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Animate An Object To A Path Or Spline in Cinema 4D 79 Comments

In this tutorial, I show you how to use the Spline Effector and Mograph to animate an object along a spline. Then, we add dynamics to allow our object to behave naturally during the animation. Sorry for the fuzzy audio in this one. I had the wrong mic on. Better audio in the next one for sure.

Example

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79 Comments

  2. Steven Jenkins

    I’m the first to comment. Cool! Very creative use of this tool in Mograph. I like the glow texture on the orange sphere and the choice of a spiral path and the way dynamics was applied.

    As always, thanks to you and others who create these tutorials!

    Reply

  3. Yusuf

    Quick and helpful tut. Thank you so much, I was having real difficulty before with getting an object to follow a path and still react with dynamics. I’ve learned more from you than my 3D lecturer!

    Reply

  7. Charlie

    Awesome tutorial! I’ve been trying to understand paths better.

    Reply

    • Matty2x4

      Hey Nick,
      I sent you a free download of my marbles tool about a month ago to your “thegorilla@grey…” account. If you didn’t get it let me know, hope you enjoy it!
      Matty2x4

      Reply

  10. Thomas

    One could also try to use the “Follow rotation” setting to reduce the “spin” where we increased the friction. Thanks again for another tutorial, Nick!

    Love your site!

    Reply

  11. R. van Maaren

    Good to see another tutorial! Always watch them to check if I’m not using some silly difficult way. However, I find the mograph options of c4d always speaking for themselves.

    Cheers

    Reply

  13. Justin

    Love the website. Also just picked up the HRDI pack. Awesome stuff. Just had one question. Only been using Cinema 4D for about 8 days now so it’s safe to say I am a “newb.” Anyhow. For some reason when I copy the Rigid Body tag to the small sphere, then turn Follow to ’0′ – the scene begins with the small cloned spheres flying up into the air, then three seconds later hitting the ground, and then being struck by the large sphere. Any ideas why the first 3 seconds I am seeing the small cloned spheres flying up into the air? Thanks for any help!

    Reply

    • Avs

      Are the spheres intersecting the ground? This could cause them to shoot up in the air then quickly return to their spot.

      Reply

  14. Justin

    Okay. False Alarm. The plane was intersecting with the cloned spheres and when I hit play, it was sending them flying upwards. I just moved the cloned spheres up a tad and now they sit atop the floor nicely.

    Now I can finish the tutorial. Ha

    Reply

  18. adeeb

    hey nick.i loved it but having some problem with the main sphere.in the 1st 3 sec the sphere shoots up then goes back to normal.any solution for that.anyone can help.thanks in advance.

    Reply

  19. boojoo007

    Nice job! Please Keep em com in!

    Id like to see a tutorial on system optimization. RAM/Video Card/Processors/
    How to maximize my system to run c4d.

    How to set up Multi Rendering across a network?

    Reply

    • Raoul van Maaren

      Hey boojoo007,
      I also wanted to maxize my system to run c4d. I checked some options and I think the following gets the max out of my pc.

      I’m not an expert, but this is how I get the max out of my pc:
      To speed up renderings just:

      1. go to Edit, Preferences, Picture Viewer, and increase Memory Usage (not too much otherwise ur pc will blow up :P ) and make sure its MAXIMUM 80% of ur RAM
      !! First try to increase memory usage a little, to make sure ur pc stays cool with it !!

      2. go to Edit, Preferences, Renderer, and increase number of render Threads x2
      (I believe this asks more from ur processor/ is similar to overclocking)

      It probably won’t be very healthy for ur pc. However, your render speed will increase.
      Also make sure u update ur system (how? < Google).

      I'm not an expert, so wait first before following my advice till some who actually knows this for sure confirms my message (any expert, please help us out here)!

      Cheers

      Reply

      • Timothy

        My first 6 months working professionally I used a dual core laptop with 4 gb of ram. It was hard but I used render farms after the pre-viz stage. I now use a custom build with dual i7′s overclocked so its 16 cores and 16 gb of ram.

        Do A LOT of research and luckily 95% of companies have Cinebench scores for their products so you can see how the item in question performed in Cinema. Figure out if you need more work done in Cinema or After Effects and spend accordingly. I suggest a custom build if you have the time

        Reply

      • Hands On Music

        Raoul, Increasing the amount of threads (what you call over clocking) actually slowed the renders down on my computer.
        You should leave Custom Number of Render Threads unchecked, or if checked, then use one thread per processor, if you have hyper threading enabled on your computer then use 2 threads per cpu.

        Reply

    • Timothy

      NET Render – Maxon’s solution for rendering Cinema4D jobs across a network is NET Render. It will distribute the rendering of animations on a frame-by-frame basis or still images using the tiled camera. It can also be used to batch render multiple jobs from multiple machines. NET Render is available as a chargeable add-on to Cinema4D or is included with the XL (three client licenses) and Studio (unlimited client licenses) bundles.

      Reply

  23. Dave

    Hey Nick sie sind einfach der beste .
    es macht echt spass bei ihnen zu lernen
    ich freue mich echt jedes mal über ein neues tutorial
    es macht echt einen grossen spass und ihr kumpel Chris ist auch einfach nur Best
    ich wünsche ihnen viel erfolg weiter hin und freue mich auf das weitere neue tutorial von ihnen
    bis dahin mit freundlichen grüssen Dave Derner :=)

    Reply

  26. D5

    Really Nick? … Sure, your tutorials were helpful at a point, but now it’s getting ridiculous.. Animating to a spline? how more basic do you get. You should really try out at some more advanced stuff.

    Reply

    • R. van Maaren

      Really D5? It seems like someone is not apreciating free tutorials?
      You can ask nicely to get ‘advanced’ tuts.

      Its rediculous to critisize the ‘level’ of the tut. Many are still loving it.
      You should really try to critisize things like the speed of the tut or how clear it is explained. Don’t get mad if u didnt learn any from it.

      Critism is fine, but please let it be usefull.

      Reply

      • Adam

        I had the same opinion as you D5, but then I realised that as this is something I find quite basic, it’s clearly not aimed at me. There was a time however, that I wouldn’t have thought of this as basic and would have appreciated learning it. Don’t forget that just as people progress, there are also people just starting out. If you find it basic, then good for you. Don’t stop to criticise, just move on.

        Reply
    • The Gorilla

      The Gorilla

      Looks like you may be learning faster than I can keep up. Take a look at FXPHD or Lynda for further learning. Hopefully these tutorials will still be useful for people learning Cinema 4D.

      Reply

      • Adam

        Not many people are prepared to do that Nick. That involves money. Your free tuts have been invaluable to me and most of the people who watch them. Keep up the good work.

        Reply

      • Adam

        Type “tank” into the search bar above. Chris did the tutorial you’re looking for a while ago.

        Reply

  29. Nila Wafer

    Dude! Video Copilot Element plugin is released!!!

    Looking forward to your review.

    Reply

  31. mugezzzny

    this is great . Do you have any tutorial for real flow to cinema4d?

    Reply

  36. pratheesh

    hey nick,
    i want to know how to mix an animation into a video footage using cinema 4d.how it can be done? for example a human fighting with a robot.human is real,but robot is animated.is it done using after effects?? i serached thru google but failed to find a right answer.please reply….
    please anyone can reply to my ques if u know the ans

    Reply

  39. Chris

    Nick.
    You. Are. The. Man!
    I can’t thank you enough for all your teachings on cinema 4D.
    The best thing about your tutorials is my photography skills have grown exponentially as well.
    Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

    Reply

  40. Hands On Music

    Excellent tut Nick.
    Quick Question, can you use the spline effector on the sphere without putting it in the cloner by going to the spline effectors deformer attributes and setting deformation to object, then make the spline effector a child of the sphere?

    Reply

  41. Tim Stotz

    I haven’t watched it yet, but I think this is exactly the tutorial I need. I’ve been experimenting with straight animation and mixing dynamics. Can’t wait to watch the wisdom you drop.

    Reply

  43. Con

    hey Nick

    Im working on a final year project at uni and im trying to get a blob similar to this one that MTV created a few years back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P861i6FTTEo

    Only im not sure how to go about it. Ive tried softbody and attractor to animate the blob moving but it stops rotating and begins to drag. Pretty much what im asking is how to create a soft body which i can make roll around and deform (or just roll up stairs or sit on a chair)

    Thanks in advance

    Reply

  44. dave patterson

    Thanks, Nick!

    I always learn a LOT from your tuts, simple, complex or otherwise.

    Reply

  47. JOE GREMAL

    Like the use of music from Apples in Stereo! From “Her wallpaper reverie”
    From Chicago and a big fan of the GreyscaleGorilla!

    Reply

  48. deellymg

    Maybe I’m missing something that’s right in front of my face as usual… I’m a newbie. I’ve been following your tuts on mograph and I have some questions about the rigid body and collider. If I put something on rigid body (say a cloner with a bunch of spheres) with a collider, it does its own thing. It falls and stops at the plane collider and then the objects fall off softly… any way to control that? When it happens? I’ve tried playing with the transition time, the Immediately vs. on collision etc… nothing seems to make a difference.

    Reply

  50. kler

    Amazing job!, I just have one question, how can I trace that path while the object is moving with the tracer object?, I tried but I failed. Thanks for the tutorial :) .

    Reply

  51. 4Star

    Thanks for the tutorial Nick!
    I’m making something similar with spheres. I have a scene where there are spheres on a floor at the bottom of the frame and a group of spheres fall on top of them and everything bounces. I’m having the problem of the spheres on the floor are slightly moving/rolling at the start of the animation when they should be still. I’ve added a lot of friction to the floor but it doesn’t seem to help. Any suggestions?

    Reply

  53. Bob in Virginia

    Nick, I’m very new to Cinema 4D but have been using After Effects for several years now (and a little 3DS Max).
    I got lost at the 2:45 point in this TUT when you said “… we’re gonna turn it on …”
    I have no idea what you turned on, and from there I have been stuck.
    Please help!
    I’m loving the Tutorials and products you offer, and will be buying many as I gain experience in using them.

    Reply

  54. Mary

    Nick,

    I have watched a number of tutorials on C4D, through INTERNET and college lessons. I have to say yours are the best! Easy to understand and you do a great job of explaining why some of the choices are necessary, which helps me to utilize it with my own designing.

    Thanks for posting and keep them coming!

    Mary

    Reply

  55. Spilljet

    Hi Everyone and Nick,
    Love the tutorials, I had a go at creating this but wanted to have a rolling furball as the main sphere. I’ve had a problem with bald spots with a few animations I’ve made and am unable to find a reason for my problems.
    My render can be found here http://youtu.be/qfBDrnBCZ2s
    I have a hair collider on my main sphere as well as the floor and the surrounding spheres.
    When looking underneath the floor the hairs are visible through the floor as well, which I believe shouldn’t happen because of the hair collider.
    Basically I don’t want bald spots. I don’t think the amount of hairs I have is the problem either.
    Any help would be appreciated.
    cheers,
    Spill

    Reply

  56. Raven

    Really fun tutorial. Thank you, NIck! Figured out all the glitches but one. At the first few frames, the striped ball is below the floor then it jumps up a bit on top of the spiral.
    The offset begins at 100% at frame 0.
    Any tips?
    Raven

    Reply

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Comment Rules

This is a friendly community. Please treat everyone with respect. We don't all have to agree, but we do have to be nice. Criticism is fine, but rude comments and name calling will be deleted. Use your real name and don't be spammy. Thanks for adding to the conversation.