Object Properties
In this mode, matrices will be created (think of them as small coordinate systems whose orthogonality is not affected by deformers), which will be displayed in the editor as small cubes, but will not be rendered.
But what use are small cubes that cannot be rendered?
Top: Initial situation, bottom: bending object.
As you can see here, a lot. A bending object (see Bend) affects a collection of clones. In both cases, the effect on the position and alignment of the clones is the same. However, without a Matrix object, the clone geometries will be distorted, which is rarely desirable. If the Deformer object affects the Matrix object, only the position and alignment of the clones will be changed, whereas no geometric distortion will occ.
The use of Cinema 4D's Deformer objects provides you with an additional arsenal for clone positioning.
This option is the interface for the Thinking Particles. This allows the Matrix object to act as an Emitter and clones can be affected by Thinking Particles Nodes and vice versa (e.g., let P Gravityon the clones). Particles will be generated in the first frame of the animation.
From the Thinking Particles settings, drag in the particle group to which the particles created by the Matrix object should be assigned. Leave the field blank to assign the created particles to the All group.
This parameter defines how much of the original clone movement (e.g., by animating the Matrix object) will be transferred to particles/clones.
- If it is set to 100%, clones and particles will be equally affected by TP Nodes and MoGraph effectors.
- If it is set to 0%, particles will not be affected by effectors.
The following functions can also be used with the TP Node P Motion Transferexcept that the movement of the matrices/clones will be transferred here.
Differences in the speed of the matrices/clones will be taken into account so that TP Particles can continue to move freely due to Thinking Particles Nodes, i.e., if you let P Wind act, for example, this effect will be added to the movements of the clones/matrices.
This parameter defines how exactly the particles should be positioned on the current changing position of the clones/matrices. If the parameter is set to 100%, no TP Node can exert any influence and the TP particles are bound to the matrices/clones. At 0%, the TP particles can move freely.
The strength of this parameter lies in its ability to fade back-and-forth between matrices/clones and particles, e.g., to allow TP Nodes to take effect temporarily and then return control to MoGraph at another time. Normally, this parameter will lead to a dampening effect.
If the parameter is set to 100% during the animation, the clones will take the position you see when you set Generate Thinking Particles to Matrices Only.
If you think of the Matrix Thinking Particles functionality as an internal effector that is not separated out as a separate object, then this drop-down menu indicates where the Thinking Particles effector should be placed in the list of effectors (see Effectors tab) should be arranged:
in first place in the effector list.
in last place in the effector list.
The most comprehensible behavior with regard to clone behavior and the decrease expansions of the effectors visible in the Viewport results with pre-effectors, since here the clones actually react according to the decrease visible in the Viewport. In After Effectors mode, the clones only react if the effector influences the starting position of the Thinking Particles.
The display size of the matrices displayed as cubes can be varied here without actually changing the matrix scaling. This is purely a display setting that you can reduce, for example, if the cubes are too large and obscure other important information.