User manual PYROCLUSTER CINEMA 4D 9

[. . . ] PyroCluster PyroCluster Programming Team Christian Losch, Philip Losch, Richard Kurz, Tilo Kühn, Thomas Kunert, David O'Reilly, Cathleen Poppe. Plugin Programming Sven Behne, Wilfried Behne, Michael Breitzke, Kiril Dinev, Per-Anders Edwards, David Farmer, Jamie Halmick, Richard Hintzenstern, Jan Eric Hoffmann, Eduardo Olivares, Nina Ivanova, Markus Jakubietz, Eric Sommerlade, Hendrik Steffen, Jens Uhlig, Michael Welter, Thomas Zeier. Writers Paul Babb, Rick Barrett, Oliver Becker, Jens Bosse, Chris Broeske, Chris Debski, Glenn Frey, Michael Giebel, Jason Goldsmith, Jörn Gollob, Sven Hauth, Josiah Hultgren, Arndt von Königsmarck, David Link, Arno Löwecke, Aaron Matthew, Josh Miller, Matthew `Mash' O'Neill, Janine Pauke, Marcus Spranger, Luke Stacy, Perry Stacy, Marco Tillmann, Jeff Walker, Scot Wardlaw. Layout Oliver Becker, Harald Egel, Michael Giebel, David Link, Luke Stacy, Jeff Walker. [. . . ] The following results would be rendered for a Color Mix gradient that started at white, turned gray in the middle and ended at black. As the particle ages, dark yellow is mixed in, allowing the yellow core to show through. The particle is also becoming more transparent as it dies out because of the Alpha set on the Age page. The Color gradient on the Globals page, set up to give each particle a yellow core, spreading out to red and then blue at its edges; the gradient has three knots (yellow, red, blue from left to right). No Age effect has yet been added. PYROCLUSTER REFERENCE 21 Mix in some red, turning to green over time, with mixing mainly happening towards the end of the particle's life. The Age page's Color gradient has two knots (red at the left, green at the right) and the Color Mix gradient goes from white to black. Finally, add some transparency as the particle dies by defining, on the Age page, an alpha gradient for the Color that goes from white to black. Enable Edit Alpha to edit the alpha gradient. 22 REFERENCE PYROCLUSTER Settings for the PyroCluster Shader You create a PyroCluster shader in the Material manager. You can edit the shaders settings in the Attribute manager or in the Material Editor. You can use all of PyroCluster's effects together. Depending on the settings, for example, the Distance effects may carry more weight than the Age effects. Keep in mind that some parameters also affect the fractal look of the rendered atmospheric effect. Always be prepared to experiment! PyroCluster is controlled almost entirely via its property pages in the CINEMA 4D Attribute manager or Material Editor. From these you can define a shape for your PyroCluster particles, choose the type of effect (such as gaseous or fire), determine the render mode, change effects over the lifetime of the particles and much more. Here you'll find many parameters that interact with one another to produce the final effect. A floating Preview window enables you to tweak any parameter and see a preview of its effect immediately (see `Preview' below). The pages in the Attribute manager for the PyroCluster shader. Basic Properties page On this page you can rename the material. Globals page The settings on the Globals page control general parameters which describe the basic properties of a PyroCluster shader. This page contains general settings for the selected PyroCluster shader. On The On/Off switch is especially useful when you are fine-tuning a scene. It allows you to turn the PyroCluster shader on and off for the selected material. PYROCLUSTER REFERENCE 23 Render Mode By using PyroCluster as a post effect (VideoPost) you can often cut render times dramatically. When VideoPost is selected, a simplified rendering process is used, which among other things handles fractals differently. This means that you will get a different result when using VideoPost than you would with Atmospheric mode. For better and faster results with VideoPost, turn off particle shadows using the relevant options on the Shadow page. If you leave particle shadows on, there may be little or no increase in render speed. Note that, in general, VideoPost rendering is faster only if you are using a large number of particles. The limitations of the VideoPost mode are that fractals look different, particles cannot be seen in reflections or behind transparent objects and Flat Radius mode is always used, regardless of the Gradient Mode selected. Preview Some examples of using the PyroCluster preview, illustrating the use of the background option and the age slider. Changes to settings will be shown instantly in the preview, which uses shadow casting lights to represent the effects as accurately as possible. Once you are familiar with PyroCluster you'll find that it is not always easy to predict how the various options will affect the final result. [. . . ] While we have used VideoPost rendering here for speed, you should be aware that Atmospheric mode won't just produce higher quality and slower results, it will also produce very different results. PYROCLUSTER TUTORIALS 61 Keyframe Animation The vast majority of a PyroCluster material's parameters can be animated using keyframes in exactly the same way as regular CINEMA 4D objects and materials. Keyframe animation is the cornerstone of animation in CINEMA 4D. Just like any normal CINEMA 4D object or material, we can animate PyroCluster puffs and their parameters quickly and easily by recording keyframes. Here we will learn how to animate a single parameter (Radius) using keyframes. Complex animations can be achieved by combining the animation of lots of different parameters. [. . . ]