As mentioned earlier MoDynamics can be applied to a MoGraph Fracture Object. The parts / polygons of the fractured object then have MoDynamics applied to them. This can be fairly CPU intensive if you break the object up into many pieces but the results can be very impressive. The following is an animation from a free video tutorial at Cineversity. Since there aren't that many pieces viewport playback speed is virtually real time.
Click here or on the image to download and play the animation (QT 2.3mb)
A MoDynamics Rigid Body Tag can be applied to a MoGraph Text object. When you do this you have the option of how the dynamics are applied to the text using the Individual Elements option on the Collision tab. The options are:
The following is an animation using the Text Object
Click here or on the image to download and play the animation (QT 1.3mb)
Cool eh!! I used the Dynamic Transition option to make the letters return to their original position. I cranked up the gravity and bounce so that the letters would bounce a reasonable distance away from where they landed. If you're wondering how I did this I have put together a short mini tutorial. Click here to download (6min 15mb - Unzip and open the html file with your browser).
The Force Object (found on the MoGraph menu) lets each Clone exert a radial gravitational force on each clone and within a defined range. The range has an Inner and Outer Distance option plus a Falloff option which are very reminiscent of light falloff's. To use a Force object you add it to the Force Mode list on the Force tab of a Rigid Body Tag and change the mode to Include. Positive Strength values make clones clump together and negative values make clones repel each other. Note that you don't actually have to add the Force object to the Force Mode list for it to work since the default mode on the Force tab is Exclude. However I think it's good practice to add it and change the Force Mode to Include. Here is what the default settings look like.
Force Object settings
The following animation is a bit of fun using a Force object to simulate the liquid Mercury. The only thing that is animated is the Strength parameter on the Force object. This changes between negative and positive values a few times. The scene uses a Metaball object plus a Melt Deformer. All the Melt Deformer is doing is flattening down the sphere clones. The Cloner object is a child object of the Metaball object. Note that you can't use Render Instances when the Cloner object is a child of a Metaball object.
Click here or on the image to download and play the animation (QT 7.5mb)
We have only scratched the surface of what's possible with MoDynamics and hopefully we have been able to give you an idea of just how easy they are to use. Since the dynamics calculate so fast you can experiment with settings to get just the result that you are after. All 3 Cafe reviewers just love MoDynamics and for many people these enhancements would be reason enough to upgrade especially if you are into Motion Graphics.
No Cafe review would be complete without a few animations so here are links to a few animations put together by us.
Click here or on the image to download and play the animation (Slow Motion) (QT 7.6mb)
Click here for a normal speed version of the animation (QT 2.4mb)
Click here or on the image to download and play the animation (QT 5.8mb)
Click here or on the image to download and play the animation (QT 4.9mb)
Review by C4D Cafe © 2009