re-time nCache

[Gary Jaeger]

Potentially dumb question. Once i've created an nCache how do I re-time it with a curve in the curve editor? I see I can reverse it, but I want a curve to control the speed. Breaking the current time connection in the nucleus and feeding it a curve doesn't do it, which make sense since it's c. But I don't see a "current time" in the cache attributes.

thanks!

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Gary Jaeger // Core Studio
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[Sachin Shrestha]

The scale parameter in the ncache node controls the speed. You can animate that and tweak the animation curve.

[Gary Jaeger]

Thanks Sachin. So you're creating a curve for a speed value? That's odd. I tried it a bit but couldn't get it to behave as I would expect. Has this worked for you?

[Sachin Shrestha]

Hi Gary, its worked in the past for me. Here's a quick example scene (hope the attachment goes through the group). It seems to be working here too.

[Gary Jaeger]

Thanks Sachin-

I think I see the problem. it works for cached nCloth but not nParticles! I don't know why it would be different, but apparently that's the case. 

[Sachin Shrestha]

I tried it on nparticles too after reading your other post and it seemed to be working there as well. The file crashed on me so couldn't send you that one. It was the "fireworks" asset from Visor. Just make sure you turn off nucleus for cache to evaluate properly.

[Gary Jaeger]

Look at that. You're right. I just wasn't scaling enough. So.. I tried reading up on the scale attribute but the docs aren't great. In you example, when you enter a value of 50, what does that mean exactly? Seems like that is a scale of 50:1 as a frame mapping. So what in the original played over 1 frame it would now take 50, is that essentially what's happening? 

very curious. Thanks for the help

[Sachin Shrestha]

Yeah, values higher than 1 will stretch the sim by that amount and vice versa. 0.5 will shrink a sim of 100 frames to 50 frames since its being multiplied by 1/2.

You're welcome!

[Gary Jaeger]

yeah ok. Wow that's an incredibly odd way of re-timing something. It makes it really tough to predictably get what you want.

I wonder why why there isn't a way like the old method of simply running an animation curve in the current time attr like with the old dynamics. Seems like there ought to be a "current time" value someplace

[Sachin Shrestha]

Yeah I guess that depends. I used to find the old method non intuitive so...

;-)

[Gary Jaeger]

For what it's worth, I had a think on it and came up with a solution for my way of working. Using the Node editor, it's visible where the time attributes are connected on the cache files. Apparently it's not visible in the AE for some reason. So I added a newTime attribute to the particle, and using the node editor connected that to Time attribute on the cache node. Now I can animate the time logically (to me) where 1=frame 1, 20 = frame 20, etc. 

Thanks again!

[Ryan O'Phelan]

You can just connect an animation curve to the time attribute of the cache. I usually make a new att then set a linear key, then connect the curve out to time at on the cache. It was a eureka moment when I first did it.

Ryan

[Gary Jaeger]

yep, thanks Ryan. Exactly how I did it. I don't know why Time is not visible by default in the AE. 

On May 15, 2012, at 5:40 AM, Ryan O'Phelan wrote:

You can just connect an animation curve to the time attribute of the cache. I usually make a new att then set a linear key, then connect the curve out to time at on the cache. It was a eureka moment when I first did it.