• Introduction
• Cloner object
• Effectors - Overview
• Group effector
• Delay effector
• Formula effector
• Inheritance effector
• Random effector
• Shader effector
• Sound effector
• Spline effector
• Step effector
• Target effector
• Time effector
• Linear Clone Tool, Radial Clone Tool & Grid Clone Tool
• Matrix object
• Fracture object
• Instance object
• Text object
• Tracer
• Spline mask
• Displace Deformer
• Extrude deformer
• Spline wrap
• Cache tag / Baking animations
• MoGraph shaders
• Manual and Tutorials
• Goodies / Samples Scenes Etc
• XPresso for MoGraph
• Release 10 and MoGraph
• Conclusion

Matrix object

I have to say that I was blown away when I found out that Thinking Particles (now referred to as TP in the review) can be generated and controlled with MoGraph. Although I have some experience of using TP, it's reasonably challenging to use. Hold on to your hats folks, as MoGraph via the Matrix object let's you create and control Thinking Particles. Let's not get carried away here. MoGraph won't replace TP and it won't stop the need to use some XPresso for more advanced animations. But it will open the door to using Thinking Particles for many people.

So what can you do to TP with MoGraph? Just about anything that you can do with effectors. The Matrix object itself isn't visible. There are 2 modes, Thinking Particles and Matrices. Both TP and Matrices are places holders where you have to define objects for them. In the case of TP you create a particle geometry object and set up your object in the normal way for TP (Pyrocluster materials can be applied to particle geometry objects). Matrices are also place holders and you get a small cube displayed in the viewport. These cubes can't be rendered. To get visible objects in Matrix mode you drop the Matrix object into the object field of a cloner object. I'll explain one reason why you would want to do this in a moment.

Here's an animation where the TP particles are arranged on to some text using MpGraph. A random effector makes the particles dissipate and then finally some Thinking Particles Spherical wind kicks in and blows the particles away. While this could be achieved without MoGraph and just using TP, the XPresso setup would be beyond the level of most beginners. The only XPresso in this animation is a PPass node hooked up to a PWind node. The MoGraph setup is very straight forward.

Matrices and TP play back in the viewport much quicker than using objects. You can use them to get a feel for a complex animation without having to render it out. A scene with 10,000 particles plays back a lot quicker than a scene with 10,000 clones of a polygon object. Once you have the animation set up you can then set up physical objects. For a cloner object this is done by dragging and dropping the Matrix object into the cloner object's object field in object mode as I did in the example animation.

Another important use of the Matrix object is when applying deformers to cloned objects. Using a Matrix object in conjunction with say a bend deformer and a cloner object allows the structure itself to bend without deforming the cubes. Using a bend deformer applied directly to a cloner object makes each clone object deform as the structure bends. The image below highlights the difference.

Here the red coloured cubes use the Matrix object and the blue coloured cubes use the cloner object only. With the Matrix object, to make the cubes visible the Matrix object is placed in the object field on a Cloner object.

At C4D Cafe we have a 19 minute video tutorial on creating Thinking Particles with MoGraph.

http://www.c4dcafe.com/ipb/index.php?/files/file/41-thinking-particles-with-mograph/