Cinema 4d tutorial

Here an effort to give a little tutorial on Cinema 4D.
The version I’m working with is Maxon Cinema 4D Version 9.
At the end of this tutorial I will offer you the c4d files for free as well as some renders in different resolutions.

The Start
I always start of with a floor. It keeps your feet to the ground.

Then I created a simple cube.
Objects > primitive > cube
And divided it. To do that, first you have to make it editable:
Functions > Make Editable (or press c)
Then: Functions > subdivide (subdivision = 3)

Then probably the most important part will take place. The actual shaping of the monster. With the use of the polygon tool, you can easily move parts of the surface to your desired position. You can also tweak the scale of those parts.
For now 4 legs and some spikes will do.

We need a camera in good position. During the modelling I usually keep changing perspective. Just to see what it looks like. It really comes in handy to have that camera in a nice position. Now you dont have to change your current view with every render you make.

To make the shape of the animal more organic, you insert HyperNurbs:
Objects > NURBS > HyperNURBS
I leave every setting on default. These hyperNURBS smooth out every sharp corner and takes away the sharp edges.

But now, it really is a bit too smooth. When it starts to look like Jell-O, you know there’s work to do.
For that, I used Weight HyperNURBS. What it does is undo the hyperNURBS smoothing on specific parts.
Just select a part of the surface again, and in Structure > Weight HyperNURBS you’ll find what you need.
I used it to have the four legs stand on the ground again. Make them wider towards the ground.

Because the monster is still quite abstract, I added two weapons. They’re actually camera’s! But when you loose the textures, modify them a bit and use them in a totally different context, they become weapons!
Or they stay camera’s. Fair enough. We need surveillance monsters as well.

With all the modelling done, it’s time to add lighting and textures. First some lights. For me that’s when 3d starts to become more real.
Two spotlights. Rounded spotlights with soft shadows.

And another rounded spotlight from the back, with visible light. That makes the outlines of the monster stand out a bit.

Now we add some texture. I wanted this monster to be a plastic metallic black. Nice and shiny.
So strange enough, here I used white as color.
Reflection of 80%.
Specular of metal (width 23, height 100, falloff 33)
And displacement.
For the displacement I used a predefined texturemap. Inside the Material Editor, inside the Displacement tab:
Texture > Surfaces > Brick
And I blurred them out a bit.
The specular is used for the highlights.
A good explanation of some of the miracles one can achieve with displament mapping, check here:
http://www.creativemac.com/2004/02_feb/tutorials/koc4ddisplace0402244.htm
For this monster I used it to roughen up the shape of the monster. Make it a bit less modelled. More random.

The floor I wanted to be dirty and wet. So I added a dirt texture and some reflection.
I used bump for this material to make sure it’s not as flat as a mirror.

To make the scene a bit less clinical, a little bit of fog seemed appropriate.
Real fog or clouds are hard to make so I faked them, using two plane objects.
Objects > Primitive > Planes
To the planes I added transparancy. With a black and white .jpeg of real clouds. The black parts become transparent, the white stay opaque.
Now the planes still receive shadows. That’s not good. So, we add a tag to the planes:
Right click on object > Cinema 4D Tags > Compositing. Then unselect Receive Shadows and Cast Shadows.

We’re getting somewhere. Because of the displacement the camera’s are changed beyond recognition. For the camera’s a make a duplicate of the material used for the monster and simply uncheck the displacement checkbox.

The texture on the floor shows repetition and is still shiny as a mirror.

The backlight could use a bit more brightness.

Finally in Photoshop, I added some more smoke and a city background.

Let me know what you think!

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