Book Image

Cinema 4D R14 Cookbook, Second Edition

By : Simon Russell, Michael Szabo
Book Image

Cinema 4D R14 Cookbook, Second Edition

By: Simon Russell, Michael Szabo

Overview of this book

<p>Cinema 4D is a 3D modeling, animation, and rendering application developed by MAXON. It is becoming the most popular 3D design program in the world and learning it now will only help you become a better and more valuable designer in the 3D design industry. It is capable of procedural and polygonal sub modeling, animating, lighting, texturing, rendering, and common features found in 3D modeling applications.</p> <p>This book provides all the Cinema 4D knowledge you need to become well-versed with the software in the form of short recipes, which get straight to the point about what you need to know to start designing great 3D projects.</p> <p>Cinema 4D R14 Cookbook, Second Edition will guide you towards becoming an adept 3D designer, giving you all the tools to succeed in the field of 3D graphics. The book is set up to gradually introduce more sophisticated topics the deeper you go, and by the end of it you'll have a great working knowledge of the program. Early on you'll learn the basics of the program, and then jump right into how to start creating your own 3D objects to use in your designs.</p> <p>Along the way you'll learn how to set up lights, cameras, and materials to turn your work into something that feels more like art and design. Towards the end of the book you will be introduced to powerful tools like Xpresso, Mograph, Particles, Sculpting, and Dynamics to take your work to the next level. You'll be impressed by how easy it is to design top quality work once you lay the foundation for the entire program through this book. By the end of this book, you'll have opened new creative doors and given yourself the opportunity to be a more successful and versatile designer.</p>

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Cinema 4D R14 Cookbook, Second Edition
Simon Russell | Michael Szabo
Aug, 2013 | 416 pages
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Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Cinema 4D R14 Cookbook Second Edition
Cinema 4D R14 Cookbook Second Edition
Credits
Credits
About the Authors
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
The Fundamentals
The Fundamentals
Introduction
Exploring the interface
Moving around in Cinema 4D
Meeting the Managers
Setting keyframes
Utilizing the Content Browser
Adjusting the scale of your objects
2
Super Modeling
Super Modeling
Introduction
Working with primitives
Subdividing, selecting, and editing polygons
Creating from splines – extrude NURBS
Using Lathe NURBS
Using Sweep NURBS
Modeling with Loft NURBS
Punching holes with Boole
Using the Atom Array tool
Best modeling advice – just go for it
Getting to grips with sculpting
Sculpting a head
3
The Deformers
The Deformers
Introduction
Getting started with the Taper deformer
Animating with deformers: Bend
Custom italics with Shear
Over-animation with Squash and Stretch
Making an asteroid with FFD and Displacer
Unconventional animations with deformers
Breaking objects with deformers
Using Spline Wrap versus Sweep NURBS
Applying the Collision deformer
4
Cameras are Rolling
Cameras are Rolling
Introduction
Keyframing cameras
Moving a camera along a path
Locking cameras down with the Protection tag
Using target cameras
Adjusting focal lengths
Matching your camera to footage
The Physical tab
Creating a handheld-style camera
Setting up stereoscopic cameras
Camera calibration
Using the Motion Camera tag
Simulating a chase scene
Getting to grips with the Camera Morph tag
Complex camera moving with the Multi Morph tag
5
Let there be Lights
Let there be Lights
Introduction
Picking the right type of light
Exploring shadow types
Applying volumetric lighting
Hot and cold – adjusting the temperature of the light
Lighting specific objects
Applying Global Illumination
Lighting using the Luminance channel
Lighting with Sky objects
6
A Material World
A Material World
Introduction
Using an Alpha channel to model
Using video as materials
Using multiple materials on one object
Using Shaders
Make adjustments with the Layers Shader
Using different Projection methods
Reflective materials with the Fresnel Shader
Creating a glass material
Adding relief – Bump and Displacement channels
Applying Subsurface Scattering
7
Rendering Strategy
Rendering Strategy
Introduction
Render settings overview
Creating a batch of renders
Previewing renders with Render Region
Comparing different renders
Using anti-aliasing effectively
Exploring the Physical Renderer engine
The Compositing tag
Setting up multi-pass renders
The External Compositing tag and After Effects
Projecting shadows
8
The Awesome Power of MoGraph
The Awesome Power of MoGraph
Introduction
MoGraph basics – cloners and effectors
Making text with MoText
Using selections with cloners
Applying deformation with effectors
Creating abstract shapes
Applying random textures to clones
Creating a mosaic
Combo #1 – building a 3D logo
Combo #2 – dynamic stage lighting
Combo #3 – dancing music orb
9
XPresso Shots
XPresso Shots
Introduction
Introduction to XPresso
Creating and controlling user data
Driving animations
Adjusting outputs with Range Mapper
Controlling lights with MoGraph and XPresso
Creating a project control panel
10
Configuring Dynamics
Configuring Dynamics
Introduction
Introduction to dynamics – bowling
Colliding clones – cereal bowl
Aerodynamics – making a helicopter
Dynamic trap #1 – trap door with connectors
Dynamics trap #2 – soft body net
Dynamics trap #3 – spring launcher and hair
Cloth and Spline Dynamics – clothesline
The final recipe – Rube Goldberg machine
11
Thinking about Particles
Thinking about Particles
Introduction
Standard Particles
Let the water flow (a simple water simulation)
Thinking Particles
Using Thinking Particles to create complex behavior
Adding geometry to Thinking Particles
Making it Rain
Index
Index

Aerodynamics – making a helicopter

Aerodynamics allow dynamic objects within Cinema 4D to act as if they have air flowing around them. For example, we could create a paper aeroplane with aerodynamics applied and expect it to act in a similar way to a real paper aeroplane.

For this recipe we're going to make a very simple helicopter which uses aerodynamics to fly (or crash!).

Getting ready

Open up helicopter.c4d from the C4D Content Pack.

How to do it...

  1. As you see we already have a very simple setup. A simple helicopter and a ground plane. The Floor object has a Collider Dynamic tag already applied to it and the helicopter has a Rigid Body Dynamics tag applied.

  2. Click on play button and watch what happens. Well not much! The model simply falls to the floor in much the way you'd expect. We're going to apply some aerodynamics to the helicopter to make it behave a little more realistically. Go to the Rigid Body Dynamics option and go to the Force tab. Under Aerodynamics increase the Lift attribute...

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