Maxon Cinema 4D 9.0 Mocca C4D Us
Cinema 4D - 9.5 - Mocca C4D_mocca_9.5_us User Guide for Maxon Cinema 4D Software, Free Instruction Manual
User Manual: maxon Cinema 4D - 9.0 - Mocca Free User Guide for Maxon Cinema 4D Software, Manual
Open the PDF directly: View PDF 
.
Page Count: 166
| Download | |
| Open PDF In Browser | View PDF |
MOCCA MOCCA Programming Team Christian Losch, Philip Losch, Richard Kurz, Tilo Kühn, Thomas Kunert, David O’Reilly, Cathleen Poppe. Plugin Programming Sven Behne, Wilfried Behne, Michael Breitzke, Kiril Dinev, Per-Anders Edwards, David Farmer, Jamie Halmick, Richard Hintzenstern, Jan Eric Hoffmann, Eduardo Olivares, Nina Ivanova, Markus Jakubietz, Eric Sommerlade, Hendrik Steffen, Jens Uhlig, Michael Welter, Thomas Zeier. Product Manager Marco Tillmann. QA Manager Björn Marl. Writers Paul Babb, Rick Barrett, Oliver Becker, Jens Bosse, Chris Broeske, Chris Debski, Glenn Frey, Michael Giebel, Jason Goldsmith, Jörn Gollob, Sven Hauth, Josiah Hultgren, Arndt von Königsmarck, David Link, Arno Löwecke, Aaron Matthew, Josh Miller, Matthew ‘Mash’ O’Neill, Janine Pauke, Marcus Spranger, Luke Stacy, Perry Stacy, Marco Tillmann, Jeff Walker, Scot Wardlaw. SDK Docs & Support David O’Reilly, Mikael Sterner. Layout Oliver Becker, Harald Egel, Michael Giebel, David Link, Luke Stacy, Jeff Walker. Translation Oliver Becker, Michael Giebel, Arno Löwecke, Björn Marl, Josh Miller, Janine Pauke, Luke Stacy, Marco Tillmann, Scot Wardlaw. Copyright © 1989-2004 by MAXON Computer GmbH. All rights reserved. English translation Copyright © 2004 by MAXON Computer Ltd. All rights reserved. This manual and the accompanying software are copyright protected. No part of this document may be translated, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of MAXON Computer. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the program and this manual, MAXON Computer assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the program or from the information contained in this manual. This manual, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license. The content of this manual is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by MAXON Computer. MAXON Computer assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this book. MAXON Computer, the MAXON logo, CINEMA 4D, Hyper NURBS, and C.O.F.F.E.E. are trademarks of MAXON Computer GmbH or MAXON Computer Inc. Acrobat, the Acrobat logo, PostScript, Acrobat Reader, Photoshop and Illustrator are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated registered in the U.S. and other countries. Apple, AppleScript, AppleTalk, ColorSync, Mac OS, QuickTime, Macintosh and TrueType are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. registered in the U.S. and other countries. QuickTime and the QuickTime logo are trademarks used under license. Microsoft, Windows, and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark only licensed to X/Open Company Ltd. All other brand and product names mentioned in this manual are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies, and are hereby acknowledged. MAXON Computer End User License Agreement NOTICE TO USER WITH THE INSTALLATION OF MOCCA (THE “SOFTWARE”) A CONTRACT IS CONCLUDED BETWEEN YOU (“YOU” OR THE “USER”) AND MAXON COMPUTER GMBH ( THE “LICENSOR”), A COMPANY UNDER GERMAN LAW WITH RESIDENCE IN FRIEDRICHSDORF, GERMANY. WHEREAS BY USING AND/OR INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE YOU ACCEPT ALL THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IN THE CASE OF NON-ACCEPTANCE OF THIS LICENSE YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO INSTALL THE SOFTWARE. IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THIS LICENSE PLEASE SEND THE SOFTWARE TOGETHER WITH ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION TO MAXON COMPUTER OR TO THE SUPPLIER WHERE YOU BOUGHT THE SOFTWARE. 1. General Under this contract the Licensor grants to you, the User, a non-exclusive license to use the Software and its associated documentation. The Software itself, as well as the copy of the Software or any other copy you are authorized to make under this license, remain the property of the Licensor. 2. Use of the Software You are authorized to copy the Software as far as the copy is necessary to use the Software. Necessary copies are the installation of the program from the original disk to the mass storage medium of your hardware as well as the loading of the program into RAM. (2) Furthermore the User is entitled to make a backup copy. However only one backup copy may be made and kept in store. This backup copy must be identified as a backup copy of the licensed Software. (3) Further copies are not permitted; this also includes the making of a hard copy of the program code on a printer as well as copies, in any form, of the documentation. 3. Multiple use and network operation (1) You may use the Software on any single hardware platform, Macintosh or Windows, and must decide on the platform (Macintosh or Windows operating system) at the time of installation of the Software. If you change the hardware you are obliged to delete the Software from the mass storage medium of the hardware used up to then. A simultaneous installation or use on more than one hardware system is not permitted. (2) The use of the licensed Software for network operation or other client server systems is prohibited if this opens the possibility of simultaneous multiple use of the Software. In the case that you intend to use the Software within a network or other client server system you should ensure that multiple use is not possible by employing the necessary access security. Otherwise you will be required to pay to the Licensor a special network license fee, the amount of which is determined by the number of Users admitted to the network. (3) The license fee for network operation of the Software will be communicated to you by the Licensor immediately after you have indicated the number of admitted users in writing. The correct address of the Licensor is given in the manual and also at the end of this contract. The network use may start only after the relevant license fee is completely paid. 4. Transfer (1) You may not rent, lease, sublicense or lend the Software or documentation. You may, however, transfer all your rights to use the Software to another person or legal entity provided that you transfer this agreement, the Software, including all copies, updates or prior versions as well as all documentation to such person or entity and that you retain no copies, including copies stored on a computer and that the other person agrees that the terms of this agreement remain valid and that his acceptance is communicated to the Licensor. (2) You are obliged to carefully store the terms of the agreement. Prior to the transfer of the Software you should inform the new user of these terms. In the case that the new user does not have the terms at hand at the time of the transfer of the Software, he is obliged to request a second copy from the Licensor, the cost of which is born by the new licensee. (3) After transfer of this license to another user you no longer have a license to use the Software. 5. Updates If the Software is an update to a previous version of the Software, you must possess a valid licence to such previous version in order to use the update. You may continue to use the previous version of the Software only to help the transition to and the installation of the update. After 90 days from the receipt of the update your licence for the previous version of the Software expires and you are no longer permitted to use the previous version of the Software, except as necessary to install the update. 6. Recompilation and changes of the Software (1) The recompilation of the provided program code into other code forms as well as all other types of reverse engineering of the different phases of Software production including any alterations of the Software are strictly not allowed. (2) The removal of the security against copy or similar safety system is only permitted if a faultless performance of the Software is impaired or hindered by such security. The burden of proof for the fact that the performance of the program is impaired or hindered by the security device rests with the User. (3) Copyright notices, serial numbers or other identifications of the Software may not be removed or changed. The Software is owned by the Licensor and its structure, organization and code are the valuable trade secrets of the Licensor. It is also protected by United States Copyright and International Treaty provisions. Except as stated above, this agreement does not grant you any intellectual property rights on the Software. 7. Limited warranty (1) The parties to this agreement hereby agree that at present it is not possible to develop and produce software in such a way that it is fit for any conditions of use without problems. The Licensor warrants that the Software will perform substantially in accordance with the documentation. The Licensor does not warrant that the Software and the documentation comply with certain requirements and purposes of the User or works together with other software used by the licensee. You are obliged to check the Software and the documentation carefully immediately upon receipt and inform the Licensor in writing of apparent defects 14 days after receipt. Latent defects have to be communicated in the same manner immediately after their discovery. Otherwise the Software and documentation are considered to be faultless. The defects, in particular the symptoms that occurred, are to be described in detail in as much as you are able to do so. The warranty is granted for a period of 6 months from delivery of the Software (for the date of which the date of the purchase according to the invoice is decisive). The Licensor is free to cure the defects by free repair or provision of a faultless update. (2) The Licensor and its suppliers do not and cannot warrant the performance and the results you may obtain by using the Software or documentation. The foregoing states the sole and exclusive remedies for the Licensor’s or its suppliers’ breach of warranty, except for the foregoing limited warranty. The Licensor and its suppliers make no warranties, express or implied, as to noninfringement of third party rights, merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. In no event will the Licensor or its suppliers be liable for any consequential, incidental or special damages, including any lost profits or lost savings, even if a representative of the Licensor has been advised of the possibility of such damages or for any claim by any third party. (3) Some states or jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental, consequential or special damages, or the exclusion of implied warranties or limitations on how long an implied warranty may last, so the above limitations may not apply to you. In this case a special limited warranty is attached as exhibit to this agreement, which becomes part of this agreement. To the extent permissible, any implied warranties are limited to 6 months. This warranty gives you specific legal rights. You may have other rights which vary from state to state or jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In the case that no special warranty is attached to your contract please contact the Licensor for further warranty information. The user is obliged to immediately inform the transport agent in writing of any eventual damages in transit and has to provide the licensor with a copy of said correspondence, since all transportation is insured by the licensor if shipment was procured by him. 8. Damage in transit You are obliged to immediately inform the transport agent in writing of any eventual damages in transit and you should provide the Licensor with a copy of said correspondence, since all transportation is insured by the Licensor if shipment was procured by him. 9. Secrecy You are obliged to take careful measures to protect the Software and its documentation, in particular the serial number, from access by third parties. You are not permitted to duplicate or pass on the Software or documentation. These obligations apply equally to your employees or other persons engaged by you to operate the programs. You must pass on these obligations to such persons. You are liable for damages in all instances where these obligations have not been met. These obligations apply equally to your employees or other persons he entrusts to use the Software. The User will pass on these obligations to such persons. You are liable to pay the Licensor all damages arising from failure to abide by these terms. 10. Information In case of transfer of the Software you are obliged to inform the Licensor of the name and full address of the transferee in writing. The address of the Licensor is stated in the manual and at the end of this contract. 11. Data Protection For the purpose of customer registration and control of proper use of the programs the Licensor will store personal data of the Users in accordance with the German law on Data Protection (Bundesdatenschutzg esetz). This data may only be used for the above-mentioned purposes and will not be accessible to third parties. Upon request of the User the Licensor will at any time inform the User of the data stored with regard to him. 12. Other (1) This contract includes all rights and obligations of the parties. There are no other agreements. Any changes or alterations of this agreement have to be performed in writing with reference to this agreement and have to be signed by both contracting parties. This also applies to the agreement on abolition of the written form. (2) This agreement is governed by German law. Place of jurisdiction is the competent court in Frankfurt am Main. This agreement will not be governed by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, the application of which is expressly excluded. (3) If any part of this agreement is found void and unenforceable, it will not affect the validity of the balance of the agreement which shall remain valid and enforceable according to its terms. 13. Termination This agreement shall automatically terminate upon failure by you to comply with its terms despite being given an additional period to do so. In case of termination due to the aforementioned reason, you are obliged to return the program and all documentation to the Licensor. Furthermore, upon request of Licensor you must submit written declaration that you are not in possession of any copy of the Software on data storage devices or on the computer itself. 14. Information and Notices Should you have any questions concerning this agreement or if you desire to contact MAXON Computer for any reason and for all notifications to be performed under this agreement, please write to: MAXON Computer GmbH Max-Planck-Str. 20 D-61381, Friedrichsdorf Germany or for North and South America to: MAXON Computer, Inc. 2640 Lavery Court Suite A Newbury Park, CA 91320 USA or for the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland to: MAXON Computer Ltd The Old School, Greenfield Bedford MK45 5DE United Kingdom We will also be pleased to provide you with the address of your nearest supplier. Contents 1 MOCCA Layout and Palette ...............................................................................5 2 Introduction to IK ..............................................................................................9 3 MOCCA IK Tag .................................................................................................. 13 Attribute manager settings ................................................................................................................. 14 Tag Properties................................................................................................................................. 14 Constraint ....................................................................................................................................... 20 Limit................................................................................................................................................ 24 Rest ................................................................................................................................................. 28 MOCCA IK Commands ......................................................................................................................... 30 Setup IK Chain ................................................................................................................................ 30 Add Anchor .................................................................................................................................... 30 Add Root Goal ................................................................................................................................ 30 Add Tip Goal ................................................................................................................................... 30 Add Up Vector ................................................................................................................................ 31 Set Chain Rest Position ................................................................................................................... 31 Set Chain Rest Rotation .................................................................................................................. 31 Auto Redraw ................................................................................................................................... 31 Auto IK-Lock ................................................................................................................................... 32 4 Bone Tool .........................................................................................................35 Attribute manager settings ................................................................................................................. 36 5 Bone Mirror Tool .............................................................................................. 41 Attribute manager settings ................................................................................................................. 42 6 Claude Bonet Tool ............................................................................................ 47 Attribute manager settings ................................................................................................................. 48 Further usage advice ........................................................................................................................... 52 7 Cappuccino Tool...............................................................................................57 Cappuccino dialog settings ................................................................................................................. 57 8 KeyReducer Tool...............................................................................................65 9 TimeWarp Tool .................................................................................................69 10 PoseMixer Tag ................................................................................................ 73 Attribute manager settings ................................................................................................................. 75 11 P2P Library and Manager............................................................................... 81 Pose2Pose manager settings ............................................................................................................... 82 Attribute manager settings ................................................................................................................. 84 12 Quaternion Tag...............................................................................................89 Attribute manager settings ................................................................................................................. 90 13 Motion Blending ............................................................................................95 Testing motion blending ..................................................................................................................... 95 Setup Motion Blend Tracks .................................................................................................................. 97 Show Transitions.................................................................................................................................. 99 Attribute manager settings ................................................................................................................. 99 Motion Blend Properties................................................................................................................. 99 Detail Properties ........................................................................................................................... 104 Transition Properties..................................................................................................................... 105 14 Retarget Tag ................................................................................................. 109 15 Clothilde ....................................................................................................... 115 Cloth NURBS .......................................................................................................................................115 Attribute manager settings .......................................................................................................... 120 Basic Properties ....................................................................................................................... 120 Tag Properties .......................................................................................................................... 121 Forces....................................................................................................................................... 126 Dresser ..................................................................................................................................... 131 Effects...................................................................................................................................... 139 Expert ...................................................................................................................................... 143 Collider Tag........................................................................................................................................ 147 Attribute manager settings .......................................................................................................... 147 Basic Properties .......................................................................................................................... 147 Tag Properties ............................................................................................................................ 147 Modeling Clothes .............................................................................................................................. 150 Procedures for Animation............................................................................................................. 152 Index.................................................................................................................. 157 INTRODUCTION 1 MOCCA Introduction Character animation — a constant in the world of 3D and the ultimate discipline. You can easily animate any character using MOCCA’s powerful yet simple to understand tools, from a comic book superhero to a squirrel juggling burning nuts. Since MOCCA‘s initial release we have been able to improve the module by collecting and evaluating your comments, new ideas and suggestions. MOCCA‘s initial release was the first complete CINEMA 4D module developed solely to address the wants and needs of character animators. This new release of MOCCA now offers you the possibility to create professional character animation even faster and easier. A variety of new functions have been created to assist you and even do some of the work for you! Here is an overview of some of the most important improvements: Motion Blending The new motion blending process allows you to transfer animations from one character to another. In other words, you can animate a character and use its motion data information for another character sometime in the future. Even the use of motion capture tools is made easier. Hard IK MOCCA now offers improved Hard IK functionality in addition to its extensive Soft IK functionality. The Hard IK algorithms forgo the Soft IK “frills” and offer much faster calcutation and response. Using the MOCCA IK tag you can select which kind of IK you want to use and can even mix Hard IK and Soft IK in the same character rig! IK FK Blending One of MOCCA‘s most powerful new features is its ability to mix IK and FK. Animate your character as you wish using IK or FK and simply use the sliders to easily blend IK and FK. The days of basing the method with which you animated your character on how its rigging had been set up are over! Motion Retrageting You have already created several finished animations using a particular character and now your client needs a larger character? You‘re working with motion capture but the proportions of the recorded motion don‘t quite fit your character? Don‘t worry – Motion Retargeting can help. Simply transfer the animation of one character‘s rigging onto another and MOCCA will take care of the scaling! Whether your entire character‘s dimensions change or only individual proportions, Motion Retargeting will rescale them. You just sit back and relax. Pole Vectors Many additional changes, new features and improvements have made their way into MOCCA that will make your 3D life easier, such as pole vectors. 1 MOCCA Layout and Palette MOCCA LAYOUT AND PALETTE 5 MOCCA MOCCA Layout and Palette Although you can access all of MOCCA’s commands from menus, you may find it quicker to use the MOCCA palette and MOCCA layout. Reach MOCCA commands quickly and save time using the predefined MOCCA layout and MOCCA palette. The MOCCA palette is integrated automatically into the MOCCA layout. On this palette you’ll find commands and tools from the Plugins > MOCCA sub-menu as well as some of the most commonly used CINEMA 4D tools: move, scale, rotate and the selection tools. To use the predefined MOCCA layout, choose Window > Layout > Mocca.l4d. You can, if you wish, create your own layout for MOCCA. For details on how to do this, please see the Configuration chapter of your CINEMA 4D Reference Manual. You can open the MOCCA palette and integrate it anywhere in the GUI. If you want to open just the MOCCA palette rather than load the entire MOCCA layout, choose Plugins > MOCCA > MOCCA Palette. The palette then appears as a freestanding window, which you can integrate anywhere in the CINEMA 4D GUI. To learn how to configure the GUI, please refer to the Configuration chapter of your CINEMA 4D Reference Manual. 2 Introduction to IK INTRODUCTION TO IK 9 MOCCA Introduction to IK MOCCA and Soft IK offer a completely new approach for animating characters. Almost all possible movements are handled via soft constraints. These enable you to go beyond the world of strict constraints. You have probably heard the term Inverse Kinematics (IK) before; it has become quite a buzzword in the 3D world, particularly when it comes to character animation. The main difference from the so-called Forward Kinematics (FK) is the direction in which something is animated. Take an arm, for example. Using FK, the arm would be animated from the shoulder downwards. This means that you first rotate the shoulder, then the upper arm, the lower arm, hand and finally the fingers pointing to a specific location. The obvious disadvantage is the difficulty of trying to get the hand in a certain position in your 3D world, since any move of the shoulder will require readjustments of all limbs that follow in the hierarchy. Having a hand grab a cup of tea, lift it to the character’s mouth and place it back on the table would involve a large number of rotations and adjustments, particularly because the position and rotation of the cup and hand have to be synchronized at all times. With Forward Kinematics (left), each bone must be rotated in order to move the arm. With Inverse Kinematics (right), you can move the hand freely and the other bones in the arm will move and rotate automatically to ensure that the bones remain connected to one another. Inverse Kinematics helps you to pose characters quickly. Inverse Kinematics offers an elegant solution to this problem. As the name suggests, the direction of the animation is inverted. This means that moving the hand will force the other joints between hand and shoulder to reposition in order to remain in contact with the hand. A simple expression could lock the hand to the position of the cup, allowing you to animate just one object, the cup, instead of two. Inverse Kinematics has been a key part of the application since CINEMA 4D XL R5. MOCCA IK offers a completely new approach. Almost all possible movements are handled via constraints. Imagine a constraint as a force that always tries to find an equilibrium with other such constraints, just like an array of magnets that levitate a metal sphere within their common magnetic fields. 10 INTRODUCTION TO IK MOCCA The following example of earlier IK systems is familiar. You drag a bone target object from one position to the next and the IK chain practically jumps into place. IK systems that limit the freedom of rotation of each bone often create dead spaces. These, sometimes large, spaces are created by overlapping rotation limits. The larger the limits are for each bone, the bigger the dead zones. This can escalate to the point of producing completely unmovable IK chains. The new IK solution in MOCCA has been created with precisely this problem in mind. By allowing the software to extend beyond these boundaries, it enables you to leave behind the world of strict constraints. How does this work? The programming within Soft IK means that the more you stretch your constraints, the more a dynamic counter-force will try to return the object to its initial rest position. A basic example would be a comic character that grabs a heavy weight, which pulls his arms and upper body to the floor. As soon as he lets go of the weights, the arms will return to a more comfortable position, in other words, his rest position. This animation is handled by what are called ‘tip effectors’ (control objects) that attract the bones of a character. A lot of the work that needs to be done in character animation involves a proper constraint setup, based on constraints for the angle and position, which should facilitate animation later on. Just as in real life, these constraints are soft. A constraint strength of 100% will not eliminate the other forces. The object is still influenced by all forces in the setup, making dead zones a thing of the past. Careful placement and setup of these constraints will result in much more elegant-looking animations that would otherwise be very difficult to achieve with older IK solutions. Some features in MOCCA might seem familiar, such as the Dynamics function in Soft IK. However, MOCCA is not an addition to the CINEMA 4D Dynamics module — it is an independent toolset in its own right. It has nothing to do with actual dynamics, which are realistic simulations of physical events that give you enormous control over all aspects of an environment. Naturally, those simulations also require more processing power, the more realistic you want them to be. On the other hand, MOCCA is a completely new technology, which emphasizes speed and reliability above all else. Ultimately, it is the result that matters most. 3 MOCCA IK Tag MOCCA IK TAG 13 MOCCA MOCCA IK Tag MOCCA IK tags add a great deal of control to your bone setup. In these pages you’ll find a description of each setting in the MOCCA IK tag. The MOCCA IK tag helps make CINEMA 4D’s standard bones more powerful. Once the tag has been assigned you can make full use of MOCCA for optimal control over your bones. You can assign the MOCCA IK tag by clicking on the object with the right mouse button in the object manager. Not only has the MOCCA IK tag’s functionality been improved but it also offers several new visual aides in the Object manager. Hence the look of your IK tag will be different depending on if you activate the Anchor option or if you add Limiters, for example. The MOCCA IK tag can look as follows: Standard icon and with Anchor option These are the standard icons after a MOCCA IK tag has been assigned (left) and the icon after applying the Anchor option (right). Once a Limiter has been applied Once a Limiter has been applied to a bone the icon will look like this. Once a Limiter has been adjusted This icon will be used if the Limiter‘s values, within which the bones should move, have been changed in the Attribute manager. Limiters and altered values And last but not least this is the icon that will be shown when Limiters as well as altered values for Limiters in one MOCCA IK tag have been assigned. 14 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA Attribute manager settings Tag Properties Use UK This option activates or deactivates IK for the bone chain. The option can be found within every MOCCA IK tag of the IK chain. Note that the entire chain is linked to this command. Turning it off for one tag will deactivate it for the entire chain. The same applies to turning it on again. Anchor An anchor is the root of any given chain. A classic anchor in a 3D character would be the hips. Most of the time, this is the root element for the character bone setup. Normally, you wouldn’t want the hips to jump out of place when dragging the goal target of the left leg, thus twisting the entire character. Placing the root at a certain point will tell the chain that the leg has to be held in place at its root, in this case the hips. The icon in the Object manager changes as soon as the Anchor option has been enabled in the Object manager: Anchor disabled (left) and enabled (right). MOCCA IK TAG 15 MOCCA Hard IK This option is only available when Anchor is enabled. This option lets you control the bone’s movement and behavior. MOCCA uses Soft IK from the previous version by default to control bones. As the name suggests, Soft IK is ideal for use on “soft” bones because it exhibits a certain dynamic of its own. This makes it prefect for cartoon characters or body parts that require a softer movement. Hard IK, on the other hand, is less dynamic in its movement but is therefore faster and does not exhibit its own dynamics. Strength This option is only available when Anchor is enabled. This parameter modifies the strength with which the skeleton will be held together. It affects all movements and a high value results in precise, but harder animation. You’ll quickly notice how, as the strength increases, the distances between each bone in a stretched chain become smaller. High values will take additional time to calculate though. Dynamics This option is only available when Anchor is enabled. The dynamics parameters modify the dynamic movements of the bone chain. The dynamics settings affect an entire bone chain, whose root bone has this option enabled. Since dynamics influence the alignment of your chain, the effect becomes more obvious if few constraints have been added. If you want to experiment with the settings and get direct feedback, make sure you avoid setting constraints. How do all these parameters interact? There is no easy answer for this, since they affect each other. High Drag will cause stiff joints, therefore limiting the effect of the other parameters. This makes drag an ideal regulator for dynamics. On the other hand, Speed does not necessarily make the movements of the chain faster. Test the different settings of the dynamics and you’ll soon develop an intuitive understanding. To switch dynamics on, enable the Dynamics option. You can then adjust the dynamics of the bone chain using the following parameters. 16 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA Speed This option is only available when Anchor is enabled. Controls the speed at which the dynamic simulations are played back. The default value of 10% initiates a slow reaction. Experiment with this setting. A small, light character might move more quickly than a large, heavy one for example. The trunk of an elephant would require slower movements and therefore lower values. Drag This option is only available when Anchor is enabled. This parameter controls the resistance of the child bones toward the reaction to the movements of the root bone. Imagine draining the lubricant from a joint mechanism – the joint will become stiffer the more lubricant is removed. Similarly, the bones will not move with the root as freely when using a higher percentage value. A word of caution: Drag very much affects the other dynamic parameters and could seriously dampen the whole dynamic movement. Gravity This option is only available when Anchor is enabled. Gravity pulls the bones down, in the direction of the world system’s negative Y-axis. This parameter defines the strength of gravity that acts upon the bones. Higher values result in a stronger bending of the chain on the Y-axis, downwards. Here again, small characters might require lower values than large, heavy ones. MOCCA IK TAG 17 MOCCA Inertia This option is only available when Anchor is enabled. Inertia controls how much of a root bone’s movement is translated into torque for its children. Torque is the force that causes rotation. Moving a bone chain around will make torque affect the angle between each of the bones. Low values won’t cause too much disruption in the chain, whereas high percentage values will jiggle the chain more and more. Color This option is only available when Anchor is enabled. Here you can set the color of the lines connecting the first and last bones of your IK chain as they are displayed in the viewport. The default color is yellow. The lines connecting the first and last bones are displayed yellow in the viewport by default. IK <-> FK One of MOCCA’s most powerful new features is the ability to seamlessly switch between IK and FK animation. Until recently you had to base the way you animated your character on how it’s rigging had been set up. The respective situation will dictate whether you move a leg by positioning the foot using IK or simply rotate the shinbone using FK. The problem we would encounter, though, is that a rig that has been set up using IK would lose its control object associations if a single bone in the hierarchy would be selected and rotated independent of its IK control object. 18 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA Let’s take a look at an example of this in the following images. Three control objects assigned to a typical bone setup for a foot. The image shows a typical bone setup which will be controlled using IK. Three control objects have been assigned for the foot (see blue arrows). Now the bone will be bent to the rear. In the past one could only bend the leg by moving the control objects using IK. If you were to bend the leg by rotating the shin bone using the rotate function, the control objects would retain their positions and it would be practically impossible to animate the leg further using IK (see following image). With the shin rotated, further animation of the leg using IK is almost impossible. MOCCA IK TAG 19 MOCCA Now MOCCA lets you reach your goals any way you want. MOCCA will recognize any control objects connected to your bones and move them with your FK rotation (see image). MOCCA can now move the control objects with your FK rotations. Display In Editor You can use the Display In Editor option to control the display of visual aids in the viewport. For example, this allows you to have the connection between the first and last element in an IK chain displayed as a thin line. If you don’t want these visual aids to be displayed, disable the option. 20 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA Constraint The Constraint settings allow you to control the bone chain with other objects in the scene. This page is shown only if Anchor is disabled on the Tag Properties page. The Constraint settings define the controls that force the IK chain into another form or direction; they allow another object to be used to move the bone chain. Here’s a more precise explanation: the goal constraint uses the origin of virtually any object in the scene to enable you to force the IK chain towards the position of that object, assuming that the other potential constraints in your scene do not counteract this. Since the IK chains follow the goal constraints, the bone angles will also be modified. Therefore this is useful for setting up different poses, since all you have to do is move about individual goal constraint objects. If you want the chain to point at a constraint, you will have to work with a tip effector. In other words, a null will be placed at the end of a chain and linked to a goal constraint. This works similarly when you use the Set Up IK Chain command. Goal Drag an object from the Object manager into this box. This object will then serve as a goal constraint. You can remove an object from this box by clicking the small triangle next to it and choosing Clear from the drop-down list that appears. Add buttons These buttons allow you to add a root goal or up vector. Strength Imagine setting the ‘muscular’ force at which the constraint pulls on the bone. If you have used several constraints with different strengths in your scene, the ones with the higher values will be preferred by the chain. MOCCA IK TAG 21 MOCCA Use As Pole You can very easily obtain control over unwanted bone rotation using the option Use As Pole. Pole vectors represent the planar surface between these three points. Pole vectors represent a planar surface between the following three points (see image) of a pair of bones: 1 The beginning of the first bone. 2. The end of the first and beginning of the second bone. 3. Around the end of the second bone. The result is that the bones cannot be rotated independently of each other; the rotation of the two bones is now controlled by the pole vector. Use As Pole only has an effect when used with a root goal; the option has no effect when used with a tip goal. This is down to the way that goals are created — root goals are attached directly to the bone they should affect, whereas tip goals are assigned an extra Null object. 22 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA Distance Chopsticks enable you to rotate the chain around the value of the Distance setting. The behavior of the Distance setting depends on the Chop Sticks setting. If Chop Sticks is enabled, this parameter sets the length of the chopsticks (see below). If Chop Sticks is disabled, it defines the distance between the tip effector and tip goal constraint within the bone chain. Chop Sticks This setting, when enabled, allows you to move your character as if the joints were connected to sticks, like shadow puppets. When using chopsticks you can pivot around a point connected to an arm, just like the wheels of a locomotive train. Set the length of the chopsticks using Distance (see above). Set This button is only available when the Use IK option (on the Tag Properties tab) is disabled. When using chopsticks the Distance parameter allows you to change the distance from the control object to the bone. To do this, switch off the MOCCA IK, move the control object to the desired position, click Set and switch the MOCCA IK back on. The new value for the distance will appear in the Distance box automatically. Up Vector Here you can drag and drop an object from the Object manager. That object will then be used as an Up Vector object. Delete the Up Vector by clicking on the small triangle next to it and selecting Clear. Up Vector constraints let you orientate the axis of a bone towards a control object. In this case, not the position, but the angle of the bone will be modified. MOCCA IK TAG 23 MOCCA There are cases in which the chain may have various alternative ways of conforming to all the constraints. Take a leg, consisting of an upper and lower thigh. The upper thigh is parented to a root bone and the lower thigh has a tip effector, which is linked to a goal constraint. If you move the goal constraint, the chain has no clear way of knowing how the angles behave between root and effector. On longer chains this can sometimes cause chaotic twisting of the IK chain. Obviously you’ll quickly notice this when the character’s skin is fixed to the bones, as it will twist with the chain. The Up Vector gives you a chance to prevent this from happening by constraining the orientation of the bone axis to the Up Vector constraint. Strength This value defines the strength at which the fixed axis will be pulled towards the Up Vector constraint. A value of 0% will completely ignore the constraint. A value of 100% practically nails the axis to the constraint. A value of 50% orientates the bone with a bit of lag, just like a magnetic compass needle adjusting towards true North after the compass has been moved. Axis Here you can choose between the various axes that point towards the Up Vector. The options are Y, -Y and X, -X. If you choose -Y, the Y-axis will point in the exactly opposite direction of the Up Vector, since an object axis arrow always points positively. 24 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA Limit Limits define the position and rotation spaces that your chain may not leave. The only way for the chain to break away from these limits is to use strong constraints that try to pull the chain through the prohibited spaces. You could say that a lot of strength is necessary to pull the joints beyond their limits. This page is shown only if Anchor is disabled on the Tag Properties page. Show Limits Enable this option to switch on the display of position and rotation limits in the viewport. Rotation limits displayed in the viewport (Show Limits enabled). Show Limits disabled. MOCCA IK TAG 25 MOCCA Strength This defines the strength of the position (X, Y, Z) or rotation (H, P, B) limits. Be careful about using too high a Strength value, especially for a rotation limit. If you’re using rotation limits on all bones, the limits might start working against each other, causing the chain to twitch wildly. Therefore only increase the rotation limit strength a little at a time. Position limit settings (X, Y, Z) Position limits enable you to offset bones in relation to their parent bone. This can be useful where joints fork off, such as at the hips or the shoulders. Remember to consider the equilibrium between the position limits and the rest position of the bone structure. Position limits give the bones boundaries that bind them with a given strength. The Min and Max settings enable you to define a point, area or space that is displayed as yellow lines in and about the bone. If you enable the X limits, say, and set a Min value of -50 and a Max value of +50, you will notice a yellow line extending from both sides of the bone parent. If you want to define an area, you will have to use an additional axis (Y or Z). Using a third axis will create a volume in the form of a box. The box shape represents three position limit axes. All forces of the Soft IK limits are not static but behave dynamically. Imagine using a rest position that is outside the space of your defined limits. In that case, the system will try to find a balance between both these forces, according to the strength values used, and position the bones somewhere between both of them. 26 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA Using position limits, you can construct the chain with an offset between the bones. Rotation limit settings (H, P, B) A bone chain, set up with heading rotation limits and Up Vectors. This option enables you to confine the freedom of rotation of the joints in the chain. The Min and Max entry fields next to R.H, R.P, R.B define the rotation limits for heading, pitch and bank. This is where you define the angles within which the bones can move freely. In the viewport, the limits are represented as pie sections, in red, green and blue respectively. MOCCA MOCCA IK TAG 27 The limits will only be active when they are enabled by checking the relevant boxes. Otherwise the allowed movement or rotation will be unlimited. If you want to prevent a change of heading, just enable the H limits. The default values of 0 for Min and Max tell the bone to move 0 degrees on heading and it therefore can only be pulled in that direction by increasing Strength. 28 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA Rest Using the parameters on this page, you can control the rest position and rotation of each joint to which the character will return when the constraints are either inactive or reduced. This page is shown only if Anchor is disabled on the Tag Properties page. These settings define a rest position and rotation — a space to which the IK chain will return when the other constraints are inactive. Imagine a character that is pulled with great force from her original position. The acceleration will cause her to stretch in the opposite direction of the pull. As soon as the acceleration reduces, she will try to assume her initial pose (provided that no other constraints prevent her from doing so). The Rest settings allow you to define this initial pose. Force Position If this option is enabled, the bones remain in contact, i.e. there will be no gaps between the bones, even if the tip effector has not been reached. Force Position enabled. Although the tip effector has not been reached, there are no gaps between the bones. Force Position disabled. The bones are stretched apart as they try to reach the tip effector. MOCCA IK TAG 29 MOCCA Reset To Rest State Clicking this button will cause the IK chain to return to its predefined rest position and rest rotation. Since you will probably have other active constraints in the scene preventing this, the Use IK option will automatically be turned off at the root bone. Strength, Pos X, Pos Y, Pos Z, Set These values define the initial rest position for the IK chain. You can set them by moving the chain into the position you want and pressing Set or the Set Chain Rest Position icon on the MOCCA palette. The Strength setting regulates the strength at which the rest position will interact with other forces. The higher the value, the greater the influence of the rest position on the character. Strength, Rot H, Rot P, Rot B, Set These settings define the initial rest rotation of the IK chain when no other constraints are active. You can set them by arranging the chain as you want and pressing Set or the Set Chain Rest Rotation icon on the MOCCA palette. If you have set a rest position for the arm, which also has a tip effector connected to it, the chain will try to find a common denominator for both forces. If you try to pull the arm away from its rest position with a goal constraint, you will have to use more force than if you hadn’t used rest rotation. Eliminating the goal constraint will cause the chain to return to its rest rotation immediately. This form of constraint should be preferred to the classical rotation limit, since it allows for more natural movements with less strict prohibited spaces to which the chain can move. The Strength setting controls the strength at which the rest rotation interacts with other forces. The higher the value, the greater the influence of the rest rotation on the character. 30 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA MOCCA IK Commands These commands help you to create MOCCA IK chains and fully automate your setup. When setting up a Soft IK chain, you’ll need to use the MOCCA IK commands. Using these, you can add anchors, goals and more and save time with the Setup IK Chain tool, which fully automates the Soft IK setup for simple bone chains. You’ll find these commands on the Plugins > MOCCA sub-menu as well as on the MOCCA palette. Setup IK Chain With a bone chain selected, choosing this icon from the MOCCA palette, or from the MOCCA Plugin menu, will add a MOCCA IK tag to the root bone, with the Anchor option enabled. The child bones will also receive a MOCCA IK tag, and a tip effector will be added to the last bone. The effector is linked to a goal constraint parented to the root bone of the chain. This will set up your IK chain at the press of a button. Add Anchor This command adds an anchor to the selected bone. Add Root Goal The root of an individual bone is also where its object axis is placed. This command puts an effector at the bone’s origin. The effector is linked to a goal constraint, which is parented to the chain’s root bone. It will automatically receive the suffix ‘Root Goal’. Moving this goal object will give you direct control over the position of the joint. Add Tip Goal This command puts an effector at the tip of the bone. The effector is linked to a goal constraint, which is parented to the chain’s root bone. It will automatically receive the suffix ‘Tip Goal’. Moving this object gives you influence over the direction of the Z-axis for the respective bone. MOCCA IK TAG 31 MOCCA Add Up Vector By selecting this, an Up Vector will be added to the selected bone, constraining its Y-axis orientation towards a control object placed above it. This object will adopt the name of the bone along with the suffix ‘Up’. Adding this to the bone called ‘Upper thigh’ for example, would result in an Up Vector control object with the name ‘Upper thigh.Up’. If you want to constrain the X-axis of the bone, select its MOCCA IK tag and, on the Attribute manager’s Constraint page, choose a different axis from the Axis drop-down list. Set Chain Rest Position This command sets the local positions (i.e. the position relative to the immediate parent object) of all objects in the IK chain as the rest position in the MOCCA IK tag. The command gives you an easy way to define rest poses. See also the description of the Rest tab earlier in this chapter. Set Chain Rest Rotation This command sets the rest rotation of all bones in the IK chain that have MOCCA IK tags. See also the description of the Rest tab earlier in this chapter. Auto Redraw You’ve probably noticed that a great way to test the movements of your IK chain, especially in combination with the Dynamics function of Soft IK, is to press the Play button (or hotkey: F8). However, since the Soft IK chain works with soft constraints, the animation reacts to a number of different factors. This means that the animation might not be finished at the last frame. The joints might still come to rest slowly. To display those changes without playing back the entire animation, you can use the Auto Redraw command in MOCCA. Once enabled, it will constantly update the calculations, displaying the reactions of your IK chain immediately. When choosing this command, the dialog will enable you to set the redraw step in milliseconds. If you have activated the MOCCA layout by choosing Window > Layout > Mocca.l4d, you will find the dialog already below the Object manager. Normally, the animation will be played back in realtime; for PAL systems, that means 25 frames per second, for NTSC it is 30. Each frame will therefore be displayed for 1/25 or 1/30 of a second before it is updated again. 32 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA The default value of 50 milliseconds (20 frames per second) is quite enough to make the movements smooth. Note that each redraw costs processing power. Higher redraw times will cost more processor time. 50 milliseconds is a good average value. Very complex scenes may, however, require faster redraw times. Auto IK-Lock The Auto IK-Lock option is closely related to the ability in MOCCA to seamlessly switch between IK and FK when you are animating. If the option is enabled, when you animate the tag’s bone with FK, all of the bone’s control objects such as goals and up vectors will move along with the bone automatically. If the option is disabled, MOCCA will still rotate the bone but it will ignore the control objects. 4 Bone Tool BONE TOOL 35 MOCCA Bone Tool With the bone tool, you can create and adjust bone chains quickly and easily, using a variety of tools. The bone tool is the tool of choice for preparing your virtual characters for that big Hollywood role. MOCCA was given an extra tool to let you put together your 3D star’s skeleton quickly and intuitively and easily position them in your scene. If you make a change to a bone, changes to its dependent bones will be made accordingly. It has never been easier to edit bones in CINEMA 4D. Selecting and deselecting the bone tool You’re probably wondering why we have a special section just for selecting a tool, even though its so obvious. Well, this section is less about actually selecting the tool and more about the effect that selecting this tool has, i.e. what happens to the bones when you select this tool or switch from it to another tool. Selecting the bone tool is like beginning a phase – the bone editing phase. All bones in the scene are deactivated when the bone tool is selected. The red check marks in the object manager will turn from green to red. Bones in the Object manager before selecting the bone tool (left) and after (right). In addition, the bones will be reset to their initial rest position and will lose their deformation effect on the mesh. This effect is similar to the Reset Bones command in the Object manager. A further effect of selecting the bone tool is that the Use Animation and Use Expressions options on the left toolbar will be disabled. This will prevent the bones from being affected by animation keys or expressions. When you select the bone tool, the Use Animation and Use Expressions options in the left toolbar will be disabled automatically (left). They will become active again (right) as soon as you change to a different tool. 36 BONE TOOL MOCCA As soon as you switch from the bone tool to another tool such as rotate, the bones will be reactivated automatically and the mesh will be influenced by the bones once again. The Use Animation and Use Expressions options will also be activated again. If, before using the bone tool, you’ve edited the bones or recorded keys for them and so on, then when you switch from the bone tool to another tool the bones will jump back to the positions and rotations they had at the time when you selected the bone tool. In other words, you’ll lose any position and rotation changes that you’ve applied to the bones while the bone tool was selected. Although selecting the bone tool can be compared to the Reset Bones command, deselecting the bone tool is not, in turn, similar to the Fix Bones command. The difference is that Fix Bones fixes the bones to their present position and rotation and defines this as the new initial state, whereas deselecting the bone tool does not fix the bones — it simply activates their deformation properties. Therefore we recommend that you edit the bones using the bone tool before applying expressions and so on. If you must make changes to the bones later using the bone tool, before you deselect the bone tool, choose the Fix Bones command to fix the bones in their new position and rotation. Attribute manager settings The various tools are available from the Attribute manager. Add Bone This command adds a bone to the scene. The bone has a default length of 100 m and points in the direction of the Z-axis. Pressing the button twice, however, does not add a child bone to the previous bone but another independent bone, with the same parameters as the first one. If you want to add a child bone, use the Add Child Bone button instead. Add Child Bone Clicking this button will simply add a child bone to the chain; this is placed at the tip of the previously created bone or child bone. It adopts the parameters of the preceding bone, as well as its name. BONE TOOL 37 MOCCA Continuously using this command will add a new child bone for every push of the button, quickly creating an entire chain. You can also add child bones by Ctrl-clicking in the viewport, in which case a new bone is added to the chain between the tip of the last bone and the position of the mouse pointer. If you look closely, you’ll notice a yellow dot at the origin of each bone. These are handles. Drag them to scale and rotate the bones interactively in the viewport. Split Bone This will split the bone in half. Together, the newly created bones will have the same length as the original. The overall length of the chain therefore remains unchanged. You can also split bones interactively in the viewport. While pressing the Shift key simply click on the bone at the point at which you want to split it. Use this command before setting up Soft IK, since the Setup IK Chain command will also set the rest position of the bones. If you then split the bone, a new bone with half the length of the original will be placed at the previous origin. The other new bone will also be shorter but cannot reach the tip of the preceding bone, since the old rest position has also been copied. This would lead to gaps in the IK chain. Add/Update Null Bone A Null bone is a bone without influence on the geometry of the object to which it is assigned. In other words, it is a bone with a strength of 0% and a length of 0 m — literally null. The Attribute manager settings for a Null bone. Bones, just like any other object in a hierarchy, always work with the information of their parent object, such as its limits or positions. Null bones offer the benefit of not affecting the geometry and can therefore serve as a master system. So why not use a normal Null object instead? The answer is simple: a bone chain does not allow other objects (such as the normal Null object) to penetrate its hierarchy. Otherwise, the bones might no longer be fixed and results would be quite unexpected. The Add/Update Null Bone command adopts the rotation and position of and is placed at the origin of the selected bone. The rotation of the selected bone is cleared. The great advantage is that you can easily set rotation limits for non-rotated bones without having to do the math for each of them. 38 BONE TOOL MOCCA Use this command before Setup IK Chain, since the latter will fix the rest position of the bones. If the Null bone is added later on, the following bone cannot be placed at the tip of the shorter null bone, because it inherits the rest position. The chain would be elongated. 5 Bone Mirror Tool BONE MIRROR TOOL 41 MOCCA Bone Mirror With this tool you can mirror individual bones and entire chains including tags, Claude Bonet maps and much more. Before using the bone mirror tool (left) and after (right). The bone mirror tool is a powerful accessory that can speed up your work with bones by mirroring not only the bones but also tags, constraints, selections and more. To select the bone mirror tool, choose Plugins > MOCCA > Bone Mirror or select the Bone Mirror icon from the MOCCA palette. In both cases, this opens the Bone Mirror dialog, from where you can set up the operation of the tool, before clicking the Mirror button to make the changes. The bone mirror tool mirrors only the bones and the Null objects within the setup (such as nulls for root goals), NOT geometry (meaning 3D volumes). If you want to mirror geometry, use the Mirror tool from the Structure menu. Since the Bone Mirror tool was developed primarily for use with Soft IK it does not support other functions such as IK expressions or XPresso expressions. 42 BONE MIRROR TOOL MOCCA Attribute manager settings Plane This is where you select the plane onto which the setup is mirrored. Imagine putting half an orange onto a mirror, open side facing the mirror. The half orange suddenly appears like a complete one. The mirror is the equivalent of the tool’s plane that you choose from this drop-down list. Origin The Origin setting defines a point through which the Plane should pass, thus defining the mirror’s position. Choose one of the following settings. Selected This will mirror the selected bone with the mirror plane passing through its object axis. The rotation of the axis will be ignored, since the bone mirror tool always mirrors parallel to the plane that you have chosen. Parent The setup will be mirrored according to the position of the axis of the selected bone’s parent. Again, the rotation of the axis will be ignored, since the bone mirror tool always mirrors parallel to the plane that you have chosen. Top Most In this case, the root bone sets the origin of the mirror. Here too, only the mirror plane is of importance. World If you choose the World setting, the origin of the world coordinates will be used, regardless of the rotation of origin. BONE MIRROR TOOL 43 MOCCA Auto Find Center, Match Search The Auto Find Center option is designed to help you mirror Claude Bonet maps, point and polygon selections, as well as vertex maps. Imagine having built a character and set up half of it with bones. You might also have set the range of influence of some of the bones with the Claude Bonet tool. Naturally, you’ll want the bone mirror tool to copy those weights properly to the other side, too. If you disable the Auto Find Center option, the object axis of the bone setup will be used instead. The object axis isn’t necessarily at the center of your character’s points, though. Enabling the option will find the center of the points, which can create very accurate results in symmetrical models. The Match Search box is where you set an amount of tolerance with which the bone mirror tool will compensate for irregularities within the model. If the bone mirror tool does not find exactly the same corresponding points on the other side of the setup, it will search for them within the radius that you can set. You should experiment with this setting. Very small values tend to produce unconvincing results. Suffix Here you can set a name suffix that is added to the mirrored elements. This serves for organizational purposes, avoiding confusion between the various resulting bones. If you are mirroring the left half of the character, you might set the suffix to ‘_R’. An upper thigh named ‘ThighUp’ would, after mirroring, create a bone with the name ‘[ThighUp_R]’ on the right side. Prefix This is where you can set a prefix to be added in front of the mirrored bones. Taking the previous example (see ‘Suffix’, above), setting the prefix to ‘R_’ will cause the right side of the upper thigh to be named ‘R_ThighUp’ after mirroring. Replace ... With These settings enable you to rename a bone while mirroring. For example, if you have already named a left upper thigh ‘[ThighUp_L]’, it would make little sense to leave ‘_L’ in the name of the right side. Simply type _L into the Replace box and _R into the With box. The mirrored bone will automatically be named ‘[ThighUp_R]’. Clone Tags You can also mirror all the tags assigned to a bone element by enabling this option. Note that the Mirror Constraints and Mirror Influences options are available only when Clone Tags is enabled. 44 BONE MIRROR TOOL MOCCA Clone Animation If this option is enabled, the chain’s existing animation tracks are cloned. Mirror Children When enabled, this option will mirror the children of the selected bone, as well as any control objects. If the option is disabled, only the selected bone will be mirrored. Mirror Constraints If this option is enabled, existing Restriction tags and the constraints defined in the Attribute manager will be mirrored as well. These restrictions are used to control which part of the body the bone may deform. Even combined vertex maps with parented polygon models can be mirrored, despite the fact that the vertex map is not assigned to the bone, but to the Polygon object above it. The only necessary condition is that the Mirror Influences option is enabled. Mirror Influences When enabled, this option will mirror all influences a bone may have on a model. These influences can refer to Restriction tags assigned to point or polygon selections as well as to vertex maps. This option is especially useful when mirroring Claude Bonet weighting. Mirror Click this button to apply the Mirror tool to the selected bones. 6 Claude Bonet Tool MOCCA Claude Bonet Tool The process of weighting bones is quick and easy with this tool. It enables you to set influences and assign them to bones at the same time. CLAUDE BONET TOOL 47 The Claude Bonet tool takes its name from the word ‘bone’ and from the name of the leading exponent of impressionism, Claude Monet. Before we explain what the Claude Bonet tool does, some explanation of bone weighting is in order. Bones are deformers. In other words, bones are objects that have no geometry themselves but are used to deform volumes (e.g. the flesh around them). Usually, a single bone won’t be enough to set up a realistic skeleton. Instead you’ll probably use several complete chains, where each bone has a function. To use the bones efficiently within the chain, you’ll have to assign separate parts of the geometry to each bone, to avoid having the foot bones curl the ears of the character, for example. This process is called ‘weighting’. In earlier versions of CINEMA 4D, this weighting was achieved using traditional vertex map weighting tools. Back then, you assigned weighting to points and linked them to the bones via Restriction tags. You can still do this, but there is an easier way. Claude Bonet makes this process far simpler by enabling you to set influences and assign them to bones simultaneously and, as its name suggests, you paint these weightings onto the bone. To select the Claude Bonet tool, choose Plugins > MOCCA > Claude Bonet or click the Claude Bonet icon on the MOCCA palette. The settings for the tool will then appear in the Attribute manager. Once you have adjusted the settings as described below, just select a bone and ‘paint’ the weighting onto the bone in the viewport, using the mouse. 48 CLAUDE BONET TOOL MOCCA Attribute manager settings In the Attribute manager, you’ll find all the commands and options that are needed to weight the bones. Only Modify Visible Elements If this option is enabled, you can paint visible elements only. Invisible elements are ignored. Display All Bones When enabled, this option will display the influences of all bones on the geometry, in the selected chain. What you’ll see is the color display of the existing Claude Bonet weighting range. When adjusting the weighting of a single bone, we recommend disabling this option. Influences might overlap near their borders, making it difficult to judge a single bone’s weighting. Left: the left leg has been weighted using the Claude Bonet tool with Display All Bones enabled. Right: Display All Bones disabled. CLAUDE BONET TOOL 49 MOCCA Paint Absolute The links between the bones and the individual points in the mesh will be saved by Claude Bonet as weighting information within the points themselves. Normally, if you paint weighting with a strength of 20%, for example, each brush stroke will add another 20% to the area. By holding down the Ctrl key while you paint, you can erase the weights. Paint Absolute will disable the above behavior. You’ll then paint with the absolute Strength value only. Force Shading Normally, if you paint the weighting in, say, the Lines display mode, it can be difficult to weight the bones by eye. At best the only weighting information you’ll see in the viewport will be colored lines and points. To make your work easier, enable this option. Quick Shading will then be used. Force Shading enabled (top) and disabled (bottom). 50 CLAUDE BONET TOOL MOCCA Set Reference With this command, you can apply the same Claude Bonet weight to multiple bones. This helps you to quickly set the weighting for similar bones such as the finger bones of a hand. It’s not absolutely necessary to assign all joints of a bone chain a separate weighting for the mesh. Particularly in areas where a lot of bones control a small section, such as hands, it may be easier to simply apply the same Claude Bonet weights to all fingers. In this case, you can set a reference weight for the first finger and reuse it for the following fingers. This is precisely what Set Reference is implemented for. Select a bone and click this button. If you haven’t set any weights yet, the button will have no effect. Otherwise, a list will pop up; choose the bone whose weighting information you want to apply to the selected bone and click OK. Strength This is where you set the strength with which you paint. A value of 50%, for example, would allow the bone to have limited influence on the mesh. The strength is added relatively; if you paint weighting with a strength of 20%, for example, each brush stroke will add another 20% to the area. Enabling the Paint Absolute option turns off this relative mode and allows you to paint with an absolute Strength value. By holding down the Ctrl key while you paint, you can erase the weighting. Set Value This button sets the current weighting strength for the selected bone across the entire area of the assigned geometry. If you select a character’s hip bone, for example, define a strength of 100% and click Set Value, the bone would have full influence over the entire geometry of the volume. This is a quick way of painting the weights across the whole chain. CLAUDE BONET TOOL 51 MOCCA Before using Set Value (left) and after (right) with Strength set to 100%. Radius The Radius defines the size of the brush with which you paint the weights. Experiment with the radius. Remove Paint (This Bone) Erases the weighting of the selected bone. You can use this function if the weighting is bad and you want to start again instead of reworking the bad map. Remove Paint (Hierarchy) Removes the weighting of the selected bone hierarchy, from the active bone down to the last bone of the chain. If you have to completely rebuild and re-weight a character’s arm, for example, it can make sense to keep the bones and just completely reapply the weighting. Remove Paint (Scene) Removes all weighting for the entire scene. This can be useful if you discover you have painted the character incorrectly and would rather paint it again from the beginning, or if you want to edit the character entirely including new setups. 52 CLAUDE BONET TOOL MOCCA Further usage advice When weighting bones with Claude Bonet it is important to know which of the three possible bone parameters you are working with: 1. Smart Bone disabled. 2. Smart Bone enabled, Absolute Vertex Map disabled. 3. Smart Bone enabled, Absolute Vertex Map enabled. Each of these properties requires a different method of application of the Claude Bonet tool because each property uses a different algorithm to deform the mesh with the bones. 1. Smart Bones disabled When using bones in the classic CINEMA 4D style (the Smart Bone option was first added in version 8.5) it is important to know that every bone will influence EVERY point of an object even WITHOUT application of the Claude Bonet tool. Therefore if you forget to paint a bone with Claude Bonet and you have not assigned a vertex map to the bone, the bone will affect the entire mesh and this can lead to unwanted deformations. How much the bone affects the mesh will depend on the size of the bone and how far away it is from the points. 2. Smart Bone enabled, Absolute Vertex Map disabled Generally speaking, the same applies here as with the previously described function: if no maps have been applied, the bones will influence all points of an object, THE DIFFERENCE BEING that a different algorithm is used. This algorithm affects substantially fewer points located a greater distance from the bone. In principle, the Smart Bone option can be added at any time to bones already weighted with Claude Bonet. 3. Smart Bone enabled, Absolute Vertex Map enabled As mentioned in the CINEMA 4D reference manual, if Absolute Vertex Map is enabled, the maps alone will control the entire weighting of the bones. This has the advantage that any points that are not referenced in the map (i.e. points not painted with Claude Bonet) will NOT be deformed by the bones — each and every point must be accounted for in the maps. In addition, none of the other parameters such as function or strength can be used for bones within the hierarchy. CLAUDE BONET TOOL 53 MOCCA Examples The difference between using smart bones and normal bones becomes clear when you take a look at the following examples. For these examples no Claude Bonet maps were used in order to make the differences as clear as possible. As these examples suggest, you may need a different Claude Bonet weighting when using smart bones than you do when using normal bones. Left: Here is an example of a deformation of a simple mesh without Claude Bonet and without Smart Bone enabled (Function set to 1/r^2). Right: Here is an example of a deformation of a simple mesh without Claude Bonet and with Smart Bones enabled (Function set to 1/r^2) but with Absolute Vertex Map disabled. You can see how the Smart Bone algorithm deforms the object in a quite different manner to the classic algorithm (without the Smart Bone function). Here is an example of a deformation of a simple mesh without Claude Bonet but with Smart Bone AND Absolute Vertex Map both enabled. No deformation can be seen because no maps have been applied to the bones. 54 CLAUDE BONET TOOL MOCCA Additional comments The structure of the object is also very important with regard to painting maps. A highly subdivided object will be deformed differently than an object with fewer subdivisions. The deformation of a cuboid with few subdivisions in a HyperNURBS object via four bone objects (the polygonal cube was subdivided three times using the Knife Tool). Each bone was weighted using Claude Bonet, where the weighting overlaps the segments (right). The deformation of a cuboid with a few more subdivisions (especially at the joints) within a HyperNURBS object via four bones. Each bone was weighted using Claude Bonet, where the weighting overlaps the segments (right). Because the object contains more subdivisions at the joints, the outer form will retain its original form more closely than will an object with fewer subdivisions. This does, though, require more work when painting the weighting onto the mesh. 7 Cappuccino Tool CAPPUCCINO TOOL 57 MOCCA Cappuccino Tool Cappuccino is MOCCA’s integrated motion capture tool. It enables you to create lifelike motion for your characters, from a head nodding in agreement to a gecko catching a fly with its tongue. With Cappuccino you can quickly create all kinds of realistic movements for your 3D characters and models, simply by recording mouse movements. Cappuccino is MOCCA’s integrated motion capture tool. Take an object, activate the function and drag it around the viewport. All movements of your mouse will be captured and recorded frame by frame in the object’s animation track. Cappuccino is good for setting so-called secondary motions such as the movement of pigtails which you really don’t want to animate manually. Furthermore, you can more easily animate vehicles using the top view or move planes or birds across the sky. Cappuccino produces a large amount of unnecessary keys since it sets a key at every frame of the animation. It is generally a good idea to apply the Key Reducer after using Cappuccino. To select the Cappuccino tool, choose Plugins > MOCCA > Cappuccino or click the Cappuccino icon, shown above, which you’ll find on the MOCCA palette. The Cappuccino dialog opens. Cappuccino dialog settings Capture your mouse movements using the options and commands in this dialog, which opens when you choose the Cappuccino command. 58 CAPPUCCINO TOOL MOCCA Action pane Here you’ll find the buttons for recording the keyframes in different ways. Single Keyframe This will record keys for the selected object(s) at the current Timeline position and according to the Where and What selections within the dialog. Simply select an object, or objects, and click Single Keyframe. This button describes the same functionality as the record button on the Timeline. Having the function available directly in the Cappuccino dialog is more convenient in case the Timeline is not visible for whatever reason. It is by all means conceivable that one could mix automatic keyframes and manually set keyframes using Cappuccino. Start Realtime This button prepares MOCCA for multiple-keyframe recording. It tells MOCCA to start recording as soon as the mouse button is pressed within the viewport and stop when it is released again. Look at the Timeline: when you first press the mouse button in the viewport, the Timeline pointer will start running and then stop abruptly when you release the button. MOCCA will record a key for each frame of the animation. By default, in PAL mode, this will result in 25 keys per second; in NTSC mode, 30 frames per second. Use the KeyReducer tool to reduce the number of keyframes if necessary. Here, ‘second’ does not represent a real-time second, i.e. the actual time the object takes to move. This is also dependent upon the speed of your processor and the scene’s complexity. A simple cube in an empty environment will behave differently to a complex model of a car in a city landscape! It’s important to keep these factors in mind and to deactivate objects that aren’t needed for the recording in order to free up some of your computer’s performance if necessary. Another possibility is to work with proxy objects; for example, in the case of animating a car, you could animate a cube in place of the car and then transfer the animation from the cube to the car. CAPPUCCINO TOOL 59 MOCCA Stop Realtime Think of this as that ‘Quiet: Live Recording’ sign that you see in recording studios. Its sole purpose is to indicate when the recording has finished. When you’re not recording, this button is appears ‘pressed’. During recording, it appears ‘unpressed’. The Stop button during the recording (left) and after (right). When pane Here you can define the time frame for the recording or choose to simply get going without being tied down to a specific time frame. Range, From, To Use this drop-down list to choose one of four different settings that limit the range of the recording. Document This option uses the project settings of CINEMA 4D (Edit > Project Settings), where you can set the frame rate (frames per second) as well as he total number of frames in the Timeline. If, say, the project settings are set to a range of 0 to 90 frames and this option is selected, MOCCA will only record 91 frames and no more. Preview With Preview selected, the preview range in the Timeline will be used to determine the extent of the recording. Here, the Timeline’s preview range will be used. For example, if the preview range markers are set to frames 25 and 50, keys will be recorded from frames 25 to 50 only. This range must be set in the Timeline first. Render This option uses the frame range defined in the render settings on the Output page. 60 CAPPUCCINO TOOL MOCCA User When this option is chosen, user-defined settings can be entered manually in the Cappuccino dialog. The recording will take place between the frame numbers you set in the From and To edit boxes. Start At Current Time Enabling this option will allow you to choose the starting point of your animation interactively. The current position of the time slider will define the frame at which recording begins. Simply move the time slider to the frame you want to record from and start recording. Rewind Time This will rewind the time slider to its initial starting point once the recording has stopped. If you are unsatisfied with the results of the recording, or just want to practice the movements, you can press the Start Realtime button once more and overwrite the previously recorded animation, frame for frame. When you rewind and click Start Realtime again, existing keyframes will be overwritten, NOT deleted. For example, if you have previously captured frames 0 – 200 of your animation and only capture frames 0 –100 the second time around, frames 101 – 200 from the first time will be preserved. This can be useful if, say, you’ve recorded some animation and you’re happy with the end of the recorded animation but you want to change the start — simply rewind and re-record over the frames that you want to change. Be careful not to record over the ‘good’ part as well! Where pane Here you can choose which objects are to be recorded. If you just want to animate certain objects in the scene, you can assign them to a specific layer in the Timeline. Then choose that layer here and Cappuccino will be unable to record keys if you select an object that is not part of the chosen layer. Keep in mind that each object you drag into the Timeline without assigning it a specific layer will automatically be part of layer 1. If you haven’t assigned objects to any other layer, you can just keep on working with layer 1 for your animation. Layer This drop-down list gives you a choice of layers, corresponding to the layer system in the Timeline. If objects are assigned to specific layers, this option enables you to lock or unlock object groups for recording, as described above. CAPPUCCINO TOOL 61 MOCCA Use Existing Sequences If objects within a layer already have sequences, these will be used for recording when you enable this option. This also means that keys can be written only where a sequence is present. Disabling this option will cause MOCCA to extend the sequence to cover the entire recording time. Suppose you’ve defined that from one frame to another frame an object should move from one point to another point; this object therefore already has a sequence in the Timeline for this motion. Now you want to animate another object using Cappuccino and you want this object to only move at the same time as the first object. You can either look in the Timeline to see which frames must be used or you can use the Use Existing Sequences option to narrow down the time frame for the movement. What pane The only remaining factor that Cappuccino needs to know is what to record, meaning what type of animation. Here you will find the following options: Position If you want to record the changes in position of an object, enable this option. Position tracks will be created in the Timeline. Scale Animating the scale can be achieved by enabling this option. Scale tracks will be created in the Timeline for the selected object. Rotation If you want to record the rotation of an object over time, enable this option. Rotation tracks will be created in the Timeline for the selected object. PLA Point level animation of a polygon object will be recorded with this option enabled. PLA tracks can be created with the help of the magnet tool. Hierarchy In this case, not only the selected object and its predefined tracks will be keyframed, but also those of its child objects. 62 CAPPUCCINO TOOL MOCCA Selection This drop-down list gives you a choice of two ways of object selection. If you want to record keys for only one object, select Object manager in this list; you won’t be able to record keys for multi-selected objects in this mode. If you choose Timeline, however, you can select several objects simultaneously in the Timeline and record keys for all of them. Remember that, if the Timeline is in manual mode, it may not show all the objects that you want to record. Object Manager The object that is selected in the Object manager will be used for recording. Simultaneous recording of several objects is not possible here. Timeline The objects that are selected in the Timeline will be used for recording. Simultaneous recording of multiple objects is possible. In other words, selecting one or more separate objects in the Timeline will enable you to record the movements or deformations for all selected objects. 8 KeyReducer Tool KEYREDUCER TOOL 65 MOCCA KeyReducer Tool Motion captured tracks often have more keys than are necessary, making them difficult to edit. Using the KeyReducer tool, you can quickly reduce the number of keys without losing the ones that matter. KeyReducer is an invaluable tool when it comes to cleaning up motion capture tracks such as those created using MOCCA’s Cappuccino tool. Most motion capture systems write a key per frame to ensure that all important data is captured. However, this process usually generates many more keys than are necessary. When you need to edit these tracks, it can be extremely difficult to tell what events happen at what time. In such cases, you can remove the unnecessary keys using the KeyReducer tool. It reduces the number of keys used by the selected tracks intelligently, keeping the important keys while removing those that are not required. To select the KeyReducer tool, choose Plugins > MOCCA > KeyReducer or click its icon on the MOCCA palette. Before using the KeyReducer tool (left) and after (right). KeyReducer dialog settings Reduce the number of keys using the Reduction slider in the KeyReducer dialog, which opens when you select the KeyReducer tool. Reduction This slider controls the strength of key reduction for the selected tracks. To test this, use Cappuccino to capture the movements of a Cube object in the viewport. Select the tracks in the Timeline. Now select the KeyReducer tool, drag the handle and watch the keys disappear! Before applying the KeyReduction tool to the cube’s tracks (left) and after (right). 66 KEYREDUCER TOOL MOCCA As soon as you release the slider it will jump back to 0%. If you’re not satisfied with the result, simply move the slider again or select Undo (Action) from the Edit menu. Boost If you reduce keys without the Boost option, you’ll still notice some unnecessary keys. These are mostly keys that fall between the ups and downs of a curve. The Boost option eliminates these keys while still maintaining the peaks and overall shape of the curve. Note that boosted reductions will remove the vast majority of keys within the first few positions of the slider. Boost disabled (left) and enabled (right). Boost removes many keys while still preserving the general shape of the curve. The KeyReducer is especially useful when editing tracks captured using the Cappuccino tool. This is because usually Cappuccino records many more keys than you need. More care is needed, however, when you are using KeyReducer with motion data that has not come from Cappuccino. Simply adjusting all tracks at once will practically never give you your desired result. It will most likely result in your bone skeleton selfdestructing because the KeyReducer views each object independently of the other and cannot take dependencies such as distance between bones into consideration. Therefore you should deal with the tracks one by one. 9 TimeWarp Tool TIMEWARP TOOL 69 MOCCA TimeWarp Tool Using this tool, you can quickly find a specific frame in an animation. TimeWarp is your personal time machine. You might find it helpful to think of TimeWarp as a multiple frame jog dial on your VCR when you’re skipping through a film scene that might be hundreds of frames long. Normally, it is very difficult to find a specific frame in a scene but TimeWarp will do this for you, without you having to drag any sliders. To use the TimeWarp tool, hold down the ‘J’ key and, in the viewport, drag left or right to move backwards or forwards respectively in time. You can travel more slowly through the animation by holding down Ctrl at the same time. You can also access the TimeWarp tool from the Plugins > Mocca sub-menu or by selecting its icon from the MOCCA palette. In this case, there is no need to hold down the ‘J’ key — simply drag left or right in the viewport to step backwards or forwards in time. In addition, and most importantly, a Step setting is available in the Attribute manager. This differentiates the TimeWarp tool from the time slider. The TimeWarp function lets you switch between frames much faster than you can using the Timeline. This lets you check your animation much more quickly. Depending on the complexity of your scene you can play sequences faster via TimeWarp than you can using the Timeline! Attribute manager settings The Step value determines how far you need to drag the mouse in order to advance or rewind the animation by one time unit. Step This is where you set the relationship between length of mouse movement and time. A higher step value means less movement of the mouse is required to reach the desired point in time. But be careful: the higher the step value, the more difficult it will be to stop at a specific frame. 10 PoseMixer Tag POSEMIXER TAG 73 MOCCA PoseMixer Tag You can easily morph objects from one shape to another using this tool. It is especially useful for animating a character’s mouth, where each mouth shape is a separate morph pose. The PoseMixer tag is a morphing tool. Simply put, morphing is the transition of one form to another. The PoseMixer uses deformed duplicates of an object to achieve this. PoseMixer works just like an audio mixer or synthesizer. The duplicates, called poses, are like the inputs of the mixer desk. They will be assigned to the PoseMixer tag. All you need now is the output, i.e. the object that will be morphed by the poses; this is called the destination object. You can use the original object that the poses were duplicated from as the destination object. PoseMixer is especially useful for animating faces — mouth shapes in particular. The most important vowels can be assigned as duplicates to the PoseMixer. By mixing all of them together, to lesser or greater degrees, you can create virtually any mouth form and animate it. PoseMixer also works with objects, bones, splines and points. Animated objects can also be mixed with each other. To add a PoserMixer tag to an object, select the object and in the Object manager choose File > Mocca Tags > PoseMixer. A default pose for eyes open (left) and a pose for eyes shut (right) suitable for allowing you to quickly control the opening and closing of the eyes. Here is a typical example of a PoseMixer application using a character’s head. In the default pose (left) the character’s eyes are open. The head was then duplicated and the eyes were manually closed using modeling tools (right). This ‘closed eyes’ object was then assigned to the PoseMixer tag as a pose. This will allow the character’s eyes to be opened and closed by moving the tag’s slider for the pose. 74 POSEMIXER TAG MOCCA New in-between poses can be generated quickly, simply by dragging the slider. PoseMixer offers you the advantage that you can move between poses smoothly and new in-between poses will be generated. The eyes should only open halfway? No problem! Simply move the slider to 50% and the eyes will be half open. With the endless pose mixing possibilities you can create complex animation for faces in the blink of an eye. PoseMixer allows you to control objects, bones, splines and points. For example, you can define entire bone hierarchies as poses and use these to animate hand gestures and positions. New in-between poses can be generated quickly, simply by dragging the slider for the pose! Example of PoserMixer applied to a bone hierarchy. By defining a default pose for the hand open and a morph pose for the hand clenched into a fist, you can smoothly open and close the hand by dragging the slider for the clenched fist morph pose. POSEMIXER TAG 75 MOCCA Note to users of previous versions of MOCCA PoseMixer has been completely reworked for the new release of MOCCA. Contrary to the previous version, PoseMixer is now a tag, NOT a separate object. This improves PoseMixer’s functionality and makes it easier to work with. When using PoseMixer to mix autonomous states you can position it to basically any object without having to take the position of the other objects into consideration since it is not bound by hierarchies. For the sake of compatibility, though, the old PoseMixer object is still available in CINEMA 4D and will be used when loading older scenes that use the object. An automatic conversion to the PoseMixer tag is unfortunately not possible due to tag’s new inner workings. Attribute manager settings Add and record poses using these settings, which appear in the Attribute manager when the PoseMixer tag is selected. Record All This button sets keyframes at the current time for the present mix of poses. For example, if you have mixed three different poses and use Record, PoseMixer won’t just set a single key. Instead it records a separate key for each pose track, containing the necessary amount of each pose for the resulting shape. Therefore Record makes it extremely easy to build entire animations without having to worry about a multitude of objects. Add Pose Add Pose will add a new mixing track, so to speak. A new box appears into which you can drag the pose from the Object Manager. Next to the box you’ll find a slider which controls the strength of the pose’s influence on the final mix. Reset Sliders This button resets all the pose sliders back to 0%. 76 POSEMIXER TAG MOCCA Position You can prevent PoseMixer from changing the destination object’s position by disabling this option. This is especially important for animating faces, for example, which generally use a different object for each expression. Previous versions of MOCCA required you to create objects each with the exact same coordinates or simulate this with Null objects. This is no longer necessary in the new version of MOCCA. If, however, you want PoseMixer to assign the various positions of the objects to the destination object, enable the option. Scale If the objects you’ve assigned as poses are different scales, you can transfer these differences in scale to the destination object by enabling this option. Note here that ‘scale’ refers to the Scale values of the objects as displayed in the Coordinate manager when the Coordinate manager’s middle drop-down list is set to Scale. This means, for example, that the option will have no effect at all if the pose objects are different sizes but have the same Scale values! In such cases, enable the Points option instead if you want the differences in size to be transferred to the destination object. For more information on the Scale values in the Coordinate manager, please consult your CINEMA 4D reference manual. Rotation Enable this option if the pose objects are at different rotations and you want these differences in rotation to be transferred to the destination object. Points The Points option compares the geometry data of the objects with one another and passes this information to the destination object. This option is necessary, for example, for the animated faces already mentioned where the positions of the points will vary from one pose to the next. Exlude Parent Sometimes it makes sense to group the pose objects together as children of a Null object. However, this can change the object coordinates for the pose objects. In such cases, it would make sense for PoseMixer to ignore the parent null. That’s exactly what the Exclude Parent option is designed for. Enable the option if you want PoseMixer to ignore the parent null. POSEMIXER TAG 77 MOCCA Destination You can apply the PoseMixer tag to any object in your scene; it doesn’t have to be applied to the destination object (the object that will be morphed by the poses). The choice is entirely up to you. Because you have this freedom to choose which object to add the tag to, you need to let MOCCA know which object you want to use as the destination object. To choose the destination object, drag and drop the desired object from the Object manager into the Destination box. Default Pose This is where you drag and drop the default pose, which serves as a reference for the other poses. MOCCA needs a default pose to compare its rest state with the deformations of the other poses and then apply whatever differences it finds to the destination object. Therefore we recommend using a neutral position of the object for the default pose. 11 P2P Library and Manager MOCCA P2P Library and Manager Collect and manage poses for your animation with these useful tools. P2P LIBRARY AND MANAGER 81 The abbreviation ‘P2P’ stands for ‘Pose to Pose’ and simply describes a process of animation that moves from one predefined pose to the next. The P2P library serves as the archive for these poses. Before you can start adding poses to a P2P library, you need to add a P2P Library object to the Object manager; to do this either select Plugins > MOCCA > P2P Library or click on the Add P2P Library Object icon on the MOCCA palette. Now, double-clicking the P2P library icon in the Object manager will open the P2P manager, which enables you to collect the different poses. You can also open the P2P manager for the selected P2P library object by selecting Plugins > MOCCA > P2P Manager. We recommend that you define a reference, or neutral, position of your character as the first object in the P2P manager. To do this, just drag and drop the character’s name from the Object manager into the empty space in the P2P manager. After you let go of the mouse button, a rendered thumbnail appears in the manager window (this may take a few seconds, depending on the geometry of your object). You can now repeat this process to add as many poses as you need to the P2P manager. After you’ve collected all the necessary poses, drag the P2P library onto the destination character that will be morphed by the poses (again, it is recommended that you use a neutral pose of this character for this destination object). This works similarly to PoseMixer and motion blending. Please note that you shouldn’t drag the library onto the destination object beforehand; dragging the library (within an object) into the P2P manager could lead to recursion. 82 P2P LIBRARY AND MANAGER MOCCA Pose2Pose manager settings The P2P manager is where you collect all the poses that you want to store in the P2P library. Record Record will place a key for the selected pose at the current position in the Timeline. This key will not be placed on the destination character’s track, but on the P2P library object’s Pose track. If the P2P library object is not visible in the Timeline, you can add it to the Timeline display by dragging its name from the Object manager to the Timeline (note that this will create a new manual selection in the Timeline - see the Timeline chapter in your CINEMA 4D reference manual for more details). Geometry If you use elements, such as deformers, that deform the actual geometry of an object, within the P2P library, you need to select this option. Otherwise, MOCCA will not recognize these deformations. This enables you to work with deformers, points and even bones as elements of the pose. Test Test temporarily applies the selected pose in the P2P manager to the destination object; if no pose is selected, Test is grayed out. Test enables you to quickly check the pose, before recording it in your animation. This makes sense, especially for very intricate poses such as a face, where the thumbnails might not be enough to check the detail. P2P LIBRARY AND MANAGER 83 MOCCA Edit This command enables you to edit the poses in the P2P manager. It places a copy of the selected pose in the scene; by default, this pose does not contain the full geometry, only nulls as placeholders for the position of the character’s parts. Enabling the Geometry option will copy the entire geometry instead of the nulls. At this point you can edit the pose and then replace the original pose by clicking the Sync button. You can also drag the updated pose back into the P2P manager to create a new version. Sync Sync synchronizes poses in the P2P manager with the reference object in the scene. Select a pose from the manager first. Suppose that this pose was a bit stiff and you wanted to modify it in the viewport. Edit the pose while having the pose selected both in the P2P manager and in the Object manager and then click on Sync. The selected pose in the P2P manager will be overwritten with the modified version. Afterwards, you can use the modified pose just like any other. Remove Clicking this button will delete the selected pose or folder from the P2P manager’s list. Add Folder Click this button to add a folder inside the P2P manager’s window, into which you can drag objects (poses) from within the P2P manager or directly from the Object manager. The folder will be named ‘Libn’, by default, where ‘n’ is a number that increases as you add folders. Naturally, you can always rename a folder by double-clicking its name, typing the new name into the dialog that opens and clicking OK. 84 P2P LIBRARY AND MANAGER MOCCA Attribute manager settings Key Properties Set the parameters for each key on a Pose track in this dialog. When you select a key on the Pose track of a P2P library object, you will see the following Key Properties in the Attribute manager. Name Here you can rename the pose, making it easier to document and organize your animation. Note that the naming of the pose in the P2P manager and the key in the Attribute manager do not have to match, nor will this break the link. Name is designed to make organization more flexible. Time This gives the current time of the selected key in the Pose track. To change this, you can either enter a number or simply drag the key along the Pose track in the Timeline. Link This is the name of the pose to which the key is assigned. If you want a different pose to replace this one at the current time, select that pose and click Record in the P2P manager to overwrite the old pose and key in the Timeline. Bias Bias modifies the transition between the selected key and the next key on the Pose track. A bias of 0% creates a linear interpolation between both keys. A lower or higher value will create a sloped curve between the selected key and the next key. To see the shape of the curve, click on the boxed ‘+’ icon next to the Pose track in the Timeline. This will open the pose curve display. P2P LIBRARY AND MANAGER 85 MOCCA EasyEase EasyEase will create an S-shaped curve for smooth in and out transition of the animation. EasyEase creates a smooth in and out transition. Smooth When you loop a Pose track within a Timeline sequence, copies of the sequence will be placed one behind the other in the Timeline. This could lead to hard breaks between each sequence. Enabling the Smooth function will smooth out this transition and is similar to the Soft setting of the sequence interpolation. 12 Quaternion Tag QUATERNION TAG 89 MOCCA Quaternion Tag The dreaded problem of gimbal lock becomes a thing of the past when you use this powerful tag. Surely you have already heard of the dreaded ‘gimbal lock’ in connection with character animation. Or worse, you already have experience of it. Now Quaternion has stepped up to the plate! CINEMA 4D uses Euler angles by default to interpolate the rotation of bones. The individual components of the Eular angles are interpolated independently of one another. For example, the value midway between HPB (0,0,0) and HPB (60,60,60) would be HPB (30,30,30). The path from (0,0,0) over (30,30,30) to (60,60,60) is not exactly the shortest. You can test this in the viewport yourself. What we want is the shortest possible interpolation, which any user would attempt to do manually. This is where quaternions come in; quaternion interpolation achieves a much shorter, smoother interpolation between the keyframes and manages to avoid the problem of gimbal lock. The quaternion path in the example will lead from 0,0,0 to 60,60,60 via 35.104, 22.83, 25.104. You are probably wondering why a Quaternion tag isn’t simply applied to all bones! Easy – every advantage also has a disadvantage, and here the Quaternion tag is no exception. As long as a rotation is not altered by more than 180 degrees, Quaternion can work its magic. But anything beyond 180 degrees will cause problems because, as already mentioned, Quaternion will strive to find the shortest path. Let’s take an example: Suppose you want to rotate an object around an axis by more than 180 degrees. The rotation of the object at the start of the animation (left) and at the end (right). To do this you’d record a key at frame 0 with the object in its starting rotation,;move the time slider to the frame; rotate the object as desired and record another key. The rotation of the object at the start and end of the animation is shown in the images above. 90 QUATERNION TAG MOCCA So far so good. Now let’s take a look at what happens to the path taken by the rotation animation if it is interpolated in the traditional way, i.e. using Euler angles. Suppose you have keyframed the object to rotate around P by –185°. The object will rotate, from the point of view of the camera, through 185 degrees clockwise (see left image below). Interpolation with Euler angles (left) and quaternion interpolation (right). Now let’s look at the way Quaternion behaves. As you know, this method of interpolation searches for the shortest possible path. The shortest path, though, is not (from the point of view of the observer) clockwise 185 degrees but counterclockwise 175 degrees. See the right image above. Attribute manager settings Interpolation You can choose from three types of interpolation for the quaternion: Linear, Spline and Losch. The differences between the algorithms are demonstrated in the following example: A sphere should rotate from H,P,B (0,0,0) to H,P,B (45,35,-20) over a period of 50 frames. A red marker was placed onto the sphere to clarify the path taken by the rotation. QUATERNION TAG 91 MOCCA The sphere prior to animation (left) and there sphere’s start and end angles for the rotation animation (right). In the images above, the left image shows the sphere with the red marker prior to animation. The right image shows the start and end angles — ‘A’ and ‘B’ respectively — for the sphere’s rotation. The following pictures demonstrate the paths taken by the sphere, where the distance between each red marker corresponds to five frames. Interpolation with Euler angles (left) and quaternion interpolation (right). The left image above shows the path taken by the sphere if it doesn’t have a Quaternion tag; notice how the red markers are bunched up near the end — this is a result of the H,P and B values operating completely independently of one another. The Quaternion (linear) interpolation (right image above) looks very different. Here the gap between each red counter is equal and the path is a smooth, even curve. 92 QUATERNION TAG MOCCA The two other types of quaternion interpolation (right). The images above show the path taken by the sphere with the two other types of interpolation. So when should you use Quaternion tags? When you are working with characters it makes sense to use Quaternion tags for all joints that probably won’t be rotated by more than 180 degrees around any axis between two keyframes. So typically, these are joints that in real life cannot be rotated through more than 180 degrees such as the knee. 13 Motion Blending MOTION BLENDING 95 MOCCA Motion Blending MOCCA’s advanced motion blending allows you to easily combine multiple separate motions into one smooth, continuous action. Motion blending is the successor to the MoMix object from previous versions of MOCCA. Because Motion Blend is not an object but a Timeline function, it is much more flexible than the old MoMix object it has replaced. Motion Blend lets you animate various movements of a character independently of one another. Later, you can set them up sequentially and let MOCCA calculate the transitions between them. This can be compared to working with a non-linear editing system. Suppose you want to animate a character that goes from a walk into a handstand into a cartwheel. In previous versions of CINEMA 4D before MOCCA was available, you’d have had to do the transitions between the three motions in one of two ways: either by hand, which would require a great deal of effort, or by using Motion Sequencing, which would still require considerable effort. With this latest version of MOCCA, you can blend motions in the flick of a wrist. You can animate the various motions (walking, doing a handstand, doing a cartwheel...) separately — even as different scene files if you wish — and use motion blending to mix them together. Maybe you’re using motion capture data? No problem. Because MOCCA supports FBX you have access to Kaydara’s popular exchange format – practically an industry standard. Whether manually animated or animated via motion capture, you can acquire a database of movements and simply mix them together whenever you need them using Motion Blend. In connection with the Retarget feature you can transfer movements created for one character to a completely different character — even if they are different sizes and have completely different builds such as athletic and obese. Testing motion blending Step 1 Create two motions or load two motion capture files (BVH or FBX, for example). Create a Null object and make the motions children of the Null. In the Object manager, keep clicking the Null‘s top visibility dot until it turns red, in order to hide the Null in the viewport. Now set the Null’s bottom visibilty dot to red in order to hide the null in the renderer. Using a Null object in this way allows you to build up a library of motions that you can dip in to as and when you need them. 96 MOTION BLENDING MOCCA Step 2 Add a destination object without animation if you don’t already have one (ideally its bone hierarchy should match that of the motions). Step 3 Select the destination object and choose Plugins > MOCCA > Setup Motion Blend Tracks. Three new tracks will be created in the Timeline: two for motion and one for the transition. Step 4 Add a sequence to each track. For each motion sequence, drag and drop the motion you want to assign to the sequence into the Motion box in the Attribute manager. A linear curve will be assigned to the transition sequence automatically. The transition sequence will be assigned a linear curve automatically. Step 5 This basically completes the Motion Blend setup. You will probably notice, though, that your character will stutter a bit at the transition between the two motions. This is because the motions don’t match 100% at the seam. You can adjust the global position and rotation data of the objects using the Attribute manager settings for the motion sequences. You can adjust the position and rotation using the Attribute manager settings for the sequences. Tip Move the timeslider to approximately the middle of the transition sequence. This will make it easier to adjust the coordinates. MOTION BLENDING 97 MOCCA Setup Motion Blend Tracks This command, which is on the Plugins > MOCCA sub-menu, creates the tracks that are necessary for motion blending. In general, you should select the top-most object in the destination’s hierarchy before calling the command. The command will assign three empty tracks to the selected object: Motion A, Transition and Motion B. These tracks are created automatically when you choose Setup Motion Blend Tracks. Add a sequence to each of these tracks. The reason why the sequences are not created automatically is that by manually creating them yourself you can directly set them to the required positions and lengths. To create a sequence, right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) on the track and choose New Sequence. Use the dialog that opens to set the sequence to the desired position. Initially, the motion sequences will display a question mark; this indicates that a motion is not yet assigned to the sequence. A question mark indicates that a motion is not assigned. The dark gray bar at the top of the sequence shows the length of the original animation. The following example illustrates a repeated motion. This lengthens the sequence but you can still tell how long the original animation is without repeats via the dark gray bar. A repeated motion. Motion A This is where you define the first motion that will be transferred to your character. This motion will be blended into a second motion: Motion B. Transition The transition sequence allows you to define when and how the two motions should be mixed. 98 MOTION BLENDING MOCCA If the transition currently makes no sense, MOCCA will display a question mark on the sequence. A question mark indicates that the transition makes no sense. You can set up the transition sequence in many different ways. The most popular methods are: The most popular set-ups for the transition sequence. Motion B This is where you define the second motion that will be transferred to your character. The first motion, Motion A, will blend into this second motion. In the Timeline, the usual convention when two sequences overlap is that the top-most one will overwrite the other one. With motion blending, however, it’s the other way around: in overlapping areas the bottom motion sequence will overwrite the top motion sequence (unless, of course, you’ve used the transition sequence to control the mixing between the motions). MOTION BLENDING 99 MOCCA Show Transitions You’ll find this command on the Plugins > MOCCA sub-menu. It controls whether transitions are displayed in the viewport. You call also switch off transitions locally using the Attribute manager settings for the sequences. Show Transitions disabled (left) and enabled (right). Transitions displayed in the viewport should act as a guide to help you set and fine-tune the motion sequences, i.e. how a motion starts and how it ends. These will appear as ghosts that point out the starting and ending position of the bone structure. If you find the ghosts annoying, or if you’re done using them, disable the option to switch them off. Attribute manager settings Motion Blend Properties The Attribute manager settings on the Motion Blend Properties tab of a selected motion sequence. Motion Into this box drag and drop the object that contains the motion you want to assign to the motion sequence. 100 MOTION BLENDING MOCCA Color The Color option lets you change the color of the transition displayed in the viewport and the text color of the sequence in the Timeline. Show Transition Here you can choose whether the transition should be displayed for the motion. You can also switch transitions on or off globally using the Show Transitions command on the Plugins > MOCCA submenu. Additive Loops If this option is enabled and loops have been set in the Sequence Properties, MOCCA will not only repeat the motion, it will “add” the loops together to form a continuous animation. For example, suppose that your character has a motion in which she takes four steps forwards and you want to loop this motion so that she keeps on moving forward many steps instead of just four. The problem with a normal — i.e. non-additive — loop here is that when the character has reached the fourth step and the loop kicks in, her position will jump all the way back to where she was for her very first step. She’d keep walking four steps forwards and then jump all the way back to the start before walking the same four steps again. Not so with additive loops. After making her fourth step, the next loop will carry her forward another four steps instead of putting her back to square one. Left Trim, Right Trim, Auto Trim Trimming is a kind of mask mode for motion blending. Suppose you have two motions. In one of the motions the character is walking and in the other motion the character is running and every now and then does a jump. Now you want to create a motion in which the character walks, does a jump and then carries on walking again. So you need to pluck out a jump from the Run-Jump motion and blend it with the walk motion. You can do this by making off everything in the Run-Jump motion except the jump you want. See the image below. Trimming allows you to mask out parts of a motion (the areas with a thick, dark gray bar). MOTION BLENDING 101 MOCCA The Auto Trim feature will mask off all parts of the motion except the part that fits the transition sequence. The masked parts are indicated by a thick dark gray bar that sits on the bottom of the sequence. Left Trim and Right Trim allow you to manually adjust which parts of the motion are masked. Position, Rotation These values allow you to smooth the transition. Here you can adjust the position and rotation data for the motion sequence in order to smooth the transition. Auto Match In order to blend two motions, the end of the first motion needs to match (more or less!) the start of the second motion. Naturally, it would be difficult to match the end of a walk animation with the beginning of an animation in which the character is sitting down at a table eating dinner! It would be very difficult to find motions in these two animations that are very similar. Matching a walking animation to a running animation would, on the other hand, be within the realms of possibility. Even so, chances are with such a blend the transition will not be completely smooth. Chances are that the character will slide across the floor slightly, rather like he‘s skating on ice. In order to avoid this, the motions must be placed in such a manner as to achieve a transition that is as seamless as possible — the keyframe at the moment the motions are most similar must be found. Of course, this can take quite some time if done manually. So why not let MOCCA do the work for you? If Auto Match is enabled, MOCCA will search for matching movements in the two motions and will try to find the most appropriate time in the animation to transition them. The Auto Match option works closely with the Treeview, which you’ll find on the sequence’s Detail Properties tab in the Attribute manager. The Treeview allows you to specify which object Auto Match should concentrate on. For example, you’ll usually get a better match if you instruct Auto Match via the Treeview to match up the motions based on the position of one of the feet. MOCCA will then search for a frame where the foot in the first motion and the foot in the second motion are almost in the exact same position. See also ‘Treeview’, later in this chapter. 102 MOTION BLENDING MOCCA Manual Match Previously in this chapter we’ve seen that you can adjust the transition from Motion A to Motion B by using the position and rotation values or by using Auto Match. Manual Match is a combination of these two methods: when you click on the button it will automatically set the position and rotation values to what MOCCA thinks is the best place for the transition, and you can then manually fine-tune these values using the position and rotation settings. Offset The offset allows you to specify the start of a path animation. The easiest way to do this is via a Null object that is placed at the position where the animation should start. Drag and drop the Null object into this box. Pivot You can control orientation via an additional object using Pivot. In general, use a Null object as the pivot and place the null in such a way that you can easily control the rotation during the animation by rotating the null. Path Here you can define a Spline object as a path along which the animation should move. Rail In addition to defining a path along which a character should move (see above), you can also use a rail (a spline with two paths) to control several directions. This is useful when the character should not simply move over a surface but should also move up and down. A good example here is a character walking up and down a hill. One path defines the horizontal motion and the other defines the vertical motion. Timing The Timing allows you to set the speed of the character’s steps or the distance between each step. If the character appears to slide across the floor, increase or decrease the value as necessary. The effect of the Timing value largely depends on whether the Estimate option is enabled. MOTION BLENDING 103 MOCCA In principle, a Timing value of 100% corresponds to the exact timing of the motion from the start of the path to the end of path. If you set Timing to a value greater than 100% and Estimate is disabled, the character will travel all the way to the end of the path and when it gets there it will move on the spot for a while. With a value less than 100%, the character won’t reach the end of the path. If Estimate is enabled, a Timing value of 100% will correspond to the estimated step distance. See also ‘Estimate’. Estimate If a path has been defined along which the character should move, MOCCA won’t automatically recognize how much distance there should be between each step. If this option is enabled, MOCCA will estimate the ideal distance for a step based on the length of the path. If the option is disabled, the Timing value will have a different meaning; with a Timing value of 100%, the character will move from the start of the path to the end of the path exactly over the length of the animation. See also ‘Timing’. Axis This defines which object axis should be moved tangentially along the path. For example, if a character’s +Z axis should point in the direction in which the character is running, Axis should be set to +Z. With a setting of -Z, the character would run backwards. Resize To Orig. Length When adding a new sequence, the New Sequence dialog allows you to set the length and position of the sequence. However, at this stage you may not know how long the motion is that you will be assigning to the sequence. If, after assigning the motion to the sequence, you click the Reset To Orig. Length button, MOCCA will set the length of the sequence to the same length as the original motion. 104 MOTION BLENDING MOCCA Detail Properties The padlock icon defines which part of the character the Auto Match option should concentrate on. Padlock icons If the Auto Match option on the Motion Blending page is enabled, you can use the Treeview to choose which parts of the character Auto Match should concentrate on (called ‘weighting’) when searching for the most appropriate time in the animation to blend between the motions. For each object that you want Auto Match to concentrate on, click the object’s rightmost checkbox. A padlock icon will appear in each of these check boxes to indicate that the object is ‘locked’ to Auto Match. To unlock a checkbox, click it again. See also the ‘Auto Match’ entry described earlier in this chapter. Check marks In addition to being able to weight certain bones using the padlock icons, you can exclude bones, which tells MOCCA which bones, if any, to ignore when transferring the motion. All bones without a check mark will be ignored. For example, suppose you have two animations and you want to take the head movement only from one of the animations and transfer it to your character. You can exclude all other bones in the Treeview (click the top-most check mark to switch off all the check marks) and place a check next to the bones you will need — in this case, the head. Here, MOCCA will transfer the motion of LeftHips_Dummy because it has a check mark. MOTION BLENDING 105 MOCCA Transition Properties Automatic, Bias In, Bias Out, ... The Automatic option activates a linear transition. This is represented in the Timeline as a line in the transition sequence — see the left image below. If Automatic is enabled, the transition will be linear (left). For non-linear transitions, such as the right example, disable the Automatic option. If you disable the Automatic option you will have access to further settings that allow you to change the shape of the transition curve. You’ll find details on the following options in your CINEMA 4D reference manual: - Strength - Bias In, Bias Out - Time In, Time Out - Easy-Ease In, Easy-Ease Out 106 MOTION BLENDING MOCCA Auto Size The Auto Size button resizes the transition sequence to neatly cover the overlap between the Motion A and Motion B sequences. The length of the transition sequence will then automatically run from the beginning of the second motion to the end of the first motion. Before using Auto Size. After using Auto Size. 14 Retarget Tag RETARGET TAG 109 MOCCA Retarget Tag With this powerful tag you can easily tranfer motion from one character to another. The Retarget Tag lets you assign animation data from one character to another even if the characters‘ proportions don’t match! You‘ve just animate a dwarf for your client and your client has changed her mind and wants a giant to be animated instead? No problem. Simply assign the dwarf’s animation to the giant! MOCCA does the re-proportioning for you thanks to the Retarget tag. Even though the dwarf on the right is much smaller than the giant, using the Retarget tag you can tranfer the motion from one character to the other. To add a Retarget tag to the selected object(s), in the Object manager, choose File > MOCCA Tags > Retarget. You need three things to operate motion retargeting: 1. An animated object to act as the source. 2. A target object that has not yet been animated to which the animation will be transferred. 3. A copy of the non-animated object that defines a neutral state for the character (a type of starting position, often with the arms stretched out in a T-pose). 110 RETARGET TAG MOCCA Attribute manager settings Source Drag and drop the object whose motion you want to transfer (the source object) into this box. Target Into this box drag and drop the object that should receive the motion (the target object). Only the highest object in the hierarchy must be dragged into this box — its child objects will be included in the transfer automatically. Neutral Into this box drag and drop the object that defines the neutral state. Use Hierarchy Instead Of Names This option, which is enabled by default, makes the Retarget Expression compare the hierarchical structure the of reference objects (source, target and neutral) including their children. Objects that are in the same position in the hierarchies — such as the direct child of the top-most object in the hierarchy — will be assigned to one another and compared. This is assuming that the source, target and neutral reference objects all have the same hierarchical structure. For example, the hip bone must be in the same position in the hierarchy for all three reference objects. MOCCA RETARGET TAG 111 If the option is disabled, the Retarget Expression will orient itself according to the names used in the hierarchy. This is useful when there are differences in the hierarchy between the source object and the target object. One example of this would be when transferring the animination of a character that has a tail to a character that doesn‘t have a tail. Because a tail does not exist in the character that is receiving the transferred motion, the tail motion data will be ignored. For this type of transfer to work, it is essential that you use a naming convention consistently for the characters involved in the transfer. In time, every animator develops his or her own routine for naming conventions and can make good use of these in order to marry bone hierarchies, simply by using the naming convention! 15 Clothilde CLOTHILDE 115 MOCCA Cloth NURBS Cloth must be applied to a polygon object. Further more, how the polygon object is subdivided will play an important part in how well the cloth will animate when used with Clothilde. Cloth must be applied to a polygon object. For realistic cloth, cloth objects should ideally have as high a polygon count as possible. This will give the cloth engine more points to simulate cloth with and will lead to higher quality results. However, high polygon counts can result in slow editor playback. One way of avoiding this is to only have high polygon counts at render time which can be achieved with CINEMA 4D’s HyperNURBS or Cloth NURBS. With either of these tools, a polygonal mesh can be subdivided to create a smooth looking surface at render time. However, when using HyperNURBS with a cloth object, there can be unexpected results because the subdivided object does not always meet the control cage’s points. This can cause the cloth to intersect with the colliding objects when the cloth is subdivided. Cloth NURBS will always meet the points on the polygonal cage that it is subdividing. The reason this is needed for cloth to be simulated correctly is for the simple fact that cloth collides very close to its colliding surface. Just using HyperNURBS would allow for the character, or colliding surface, to penetrate the subdivided cloth. The arrowheads show which areas could lead to intersection problems when using HyperNURBS to subdivide the cloth. In the above image, the arrowheads show the areas where HyperNURBS would cause intersection problems during a simulation. This is caused by the HyperNURBS object only interpolating, and not meeting, the polygonal cage’s points. 116 CLOTHILDE MOCCA The functionality of the Cloth NURBS object is the same as the HyperNURBS object. Place the cloth object as a child of the Cloth NURBS object and the cloth will be smoothed or more accurately subdivided. To disable the Cloth NURBS object just click the green check mark next to the object in the Object manager so it becomes a red ‘X’. This completely disables the Cloth NURBS object from smoothing its child object. Click the green check mark to disable the Cloth NURBS. This does not mean that Cloth NURBS and Hyper NURBS can’t be used together. Cloth NURBS ensures that the subdivided high-resolution mesh meets the points of the cloth object. Placing the Cloth NURBS object as a child of the Hyper NURBS object can then smooth this even further. A current limitation of the Cloth NURBS object is that it does not support multiple materials or multiple UVW tags. Attrubute manager settings Subdivisions This field is very similar to the Subdivision settings located in the HyperNURBS object. A value of 1 will subdivide each polygon of the child object into four smaller polygons, a value of 2 will subdivide each polygon of the child object into sixteen smaller polygons and so on. The subdivision value will control how smooth the cloth object appears to be. The higher the number, the slower the playback will be during the cloth simulation, but the nicer the results. CLOTHILDE 117 MOCCA The original cage object (left) and the cage smoothed with Subdivisions set to 2. The images above show the original polygonal cage that has the Cloth Tag applied to it (left) and the same polygonal cage with a Cloth NURBS object applied to it using a Subdivision value of 2. The wrinkles and bulges of the cloth become more defined as the subdivision increases. Due to the nature of the Cloth NURBS algorithm, wrinkles in the surface become more apparent as the subdivision increases. This can be used to simulate cloth wrinkles. However, if this is not the desired result, use a Cloth NURBS with a very low subdivision value inside of a HyperNURBS object; this can produce the same results without the wrinkles. Factor This setting will interpolate the surface normals of the polygonal cage, or more accurately the cloth object. A value of 0% means that the subdivided surface will not interpolate the surface normals. A value of 100% will interpolate the surface normals when subdividing the surface. Factor set to 0% (left), 50% (center) and 100% (right). Above is an example of how the surface normals are interpolated as the Factor value is increased on the same object. Limit At many times during a cloth simulation, two points may approach each other whose corresponding surface normals are adjacent to each other. At this point the Cloth NURBS will interpolate its subdivided surface through the control cage or cloth object. The Limit option will prevent this from happening. Take the given situation: - With the Limit option disabled the subdivided surface will pass through the control cage. 118 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Limit disabled (top) and enabled (bottom). - With the Limit option enabled the subdivided surface will not pass through the control cage’s surface. The direction of the surface normals for the polygonal cage will determine if the Cloth NURBS is passing through the geometry. Thickness This is another property that separates Cloth NURBS from the HyperNURBS object. By increasing the Thickness setting, the Cloth NURBS object will generate a form of extrusion to make the cloth look thick. The thickness of the subdivided surface will be determined by the direction of the surface normals for the control cage. This allows for the control cage to be modeled without thickness resulting in fewer polygons that need to be calculated during the cloth simulation. Before reversing the normals (left) and after (right). - The left image above shows the Cloth NURBS surface when using a Thickness value of 20. Also notice that the normals are facing up the Y-axis, which is defining the direction of the thickness. - The right image above shows another Cloth NURBS surface using the Thickness setting. As opposed to the other image, this one has the surface normals reversed. CLOTHILDE 119 MOCCA Cloth Tag The Cloth tag identifies an object as a cloth object. In order to identify an object as a cloth object, its first requirement is that it is a polygon object. Using the Make Editable command will convert a primitive into a polygon object allowing for it to inherit cloth attributes. This next part of the process is done by applying a Cloth tag to a polygon object. To add a Cloth tag to an object: - Select the object and in the Object manager, choose File > Clothilde Tags > Cloth. The object now has cloth-like properties. The cloth tag icon in the Object Manager is dynamic in the sense that it will change its appearance based on different settings made in the tag itself. For example, the icon for the tag will change once the simulation has been cached. This clearly identifies what’s going on with the cloth at any time. Here is a rundown of the different states of the icons: Initial State This is the initial state of the Cloth tag icon. This indicates that cloth is ready to be simulated. After a garment has been draped to a character and an Initial State has been defined, the icon will revert to this blue curtain showing that the object is ready for simulation. Dress State When the icon is displayed as above, the cloth object or garment is in a dress state. This means that the cloth object will only be allowed to drape to a character or be relaxed from real world forces. 120 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Cached State After a simulation has been cached, or the calculations have been stored in RAM, the icon will look as shown above. When the icon is in this state only the cached solution will be played back. This icon will also appear when the Cache Mode option on the Tag Properties page is enabled. Engine Disabled State The icon of the tag will also change its appearance when the Cloth Engine option in the Tag Properties tab is disabled. The gray cloth icon represents that the Cloth Engine option has been disabled. Attribute manager settings Basic Properties Basic The only property found on this tab is the name of the tag. This setting defaults to ‘Cloth’, but it can be changed manually for project organization purposes. CLOTHILDE 121 MOCCA Tag Properties The settings found on this tab affect the actual structure of the control cage. This also provides functions that handle the stored calculations of the cloth simulation. Cloth Engine This option turns the cloth simulation on and off. With a checkmark placed in the checkbox for this field, the cloth engine is live. This turns on the engine, allowing for solutions to be solved for the cloth object. At many points when applying clothes to an entire character, certain pieces of cloth don’t need to be simulated and can slow down the performance. For example: A jacket is being added to a character’s wardrobe. Now, during the simulation it will need to collide against the shirt during the draping process. The pants wouldn’t need to be a part of this simulation, so its Cloth Engine option could be disabled. Stiffness This parameter controls the overall stiffness of the cloth object. As this value is increased the internal springs will exert more control over the points of the geometry, giving the cloth a more rigid look. Stiffness set to 10% (left), 30% (center) and 100% (right). 122 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Springs work much in the same way as those found in Soft Body Dynamics: Structural springs (left), shear springs (center) and flexion springs (right). Structural This will connect each point of the cloth object to its neighboring point with an imaginary spring. These points must share a common polygonal edge for a spring to be created. These springs are essentially the topology of the geometry that is being used. Shear This will also create imaginary springs based on the geometry that is being used. These springs will connect the points in a way that allows the cloth polygons to fold in any direction. Without this stabilization, the four-sided polygons could collapse. Flexion As much as the name describes, these springs are created to allow the control cage to flex. This will create a spring that will start from a single point on one polygon and will connect to another point on another polygon, as long as that polygon is not a direct neighbor of the originating polygon. In other words, for any given point the spring will skip the first contiguous point and go on to the next. The percentage value will determine the strength at which the points on the cloth will be able to flex or bend. A high percentage value will not allow the cloth to bend as easily; whereas, a low percentage value will allow for the cloth to bend quite easily. Rubber This parameter controls the amount of stretching that the cloth object will be able to do. The default value of 0% will not allow for the cloth to stretch; whereas, a value of 100% will allow the cloth to be stretched. This parameter can also be controlled through a vertex map by using the respective field on the Effects tab. CLOTHILDE 123 MOCCA Rubber set to 0% (left), 50% (center) and 85% (right). The image above shows three identical cloth objects with the exclusion that the Rubber setting has been altered. The higher that this value is, the more that the cloth objects can stretch. Bounce This parameter controls the amount of bounce for the cloth object. This value is taken into account during a collision with a Collider object. The higher this value the more bounce will occur from the cloth object when colliding with an object. So, a very high value will cause the cloth to bounce away from the collision object. This value will also look at the Bounce value found in the Collider tag for the collision object. Providing real world examples here will aid in understanding how this parameter affects cloth collisions. With a leather jacket, for example, this would create a high amount of bounce due to its sturdy, heavy surface. A woolen sweater, however, would create very little bounce because of its soft, airy surface. Friction This parameter is also only taken into account when the cloth object collides with a collision object. This controls how much friction is produced when the cloth hits a collision object. The lower this value is, the less friction that will be generated for the cloth object when a collision occurs. So with a low value in this field, the easier it is for the cloth to glide across the colliding object. Like the Bounce parameter, this will take the value of the Friction parameter located in the Collider tag of the collision object into account. To prove an example of this, look at two given shirt fabrics: A cotton tank top and a silk shirt. The cotton tank top would produce a lot of friction due to the material and its tight fit to the character. Now the silk shirt would produce almost zero friction on the character surface due to its smooth surface. 124 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Self Collision This option will allow for the cloth object to collide against its own points. This prevents the cloth from penetrating its own surface when the simulation is being played. Due to the amount of calculations that the solver must perform when this option is enabled, it may cause the playback in the viewport to slow down. When extreme forces are applied to the cloth object, intersection may still occur due to these extreme forces. Using Self Repulsion (Forces tab) in addition to, or instead of, will help with avoiding intersecting cloth. Auto, Start, Stop With the Auto option is enabled, the cloth engine will be linked to the maximum length of the current scene. In the Project Settings dialog, for example, if the Maximum frame is set to 150, the cloth engine will calculate for the entire 150 frames. Self Collision enabled (left) and disabled (right). When the Auto checkbox is disabled, the Start and Stop field will become active. This allows for the length of time at which the cloth engine will calculate for. Cache Mode When this mode is enabled, the cloth engine will look at the stored calculations of the simulation. This allows for fast playback of the animation without having waiting on the engine to solve for the cloth. CLOTHILDE 125 MOCCA Calculate Cache This is the function that will create the stored calculations for the cloth engine to read. After being executed, the engine will begin playing through the animation as it stores the calculations into memory. After the calculation is finished, Cache Mode will be automatically enabled and will begin reading the cached solution. You can observe the percentage of the scene that has been calculated for through the static text display in the Attribute manager. This is located right next to the Calculate Cache button. The amount of memory that the cached solution takes up can also be observed in this same area. In order to use Scene Motion Blur, the cloth object must be cached for the motion blur to be calculated and rendered correctly. A cached solution must also be present in order to render the cloth object(s) using CINEMA 4D Net Render. Empty Cache This deletes the stored calculations from memory. After emptying the cache, the cloth will return to its Initial State. Update Frame Many times after a simulation has been cached, there are a few frames that need settings to be adjusted in order to get the cloth to react or collide correctly. After having cached a solution for the cloth simulation and finding some of these errors, the settings within the Cloth tag can be adjusted and re-simulated. After those settings have been adjusted properly, the Update Frame command will update only the current scene frame for the cached solution. To adjust and re-simulate the cloth settings just disable the Cache Mode checkbox so the cloth engine will look at the tag and not the cached solution. 126 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Forces Gravity Gravity is a force that pulls the cloth object in a certain direction. The Gravity parameter will always be calculated for the Y-axis and will have an effect on the cloth object on that axis. If the number in this field is negative, Gravity will be calculated down the Y-Axis. If it’s positive it will be calculated up the Y-axis. This value will default to –9.81, which is Gravity’s actual force in the real world (-9.81 m/sec^2 to be exact!). By lowering this value, this will increase the amount of force that Gravity will exert on the cloth object in the –Y direction. Global Drag Much like that of the Wind Drag parameter, but this parameter deals with the energy loss of the cloth object on a global basis. Meaning that this will control the dampening (energy loss) for all parameters of the cloth object not just the wind. This can become very handy in situations where there is any extreme motion performed by a character or object and the cloth needs to stabilize for those few frames. This parameter can be animated; increasing the value to 100% during these frames of animation can stabilize the cloth at these moments of intense motion. CLOTHILDE 127 MOCCA Belt Influence This percentage value will determine how much influence the Belt object has on the cloth object. A value of 0% will not allow for the Belt object to influence the cloth object at all, whereas a value of 100% will have complete influence on the cloth object. The area of Influence can be controlled through a vertex map using the corresponding section on the Effects page. Belt Hover Belt Hover set to 0% (left), 100% (center) and 200% (right). This value controls how far or how close the cloth object will be to the Belt object. When the cloth points sample to the deformed geometry, they have an initial distance that represents the Hover value at 100%. This means that if the value is decreased to 50%, the cloth points will be half the distance from their initial state. A value of 200% will be twice the distance from the points’ initial state. Wind Direction settings These parameters define the direction of the wind. You can enter positive or negative values. For example, you can set Wind Direction X to a negative or positive value to make the wind blow along the –X or X-axis respectively. When dealing with wind blowing along two or three axes at the same time, a vector will be calculated between the directions. With the given direction of –1 m / 0 m / -1 m a vector will be created at a 45-degree angle in the negative XZ quadrant (see left image below). Wind Direction set to –1 m / 0 m / -1 m (left) and –50 m / 0 m / -1 m (right). 128 CLOTHILDE MOCCA In order to adjust this 45-degree angle that is created from the direction of –1 m / 0 m / -1 m, entering a value after the positive / negative coefficient will do just this. With the given direction of –50 m / 0 m / -1 m, the wind direction would deviate that 45-degree angle closer to the X-axis (see right image above). This would make the direction almost perpendicular to the Z-axis Wind Strength Wind Strength set to 0.5 (left), 1 (center) and 2 (right). The Wind Strength parameter controls the strength of the wind. The higher this value the more the wind will appear to affect the cloth. The other wind parameters are multiplied from this value, so a value of 0 in this field will not exert any wind forces on the cloth object. Wind Turbulence Strength Wind Turbulence Strength set to 1 (left), 5 (center) and 10 (right). Real world wind blows in bursts. At some points it can be intense and at other points very weak. The Wind Turbulence Strength parameter controls this variation. With the value set to 0 the wind will have no variation, by increasing this value the wind will begin to vary the strength of the bursts. Wind Turbulence Speed Wind Turbulence Speed set to 1 (left), 5 (center) and 10 (right). This parameter works in connection with the Wind Turbulence Strength parameter. Since the strength parameter controls the variation in bursts, this parameter controls the speed at which those bursts take place. The higher this value the faster the wind will pulsate. CLOTHILDE 129 MOCCA Wind Drag Wind Drag set to 0% (left), 50% (center) and 100% (right). When wind is affecting the cloth object, this parameter controls the damping, or the energy loss of the cloth as it reacts to the wind. Wind Impact Wind Impact set to 0% (left), 50% (center) and 100% (right). Any surface that deals with wind, such as cloth, will have a different tolerance at which a wind force will hit that surface. The Wind Impact parameter controls just this. A value of 100% will determine that a wind force will hit the cloth object’s entire surface. A value of 0% will not allow for the wind force to hit the cloth’s surface. Wind Lift Lighter cloth materials or fabrics are lifted very easily by wind forces, while heavier fabrics, much like leather, are not lifted as easily by the wind. A value of 100% will allow for the cloth to be lifted very easily by the wind. A value of 0% will not be lifted by the wind. Air Resistance As a piece of cloth travels through the air it will encounter a type of wind force, even if the wind is not blowing. The Air Resistance parameter will simulate this pseudo wind force. A high Air Resistance value will make the cloth appear as if it is moving through water. A low value for this parameter will make the cloth appear as though it is moving through air. 130 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Self Repulsion Self Repulsion (left) and Self Collision (right). Using this option together with, or instead of, the Self Collision option can speed up and improve the cloth simulation. This will allow for the cloth points to repel one another, which can aid in situations where extreme forces or motions cause the cloth points to intersect with its surface. Distance This determines the distance at which the cloth points will begin to repel one another. The default value of 10 will begin repelling the cloth points when any one point comes within 10 units of another cloth point. Force Once a cloth point meets the defined Distance when approaching another cloth point, the Force parameter will specify the speed with which the cloth points repel each other. The higher the number the faster the points will repel each other. Damping Damping is in essence the amount of energy loss from some sort of external force. In this case, this parameter is the amount of energy loss or gain depending on the value, after the Force is produced from the repulsion. A value of 0.5 will begin slowing down the Force parameter. A value of 2 will double the speed (energy gain) of the Force parameter. CLOTHILDE 131 MOCCA Dresser Dress Mode Once a garment has been assigned its dress state (the original polygonal model) this mode will become active. While in this mode, the Cloth tag will display all seams that have been created with a yellow cross-stitch for the affected polygons. The Cloth tag will change its icon in the Object manager when this mode is active. Relax This command is similar to the Dress-O-Matic function, with the exception that it takes all Forces tab parameters into consideration. When using the Dress-O-Matic button to drape the cloth onto the colliding character, the properties that define the cloth are taken into account and not forces like Gravity. The Relax button will allow the user to apply real world forces such as Gravity and Wind during the dressing state to the cloth object. An Initial State for the garment must be established before running this command. Before using Relax (left) and after (right). 132 CLOTHILDE MOCCA At any time during the draping simulation pressing the Esc key will stop the simulation in its current state. This means that if the garment is at a desired shape, but the simulation still has more Steps to calculate for, the simulation can be cancelled without having to wait for the simulation to play out. Steps This determines the number of times that the cloth engine will sample as it applies gravity and wind forces onto the garment. The higher that this number is, the longer the forces will affect the cloth object for. Dress-O-Matic Before using Dress-O-Matic (left) and after (right). This is the command that actually drapes the garment onto the character. When this command is executed, the cloth engine will shrink the seam to the defined Width setting. As the cloth engine shrinks the seam of the garment to that width, all points of the garment will drape with the seam. How the points move with the seam as it is draped will be determined by parameters such as Stiffness, Flexion and Rubber. This can also be stopped at any time by hitting the Esc key. Steps This field determines the number of times that the cloth engine will sample as it drapes the garment onto the character. The higher the number, the longer it will take the cloth engine to calculate the simulation, but the smoother the cloth garment will be. CLOTHILDE 133 MOCCA Width Width set to 10 m (left) and 3 m (right). This value determines the goal distance that the polygons of the seam will rest at. With a value of 10 m, the cloth engine will shrink the seam so that the polygons are 10 m in size. Set Initial State Before using Set Initial State (left) and after (right). After the cloth garment has been dressed on the character using this command, the cloth engine will now use this current state of the cloth as its starting pose. After using this command, Dress Mode will be automatically disabled allowing for the cloth simulation to run. Show Initial State If at any point during the simulation an error is encountered, or the simulation just needs to be restarted, using this command will return the cloth object to its initial state, which was defined by the Set Initial State command. 134 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Set Dress State In Dress Mode each polygon will have a black ‘X’ on its surface. After modeling the clothes, using the Set Dress State command will determine the model’s original shape. Once this original state is specified, the cloth engine can then drape the garment onto the colliding character when told to do so. Using this function will automatically enable Dress Mode. This can easily be identified in the viewport as each polygon will have a black ‘X’ on its surface. These will be removed once an initial state has been defined. Show Dress State Before using Show Dress State (left) and after (right). If the garment has already been draped onto the character and the outcome is not the desired result, using this function will return the garment to its original dress shape. This will allow for parameters to be adjusted and then the garment can be draped back onto the character. CLOTHILDE 135 MOCCA Set Fix Points This points indicated by the arrows have been fixed using the Set Fix Points command. In reality, cloth objects such as curtains are usually pinned using a curtain rod. The Set Fix command does essentially the same thing: it will fix the selected points at their current position, allowing for the cloth to be pinned in place. To fix points just select the desired points of the cloth object with a selection tool and execute the Set Fix Points command. Clear Fix Points Much like the other Clear buttons, executing this function will remove any points that have been previously fixed for the cloth object. Show Fix Points Using this command will show the selection of points that the cloth object is being fixed from. Draw Fix Points Draw Fix Points enabled (left) and disabled (right). Enabling this option will highlight the fixed points in the viewport. This will clearly identify any points that have been fixed for the cloth with large purple dots. Disabling the option will remove those fixed points from the view of the viewport. Use fixed points whenever possible. This will improve playback and performance because the cloth engine can simulate the cloth object from these fixed points. 136 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Set Seam Polys Seams are displayed bright yellow when their polygons are selected. Most clothes are stitched together using seams. This cloth engine uses that same approach. As the tutorial will show, garments are created with a front and back plane that are connected together. The connection of these two planes of geometry will be considered as the seam. To define a seam, select all of the polygons that connect the front and back planes and use the Set Seam command. This will be visually identified in the viewport with yellow cross-stitches for the selected polygons. If the Seam is identified before a dress state is defined for a garment, the garment’s current state will be stored as the Dress State. The Dress Mode checkbox will be enabled as well after hitting the Set Seam Polys. Clear Seam Using this function will clear any polygons that have been previously set as the seam. Show Seam This displays the selection of polygons that define the seam for the garment. Before defining the seam of the garment, select the polygons for both the front and back planes and use the Subdivide command to increase the resolution of the garment. The seam will be identified by the point order of the garment, so setting the seam before increasing the subdivision would cause the seam to break because point orders would change after subdividing. Belt On The object that is defined in this box will be the cloth’s Belt object. When an object is specified in this box, cloth points that are set for the belt will be able to move with that deforming surface. CLOTHILDE 137 MOCCA Belt Points You can choose which points will be attached to the Belt object. When a Belt object is specified, any selected point can be attached to the deformed character model. The Set Belt Points will define what points will be attached to the deformed mesh. About Belting Let’s think about what an actual belt does for real-world clothing before moving on. When pants are belted, they stay attached to the person no matter where he moves. With a digital character the principle is the same but the bones deform the actual geometry to simulate movement, so attaching the cloth to the character needs to be handled a little differently than just fixing the points. Fixing the points will just keep the points in a single fixed position. What belting does is attach specified points to a specified deformed polygon object. This allows for the cloth to stay attached to the deformed points of the character at a definable distance. This can be used for more than just a belt on a character. Buttons on a shirt are a further example of what can be done using belting. But, being that most shirts have multiple buttons, the object that will serve as the buttons will need to be connected into one object. Another time this may come in handy is to go from a T-pose of a character to its start pose of the animation. If the animation starts the character off in an extreme pose, belting all points of the garments to the character’s geometry will aid in getting the garments into position for the extreme pose. After the garments have been properly simulated into position, defining this position as its Initial State in the Dresser tab will allow the simulation to start from this position or state. Set Belt Points When this command is executed the current selected points of the cloth object will be set as the belted points. 138 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Clear Belt Points This will remove any points that have been assigned to the belt object. Show Belt Points This will reselect any of the points that have been assigned to the Belt object. If this command is executed while in any other mode than points, CINEMA 4D will automatically switch over to Points mode. Draw Belt Points Enabling this checkbox will display every point that is belted as a yellow dot. A line or sample will be drawn from this point to a relatively close area on the deforming object. This is represented as a yellow line in the viewport. Disabling the option will remove the display in the viewport. Draw Belt Points disabled (left) and enabled (right). When the points of a cloth object are belted to a deformed object, a sample is sent out from each of the belted points within a reasonable area on the deformed surface. These samples can be adjusted using parameters that are found within the Forces tab: Belt Influence and Belt Hover. Animating Belt Objects The Belt On text box on the Dresser tab has the ability to be animated, meaning that multiple Belt objects can be used to influence the same piece of cloth. The problem with this is that the belted points that are defined with the ‘Set’ button can’t be animated; however, vertex maps can be animated to achieve this same type of effect. CLOTHILDE 139 MOCCA To do this you will first need to belt all points that will be influenced by any Belt object. Using the Live Selection or new Brush tool, paint the points that need to be influenced by the first Belt object with 100% weight. Another vertex map will need to be created for the points that will be influenced to the second Belt object. Drag and drop the first vertex map into the Influence text box on the Effects tab and set a keyframe for this tex box using the gray dot. Record a keyframe when the change between the two Belt objects occurs by Ctrlclicking on the gray dot next to the Belt text box. At this same frame, you need to switch from the first vertex map to the second one by dragging and dropping it into the text box. Ctrl-click the gray dot to create a keyframe for this change. Effects Here vertex maps can be defined and used to control what areas are affected by what parameters. For example: Often, when belting points to a deformed object, the points don’t need to be completely influenced by that object. Painting a vertex map that shows where the cloth object should be influenced can be defined in the Influence box on this page. 140 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Size This value controls the shrinking or growth of the cloth object. This is especially useful during the dressing stage of the clothes. A value of 100% will let the cloth remain at its current size meaning that no shrinking or enlarging is taking place. A value of 50%, however, will shrink the cloth garment to half of its original size. A value of 200% will enlarge the cloth to twice that of its original size. This value works together with a vertex map defined in the Size box. Tear Tear enabled. With this option enabled the cloth engine will allow for tearing to take place during the simulation. But in order for this tearing to work, the cloth object must be a child of the Cloth NURBS object. In other words, the Cloth NURBS is the actual surface that will be torn, not the original cloth object. A tear is determined by the Stiffness of the cloth object. The lower the amount of Stiffness the easier it is for the cloth to be torn, with the exception that a maximum limit must be defined at which the tear will occur. Limit Limit set to 110% (left), 120% (center) and 130% (right) This is the maximum length that the structural springs of the cloth object can endure before a tear occurs. A Limit of 150% means that once the springs go beyond 1.5 times the initial length, determined by the Initial State of the cloth, the cloth will be torn. CLOTHILDE 141 MOCCA Tearing can also be controlled even further with vertex maps. As stated previously, tearing is based on the stiffness of the cloth; so using a vertex map in the Stiffness setting on the Effects tab will give you ultimate control over cloth tears. Stiffness The vertex map that is specified in this box will control how the Stiffness setting affects the cloth. This is for any given point: The stiffness setting is set to 40% and the vertex map that is being used is a gradient going from 100% to 0%. The points that have been painted with 100% weight will be the points that have 40% stiffness and the points that have 50% weight will have 20% stiffness. Flexion The vertex map defined in this box will control where and how the Flexion springs affect the cloth object. With a Flexion value of 50%, all points that have 100% weight will have a Flexion value of 50%, whereas points that have 50% weight will have a Flexion value of 25%. Rubber This box allows for a vertex map to define where and how the cloth will stretch. With a Rubber value of 50%, any point that has 100% weight will stretch by 50%, where a point with 50% weight will be able to only stretch by 25%. Mass Different areas on a piece of fabric can have different mass values. Depending on if the garment has a pocket, a collar, a zipper, and so on those areas will carry more mass due to the extra amount of cloth involved. Specifying a vertex map in this field will allow for adding extra mass to those areas. With a Mass value of 2, a point that has been painted with 50% weight will now have a Mass value of 1. Size This will probably be most commonly used during the dressing state to fit the clothes to the character. Using a vertex map in this box will allow for certain areas on a garment to be shrunk or enlarged, tailoring the clothes to the character. As mentioned in the entry for the Size percentage setting at the top of the tab, a value of 100% is the original size of the object. With that, an area that has 50% weight painted in the vertex map will shrink to half the size of the original object. A vertex map can only have a maximum value of 100%, so in order to enlarge an area the Size percentage value would need to be increased to a value greater than 100%. With a Size value of 200% an area with 50% weight will now be the original size of the object. An area with a weight value of 75% will now have a Size value of 150%. 142 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Without a vertex map for Size (left) and with (right). In this image, the shirt on the left side has no vertex map assigned in the Size box. The shirt on the right side of the image is using a vertex map to control the Size of the garment. Bounce A vertex map can be defined within this box to control the areas that bounce during a collision. With the given value of 50% in the Bounce box, a point with 100% weight will have 50% bounce, whereas a point with a 50% weight will have 25% bounce. Friction Certain areas of a garment may have a lot of friction with its colliding surface, primarily in the collar and shoulder areas of a shirt, for example. But that’s not to say that one Friction value will be able to achieve this. Painting these areas using a vertex map can specify what areas are stickier than others. A point weight value of 0% will have no friction, whereas a point weight value of 100% will have complete friction. Influence This box controls the amount of influence the Belt object has over the cloth object. Any points with a weight value of 100% will be completely influenced by the Belt object. A value of 0% will not be influenced at all by the Belt object. Hover With the example of a real belt influencing a pair of pants, areas of the pants around the sides of the character’s hips would be a lot closer to the belt, whereas areas around the crotch would be allowed a little more freedom. Using a vertex map in this box would allow for painting the areas on the sides of the pants closer to the Belt object, and giving a little extra room in the crotch area. Remember that a distance is defined from the Belt object to the set points of the cloth object. The Belt Hover parameter on the Forces tab controls that distance. With a Belt Hover value of 100%, painting the areas around the crotch with 100% weight will leave that area at its current distance to the Belt object. Painting the sides of the pants with 50% weight would half this distance, bringing that area closer to the Belt object. CLOTHILDE 143 MOCCA Expert These settings control how the cloth engine solves for solutions during the cloth simulation. Here you’ll find settings such as the sub sampling and mass values that need to be solved for the cloth object. All settings found within the Cloth tag will be calculated from these settings. Sub Sampling This setting determines the amount of depth that the cloth simulation may undergo while finding solutions for the cloth object. Many things like collisions and real world forces can affect the cloth objects at fractions of a second. CINEMA 4D will play back the animation in frames, but the cloth engine may need to calculate the simulation between these frames. The Sub Sampling value will determine how many times the cloth engine will calculate for the simulation in between each frame. The higher the number, the more accurate that the simulation will be, but this will begin slowing down the speed at which the cloth is simulated and played back. Cache This value corresponds to amount of RAM in megabytes being used for the Undo buffer. Once the simulation has been cached, the tag is then stored in memory. When any parameter is changed, a copy of this tag must be copied to the Undo buffer in order to perform undo actions. Changing a lot of these parameters can very quickly begin eating up memory. With the default limit of 10 MB, any cached solution less than 10 MB will work as expected. If the cached solution exceeds 10 MB in size, the tag will not be copied to the Undo buffer preventing an out of memory error. 144 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Mass This setting defines how heavy the cloth will be. The heavier a cloth object is, the less that impact forces such as gravity, wind, and collisions will have on it. How the mass is spread across the cloth object can be better defined using a vertex map on the Effects page. Point Collision With this option enabled, the cloth engine will calculate collisions for every point in any cloth object’s geometry. This means that once any point that belongs to the cloth object hits another surface, it will not be allowed to pass through that surface. About collision settings Cloth is usually colliding against some kind of surface. Whether it’s a shirt colliding against a character’s body, or a tablecloth colliding against a table, cloth for the most part will be colliding with some kind of object. The cloth engine will be calculating for these numerous factors whenever the cloth is being simulated. How the cloth engine calculates the collision for the geometry can be specified manually by placing a checkmark next to the corresponding polygonal geometry types. By default, Point, Edge, and Polygon will be enabled, but any of these geometry types can be disabled. Point EPS The higher the EPS value, the farther apart the cloth points will collide against the collider object’s points. The EPS stands for epsilon. Think of this setting as an imaginary field that surrounds each point of the cloth object. The higher the EPS value, the farther apart the cloth points will collide against the collider object’s points. If points begin falling through the collider object, the Point EPS setting needs to be increased. Edge Collision With this option enabled, the cloth engine will calculate collisions for every edge in any cloth object’s geometry. This means that once any edge that belongs to the cloth object hits another surface, it will not be allowed to pass through that surface. CLOTHILDE 145 MOCCA Edge EPS The higher the EPS value, the farther apart the cloth points will collide against the collider object’s edges. Think of this setting as an imaginary field that surrounds each edge for both cloth and collider objects. The higher the EPS value, the farther apart the cloth edges will collide against the collider object’s edges. If edges begin falling through the collider object, the Edge EPS setting will need to be increased. Poly Collision With this option enabled, the cloth engine will calculate collisions for every polygon in any cloth object’s geometry. This means that once any polygon that belongs to the cloth object hits another surface, it will not be allowed to pass through that surface. Poly EPS The higher the EPS value, the farther apart the cloth points will collide against the collider object’s polygons. Think of this setting as an imaginary field that surrounds each polygon for both cloth and collider objects. The higher the EPS value, the farther apart the cloth polygons will collide against the collider object’s polygons. If polygons begin falling through the collider object, the Poly EPS setting will need to be increased. 146 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Global Intersection Analysis During animation, either intentionally or by accident, an area such as the armpit of a bipedal character can trap the cloth object. This can cause some cloth engines to come to a complete halt being that the engine cannot find a solution. Global Intersection Analysis (GIA) will find the best possible solution that will allow the cloth engine to continue its simulation. Include Any objects that are placed within this box will be the objects included in the calculations. In many situations there may be multiple pieces of cloth or multiple collision objects that are located in the scene. This box will allow you to individually define what pieces of cloth or collision objects will be a part of the calculation for the Cloth tag. If this box is left blank with no objects in it, all cloth objects and collision will be taken into account. CLOTHILDE 147 MOCCA Collider Tag The Cloth tag identifies an object as a cloth object. Specifying what object will collide with the cloth objects is done in the same way as defining a cloth object: by adding a Collider tag to the desired object. To add a Collider tag to an object: - Select the object and in the Object manager, choose File > Clothilde Tags > Collider. The Collider tag will be applied to the selected object that can now collide with any cloth object. Attribute manager settings Basic Properties Name The only parameter on this tab is the Name of the Collider tag. It will always default to ‘Collider’ unless otherwise specified. Tag Properties This is the tab that contains all the properties that will control how the collision object interacts with the cloth objects. Use Collider By having this enabled, the object that has the Collider tag applied to it will be able to collide with any cloth object in the scene. Having this disabled will not allow any cloth objects to collide against the collision object. 148 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Bounce This setting is also found in the Tag Properties tab of the Cloth tag. Keep in mind that these two fields found in both tags work together. For example, a nylon piece of cloth will always have the same Bounce value. If this piece of nylon collides against two objects, one being a piece of cloth and the other being concrete, the Bounce value for the nylon will remain the same; however, the two objects have completely different Bounce values. The concrete will not allow much, if any, bounce for the nylon, whereas the cloth that the nylon collides against will produce a lot of bounce for the nylon. Friction This setting is also found in the Tag Properties tab of the Cloth tag. Keep in mind that these two fields found in both tags work together. The surface that a cloth object collides against can have a different Friction value. For example, a nylon piece of cloth will always have the same Friction value. If this piece of nylon collides against two objects, one being a rock and the other being a block of ice, the Friction value for the nylon will remain the same; however, the two objects have completely different friction values. The block of ice will produce almost no friction, whereas the rock will produce a fair amount of friction for the nylon as it collides against the rock’s surface. Exclude Polys This will exclude any specified polygons of the collision object from being calculated in the collision. In many cases when a shirt is being draped onto a character, only the chest and arms of the character need to be included in the collision. With that, the polygons that form the head and legs could be excluded to speed up calculation times. Set Using this function will set any selected polygons of the collision object as excluded polygons. Clear This will remove any excluded polygons for the collision object. Show At some point, different polygons may be deselected or new ones may be selected for the collision object. Using the Show function will display the selection of polygons that have been excluded for the collision object. This easily shows what polygons are being excluded, overwriting the current selection. CLOTHILDE 149 MOCCA Draw Draw disabled (left) and enabled (right). With this enabled, all excluded polygons of the collision object will be displayed in the viewport with red edges. Internally, the collision object is always calculated in triangles, so the displayed excluded polygons will be triangulated. Disabling the Draw option will remove the display of the excluded polygons in the viewport. The excluded polys will be drawn in their non-deformed state. The exclusion will still use the deformed polygons, but the Draw option will only draw them at their original modeled position. 150 CLOTHILDE Modeling Clothes In these pages you’ll find advice on how best to model garments for use with Clothilde. MOCCA The first part of modeling a garment starts with creating a Polygon object (Objects > Polygon Object). This object will allow you to create polygons anywhere in the scene. Remember that the cloth engine will handle the draping and simulation process. All that needs to be created is the geometry for the cloth engine to drape. So a rough box model of the garment is all that is needed. Use the Create Polygon Tool (Structure > Create Polygon) to create this box model of the garment. Being that CINEMA 4D now supports n-gons, quickly draw out the front plane of the garment. Using the Knife tool, distribute cuts evenly throughout the garment, trying to keep as many quadrangles as possible in preference to triangles. Before using the Knife tool to cut the garment (left) and after (right). Create quadrangles in preference to triangles. After the front plane of the garment is modeled, make sure all of the polygons are selected and use the Clone function. This will mirror the geometry to create the back plane of the garment. Usually, using a Clone value of 1 and 180-degree rotation around the Y-axis works for this situation. Select the edges where the garment will need to be seamed together. Remember to exclude the edges where the garment will fit around the character: collar, sleeves, and bottom of the shirt. Select the edges where the garment will need to be seamed together. Remember to exclude the edges where the garment will fit around the character: collar, sleeves, and bottom of the shirt. CLOTHILDE 151 MOCCA Now the seams need to be created between these two planes. Use the Stitch and Sew tool to create the geometry for the seams. Holding the Shift modifier for this tool will add geometry as opposed to merging the edges, which is needed for the seams. Use CINEMA 4D’s Stitch And Sew tool to create the seams. Keep the polygons of the front and back planes selected. It is at this point that you will want to subdivide the garment (Functions > Subdivide). A value of 3 subdivisions will usually suffice. Invert the selection so that the geometry of the seam is selected (Selection > Invert). Subdivide the polygons. 152 CLOTHILDE MOCCA At this point, a Cloth tag can be applied to the garment to drape the geometry onto the character. Using the functions on the Dresser tab, such as Set Seam Polys and Dress-O-Matic, will perform this draping process. Prior to doing this you will also want to apply a Collider tag on the geometry of the character; otherwise, the cloth engine will not know what to drape the geometry onto. Before using the functions on the Dresser tab to drape the garment onto the character (left) and after (right). Keep in mind that Clothilde is as much a modeling tool as it is an animation tool. At any point in time the Cloth tag can be deleted and the cloth can be treated as regular geometry. Even deleting the Cloth tag and modeling areas like collars at a later time is still possible. Then just re-apply a Cloth tag to the new model and start the simulation from there. Procedures for Animation As the screen shots show, it’s best to drape a garment while a character is in the T-pose. But an animation never has a character start in the T-pose. The trick here is to animate the character from the T-pose at a negative frame, usually –10 but this depends on the extremity of the start pose. On the Tag Properties tab of the Cloth tag, you can disable the Auto option and manually specify from Frame –10 to Frame 0. Once the simulation gets to Frame 0 you can define that as the new Initial State and the simulation will be able to start calculating the garment from that state. CLOTHILDE 153 MOCCA It’s best to drape a garment while the character is in the T-pose (left). Naturally, you’ll want to start the animation from a different pose (right). The trick here is to record the T- pose before frame 0, such as at frame -10. Remember that if the starting pose is really extreme, you can belt all the points of the garment during the simulation. Once the cloth object is in place, you can remove the belted points and set the Initial State of the garment. Index INDEX 157 MOCCA A Add anchor to bone 30 bone with bone tool 36 child bone 36 pose 75 pose to library 81 root goal 30 tip goal to bone 30 up vector to bone 31 Additive Loops 100 Air Resistance 129 Anchor 14 add to bone 30 Animating Clothes 152 Auto Find Center 43 Auto IK-Lock 32 Auto Match 101 Auto Redraw 31 Auto Size 106 Auto Trim 100 Child bone, adding 36 Children of bones, mirroring 44 Chopsticks 22 Claude Bonet tool 47 Clear Belt Points 138 Clear Seam 136 Clone tags 43 Clothilde introduction 115 Cloth NURBS 115 Cloth Tag 119 Collider Tag 147 Collision Detection 144 Constraint goal 20 mirror 44 strength 20 up vector 22 B D Belting 137 Belt Hover 127 Belt Influence 127 Bone adding child 36 adding with bone tool 36 add anchor 30 add root goal 30 add tip goal 30 add up vector 31 null, add with bone tool 37 null, update with bone tool 37 split with bone tool 37 tool 36 weight, removing 51 weighting 47 Bone Mirror tool 41 Boost 66 Bounce 123, 142, 148 Display All Bones 48 Drag 16 Draw 149 Draw Belt Points 138 Dress-O-Matic 132 Dresser 131 Dress Mode 131 Dynamics 15 C Cache 143 Cache Mode 124 Calculate Cache 125 Cappuccino Tool 57 Chain IK, setting up 30 limit position of 25 E Edge EPS 145 Empty Cache 125 Estimate 103 Exclude Polys 148 Expert settings 143 F Find keyframes 69 Fix Points 135 Flexion 141 Force Position 28 Force Shading 49 Forward kinematics 9 Frames finding easily 69 Friction 123, 142, 148 G Global Drag 126 Global Intersection Analysis 146 Goal add root to bone 30 add tip to bone 30 Goal constraint 20 Gravity 126 H Hard IK 15 Hover 142 I IK <-> FK 17 IK Chain setting up 30 Inertia 17 Influence 142 Initial State 133 Introduction 1 Inverse kinematics 9 K Keyframes finding easily 69 recording in realtime 58 KeyReducer Tool 65 Kinematics forward 9 inverse 9 L Layout configuration 5 MOCCA 5 Left Trim 100 Library of poses 81 P2P 81 M Manager P2P 81 Manual Match 102 Mass 141, 144 Match Search 43 158 INDEX MOCCA Mirror children of bone 44 constraint 44 Mixing poses 73 Mocca.l4d 5 MOCCA IK Tag 13 MOCCA Layout 5 MOCCA Palette 5 Modeling Clothes 150 Motion A 97 Motion B 98 Motion Blending 95 Multiple use iii N Network operation iii Null bone 37 O Object up vector 22 Only Modify Visible Elements 48 P P2P Manager 81 Painting bone weights 47 Palette MOCCA 5 Pivot 102 Point EPS 144 Poly EPS 145 Pose add 75 library 81 mixing 73 recording 75 record key 82 PoseMixer tag 73 Position limit of in MOCCA IK chain 25 rest state 29 Q Quaternion Tag 89 R Rail 102 Realtime keyframe recording 58 Record key for selected pose 82 poses 75 Reduction 65 Relax 131 Remove bone weight 51 Reset chain to rest state 29 Resize To Orig. Length 103 Rest rotation set for bone chain 31 Rest State position 29 reset chain to 29 rotation 29, 31 Retarget Tag 109 Rewind Time 60 Right Trim 100 Rotation limit of in MOCCA IK chain 26 rest state 29 Rubber 122, 141 S Seam Polys 136 Secrecy v Self Collision 124 Self Repulsion 130 Setup IK chain 30 Setup Motion Blend Tracks 97 Set Belt Points 137 Set Chain Rest Position 31 Set Chain Rest Rotation 31 Set Dress State 134 Set Fix Points 135 Set Initial State 133 Set Reference 50 Set Seam Polys 136 Show Belt Points 138 Show Dress State 134 Show Initial State 133 Show Seam 136 Show Transition 100 Show Transitions 99 Soft IK 5 Split bone with bone tool 37 Start At Current Time 60 Start Realtime 58 Stiffness 141 Stop Realtime 59 Strength of constraints 20 of limits in MOCCA IK chain 25 Sub Sampling 143 T Tear 140 TimeWarp tool 69 Tip effector 10 Tool bone 36 Claude Bonet 47 PoseMixer 73 TimeWarp 69 Transfer iv Transition 97 U Update null bone with bone tool 37 Update Frame 125 Up Vector 22 add to bone 31 Use As Pole 21 Use Collider 147 Use Existing Sequences 61 Use UK 14 W Weight bones, removing 51 Weighting bones 47 Wind 127
Source Exif Data:
File Type : PDF File Type Extension : pdf MIME Type : application/pdf PDF Version : 1.4 Linearized : Yes Encryption : Standard V1.2 (40-bit) User Access : Print, Annotate, Fill forms, Extract, Assemble, Print high-res Modify Date : 2004:11:15 12:14:07+01:00 Create Date : 2004:09:13 21:48:11Z Producer : Adobe PDF Library 5.0 Creator : Adobe InDesign 2.0.2 Trapped : False Page Count : 166 Creation Date : 2004:09:13 21:48:11Z Mod Date : 2004:11:15 12:14:07+01:00 Metadata Date : 2004:11:15 12:14:07+01:00 Document ID : adobe:docid:indd:39f0ea01-05c6-11d9-b736-98e5931586e1 Version ID : 1 Rendition Class : proof:pdf Rendition Of Document ID : adobe:docid:indd:39f0ea01-05c6-11d9-b736-98e5931586e1 Rendition Of Version ID : 1 Rendition Of Rendition Class : default Format : application/pdf Title : Page Mode : UseOutlinesEXIF Metadata provided by EXIF.tools