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focal point not animating in node rendering environment

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 6:55 am
by 4design
Not sure if this is covered elsewhere, but I haven't been able to find an answer.
I have a animation where I animate the focal point of a camera using a null object. when i render individual frames with the render active view button everything works fine. the the camera focal point follows the null and renders correctly. However when i render out the whole animation to mxs files and try to render with maxwell monitor, everything is out of focus and the focal point is no longer animated. Could anyone offer some advice on what i could be doing wrong here?

cheers

Re: focal point not animating in node rendering environment

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 7:21 am
by JDHill
I'm not able to reproduce this. Could you please upload a simple Cinema file which demonstrates the issue?

Re: focal point not animating in node rendering environment

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:54 pm
by Kevron
Hi,

I have the same problem. Here is a scenefile demonstrating the issue: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1059954/Maxwell ... st.c4d.zip


If I render frame 0 to maxwell, the DOF is working. But if I send it through the network, the DOF is not working as expected.

If I delete the DOF target, and manually keys the DOF distance. Then everything looks good in the render. But this becomes hard if you have a movable object you want to constrain your DOF to.

Not sure why this happens?

Regards,
Kevron

Re: focal point not animating in node rendering environment

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:05 pm
by JDHill
Thanks, I can reproduce it with that file. Could you please confirm, by exporting & rendering the animation locally, that network rendering is not actually a factor here?

Re: focal point not animating in node rendering environment

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:25 pm
by Kevron
It seems that the network rendering is indeed the factor. Rendering locally, with the DOF target, the results looks good.
Rendering across the network, oh.. wait for it.. Also looks good..?

So now I cant reproduce the problem in my own file..?

My theory, if you use a tag to drive the dof. Then it will not work. If you delete the tag, and keyes the dof. It will work. If you delete the keys, and then apply the DofTarget again, it will also work.

Sound a bit sci-fi, but I´ll make a new scene again. Only cam and Doftarget. See if it will work.

Cheers,
Kevron

Re: focal point not animating in node rendering environment

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:52 pm
by Kevron
It is a bit hard to try to figure this one. It seems that it is a bit random when the Focustarget works.

Here is a file that not the network or local render manage to produce a correct DOF: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1059954/Maxwell ... _2.c4d.zip

But, sometimes. Not all times, the dof is correct if I render the frame in Maxwell (Render this scene using render view in Cinema 4D)

So, not sure why this happen. But there is something strange I guess.

Regards,
Kevron

Re: focal point not animating in node rendering environment

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:58 pm
by JDHill
Thanks, I'll figure it out.

Re: focal point not animating in node rendering environment

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 8:01 pm
by JDHill
Okay, here is the problem: the plugin needs the camera to have a Target Expression tag linked to the target Null, and Use Target Object checked in the camera's Object tab, rather than using the Focus Object link. I will add support for the camera's Focus Object link (added in R13) in the next build.

Re: focal point not animating in node rendering environment

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:33 pm
by Kevron
Thank you for taking a look at it, nice to know its not my brain playing tricks with me :)

Cheers!
Kevron

Re: focal point not animating in node rendering environment

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 6:32 pm
by JDHill
Version 2.6.11 now supports the R13 Camera Object's Focus Object link.