rowing tree

[Tango]

I have to animate neurones shrinking and dying (Alzheimers). The problem here is the branching structure. It's like growing a tree in reverse, although, no leaves. I have animated a simple plant growing with Vue d'Esprit before, I would have to figure out a way to export numbered geometry or the animation data, not quite sure.

 

EI being my natural go-to tool for 3D, I am wondering if there is a way to do this with animator, or a combination of tools. I have C4d, Maya, Blender, Vue, Onyx Broadleaf and a few more.

 

Any pointers would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Christian

[S. Houtzager]

Hey Christian,

 

I was thinking of trying to do this not long ago in EI.  I was going to give Pathfinder from Northernlights3d a try.

 

I reverse movies in AE, or EI can render out in reverse. Would like to see what you get.

[Diego]

Hello,

 

If you are Paralluminos tools owner, shoud be the best in EIAS.

 

If not in C4d you have some ways to do that with CS tools for example, but you have to export an .obj sequence, via Riptide Pro.

MDD will not works since you will have a variable polycount number.

 

Cheers

Diego

 

 

[S. Houtzager]

Hey Diego,

 

Which Paralluminos tool would work for this? Just curious.

[Tango]

My first option doing it with EI was to test "SWAGE". I used it before to animate extrusions and it works well. The challenge is to connect the splines to the core object (sphere or blob) and make sure no seam are visible. I have yet to test it with a spline branching out (Y shape), for that, I would have to build it in a modeller and import it. Not sure if Swage will accept that geometry.

 

I have done the the .obj sequence method for some other project and it worked well, I may check the C4D route.

 

Another option is to build a full neuron with arms (tentacles, etc..) and modify it maintaining the same polygon count, import both models and do a morph. I am afraid that polygons may get re-numbered in the conversion to "fact" format. I'll let you know how I do.

 

Christian

[bwcc]

I have done something similar using morph targets. The model (steps) were created in Modo using vertex maps - the exported obj files will maintain consistent polygon and vertex counts but for some reason when the obj files are imported into EIAS it will adjust the number of vertices. I think it has something to do with the shading angle. 

 

If you are using morph targets, I can post more details about getting the vertices consistent.

 

brian

[Diego]

Hi, yes, I was thinking that "Swage" extrusions can be animated, I'm not sure if you can animate branches, I have to try some imported path from illustrator.

If connected splines give a good geometry then it may be a good tool to grow trees or neural systems.

 

Diego

[Tango]

Hi Diego,

 

I can't get the splines to be recognized as a single object, Can't merge them in Illustrator, tried modelling in Silo. Swage won't read the geometry, it seems to want a motion path converted with "path to line". I have wasted too much time on this and will used smoke and mirrors. I will probably animate single spline extrusions with swage and have other "Y" shape arms in the same environment but not animated. Combining both "single" and "Y shaped splines" with a bit of distortion will give the illusion they are all animating. 

 

Another issue with swage is the fact that it will not allow me to use the built-in-profiles, which would make things simpler. I tried it with EI v9 and v8, same results.

 

Thanks,

Christian