Randomize time with Xpresso

[djembeplay]

Anyone with C4D and some expertise with Xpresso know how to do this?

Lets say I animated a cube to move across the screen. The animation is 30f long. Now I want 10 copies of the cube to do the same thing, only with their animation time offset in a random fashion. I don't want the duration to speed up or slow down, I just want the 30 frame animation to be offset to different points in a given timeline.

[djembeplay]

Ya... I didn't figure it out either. I'll chip away at it and post the solution if I find one...

[Raptor365]

Mograph would be my first look.
Add a Cloner with a Random Effector or 2 or 3, ect.

[djembeplay]

Ya... I was thinking Xpresso just so I could learn what nodes it would take to do this... I searched through and couldn't seem to find any. It would be weird if Mograph could do things that Xpresso couldn't, right?

[Raptor365]

I'll send a PM. Mograph is good at what it does. Xpresso is more for stuff you can't do otherwise, then you step up to COFFEE and if that can't do it, you go to the c++ C4D SDK.

[Raptor365]

After some thought, I don't think there is any way to clone objects using xpresso nodes. But you could use the coffee node in xpresso and write some coffee code that would probably do it, but then your getting into that c++ stuff again.

Another way might be to use particles instead, assiging the cube as particle geometry.
Then you could manipulate the particles using xpresso.


Now I want 10 copies of the cube to do the same thing, only with their animation time offset in a random fashion. I don't want the duration to speed up or slow down, I just want the 30 frame animation to be offset to different points in a given timeline.

So, maybe I misunderstand. So you already have the copies made? And now you just want the animation offset?

huh, I'm not sure. You would need to copy the animation track to the other objects and offest the keys. Or at the least, find out where the master cube was at a given frame and use that position, doing that each frame for all of the cubes. If don't know if standard xpresso nodes alone can do that.
The coffee node would be handy though. Anyways, if I think of a way I'll you know.

[djembeplay]

Hey - apologies again for being incommunicado for a bit. I've been finishing up a project and taking sporadic day trips, so I haven't found my way to the ol' 3D forum for a bit.

Anywho, I appreciate the help as always.

I'm not sure I follow this bit you wrote:

"Or at the least, find out where the master cube was at a given frame and use that position, doing that each frame for all of the cubes."