Shoot Off A 3D Plexus Particle Stream

Shoot Off A 3D Plexus Particle Stream

on Jun 15th 2011 with 25 comments
Tutorial Details
Download Source Files

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

The tutorial is on how to create a “pseudo” particle stream using Plexus. I say pseudo because it’s not really a particle stream, it just appears as one. The tools involved are Cinema 4d and After Effects with these 3rd party plugins: Plexus, Trapcode Particular and VCP Optical Flares although Particular and Optical Flares could be substituted with Particle World and any lens flare but I used particular and optical flares in the tut.

Tutorial

Download Tutorial .m4v

File size: 69.8 MB

 
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I run AESCRIPTS.com which provides useful scripts for Adobe After Effects. You can follow me on Twitter @aescripts  

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  • marcus

    havent gone through the tut yet but definately gonna use that…its about time someone
    posted a realistic looking space scene…

  • Daniël

    Hi, I just tried to do your tutorial. I got to the part where you have to “bake” the null object but somehow C4D won’t show the null object when I click ‘show tracks’.
    If you could help me, because this tut looks really interesting. I have a win7 64bit pc.

    Daniël

    • http://aescripts.com Lloyd
      Author

      Make sure that you have the null animated along the path first and also check that in the Timeline under the View menu that Automatic Mode is turned on. You can also drag the Null object into the timeline to have it show up but it won’t show unless is has something animated so make sure you do the steps shown in the Tutorial in the correct order.

    • http://kquade.com Kenny Quade

      I figured it out. If you don’t see the null in the timeline do the following:
      After right click, show tracks… Click View-Show-Show Animated…
      Continue the tutorial from there.

      • bogdan

        thank you very much Kenny!

  • http://www.tanglewire.tv Tangle Wire

    I need to get Plexus so bad! It is such a cool plug-in with limitless possibilities.

    Love the technique. Plexus makes it look eazy to create cool looking abstract graphics.

    One thing to note: Baking the nulls position in Cinema is not necessary to use the External Composing Tag. It will grab the nulls global position even with the Align to Spline driving its animation. Almost like using the toWorld expression in AE. But I’m glad you did it the way you did because I did not know about that baking function in C4D.

    Fantastic tutorial Lloyd. I love your work and I think AE Scripts is one of the greatest resouses ever for After Effects. Thanks for sharing.

    Ryan

    • http://aescripts.com Lloyd
      Author

      You are correct! I guess I just assumed you would have to bake it since that is what you have to do in “other” 3D packages. C4D is awesome when it comes to integrating with AE and this is just another example of that. Thanks for sharing the tip and glad you enjoyed the tutorial.

  • http://www.blackbluebrown.com geoff brown

    Nice tut! I’m glad to see Satya’s genius is contagious.

  • http://www.jeremyfrye.com Jeremy Frye

    Nice job Lloyd, your tutorials are always the best on this site.

  • http://tannerlukethompson.com Tanner T

    I love the tutorial, i want to mess with obj sequences. What is the best way to export an obj sequence from C4D?

    Ive only found this so far…
    http://skinprops.com/riptidepro.php

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/leonbenlolo Leon Benlolo

    I used several tutorials on this site to make this video of my holiday in Manicore, a small town in Amazon, Brazil
    http://youtu.be/Jcxb_7_su_Y

  • kemet

    WOOOW maaaaan

  • http://shalomormsby.com Shalom Ormsby

    Great tut. You’ve got me jonesing for the .OBJ tutorial. When will that be coming online? Soon, I hope! Thanks in advance!

    • http://aescripts.com Lloyd
      Author

      Soon. OBJ Sequences produce awesome results so we are very excited to get it out.

      • andrea

        cool !
        i look forward to the second part of the tutorial..
        after summer holidays maybe ?
        :)

      • Chris Schoe

        RE: Lloyd says:
        June 28, 2011 at 10:54 am
        Author

        Soon. OBJ Sequences produce awesome results so we are very excited to get it out.

        Hi there, have you yet released this tutorial?

      • http://www.facebook.com/ktorcatt Kenedy Torcatt

        Hello… Waiting for the obj tut Lloyd. It’s been months! Please Bring this up!

  • AlaStar

    I turn on the track to show. He opens the timeline. Where no Null Object / All done on tutorials. Automatic mode is enabled. I’m not animated Null object, only the tag. And he (the timeline) does not see it in animation, even in the preview menu (window) Null Object moves.

    What should I do?
    Cinema 4D R12
    Windows 7 64Bit

    Sorry for my English. I live in Russia.

  • reg

    how can i make an space background animation like that?

  • Ivan

    Hello! Thank you very much for your tutorial! But I can not pass a certain point – that when there is the first reference to After Effects. Unfortunately, my After Effects CS5 can not find the files. Aec, calling them corrupt. Is it possible to handle this? My program – Cinema 4D R13.
    PS Sorry for my bad English, I used a translator.

  • stone shao

    hi i just download the project file but i can’t see the obj itself in ae
    i am using win 7 64bit AE cs 5.5 i don’t have c4d
    how can i fix the problem to let the ae show the obj file in ae file with plexus plugin

  • Swani

    Lloyd how can you post a tutorial with so much mistakes ??? without taking them off the final cut ???
    it s ridiculous

  • sumput

    same problem with me, i can’t bake the null object .I tried many times .
    The null object is animated along spline path and the “automatic mode” is also on.
    HHHellllpppp plz

    • http://www.facebook.com/ktorcatt Kenedy Torcatt

      Hi… Go to View->Show->Show animated and you’ll see the null under summary.
      Hope this helps!