Cinema 4D 12.0 Dynamics - Creating Chutes
The new Cinema 4D 12.
0 dynamics offers many possibilities with new forces at play with our objects.
Chutes can be playful or do work for you in the factory.
Chutes can be whimsical or serve a military loader.
Let's create some! Getting started on chutes means, you guessed it, creating some chutes! Creating chutes is it's own bit of fun in Cinema 4D because we need to use NURBS and the best NURB for creating a chute is called a 'sweep NURBS'.
What is a 'NURBS'? It really does stand for something and it belongs to the world of 3D graphics, not solely to Cinema 4D.
A 'NURBS' is a non-uniform rational basic spline.
Wikipedia defines 'NURBS' as 'a mathematical model commonly used in computer graphics for generating and representing curves and surfaces which offers great flexibility and precision for handling both analytic and freeform shapes'.
Check Wikipedia for more information.
To create a chute that will let objects slide down onto your stage you first create a 'sweep NURBS' object.
You are going to describe its shape with a spline, then create a 'sweep NURBS', place your spline and a circle spline which defines its radius inside the NURBS.
We want our chute to take advantage of gravity and much like a real chute, slope from high to low.
It is easier to draw a spline skeleton from the front or right profile perspective and we want a fairly simple spline that flows from top to the floor with some curvature.
I've noticed the dynamics can be a bit surprising.
We want our spline, the skeleton of our chute to have some curvature but keep it pretty simple in the beginning.
Design your simple spline, then create your sweep NURBS.
Place the spline in your NURBS object making it a child.
Create a circle spline which will define the radius of your chute.
I used 25 cm radius and 50 cm for chute radius.
When you place the circle inside your NURBS making it a child, you will see your chute form.
It is important that you place the spline first.
You will see strange incorrect objects if your order is not correct and it will be obvious you have a nice chute with well defined rounded shape when you do.
You need to make your chute and sphere dynamic objects.
Choose 'Simulation->Dynamics->Create Rigid Body' to apply this tag to each.
On your chute object, you want your rigid body shape to be set from automatic to 'Static Mesh'.
We have just a couple more settings.
Place your sphere over the top opening of your chute.
You want it to drop into your chute and drop out the other end.
You will probably want to use several views, top, right, and front to be sure your sphere really is precisely over the chute opening or it will simply fall to the ground.
You need a connector for chute to keep it suspended.
Choose 'Simulation->Dynamics-Connector', change the default 'hinge' connector to a 'fixed' connector.
Enter your sweep NURBS as the 'Object A', the object your connector is 'connecting'.
Convert your chute to a editable polygon by entering 'C'.
Now, push play.
You should see your ball fall into your chute, bounce through it's path to come out on the other end.
These steps are what you need to create a chute however if you place a somewhat transparent material, such as one of the glass versions, you can see your ball travel through the chute.
Likewise, if you choose a bright material with some texture for your sphere, it will highlight as it travels.
Experiment with this basic design to create chutes from circus amusements to factory servers.
0 dynamics offers many possibilities with new forces at play with our objects.
Chutes can be playful or do work for you in the factory.
Chutes can be whimsical or serve a military loader.
Let's create some! Getting started on chutes means, you guessed it, creating some chutes! Creating chutes is it's own bit of fun in Cinema 4D because we need to use NURBS and the best NURB for creating a chute is called a 'sweep NURBS'.
What is a 'NURBS'? It really does stand for something and it belongs to the world of 3D graphics, not solely to Cinema 4D.
A 'NURBS' is a non-uniform rational basic spline.
Wikipedia defines 'NURBS' as 'a mathematical model commonly used in computer graphics for generating and representing curves and surfaces which offers great flexibility and precision for handling both analytic and freeform shapes'.
Check Wikipedia for more information.
To create a chute that will let objects slide down onto your stage you first create a 'sweep NURBS' object.
You are going to describe its shape with a spline, then create a 'sweep NURBS', place your spline and a circle spline which defines its radius inside the NURBS.
We want our chute to take advantage of gravity and much like a real chute, slope from high to low.
It is easier to draw a spline skeleton from the front or right profile perspective and we want a fairly simple spline that flows from top to the floor with some curvature.
I've noticed the dynamics can be a bit surprising.
We want our spline, the skeleton of our chute to have some curvature but keep it pretty simple in the beginning.
Design your simple spline, then create your sweep NURBS.
Place the spline in your NURBS object making it a child.
Create a circle spline which will define the radius of your chute.
I used 25 cm radius and 50 cm for chute radius.
When you place the circle inside your NURBS making it a child, you will see your chute form.
It is important that you place the spline first.
You will see strange incorrect objects if your order is not correct and it will be obvious you have a nice chute with well defined rounded shape when you do.
You need to make your chute and sphere dynamic objects.
Choose 'Simulation->Dynamics->Create Rigid Body' to apply this tag to each.
On your chute object, you want your rigid body shape to be set from automatic to 'Static Mesh'.
We have just a couple more settings.
Place your sphere over the top opening of your chute.
You want it to drop into your chute and drop out the other end.
You will probably want to use several views, top, right, and front to be sure your sphere really is precisely over the chute opening or it will simply fall to the ground.
You need a connector for chute to keep it suspended.
Choose 'Simulation->Dynamics-Connector', change the default 'hinge' connector to a 'fixed' connector.
Enter your sweep NURBS as the 'Object A', the object your connector is 'connecting'.
Convert your chute to a editable polygon by entering 'C'.
Now, push play.
You should see your ball fall into your chute, bounce through it's path to come out on the other end.
These steps are what you need to create a chute however if you place a somewhat transparent material, such as one of the glass versions, you can see your ball travel through the chute.
Likewise, if you choose a bright material with some texture for your sphere, it will highlight as it travels.
Experiment with this basic design to create chutes from circus amusements to factory servers.
Source...