Animate 3D Point Cloud

Hello, I am doing a very experimental and abstract animation for one of my classes so please humor and bear with me as this doesn’t have a strong concept and the idea of the class is to be experimental/exploratory of 3D Programs (Rhino is, of course, my choice because its…the best). Also all feedback and ideas are welcome!!!

I created an extremely complex point cloud and I would like for it to animate along a path on two seperate anchors points (aethetics of a 3D spirograph, yeah i know…what?). Then I would like to create a 3D curve that will follow the path of the points moving through space. (imagine a point cloud made out of LED’s that you throw into the air at night, image a long exposure photograph of this) I would then bring this into after effects and post-edit what those curves will do. Here is my inspiration, I dont want to replicate this but you may be able to see where I’m going(Its the first video posted on 10/7). @m_cericson Any better ideas on how to do this?

Question
How can I animate a point cloud while simultaneously creating curves following the points path. I do not need to record this action, I only need the output curves.

I understand this may bleed into the grasshopper realm, and please let me know if you would like me to repost.

Hello - if the goal is to get the curves, then I guess you can manipulate the points in the pointcloud in a script rather than on screen, and create a point list to interpolate for each point and get the curves from that. - what is the motion like? I can imagine a path, you set planes normal to the curve at intervals along the path and map all the points from the start position to the current plane, add the current location of each point to its list, then repeat with a plane set a little farther along the overall path curve… does that seem even remotely like what you are shooting for?

-Pascal

Yes exactly! Scripting is way out of my league at this point in time so I was hoping for a plugin or something like that. I found another way to do what I wanted. I created an OBJ from a 2d-3d style transfer. It contains material. I would like to turn that object into a point cloud and then have a flythrough of it. This is much different than my original post although I found my initial question could be quite daunting.

Is it possible to render a point cloud in rhino that retains the colors of each point, and then I can do a flythrough animation?