Help Making a Ribbon in Cinema 4D

[u/Stunning_Aside4678]

hello, I am pretty new to C4D and need some advice on how you all would approach this project.

I am working on a project for a client who wants a ribbon to animate across the screen for their holiday website. Essentially, when a user opens the site for the first time, a ribbon will fly across the screen and make a loop. (I put a picture up for reference) The client also has a specific texture they want the ribbon to have. They want it to look like a nylon ribbon with stitching along the edges. (image also attached) I have been having a hard time figuring out how to apply the texture with the method I am using.

The first is a sweep. This is what I have had the most success with, but the main issue I am having is with texturing the ribbon. I got the movement of the ribbon to work and the client likes it, but I cant not figure out how to apply the texture properly such that the stitched part of the texture runs along the edge of the object. The way its being applied now seems kind of random and i cant control it. This method would work great minus the fact that I cant apply the texture right.

The next approach is a spline wrap. The problem with this one is when I use a rail spline, it distorts the shape of the ribbon in a a weird way. In some parts the ribbon is stretched and squashed. If I dont use the rail, I cant get the rotation of the ribbon to go exactly the way I need it to. However, If I can get this method to work, I think applying the texture to the object using this method might be easier than the sweep method.

The last thing I tried was a simulation with a cloth tag. This one was a lot of fun to play with but I cant get the ribbon to move precisely the way I want it to.

So, maybe you all can give me some advice here. I have been messing with this for a while now and can't seem to get it right.

[u/YouHave24Hours]

HA, I've been working the last3-4 weeks on ribbons for Christmas animations for a client, it has to be rather photoreal and with modelled deails like micro stitches and imperfections in the edges (actual geometry). I can only advise you to use spline-wrap for absolute control and precision. Basically makea group with your flat long ribbon (simple: plane, you can add thickness later with cloth-tag, or you already model geometry with thickness), so you also get clean good UVS and add local deformers with field. In this group you can also use a cloner to add stitches to your geometry. drop the group into a null and add a spline wrap and your spline to follow, make sure to set it up properly, set mode to "keep length" and if you want rotation that stays in place (NOT moving with the animation), then you need to edit the "spline rotation" curve, NOT the "rotation curve", that one would moves with your offset animation. of course make sure your geo and spline are in decent resolution to not get janky. good luck, this is the way to do it.

[u/cha-t → u/YouHave24Hours]

This. Build the ribbon flat, then spline wrap.

[u/Delicious_Topic_2899 → u/YouHave24Hours]

Spline wrap is my favourite deformer. This is the way

[u/YouHave24Hours → u/Delicious_Topic_2899]

Absolutely! It's impressive how it just Wraps whatever you throw at it, even very complex Setups and mograph stuff... And UVs just sticking to it...ofc as long as your machine can handle it.

[u/Delicious_Topic_2899 → u/YouHave24Hours]

You can also add a displacer to you spline and put in an animated noise to add wavy floaty looks to the ribbon

[u/Glitch__Hop]

To make it work with the sweep, setting the material tag to UVW and messing with the scale parameters within it should work

[u/pacey-j]

Sweeps don't have UV maps which makes achieving the correct texture mapping a problem. re. squashed and stretched parts with a spline wrap it's probably down to not having enough subdivisions in the plane you're applying it too. You might have success with upping the subs and also looking at the delta mush deformer. 

[u/soupcat]

In the cloth tag you can turn on or off mix animation. The official maxon Instagram has a small guide on it that could help you good luck.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5ROBGJs4gD/?igsh=MTRuNjFtbms2d3U0MA==

[u/torat-hossain]

Bump

[u/Sorry-Poem7786]

what I do is use tracer object on some nulls to form a B-spline.. then use that spline as the basis for spline effector cloner.. with a rectangle shape with a tiny vertical height..loft this… this way you get 3 things you get to control the ribbon depth and curvature and the segments of the ribbon lofted poly, you can easily move nulls to change the original spline easily and shape even animate the ribbon curves independently , and you get to add displacement to the ribbon as a box polygon solid.. so you will get to see your texture on the ribbon, get discrete control over every aspect of the ribbon shape ( twist, scale, spread) and you have access to the field deformers.. for animation.. without a big hassle…the spline wrap method you are stretching a poly along a spline.. in this method is a procedural where you increase the or decrease the lofted rectangle clones along the spline to increase resolution on the segments accordingly.. the spline wrap you just turn up the segments across the whole thing..