I am looking to use the replica node to make a grid pattern of circles but would like the circles to be of random scale. The replica node seems to be the way to go, but how can I get each replica to be a random scale?
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@mlheureux - that’s a tough idea because of the order of operations.
@Sinan could probably help you with a particle system that would more appropriately get you that kind of granular access to individual objects within a group.
you might try building the grid from axes, creating child objects of your grid, and having randomness affect the scale of your object.
your object could be a child of all of the random scalers.
i’m not sure that replica will necessarily popagate true randomness, i think it just replicates or instantiates lots of similar stuff within the heirarchy of objects.
Or you could use a more mo-graph friendly tool like c4d or after effects?
As @philm said Replica will not provide individual control over its children. It acts more like a series of axes all mimic linked.
Particles can work but I can answer better if I know what you want to achieve.
For a very constrained approach you can use the atomize node connected to a surface that is displaced with a displacement map. The displacement value would push the circle atoms further or closer to the camera.
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random_circles_v0001_delta_pman.zip (76.0 KB)
this is a 2025.1 batch group
you could build a pretty simple array with axes, child axes, expression based position linkages and the child axes could have random scaling.
in this trivially simple test i used:
eval(truerand(25,200),truerand(1,999))
this means gather a value between 25 and 200 (which changes on every frame) but only evaluate a single frame between 1 and 999.
(which means you can probably just duplicate the child axes without fear of value replication)
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Interesting ideas! Thanks for the quick response. Ideally I’d like to keep it all in flame but know exactly what to do in after effects. I could also use Maya for this but I know the clients will want options and not having to render back and forth will best.
yep
You could try passing noise through the Dots matchbox. You can vary with scaling up the noise and adjusting it with a colour correct node ahead of the dots.
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@ytf - is it just me that misses lightwave?
sliders?
shaders as keyframes?
simple expressions?
like 25 years ago or something…
equally softimage (although that was bit more expensive for thos of us in the cheap seats)
My path went from linear edit rooms and paintbox harrys with kscopes and ADOs, to flame. I’ve never used any of that other stuff. And I don’t miss it either.
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@ytf - my path was industrial dish washers to thumbless monkey with an onyx…
amiga/lightwave/dpaint/mac/videoexplorerr was a useful distration from teaching my teachers about quark express!
my current path is “what the fuck is a tuple?” and why does it take 75 times longer to give me the trivial result that i need?