Cerbera

You'll need to say which version you are working in, and ideally provide a scene file that demonstrates the problem. It seems fine for me in latest release. CBR

Simply you have to make sure none of the objects are touching each other when you start simulating. Also make sure your collision modes are appropriate (probably moving mesh in most cases). CBR

Wouldn't you just clone a thin cylinder onto a spline ? CBR

Oh yes that too, but not sure how much more useful that is because generally, when you select any of the transform tools the attributes panel updates to show you this anyway. But at least you can ctrl drag it to place it somewhere convenient I guess. Like you I am constantly changing that value, and I think me and others have suggested making that hot-keyable before, over the years, but we are really running out of hotkey combos that haven't been taken already, and after all this time I have got used to moving over to attributes to change it as needed, but I have set the default of that tool to be 'Normal' which is what I find I need most. CBR

There is a hotkey for changing between World and Local space for transform tools (W), but not, AFAIK to switch the temp modelling axis between its various alignment options. I would suggest the tool presets system here but it is no quicker than just manually changing that one drop down from Normal to Axis or whatever. CBR

Yes I too looked at the scene file and was baffled by what you meant or what you were trying to do... CBR

I was very surprised I haven't come across this before, but now you mention it happens when using a spherical camera that indeed explains it - I have never had need to make use of that. I'm sure Maxon will be very grateful for the information though, so thanks for posting it. CBR

Just seen your generous tip which arrived today - thank you very much ! It's not that I jump higher for cash, but I had this one down in my head as 'solved'. Did my answer above fix it for you, or do you still need additional help ? CBR

Plane cut would be one way, followed by Edge to Spline on preselected cuts ? Or even voronoi fracture driven by LINEAR matrix ? CBR

Yip - nailed it - Happy Xmas Vecs 🙂 CBR

It may be confused about what is splines and what is geometry. If you put the connect under a spline mask for example (but still refer to the Connect in the Matrix) THEN it works also, which may support that theory. You'll also be needing 'per segment' checked in the Matrix I would guess if you want 1 matrix per element. CBR

I concur the Connect object doesn't work here, and probably should - I will investigate that further. But it does work for me if I matrix onto the cloner object directly... CBR

Seasons greetings people 🙂 Hope your last year was a good one, the next year is better, and the bit in-between gets you some decent R&R... As is the tradition, still my favourite Xmas 3D after all these years... and Festive bells everyone CBR

Well I have the scene, but apparently not the alembic that drives it, or the original setup for the opening animation... hard to do much without those. But googling finds an answer if we ask it the right question... Yes it's possible. The time parameter offsets keyframes on the clones so you need to untick "animation" on the alembic and then keyframe the "frame" parameter. Then the time offset from the effectors will offset those keyframes Give that a go... CBR

Nah you're alright - instance mode is the one that is fine. Avoid the other 2. Pls upload scene file if you still can't get it working. CBR

You sure her arms and legs are thin enough ? 😉 CBR

No, that is not going to work as far as I know, and I can't imagine any way around it. I would have to say you can't use hair to animate what is at the end of the day merely displaced geometry. For short grass typically I think the workflow here would be to grow C4D hair / grass on top of the displaced stuff. However that plant you show sticking out might be different if you can a) isolate its geometry so it is not reliant on displacement to be there and b) use it as instanced geo for a hair system. CBR

Removed, or just changed slightly ? CBR

I have looked, but afraid I don't know why it's doing that. I don't do any character work on the whole so have never tried to make these work in that context. There are other people here that know those systems a lot better than me, so probably best to wait for them, or maybe do a support ticket about it ? CBR

Nope, that is working entirely correctly for me. 2 things to bear in mind. 1. Axis Centre Dialogue is moving the OBJECT axis, not the modelling one. 2. You are not changing the alignment at all with your current settings - only object axis position, which is working correctly. And it works properly for me if I turn alignment on and set it to Z/ Normal. I believe there has recently been a subtle change to this functionality such that it does not apply until you click 'Execute' but I think that is the only one. To align the modelling axis to the average Normal of that selection, that is done in the PSR tools attributes under the Axis tab, where you would choose 'Selected' and 'Normal' as the options to get what you need. But I don't understand why you need it either because if you are using extrude that happens in the average normal direction anyway doesn't it, regardless of what axis is doing ? CBR

If you put a Linear cloner in a null, and then add Spline Wrap as a child for that null, and feed it your helix, that should deal with the arrow wrap alignment issue.... and when pulled straight or helix radii reduced... You may have noticed I have also moved the axis of a parametric helix to its centre (geometry axis node as child) which helps in that we can also now key the height parameter of the helix instead of stretching it. Might take a fair bit of experimentation to get the settings that give you the right speed and transition though... CBR

Yes I too have distinct memories of Chris Schmidt doing something very similar, but unhelpfully can't even narrow it down to a season for you, let alone the exact episode ! 😕 CBR

Phew 🙂 CBR

I don't have Arnold, but as I said, and now confirmed by file, problem is not that, so I can probably still advise. Look at the mesh you start with, vs the mesh you get when VF is enabled... Your detailing settings therein are causing huge shifts and changes in the topography AND topology of the surface in such a way that your surface UVs are necessarily pushed apart, and cracks show in the geo. And if you must have your detailing doing that, then I can't see how you can avoid the texture moving. There are a number of options within the detailing tab that definitely improve this, these ones specifically... ...so you could try playing with those in various combinations until you get a contiguous surface again, or you could keyframe the detailing so that it fades in rather than just appears in a single frame ? CBR

Welcome to the Core 🙂 Please complete your profile to show which version of Cinema you are using, and which renderer you are working with. Also, uploading the scene file will usually get you helped faster, and would show us much more clearly what is going on in the scene than screenshots do. Trouble is, you are using Arnold, and I don't know how many people here use that, so it may take you a while to find people who can answer this if the problem is Arnold-specific. I suspect it isn't though. I suspect those cracks in your model may not be UV errors but a consequence of the parts subtly moving and deforming as VF activates. I can't know one way or the other without the scene file. CBR