The hair module is a really powerful generator. You could easily generate hair, grass, etc and create very realistic behaviors. Like I was saying this is just a quick look at how to setup a scene with MoGraph rigid bodies falling into hair. The MoGraph bodies will interact with the hair.

I will also take a look at a cool utility called Clone Info Hierarchy, this will allow you to attach null objects to different MoGraph Instances. For example if you have a cloner object with 15 spheres, you could quickly create 15 nulls that follow each instance exactly. These nulls can then be exported into an external compositing tool, like after effects, which can then be use to track items with your cloners or maybe attach a particle emitter. In the tutorial I mention color correction on an object but really that isn’t very practical, using object buffer would be much more useful for that. Regardless there are all sorts of possibilities for using nulls.

So if your interested in dynamics and hair interactions then definitely check out this tutorial. Thanks a lot for stopping by and we hope you find this useful!

Watch the Tutorial: Cinema 4D – MoGraph Physics and Hair Interaction

Now into why you are here, Global Illumination or GI. GI is consider an effect in a C4D render but it really is a dramatic one. The quality of lighting, reflection and overall look of an image can be made by using this and some basic understanding of materials and lights. The downside to GI is render times. A normal render time in C4D can quickly blow up when adding GI, and the more lights,, materials, reflections, etc you have the crazier those times will get.

So this tutorial is more of an exploration for me as I have been messing with GI for a while now and looking for efficiencies on render times. I had always seen the Irradiance Cache File tab, but never really explored what it was doing, or in this case not doing.  In the following tutorial you will see how to use the IR cache file as I understand it and hopefully it will spee dup some renders and give you a better understanding of how it all works.

if your interest in Global Illumination from a technical overview check out this post on Greyscale Gorilla – The Science of Global Illumination where you will find a link to an awesome article breaking down everything you would want to know about GI. There is also information on what properties can be changed without having to recreate your IR cache file, so you can get an idea of the limitations that come into play when using it. For those who want to be lazy here is a quote from Michael Vance’s Gi Tutorial

” A saved cache is a wonderful thing. Once saved, provided you haven’t changed the scene, and once the Auto Load setting is activated, you can rerender with different AA settings, different multipass settings, different resolutions, zoomed in, and in some cases even different materials, all without having to wait again for the cache to rerender. If you leave the cache lock setting unchecked, even different camera angles can be rendered and only records for areas not seen in previous cache renders will be added to the existing cache, saving a great deal of time, …”

Alright, well I hope this tutorial is helpful, and those who are more advanced in C4D if I have made a horrible mistake please let me know. I would love to know more about the cache file and the proper way to utilize it! And make sure To Check out Greyscale Gorilla and Pariah Studios for some awesome tutorials and information!

Watch the Tutorial: Cinema 4D – Irradiance Cache File

Info : Global Illumination IR Cache Test Results

Update :: Well ask and you shall receive! Response video from Nick and Rob on GI Cache files, they give a great explanation of all the check boxes and exactly what they do! Check it out and Speed up your projects at Greyscale Gorilla – A Quick Guide on Irradiance Cache Settings in Cinema 4D

The obvious leader is FDT from Powerflasher, who has an eclipse based solution that is well tied to the Flash IDE and the mxmlc compiler. Having used Flex builder for a while now I felt pretty comfy in this environment. the problem is I don’t like eclipse. the program itself is made to accomplish so much and I see this as its advantage and its downfall. it has always felt a bit bloated to me, and I have had slowdowns and simple problem with just color schemes I would like to use.

So with that I started to look at easier solutions. TextMate has always been a big favorite of mine for editing all sorts of documents. From PHP, HTML and CSS, and now to ActionScript I have found TextMate to be lightweight and simple, yet powerful. So I started a hunt for a bundle to help do As3 Development. that’s when I cam across a Blog post by Simon Gregory which included his Actionscript 3 and Flex Bundles which have since then been placed up on github.I ended up forking this project and started to work on some variations of my own. Nothing too amazing, just simple things I was use to in FlashDevelop, now I could accomplish in TextMate.

To make this easier I decided to do a Video Tutorial on getting everything setup. I apologize in advance as I have been sick and still decided to record this thing, so if there is some sneezing and stuffy nose madness, well I am sorry. Either way, the following is a link to the tutorial and all the assets I used. I really hope this is helpful for people getting started in Actionscript programming, and stay tuned for more on why I see Actionscript and Flash in general starting to push its way into Film, Motion Graphics and Television!.

Watch Tutorial : TextMate for Actionscript 3 Tutorial

Links

• TextMate
• My Github TextMate Bundle
• Flex SDK Download
• Original (Simon Gregory) TextMate Bundle