We've moved . . .

So, we decided to host our own blog using Wordpress. This offers us much more flexibility for the future and hopefully will allow us to add more cool stuff in the future.

So if you want to keep checking our blog then please update your links as we'll no longer be posting here.

Instead, point your browsers at www.hypa.tv/hypablog

Thanks for looking and we'll see you over there.

Reverse Orbit

By default Cinema4D rotates the viewport one direction when you drag the rotate icon in the top right of the editor view. To me this is the wrong way around and if you are used to other 3D applications then it is probably the wrong way around for you too.

Well if you open up Edit > Preferences, then you can change this.



Just check the parameter named Reverse Orbit.

Now doesn't that feel better?

Random Cloning

Someone asked me yesterday how to create randomly coloured clones using MoGraph.

The simplest way is to use the Random Effector.



In the Parameter Tab under Color, switch color mode to ON


If you find the default blending mode too dark, you can switch it to ADD mode


Or you can increase the strength of the effector...


To make the colours change over time, choose an alternative Random Mode such as Noise.

Hello world!!

Well I must say this blog has been collecting dust . . . My apologies for that. This year I shall try to keep the posts coming at regular intervals.

Lots of things have been happening for us at HYPA. We have gone global and there is now HYPA in Sydney Australia. I have moved to Sydney to head up the new venture and I must say I'm loving the people, city and certainly the weather. We are open and available for work, so if you are in need of some motion graphics then get in touch!

I had a meeting today with John Dickinson of Motionworks . John is a really great guy, and very talented too. It was real fun to meet up with him and discuss motion graphics, animation and all that stuff over a coffee. John does some fantastic training for After Effects and his work is top notch. We had a few ideas of some projects that we may well work on together. More about that in future postings.

I was lucky enough to have a few artworks selected for Los Logos 4 by Die Gelstalten Verlag. Look out for it at your local bookstore. It has some fantastic work.

At HYPA we are currently working on some graphics for the BBC. The program is called Explore and is already on air in the UK. Watch out for it Sunday nights, BBC2.

We are also involved in a channel rebrand which we cannot mention right now. More about that at a later date. It is certainly making full use of the MoGraph module.

I'll be back again soon with some more tips & tricks, so come back often. . . This time, I will too!

Matrix Object, Thinking Particles and Geometry

A question was raised on fxphd about the different ways to generate geometry for Thinking Particles if you have created them using the MoGraph Matrix object.

You can do it several ways. You can create a Particle Geometry Object then create the particle geometry using Xpresso and the PShape node.

Alternatively you can use the Cloner Object and clone onto the Matrix Object.

I've created a couple of simple scenes that illustrate this. I've used two particle groups and then a simple Xpresso setup for each. The first scales one group of particles down and and the other aligns the second group to a null object.

The final scene is an example of doing this using only MoGraph, so no Thinking Particles or Xpresso is used.


Here's a link to the files.

I hope you find them useful.

Layouts in Cinema4d

I have a few people asking what layouts I use in Cinema4d.

So I've added a couple of links to my widescreen and two monitor layouts. These are the layouts I use pretty much 90% of the time. I hope you find them useful.

Click here to view the two monitor layout

Click here to view the wide screen layout

Click here to download a zip with both layouts

Deforming objects with MoGraph Effectors

Hey everyone,

I've made a small tutorial that shows you how to use MoGraph effectors to deform spline objects. You can also use them to deform objects or polygons. I hope some of you find it useful.




Here's a movie of the result.


And here's a link to the tutorial.

Have fun!

Tim