graph

New Tutorial: Automated Bar Graphs with Xpresso

I produced a new tutorial for CGTuts that can be seen here. This tutorial demonstrates how to use Mograph and Xpresso in Cinema 4D to create a sort of mini-application that can be used to design and animate your own bar graphs. The Xpresso is the key, because it gives us the ability to enter and keyframe data from a control panel, and it updates automatically in our scene.

I felt deflated when I found that Andrew Kramer produced something very similar about 2 weeks ago on his site using After Effects. It’s a totally different way to make bar graphs, but it looks like I jacked the idea from him. I had developed this over a month ago, it just took awhile to produce and get it posted. I didn’t even check his site for it until someone mentioned the relation to mine. They are very different tutorials for different programs that happen to produce something similar. The timing just makes me look sketchy, oh well.

graph

Cinema 4D Tutorial: Animated Bar Graphs with Xpresso Part 2

Check out my tutorial on CG Tuts to learn a way to create bar graphs using Mograph and Xpresso. These 2 Cinema 4D components make it so we can create our on data and input to drive the look and style of the graph. Once you create the base file, you can use it as a template to create bar graphs whenever you need to. You can export a video with graphs from Cinema 4D instead of creating a static, boring one in Powerpoint for your next presentation.

graph

Cinema 4D Tutorial: Animated Bar Graphs With Xpresso Part 1

Check out my tutorial on CG Tuts to learn a way to create bar graphs using Mograph and Xpresso. These 2 Cinema 4D components make it so we can create our on data and input to drive the look and style of the graph. Once you create the base file, you can use it as a template to create bar graphs whenever you need to. You can export a video with graphs from Cinema 4D instead of creating a static, boring one in Powerpoint for your next presentation.

12009360115

Text and Arrows – MoGraph’s Formula Effector

Here’s a little something something I came up with just adding a bunch of effectors together in MoGraph.

The main effector in charge here is the formula effector. That is controlling the motion of the text flowing around and the floating of the arrows. The random effector and target effector are also involved. I also like the candy or bubble-gum color scheme got going on here.

11685350097

Drum Kit made with MoGraph

Here’s an animation I made in CInema 4D using Mograph. It’s a drum kit, made of words, that reacts to the beat.

OK so, I don’t think I’ll be getting a job in the music industry coming up with catchy beats. I made this crappy beat in Garageband, and hooked up each drum to a separate Sound Effector to drive the animation. I could make a better beat, but I wanted to make something simple with all the drums involved. I think it’s a cool way to visualize a drum set. The font is called Chunk Five and it’s my new favorite.

11436713048

Subway Train Animation/Composite

Here’s a Cinema 4D train moving through a subway station.

The subway platform comes from istockphoto. I modeled the train in Cinema 4D and brought it into After Effects to fit it into the scene. By moving the train so quickly with a heavy motion blur, you can get a way with a relatively basic model of a subway car with not a whole lot of detail. I added some HDRI lighting to simulate the fluorescent lights above and color corrected the train to make it blend in with the color and feel of the environment.

I mean, the clip isn’t anything earth-shattering; you could easily just get a clip of an actual subway train passing by. But sometimes the best part about being a designer is making something out of nothing. A still photo becomes alive with hopes of convincing the audience that there is no animation at all and it goes unnoticed.

generic_thumb

Changed my Mind

I’m not going to do a tutorial on making that MoGraph deck of cards. I started recording it and for the sake of brevity I excluded the tedious set up of adding materials and clones to make a full deck. And without that the tutorial just basically is setting up a linear cloner and an animated step effector. It was going to be kinda weak. So here’s mostly how you do it: Add your clones (All 52 of them) to a linear cloner and offset them in the X position. Then add a slight step rotation to make them in an arc. Add a step effector that flips the cards 180º. The only trick there is to make sure the spline graph under the Effector Tab is a straight line across the top of the graph. Then just add some falloff and animate the position to flip them however you want.

24213278117

Flipping a Deck of Cards in MoGraph

I was in Las Vegas recently and couldn’t stop thinking about linear cloners and step effectors. I’ve got cards and gambling on my mind. I devised a little project that arranges all 52 playing cards in a linear cloner, thus allowing you to animate a entire deck of cards with different parameters and effectors. This animation here is what it looks like when you fan the whole deck of cards out flat on the table and then start at one end and flip all the cards over sequentially all in one motion.

Not a complex animation but once you’ve got it set up it could unlock some better tricks. I think I’m going to make a tutorial for this.

4802434188

Aetuts+ Logo Reveal Contest Entry: Puzzle Pieces Animation

I had this idea in my head for awhile. I wanted to create a 3D model of a jigsaw puzzle that can have the pieces animated into solve it with just a few keyframes. It can be textures with whatever, it’s a puzzle so it can be a replaceable image of anything. Well I finally got around to doing it for the Aetuts+ Logo Reveal Contest.

It’s based on my old animation in Mograph, the Current Cubes animation. I thought that if you cloned puzzle pieces into a grid cloner that you could control the assembly of a whole jigsaw puzzle. You could do some could random effectors to make the pieces scatter and have it pop back into place. This logo reveal contest came up with Aetuts+ and I couldn’t come up with anything special in After Effects off the top of my head, so I grabbed the puzzle idea off my idea whiteboard and got to work. I have no graphic moral compass apparently, since I’m primarily using a 3D application to do a logo reveal for a site devoted to tutorials in a 2D application. I’m a monster.
Continue Reading

New Tutorial: Interactive Speaker using MoGraph

Head to the tutorial Page to check out my latest tutorial, where I use Cinema 4D and the MoGraph module to create a 3D speaker that is powered by a sound file.