FlowGraph

A Flow Graph based animation plugin for Cinema 4D

Videos

Introduction


Overview


Triggering Physics


FlowGraphs controlling FlowGraphs


Update 1.1: Lock/Unlock

Workflow

  1. Create an object in your scene
  2. Open the Flow Graph Dialog from the Extensions menu (or Plugins menu in older verisons of C4D)
  3. Dock the flow graph somewhere in your layout
  4. Drag a parameter that you wish to animate from the objects parameters and drop it into the Flow Graph dialog
  5. Press the "To End" button next to "Animation Frames". This will take you to the time in the timeline where this animation will end (frame 30)
  6. Change the End values for your parameter within the Flow Graph dialog
  7. Press Play or scrub the timeline to see the parameter animate
  8. Drag in a second parameter that you wish to animate after the first one
  9. Connect it to the first node by clicking and dragging from the small circle on the first node, directly onto the second node you just added
  10. With the second node selected, press "To End". This will take you to the frame in timeline where this animation will end (frame 60)
  11. Change the End values of this parameter in the Flow Graph dialog
  12. Press play on the timeline to see the first paramter animate, followed by the second parameter animate
  13. Select the Flow Tag that was added to your object in the Object Manager
  14. Change the Play to "Ping Pong"
  15. Press the "Set Timeline To Anim Length" button on the Flow Tag. Your animation timeline will now change to 120 frames to allow a full play forwards and backwards of the animation
  16. Press play to see the animation ping pong back and forwards
  17. Now change the Mode in the Flow Tag to "Manual"
  18. Now change the Blend parameter on the Flow tag to manually control the animation of your flow graph
  19. Continue adding more parameters to your flow graph from anywhere in your scene to control anything

Features

  • Node based animation
  • Drag and drop C4D parameters into the Flow Graph dialog to animate them
  • Animate from Start To End values, Current Value to End Value, Additive, or animate back to the First Frame state.
  • Connect nodes to animate one after the other
  • Add a delay node between animation nodes
  • Set the animation length of each node by frames
  • Play once, Loop forever or Ping Pong the animation back and forth
  • Add Easing to each node animation
  • Add Easing across the entire flow graph animation
  • Manually control the entire animation via an animatable blend parameter
  • Speed up or slow down the entire animation via a speed multiplier
  • Offset the start frame if using timeline based animation
  • Navigate the graph by middle mouse panning and zooming in and out
  • Open the Flow Graph from the Extensions Menu
  • Add a flow tag directly to an object form the regular right click menu on an object
  • Moving the tag from one object to another does not break the animation. Allowing you to move the tag onto a null if you wish to re-organize how the object manager should look

Flow Graph Dialog


  • Drag and drop a parameter into the flow graph to animate it
  • Dragging in your first parameter will add a tag to the object the tag is on. If you are dragging in a material parameter it will create a null and put the Flow Tag on the Null
  • Hold down Alt when dragging a parameter into the dialog and it will automatically connect it up to the currently selected node and then make it the selected one
  • Zoom in/out using the middle mouse wheel
  • Pan by holding down and dragging the middle mouse button
  • Hold Ctrl+Alt and drag to duplicate a node and have it connected to back to the node you duplicated from
  • Hold Ctrl+Shift and drag to duplicate a node and have it connected to the parent node of the one you are duplicating from
  • Click and drag to select multiple nodes
  • Hold down shift to select multiple nodes
  • If multiple nodes are selected then you can edit the parameters on all selected nodes
  • Right click on a node and from the menu and select Detach to disconnect it from its parent node
  • Frame All: Will fit the graph into the view
  • Set Timeline To Anim Length: Will adjust the timeline so that it perfectly fits the length of the Flow Graph animation. If you are in Ping Pong mode then it will make it twice as long to allow for a full animation back to the starting position
  • Lock/Unlock: Will lock the FlowGraph to display only the currently selected Flow Tag. The view will have a red boarder when locked. When locked clicking on other tags will not change what is displayed in the Flow Graph. This allows you to then select other Flow Tags and drag in their Blend parameters to allow you to create FlowGraphs that control other FlowGraphs.

Flow Tag


  • Open Flow Graph: Opens the flow graph dialog
  • Enabled: Enables the Flow Graph
  • Mode
    • Timeline: Will animate when the timeline is played or scrubbed
    • Manual: The animation is controlled by the Blend parameter
  • Start Frame: When in Timleine model this sets the start frame on the timeline when this flow graph should start animating
  • Play
    • Once: Will play the animation graph once then stop
    • Loop: Will play the animation graph then start again from the beginning and repeat continuously
    • Ping Ping: Will play the animation graph to the end, then rewind and play it backwards to the start. It will the play forward again forever.
    • Note: Only the Once mode will work if you are controlling simluations such as Physics, Cloth or Pyro.
  • Enable Speed: Lets you set a Speed multiplier value. This lets you speed up or slow down the animation in your timeline.
  • Speed: The speed multiplier value.
  • Blend: When in Manualmode, you can control or animate this parameter to animate the entire Flow Graph.
  • Go To End Frame: Motes the timeline to the end frame of the entire Flow Graph animation.
  • Set Timeline to Anim Length: Will adjust the timeline so that it perfectly fits the length of the Flow Graph animation. If you are in Ping Pong mode then it will make it twice as long to allow for a full animation back to the starting position.
  • Easing: Set an easing type for the entire animation

Common Node Settings


  • Object Name: The name of the object that the parameter belongs to
  • Parameter Name: The name of the parameter being animated
  • Frames: The number of frames this parameter will be animated for
  • To Start: Will move the timeline to the location of the start frame of the animation for the selected node
  • To End: Will move the timeline to the location of the end frame of the animation for the selected node
  • Set End: Will set the Animation Frames value so that the animation will finish at the time the timeline is currently on.
  • Mode: The animation mode
    • Start To End: Animate from the Start value to the End value
    • Current To End: Animate from whatever value the parameter is before the node starts to the the End value set on the node
    • Additive: Add the End amount to the current value of the parameter
    • To First Frame: Animate from the current value back to the value this node started on, at the beginning of the flow graph animation
  • Set Start: Sets the Start value on the node to be whatever the parameter is currently at in the scene. This allows you to adjust the parameter in the scene to the look you are after, then press Set Start to save this value in the node
  • Set End: Sets the End value on the node to be whatever the parameter is currently at in the scene. This allows you to adjust the parameter in the scene to the look you are after, then press Set End to save this value in the node
  • Easing: Set an easing type for this specific node

Supported Parameter Types

  • Objects: Will give you full Position, Sale and Rotation values to animate
  • Integers and Floating values / Sliders, Number Fields and DropDowns
  • Check Boxes
  • Colors
  • Filenames: Change the filename of an image on a material for example
  • Vectors
  • Strings: Change the text in a text field for example
  • Links: Change the linked object in a link field

Installing

C4D R20 to C4D 2023

You can use the flow_manual_install_20to2023 Zip files for 20 to 2023 if you wish to manually install the plugins yourself. Just make sure to delete every version of the plugin in the folder, except the one that matches the version of C4D you are installing for. Note that the 2023 version is marked as R27 in the zip file.

C4D 2024

You can use the flow_manual_install_OS_2024.zip files to install the 2024 version manually. Unzip the folder and then add the unzipped folder path to your Preferences Plugins path in C4D.

C4D 2025

You can use the flow_manual_install_OS_2025.zip files to install the 2025 version manually. Unzip the folder and then add the unzipped folder path to your Preferences Plugins path in C4D.

C4D 2026

You can use the flow_manual_install_OS_2026.zip files to install the 2026 version manually. Unzip the folder and then add the unzipped folder path to your Preferences Plugins path in C4D.

About FlowGraph

Development of the plugin is being done by @kentbarber.

Available for Cinema 4D R20 through to Cinema 4D 2025 on both macOS and Windows.

Since this is a one man operation please forgive the quality of the videos and marketing material at this stage. Things will improve over time.

Contact

You can drop us a message over on the GameLogicDesign Contact page.


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Check out Plugins 4D for more Cinema 4D plugins.