Thank you so much Dr. Sassi! That was exactly the issue.

I have another somewhat unrelated question, but still pertaining to this scene file. Everything is incredibly slow for me, it takes about several seconds just to select a property in one of the Volume Builders, to the point where making changes in values difficult. I have a PC with pretty good specs, 2 GTX 3090s and 128 GB of memory, but my scene responds MUCH slower than the what I'm seeing in the tutorial I'm following.

I realize this could be a million different issues, but is there anything obvious I should check for better optimization? Thanks!

Shift Layer Diagram 051623.c4d
Shift Layer Diagram2 051623.c4d

I followed this tutorial on creating a Redshift foam material.

I'm trying to create multiple objects with this foam material and change the hue for each object. When I duplicate the entire Volume Builder, I don't see it in my render.

I can create a second cube within the the same Volume Builder, but it will remain the same color and also becomes much more transparent than the original cube.

I've included a second project that is using the same material, but after copying and pasting it, it's now doesn't appear in the render and I don't know how to get it back. I'm pretty sure these issues are related to the Volume builder object, but I still don't know what's causing it.

Hi Dr. Sassi,
Thanks so much, your project that uses a plane and Spline Wrap rather than a Sweep Nurb was exactly what I was trying to create.

@Dr-Sassi
I see that if I animate the Start of the Mospline, the "tail" animates off tapered, which is what I want. However, when the tail gets very close to fully animating off, it distorts the overall shape. Is there a way to keep the shape uniform?

Hi Dr. Sassi,
Thanks for the quick response. Your second file, ANtm_11.c4d, is essentially what I'm trying to create, except I'd also like the shape to animate off, remaining tapered as it does so. Here is an example of the profile I'd like to have throughout the animation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19v6JB0bSSL4_HM2_NtCRMAlP1bMbprCM/view?usp=share_link

Wisp.c4d

I've created this sweep object that I have tapered at the ends, but I don't know how to keep the ends tapered while it's traveling through the spline.

Maybe a Sweep object isn't what I should be using, but what I'm trying to achieve is this tapered shape animating through this spline path. I'm using this to create a stylized looking wind.

Here's what I want to avoid:

Another update! I followed your advice and unchecked "Remove Overshooting" and "Automatic Weighting" (in my current project) and the animation now plays as I want it.

Since I'm trying to understand this conceptually, I still don't understand how I can speed up or slow down this animation without it being altered. If I highlight all my keyframes and use the little 3-line icon above them to scale them to 50%, the joints go off track. And more broadly, If you have a scene that is intricately animated with lots of curves and customized keyframing and now you need everything to animate in half the amount of time, how would you do it?

Hi Dr. Sassi,
Thanks as always, however I am unconcerned with symmetry and don't want to involve Xpresso if possible. I want my animation to remain EXACTLY how it is. I simply want it to animate, hold, then reverse the animation back to its original position.

I have a previous version of this project where I did this successfully, simply by copying/pasting keyframes, and I don't know why it works here and not in my current project. Here it is (still getting the "Error" message" even though it's <2MB):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k5m9ftPT1L88SX9sLqVmDFe35C7tdxuX/view?usp=share_link

Hi Dr. Sassi,
Thank you for this (and all the info on CAD models). I don't know any Xpresso, so this is an interesting approach, but I need to keep the curves exactly as they were. This is still the door of the model you helped me bevel and if this file weren't so stripped down, you'd see that the end of the joints runs on a track, which I keyframed and adjusted.

Even outside of this example, I feel like I've keyframed things in C4D countless times, then used the Dope Sheet to move around keyframes to retime, without affecting the animation. Is that not the case, or is it something to do with these being joints? Have a great weekend too!

Here is a Google Drive link for the project file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IivesGaeZhcWmH2vFxSBx5HrgwXjxG-D/view?usp=share_link

I realize outside links shouldn't be used, but I keep getting "Error" when I try to upload.