MOCCA 2
I MOCCA Programming Team Copyright © 1989-2006 by MAXON Computer GmbH. All rights reserved. English translation Copyright © 1989-2006 by MAXON Computer Ltd. All rights reserved. This manual and the accompanying software are copyright protected. No part of this document may be translated, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of MAXON Computer.
II CINEMA 4D – Mocca Manual MAXON Computer End User License Agreement NOTICE TO USER WITH THE INSTALLATION OF MOCCA (THE “SOFTWARE”) A CONTRACT IS CONCLUDED BETWEEN YOU (“YOU” OR THE “USER”) AND MAXON COMPUTER GMBH ( THE “LICENSOR”), A COMPANY UNDER GERMAN LAW WITH RESIDENCE IN FRIEDRICHSDORF, GERMANY. WHEREAS BY USING AND/OR INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE YOU ACCEPT ALL THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IN THE CASE OF NON-ACCEPTANCE OF THIS LICENSE YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO INSTALL THE SOFTWARE.
III 4. Transfer (1) You may not rent, lease, sublicense or lend the Software or documentation.
IV CINEMA 4D – Mocca Manual which the date of the purchase according to the invoice is decisive). The Licensor is free to cure the defects by free repair or provision of a faultless update. (2) The Licensor and its suppliers do not and cannot warrant the performance and the results you may obtain by using the Software or documentation. The foregoing states the sole and exclusive remedies for the Licensor’s or its suppliers’ breach of warranty, except for the foregoing limited warranty.
V 12. Other (1) This contract includes all rights and obligations of the parties. There are no other agreements. Any changes or alterations of this agreement have to be performed in writing with reference to this agreement and have to be signed by both contracting parties. This also applies to the agreement on abolition of the written form. (2) This agreement is governed by German law. Place of jurisdiction is the competent court in Frankfurt am Main.
VI CINEMA 4D – Mocca Manual Contents Introduction ..........................................................................................................1 Motion Blending.................................................................................................................................... 1 Hard IK................................................................................................................................................... 1 IK FK Blending...............................
VII Bone Tool ............................................................................................................ 32 Selecting and Deselecting the Bone Tool ....................................................................................... 32 Attribute Manager Settings................................................................................................................. 33 Add Bone ......................................................................................................
VIII CINEMA 4D – Mocca Manual Prefix............................................................................................................................................... 40 Replace ... With............................................................................................................................... 40 Clone Tags....................................................................................................................................... 40 Mirror Constraints ............
IX KeyReducer Tool..................................................................................................62 KeyReducer Dialog Settings................................................................................................................. 62 Reduction ....................................................................................................................................... 62 Boost...............................................................................................
X CINEMA 4D – Mocca Manual Quaternion Tag ...................................................................................................82 Attribute Manager Settings................................................................................................................. 83 Interpolation................................................................................................................................... 83 So when should you use Quaternion tags? ...................................
XI Target............................................................................................................................................ 103 Neutral.......................................................................................................................................... 103 Use Hierarchy Instead Of Names .................................................................................................. 103 Cloth NURBS.............................................................
XII CINEMA 4D – Mocca Manual Wind Turbulence Strength .............................................................................................................117 Wind Turbulence Speed .................................................................................................................118 Wind Drag......................................................................................................................................118 Wind Impact .............................................
XIII Index.................................................................................................................. 142 MOCCA Global Intersection Analysis ......................................................................................................... 131 Include .......................................................................................................................................... 131 Collider Tag........................................................................
MOCCA INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction You can easily animate any character from a comic book superhero to a squirrel juggling burning nuts using MOCCA’s powerful yet simple to understand tools. Character animation — a constant in the world of 3D and the ultimate discipline. MOCCA‘s initial release was the first complete CINEMA 4D module developed solely to address the wants and needs of character animators.
1 MOCCA Layout and Palette
MOCCA MOCCA LAYOUT AND PALETTE 3 MOCCA
4 MOCCA LAYOUT AND PALETTE MOCCA MOCCA Layout and Palette Although you can access all of MOCCA’s commands from menus, you may find it quicker to use the MOCCA palette and MOCCA layout. Reach MOCCA commands quickly and save time using the predefined MOCCA layout and MOCCA palette. The MOCCA palette is integrated automatically into the MOCCA layout.
MOCCA MOCCA LAYOUT AND PALETTE 5 MOCCA
2 Introduction to IK
MOCCA INTRODUCTION TO IK 7 MOCCA
8 INTRODUCTION TO IK MOCCA Introduction to IK MOCCA and Soft IK offer a completely new approach for animating characters. Almost all possible movements are handled via soft constraints. These enable you to go beyond the world of strict constraints. You have probably heard the term Inverse Kinematics (IK) before; it has become quite a buzzword in the 3D world, particularly when it comes to character animation.
MOCCA INTRODUCTION TO IK 9 MOCCA IK offers a completely new approach. Almost all possible movements are handled via constraints. Imagine a constraint as a force that always tries to find an equilibrium with other such constraints, just like an array of magnets that levitate a metal sphere within their common magnetic fields. The following example of earlier IK systems is familiar. You drag a bone target object from one position to the next and the IK chain practically jumps into place.
3 MOCCA IK Tag
MOCCA MOCCA IK TAG 11 MOCCA
12 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA MOCCA IK Tag MOCCA IK tags add a great deal of control to your bone setup. In these pages you’ll find a description of each setting in the MOCCA IK tag The MOCCA IK tag helps make CINEMA 4D’s standard bones more powerful. Once the tag has been assigned you can make full use of MOCCA for optimal control over your bones. You can assign the MOCCA IK tag by clicking on the object with the right mouse button in the object manager.
MOCCA MOCCA IK TAG 13 Attribute Manager Settings Tag Properties This option activates or deactivates IK for the bone chain. This option can be found within every MOCCA IK tag in the IK chain. Note that the entire chain is linked to this command. Turning it off for one tag will deactivate it for the entire chain. The same applies to turning it on again. Anchor An anchor is the root of any given chain. A classic anchor in a 3D character would be the hips.
14 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA Strength This option is only available when Anchor is enabled. This parameter modifies the strength with which the skeleton will be held together. It affects all movements and a high value results in precise, but harder animation. You’ll quickly notice how, as the strength increases, the distances between each bone in a stretched chain become smaller. High values will take additional time to calculate, though. Dynamics This option is only available when Anchor is enabled.
MOCCA MOCCA IK TAG 15 Gravity This option is only available when Anchor is enabled. This parameter defines the strength of gravity that acts upon the bones. Higher values result in a stronger bending of the chain on the Y-axis, downwards. Here again, small characters might require lower values than large, heavy ones. Inertia This option is only available when Anchor is enabled. Inertia controls how much of a root bone’s movement is translated into torque for its children.
16 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA IK <-> FK One of MOCCA’s most powerful new features is the ability to seamlessly switch between IK and FK animation. Until recently you had to base the way you animated your character on how its rigging had been set up. The respective situation will dictate whether you move a leg by positioning the foot using IK or simply rotate the shinbone using FK.
MOCCA MOCCA IK TAG 17 MOCCA can now move the control objects with your FK rotations. You can use the Display In Editor option to control the display of visual aids in the viewport. For example, this allows you to have the connection between the first and last element in an IK chain displayed as a thin line. If you don’t want these visual aids to be displayed, disable the option. Constraint The Constraint settings allow you to control the bone chain with other objects in the scene.
18 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA Goal Drag an object from the Object manager into this box. This object will then serve as a goal constraint. You can remove an object from this box by clicking the small triangle next to it and choosing Clear from the drop-down list that appears. Add buttons These buttons allow you to add a root goal or up vector. Strength Imagine setting the ‘muscular’ force at which the constraint pulls on the bone.
MOCCA MOCCA IK TAG 19 Distance The behavior of the Distance setting depends on the Chop Sticks setting. If Chop Sticks is enabled, this parameter sets the length of the chopsticks (see below). If Chop Sticks is disabled, it defines the distance between the tip effector and tip goal constraint within the bone chain. Chop Sticks This setting, when enabled, allows you to move your character as if the joints were connected to sticks, like shadow puppets.
20 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA There are cases in which the chain may have various alternative ways of conforming to all the constraints. Take a leg, for example, consisting of an upper and lower thigh. The upper thigh is parented to a root bone and the lower thigh has a tip effector, which is linked to a goal constraint. If you move the goal constraint, the chain has no clear way of knowing how the angles behave between root and effector. On longer chains this can sometimes cause chaotic twisting of the IK chain.
MOCCA MOCCA IK TAG 21 Show Limits Enable this option to switch on the display of position and rotation limits in the viewport. Show Limits disabled. Strength This defines the strength of the position (X, Y, Z) or rotation (H, P, B) limits. Be careful about using too high a Strength value, especially for a rotation limit. If you’re using rotation limits on all bones, the limits might start working against each other, causing the chain to twitch wildly.
22 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA Position limits give the bones boundaries that bind them with a given strength. The Min and Max settings enable you to define a point, area or space that is displayed as yellow lines in and around the bone. If you enable the X limits and set a Min value of -50 and a Max value of +50, you will notice a yellow line extending from both sides of the bone parent. If you want to define an area you will have to use an additional axis (Y or Z).
MOCCA Rotation Limit Settings (H, P, B) A bone chain, set up with heading rotation limits and Up Vectors. MOCCA Using position limits, you can construct the chain with an offset between the bones.
24 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA This option enables you to confine the freedom of rotation of the joints in the chain. The Min and Max entry fields next to R.H, R.P, R.B define the rotation limits for heading, pitch and bank. This is where you define the angles within which the bones can move freely. In the viewport, the limits are represented as pie sections, in red, green and blue respectively. The limits will only be active when they are enabled by checking the relevant boxes.
MOCCA MOCCA IK TAG 25 Force Position disabled. The bones are stretched apart as they try to reach the tip effector. Reset To Rest State Strength, Pos X, Pos Y, Pos Z, Set These values define the initial rest position for the IK chain. You can set them by moving the chain into the position you want and pressing Set or the Set Chain Rest Position icon on the MOCCA palette. The Strength setting regulates the strength at which the rest position will interact with other forces.
26 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA MOCCA IK Commands These commands help you to create MOCCA IK chains and fully automate your setup. When setting up a Soft IK chain, you’ll need to use the MOCCA IK commands. Using these you can add anchors, goals and more and save time with the Setup IK Chain tool, which fully automates the Soft IK setup for simple bone chains. You’ll find these commands on the Plugins > MOCCA sub-menu as well as on the MOCCA palette.
MOCCA MOCCA IK TAG 27 Add Up Vector By selecting this, an Up Vector will be added to the selected bone, constraining its Y-axis orientation towards a control object placed above it. This object will adopt the name of the bone along with the suffix ‘Up’. Adding this to the bone called ‘Upper thigh’, for example, would result in an Up Vector control object with the name ‘Upper thigh.Up’.
28 MOCCA IK TAG MOCCA
MOCCA MOCCA IK TAG 29 MOCCA
4 Bone Tool
MOCCA BONE TOOL 31 MOCCA
32 BONE TOOL MOCCA Bone Tool With the bone tool, you can create and adjust bone chains quickly and easily, using a variety of tools. The bone tool is the tool of choice for preparing your virtual characters for that big Hollywood role. MOCCA was given an extra tool to let you put together your 3D star’s skeleton quickly and intuitively and easily position them in your scene. If you make a change to a bone, changes to its dependent bones will be made accordingly.
BONE TOOL 33 MOCCA As soon as you switch from the bone tool to another tool such as rotate the bones will be reactivated automatically and the mesh will be influenced by the bones once again. The Use Animation and Use Expressions options will also be activated again. If you’ve edited the bones or recorded keys for them before using the bone tool then, when you switch from the bone tool to another tool, the bones will jump back to the positions and rotations they had at the time you selected the bone tool.
34 BONE TOOL MOCCA Continuously using this command will add a new child bone for every press of the button, quickly creating an entire chain. You can also add child bones by Ctrl-clicking in the viewport, in which case a new bone is added to the chain between the tip of the last bone and the position of the mouse pointer. If you look closely, you’ll notice a yellow dot at the origin of each bone. These are handles. Drag them to scale and rotate the bones interactively in the viewport.
MOCCA BONE TOOL 35 Add Null Bone Use this setting to add a Null Bone to the tip of an existing bone. It will be added as a child object of the selected bone. Fix Bones Has the same function as “Fix Bones” in the Bone dialog. Reset Bones Resets bones to their fixed state. Unfixed bones will be reset to the state they had before the Bone Tool was activated.
5 Bone Mirror Tool
MOCCA BONE MIRROR TOOL 37 MOCCA
38 BONE MIRROR TOOL MOCCA Bone Mirror With this tool you can mirror individual bones and entire chains including tags, Claude Bonet maps and much more. The bone mirror tool is a powerful accessory that can speed up your work with bones by mirroring not only the bones but also tags, constraints, selections and more. To select the bone mirror tool, choose Plugins > MOCCA > Bone Mirror or select the Bone Mirror icon from the MOCCA palette.
BONE MIRROR TOOL 39 MOCCA Attribute Manager Settings Plane Origin The Origin setting defines a point through which the Plane should pass, thus defining the mirror’s position. Choose one of the following settings. Selected This will mirror the selected bone with the mirror plane passing through its object axis. The rotation of the axis will be ignored, since the bone mirror tool always mirrors parallel to the plane that you have chosen.
40 BONE MIRROR TOOL MOCCA Auto Find Center, Match Search The Auto Find Center option is designed to help you mirror Claude Bonet maps, point and polygon selections, as well as vertex maps. Imagine having built a character and set up half of it with bones. You might also have set the range of influence of some of the bones with the Claude Bonet tool. Naturally, you’ll want the bone mirror tool to copy those weights properly to the other side, too.
BONE MIRROR TOOL 41 MOCCA Mirror Constraints If this option is enabled, existing Restriction tags and the constraints defined in the Attribute manager will be mirrored as well. These restrictions are used to control which part of the body the bone may deform. Even combined vertex maps with parented polygon models can be mirrored, despite the fact that the vertex map is not assigned to the bone but to the Polygon object above it. The only necessary condition is that the Mirror Influences option is enabled.
6 Claude Bonet Tool
MOCCA CLAUDE BONET TOOL 43 MOCCA
44 CLAUDE BONET TOOL MOCCA Claude Bonet Tool The process of weighting bones is quick and easy with this tool. It enables you to set influences and assign them to bones at the same time. The Claude Bonet tool takes its name from the word ‘bone’ and from the name of the leading exponent of impressionism, Claude Monet. Before we explain what the Claude Bonet tool does, some explanation of bone weighting is in order. Bones are deformers.
MOCCA CLAUDE BONET TOOL 45 Attribute Manager Settings MOCCA In the Attribute manager, you’ll find all the commands and options that are needed to weight the bones. Only Modify Visible Elements If this option is enabled, you can paint visible elements only. Invisible elements are ignored. Display All Bones When enabled, this option will display the influences of all bones on the geometry in the selected chain. What you’ll see is the color display of the existing Claude Bonet weighting range.
46 CLAUDE BONET TOOL MOCCA Paint Absolute The links between the bones and the individual points in the mesh will be saved by Claude Bonet as weighting information within the points themselves. Normally, if you paint weighting with a strength of 20%, for example, each brush stroke will add another 20% to the area. By holding down the Ctrl key while you paint, you can erase the weights. Paint Absolute will disable the above behavior. You’ll then paint with the absolute Strength value only.
MOCCA CLAUDE BONET TOOL 47 It’s not absolutely necessary to assign all joints of a bone chain a separate weighting for the mesh. Particularly in areas where a lot of bones control a small section, such as hands, it may be easier to simply apply the same Claude Bonet weights to all fingers. In this case, you can set a reference weight for the first finger and reuse it for the following fingers. This is precisely what Set Reference is implemented for. Select a bone and click this button.
48 CLAUDE BONET TOOL MOCCA Remove Paint (Hierarchy) Removes the weighting of the selected bone hierarchy, from the active bone down to the last bone of the chain. If you have to completely rebuild and re-weight a character’s arm, for example, it can make sense to keep the bones and simply reapply the weighting to all. Remove Paint (Scene) Removes all weighting for the entire scene.
MOCCA CLAUDE BONET TOOL 49 Examples The difference between using smart bones and normal bones becomes clear when you take a look at the following examples. For these examples no Claude Bonet maps were used in order to make the differences as clear as possible. As these examples suggest, you may need a different Claude Bonet weighting when using smart bones than you do when using normal bones.
50 CLAUDE BONET TOOL The deformation of a cuboid with few subdivisions in a HyperNURBS object via four bone objects (the polygonal cube was subdivided three times using the Knife Tool). Each bone was weighted using Claude Bonet, where the weighting overlaps the segments (right). The deformation of a cuboid with a few more subdivisions (especially at the joints) within a HyperNURBS object via four bones. Each bone was weighted using Claude Bonet, where the weighting overlaps the segments (right).
7 Cappuccino Tool
MOCCA CAPPUCCINO TOOL 53 MOCCA
54 CAPPUCCINO TOOL MOCCA Cappuccino Tool Cappuccino is MOCCA’s integrated motion capture tool. It enables you to create lifelike motion for your characters, from a head nodding in agreement to a gecko catching a fly with its tongue. With Cappuccino you can quickly create all kinds of realistic movements for your 3D characters and models, simply by recording mouse movements. Cappuccino is MOCCA’s integrated motion capture tool. Take an object, activate the function and drag it around the viewport.
MOCCA CAPPUCCINO TOOL 55 Action Window Here you will find the buttons for recording the keyframes in different ways. Single Keyframe This will record keys for the selected object(s) at the current Timeline position and according to the Where and What selections within the dialog. Simply select an object, or objects, and click Single Keyframe. Start Realtime This button prepares MOCCA for multiple-keyframe recording.
56 CAPPUCCINO TOOL MOCCA When pane Here you can define the time frame for the recording or choose to simply get going without being tied down to a specific time frame. Range, From, To Use this drop-down list to choose one of four different settings that limit the range of the recording. Document This option uses the project settings of CINEMA 4D (Edit > Project Settings), where you can set the frame rate (frames per second) as well as he total number of frames in the Timeline.
MOCCA CAPPUCCINO TOOL 57 Rewind Time This will rewind the time slider to its initial starting point once the recording has stopped. If you are not hapy with the results of the recording, or just want to practice the movements, you can press the Start Realtime button once more and overwrite the previously recorded animation, frame for frame. When you rewind and click Start Realtime again, existing keyframes will be overwritten, NOT deleted.
58 CAPPUCCINO TOOL MOCCA What Window The only remaining factor that Cappuccino needs to know is what to record, meaning what type of animation. Here you will find the following options: Position Lets you record the changes in position of an object, enable this option. Position tracks will be created in the Timeline. Scale Lets you record changes in an object’s scaling. Scale tracks will be created in the Timeline for the selected object. Rotation Lets you record an object’s rotation over time.
MOCCA CAPPUCCINO TOOL 59 Object Manager The object that is selected in the Object manager will be used for recording. Simultaneous recording of several objects is not possible here. Timeline The objects that are selected in the Timeline will be used for recording. Simultaneous recording of multiple objects is possible. In other words, selecting one or more separate objects in the Timeline will enable you to record the movements or deformations for all selected objects.
8 KeyReducer Tool
MOCCA KEYREDUCER TOOL 61 MOCCA
62 KEYREDUCER TOOL MOCCA KeyReducer Tool Motion captured tracks often have more keys than are necessary, making them difficult to edit. Using the KeyReducer tool, you can quickly reduce the number of keys without losing the ones that matter. KeyReducer is an invaluable tool when it comes to cleaning up motion capture tracks such as those created using MOCCA’s Cappuccino tool. Most motion capture systems write a key per frame to ensure that all important data is captured.
MOCCA KEYREDUCER TOOL 63 As soon as you release the slider it will jump back to 0%. If you’re not satisfied with the result, simply move the slider again or select Undo (Action) from the Edit menu. Boost If you reduce keys without the Boost option, you’ll still notice some unnecessary keys. These are mostly keys that fall between the ups and downs of a curve. The Boost option eliminates these keys while still maintaining the peaks and overall shape of the curve.
9 TimeWarp Tool
MOCCA TIMEWARP TOOL 65 MOCCA
66 TIMEWARP TOOL MOCCA TimeWarp Tool Using this tool, you can quickly find a specific frame in an animation. TimeWarp is your personal time machine. You might find it helpful to think of TimeWarp as a multiple frame jump dial on your VCR when you’re skipping through a film scene that might be hundreds of frames long. Normally, it is very difficult to find a specific frame in a scene but TimeWarp will do this for you, without you having to drag any sliders.
MOCCA TIMEWARP TOOL 67 MOCCA
10 PoseMixer Tag
MOCCA POSEMIXER TAG 69 MOCCA
70 POSEMIXER TAG MOCCA PoseMixer Tag You can easily morph objects from one shape to another using this tool. It is especially useful for animating a character’s mouth, where each mouth shape is a separate morph pose. A default pose for eyes open (left) and a pose for eyes shut (right) suitable for allowing you to quickly control the opening and closing of the eyes. The PoseMixer tag is a morphing tool. Simply put, morphing is the transition of one form to another.
MOCCA POSEMIXER TAG 71 PoseMixer offers you the advantage that you can move between poses smoothly and new in-between poses will be generated. The eyes should only open halfway? No problem! Simply move the slider to 50% and the eyes will be half-open. With the endless pose mixing possibilities you can create complex animation for faces in the “blink of an eye”. PoseMixer allows you to control objects, bones, splines and points.
72 POSEMIXER TAG MOCCA When using PoseMixer to mix autonomous states you can position it to basically any object without having to take the position of the other objects into consideration since it is not bound by hierarchies. For the sake of compatibility, though, the old PoseMixer object is still available in CINEMA 4D and will be used when loading older scenes that use the object. An automatic conversion to the PoseMixer tag is unfortunately not possible due to the tag’s new inner workings.
MOCCA POSEMIXER TAG 73 Scale If the objects you’ve assigned as poses are different scales, you can transfer these differences in Scale to the destination object by enabling this option. Note here that ‘scale’ refers to the scale values of the objects as displayed in the Coordinate Manager when the Coordinate Manager’s middle drop-down list is set to Scale.
11 P2P Library and Manager
MOCCA P2P LIBRARY AND MANAGER 75 MOCCA
76 P2P LIBRARY AND MANAGER MOCCA P2P Library and Manager Collect and manage poses for your animation with these useful tools. The abbreviation ‘P2P’ stands for ‘Pose to Pose’ and simply describes a process of animation that moves from one predefined pose to the next. The P2P library serves as the archive for these poses.
MOCCA P2P LIBRARY AND MANAGER 77 Record Record will place a key for the selected pose at the current position in the Timeline. This key will not be placed on the destination character’s track, but on the P2P library object’s Pose track.
78 P2P LIBRARY AND MANAGER MOCCA Attribute Manager Settings Key Properties Set the parameters for each key on a Pose track in this dialog. When you select a key on the Pose track of a P2P library object, you will see the following Key Properties in the Attribute manager. Name Here you can rename the pose, making it easier to document and organize your animation. Note that the naming of the pose in the P2P manager and the key in the Attribute manager do not have to match, nor will this break the link.
MOCCA P2P LIBRARY AND MANAGER 79 EasyEase creates a smooth in and out transition. When you loop a Pose track within a Timeline sequence, copies of the sequence will be placed one behind the other in the Timeline. This could lead to hard breaks between each sequence. Enabling the Smooth function will smooth out this transition and is similar to the Soft setting of the sequence interpolation.
12 Quaternion Tag
MOCCA QUATERNION TAG 81 MOCCA
82 QUATERNION TAG MOCCA Quaternion Tag The dreaded problem of gimbal lock becomes a thing of the past when you use this powerful tag. Surely you have already heard of the dreaded ‘gimbal lock’ in connection with character animation. Or worse, you’ve already experienced it. Now Quaternion has stepped up to the plate! CINEMA 4D uses Euler angles by default to interpolate the rotation of bones. The individual components of the Eular angles are interpolated independently of one another.
MOCCA QUATERNION TAG 83 To do this, you would record a key at frame 0 with the object in its starting rotation, move the time slider to the frame, rotate the object as desired and record another key. The rotation of the object at the start and end of the animation is shown in the images above. So far so good. Now let’s take a look at what happens to the path taken by the rotation animation if it is interpolated in the traditional way, i.e. using Euler angles.
84 QUATERNION TAG MOCCA The sphere prior to animation (left) and there sphere’s start and end angles for the rotation animation (right). In the images above, the left image shows the sphere with the red marker prior to animation. The right image shows the start and end angles — ‘A’ and ‘B’ respectively — for the sphere’s rotation. The following pictures demonstrate the paths taken by the sphere, where the distance between each red marker corresponds to five frames.
MOCCA QUATERNION TAG 85 These images show the path taken by the sphere with the two other types of interpolation. So when should you use Quaternion tags? When you are working with characters it makes sense to use Quaternion tags for all joints that probably won’t be rotated by more than 180 degrees around any axis between two keyframes. So typically, these are joints that in real life cannot be rotated through more than 180 degrees such as the knee.
13 Motion Blending
MOCCA MOTION BLENDING 87 MOCCA
88 MOTION BLENDING MOCCA Motion Blending MOCCA’s advanced motion blending allows you to easily combine multiple separate motions into one smooth, continuous action. Motion blending is the successor to the MoMix object from previous versions of MOCCA. Because Motion Blend is not an object but a Timeline function, it is much more flexible than the old MoMix object it has replaced. Motion Blend lets you animate a character’s various movements of independently of one another.
MOTION BLENDING 89 MOCCA Step 3 Select the destination object and choose Plugins > MOCCA > Setup Motion Blend Tracks. Three new tracks will be created in the Timeline: two for motion and one for the transition. Step 4 Add a sequence to each track. For each motion sequence, drag and drop the motion you want to assign to the sequence into the Motion box in the Attribute manager. The transition sequence will be assigned a linear curve automatically.
90 MOTION BLENDING MOCCA These tracks are created automatically when you choose Setup Motion Blend Tracks. Add a sequence to each of these tracks. The reason why the sequences are not created automatically is that by manually creating them yourself you can directly set them to the required positions and lengths. To create a sequence, right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) on the track and choose New Sequence. Use the dialog that opens to set the sequence to the desired position.
MOCCA MOTION BLENDING 91 You can set up the transition sequence in many different ways. The most popular methods are: The most popular set-ups for the transition sequence. Motion B In the Timeline, the usual convention when two sequences overlap is that the top-most one will overwrite the other one.
92 MOTION BLENDING MOCCA Attribute Manager Settings Motion Blend Properties The Attribute manager settings on the Motion Blend Properties tab of a selected motion sequence. Motion Drag and drop the object that contains the motion you want to assign to the motion sequence Into this box. Color The Color option lets you change the color of the transition displayed in the viewport and the text color of the sequence in the Timeline.
MOCCA MOTION BLENDING 93 The problem with a normal — i.e. non-additive — loop here is that when the character has reached the fourth step and the loop kicks in, her position will jump all the way back to where she was for her very first step. She’d keep walking four steps forwards and then jump all the way back to the start before walking the same four steps again. Not so with additive loops.
94 MOTION BLENDING MOCCA Naturally, it would be difficult to match the end of a walk animation with the beginning of an animation in which the character is sitting at a table eating dinner! It would be very difficult to find motions in these two animations that are very similar. Matching a walking animation to a running animation would, on the other hand, be within the realm of possibilities. Even so, chances are such a blend the transition will not be completely smooth.
MOCCA MOTION BLENDING 95 Rail In addition to defining a path along which a character should move (see above), you can also use a rail (a spline with two paths) to control several directions. This is useful when the character should not simply move over a surface but should also move up and down. A good example here is a character walking up and down a hill. One path defines the horizontal motion and the other defines the vertical motion.
96 MOTION BLENDING MOCCA Detail Properties The padlock icon defines which part of the character the Auto Match option should concentrate on. Padlock icons If the Auto Match option on the Motion Blending page is enabled, you can use the Treeview to choose which parts of the character Auto Match should concentrate on (called ‘weighting’) when searching for the most appropriate time in the animation to blend between motions.
MOTION BLENDING 97 MOCCA Transition Properties Automatic, Bias In, Bias Out, ... The Automatic option activates a linear transition. This is represented in the Timeline as a line in the transition sequence — see the left image below. MOCCA If Automatic is enabled, the transition will be linear (left). For non-linear transitions, such as the right example, disable the Automatic option.
98 MOTION BLENDING After using Auto Size. Before using Auto Size.
MOCCA MOTION BLENDING 99 MOCCA
14 Retarget Tag
MOCCA RETARGET TAG 101 MOCCA
102 RETARGET TAG MOCCA Retarget Tag With this powerful tag you can easily tranfer motion from one character to another. The Retarget Tag lets you assign animation data from one character to another even if the characters‘ proportions don’t match! You‘ve just animate a dwarf for your client and your client has changed his mind and wants a giant to be animated instead? No problem. Simply assign the dwarf’s animation to the giant! MOCCA does the re-proportioning for you thanks to the Retarget tag.
MOCCA RETARGET TAG 103 Attribute Manager Settings Source Target Drag and drop the object that should receive the motion (the target object) into this box . Only the highest object in the hierarchy must be dragged into this box — its child objects will be included in the transfer automatically. Neutral Into this box drag and drop the object that defines the neutral state.
15 Clothilde
MOCCA CLOTHILDE 105 MOCCA
106 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Cloth NURBS Cloth must be applied to a polygon object. Furthermore, how the polygon object is subdivided will play an important part in how well the cloth will animate when used with Clothilde. Cloth must be applied to a polygon object. For realistic cloth, cloth objects should ideally have as high a polygon count as possible. This will give the cloth engine more points to simulate cloth with and will lead to higher quality results.
MOCCA CLOTHILDE 107 The functionality of the Cloth NURBS object is the same as the HyperNURBS object. Place the cloth object as a child of the Cloth NURBS object and the cloth will be smoothed or more accurately subdivided. To disable the Cloth NURBS object just click the green check mark next to the object in the Object manager so it becomes a red ‘X’. This completely disables the Cloth NURBS object from smoothing its child object. Click the green check mark to disable the Cloth NURBS.
108 CLOTHILDE MOCCA The original cage object (left) and the cage smoothed with Subdivisions set to 2. The previous images show the original polygonal cage that has the Cloth Tag applied to it (left) and the same polygonal cage with a Cloth NURBS object applied to it using a Subdivision value of 2. The wrinkles and bulges of the cloth become more defined as the subdivision increases. Due to the nature of the Cloth NURBS algorithm, wrinkles in the surface become more apparent as the subdivision increases.
CLOTHILDE 109 MOCCA Limit disabled (top) and enabled (bottom). With the Limit option enabled, the subdivided surface will not pass through the control cage’s surface. The direction of the surface normals for the polygonal cage will determine if the Cloth NURBS is passing through the geometry. This is another property that separates Cloth NURBS from the HyperNURBS object. By increasing the Thickness setting, the Cloth NURBS object will generate a form of extrusion to make the cloth look thick.
110 CLOTHILDE MOCCA To add a Cloth Tag to an object: Select the object and in the Object manager, choose File > Clothilde Tags > Cloth. The object now has cloth-like properties. The cloth tag icon in the Object Manager is dynamic in the sense that it will change its appearance based on different settings made in the tag itself. For example, the icon for the tag will change once the simulation has been cached. This clearly identifies what’s going on with the cloth at any time.
MOCCA CLOTHILDE 111 The tag’s icon will also change its appearance when the Cloth Engine option in the Tag Properties tab is disabled. The gray cloth icon signals that the Cloth Engine option has been disabled. Attribute Manager Settings Basic Properties The only property found on this tab is the name of the tag. This setting defaults to ‘Cloth’, but it can be changed manually for project organizational purposes.
112 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Cloth Engine This option turns the cloth simulation on and off. With a checkmark placed in the checkbox for this field, the cloth engine is live. This turns on the engine, allowing for solutions to be solved for the cloth object. At many points, when applying clothes to an entire character, certain pieces of cloth don’t need to be simulated and can slow down the performance. For example: A jacket is being added to a character’s wardrobe.
MOCCA CLOTHILDE 113 Structural This will connect each point of the cloth object to its neighboring point with an imaginary spring. These points must share a common polygonal edge for a spring to be created. These springs are essentially the topology of the geometry that is being used. Shear This will also create imaginary springs based on the geometry that is being used. These springs will connect the points in a way that allows the cloth polygons to fold in any direction.
114 CLOTHILDE MOCCA A vertex map placed into this field defines how and where a Cloth object will behave as rubber. The following applies when a “Rubber” value of 50% is used: All points with an assigned weighting of 100% will have a”Rubber” value of 50%; all points with an assigned weighting of 50% will have a “Rubber” value of 25%. Bounce This parameter controls the amount of bounce for the cloth object. This value is taken into account during a collision with a Collider object.
MOCCA CLOTHILDE 115 This value will most likely be used during the dressing phase in order to better fit the clothing. A vertex map placed into this field allows the shrinking or expansion of individual areas of cloth, which lets you dress a figure more accurately. A value of 100% reflects the original size. An area with an assigned wighting of 50% would, logically, shrink by 50%. A vertex map can only assume a maximum value of 100%.
116 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Forces Tab Gravity Gravity is a force that pulls the cloth object in a certain direction. The Gravity parameter will always be calculated for the Yaxis and will have an effect on the cloth object on that axis. If the number in this field is negative, Gravity will be calculated down the Y-Axis. If it’s positive it will be calculated up the Y-axis. This value will default to –9.81, which is Gravity’s actual force in the real world (-9.81 m/sec^2 to be exact!).
MOCCA CLOTHILDE 117 These parameters define the direction of the wind. You can enter positive or negative values. For example, you can set Wind Direction X to a negative or positive value to make the wind blow along the –X or X-axis respectively. When dealing with wind blowing along two or three axes at the same time, a vector will be calculated between the directions.
118 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Wind Turbulence Strength set to 1 (left), 5 (center) and 10 (right). Real world wind blows in bursts. At some points it can be intense and at other points very weak. The Wind Turbulence Strength parameter controls this variation. With the value set to 0 the wind will have no variation, by increasing this value the wind will begin to vary the strength of the bursts. Wind Turbulence Speed Wind Turbulence Speed set to 1 (left), 5 (center) and 10 (right).
MOCCA CLOTHILDE 119 Wind Impact set to 0% (left), 50% (center) and 100% (right). Wind Lift Lighter cloth materials or fabrics are lifted very easily by wind forces, while heavier fabrics, much like leather, are not lifted as easily by the wind. A value of 100% will allow for the cloth to be lifted very easily by the wind. A value of 0% will not be lifted by the wind. Air Resistance As a piece of cloth travels through the air it will encounter a type of wind force, even if the wind is not blowing.
120 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Self Repulsion (left) and Self Collision (right). Using this option together with, or instead of, the Self Collision option can speed up and improve the cloth simulation. This will allow for the cloth points to repel one another, which can aid in situations where extreme forces or motions cause the cloth points to intersect with its surface. Distance This determines the distance at which the cloth points will begin to repel one another.
MOCCA CLOTHILDE 121 Dresser Tab Once a garment has been assigned its dress state (the original polygonal model) this mode will become active. While in this mode, the Cloth tag will display all seams that have been created with a yellow cross-stitch for the affected polygons. The Cloth tag will change its icon in the Object manager when this mode is active. Relax This command is similar to the Dress-O-Matic function, with the exception that it takes all Forces tab parameters into consideration.
122 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Steps This determines the number of times that the cloth engine will sample as it applies gravity and wind forces onto the garment. The higher this number is, the longer the forces will affect the cloth object. Dress-O-Matic Before using Dress-O-Matic (left) and after (right). This is the command that actually drapes the garment onto the character. When this command is executed, the cloth engine will shrink the seam to the defined Width setting.
MOCCA CLOTHILDE 123 Width set to 10 m (left) and 3 m (right). This value determines the goal distance at which the polygons of the seam will rest. With a value of 10 m, the cloth engine will shrink the seam so that the polygons are 10m in size. Before using Set Initial State (left) and after (right). After the cloth garment has been dressed on the character using this command, the cloth engine will now use this current state of the cloth as its starting pose.
124 CLOTHILDE MOCCA In Dress Mode each polygon will have a black ‘X’ on its surface. After modeling the clothes, using the Set Dress State command will determine the model’s original shape. Once this original state is specified, the cloth engine can then drape the garment onto the colliding character when told to do so. Using this function will automatically enable Dress Mode. This can easily be identified in the viewport as each polygon will have a black ‘X’ on its surface.
MOCCA CLOTHILDE 125 This points indicated by the arrows have been fixed using the Set Fix Points command. Clear Fix Points Much like the other Clear buttons, executing this function will remove any points that have been previously fixed for the cloth object. Show Fix Points Using this command will show the selection of points that the cloth object is being fixed from. Draw Fix Points Draw Fix Points enabled (left) and disabled (right).
126 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Seams are displayed bright yellow when their polygons are selected. Most clothes are stitched together using seams. This cloth engine uses that same pronciple. As this tutorial will show, garments are created with a front and back plane that are connected. The connection of these two planes of geometry will be considered the seam. To define a seam, select all of the polygons that connect the front and back planes and use the Set Seam command.
CLOTHILDE 127 MOCCA Cache Tab If this mode is active, the Cloth engine will play a cached solution of the simulation. This lets you quickly play the simulation without having to wait for it to be calculated anew. Calculate Cache This function lets you cache a cloth calculation. Clicking on the button will play the animation and will cache the simulation. The cache mode will subsequently be automatically activated and the cached solution can be viewed.
128 CLOTHILDE MOCCA In order to adjust individual frames, the cache mode must be deactivated so that Clothilde can calculate the changes according to the current settings, and not according to the cached settings. Load / Save The new “Cache” tool (see below) made it necessary to save calculations of the simulation, which was previously stored to the clipboard, to the hard drive. The reason: The normal undo function would not be able to handle the amount of data required to store the simulation.
CLOTHILDE 129 MOCCA Sub Sampling This setting determines the amount of depth that the cloth simulation may undergo while finding solutions for the cloth object. Many things like collisions and real world forces can affect the cloth objects at fractions of a second. CINEMA 4D will play back the animation in frames, but the cloth engine may need to calculate the simulation between these frames.
130 CLOTHILDE MOCCA The EPS stands for epsilon. Think of this setting as an imaginary field that surrounds each point of the cloth object. The higher the EPS value, the farther apart the cloth points will collide against the collider object’s points. If points begin falling through the collider object, the Point EPS setting needs to be increased. Edge Collision With this option enabled, the cloth engine will calculate collisions for every edge in any cloth object’s geometry.
CLOTHILDE 131 MOCCA The higher the EPS value, the farther apart the cloth points will collide against the collider object’s polygons. Global Intersection Analysis During animation, either intentionally or by accident, an area such as the armpit of a bipedal character can trap the cloth object. This can cause some cloth engines to come to a complete halt being that the engine cannot find a solution.
132 CLOTHILDE Gravity Friction Wind MOCCA Note: If different forces overlap, their effect will, as a rule, be additive. In some instances, though, forces can either cancel one another out or their effect(s) will be multiplied. Collider Tag The Cloth tag identifies an object as a cloth object. Specifying what object will collide with the cloth objects is done in the same way as defining a cloth object: by adding a Collider tag to the desired object.
MOCCA CLOTHILDE 133 Tag Properties This is the tab that contains all the properties that will control how the collision object interacts with the cloth objects. Use Collider Bounce This setting is also found in the Tag Properties tab of the Cloth tag. Keep in mind that these two fields work together. For example, a nylon piece of cloth will always have the same Bounce value.
134 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Clear This will remove any excluded polygons for the collision object. Show At some point, different polygons may be deselected or new ones may be selected for the collision object. Using the Show function will display the selection of polygons that have been excluded for the collision object. This easily shows what polygons are being excluded, overwriting the current selection. Draw Draw disabled (left) and enabled (right).
CLOTHILDE 135 MOCCA Belt Points When a Belt object is specified, any selected point can be attached to the deformed character model. The Set Belt Points will define what points will be attached to the deformed mesh. About Belting Let’s think about what an actual belt does for real-world clothing before moving on. When pants are belted, they stay attached to the person no matter where he moves.
136 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Show Belt Points This will reselect any of the points that have been assigned to the Belt object. If this command is executed while in any other mode than points, CINEMA 4D will automatically switch over to Points mode. Draw Belt Points Enabling this checkbox will display every point that is belted as a yellow dot. A line or sample will be drawn from this point to a relatively close area on the deforming object. This is represented as a yellow line in the viewport.
MOCCA CLOTHILDE 137 Belt Influence This percentage value will determine how much influence the Belt object has on the cloth object. A value of 0% will not allow for the Belt object to influence the cloth object at all, whereas a value of 100% will have complete influence on the cloth object. The area of Influence can be controlled through a vertex map using the corresponding section on the Effects page. Belt Hover MOCCA Belt Hover set to 0% (left), 100% (center) and 200% (right).
138 CLOTHILDE MOCCA After the front plane of the garment has been modeled, make sure all of the polygons are selected, then apply the Clone function. This will mirror the geometry to create the back surface of the garment. Usually, using a Clone value of 1 and a 180-degree rotation around the Y-axis will work for this type of construction. Select the edges where the garment will need to be “sewn” together.
MOCCA CLOTHILDE 139 Subdivide the polygons. Before using the functions on the Dresser tab to drape the garment onto the character (left) and after (right). Keep in mind that Clothilde is as much a modeling tool as it is an animation tool. At any point, the Cloth tag can be deleted and the cloth can be treated as regular geometry. Even deleting the Cloth tag and modeling areas like collars at a later time is still possible.
140 CLOTHILDE MOCCA It’s best to drape a garment while the character is in the T-pose (left). Naturally, you’ll want to start the animation from a different pose (right). The trick here is to record the T- pose before frame 0, such as at frame -10. Remember that if the starting pose is really extreme, you can belt all the points of the garment during the simulation. Once the cloth object is in place, you can remove the belted points and set the Initial State of the garment.
CLOTHILDE 141 MOCCA Left: Only one point selected; right: All points selected. The piece of cloth is hanging from the point at the top left. An editable spline is now displayed as the selected point’s motion path. As soon as you click on a spline point, the following will occur: Click and release the mouse button: The animation will jump to the respective frame. Click, hold and move the mouse button: The “Cache” tool will have an effect in accordance to the settings described below.
142 CLOTHILDE MOCCA Settings Mode Select from “Smear” and “Smooth”. Left: prior to tool being used; top: Using “Smear”: bottom: Using “Smooth”. Smear: Moves the selected point. The neighboring points, defined by “Frames + / -“, will follow the Fall-Off function (described below). Smooth: The selected point is of less importance here. This function smoothes the spline in the area defined in the “Frames + / -“ setting using the Fall-Off function, described below.
MOCCA CLOTHILDE 143 Strength This is a global factor that symbolizes the “Cache” tool’s strength. Fall-Off Use this setting to define the type of falloff. You will find this function in chapter 10, “Magnet”, p. 542 in your CINEMA 4D reference manual. If “Spline” is selected, the curve in the field below can be adjusted manually. Width Use this setting to define how soft or hard the influence of the magnets should fall off.
Index
INDEX • 145 MOCCA
142 • INDEX INDEX 142 MOCCA Index A Add anchor to bone 26 bone with bone tool 33 child bone 33 pose 72 pose to library 76 root goal 26 tip goal to bone 26 up vector to bone 27 Additive Loops 92 Air Resistance 119 Anchor 13 add to bone 26 Animating Clothes 139 Auto Find Center 40 Auto IK-Lock 27 Auto Match 93 Auto Redraw 27 Auto Size 97 Auto Trim 93 B Belting 135 Belt Hover 137 Belt Influence 136 Bone adding child 33 adding with bone tool 33 add anchor 26 add root goal 26 add tip goal 26 add up vector 27
INDEX • 143 143 INDEX MOCCA R Manager P2P 76 Manual Match 94 Match Search 40 Mirror children of bone 40 constraint 41 Mixing poses 70 Mocca.l4d 4 MOCCA IK Tag 12 MOCCA Layout 4 MOCCA Palette 4 Motion A 90 Motion B 91 Multiple use II Rail 95 Realtime keyframe recording 55 Record key for selected pose 77 poses 72 Reduction 62 Relax 121 Remove bone weight 47 Reset chain to rest state 24 Resize To Orig.
