Animating Poly FX on and off creates chaotic poly rotation

[Mark]

Dear Dr Sasi,

We are experiencing difficulty animating Poly FX around the concave gold rim using a Torus and or a Radial Field. The Polys are going chaotic when the fields animate on or off. The animation begins at frame 20.

Also, for some reason, once the animation begins the rim goes dark.

See link to project. Thank you.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R-koHC_iw52tra19Umi-Thc6Vp5uNq37/view?usp=sharing

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for using Google Cloud Services and the file.

Please have a look here:
https://projectfiles.maxon.net/Cineversity_Forum_Support/2025_PROJECTS_DRS/20250914_CV4_2026_drs_25_MGpf_01.c4d.zip
(Place it in your project folder to have the textures connected)

My suggestion would be to have the fields working on the Effectors or the PolyFX, but not in the Effector, and then in the PolyFX again.

I assume you are OK with the Normal Map creating some problems when placed into a Triplanar, while the surface is moving. I think the idea was to have the scale in sync, but you could do that with the Texture Scale; however, I have no idea what your target is here.|

(The Triplanar is good for static objects, but since the Normal map defines the direction of the surface and pretty much overwrites its own idea of normal direction, the problem of using Triplanar here is not trivial.)

About the black, you notice. You have a highly reflective material, and when it rotates the polygons, some reach a direction that provides nothing to provide for the camera.

To demo that I have created a test Lightbox. The original Top Light is now blue, the opposite is Green, and the four small sides are red.
Render the image and then switch through the RGB channels. In the RS Render View, it is near the "Beauty" default, the round with RGB in it.
In the Picture Viewer, you need to go to Filter and check that there are check boxes for R, G, and B. If only Blue is active, you see fewer polygons (if they are rotated).

Something needs to be there to be reflected, either more lights, or an Asset Browser HDR image (preferable OpenEXR) dragged into the Object Manager to build a Dome Light setup.

If there are any other questions for this project, please let me know.

Enjoy your project

[Mark]

@Dr-Sassi

Thank you, the project you sent solved the Poly FX issue.

We are still having a problem with the lighting issue. When I first opened your project and rendered the rim in the Redshift RenderView window, the lighting issue seemed to be resolved. But the next time we rendered it and ever since, the light issue reoccured. Please see the attached images showing what we are seeing here.
We need the rim to be consistently lit as the Poly FX wipe on.

Rim lit before Poly FX wipe animation starts.

1st frame of Poly FX animation: the rim goes dark where the Poly FX are not yet triggered.

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi Mark,

Please have a look here:
https://projectfiles.maxon.net/Cineversity_Forum_Support/2025_PROJECTS_DRS/20250914_CV4_2026_drs_25_MGpf_02.c4d.zip

I have tossed out the Triplanar, as it should not be used with changing Polygons. Here, especially with Normal maps.

I have connected the Scale as well.

Place the file in the folder of your project, so the texture connects if you are offline. Since this material was an Asset Browser, if the path had been left as it was, the textures would have been used from the Asset Browser.

Normal maps have XYZ Normal information stored in them, expressed in Linear RGB, or RAW - meaning numbers are used as found in the file (No gamut mapping or gamma adjustments, etc.
If they are placed into a Triplanar, they mix on the "cube projection edges", which equals a mixing of XYZ. To name one example. They are not connected to any UV(W), and so any object change will also change the parts used.
More about it:
https://help.maxon.net/c4d/2025/en-us/Default.htm#html/MMATERIAL-ID_MATERIALGROUP_NORMAL.html?TocPath=Material%2520Manager%257CClassic%2520Materials%257CClassic%2520standard%2520material%257C_____13

The change of the Scale in those was huge, perhaps an Arti's call, but that is way more than any texture might be able to supply and stay useful.

If you need to keep going with the material, place a Connect Object as parent, switch off the Weld check box.) I haven't tested all view angles, but it helps. Again, as mentioned before, the material has no qualities for animated objects. The CV4 version of it does.

The problem-solving strategy here was to use the white material and compare the results. If the problems had existed even with the simplest material, other sources might have caused it. I left it as a hint for that search.

As a side note: (going by the edu version used here), the problem doesn't show up in 2026.0, but in 2025.3.3. So it might be arguable what the cause is here.
For now, I have offered two ways to solve it, while also two ways to explore it, light and material change. I'm a firm believer that problem-solving strategies are a good portion of becoming fluent in 3D content creation. I hope these two options help in the future. /end of side note

My best wishes for your project.

[Mark]

Dr. Sassi
I meant to go through your original post more thoroughly to understand what you described and forgot to do that. having limited time with my partner, we rushed out the response prematurely sending it. sorry for that!

Thank you again!

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi Mark,

Thank you for that. Doing that for a while now - Yes, I understand the time constrain. The idea of using a tool to create visuals for many purposes should be fun and easy, yet there is a certain amount of time spent dealing with technicalities.

As an artist, I know: Those things cost time, and if I may say so, Cinema 4D is designed to provide solid technology, while aiming to keep the time to become fluent with it those more conceptual items short.

As an educator, I try to provide Mental Models (ideally have those grow and connect, blended) or at least hope to activate existing models, which is not simple with text, as the dominant skill is visual. However, the dual coding of text and visuals (project files, for example) is a good option to keep what is learned (retention). In short, thanks for your lines above.

Enjoy the exploration and the final result!