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Filed under: Motion Graphics •

Visual Rhythm, Part 2: Motion & Cinema Tricks

To create this complex animation in Cinema 4D, we animated the Radius and Slice of a single torus, and then animated the Radius and Frequency of its parent Array object to coordinate the unfolding of multiple copies.

Cinema 4D’s Array

We’ll end our exploration of cloning for fun and profit by venturing into 3D space. Most 3D programs have a way to easily duplicate and arrange multiple copies of an object. In Maxon Cinema 4D (our 3D weapon of choice, due to its tight integration with program such as After Effects), a cool tool to do just that is the Array.

To build an array, create a 3D model (a simple cube will do for starters; scale it down from its default), and click on the Array Object: the icon that looks like a pixelated green and blue flower. Then drag your 3D model onto the Array in the Objects panel. Voila -  you have multiple cubes. Select Array, reveal its Object Properties, and have fun experimenting, making sure you set both Amplitude and Frequency higher than 0 (or very little will happen!). Press F8 to preview; note that Array auto-animates.

You will notice that there are values for both Frequency and Array Frequency. Array Frequency is akin to Noisiness in Motion or Octaves of Noise in After Effects in that it creates more complex patterns. To better understand how these two parameters interact, set Frequency to 2 and Array Frequency to 1: You will now have a simple wobbling ring of objects which rotates every 90 frames. Then start increasing Array Frequency, noting how the pattern changes.

One potentially confusing area in Cinema is trying to animate the child of an object such as the Array. In this case, if you select your model (such as the cube) and animate its Coordinates, nothing happens. For a child to be able to animate in its own world apart from the parent, insert a Null Object between them. Click on the Array icon until the popup menu appears, and select the icon that looks like a set of 3D axes with a 0 hovering over it. Drag this Null Object to be a child of the Array, and then drag your 3D model to be a child of the Null Object.

You can create fun animations in Cinema using just Array and primitive shapes. Remember that many primitives allow their own parameters to be animated. Figure 4 shows one such idea where we animated a source torus, and then animated copies of it using Array.

After this column was originally written, Maxon released their awesome MoGraph module for Cinema 4D. Go here and check it out - you won’t be disappointed…

Go Forth, and Multiply

We hope the past two columns have given you some ideas of how you can use various tools in After Effects, Motion, and Cinema 4D to create complex, coordinated animations with far less work than may have been obvious.

The content contained in our books, videos, blogs, and articles for other sites are all copyright Crish Design, except where otherwise attributed.

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