute evenly. Googled it and found nothing.
Thank you 4 sharing, Nick! The Attractor effector is the thing, i’ve been looking for all these years
Can you tell plz, what does the Xresso tag with scripts, attached to “Daylight.1″ group? I delete it and nothing changes in render. And what are the shapes insisde this group for?
The Gorilla on December 9th, 2009 said...
The Daylight script is from the CSTools. Download the CSTools. They are really helpful. http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/2009/05/cinema-4d-cs-tools-daylight/
Hey Nick I have a question… I was trying to recreate the scene following what you did but I don’t get it how in your file the gravity and the attractor have a yellow bounding box… asn in my file it doesn’t seems to appear. Hoe the heck can I get that box? Thanx for answering and for you’re great tutorials!
Da Silva on March 2nd, 2010 said...
After beeing for several hours trying to figure out this I finally did it, thank you anyway!
Hey guys
short question
can i attract the particles (spheres) on a spline (e.g. a logo i’ve created) ?
answer would be great
The Gorilla on March 27th, 2010 said...
Sure, Just replace the sphere with your logo and add more attractors.
Jonas on April 6th, 2010 said...
hmm i tryied it but as the spheres were attracted they started to speed up (some of them hit the logo) but then they speeded up even more and flew away into endlessness.
Whats wrong ?
Hi there!
Thank you for this awesome stuff Nick, but I got just one question. I tried to arrange the same thing, but don’t think I’m stupid, but I don’t find the attractor effect.
I got the C4D 11.5 and mograph 2 as well.
could you please tell me where I can find that.
:-S
Thank you.
Jonas on April 6th, 2010 said...
you have to click on the “emitter” sign and in the menu wich shows up you can find it
Hi2all
Thanx for the project file. Here is my version of it:
http://www.vimeo.com/10866057
Nick, have fun at NAB2010 and don’t overwork you’re self
hello
i have a problem , I am trying to make is that the spheres are attracted to a number … 5. not a sphere or a cone, I want the number 5 but the problem is that the spheres collide with the number 5 and do not stay around the object …
and the truth is that I’m lost …
Thank you.
Here’s my attempt at playing with attractor
http://vimeo.com/12146207
The Gorilla on May 30th, 2010 said...
Very cool style, Matt!
Ok.. I really cant figure this out. I am relatively new to C4D compares to everyone else. I made the sphere, made clones of another sphere, added rigid bodies to both of them, created an attractor and put it on the cube, but nothing happens. What else to I have to do? I will study the project file some more and reply again if I get it.
Thanks =)
Bobby on June 3rd, 2010 said...
I got it! I was turning the strength of the attractor up to 100 and expecting something to happen. I finally turned it up to 10,000 and stuff happened. =)
Nice.
Is there a way to use metaballs together with the attractor so you could have a kind of sphere at the end that it’s composed by all the cloned speheres on the floor?
Thanks
The Gorilla on July 18th, 2010 said...
Sure can, Just add the Metaballs to the top of the hierarchy. Have you tried it?