Puppeteer is a plugin for Cinema4DXL. Some users may recognize the name from the days of C4D 5, though this version (for C4D 6 and up) is a completely different beast. It's a plugin that tries to put an interface on a lot of uses for expressions. As you (C4D-user) know, expressions in C4D are written in the c.o.f.f.e.e. language, which is a lot like C++ and can be quite daunting for code-phobics. That's where Puppeteer steps into the ring, offering you a point-and-click method for simulating a lot of things you can do coding your own expressions, while trying to retain as much as possible of the flexibility. It works on the position, scale and rotation channels of two objects, and enables you to link them up in every which way you can.

For example uses, think about the obligatory biceps-bulging-when-elbow-bends, but also about limiting object rotations, sticking them together in world space no matter what hierarchy they're in, creating sliders for complex movements, steering a car's wheels with a steering object (including enforcement), bending a whole chain of object by just rotating one of them, etcetera.

Hold on!

Before I start sounding like a commercial, I'd better state the nature of this plug: it's an experiment. I have coded this firstly for my own use, to save me from having to retype the same expressions over and over again. It also was kind of an excersise in getting as much as I could into a single interface, as you might have guessed from the cluttered screenshot above. So the plugin, it's workings, and the workflow that comes with it might all be geared towards the way I work myself. I can't be sure if it works for others. Nevertheless, it's a very flexible tool, offering methods of animation that can otherwise only be acheived by typing code.

With the release of Cinema4D r8, I am discontinuing any devellopment of Puppeteer. I have been sending the plugin to a select few (actually, to all people who asked me for it :) but I now simply offer it for download here. The reason for this is that r8 makes it quite obsolete, but I can imagine Cinema4D users not updating to 8 and still needing something like Puppeteer. It works in r8 as well, but there are simpler methods there to achieve the same effects.

I have put an overly elaborate manual online if you want to check it out. If you want to have a better idea of what this plugin does, have a look at the Main Concept page. On the map-page you can simply click on the interface to see what it means. The same manual comes with the plugin itself, by the way.