Using Weight Transform in Cinema 4D to Control Your Effectors

I was working on a short video for my reel and I was having troubles getting my Cloner Object to interact with the Plain Effector the way I wanted it to. I had the Plain Effector rotating the objects and shooting them into Z space. I would then pull down the strength to animate them back into place. The problem was, all of the objects shot back into place at the same time. I wanted to stagger the clones and I tried to use a Random Effector to change this but I couldn't get it to work.

Then I remembered reading about Weight Transform. I'm sure you've looked it at. Played with the slider and when it didn't do anything, you went onto something else.



Well, Weight Transform on it's own, doesn't do anything. It needs a brother (or sister) to play with, or something that can use the Weight. And that can be a little confusing so let me just show you. This is a grid of cubes, cloned.



Now, let's add two Plain Effectors, one with 45 degrees of Rotation and one with 50 units in Y Position applied.



With both effectors on, we can see the effects it has on the clones. But now, let's turn them off. That was just a reference for you to look back at as we get into Weight Transform. Next, we'll apply a Step Effector with all of the Transform options turned off and we'll crank up the Weight.



That's right. Nothing's happening. That we can see. But if we look under the hood and change the display options, we can see what the Step Effector is really doing. To do this, go to the Transform tab on the cloner and under the display mode, change the drop down menu to Weight. Now look at what's happening.



So what does this mean? It means that the Step Effector is using the Step mode to apply weight to each clone. It increases from one corner to the other, applying a value to each clone. Now, let's apply this value to the Plain Effector that is affecting the position of the clones. Enable the Plain Effector. The Clones jump right up. Now, in the Falloff Tab of the Plain Effector, there is a slider for Weight. As we slide it to 0, the clones drop to the ground as if we were using a Step Effector. But the Step Effector isn't using the position values at all, just the weight.

Cinema 4D Weight Transform for Postion from Jordan Montreuil on Vimeo.

In the video, we see the effect that the Step Effector's Weight has on the Plain Position Effector. Now let's do the same to the Rotation Plain Effector.

Rotation Weight Demonstration for Cinema 4D from Jordan Montreuil on Vimeo.

The Weight from the Step Effector is applied to each Plain Effector. Now, this type of animation would be entirely possible using just the Step Effector on the Clones but using Weight has so many more possibilities. Not only the Step Effector can apply Weight to objects, you can even use the Random Effector.



This is the same grid of cubes as before. But notice how instead of the gradiated color of dots on the clones, we have a smattering of colors? This is the randomness from the Random Effector. The same principles apply as the Step Effector. Turn on the Rotation Effector and play with the Weight Slider in the Falloff tab.

Random Weighted Rotation Demonstation Cinema 4D from Jordan Montreuil on Vimeo.

You'll notice that the Weight was applied even when the Weight slider was at 100% in the Falloff tab. In fact, the weight didn't go away until the slider read 200%. I believe this is because the slider computes the amount by subtracting the Weight amount from the Random effector from the amount in the Falloff tab. So with the Random effector providing 100%, you need 200% in the Falloff tab to override the Random Effector. If you had 50% weight in the Random Effector, then you would only need 150% in the Falloff tab of the Plain effector. Why? I don't know. Ask Maxon.

Now let's use Weight with the Position Effector.

Random Position Weight Effector Cinema 4D from Jordan Montreuil on Vimeo.

Adjusting the slider in the Falloff tab of the Position Plain effector changes how much the Position is affected by the Weight.

So, to sum it up. You can use Weight to affect your Effectors. Now, this isn't a whiz bang technique that you can just drop into your reel to wow your friends. This is a simple yet powerful workflow tip that change the way you animate and ultimately save time on your work. And when you save time, it gives you more chances to tweak your work while that deadline looms.

Now, I am just barely scratching the surface, I'm sure you can come up with something cooler than I demonstrated with. Post your results in the comments and show them off. Of course, if you have any questions or comments, please ask.

Comments

[Genie]

You might want to add that you should place the step effector before the plain effector in the effectors tab of the cloner object.
Otherwise nothing will happen.

[Jeff]

Thanks for the time and effort you put into this tutorial. I helped me better understand this guys tutorila here vimeo.com/35430285

[Wes]

Holy crap, you just blew my mind! Thanks so much for the help and keep up the good work!