You want to do use particles to morph one word into another? You don’t want to mess with all of the Xpresso scripting to do it with Thinking Particles? Here comes the MoGraph module to the rescue! Using an Inheritance effector and a Randomize effector you can get this effect done quickly and easily.

Step 01
Start by creating the two Text objects you want to morph between.

Step 02
Create two MoGraph Cloner Objects with a Sphere (or whatever you want your particle to be) as children. Set the Mode for both Cloner Objects to Object.

Step 03
Drag in your Text Objects into the Target Object Link attribute of the two Cloner Objects.  By default this creates a clone at each of the vertexes of the target object.

Step 04
We want to get a more even, random distribution of clones throughout all of our text. Change the Mode of clone distribution to Volume.

Step 05
Now first, hide the Cloner Object that will be the target of your morph.  And select the Cloner Object that will be the source of the morph and create an Inheritance Effector.

Step 06
In the Attribute Manager for the Inheritance Effector, find the Effector tab.  In the Target Object Link attribute, drag in the Cloner Object that is the target of your morph.  When you do this nothing will happen, until you check Morph Motion Object.  You will notice that all of your clones “jump” to the position of your target cloner object.

Step 07
Stay in the Attribute Manager for the Inheritance Effector, Effector tab. Animate the Strength slider from 0% to 100% over 20 to 60 frames.  You can play the animation and now see your morph working correctly.

Step 08
To get our particles to spread out a little more during the middle of the morph we’ll add a Randomize Effector.  Select your source Cloner Object and create a Random Effector.

Step 09
We only want the Random Effector to move everything around during the middle of our morph.  So set it’s Strength to 0% on the same two frames you set keys for the Inheritance Effector.  Then, halfway between those two keyframes, set a keyframe for Strength 100%.  You can tweak the timing of this however you like.

FINISHED
You should have something that looks similar to this…

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In the first part of this tutorial, we built a lighting grid using a couple of MoGraph Cloners and a Volume Effector.  At the end of part 01 we ended up with a lighting grid made up of plain spheres (see below). In part two, we’ll model a basic light bulb and go through the process of placing that object into our cloners without “breaking” our setup (see above).

Step 01

Grab a reference model for the bulb.  Grab it from anywhere, we’re only using the image as reference for modeling.  In the front view, go to Edit > Configure.  Under the Back tab, browse and select your picture.  This will give us an overlay image to help us draw our profile spline.  Using the Bezier Spline Tool, create a spline down one side of the profile of the light bulb.

Step 02

We need to make sure that our spline begins and ends at zero on the Y-axis.  The best way to accomplish this: select the bulb spline and go into point editing mode.  Select the Move Tool, and in the tool attribute manager, go to the Snap Settings tab, and activate the Grid checkbox.  Select each endpoint of the spline and drag them toward the Y-axis.  When you’re close, it should snap into place.

Step 03

Next, while you have the spline selected, hold down the Alt key while you click to create a Lathe NURBS.  The spline will become a child of the Lathe NURBS object. Now we have the basic shape for our bulb.

Step 04

Now we’ll make some basic materials for our bulb, one glass material and one metallic material.  You can tailor the materials to your own taste, but below are some screen shots of the most important parts.

The only other major thing to change is the Lumas Shader on the metallic material. Crank the roughness of the anisotropy in one direction. This will get us the brushed metal look of the back of a flood lamp.

Step 05

Start by applying the metallic material to the Lathe NURBS object.  Then press the “C” key to make the lathe nurbs editable.  Go into face editing mode and select all of the faces on the top part of the bulb.  While you have the faces selected, drag the glass material onto the selection.

Now that we have the bulb finished, we get to the important part.  Replacing the spheres in our mograph light rig from part one of this tutorial.

Step 06

Under the bulb cloner object, make our new Lathe NURBS bulb a child.  You’ll notice that we’re a little off on the positioning and scale of the Lathe NURBS bulbs.

Step 07

Deactivate the bulb Cloner object so we can get a clear look at our old bulb sphere and our new Lathe NURBS bulb.  Reposition and rescale our Lathe NURBS bulb to make it approximately the same position and dimensions as the old bulb sphere.  When you get it, make sure to reposition the Axis of the Lathe NURBS so that it is at X:0 Y:0 Z:0

Step 08

The last step is to throw an HRDI map on a sky object to get some nice reflections out of our metallic shader (Read how to do this)

FINISHED! You should now have a fully functional lighting grid that looks decent from any angle while still being dynamically updatable.

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Does your client want “that light grid look from all of the music videos a little while back”?  FINE…but you need to scroll a bunch of text through it…which means you need to be able to switch in new text on the fly.  PROBLEM…until now.  You would have to fake the lights using some sort of animated texture map.  That’s not a bad solution until you need to get CLOSE to the lights and then they’ll end up looking like crap.  Using the Volume Effector from C4D’s MoGraph module you can model dynamically, leaving your text in a procedural generator (Text Object), ready for changes.
In the first part of this tutorial we’ll go through the theory and setup the basic MoGraph model and get it running.  In part two, we’ll work on actually modeling the lights and the rig to get a good-looking final model.

STEP 01: The Bulb

Create a simple sphere object and make it very small.  We’ll also reduce the number of segments to something low so we won’t slow down our viewport.

STEP 02: The Rig Holding the Light

Create three cylinder objects and offset them behind our sphere.

STEP 03:  Grouping the Objects Properly

Then add the three cylinder objects into the group.  (This is important so that our axis center for the group remains at the sphere’s center.)

STEP 04: Matrix Object

Create a matrix object from the mograph menu.  (You could just use a cloner object, but we are going to be linking multiple cloner objects from this matrix object, so if we need to change any of the characteristics of the matrix object, it will update in both of our cloner objects.)

STEP 05: Cloner Object

With our bulb group selected, create a cloner object while holding down option (this will make the new cloner object a parent of the bulb group). Under the cloner object’s attribute settings change the mode to object and drag the matrix object into the object dialog box.

NOTE: After creating the cloner object, I realized that my cylinders we too fat and short.  I changed their settings a bit. (this is why procedural objects are great!)

STEP 06: Our Text

Create your normal text object with a text spline and an extrude nurbs.  In the extrude nurbs settings change the movement to 0m. We just want plain flat text.

STEP 07: “Lights On”

Duplicate our cloner object and then delete all of the cylinders.  Also make the radius of the sphere smaller than that of our bulbs.  (These spheres will be the bright spot inside the bulbs that are “on”)

STEP 08: Volume Effector

With our new cloner still selected, create a new volume effector from the Mograph menu.  In it’s settings, drag the text’s extrude nurbs object into the volume object dialog box. At the bottom of the attribute menu check the Visibility checkbox to on.  (This will make it so our “on” bulbs only show up where the text intersects with our matrix objects (kind of like a boolean object, all of the other “on” bulbs will be hidden.)

STEP 09: Some simple textures

First we’ll make a transparent texture for the outer bulbs (use a Fresnel shader for more realistic transparency. Then make a luminescent texture for our “on” lights.

Apply them to our objects and hit render.  We’re done.  We now have a lighting grid that we can still edit whatever text is being illuminated.

In part two, we’ll work on giving the bulbs, lights, and rack models a little more detail to add some style.  I hope you’ll check it out.

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You have your product or title object beautifully modeled and textured…but what about lighting?  Well, one short answer is to look into Global Illumination.  Another option fake GI with a complex lighting scheme.  There are many options out there, here is one.  We’re going to use MoGraph to make the setup a little easier and more flexible.

Step 01
Make a Sphere object to use as our guide for the lighting dome.  Under the Sphere Object Attributes we are going to make two changes.  First, make the sphere Radius BIG!  Second, make the sphere Type: Hemisphere.

Rename the Sphere “Dome” and make it not visible it in the Viewer.

Step 02
Make our light, a Spot Light.  This light is going to be multiplied lots and lots of times later with a Cloner Object, so we will set it’s Intensity very low.  We also need to change the Color to a 50% neutral gray (I’ll explain why later).  We also want some nice Soft Shadows.

Step 03
With the light selected, go to the MoGraph menu and while holding down the alt/option key create a Cloner Object.

SIDE-TIP: When creating a new object, holding down the alt/option key makes the new object a parent of whatever you have selected.

With the Cloner Object still selected, we need to change its Mode to Object.

Step 04
Next drag our Dome object from the Object List and drop it into the Cloner’s Attribute Manager in the Object dialog box.

Step 05
Since we had our light selected and we held down the alt/option key while creating the Cloner Object, it was created as the parent of the Light. This is exactly what we want, except the lights are pointed the opposite way we wanted.

Back to the Attribute Manager for the Cloner Object.  Under the Transform tab we want to change the Pitch Rotation 180 degrees to turn the lights around so that they all point at our main object.

If you do a quick test render, you’ll find that things are looking pretty good.  But let’s take it a step further.

Let’s take a second to think about light in real life.  Light color is Additive.  That is, if you add lots of lights of different colors, when they shine on the same object, all of the color will add together and create white light.  So we’re going to use a Random Effector to try to recreate this effect by setting all of the light colors to random colors.

Step 06
With your Cloner Object still selected, go to the Mograph menu and add a Random Effector.

In the Attribute Manager for the Cloner Object, let’s disable the default On values for Position, Scale and Rotation.

Next, we’ll go down to Color Mode and set it to On. And change the Blending Mode to Add.  (this is why we changed the Spotlight Color to a neutral gray…if you Add anything to white you get white, useless)

Now we have a bunch of lights, all different colors, pointing at our main object.

Step 07
With this setup we get a pretty good shot.

The only thing we’re missing is some pretty reflections. So we will go up and create a Sky Object and texture it with your favorite HDRI map. (for more info on this see my last tutorial “Creating a Chrome Metal with Great Reflections using a Sky Object and HDRI”

So here’s our final render, side-by-side with a GI render of the same scene.  A little different, true, but not bad considering that GI renders are really time consuming compared to our dome lighting setup.

Global Illumination

Dome Lighting

WHY MoGraph you ask?  Well, since we used a Cloner Object, we can continue to make changes to ALL of our lights by changing our ONE set of light controls.  You can also change the size of our lighting dome at any time by modifying our Dome Object.

Chrome text, chrome logos, chrome, chrome, chrome… everybody wants some bling bling.  What makes metallic textures look so good?  Reflections.  Reflections are easy if you have some text floating in a complete modelled environment.   What if you want some chrome text as an element to bring back into AE for a composite?  Here’s a beginner/intermediate tutorial to show you how you to make it quickly…

Step 01
Start with some basic text like this (I created my text using a MoGraph Text Object and a Random Effector).

Step 02
You can use your own custom material, but starting with a preset from the Content Gallery is not a bad place to start.  I’m going to start with metal006 from the basic folder.

Here’s what our text looks like now.  Not really what were looking for.  Why does it look like this?  It has nothing to reflect… (think about what a mirror looks like in a pitch black room).

Step 03
We add a Sky Object to our scene.  A sky object is an infinitely large sphere,
whose center is the origin of the world coordinate system. Perfect for making reflections.

And now here’s what it looks like.  Again, not what we’re looking for.  Why?  It has only has our white sky object to reflect.

Step 04
Back to the Content Browser.  This time we’re going to take a material preset from the HDRI folder.  (These were a new edition to C4D with version 11, and a great addition at that. If you would like to read about what exactly an HDRI map is, read on here.)

We’ll take that material preset and apply it to the Sky Object.  Now we have something that looks like this.  A lot closer to what we want, but all I want is our chrome letters, not that big wierld looking room behind it.

Step 05
To make the Sky Object not appear in the render, but still appear in the reflections of our text, we will use a Compositing Tag.  Right Click on the Sky Object in the Object Manager to find it.  The Compositing Tag is one of the most useful C4D tags out there (I suggest reading about it at some point).

In the settings we’ll uncheck Cast Shadows, Receive Shadows, and Seen by Camera (make sure that Seen by Transparency, Refraction and Reflection remain checked).

Now we’re almost there except for some finishing touches.

NOTE: These last steps are where you are going to be able to customize your chrome texture the most.  The right combinations of options to the shader is what separates professional looking chrome from ugly hobbist chrome.  (Remember LESS IS MORE, you should tone down and modify almost every procedural texture you apply to your shader.)  All this being said, here’s a couple of things to start with…

Step 06
Add a Fresnel (pronounced: FER-NELL) texture to the Reflection channel.  I normally tone down the gradient from it’s 100% black to 100% white starting setting. This will help to tone down our reflections a bit and offer some variation in the amount of reflection over the text.  Also, turn the blurriness up a few percentage points to blur the reflections coming off our text.

Step 07
Activate the Bump channel and add a Noise texture to it.  Pick the noise type that you like, and lower the Global Scale to something small.  We just want to have very small variations on the surface of the metal to help break up the reflections.

Now we have something like this.  A little TOO MUCH bumpyness on the text.

So we’ll go back to the bump channel and take the Strength down to 1% or so.

And we’ll get something like this.

Render out with an alpha channel and bada-bing… There some bling bling for your graphic.

You can download my ChromeWithHDRI.c4d file here.

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Let’s take a look a the layer shader.  It is one of the more powerful shaders in the C4D shader arsenal.  It basically works very similarly to the layers palette in Photoshop and the layered timeline in After Effects, so most of this will be familiar to a lot of you.  Let’s dive in.

We’re going to start our shader by layering up a few pieces of noise.  (A good piece of reading on this in 3Dmax is written by Neil Blevins.)  We’ll start with a noise of type Gaseous, and crank up the global scale a bit to give some nice subtle tonal change across the whole material. (This texture reference of C4D noise is really useful when choosing noise types.)

Now stay in the attribute manager and add the layer shader.  The noise we just added will be moved inside the Layer Shader as it’s first layer.

After we step inside the Layer Shader by clicking on the shader name in the attribute panel, let’s add another layer of noise.  I will give this a different noise type, and leave it’s global scale at 100%.

We’ll change the transfer mode of our new layer of noise to an overlay transfer mode and take the transparency down low enough so the noise is subtle.  (Remember, less is more!)

Next we’ll add another layer of noise with a very small global scale and clipping values so it is mostly white with little specks of black.  Set the Layer Mode to multiply and now we have some small specks of dirt on our nice layered noise.

Noise isn’t the only thing you can use to layer up!  I’ve chosen a fresnel shader here, but you can add any gradients, images or anything else you want.

I always recommend using at least 3 layers of noise any time you need to get in close to an object.  When objects are small on screen, you can get away with one layer of noise. However, if your camera gets anywhere close in, the viewer with totally notice the pattern in the noise, so layer up good if you want it to look good!  “Fractal Noise” is, after all, a fractal, which is just a fancy word for “repeating pattern”.

Another option for modifying your layer shader are effects.  You can perform all kinds of “Photoshop-like” adjustments.  Adding an effect layer is just like adding an adjustment layer in AE.  It applies an effect to the combination of ALL of the layers below it.  One particularly useful effect is colorize.

Colorize works similarly to the Colorama effect in AE (a favorite of mine).  With some modifications to a basic gradient, you get some very good effects.

Here is the break’down’ of our layering ‘up’…

So there is our finished layer shader in the color channel.  Copy and Paste the layer shader into other channels in your material (like diffusion, bump, reflection, etc.) and with some minor tweaks to each, you end up with a really rich, detailed and organic material that looks great up close.

I hope this was helpful.  It’s just the beginning of what you can accomplish with the layer shader.  If you have any questions about this tutorial, something you think I should add, or a request for a tutorial, please contact me through the comments forms.
Good luck and happy texturing!

PDF Tutorial

Well then the Transfer Tool is exactly what you’re looking for…

Let’s begin by selecting the object we want to place. (sphere)

Next we go up to the Function menu

and select the Transfer Tool

There are two ways to make the transfer happen…

The first is through the Attribute Manager of the Transfer Tool itself.

Under Options drag your target object from the Object List into the Transfer To: dialog box. (in our example, our target object is the Cube) In this attribute manager, you can disable various attributes. You can choose to transfer only Position, Scale and/or Rotation. When you’re happy, hit Apply.

The second option is to transfer directly in the Viewer.

Move your mouse over the target object. (Cube)

When you get close to the object a white line will appear in between the two objects.

And Click.

That’s it.