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Turn One Object into another using Cinema 4D and Transform 73 Comments


In this training video, I show you how to use Transform to turn one object into another. It’s the most requested tutorial for Transform and I’m glad I finally got it recorded for you guys. In short, use two versions of Transform to make the effect. Put two different objects (of roughly the same size) in each version of Transform and set one Transform to “IN” and one to “OUT”. Then, pick your favorite effects or use the custom mode to build your own. Check out the video for more detail and how to set up your objects to create more interesting chunks.

Example

More Transform Training

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73 Comments

  2. Jhonttan Rodriguez

    Muy buen tutorial muchas gracias por la cantidad de material que aportas NIck!!

    Reply

  4. 3d_hairdresser

    to transform one object into another you have to use “xpresso pblurb”, which is already in the program. your “transform” cannot do that, especially when use different colors for special polygons in your objects.

    Reply

  8. Nikolaus

    Hey Nick,

    thx for this tutorial. This is exactly what i want to see and its pretty much the reason for me to buy this plugin now.

    Transform is really a source of new ideas for me and makes all much faster for great effects.

    Reply

  10. Jan

    Awesome tutorial thanks for that.

    Now, what do I do if I have 4 objects I would like to change. Lets say I start with object 1, turn it into object 2, like in the tutorial. Now I want to turn object 2 into object 3 and then object 3 into object 4. Is there an easier possibility than putting a keyframe on enable for the Transform object?

    Or would it be easier to just make 3 different renders? In one I transform 1->2 in the next 2->3 and in the last 3->4 and then put them together in AE… any thoughts on that or easier ways?

    Reply

  11. Kei

    I’m having ploblem with transform plug in
    Custom tab doesn’t show up
    What should I do?

    Reply

  12. Zictor

    I worked that out when I figured that you couldn’t add 2 objects to the transform plugin. Cool tutorial nevertheless!

    Reply

  13. vijay

    how to fix material issue when using CHUNK mode.. by clicking WELD doesn’t solve the thing. my title is textured and lighted. but those broken material issue keeps haunting it.. what to do,…….. NICK any help???????????????????

    Reply

  16. Timothy

    The wifey wouldnt let me buy the plugin because I “spend to much money on that stupid computer.”

    I KNOW!!! How could she say that about my baby. Dont worry Dualie daddy loves you.(I call her Dualie becasue shes got them big ass, milky, perkey double i7s)

    So here is with NO plug in https://vimeo.com/43963861

    Reply

  17. Dean van der Merwe

    I actually like the fact that you’ve opted to use a Gothic typeface as the captions. WINNING

    Reply

  18. Chris

    Hello. For some reason it doesn’t work for me in R13 but it works in R12. Anyone having that issue? I installed in the correct folder. THX

    Reply

  20. Jessica

    Hi Nick!
    my friend just purchased transform, we were playing around with it & love it, thank you for your time & efforts developing.

    One question – we want to make a title sequence, but with some good transform-y sounds to accompany our animation (similar to the movie Transformers, or gears grinding etc.) after looking everywhere we can’t even find them for sale.

    Feel like it would make our sequence more polished – can you recommend a site that sells, or perhaps you’d consider adding the sound effects in the future?? I know if you had some complimentary transforming sound fx (5-6 seconds) we would’ve already bought them :) Or maybe even a tutorial on how to make your own… that would be amazing. Thanks from Singapore
    -J

    Reply

  21. Marcos

    Hi Nick, I see in the example video, that in the transformation between the beveled cube and the sphere, the pieces have volume, but in the tutorial, the pieces are flat.
    Is there a workaround to achieve the volumetric pieces? Or just an option in the plugin?

    Great work by the way.

    Reply

    • Marcos

      Ok I watched the other training videos and I think that the answer to my question is called Thickness.

      Reply

  22. Marco

    Hey Nick!
    Is it possible to let an object animate in and the same object animate out a little later?

    Reply

  26. Tony

    Hello everyone,

    I’m quite new to C4D and I have a very important question to ask about the intermediate points of the MoText. I’ve notice there is an issue happened to me quite a lot. The problem is: every time I changes the intermediate points to another option but Adaptive, it work at first but after refresh the transform tool, my text look and break apart in exactly the way Adaptive work. Somehow the intermediate points mode has been reset to the original state. This is not only happens with transform but the Poly FX as well (tried to make the text transform to particles and failed at this point). I’m using C4D R13. Can anyone tell me what is going on with this intermediate points option?

    Thanks

    Reply
    • The Gorilla

      The Gorilla

      This is a known bug in the latest version of Cinema 4D. We hope they fix it soon. For now, try using spline text along with the extrude nurb. That seems to work fine.

      Reply

      • Tony

        Thank you for your tip. I tried it out with the fresh install of C4D and it’s work. So far I know as long as I do not upgrade my C4D, the problem is solved. However, I do lost a lots of font due to an old bug :( . So I guess I will try to update and do this again with your trick ;) .
        Thank again

        Reply

      • Tony

        Hey Nick,
        I just tried out with your tip and there seem to be a problem with that. The problem is the side of the text, for example letter “T”, was not divided horizontally and caused a “not so good looking” result :( .
        And I have 1 more question to ask you: how to completely remove all the small fragment when the text is transforming. I like a clean transform like your “Transform” text sample above. Thank you for your time.

        Reply

      • Patrick Toner

        I tried using spline text and extrude nurb but it’s doing the same thing as tony said. Has cinema 4d fixed this yet? I’m on R13 as well.

        Reply

    • Matthew Mehana

      hey I loved your video man, would you be interested in making a lyric video for my band “I Set My Friends On Fire” ? Thank you, let me know!

      Reply

  28. Dave

    I am trying to use transform to transform 5 logos sequentially. 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 to 5. When I try this the previous “in” logos remain up. My work around is to render separately 1 to 2, 2 to 3 , 3 to 4, etc then composite in AE. Anyone know how I might render all 5 as one animation in C4D?

    Reply

  29. Tony

    Oh I have another question that hope to be answered by you guys. Does anyone know how to do the text transform look like the sample from Nick? I don’t like the small fragments and wish only to do big pieces of text transform to another text with out many distraction from these mini fragments. Thank in advance.

    Reply

  31. Simon

    can i get the link to the sedan-to-another-car you were talking about ? thanks again for the tutorial btw!

    Reply

  32. Brandon Rodgers

    When I add the regular grid/quads/tris on the caps, the chunkiness on the letters that are not caps goes back to just subdivisions and not fully gridded. I have 13. Any help?

    Reply

  33. Svenonium Slanderson

    Good job scamming anyone new at C4D. I hope Maxon sees how selfish you are and takes action, you can do the exact same thing in mograph, along with the FREE PLUGIN- thrausi

    you are in many people’s book- a complete scammer. Will you not respond?

    Reply
    • The Gorilla

      The Gorilla

      Scammer? I’m sorry to hear you feel that way. Just so you know, I have a money back guarantee, so for any reason, I will give you your money back. I never want to scam anyone.

      I built Transform to make mograph even easier and more fun. Mograph is really powerful. But, it should be much easier to use. That’s where I think Transform can help. We also have better ways to make chunked pieces coming soon that I think will be very powerful for our users. Sounds like Transform isn’t for you, but many of our customers have been making some really great stuff with it.

      Version 1.0 might not be all you want it to be, but let us build on this idea, and I think it will be even more useful as it develops.

      Reply

  35. Brandt

    Is there a way to get the chunks to move towards a specific point, rather than just in relative XYZ directions? Think particles being sucked into a vortex (minus the whirlpool, though that would be pretty cool, too come to think of it). Thanks!

    Reply

  36. soukia

    i can’t find “transform” on the “pulgins ” menu :( !!!!!!

    Reply

  37. eugene

    Gray , please can you help me with the tutorials on the TRANSFORM TO COMING SOON. I have tried
    to do it on my own but it did not look any thing like yours. please i will be waiting for it .don’t disappoint
    us.thanks .you are great.

    Reply

  38. eugene

    Gray , me again, please can you help me with the tutorials on the TRANSFORM TO COMING SOON. I have tried to do it on my own but it did not look any thing like yours. please i will be waiting for you .don’t disappoint us. thanks .you are great.

    Reply

  39. iraq designer

    it’s really a useful tool and aperfect motions can created with — at last i like to be your friend on the facebook — please accept my best regards

    Reply

  41. andyweak

    I wouldn’t mind seeing the car transforming into another car. Anyone have the link to the video Nick is talking about at the end?

    Reply

  42. Paul

    Hi,

    i have problem, when i hit on the beginin on Refresh the “white objects” disappears and also i have no movement in my scene.. im using R13.

    Thanks for help

    P.

    Reply

    • Phil

      I’m having the same identical problem as paul. Plugin was installed precisely the same way the installation video describes – Maxon>c4d>Plugins. I have R13 and it has been updated. btw awesome work on this plugin from what I’ve seen, makes things that are already capable of doing 10 times faster.

      Reply

      • Rajesh Janagam

        yeah same problem with me. am using R14 … can someone help us please :(

        Reply

  43. dexter403

    Please tell me the settings of Transform you’ve made text “DISSOLVE” (0:11 to 0:17 on Transform Demo)

    Reply

  44. davidlucho19

    thanks for the tutorial nickk

    one question, is it possible use dynammics like rigid body in the transform effects??

    Reply

  45. Nick

    i was trying to learn the software with this video, and when you say to do the full refresh/update, i do and i get demo version message. Please help.

    Reply

  46. Ibrahim

    Hi there.

    I have download the plugin and dragged it into the plugs in folder. when i restart Cinema4D the plugins still do not show up.

    What must I do?

    Reply

  47. Wessam Kahwaji

    Hi

    After dragging the plugin into the plugins folder, it doesn’t show up in the plugins menu.

    Please please please can somebody help?
    I have R12 studio version.

    Thanks

    Reply

  48. Maurizio

    Hey Chris,
    I tried to transform a Square into an Earth Sphere, but at the end, when the Sphere is build “complete” I see a lot of “Polygons” on the Sphere, the texture isn´t “clean”.

    http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/580/unbenanntpafk.jpg/

    If u want to help me solving this and you need some other Informations about this Project and it setup, let me know this.
    I would appreciate a lot your help, or maybe someone else want to help ;)

    THANKS A LOT FOR OUR SITE AND OUR TIME SPENDING SHOW US THIS AMAZING THINGS ? :)

    Reply

  49. Rajesh Janagam

    Hey there,
    am very new to cinema 4d , I have installed C4D R14 and gone through some basic beginner tutorials to understand the software. and now I have tried this tutorial but when I take cube & sphere and apply transform ( just did exactly like you did) I get nothing when I play it. The cube and sphere stays still. they doesn’t transform. please help me with this.

    Reply

  50. Jelmen

    Hi,

    I’m trying to export an animation, for which I’ve used Transform, to Unity.
    Any idea how I can get this done? Do I need to bake the animation somehow?
    I’ve tried to export to an FBX file with animation but that doesn’t work.
    The Transform animation is shown as one big solid cube.

    Thanks for your feedback…

    Reply

  51. Sergio Maslowsky

    Hi there, how can I use it on a logo (.psd), for example, I have a motext with the name of the company and want to transform it into the logo, How I can proceed with that ? R13 version of c4d

    Reply

  52. Ibrahim

    How do I add color to my transformation objects like that of the example in the tutorial example?

    Reply

  53. Mohammad

    In this Iranian New year I wish the bests for you and your family. Your tutorial is very fantastic. I follow them and hope be continue
    Regard

    Reply

  54. Evan

    Hey Nick,

    I have had this plugin for awhile now and really enjoy it! I have been attempting to recreate the transform example video where the Platonic Bucky object transforms from orange to blue. I can’t get it it to pick off one hexagon at a time. I would REALLY appreciate it if you or someone else could guide me in the right direction.

    Your tutorials have been essential to my understanding of C4D. Thank you!

    Evan

    Reply

  55. mark

    Umm everything exapt transform = dissolve for me where is the proplem?

    Reply
    • The Gorilla

      The Gorilla

      It may be installed wrong or you may be using the wrong version. Watch the install video that came with the download.

      Reply

  56. Thomas

    Hi Nick,

    Seems a cool plugin but can you render these animations also with Vray?

    Thanks and keep on making awesome stuff!

    Reply

  57. Steven Newell

    I picked up with tutorial trying to achieve a “X Games 2013 Commercial” effect (shown here)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C11k4alwBKc

    im having some problems getting the low-poly into low-poly-explosion into text look.

    maybe someone has some tips on how i should go about doing this?

    I love your sites Nick, you are a huge inspiration to me!

    THANK YOU!

    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.