Using the Cinema 4D Inheritance Effector Part 03: Make Particles Swarm Along Splines w/ Mograph

The Inheritance Effector is probably one of the most underrated and underutilized effectors in the effector menu.  In part three of my Inheritance Effector tutorial, I show you how you can fake particle or object movement that follows or swarms along a spline path that would normally only be able to be achieved with an Emitter or Thinking Particles and Xpresso.  Using a combination of the Inheritance & Spline Effectors along with other Mograph Effectors, you can achieve close to the same effect as the Emitter or Thinking Particles as a simpler alternative in your normal workflow without having to touch Xpresso.  Specifically, this tutorial demonstrates the powerful combination of using the Spline Effector with the Inheritance Effector to achieve a “swarming” effect.  As in Part 2 of this series, you can also add a Dynamic Tag to the Cloner Object to make sure your clones don’t intersect one another with this technique.

Here is a sample video where I utilized this technique to make a swarm of butterflies each land onto their own individual flowers:

Inheritance Effector Tutorial: Part 1

Inheritance Effector Tutorial: Part 2

Using the Cinema 4D Inheritance Effector Part 02: Faking Thinking Particles with Mograph

The Inheritance Effector is probably one of the most underrated and underutilized effectors in the effector menu.  In part two of my Inheritance Effector tutorial, I show you how you can fake particle movement that would normally only be able to be achieved with an Emitter or Thinking Particles and Xpresso.  Using a combination of the Inheritance Effector and other Mograph Effectors and Deformers, you can achieve close to the same effect as an Emitter or Thinking Particles as a simpler alternative in your normal workflow without having to touch Xpresso.

Here is a spot where I utilized this technique:

Inheritance Effector Tutorial: Part 1

Adding Center Crosshairs in Cinema 4D Viewport

Ever been wanting center crosshairs in your Cinema 4D viewport like you have in After Effects? Having that center crosshair is a huge help when making sure your composition is centered.  Watch my quick tip tutorial to see my simple solution.

Download the Crosshairs Photoshop file

[UPDATE:  Maxon saw my tutorial and actually created a plug-in that adds a crosshairs to your viewport, but you can only get it unless you're a member of Cineversity.  You can find it here.]