Ballnstick Pro 1.2 Documentation

Ballnstick Pro 1.2
a plug-in for Cinema 4D XL

Ballnstick Pro 1.2 attaches a ball-shape to every point and a stick-shape to every edge of an object. This can either create cool ball and stick structures or be used to render an object as a grid. The plug can be applied as a one-time macro or as an animation effect.

Some people have complained that I don't give real world examples of what one can do with my plugs so I have created a whole page full of examples.

How to apply:

Ballnstick Pro is applied to the selected object in the editor and its children. There are two dialogs. In the first one you specify the kind of ball and the kind of stick to be used and in the second one you specify their settings.

First dialog

Result name:
This is the name of the resulting object.
Use sub-objects:
If "0" only the selected object is used.
If "1" all children of the object are also used.
Balltype: (0-2)
If "0" no balls are placed.
If "1" perfect spheres are used as balls.
If "2" you can specify an own object to use as ball.
Sticktype: (0-2)
If "0" no sticks are placed.
If "1" plain cylinders are used as sticks.
If "2" you can specify an own object to use as stick .

The second dialog is generated depending on what type of objects you chose in the first. You can use any combination of different types, for example perfect spheres with custom sticks, but to cover all possible dialog items I only need to show two generated dialogs.

Second dialog (built-in objects)

Radius: (to the left)
The radius of the perfect sphere used as ball.
Radius: (to the right)
The radius of the cylinder used as stick.
Resolution:
The number of edges on the cylinder. Higher values create smoother cylinders but dramatically increases total polycount.
Grouptype: (1-2)
If "1" the objects are separately placed under the parent-object. (good for texturing each object separately)
If "2" the balls and the sticks are placed in different groups. (good for texturing balls and sticks differently)

Second dialog (custom objects)

Object name: (to the left)
The name of the custom object to use as ball.
Object name: (to the right)
The name of the custom object to use as stick.
Z-Length:
The length of the custom cylinder object along the Z-axis. This is needed to properly fit the object to the length of the edge.

Custom stick are place with the axis in the middle of the edge and the Z-axis pointing along the edge. Then the object is scaled along the Z-axis to the length of the edge.

Custom balls are placed with the axis exactly on the point and are then neither scaled nor rotated. Tips: If you want to create for example a mace with the "balls" (cylinders) all pointing outwards, see the examples page.

Animation

Ballnstick Pro can also be used as an animation plug. Just create a "Ballnstick Pro 1.2"-track, sequence and on an object and a Ballnstick-object will be created and maintained. The dialogs and the options are the same except for two items in the last dialog:

Activated: (0-1)
If "0" the plug is inactive. This is useful because it then doesn't slow down XL when you drag around the time-line. Another way of accomplishing the same thing is to always create the ballnstick-tracks as the last thing before rendering.
If "1" the ballnstick object is created and maintained as normal.
Force recreation: (0-1)
If "0" the ballnstick object isn't totally recreated each frame but instead the balls are just moved around and the sticks are just placed and scaled along the Z-axis. This saves much time and is recommended when you don't wish to make any changes to the settings.
If "1" the ballnstick object is recreated at every frame. This is needed if you want to make changes to the settings afterwards (like changing the radius or resolution). The disadvantage is that updating is slower and any textures placed (except for directly on the result group object) are lost at each redraw.

If you have complex scenes the redraw-times for Ballnstick Pro can be unbearably long. Although this may not be a problem during rendering it can be painful while modeling. Therefore you probably want to use the "Activated" feature or create the ballnstick effects last.

You can also use the result of the non-animated version for simple position and rotation animations by dragging the individual result for each object into the object at issue. This is much faster but gives wrong results if you scale or morph the objects afterwards.

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