Cinema 4D with After Effects Poly planes and??

[tammies30676145]

I apologize for  not being specific in the title. I got a great answer for the main idea of these questions, though they only led to more questions needing to be answered.

I'll explain what i'm trying to do. On this video by Film Riot, they have a tutorial for flying like superman. I got everything down except this one small bit. I was told to use Maya, however, I don't have it so I am using Cinema 4D. This video is what I'm trying to recreate: How to Make Yourself Fly! - YouTube ​At 2:55 in that video there are some vibrating rocks. I was told to do several things. I quote from Paul Michelle who answered my question before and I'm very thankful for that.

"Basically setting up a poly plane to match the the ground with a positional expression to make it vibrate

and then add a bunch of 3d objects (rocks) as collision objects, tweaking their settings (mass, intital velocity, etc..).

Render the simulation with visibility of the ground plane disabled & finally compositing the render into the shot in After Effects."

I'm still not quite grasping how to do any of what's said. I've watched many tutorials on YouTube, Lynda.com, and so forth. No where is it specific about this one effect. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

[P.M.B · Accepted solution]

Hi Tammies,

I didn't really tell you to do anything.  I just mentioned some basic concepts of dynamic simulations and also referred you to

an excellent set of tutorials although they were for Maya, not C4D & regardless they would not have given you a step-by-step on how to make rocks vibrate.

The important bit of what I said was that it looked like the effect was achieved using particle instancing or a rigid body simulation.  Truth is it looks more like a crappy job of particle instancing but I think the same effect could be achieved using rigid body dynamics and it would much simpler.   It likely makes sense that you cannot grasp how to do what I said because I only mentioned general concepts.  Do you know what a collision object is?  Do you know the difference between a passive object and an active object?

Here's what I suggest you do.  Rather than trying to figure out how to achieve that shot in the video try completely forgetting about it.

I suggest you try to find tutorials on how to use the rigid body simulation tools in c4d.   Being that you have no ability to judge the quality or trust-worthyness of the tutorials you find you might have to follow a couple (or more) tutorials.  Doing this should familiarize you with the basic tools and workflows so that you will be able to work out how to achieve this fairly simple shot on your own & also many other cool things.  What it will give you is a understanding of the tools so you can use them for "work" (or play).  Rather than what you would get from a tutorial on how to make rocks vibrate which will give (maybe) a neat video to show you friends and family which they really won't care too much about & which you would not be able to achieve again without following the tutorial again.

I cannot  walk you step-by-step though the process of creating that shot because I have never

learned C4Ds dynamics module.  I learned in Maya.   But even if you had Maya I would still not walk you through step-by-step because it's contextually complicated and takes time & besides that it's been years since I worked in Maya so I'd be rusty and would have to brush up first.   It wouldn't take me long though & it also wouldn't take me long to learn the same process in C4D because when I learned I did NOT look for tutorials on some very specific use of the tool.  I followed a long series of tutorials called (important) "Understanding Dynamics in (3D Software of Choice)".   Through those many many hours of training I learned the foundations of particle sims, particle instancing, rigid body dynamics, soft body dynamics & liquid simulations.  And because of that I was able to look at that shot you showed me and go...Oh, yah. Here's how you can basically do that.  I could create that shot even though I have no clue how they did it specifically (I know they should have added random rotation to the rocks but whatever).

Is your brain melting yet?  Listen.  I didn't tell you to use Maya.  I told you it was done in a full 3D package "LIKE MAYA".  You could do it in Maya, C4D, Houdini, 3DSMax, Lightwave, Blender, SoftImage, Modo etc, etc

3D packages have what are called (depending on the package) "modules" or "tool sets" or "menus".

What you want to focus on learning are these first.

Don't look for a tutorial on how to animate a boy throwing a football in C4D, look for tutorials on learning the Animation Tools in C4D.

Don't look for a tutorial on how to make rocks vibrate "like this" in C4D, look for tutorials on learning the Dynamics Tools in C4D.

If you can't find tutorials that broad (due to the reality that learning sites these days pander to short attention spans & instant gratification, thanks to.....ooops ) then just go to lynda.com and follow every tutorial they have on dynamics in C4D irregardless of whether or not it helps you recreate some cruddy video you saw on Youtube.

Just go there and suck up every bit knowledge they have on dynamics in C4D.

If you have your tingly parts set on learning THAT specific effect & that specific effect only,  then my advice is to pick the hardest wall you can find.

The harder the wall the faster you'll get tired of banging your head against it and decide to start learning the language & the tools..

Short attention span version:   In the software of your choosing....study DYNAMICS MODULES (OR TOOLSET), RIGID BODY DYNAMICS., PARTICLE INSTANCING.  Forget about trying to make rocks vibrate like they did in that video.  It looked like ****, anyway.

You're wasting your time.