fusionThing is a major procedural modelling and animation plugin for Cinema4D 8.5 to 10.0.

Samples  Main features  Training videos  Tutorial/Reference manual 
'User Interface' page 

Works with R10, and now includes UB version for Intel Macs!

BBC Title Sequence - Once Were Farmers

Organics - Axel Ritter

Customer feedback:

• "Maybe the best description would be 'the Jenna of procedural modeling'. Highly recommended." - Adam Trachtenberg (AdamT)
• "I just have to say that fusionThing for me is one of the Top 5 Cinema plugins I ever bought." - Klaus Busse (Kabe)
• "It is absolutely killer in my humble opinion." - rsquires
• "May I just add that this is a truly remarkable plugin" - Daoine
• "I've managed to spend the whole day on fT because it's so much fun!" - Kerwin Rabbitroo (Rabbitroo)
• "This is completely new and revolutionary", "For anyone doing anything at all related to Arch Viz this plugin is a *MUST HAVE*! (IMHO)" - Tyrone Marshall (Continuumx)
• "Your latest video made me upgrade your plug-in from 'lust-worthy' to 'must have'" - Venkman
• "...I can look back at just one piece of mine and find five places I could've used this to save time" - Govinda
• "this is a superb 1.0 version release with good documentation and great examples ..." - Duffdaddy

Samples (click images for more):

Main Features:

• Model/animate with meshes procedurally - a powerful complement to Cinema4D's vertex/polygon toolset.
• Advanced shape conform, interpolation and curvature correction to map child meshes onto parent meshes.
• Allows major structural changes to be made to highly detailed models easily and quickly.
• 'Immediate mode' for rapid workflow, 'Object mode' for maximum flexibility.
• Create seamlessly welded complex meshes (Great with HyperNURBS!)
• Probabalistic control over which sub-meshes to use where.
• Over 100 control parameters giving extensive control over combining.
• Most controls keyframeable, and some can even be driven by material channels.
• Recursive detailing limited only by processor speed and memory.
• Optional probabalistic mesh selection and alignment to easily create model variations.
• Useful for many kinds of modelling, see below... (click images for larger view / animations)
• Available now for $195 US (+ local rate VAT if in EU)

(Click for full feature list)

Training videos

See fT in use...

Immediate mode basics Conform mode and weld Shows how to create complex organic 'face mask' object. Object mode basics [coming soon] Rapid recursive modelling Watch how to create the animatable mesh on the right from nothing in three minutes (Single seamless mesh, 30k polys - not counting HyperNURBS)... Applying model details #1 - Object mode Procedurally applying and controlling lots of small nurnies and greebles. Applying model details #2 - Immediate mode Rapid non-procedural application amd welding of larger chunks of detail geometry. Final project file. [More videos to follow...]

Tutorial/Reference manual

Latest version of tutorial manual for fusionThing (2.7MB PDF file).


Architectural

Building on right constructed procedurally from meshes on the left. Each Quad on the low poly reference mesh had a copy of the square window frame panel conformed onto it to precisely fit the shape of the reference mesh. Each small window in each of the frames then procedurally put into place, with fT additionally applying small random rotations of each pane in order to break up the specular reflection in the final image Any of the meshes can be edited at any time, and fT will rebuild the final mesh in a few seconds E.g. if you wanted to change the frame design in any way, just edit the base mesh, and fT rebuilds the final building... Project files here (two versions)

Left image below procedurally created with fT, using only the mesh pieces from the right image.

• Any of these pieces can be replaced or edited, and the model will be rebuilt in seconds.
• Probabilistic selection between archways, windows, and walls made procedurally, with user defined relative probabilities to decide how often each piece gets used.
• Just change the random seed values to create endless variations of the structure.
• Adding an extra storey to a tower is as simple as cutting an extra ring of polygons into one of the cylinders.

• Note the smooth curvature in the final object compared to the coarse reference shapes on the right - fT calculated the implied curvature represented by the meshes, and curved the detail pieces as needed as it used them.
• fT randomly selected between flat walls, windows, and arched doorways. Changing the seed values would create a different version.
• The tiles have been procedurally jittered in rotation to break up the smoothness. Different tile colours randomly chosen between by fT.
• Any of the base meshes, or fT parameters can be changed, and the new model will be generated in seconds.

Use fT to procedurally build a complex model from basic elements. Elements can be randomly selected, with whatever relative probabilities you want. Alignment, scaling, etc of the pieces can be set automatically, adjusted manually, or given whatever amount of random variation you want. Don't like the resulting mesh, or want to create another which is the same style but not identical? Just change the random seed values, and within seconds you have a new object. Got a model containing hundreds of windows, but want to see what a different window style looks like? Simple - swap the window mesh in the fT hierarchy and it will rebuild the model in seconds. Want 80% to be style A, and 20% style B? Easy, give fT both and tell it the relative probabilities. Want to choose between different detail pieces based on a material channel, but still want a single seamless mesh at the end? No problem - fT can handle it, even if the material is animated...


Rapid modelling / prototyping
fT lets you very quickly connect pieces of geometry to each other in very flexible ways. This lets you build objects from basic parts in a similar way to the way you would build a physical model from a kit of parts - except with much more flexibility. Keep a consistent style between a set of related models by building them from the same basic elements. As well as scaling and positioning meshes, fT can also distort them as needed to make them conform to the object they are being connected to, so that the resulting object retains any surface flow and curvature. Using object mode, major changes can be made, and pieces of geometry substituted at any stage.








Organics
Animation of object on left is driven entirely by keyframed parameters, together with keyframed position of a target NULL which parts of the mesh 'aim' at. No PLA was required.Despite different parts being independently animateable, fT will seamlessly weld them together into a smooth continuous mesh. fT was designed from the very beginning to work well with HyperNURBs, and generates clean meshes with correct welding.
Animation of object on right used simple PLA on sub-meshes, automatically transferred to final object.
This grass was created very quickly. Only the geometry in the right image was used (a plane, plus two very simple different coloured blades of grass). The blades were duplicated multiple times by fT, each on selected polygons on the plane, with random variation used to scatter them in position, change their scalings, and rotate them.



Motion Graphics
Animation on left (click to see) procedurally created by fT using elements on right. Intensity of animated material used to select one of the numbered 'flag' meshes, and also to control height above surface. fT automatically welds meshes together seamlessly, even though the sub meshes are moving relative to each other.

This is a very quick and simple animation using random variation on object height, but with a constraint to stop them going beneath the torus. You can set up this animation in about a minute.


Most of the >100 parameters can be keyframe animated. This allows complex animations to be created where position, rotation, scale, distortion, and aim of different parts of the final object can be seperately directly controlled. The sub-elements can be smoothly welded together by fT, or kept as seperate meshes. Meshes can be used as a 'template' controlling other meshes. This allows animation of the simple 'template' meshes to be directly converted into equivalent animation of the complex mesh built based on it. Welding of sub-meshes still works, even if the sub-meshes are animated with relative motion - i.e. the motion needn't break the welds. Material channels can be used to directly control mesh parameters, and can even be used to control which of several meshes should be used in any given place.


Detailing
Both immediate and object modes can be used to dramatically speed up the process of adding detailing to models. Create a set of generic detail parts, and let fT align, scale, conform and weld them to cleanly fit to any model you want. Easily re-use detail pieces between models regardless of the model shapes.

In single object mode, you can conform arbitrary pieces of child geometry cleanly onto the surface of the main model, and have the detail pieces weld to each other where appropriate. In single mesh mode, you can weld geometry with appropriate connects directly into the main mesh - so the detailing can actually cut into the main mesh, not just be applied to the surface. Immediate mode lets you lay down precise detail pieces very quickly. Object mode lets you procedurally place large amounts of geometry, whilst still being able to make major changes quickly and easily. Recursive detail is also simple with fT - so you can apply detail on top of detail... You can tell fT to replace each polygon or set of polygons of a mesh with a completely different mesh, and then to replace a set of polygons of that mesh with yet another mesh, and so on. Each level of replacement retains a full set of controls, allowing changes to be made at one level, even if further detail has been added on top.

See how the detailing was applied to the ship model above in training videos 5 and 6.


Repetition with variation
Whatever kind of models you are making, by giving fT sets of sub-meshes that it can randomly select from, you can extremely quickly create variation across repeated elements of a model, or even create lots more models which are similar, but different in detail.


Complex procedural animation
The flower on the left is built by fT entirely from the meshes on the right, and the animation is controlled by simple keyframing of fT parameters - no PLA animation was used or needed. fT provides high level directly keyframeable animation of sub-elements of complex single mesh objects, allowing for a high level of animation which would otherwise require extensive point level animation or bones.


Mixed
Of course, many projects don't fall into neat categories...

Full features of fT

• 'fusionThing' is a major procedural modelling and animation plugin for Cinema 4D 8.5 and above.
  
• Procedurally combine simple mesh objects into highly complex structures, with a large number of parameters and modes giving a high level of control
• Simplest combining will translate, rotate and scale meshes into alignment, optionally weld the meshes together, and automatically cleanup the resulting geometry into a clean mesh.
• More advanced combining gives procedural control over all aspects of the alignment process, including support for complex animation.
• More advanced still is 'conform mode', which cleanly deforms meshes onto the surface of other objects of completely different shapes.
• fT can even determine the implied curvature of a low polygon count base mesh when applying high polygon detail objects, and apply this curvature to them during assembly, resulting in smooth curvature of the geometry rather than faceting. (Kind of like phong shading, but applied to geometry rather than shading)
• Warp and aim modes are also provided, to allow you to make parts of your meshes try to aim or bend themselves at a target object, or in a target direction, whilst still being cleanly connected to the rest of the mesh (especially useful for generating complex organic motion without the need for point level animation, or for faking the effects of wind and gravity on delicate structures)
• Advanced support for controllable welding of sub-objects to parent objects, and to each other, even with random variations is provided - to allow complex seamless stuctures to be built up.
• Multiple level recursive combining is supported, so you can put detail upon detail upon detail - and still easily make major changes at the top level.
• Creates clean seamless meshes that work well with HyperNURBS (this was designed in from the start)
• Materials are transferred, and UVW mappings are preserved.
• PLA is supported - although many tasks that previously would need PLA can be done more easily and with more flexibility directly within fusionThing.
• In 'Immediate mode', it provides a very rapid workflow for quickly assembling models, with a live preview of what you are about to build.
• In 'Object mode' the procedural approach lets you keep your options open and easily make major changes to your models, and also provides extensive procedural animation control.
• Especially good for models involving repeating basic elements, but with variations, due to the ability to select probabalistically between different sub-meshes (with controllable relative probabilities), and to specify variation parameters in several ways.
• In architectural work, great for applying cladding to low-polygon reference models, to automatically construct high detail models from low detail elements.
• Also extremely powerful for creating a large number of meshes which are 'variations on a theme' - i.e. they are made from the same or similar basic elements, and you want to try out lots of variations. fusionThing makes this kind of experimentation easy.
• Most parameters support keyframe animation, and some (including choice of sub-mesh) can be controlled by material channels.
• Where random parameters are used, the seed values for the random number generators can also be keyframe animated, and the resulting random sequences will smoothly blend (i.e. fractional seed values are accepted and behave as you would want). This is very powerful for quickly and easily creating organic motion.
• Because fusionThing has so much power (over a hundred controls) - it also has an in-built context sensitive checker. If the results are not doing what you expected - press the 'report' button to get a report in the console on any settings, etc that are inconsistent or unusual, which will often tell you what is wrong and what to do to fix it.
• Great for rapid prototyping, pre-vis, architectural work, organics, abstracts, and all kinds of high level modelling and complex shape animation.