Yeah, absolutely. I see the inherent complexity in something like that. I'll be able to really test your solution on an actual work project this coming week. So I can report back, depending on what I wind up doing.

Have a great weekend!

Wow, cool. Thanks, Dr. Sassi. I'm studying the key aspects of what you built, so I can understand more of what the operations are. Initially, it does look like the operation is generating individual polygon edges > splines and that's what you used to drive the eventual sweep.
So it's not necessarily one single spline, but many. So I might not be able (for instance) navigate an object / light around those pieces with something like the align to spline function. But overall, this still seems like a very solid option for other effects.

Cheers!

Good morning!

I'm wondering whether there is any method, to generate a parametric spline from a boolean of solid objects?
I've attached the simplest of scenes, for example. In it the figure is being cut away by a cube. I would like to be able to generate a spline outline of that red region. I would then use that spline for other effects; generate particles, sweep with other geometry, etc.

Simple enough as a still...but not if the cube is animated.

Is there a function or series of functions, which can accomplish something like this?

Thanks

Thank you, very much, Dr. Sassi.
I'm studying your invention, and I'll see what I can gain from your generous investment of time.

Being that I still need to find a solution for a current job. Maybe I can pivot this a little. In my example scene, I need to change the shape of the splines & spline mask. One thing I need to do, is soften / chamfer the harder edges; but I need to maintain the parametric nature of the object.
As it stands, the only "chamfer" solution I know for splines, is destructive. I've tried throwing the "smooth" deformer at the splines, as well as the delta mush deformer; but neither seem to have any effect on splines - only polygon objects.

Any thoughts, Dr. Sassi?

Cheers!

Thanks, Dr. Sassi. I'll watch that video, in its entirety. Once I get through the job that required figuring something like this out...

Hey,

I'm dipping my toe (barely) into object node creation. I'm wondering what the steps might be, to recreate the parametric shape in my attached scene, as nodes. Right off the bat, I didn't see any obvious node for MoGraph; so not sure whether that is simply not available in that method of object creation? Is there another node / combination of nodes, which afford similar features as MoGraph?

Thanks, for any initial guidance.

reference shape.c4d

Dr. Sassi, thank you so much, as always, for your efforts.
I worked around the issue, to get through my deadline. But I haven't solved the actual problem; which I believe may be somewhat related to the actual geometry object, which is acting as the surface emitter.
I'm attempting to build a version of that project, with a proxy object serving the same purpose, but I'm finding the results are different enough, to likely not warrant the effort.
Complicating matters (as you certainly know) is that the final banding results don't entirely manifest until the whole particle system is cached, and even then, only at final render.
I'll continue to see whether I can create a scenario which illustrates the issue, then I'll post the example project.

As a side-note: I've come to find an serious issue between the "sphere instances" and "optimized spheres" as they relate to rendered particles.
When I view the optimized sphere particles through the RS viewport, they appear as expected; just like the sphere instances.
However, upon final render, the optimized spheres tend to have an offset from the emission source, by a noticeable amount of pixels.
I'm aware that the Maxon documentation warns that there may be certain limitations for the optimized spheres, but the fact that the issue only manifests in final render, makes it extremely time-consuming to find.
But this is likely more a Redshift issue, being that it directly relates to their render tag, right?

Thanks, Dr. Sassi.
I'm moving ahead with a workaround; on deadline right now. I'll circle back, and build it a representative scene, after I finish this.

Greetings!

I'm encountering some obvious banding, in particles which are emanating from the surface of an object (mesh emitter).
I'm utilizing a Follow Spline modifier, with rather strong settings so that the emitted particles rapidly move away from emitting surface. This, is where I'm getting banding. I've tried the obvious, by radically increasing the simulations / particles / substeps.
But to no avail.
Are there any other critical settings that which I'm unaware, that would affect particle banding?

I'm sorry, this is happening in a client project, and I don't have the time to reduce it down to something I can share; but maybe in a little bit I can.

Thank you!