Cerbera

I wouldn't worry about them too much - they don't have the numbers or the organisation any more 🙂 But I do agree it doesn't make much sense for continuity if the lighting suddenly shifts from shot to shot, though it might not be that noticeable if it only shifts slightly. Fake daylight is a 2 part system - Sunlight itself, which is a directional / point light and an ambient light 'dome' which is representing sky and light bounce - nothing else. Some people would use the Ambient light button in a standard light to do the latter, but we could also fall back to the old way of faking this to get more tweakable results by actually cloning omni lights to a massive hemisphere that entirely surrounds the scene. There is a 3rd option as well - keep the physical sky where it should be, but add a subtle area light up front / behind camera, to additionally illuminate the parts that you don't want in shadow. You can either imply that is offscreen natural light coming from generally behind the camera (and keep it low-level and not bright enough to usurp the sun, wherever that is ! ) or you can do this more blatantly if you try simulating ground-up feature-lighting like some of these things have at night. In that case presumably you would be adding a number of additional spotlights or small area lights but could keep the physical sky where it was. CBR

OK, things to work with ! Unfortunately the first file doesn't load because the AI object is still live so references a path on your hard drive I can't provide and therefore loads blank ! But more success with the second file where I can actually see an object ! Bevelling that object does work (using live bevel deformer for example) but requires some rather specific settings to avoid phong-related problems. Those settings are mostly default except 'Break Phong Rounding' which gets you ultra-clean flat faces... So that is all working correctly right ? CBR

Welcome on in David 🙂 Some nice stuff over on your site... CBR

Please upload the .c4d file so we can see what is going on. You may be confused about Extrude tool (which acts on editable meshes only) vs Extrude Object (which operates on splines). CBR

Yes, there will need to be updates to all C++ based plugins this time unfortunately. Rocket Lasso / GSG plugs already done, others in works. CBR

It's on the wrong axis. Align the bend to +X and do 'fit to parent'. Also turn on 'Keep length' if it wasn't on already. CBR

No, what you are looking at there is the subdivided result, NOT the base mesh. The deformer is acting upon the base mesh (because it is a child of it) NOT the subdivided result. If you would like it to operate on the Subdivision surface directly, then you need to put it under a Null, and move the deformer to also be a child of that null. Then you will be deforming the generated result, not the base mesh under it, and will have more available segments to support the bend. However, the rather better approach is the one I showed you above where you pull those polys out across a number of steps rather than all the way out in one go, if you see what I mean, and if you fix that the bend can stay right where it is as a child of the base object... CBR

Well, it just makes no sense to abandon something that is obviously on the way to being very useful and powerful, and that will give them parity with / opportunity for improvement over other softwares' procedural modelling ! CBR

Oh he's VERY good 🙂 I like this little lightly ruffled feather ! CBR

Yes I have been asking for edge constraints like this for some time, and still hope we can add them at some point. Since Cinema's Poly Pen got a Re-projection tick box the functionality shown there is similar to that, but our poly pen can't do loop cuts like that without leaving the tool, only line cuts, which do reproject like the example. I think the differences between these pen tools are getting narrower, and it increasingly comes down to what you like using most - for example I never create polygons by pre-placing vertexes and then connecting them, so that aspect of Quad draw would go unused and unappreciated by me, so it is a bit subjective to a point I guess. But I also don't mind admitting there are other aspects of it I would find easier than poly pen, and there are definitely things about poly pen I would still like improved. But I am pleased with this release because for me at least, that symmetry is best in class, and another gap filled in our modelling toolset. Other gaps remain of course, but I am very encouraged that Maxon seem to be listening to feedback more and more and updating modelling tools at a very respectable pace. CBR

No chance. Scene nodes are the future - they can't abandon those ! CBR

What would you like Cinema's polypen to do that it doesn't already ? It's pretty damn similar to Quad-draw in quite a lot of ways isn't it ?! Curious to know in which ways you find it better... CBR

That's been there for some time though, right ?! Maybe since R21 ? CBR

Ok, 'incurvation' is the Bend Deformer ! It's not clear which part of the object you are trying to bend, but if it's the front section where you have pulled out some polygons, that is incapable of bending smoothly because there are no segments in it ! Any deformation requires enough polys in the direction of the bend (for example) to be able to flex to where the deformer tells it to go. You haven't said what you are trying to make, so difficult to specifically advise on how best to achieve what you want. But have a look at my adjusted mesh below, which shows you the sort of topology you need to support a bend in that direction... CBR

Hmmm. We are struggling with language a bit there aren't we... I am trying to work out what the word 'incurvation' could possibly mean, and I am not familiar with the concept of 'cuddling' (which means to give someone a hug!) transformations ! I'll download your file and see if I can work out what you mean... CBR

This thread probably isn't the place to discuss it, but not, I believe in all aspects 😉 CBR

Don't think anyone has posted this here yet, so here is C4D Uber-meister Chris Schmidt showing us round the new goodies in rewardingly exhaustive detail as usual... CBR

As you can all imagine, I am delighted with this release - finally; the proper symmetry we have been asking for since... forever 🙂 It's a joy to use and real step up for Cinema in its journey towards modelling supremacy. It is more capable and flexible than any other symmetry system in any other software (that I have seen), and we have never been able to say that before !! There is a lot to love about this. First up - we don't need to cut stuff in half to make it symmetrical ! The fact that is a mode rather than a generator means we really can just get symmetry where we want it, and get rid of it when we don't with single button click or shortcut (ALT+W is the new one to remember !). What is particularly remarkable about it is the topological symmetry, which searches for symmetrical components in otherwise non-symmetry meshes, and allows you to work on symmetrical parts within them. And unlike other symmetry systems in other software, ours is not limited to transforms, and works with nearly all the modelling tools. Also doesn't break UVs ! Lovely stuff ! Important to think of new symmetry as a suite of tools within a mode, and important not to forget the helpfully flexible Symmetrize functions we now have, to instigate symmetry where it wasn't before, AND it can base that on existing symmetry hub settings ! Not only that but a pin-able hub, visible mirror planes and auto-detecting context (modelling vs sculpt) so that the same system can work with sculpting symmetry too. Don't like the yellow symmetry preview colour ? Change that in preferences 😉 So yep, that's me over the moon, and I think the devs have done a marvelous job here. While I am here I should also mention the addition of the 'draw behind' workplane option - no more annoying grids in front of your models !!! And those new soft bodies are pretty great too, but that's a post for another time... CBR

Not sure why you are adjusting the position of that rectangle, which is adjusting it relative to its extrude parent. Why not just move the path spline up ?! CBR

You are in S26 - there is nothing whatsoever to fear about UV unwrapping any more ! It's also an essential skill for any 3D generalist worth their salt, so you can't hope to avoid it forever - eventually you will have to climb that mountain, but when you do, you may find it's actually an easily surmountable little hillock, rather than a daring 1-man ascent up the north face of the Eiger ! It's really not that hard. But do you need it here ? I would argue no - this sort of shape is a good candidate for Tri-planar mapping I reckon, and fortunately RS has a node for that. So your UV unwrap nightmares might be coming for you one day, but not today... CBR

If there is a way, I don't know about it, but would like to !! Bane of my life sometimes that problem... I usually end up remeshing or rebuilding so I don't need the normal tag any more. I certainly think we need better control of surface and vertex normals in Cinema, especially in relation to how imported Normal tags behave with subsequent deformation. CBR

Having some trouble visualising that without pictures I'm afraid, but if I get the general idea right I still think you'd be better using something like pose morph rather than trying actual cloth or softbody sims. I suspect it is unlikely you will be able to get exactly the precision joins you require using sims - they are too 'floaty' and hard to control in a way that non-sim approaches aren't. CBR

I haven't used that rig before, but if the slide path percentage is a keyable parameter, then you should be able to select the last key in the time line, and set the properties for 'after' to 'continue' or one of the other options that will let you loop it. CBR

Please complete your profile so that we always know which version of the software you are running. Answers to questions vary greatly depending on version used ! OK it looks like you have copied a single model containing 2 bolts - presumably they came from a model that had collapsed symmetry at some point. Not sure why you mentioned nulls - there don't seem to be any. To fix this just select the object, go to Poly mode, grab the move tool and double click one bolt in the viewport (the one you don't want), which should select all its polys. Press delete with your mouse over the viewport. Now only one bolt should remain, but its axis may be incorrect, so you can sort that using the Axis Centre Dialogue. You should change that axis so that is at the base of the bolt, with Y pointing up. Yes to your second question as well. It is easy to get rows of bolts using splines generated from the underlying topology (using edge to spline function) driving cloners in Object mode. You can also place bolts directly on surfaces one at time where that is helpful using the Place Tool. CBR

I would have thought cloth was a bit OTT for what should be a very minimal, simple animation... I think I'd do it with a field limited plain effector in deformation mode. You didn't say what is driving the animation, so difficult to advise further... CBR