Cinema 4D R14 Cookbook, Second Edition

Cinema 4D R14 Cookbook, Second Edition

By : Simon Russell, Michael Szabo

Buy this Book

Cinema 4D R14 Cookbook, Second Edition

By: Simon Russell, Michael Szabo

Buy this Book

Overview of this book

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. 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. 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. 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.

Cinema 4D R14 Cookbook Second Edition

Credits

About the Authors

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Preface

Free Chapter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Customer Reviews

5 star

4 star

3 star

2 star

1 star

Introduction

A producer I worked for always used the word "dynamic" to describe what he wanted to change about whatever project me or my fellow animators worked on. Whatever we made, it always needed something more. Instead of being specific and giving us a clue what to change, he would just use his catchphrase: "It needs to be more...dynamic."

So the word "dynamic" became a buzz word among us. We determined that we needed a button or a plugin that simply added more "dynamic" to our designs. More flares, more glows, more particles, more...dynamic!

By definition, I guess he used the word correctly, but when you put the word dynamics in the context of Cinema 4D, you can have relatively simple designs without throwing every effect in the book on them and they can still be dynamic. Dynamics are used in Cinema 4D to simulate interaction between objects, eliminating the need for keyframes and leaving their movement up to predetermined properties and physics within the project. Instead of keyframing...

Cinema 4D R14 Cookbook, Second Edition

By : Simon Russell, Michael Szabo

Cinema 4D R14 Cookbook, Second Edition

By: Simon Russell, Michael Szabo

Overview of this book

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Cinema 4D R14 Cookbook, Second Edition

Introduction