Thank you for your prompt reply!
The pattern selection tool as well as the cv parametric selection tag would be extremely useful but they are restricted to polygon selections. I am aiming for edge selections, similar to a wireframe that only shows the horizontal rows of a cylindrical mesh. The mesh itself has to stay parametrically as it will deform/alter in several ways but keeps it's topology. Enhances scene example: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/m8dcl0a7wy10t54urc15g/ring-loop-selections.c4d?rlkey=5gpk4puim2o7rbnp7f1ouy254&dl=0
Thinking of creating a straight cylinder with the same poly count as the loft nurbs. Then create a cloner with spline circles one for each polygon row. Make it edible and glue it to the cylinder with the surface modifier and attach the cylinder on the loft nurbs with a morph tag. A huge workaround and probably one part might not work or something has to become edible and the procedural creation workflow got lost...

Is there a way to select all vertical or horizontal edges of a mesh automatically? Similar to this plugin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnlXdttN8sE to to which newer C4D version are not compatible anymore.

Here is an example scene which is using ring/loop selection tools on a low poly mesh. But for higher resolution meshes, those tools seems insufficient, unless I missed a feature: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/m8dcl0a7wy10t54urc15g/ring-loop-selections.c4d?rlkey=5gpk4puim2o7rbnp7f1ouy254&dl=0

Thank you!

Thank you, sounds like a great solution!
However, it's not working with the mocap data I got. It might be related to the rather unconventional nature of the skeleton's hierarchy, joint naming, etc. (three hips) Here is the scene: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/580eaqft1mxn97e2m8ddn/joint-alignment-issue.c4d?rlkey=jd4d1xk41j5y0rasrv0kbpig8&dl=0

I got mocap data in which the bone joint axis is not aligned correctly to the bone direction. I understand that the Joint Align Tool helps to align the x, z or y axis to the bone direction. It works fine with none-keyframed bones. However, when I apply it on bones with rotation keyframes, it corrupts the original bones rotation. Any ideas?

Scene: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/x8hemsvjpn1y7577kearh/Joint-axis-align.c4d?rlkey=m3fthr4l1n18ye5st2mcf651o&dl=0

I wish it could be simpler, but it doesn't work. Eg. using motion clips from different Mixamo skeleton proportions is causing problems. That's why I've retarget them. But the retargeting itself seems not working accurate either. Please find a very simple example here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fekm9inecm7dszrnnquds/retarget-offset-problem-2.c4d?dl=0&rlkey=dqkgzhjz4qya5wrt2cawi45j3
There are a lot of foot offsets and sliding, especially when knees are bending. I am wondering whether I did something wrong or this is the expected retargeting tag result. From my impression, this glitches cannot be fixed by just moving a pivot vertically. It basically would need additional cleanup by hand, frame by frame..

The floor offset happens to the retargeted character, not to the original motion clip sequence.

I'm creating vertex maps with the use of Fields on an animated/deformed object. I want to prevent the vertex map from changing and remain as it appears at the frame it was created. In the past, I just unticked "Enable" or "Use Fields" and the vertex map turned into a regular static vertex map. With the recent C4D updates, the vertex map disappears (complete red) when unticking "Enable" or "Use Fields". I've tried to use "Freeze" instead, but this only works in render preview, when rendering to disk, the vertex map is messed up (it looks like is used deformed points in the preview and undeformed points for regular render

When using the retarget function on two Mixamo skeletons with different height, the retargeted skeleton has a floor offset. Example scene: https://www.dropbox.com/s/z1q106w7aio659q/retarget%20problem%201.c4d?dl=0

The Motion Source Character of the Character Solver has a motion clip applied as I need to sequence multiple motion clips and added a T-pose reference at the beginning. Not sure if this is causing the issue...

Edit: I've also tried to use the old Retarget Tag. When using this Tag, the Hip position/rotation of the two characters becomes identical. Which also causes floor offsets as the legs of one character are longer.

I’m trying to figure out whether the node system can be used in conjunction with other C4D feature such as Hair, Cloth, Fields, Vertex Maps, Selection Tags, etc.

For example, creating a procedural skirt on a rigged character. I would start with a loop selection around the hip, import the character in a Object Group Node and extrude it along the selection and add some smoothing to the extrusion. Theoretically, I would also like to control the amount of extrusion by a field or vertex map in order to extrude the back part of the skirt longer than the front. In the object manager, I would add a Cloth and Belt Tag to the Object Group. Then I would belt the Object Group to the original Rig, which would require to select all points of the object group. It would also require a vertex map that uses the original object as field to control the “influence” of the Belt in the Belt Tag. So the influence would be 100% on the character area and gradually decreases along the extrusion (skirt). This would result the cloth skirt bending down. I also would like to add hair to the head and create Vertex Maps that can be used in Materials (no RS).

However, I can’t figure out how to use the necessary Selection Tags, Vertex Maps, Fields, across the Node and Object Manager. The example described above is rather illustrative. But as it normally would require certain baking steps, I am wondering if it can be achieved procedurally by using the new Node System. The tutorials I found so far don’t really show how it is used in combination with other program features. So I’m not sure if the Nodes System is like a Black Box or if it can be integrated seamless into a project workflow that involves other program functions. It would be great to learn more about this.

Thank you! Yes, generating a hair instance or square is the common approach. But I was trying to connect the roots of the hair mesh with the object mesh. It partly works with the "test connect" example in my file, but the connection object messes up other parts of the mesh. Is there a way to restrict the "connect" to edge or point selection to affect only those points which need to be connected? I've seen a "connect" object node, but could not manage to assign a selection to it. Haven't even figured out how to import a selection tag into the node editor...

I understand the rig workaround, but need to stay procedurally.

Thank you for your prompt reply. the c4d file link prompts an error: "/topic/369/moextrude-along-hair-splines/error Not Found - You seem to have stumbled upon a page that does not exist. Return to the home page".
Did you find a way to connect the root mesh points of the Hair Cylinder to the model? I am looking for a way to have both in one mesh and then add Subsurface to have a smooth transition between the mesh and the hair roots. So that the hair look like spikes extruding from the mesh. Thank you!

I’m trying to extrude polygon selections of a mesh along hair splines, following an example in the C4D help: Extrude Deformer/ Object Properties/ Sweep Spline). However, I can’t make it work. Also tried another method using the connect object to connect the hair mesh with the target mesh. It works only partly because of the different distances between the connecting points. Here is a scene with the two approaches:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dhsfxg8uz6dre7p/hair%20mesh%20connect%2Cextrude%201.c4d?dl=0
It would be fantastic if there is a workaround or a way to use the Extrude Deformer for this purpose. Many thanks for any hint!

Thank you! Unfortunately, it doesn't work for my project as I needed the inverted selection to add hair and was also hoping to use some of the nodes to handle workflows that normally required mesh bouncing more procedural. Eg: I create an edge selection tag and extrude it. Then tried to smooth the geometry of the extruded edges. And add Clones or Hair to it, or convert the polygon selection tags to vertex maps for render effects or deformer fields. Also wondering if parameters like Extrude Offset can be affected by fields to introduce a variation to the offset. Such functions would be really useful. Example: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2dlndh6827k2rmm/nodes confusion 01.c4d?dl=0)

It seems the node system's compatibility with previous C4D functions (vertex maps, regular selection tags, fields, hair, mograph, etc. is rather limited. Or did I miss something? Did not find much info. Could you recommend a tutorial or manual that illustrates nodes capacities in a project that uses none-node features as mentioned above? Many thanks for any hint!

@Dr-Sassi Thanks for the links. Unfortunately, the link on the old Cineversity is not accessible. The YouTube video is pretty confusing. Simple operations require tons of nodes. Would be more handy to have “Store Selection” integrated in the modifying nodes (like it has been in Py-Parametric Tools).

Still trying to evaluate the capacities of the node system (without much success so far: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2dlndh6827k2rmm/nodes%20confusion%2001.c4d?dl=0). I create an edge selection tag and extrude it. Then tried to smooth the geometry of the extruded edges. And add Clones of Hair to it. Without success. And I am wondering if parameters like Extrude Offset can be affected by fields to introduce a variation to the offset. Such functions would be really useful.

@Dr-Sassi True, thanks!

@Dr-Sassi Sorry, just realized the UV-Edit doesn't work for this purpose as the video texture can only be mapped with Camera Projection, not UV.

@Dr-Sassi Thank you! Manually moving the UV points with soft selection, right? That helps a lot.

Just wondering if there isn't an way to get the exact mapping coordinates the plugin is using on the first frame and then apply it to a texture sequence material tag?

Hi, I want to map the video “movie.mov” on the face mesh as it looks more realistic than a still texture. This is the workflow I tried: creating a material with the “movie.mov” texture. Bake the face mesh PLA. Assign the material to it. Copy the Moves by Maxon camera, make it a child of the original camera and rotate it 90°. Select Camera Mapping in the material tag and assign the rotated camera. Adjust the aspect ratio and camera FOV to match the face.

It works.. almost. Comparing the still texture and the video texture at the first frame, where it should be identical, the video texture is a bit offset/wrong scaled. It’s just a few mm but I can’t figure out how to match it perfectly. Any idea?

Thank you for having a look! The Matrix works only when the mesh topology is constant. Eg, when adding a Py-Extrude Modifier it gets scrambled up. Here is a more complete example, where I inverted the selection manually: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cagy1dvff5acjmn/poly%20select%20-%20field%20problem%203.c4d?dl=0
However, I need the invert process stay procedurally to let the whole effect chain update automatically if the original selection changes. From how I understood the selection tag and field functionality, it should work, but it only works as expected with point selections... Thanks for any hint!