kweso

Some renderers like Arnold (and V-Ray?) have "clip_geo" shaders that do the boolean operation at rendertime. Sometimes thats a bit more stable / less intesive...

I would imagine things like "Align to Spline" and "Constrain" also exist in blender and houdini. And I'm not that much of a math guy myself 😉 (Not any more at least)...

Sorry. Try to be more inclusive... 😉 (I am in the process of learning blender. So in future I may be able to provide those files as well). The "null" axis center is on one of the rakes teeth. So it sticks to my first sphere. And the "null"s x-axis looks at the other tooth. So the constraint aim put this second tooth right on my second sphere (ss long as the radius fits). So I just animate the spheres via align to spline. I know, it already works with a single spine. Just thought it gives more precision and control this way... Laters, kws rake.mp4

While you guys do a awesome job with the sand, I tried to make a simple but very controllable rig for the animation: Two objects aligned to splines and the rake is attached to those via constrain tag with clamp and aim: rake.c4d

Sorry to wander a bit off topic here. But since I sayed "wisest men". The quote about the present is originally credited to Eleanor Roosevelt. And to contribute to the task at hand: You can always keyframe "Enable" on the Rope Simulation tag: Although that may result in a "frame jump" with the noodles... Laters, kws

As one of the wisest men in history once said: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUKls-_dvRY (Sorry. But I always have tears in my eyes, listenening to Master Oogway. And it seemd a little bit fitting 😉 )

Ca-raisey...

@allenhanford I would even try the UV Transform tool (in the menu of the texture manager (UV Mesh / UV Transform). Pressing shift while scaling allows for non proportional scaleing. And with this tool you can even see, what you are doing. 😉

I think it's time to weigh in (after being not sure whether to laugh or to cry about your puny bitch fights 😉 ) . I recently praised the forum in a PM for being a real community (in contrast to things like reddit) where people not only help and inspire each other, but also know and sometimes even care about each other. So I really support the idea that people working on this website should be compensated for their work. And maybe even make a living from it. Not to speak of the costs of the website infrastructure itself. But I strongly second @JThreeDs standpoint. Many regulars here, including myself, will not have a problem with spending a few bucks to keep this running. But 90% of the members will just drop it and head over to reddit. And the new member count will go to zero. I don't know if this is "a g'mahte Wiesn" (fixed decision), but maybe, instead of bitching about members or corporations, we can find solutions to this in order to prevent something that even the board owners don't want. Promoting the donations is one thing. Community created banner campaigns maybe help. Maybe even "influencer" marketing (Chris Schmitt, EJ Hassenfratz, etc). Another possibility could be challenges where entering is tied to a fee. To the point where this becomes a annual award ("And the Golden Core for outstanding use of the python effector goes to... CAIRYN!"). With minimal prices (so revenue goes mostly to the site). I'd do it just for bragging rights. And then there is the possibility of merchandise. We have some awesome artists here. We wouldn't have to restrict the target audience to cgi and motion design people. But of course, all of this can only work if people work together. If that would mean, that the two or three people already running this show just have to work even more, this cannot work. And then there is advertisement. I don't really understand why this is such an unwanted option. Would it not be possible to spam the site with google ads and banners, and when you contribute, you'll get the version like it appears now? Well, I hope I'm not being naive. But I also hope this site can stay free4all and maybe become pay2win. twocentsout...

I forfeit my percentage if I can draw ON the joint. (Would need it after reading @Cairyns posts) (Hence the thread title)

@cendrick : What @mododo wants to say is: Don't use different shaders with a specific color. Create one with a MoGraph Color Shader on it. And control the color with fields...

Maybe to a VIP party with free booze and fancy people... What does one want more in life? 😉 Edit: Mixed up alcohol with a stand/stall.

I guess we deserved that monster of an explanation. 😬 Still have to work my way through... Very awesome from what I can say from a fly over 👍👍👍 Edit: Half way through (have to do my dayjob now). But I think I'll eventually get it. Just have to figure out what MatrixRotXYZ does exactly and why there is a "1.0 +" in line 13...

spoiler!

I can't think of anything but compositing to do this. But even then it is hell of a mind-f to get overlapping spiral paths when one camera is upside down. I have to start by figuring out how to construct a golden ratio spiral... 😉 Edit: thanks for making me aware of this awesom artist!

@noseman initially I was a little bit intimidated by the thought of correct weighting and finding the right arc. But obviously I was overthinking it. Anyway, I'll see if I'll ever need it... And I actually overlooked, that @Icecavemandid in fact mention joints before me 😉 But now I really have to get on with more baby stroller cussions... 🫤

Hey all, I finally messed around in Blender a bit. But my 17 year C4D muscle memory gets in the way. I activated a C4D shortcut preset but especially the object transform tools are tricky. In that preset they still were at different keys (I am used to E R and T as well as W for toggle between world and object space). I tried to remap those manually but I still has a strange behavior imho. Pressing the hotkey does not simply switch to the respective tool but rather transforms my object right away in interaction with mouse movement. Is there a way to replicate C4D-behavior? Or does someone happen to have a shortcut preset that actually replicates C4D? Do you guys have other suggestions for C4D users that wanna try Blender? TYVM!

@noseman Looks like a very elegant solution. Did you have to tweak weights? Or was it auto-bind? @HappyPolygon Seams like sometimes I have a usable idea. Even if I'm not the first one... 😉 @Cairyn LeFuque! Would love to see the math... @Cerbera Since I made my physical cone with paper, I have to say, there's (as good as) no smushing. The only thing that prevents us using a classic bend deformer is that the disc has to bend along a curve. And you have to have a decent amount of mesh at the tip (as you can see in cairyns examples... Anyways, thanks for letting me hang out with the cool gang...

It could work with a surface deformer on an actual cone via UV mapping. Would still have to adjust the mapping. And the field for the "roll on". waffleCone.c4d

Interesting challenge 😉 I had the same thought: just use a bend deformer and adjust the angle of rotation ffs 😉 but then I tried for myself. And failed. So I made a paper disc and tried to find out what happens when you roll it into a cone: Looks like the "bending axis" is not a straight line. And there is no deformer option for that. Maybe a joint rig with a spline IK could help? Will try later... Cheers

@davetwothank you. Looks like a really good remesher. But still it moves corners and surfaces. And even if thats just a few fractions of a millimeter, non of my parts would fit together any more. I guess, I will live with messy triangles and just remesh and adjust where it's really neccessary.

Just don't turn on "mesh checking" 😬😉

Thx guys. Every part that I do not have to modify or deform and has a material that is happy with triplanar textures (metal, plastic etc) works fine most of the time. Sometimes i need to have a proper UV map or repair or augment parts. Then it gets laborious. And yes, I expected answers like yours. Just wanted to make sure. Have an awesome evening/day wherever you are.

Can't say that this never happened to me 😉

I worked a lot with CAD files (mostly stp) lately. And I know how to set combining, stitching and healing to get decent results. But still the results are always triangle-nightmares of a topology mess. Not to speak of normals. Does anyone familiar with CAD software know if there is anything I could ask the CAD-experts of my clients to get more even meshes after import? Maybe even quads 😬 ? The "new" zRemesher is great, but with models that contain almost 200 seperate parts with various degrees of details thats not much of a solution... Unfortunately I am not alowed to post any stp files or c4d-imports of them... Thanks for any hint! kws