Question about Intro Animation Technique

[comfort-sense]

Hi Dr. Sassi,

I hope you’re doing well.

I recently watched the Vimeo clip “Moving C4D Personal Project” https://vimeo.com/591843235,

and was really intrigued by the opening animation, specifically how the floor begins as a continuous plane or surface and seems to open up with subtle line/extrusion/bevel detail around the opening edge.

I wanted to ask:

1. Is that opening of the floor achieved via a Boolean operation (e.g. subtract, difference etc.) or some other method (animated splitting of geometry / deformation / custom modeling)?

2. How is the bevel / subtle line / extrusion around the edge done — ?

I’m trying to learn more about good workflows for these kind of intros — clean, sharp edges, but still animated and dynamic ?

Thanks in advance for your insight !

Warm regards
Nikon B

[comfort-sense]

aniamted boolean.c4d

Here is my quick test file, please let me know what you think ?

1. IS there a better process ?

2. How to make selection on the bevel edge loop ?

Thanks again !

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi comfort-sense,

Thanks for the file.

Boolean might work, but it is often a question of what works best for you or the target. Ideally, there should be no visual difference.

I always avoid the "best practice idea" as it suggests a full stop in exploring other options, and it is an unfortunate label for anything inside of Cinema 4D, as we may never find all possible options. So, lots to explore and find new things (In case you wonder, I find even after 28+ years using C4D new options. In short, it is better to explore and mess around to fill the creative library. So, your question is very appreciated.

The Spline Mask might show some artifacts from time to time; often, a short adjustment is all that is needed to fix it.
However, with Splines, the adjustments later on are not that difficult; adjusting a spline point vs an Object's surface might be an easy answer. But Boole is surely powerful as well.

So, this is an alternative, not better or worse (I hope). Let me know if you have questions. I'm happy to look into it.

Example:
CV4_2026_drs_25_ANsh_01.c4d
The sphere is an extra, just for show...

Enjoy your weekend