Using Xpresso to Create an Animated Arrow Tutorial
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Total Running Time: 17:59
In this video tutorial, you’ll learn how to make an arrow head that follows an animated sweep nurb in a reliable fashion. You’ll be exposed to some Xpresso showing you how to connect objects using Cinema 4D’s powerful node based programming.
17,010 views
Thanx Tim, this is a really a good tutorial for me, since I’m really new to Xpresso …
I love its mathematical & logic approach, and this way to keep things tied together.
Node tools are really magic to use !
Two questions if I may :
- when you subtract 30% from the end growth to the start growth, why at the beginning (when the end growth is 0%) Xpresso doesn’t affect a negative value to the start growth ? I mean : does the node manage the up and down limit values by itself (don’t have to tell the limit is 0 to 100%) ?
- when we set up a valuable Xpresso calculation with many parameters, that can be useful in some others projects, is there any way to keep it as a “template” and reuse it quickly ?
Can’t wait to see part 2.
Greetings from France.
Hey – so the reason it won’t go negative is because the end growth and start growth can’t actually BE negative…so since those properties can’t be negative, Xpresso respects that and can’t go below their normal settings. As for the xpresso window being able to be saved, the answer is yes…stay tuned for part 2!
Thanks again for watching!
Tim
why is the tut stops half way?i keep get the same thing with all the tutorial vids?
any idea why is happening to me?do i need to member or something?
You do not have to be a member…tutorials are free. We have checked and rechecked the tutorials on several connections and they are working fine. Could be your internet connection or something with your browser. What browser are you using and what type of internet connection do you have?
Over 600 people a day are able to watch the tutorials, so I can’t imagine there is any kind of problem with our servers….but let me know what you are using to watch them. Thanks.
Very helpfull tutorial for me, great!
I just ran into a problem while using rectangular shapes.
What i’d like to know is, when you’re using a rectangular arrow instead of the rounded one used in this tutorial, how can i adjust it so the triangle will bank when the sweep nurb is moving along all three axis.
Hope you know what i mean.
Thanks!
hello from rome….
till now your tuts are the most useful i ever see on internet….keep on the good job…
also to me the tutorial stop in the midle…..so…600 people see it…and 2 no….
can i have a litle help please ?…
nikos…………………
ps….sorry for my poor english :)
I don’t know how to help when we have run it on multiple computers with different internet connections and haven’t had a problem at all. The only thing I can suggest is to make sure your Flash player has the latest update, and that your browser is up to date as well. What browser are you using? What kind of computer, how much RAM, what video card do you have installed, does the video card have the latest drivers installed? All of these things can be factors….but again, kind of like a car mechanic, if we can’t duplicate the problem, we can’t fix it.
Hey Tim
Thanks for the new tut. I just wanna say the player and website is working perfect, don’t bother.
I tried it on pc, mac, with all the browser: ie, firefox, safari, chrome.
Thanks again
Magix
Thanks…good to know. Everything works fine on our machines.. so it’s good to know someone else is having the same luck.
So, when the part 2 will be online ???
It’s based on two factors really:
1) My teaching schedule…which has been insane but should be easing up soon.
and 2) the pending birth of my son in May
Both of which have been keeping me very busy…I have a bunch of tutorials I’d like to get done…so they ARE coming. It’s just a matter of timing at this point.
Hi Tim, if you convert the spline to Uniform with about 30 steps, the arrow keeps perfectly aligned. No need to use XPresso.
But I lerned something about Xpresso. Thanks
Hi, Great tut, just one question
When it comes to having the cone point forward as it moves along the spline, I don’t get the logic behind the vector to matrix and matrix to HPB nodes. Isn’t it basically converting the data from a vector to a matrix and matrix back into a vector?
I just need some guidance on how those nodes work
thankyou!
Wow this was massively helpful – an introduction to Xpresso for me too, inspired to get my head round it and use it some more in the future.
Going to have a look round the site now! Thanks again!
Hi Tim,
Many thanks for this tutorial. I followed everything you outlined but the 2nd part (Sweep Nurb — Math: Subtract — Sweeb Nurb) doesn’t work for me. My spline doesn’t animate. Pls help!
Hey Shawn – can you send me your file? Info@c4dtraining.com
Hey Tim,
I am using version R12 on a Mac…and when you went to create the New Node so that you can connect an instance with a vector…I can NOT for the life of me figure out what modifier keys to hit to create a New Node…please help.
Thanks so much
Greg
Hey Tim,
Great tutorial, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us. I was wondering if you could help me with a couple questions I have? I can’t seem to keep the end of the sweep nurbs scaled small throughout the animation; once the start growth kicks on it ignores the scaling. My other question has to do with time offset when added to a Cloner object. I can use a random effector to play with scale and position but when I try to offset the timing of the clones, the head shape gets separated. Maybe I need to add something to the xpresso?
Thanks for all you help!
Steve