July2005

ISSUE - JULY 2005

You want those flickery Las Vegas lights? Rui Batista will show you a way to create your own cool marquee light effects! Read on page 10.

Follow Bram in this introductory first part of a mini series on creating shaders. Blend, mix and combine in this tutorial on page 33.

A basic modeling tutorial on creating a coffee maker. No XPresso or COFFEE needed to follow along! A must for beginners on page 24.

PAGE 4

C4D Quiz - WIN 5 ART BOOKS BY BALLISTIC PUBLISHING

PAGE 5-9

Interview with Sebastien Florand by Thomas Pasieka

PAGE 10-14 Marquess Lights by Rui Batista PAGE 15-17 Gnomon Review by Gary Zullo PAGE18-21

Character Modeling Part 4 by Mark Gmehling

PAGE 22-23 3D Fluff Review by Gary Zullo PAGE 24-30 Basic Modeling Tutorial by Todd Groves PAGE 31-32 Artist Spotlight on David Drayton PAGE 33-36 Shader Building Part 1 by Bram van Gerwen PAGE 37-39 SPD with C4D to ZBrush by Sioncross PAGE 40-41 Sketch & Toon Line Thickness by Georg Niefermeier PAGE 42-49 Creating A Building by Antoine Aurety PAGE 50

Attack Comic by Sir Gong

PAGE 51-54 Best of CINEMA 4D Gallery PAGE 55

Editors Notes

Interview

THE MONTHLY QUIZ

This month, July 2005, Dosch Design is giving away 5 art books by Ballistic Publishing for our C4D Quiz. Exposé 1, Exposé 2, Oddworld, d'Artriste - Digital Painting and Machine Phase will all go to one lucky winner who answers a simple question and e-mails it to 3D Attack. Be sure to visit Dosch Design for other great products www.doschdesign.com.

Here’s all you have to do: Send an e-mail to 3dattack@3dattack.net with C4D Quiz as the subject line. Include in the body of your e-mail the answer to our simple question below, your real name, shipping address, telephone number and a valid e-mail address for contact. We will then pool all entrants together and will pick one random winner on August 1, 2005. We will notify our winner via e-mail and post an announcement on our discussion forum at: www.3dattack.net.

Question: Name the matte painting artist interviewed in the first printed issue of 3D Attack – The CINEMA 4D Magazine? *You must be at least 18 years old to enter the July C4D Quiz as some of the prizes contain mature content. **3D Attack Staff and their immediate families are not eligible to enter and/or win the C4D Quiz.

Interview with Sebastien Florand aka Fluffy

By Thomas Pasieka

Thomas: Well first off, "hello" Fluffy and thanks for taking your time to do the interview.

Interview

Fluffy: Hello Tom, I'm glad to be here.

Thomas: So, what is your real name and why do you choose the name "fluffy" on forums and such?

Fluffy: My name is SĂŠbastien Florand and I chose "Fluffy" because that's what my wife says I am since I don't shave often enough for her liking, and I'm kind of a soft guy too (too soft maybe for my own good..)

Thomas: Sebastien...that sounds French to me. Where you born in France?

Fluffy: What sounds French? My name Fluffy, or the fact that I don't shave often enough?

Thomas: Well actually everything.

Fluffy: Yes, I was born in France, Paris to be precise. That's probably why I can dress so well.

Thomas: Oh Paris! Why did you move to the States and when?

Fluffy: Well, Paris being the city of love, I met my wife there during her studies. I was a waiter there during mine, and she became a regular to my restaurant. We fell in love and she got disgusted with Paris so I chose to follow her back to her country.

Thomas: Well, that is surely a good reason to leave your country. Now, how did you get into the 3D Business?

Fluffy: I kind of always loved drawing. During school I worked part time at the equivalent of the US "Scientific American" in France (called "Science et Vie").

I was working in their drawing department. I got interested in 3D pretty early. Partly because of Toy Story, and a big part inspired by Matt Roussel's work who was working for the magazine as a freelancer.

Then I finally got my hands on a demo version of C4D 5, and started loving it right away,

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Thomas: Well I know your drawing skills are quiet impressive and so is your 3D work. Do you think it's important to draw, or would you say it's not a necessary skill to do 3D? Fluffy: Impressive? I wouldn't put it that way. I think having some basic drawing abilities are a "must have" knowledge for any kind of creative work. It helps so much to convey ideas, think and move things around that are plainly part of the creation process. I wouldn't do without it. No need to be a master at drawing, though, just knowing enough to share ideas with clients or just to put on paper what we have in the head, helps a lot.

Thomas: Agreed. Now what kind of clients do you work for? What kind of work is it, and do you enjoy this kind of work?

Fluffy: I'm kind of a one-man show.

I try to focus my knowledge on every aspect of the software so I can do whatever the client needs

Interview with Sebastien Florand aka Fluffy

By Thomas Pasieka

Interview

client is satisfied with it when you have to battle to do it. Anyway, I simply love to work with C4D, and pretty much any kind of job is a pleasure.

and asks to the best of my abilities.

This way, I can pretty much always answer, "yes, I can do it" whenever a client contacts me. Lately, (for about a year and a half), I've been mostly working with a client regularly on doing archviz.

Not my favorite work, but I learned and am still learning a lot because of his experience. Other than that, I do whatever people ask me to. My favorite area of work is character animation, especially since C4D is not the best application to work with for this and I like challenges.

It can be very rewarding to see a nice job completed and that the

Thomas: Well, you mentioned Character Animation. Since you also won the 3D ATTACK contest - how does it feel to be one of the best when it comes to C4D and Character animation? People loved your contest animation, and everybody learned from you and still does.

Fluffy: Yes, I was really glad to participate in that great contest and even more to win it.

I wasn't really happy with my animation in the end. I wanted to do more and better, but since I didn't have enough time to make it better, I was kind of glad about the result, and gladder of the recognition and the fact that people liked it too.

It's always great to tell a story and have people believing in it, very rewarding.

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Thomas: Does it help being French?

Fluffy: It helps with ladies, for sure!

Thomas: Do you think you are better because you are French?

Fluffy: Yes, of course! What kind of question is that? I shouldn't even state the obvious.

Thomas: Well all right. So, let's get some things cleared up here...what do you like or dislike about C4D? Fluffy: First off, I think I loved right away the logic of the software. Everything goes smooth when working with it.

Most of the things are logical and placed in an obvious place.

When R9 came out, I fell in love with the new modeling tools, of course, and Clothilde was a great addition. Most of all, I think C4D is really fit for my type of work environment, where I need a software to do most things I need quickly, hassle-free and with a good quality. The ease of use, power of the tools and render

Interview with Sebastien Florand aka Fluffy

By Thomas Pasieka

quality help me achieve that. I would like to see improvements in Character animation tools, although Cactus Dan's CDIKTools and CDMorphs plugins brought a new level of use for us wannabe animators.

Interview

Thomas: What would you personally like to see in the near future other than better CA tools?

Fluffy: In addition to better character animation tools, I think the timeline needs a real overhaul. We need more power there if we want to work faster and easier. I would like to see a fluid and efficient dynamics engine too, as well as a better renderer.

Well, there is much we could improve of course. Everything will come in time if we ask for it, us users.

Thomas: Let's talk about modeling.

I've seen many great characters created by you. Do you have any tips or advice for those who want to start character modeling?

Fluffy: Yes, draw first and use your imagination. Then it's just a matter

of time and using the tools at our disposal. Keep it simple whenever possible. No need to model what won't be seen, or to cluster an area with a huge amount of polygons if it's not necessary.

When modeling, ask yourself what you want to achieve and how achieve it best - sometimes you can also do the same thing using textures much faster, for example. My second piece of advice would be to be patient and consistent. Finish your projects if you can. Don't expect to be the "Rodin" of 3D modeling apps' right away. This process takes time and experience. Finally, don't be too hard on yourself. 3D modeling and 3D in general needs a learning curve. That curve is different for everybody.

I've seen some awful modelers become just plain great if they are not afraid to persevere and break a sweat. Everybody start little; so do not lose faith in your skills.

Thomas: Wise words indeed. So basically it's just a matter of time.

Which leads me to my next question, BodyPaint. I know that you use BodyPaint quiet often. Why? And why do people have a "fear" inside them when it comes to BodyPaint? I find BodyPaint to be the best application when it comes to 3D Painting.

What's your opinion on all that?

Fluffy: Yes, I use BodyPaint often because it is just a great software. If you need a good mapping on a difficult shape, you need to unfold the UVs, there's no way around it. And since the procedural materials can't help you all the time, I find that tool invaluable. Character modeling almost always requires BodyPaint for me. Since I like to draw wrinkles, speckles and such, it allows me to add details precisely where I want on the model. BodyPaint is fit for that. That's its job and it does it great.

Thomas: Well some people say it's hard to learn and not easy to use. Would you say the same?

Fluffy: As for the fear of BodyPaint, I think it is the same as rigging. People complain a lot about rigging tools and how hard it is compared to other applications, when in fact they are not so hard. I guess C4D is a software that has a big hobbyist user base, and as a hobbyist if something is more difficult you won't necessarily force yourself to learn that part of it, because you don't have to, you want to have fun. BodyPaint is kind of a new application to learn, which uses different principles and introduces a new set of

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Interview with Sebastien Florand aka Fluffy

Interview

By Thomas Pasieka

still learning, and I just hope that I will reach Pupii's level or another great C4D's artist like him. I try to take as much pleasure as I can, my work is my leisure, and leisure is my work. I like it that way.

coordinates, so I guess that makes it hard to learn for people? There is also the fact that there is as many ways to unfold the UVWs of a mesh than there is to model it, which makes it hard to give a straight answer whenever we want to teach people. Same thing for rigging.

I think BP is easy to use. If you take the time to work on it, learn its strengths and weaknesses, it can wield a lot of new horizons to explore, it just needs work and learning, as everything else. Sure it's boring, but part of the process nonetheless.

Thomas: What are your future plans? You told us that you basically work for yourself. Where do you see yourself in the future?

Fluffy: Mmm.. hard to say. I hope I will be doing the same thing, or at least doing more character animations in the future. But I stay realistic and know that I don't have the required level for it yet.

My goal in the near future would be to do some quality animations like the ones they do at Blur Studio (I don't have the same resources, but I love their work). Other than that, I'm

8

As for the professional aspect, I don't know where I want to go.

Sometimes I think about applying for a bigger studio and being part of a team again, but I love my independence, even with all the constraints and uncertainties that can bring.

Thomas: Thanks Fluffy, now to my last question. What forums do you visit? How active are you on forums? Do they help you? Do you like forums?

Fluffy: Ouh, I am quite active on forums. Since I work from home they tend to become my friends and colleagues. I am moderator at the frenchcinema4D forum, moderator at 3DAttack of course, I also am

Interview with Sebastien Florand aka Fluffy

By Thomas Pasieka

administrator at the Bubbles4D forum, a restricted forum I created for advanced users (I know I have a head like a melon), and I also visit quite often CGTalk.Forums brought me friendship and fun during my workday, which was what I was looking for in the first place. Kind of a 3D date.

Thomas: Well we all know that you are full of yourself. How come?

Didn't your mom tell you that this is bad behavior?

Fluffy: Full of myself is bad? Damn.

Interview

Thomas: Yes, I'm surprised nobody told you that before. Anyways, do you like French cheese? Red wine?

Is it true that you like pink bunnies?

Fluffy: French cheese rocks, and French baguette too (I'm talking about the real thing, not the kind of mushy weird ones I find in the US).

Red wine... ah, if all things in life were as good as a nice Pinot Noir...

I often see pink bunnies when I have too much wine, that's probably why I like them too.

Thomas: That is interesting. I think the same way about the bread here in the States. As a German...I like bread with hard crusts...not that fluffy bread that you get everywhere here.

Fluffy: Yes, "ban mushy breads" would be a good motto.

Thomas: That could be it! Too much wine! I thank you for the interview!

Fluffy: Thanks to you for this interview, it has been fun. My last word?

Mmm... 3D is fun, pace yourself, have a good time and don't wait for the next update to start doing real work, you already have plenty to use right there. Master all these things available and then ask for more when you reach the limits.

After all, the software is just a tool to express yourself, so make us dream

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with wonderful art, make us laugh or cry with great stories, that's the purpose of all that fuss. Luv ya all, see you on the forums!

Thomas: Don't take some things said too serious...Fluffy and I know each other just too well ;) See you on the forum ATTACKERS!

Marquee Lights

By Rui Batista

Tutorial

The idea for this tutorial came from a mail from a fellow CINEMA 4D user, where he asked me for help in creating a specific effect. He wanted to reproduce those light marquees that we see on theaters and billboards (think... Las Vegas!!)

inside a hierarchy in a really fast way, add a material tag to the parent and choose Copy Tag to Children from the Tags menu of the Object Manager [01].

He needed to recreate lights with glowing textures, not real light objects. So, the version I created for him simply dealt with textured objects. But, for this article, I created a more powerful and generic version that deals with objects that are textures and objects that have no textures - lights are included in this category. For objects with textures, the textures switch between an ON and an OFF state. For objects without textures, the Editor and Render visibility is adjusted.

This is really a very generic and flexible COFFEE script. It simply runs through all the children of an object - usually a Null - and sets their texture/visibility accordingly. It uses the current frame number to update the flowing of the changes and the speed is adjustable, so, it is self-animated.

What you need to start is a hierarchy with all the objects you want to "animate" inside another object usually a Null - and, if you want to use textures for the animation, you need two textures: one for the ON state and another for the OFF state.

If you want to use textures for turning the objects ON and OFF, you need to have at least one material tag already assigned to every objects inside the hierarchy. What material is assigned is not important because the COFFEE expression will take care of assigning the correct materials to each object. To assign a material tag to all objects

a number and it returns its squared root. The nice thing in COFFEE (and many other programming languages) is that you can define your own functions. You need to give them a name, define what parameters they accept, define what they do and define what value they must return.

SearchMatTag is the name of our function and object is the parameter we must feed it with. Actually, object is the name of the variable that we will be using to deal with the value we feed the function with. Whenever we use the variable object, we are, in fact, using the value that was fed into the function.

Image 01

Don’t forget to delete the material tag from the parent after copying it to it’s children! Now, add a COFFEE tag to the parent object and type the following code: [See Picture 02 on the following page] Let us examine each line thoroughly.

SearchMatTag(object) This line is the header of a function.

WOW!!! Programmers jargon!! What is a function and what is a header?

A function is like a "machine" that changes something into something else. Imagine you put potatoes on one side and you get "french fries" from the other side. The "machine" function is to make "french fries". It peels the potatoes, slices them, fries them and adds them salt.

Another less mundane example is the sqr( ) function. It calculates the square root of a number. You input

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This function will search for the first occurrence of a material tag assigned to an object - the input parameter. It returns a pointer to the tag, if it finds one. If it doesn't, returns a Null. Not a Null object, a Null variable, as in, a variable that contains no usable value. var tag1; This line defines a new variable named tag1. tag1=object->GetFirstTag(); This line assigns to the variable tag1 the first tag of the object pointed by the object variable (the input parameter). while(tag1) This line defines the start of a cycle that will run as long as the variable tag1 holds a value. It may contain nothing because in the previous line it found no tag or after reaching the last tag of the object. if(instanceof(tag1,TextureTag)) return tag1; This line could be read as: if tag1 is

Marquee Lights

By Rui Batista

an instance of a texture tag, return the value of tag1. So, if the tag1 variable points to a texture tag, it returns its value tag1=tag1->GetNext(); Finds the next tag in the object. return NULL; If this line is reached it’s because the cycle went through all the tags and found no texture tag. So, the function returns NULL.

Tutorial

//*************************** This is a comment. Every line that starts with // will be considered a comment and will not be interpreted as code. In this case, it is used to separate the helping function from the main part of the COFFEE code. main(doc,op) This can also be considered a function header. But it’s a very special function. This is the main function, the one that is executed first. It has two input parameters, doc and op.

The variable doc is a pointer to the current document and the variable op is a pointer to the object that has the COFFEE tag. The main function doesn't have to return any value and the values of doc and op are automatically fed into it. var on_tex,on_tex_name; var off_tex,off_tex_name; var child,tex_tag; var time,frame; var interval,speed,mod; These lines define all the variable we will use inside the COFFEE script.

Image 02

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interval=3; speed=1; The interval variable will define how many OFF objects are between each ON object. The speed variable

Marquee Lights

By Rui Batista

sets the interval, in frames, that the animation occurs. If speed is set to 5, for example, the animation advances every 5 frames. These variables can be adjusted by you to get different results.

Image 04

starting point for the calculation for all elements inside the parent. This way, the animation will be correct even if we advance the time slider too fast.

Tutorial

time=doc->GetTime(); We store the current time of the document in the time variable. This is where the "time head" is (in the timeline or in the scrub-bar). frame=time->GetFrame(doc>GetFps()); We must get the frame number but, since the time of the document is stored as a floating point number, we must do some calculations. So, with doc->GetFps() we get the number of frames per second of the document. Then, we use that value inside the GetFrame function, associated with the time variable, and that returns us the frame number.

We store the frame number in the frame variable. if(Modulo(frame,speed))return; This line requires that I explain what the Modulo function is and what it does. The Modulo function is a mathematical function that returns the reminder of a division. So, in this case, it returns the reminder of the division of the value of the frame variable by the value of the variable speed. Does this help? Yes, because Modulo is a cyclic function.

Let me give you an example: the first parameter of the Modulo function will be an increasing value, lets say, from 0 to 20. If the second parameter is, for example, 5, we get these values from Modulo: [See picture 03] If numbers are too dry and cold for you, here is a graphic of the Modulo(n,5) function, where n are

Image 03

numbers from 0 to 20. As you can see, it goes from 0 to 4, then from 0 to 4 again, and again, and again.

So, the results of Modulo(n,m) raise from 0 to m-1, and repeat this pattern. [See picture 04] The result of Modulo(frame,speed) is always zero when the value of frame is perfectly divisible by the value of speed (reminder of zero).

For example, if speed is equal to 5, this happens at frame 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25...

What I check with this line of code is exactly if the current frame number is at one of those specific points in time. If it doesn't, it returns. Why? To speed up the expression. We only need to go on with the expression if the Modulo(frame,speed) function returns zero. frame=int(frame/speed); The value of the variable frame is divided by the value of the variable speed. This new value will be the

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on_text_name="ON"; off_text_name="OFF"; We set the on_text_name and off_text_name variables to the names of the textures that define the ON and OFF state. The names must match real names of real textures. If more than one texture has the same name, the first one found is used. on_tex=doc>FindMaterial(on_tex_name); This line searches in the document for a material whose name is on the on_tex_name variable. It stores the pointer of the material in the on_tex variable. off_tex=doc>FindMaterial(off_tex_name); The same as the previous line but for the off_text and off_tex_name variables. child=op->GetDown(); We get the first object inside the object that contains the COFFEE tag. This is the first child. It is assigned to the child variable. interval++; This line increases the value of the interval variable by one. while(child) This line starts a cycle. The cycle will happen while there is a value inside the child variable. As soon as

Marquee Lights

Tutorial

By Rui Batista

the child variable is empty, the cycle ends. So, this cycle will run through ALL children of the object that contains the COFFEE tag.

If an on_tex material was found, we get a marker for it (on_tex>GetMarker) and assign it to the material tag (tex_tag->SetMaterial...)

tex_tag=SearchMatTag(child); This line calls the SearchMatTag function we defined at the start with the value of the variable child as the parameter. The value returned by the function is assigned to the tex_tag variable. If you remember, this function could return a pointer to the first material tag found on an object (in this case, pointed by the variable child) or, if no material tag was found, it would return a NULL value.

else This else is related to the if(mod).

So, if the value of mod variable is zero...

mod=!Modulo(frame,interval); This line calculates the Modulo of the value of the variable frame by the value of the variable interval (the reminder of the division of frame by interval). Then it negates this value.

What the hell is this!?!? Negates??

The negate function is simply the ! sign. If the value after ! is zero, it becomes one. If the value after ! is different than zero, it becomes zero.

Then, the final result is assigned to the mod variable. So, whenever Modulo(frame,interval) is zero, the mod variable receives the value 1.

Whenever the Modulo(frame,interval) is a value different from zero, the mod variable receives a value of zero. if(tex_tag) If the object being affected has a material tag... we perform the actions related to changing the material tags. if(mod) If the mod variable is not zero, we... if(on_tex) tex_tag>SetMaterial(on_tex->GetMarker());

if(off_tex) tex_tag>SetMaterial(off_tex->GetMarker()); If an off_tex material was found, we get a marker for it (off_tex>GetMarker) and assign it to the material tag (tex_tag->SetMaterial...)

This line finds the next object, after the previous one. When no object is found, the child variable will automatically receive a value of NULL (becomes empty). This will end the cycle... remember the while(child)?

And that's it. You may have noticed I didn't explained all the { and }.

Those symbols simply define a block of code. Everything between { and } is considered as a single block of code. So, for example, if I type: if(a==2) { b++; c++; d++; }

else This else is related to the if(tex_tag).

So, if no tex_tag was found (the object has no material tag)... if(mod) If the mod variable is not zero, we... child->SetEditorMode(MODE_ON); child->SetRenderMode(MODE_ON); These lines turn the semaphores of the object on (green). So, their visibility (in editor and render) is forced. else This else is related to the if(mod).

So, if the value of the mod variable is zero... child->SetEditorMode(MODE_OFF); child>SetRenderMode(MODE_OFF); These lines turn the semaphores of the object off (red). So, their invisibility (in editor and render) is forced. frame++; This line increases the value of the frame variable by one. This variable is used as a counter to animate the texture/visibility of all objects. child=child->GetNext();

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this means that, if variable a is equal to 2, then the variables b, c and d are increased. (== means that I'm comparing a to 2, just one = means that I'm assigning 2 to variable a). But, if I type: if(a==2) b++; c++; d++; this means that, if variable a is equal to 2, then the variable b is increased. Variables c and d are increased no matter what value is in variable a because only b++ is right after the if(a==2).

If this is too complicated, simply imagine that the { and } symbols join several lines of code into a single group.

I know this article is a bit complex and maybe I talked too much about programming. But, if you succeeded into understanding what was done you should be proud of yourself and

Marquee Lights

By Rui Batista

Good coding and keep on Attacking!

Check the Goodies folder for scene files!

Rui Batista

Tutorial

you are now a few steps further in the art of COFFEE coding. If you have any doubts (or ideas for future tutorials), please contact me at rui_mac@ruimac.com

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GNOMON TRAINING DVD’s Review by Gary Zullo

TRAINING DVD REVIEWS: GNOMON'S IMAGE BASED MODELING: ESSENTIALS & GNOMON'S IMAGE BASED MODELING: ADVANCED

DVD Review

(By Gary Zullo aka MrPixar)

building sets from those images and reconstructing the resulting environment in 3D. Downing, a highly accomplished photographer and artist, has created images for years and worked at Realviz in France and as a technical director for Rhythm and Hues Studios in Los Angeles.

In these training DVDs, Greg will show you how to transform a film or digital photograph into highly realistic 3D Model by using tools such as ImageModeler, Stitcher and Sceneweaver (all by Realviz).

Image modeling is a general tool that is useful for movies, videogames, or visualizations that require digitizing real sets, props or, in some cases, characters.

Hey there fellow Attackers!! This time we are going to review two of Gnomon Workshop's newest training DVDs: "Image Based Modeling: Essentials" and "Image Based Modeling: Advanced". This is a new series of lectures taught by nonother than Greg Downing. Greg is considered to be one of the foremost authorities on image-based modeling and photogrammetry.

What is photogrammetry you may ask?

Simply put, photogrammetry is a process of creating 3D environments from panoramas, which enables you to turn photographs into 3D models through an abstract process using techniques employed in movies such as Panic Room and the Matrix series (where the bullet sequences used photographs taken in 3D).

In Greg's DVDs you get an in-depth series of lessons/lectures on capturing high-resolution environments,

"Image Based Modeling: Essentials" starts with more theory and "how to". This is good because in order to properly construct a scene using photogrammetry one must consider how best to use their tools (camera, modeler etc.). The first DVD breaks down like this: Camera Basics:

Once the objects are digitized, any 3D manipulation is possible: adding to, removing or destroying parts of the scene, effects that are related to depth such as fog, or camera moves that would be impossible with a real movie camera.

Greg introduces the photographic steps, calibration, modeling and texturing with Image Modeler and finally shows you how to import the best result into the 3D application of your choice.

So then, let's get onto the contents shall we? The lectures cover the following material.

Keep in mind that for the sake of brevity I am glossing over A LOT of the detail that is actually there. Trust me, these DVDs run the full gambit of detail from considering how best to take the photos you need all the way through saving the final textured model. :

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Here we learn about the theory behind why cameras work the way they do. Greg goes into superb detail on how lenses interact with one another within the barrel as well as with the film and/or CCD that records the image. I rather enjoyed his thorough level of detail covered here.

In fact, I think I may have learned a thing or two (or twenty)... lol. What really makes this theory usable is the fact that Greg has a model of a camera with all its various pieces that he uses as a visual aide whilst teaching.

GNOMON TRAINING DVD’s Review by Gary Zullo General Photography:

DVD Review

Here Greg discusses how to consider taking pictures to be used for photogrammetry. Again, while fairly intense theory is covered - it should be fairly straightforward to grasp since Greg uses 3D visual aides to hammer the points as he is covering them.

ImageModeler Interface/Workflow: Here we learn the ins and outs of ImageModeler. Now, keep in mind that while Greg teaches using specific tools, similar results can be had by using any other applications in which you can apply what you've learned. For instance Greg teaches and uses ImageModeler, but the advantage of a DVD like this is the fact that you can apply what you've learned in any other 3d package (with some tailoring). Here we learn the lengthy process that is called photogrammetric calibration. This is where we take the 2D images, or panoramas etc. and extract the 3D information from the set.

Calibration, World Space and Scale:

Greg discusses how to assemble the images and calibrate them for use within ImageModeler. This entails lining up marks throughout all images to be used which will calibrate them together in 3D space.

These calibrated images are then used for the modeling process directly. After having calibrated all our images together and extracted the 3D information we no learn how to define the "world space" that will be used for these images. Thus, completing the 3D information extraction This particular DVD is 3.7 hours (!!) in length, or 277 minutes to be exact and is broken into relevant lectures, along with short lecture notes and list of resources. Most of the screen time is filled with step-by-step demonstrations enhanced with graphics and real life problems and examples Downing has encountered. The only time you will see Downing himself is during the intro.

Some people like to see the instructor while others (including myself) prefer to concentrate on the subject matter.

"Image Based Modeling: Advanced" continues where the first DVD ended by continuing with the wonderful lectures on how best to model from imagery. Greg takes us into Maya (although it's very possible to duplicate what he is doing in C4D as well) and continues setting up a scene, modeling, texturing and optimizing the scene. This DVD will take us through an introduction of both the projects to be completed.

As mentioned previously Greg uses Maya to accomplish his modeling, but we could easily make use of CINEMA4D as well. The duration of this DVD is dedicated to modeling from panoramic images, texturing

16

and optimizing the scene. I must say that after viewing these DVDs I have learned a new respect for all the work that actually goes into the total process taught within.

This second DVD is 2.8 hours in

length, or 167 minutes and continues with the exacting level of detail that was established in the first DVD. Greg's attention to detail certainly makes simple some pretty complicated theory and his presentation helps drive the points home. It does, however, assume you have some experience with texturing and modeling (as Greg will jump immediately into the project)

GNOMON TRAINING DVD’s Review by Gary Zullo

Both DVDs (essentials and advanced) are extremely professional and it's apparent that a great deal

… it's all on DVD after all : This is a must have series of DVD for the individual that is always wondering,

DVD Review

"So….how's that work anyway?!" or "How do they do that?"

Summary: of thought and effort has gone into the production. Greg's teaching experience is clearly evident in his insightful manner and streamlined lectures. The results feel like an interactive one on one tutorial with a knowledgeable master instead of me simply watching a tutorial. I am sure you'll feel the same but beware that some of the topics covered are pure theory and as such might require a second, third or forth listen. There's nothing wrong with that

Price: $69USD [Essentials] $79USD [Advanced] URL: http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com Platform: PC/MAC Compatible Rating: 4/5

17

Character Modeling - Part 4

By Mark Gmehling

Tutorial

Hey there Attackers, in this fourth part of my Newbie poly-by-poly Character Modeling tutorial- I'll focus on blocking out the main bodyshape and finishing the hands and feet. I'll not add detail to the torso-,arm- and leg- geometry because the guy will be dressed using R.9's powerful Clothilde in the next issue and these areas will only act as colliders and not be visible after dressing. So let’s concentrate on modeling nice hands and feet that fit animation needs.

As always I try to make all steps easy to follow even for newbies or users/switchers of/from other 3D applications. I'm using C4D Rel.9, but you'll be able to follow part 4, although you might use an earlier version.

If you just want to follow this part and didn't follow the first three notice that I'm using the free easyclone plugin here and there- its available here: http://www.spot4d.co.uk/plugins_eas yclone.html. Just download it and place it in your C4d plugin folder‌A useful tool- not only for vehicle/hard edge modeling.

In pic01 you can see how I left the character in the last issue- as you can see I have a two-polygon(6

select the two shown polygons and extrude them as far as you want your arm length. As this looks like a fat sausage, I choose the knife tool(K) (Structure- Knife) to adjust the shape in a more believable shape. Before cutting I make sure to be in loop mode and disabled "visible only" in the Knifes attributes! For cutting I switch to point mode. The first cut define the elbow area, the second cut the hand joint area. To fit animation needs the elbow cut will be neighbored by a cut left and right

rectangle-select the three elbow pointloops and the first arm pointloop in front view(F4) and rotate(R) them slightly backwards (about 20 degrees)-pic04. Just look at your own arm stretched out with the inner hand pointing down, which is the Tposition the pose that is most suit-

Picture 04

Picture 02

of it- pic02.

Now I select the middle elbow cut with the rectangle selection- again making sure only visible is disabledand scale(T) it in. I do the same with the hand joint cut and move(E) the pointloops into a more suitable place along the x-axis. I switch to perspective mode and adjust the backsided points of the elbow area by moving them out along z-axis- pic03. To give the anatomy more realness I

points)-area where I'll extrude(D) the further arm geometry. I also highlighted and named the main buttons I'll use during the process. In frontview(F4) and poly-mode live

Picture 03

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able for the rigging process.

To extrude the handshape I switch back to perspective mode(F1) and polymode and bring the two polys in a better shape to act as wrist. I scale(T) them in along y-axis and in point mode I move(E) the points as

Picture 05

seen in pic05.

Now I extrude(D) the palm area and in point mode I add a looped cut with the knife(K) to ensure nice deformation when it comes to animating. Now you'll recognize a common problem that often occurs when you try to combine single modeled geometry or just extruded parts a low polycount that need more detail at the end. I have two polygons (6points) to extrude four fingers and a thumb out of. The thumb will be no problem- when you look at your hand you'll notice that it is extruded at the side of the palm area, but the

Character Modeling - Part 4

By Mark Gmehling

fingers need to be extruded out of the 2 polygon area. To solve this problem without triangle results do the following:

Tutorial

Select the two polys at the top and bottom of the palm-area (4 polys all in all) and extrude them inner(I) with preserve groups disabled in the tool attributes. Now select the knife tool(K) again and choose line mode and enable visible only.(Notice: The following operations need the smart knife of R.9 and a new feature of R.9- to master these steps with an earlier version you have to delete polys- add points and bridge them to polys) Add cuts as seen in the second row of pic06 at the top AND the bottom area of the palm. This evokes 4 triangles that we get rid of

Picture 06

by doing this: Again with the knife in line mode/visible only add cuts as seen in pic06.

Again make sure to do these cuts on top AND bottom of the palm.

After that switch to edge mode- live select the edges shown (Remember: BOTH sides) and go to Functions-Melt to get rid of them.

Now add two vertical cuts with the knife and you have four polys to extrude the fingers properly without any triangles.

Before doing that lets move(E) the points to get equal polysizes at the base of the fingers, furthermore I tweak them in a quite quadratic shape. In top view I give the palm area the little rounding you'll recognize when looking at your hand. I rectangle select the outer points and

Again, time to tweak the thumbbase in a nice form to extrude from.

I switch to point mode and switch between live selection and move tool(E) by pressing the spacebar-

Picture 07

move them into place-pic07.

Just extruding the four fingers from this fixed base would be a bad idea because the spaces between the fingers wouldn't be there. So live select the four finger base polygons (Polymode!) and extrude them inner(I) (Preserve groups still disabled!).

Now its time to extrude(D) the new polys as far as you want the fingersbest done in top view(F2). After that move the fingertip poly along their zaxis to define the different finger lengths- use your hand as reference. Furthermore adjust the direction of the fingers by moving the polys along their x-axis. I stay in topview(F2) and work with the rectangle selection to select/deselect the polys hitting the spacebar to switch between move tool and rectangle selection- pic07/bottom row.

Before we fine tune the handmesh let’s block out the thumb: Therefore I add one more loop to the palm using the knife(K) in loop mode.

With only visible disabled I prefer to use the knife in pointmode, because polymode always has the last polys selected and the knife would only affect all areas in point mode when no selection is active. After that I switch back to polymode and perspective view to select the polys shown and extrude(D) them- scale them in a little bit along y-axis and rotate them- as you see in pic08.

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Picture 08

pic08.

In top view I extrude the thumb-base polygon as far, as long, as I want the thumb and do some major tweaks to the hand using mine as reference: I switch to point mode and select the whole finger area and their basis and move(E) them along x-axis to lengthen the hand- I also

Picture 09

adjust the thumb base area as seen in pic-09.

The next thing to do is getting rid of the edges at the base of the fingers which are a result of the extrude inner we did there. I select the points seen in the pic and move them back in palm direction to unsharpen this edge. Now it’s time to work on the fingers themselves a little bit more. Switched to topview(F2) I use the knife tool(K) (loopmode/visible only disabled) to define the different finger joints again using my hand as reference.

In order to get nice deformation in animation add two neighbored loops to each defined finger joint.

Furthermore, use the knife tool(K) to

Character Modeling - Part 4

By Mark Gmehling

add a loop at the fingers and thumbs base. Now I use these new points to shape the finger joints more. In topview(F2) I rectangle select the 4 points of the middle loop of each finger joint. I switch to lines view (Display- lines) to ensure that I selected all 4 points- and move them up a little bit- this creates little folds and the bottom and a kind of knuckle on the top- pic10.

Picture 11

Picture 13

pointloop at the torso and move it down as far you want your torso area. Next thing to do is closing it, but there are 9 points at the bottoma quite unlucky number when we want to avoid rectangles. So I select the poly shown and extrude it inner(I)- delete the two polys shown and set the live- selected points

that should be enough cause the torso only will act as collider for the clothing I'll put on in the next issue.

Lets get the legs extruded! -Select the two polys shown in the bottom row of pic13 and extrude them as long as you want the legs. After that tweak the points as seen in pic14 to get a smooth and believable flow

Picture 12

Picture 14

shown to x:0 in the coordinates manager-pic12.

After that a little point-moving is needed again, but now we’re able to close this torso with 4 sided polysuse the bridge tool(b) in point mode.

Then lets tweak the polys to build a 2 Poly area that is a nice base to extrude the legs- therefore I move the outer points up as seen in the pic. And tweak them to get a nice rounded shape for extrusion. Then I extrude one time and set the y-size of the still selected resulting polys to 0 in the coordinates manager. The torso looks quite odd now ‌so lets insert two loops with the knife(K) in loop mode to be able to tweak it a little bit. Again switching between move tool(E) and live selectionusing the spacebar- look at pic13-

from torso to leg area. As I did with the arms I define the knee joint now by inserting a pointloop in height of the knee and then adding neighbored loops with the knife. Then I rectangle-select the bottompointrow of the leg and scale(T) it smaller- furthermore I move(E) it down because the calf of the leg seems to short. In perspective mode I adjust the point flow of the knee area to fit animation needs. As I did with the hands I select the middle knee point row and move it forward a little bit to create the knee"extrusion" and fold on the back. Lets block the foot out. Switch back to poly mode and select the bottom poly and extrude(D) them one time.

Select the front polys of the footshape and extrude(D) two times

Tutorial

Picture 10

Repeat this with the thumb. Another major tweak is making the fingers thicker at their base. Still in top view/ point mode/ line display I move the finger base polys by rectangle selecting pairs and moving(E) them.

Then I select each fingers tip polygon and scale(T) it smaller. To unsharp the "knuckles" on top of the hand I increase their spacing-best done in perspective view- make sure you only affect the top points.

Looking at your hand you'll recognize that the thumb area is "extruded" at a lower height level than the rest of the hand. So select the palm area points in top view and move(E) them down. The last thing done to the hand is adding one lore loop at the wrist- pic11.

Now lets look at the whole character in front view(F2) and adjust the site of the modeled hand by selecting all the hand polys and scale(T) it into a more suitable size.

Now rectangle select the bottom

20

Character Modeling - Part 4

By Mark Gmehling

more. After the first extrusion set the z-size of the selected polys to 0! In sideview(F3) rectangle-select all points of the foot and move them back a little bit to build a more believable pose. Furthermore rectangle-select the bottom row and move it down to give the foot more thickness. Then I add two more cuts at the ankle area using the knife tool in loop mode and adjust the points

Tutorial

Picture 15

by moving them around as seen in pic15.

I add another loop with the knife and now it's the same situation as before with the hand: Two polys base and we need five toes.Repeat the process I did with the base hand here again.-To repeat:Select the polys seen in the pic(top AND bottom size)- extrude inner them(preserve groups disabled) and use the Knife(K) in line mode(visible only) and add cuts as seen in the pic.

Then select the not needed edges in edge mode and got to Functions melt to get rid of the triangles.Then as done above- extrude inner the foot-frontpolys (preserve groups still disabled) and extrude(D) two timespic16. Add thickness to the toes by inserting a loop to each toe(back in pointmode) as seen in the picscale(T) this new inserted polyloop bigger by rectangle selecting it from topview(F2)- then adjust the toes direction and size. This adjustments destroyed the flatness of the soleso I rectangle select the bottom

Picture 16

loops in point mode and move them back a little bit checking the position in topview(F2)- this forces to rotate the handshape a little bit. The foot has to be scaled(T) smaller and is the rotated to make the toe tips point a little bit outward. I decide to shorten the calf by moving the foot up a little bit. Last action: Adding a

points and set their y-size to 0 and move(E) them into place again.

Well you count right if you see only four toes- I still have to add the big one: Select the polys shown in the big and extrude(D) one time and rotate(R) the four polys to fit a footshape roughly. Again take some time to smooth the inner foot and the repeat the steps of the toe modeling: Intrude the frontpoly of the toe base inner(I)- extrude(D) this poly two times and add a pointloop in the middle if the toe with the knife(K)scale(T) this loop bigger and after that adjust the points by moving(E) and live selecting them- you'll have to adjust the sole again by selecting the bottom points and setting their ysize to 0. After all adjustments add one more loop with the knife(K) pic17.

Picture 18

polyloop to the calf and upper leg with the knife too(K)-pic18.

OK that's enough for this issue- next time -with a fresh view- I'll do some final tweaks to the bodyshape and add textured cloth to the guy using C4D R.9's Clothilde feature. For

The last steps in this session will be now I hope you were able to follow my explanations.

Picture 17

general size adjustment of the feet and hand and adjusting the pose to a more believable rest position- I rectangle-select the three elbow

21

If you have questions don't hesitate to contact me via pm at 3dattack.net. or post your work in 3D Attacks wip section to get suggestions and comments from the community.

CU on board and Keep Attacking!

Mark (Macling)

3D Fluff - Training DVD Vol.3

By Gary Zullo aka MrPixar

DVD Review

Hey there fellow Attackers! This time I am going to talk about 3D Fluff's latest addition to their growing library of training material designed and targeted directly to us - CINEMA 4D Users! Volume 3 covers nonorganic modeling from stem to stern. As has become standard in all 3D Fluff's previous DVDs, both Matthew O'Neill and Janine Pauke cover each topic in amazing detail and leave nothing out along the way.

Volume 3 is actually broken into two separate projects: a beginner's primer LED torch and a remote control (the main project of the DVD).

In the first tutorial Mathew will take us through how to build an LED torch from the first primitive cube through modeling completion.

for easy digestion at any pace. The larger main project, the remote control, contains 8 chapters that will also break the material (3 hours worth) into smaller chunks for your digestion pleasure:. Both projects will show you innovative ways of combining box-modeling and point-

every single step from start to finish on how to model a remote control.

She ends by giving several pointers and tips on how to approach texturing the remote (including various texture mapping hints and tricks).

Matthew also goes into a host of invaluable modeling tips along the way. Everyone can stand to learn a thing or two throughout, it's surprising.

This project is geared specifically to those viewers that may be new to modeling or new to CINEMA and as such may be too simple for those with more confidence and/or experience with the tools in the program.

If this applies to you then you can simply skip to the remote control, but this project is included so that everyone can attempt the remote control with the same exposure to the tools necessary to complete it.

I personally love the fact that 3D Fluff went the extra step to create a "side" project to include the people that may not have the exposure they'd need to really understand the main project. The main project in the DVD is the remote control. Janine hosts this tutorial and also covers

Volume 3 contains a total of over 4 hours (!!) of training material. In addition to the training material you can expect to find the following included as well: all required codecs for Windows/Mac playback, project files that are used throughout both major projects and lots of extra goodies including tips and objects for you to use anytime you need them.

Each project is broken down into easy to digest "chapters" in both windows media player format and QuickTime format.

The mini project contains 4 chapters that clearly break the material down

22

modeling techniques.

It should be noted, however, that this DVD is targeted specifically to those of us with R9+. This is mainly

3D Fluff - Training DVD Vol.3

By Gary Zullo aka MrPixar due to the sheer number of changes made to the modeling toolset from R8 to R9.

Main topics covered across both projects:

DVD Review

- How to create clean and efficient polygon meshes - HyperNURBS weighting - Polygon and spline based modeling - How to determine which tool to use in a given situation - Making life easier with the correct selection tools - Common shortcuts that will improve workflow My impression on this installment of 3D Fluff's training is nothing short of amazement. I find myself reviewing the material from all three volumes time and time again and learning new things.

To me, this is the mark of a truly valuable resource - one that I actually refer to after watching it once.

Matthew and Janine have mastered the art of CINEMA 4D training.

More than anything I love the way that both Matthew and Janine take the time to present the topic, show how it applies and follow it up with further detail (when necessary).

In many places throughout the training it was almost as though they "sensed" I had a question and before I could ask it... along came the answer:. To that end I say‌ I love this installment and you will have to pry it from my cold dead fingers before I give it up!!

Price: 49 GBP URL: http://dvd.3dfluff.com/ Volume: 3 Platform: PC/MAC Compatible Rating: 5/5

23

Basic Modeling: A Coffemaker (Part 1)

By Todd Groves aka 3DTodd

Tutorial

The purpose of this tutorial is to walk you through some basic modeling techniques. Through some trial and error I found that it was best to show these techniques in a projectbased approach. After making that decision, following deep spiritual meditation, and considering Maxon's naming convention for CINEMA 4D's modules, I decided that a coffeemaker would be perfect. Hey, with MOCCA and Cappuccino bouncing around my head, can you blame me? Personally, I prefer the Major Dickinson's blend from Peet's Coffee. But, that's another talk show.

One of the most important aspects of modeling involves navigating around the viewports of CINEMA 4D. In the upper right corner of each viewport are four distinct icons. (pic01) The first one, shaped like a cross, will enable you to pan around your scene when you click and drag

on it. The second triangle-shaped icon enables you to zoom in and out of your scene. The third icon, a circle with two arrows, enables you to "orbit" around your scene. The fourth square-shaped icon will maximize and minimize that viewport when you click on it.

But I have my own way of moving about a scene. My friend is the good ole "Alt" key. He can be your friend, too. To orbit about your scene, hold down Alt and the left mouse button

(LMB). To pan around your scene, hold down Alt and the middle mouse button (MMB). To zoom in and out, hold down Alt and drag the right mouse button (RMB). To be honest, it was my experience in another 3D program that lead me to this albeit minor discovery. I had been using M…uh….Myyyyyy….Jeez! Uh. It's called Mmmm….! Sorry, I just can't bring myself to saying it. Anyway, I'm sure you know which one I mean. It starts with an "M". Another way I'd like to move around Cinema 4D is through maximizing and minimizing the viewports. This approach doesn't work in Mmmm…uh…that other program. To max/min a viewport, simply hold your cursor over the desired viewport and click your middle mouse button. (pic02) I don't know about you, but that "Alt" button

thing parted the clouds for me. And that middle mouse button trick?

Well, don't get me started. Now, let's start up those modeling engines.

Step 1: As part of this tutorial I have included references pictures as well as pictures to be used within the viewports to enable you to model with accuracy. Let's start by placing one of the reference pictures in the top viewport. In the viewport's Edit

24

menu, select "Configure…". (pic03) In the lower right corner of Cinema's

interface you'll see the attribute settings for the viewport. (pic04) Click on the Back tab, and then click on

the button with three dots next to the Image field. (pic05) Now, navigate to where you stored the reference pictures and select the image

Basic Modeling: A Coffemaker (Part 1)

By Todd Groves aka 3DTodd named "top". You should now see the image in the Top viewport, and the path to the image in the Image field (pic06). To make modeling easier I lined up the reference picture with the viewport's X Axis by setting Offset X to -41. (pic07)

Step 2: Now, maximize the Top viewport.

Select the Bezier Spline tool through the dropdown icon next to the primitive cube (pic11). In the top viewport, zoom in and get as close to the top of the coffeemaker while keep-

Tutorial

ing the sides within view. Start clicking and making points around the edges of the coffeemaker top. Be sure to click-n-drag where the shape will be rounded (pic12). You can see in "pic13" (pic13) how I've drawn the spline, remembering to select "Closed Spline" in the attrib-

navigate to where you stored the reference pictures and this time double-click on the picture named "side" to place it within the Right viewport.

Before diving in, I recommend looking at the other reference pictures to get acquainted with the various curves and corners of the coffeemaker. In the case of this first section you are modeling, look at "pic08" to take note of the curvature that should be taken into account for modeling the back section of the coffeemaker (pic08). Now, to help with matching the height of the model with a reference picture of the coffeemaker, let's add another picture to the Right viewport. In the Right viewport, go to Edit > Configure‌ (pic09). Like before,

To properly line up the reference image with what will be the "floor" of the scene, set Offset Y to 286. (pic10) This will enable you to match the bottom of the coffeemaker with what will become the floor later on.

ute settings of the Bezier Spline. If you need to fine tune your spline, grab the Move tool. Then click on a point and grab a pink handle to adjust the shape of the spline (pic14). After you're satisfied with the shape, you need to access the Extrude NURBS tool. To the right of the icon where you retrieved the

25

Basic Modeling: A Coffemaker (Part 1)

By Todd Groves aka 3DTodd

Tutorial

coffeemaker as shown (pic18). Your model should now look like something (pic19).

Bezier Spline tool, you'll see what looks like an orange cube that's lost a lot of weight. (Probably not enough protein in its diet.) OK, so it's really the Hyper NURBS tool.

So, click and hold the Hyper NURBS icon and drag to the Extrude NURBS (pic15). In the Object Manager, grab the Spline icon and drag it over the Extrude NURBS icon until you see an arrow pointing down, then let go. (pic16).

mesh will have the name "Extrude NURBS.1". (pic23) Your once threepiece band has now been reduced to a solo act. You can now select the original Extrude NURBS object

Step 3: By default the Extrude NURBS tool initiates a 20m extrusion along the Z Axis. (pic17) Since we drew the spline in the top viewport, the initial extrusion took the wrong turn.

Change the Z Axis setting to "0". Go to the Right viewport, and using the reference picture within increase the extrusion to match the height of the

Now that we've created the basic shape of the back of the coffeemaker we can set it up for further editing. In the toolbar that runs along the left side of Cinema 4D's interface, click on the blue and orange vase icon to make the model editable. (pic20) You can also make your model editable by simply hitting the "C" key. You'll now notice that the model has been broken down into three objects in the Object Manager (pic21). To make it easier to work with, shift-select all three objects and then go to Objects > Connect (pic22). This will turn your model into a single mesh. Your new

26

and delete it. It will automatically take the other two with it. I know you're sad that they've been kicked to the street. It's OK. I'm sure they'll find work somewhere.

Step 4: Maximize the Right viewport so that we can start editing the model. What

Basic Modeling: A Coffemaker (Part 1)

By Todd Groves aka 3DTodd we want to do now is create polygons to add detail to match the coffeemaker's shape. With the object selected in the Object Manager, switch to Polygon mode, then rightclick and select the Knife tool from the contextual menu (pic24). Before you can create cuts in the mesh, go

party. Forgets to tell you. You hear about it the next day. It sucks.

Step 5:

Tutorial

to the Knife tool's Options tab and deselect "Visible Only" (pic25). In the Right viewport, line up the Knife

tool where the plastic of the coffeemaker begins, hold down Shift and drag the Knife tool across the mesh (pic26). Create another cut

right below it (pic27). Activate the Rectangle Selection tool. In its attribute settings deselect the "Only Select Visible Elements" checkbox (pic28). Go into Points mode by selecting the icon with orange dots from the side toolbar.

With the Rectangle Selection tool active, draw a marquee around the bottom two rows of points. With "Only Select Visible Elements" deselected, this will insure that the points all around the mesh will be selected.

Grab the Scale tool, and the arrows on the axis icon should now turn into boxes. Grab the center box so that all the boxes appear yellow.

Now drag to the left to scale the points inward (pic29). Use the reference picture to match the points

with the black-colored section of the coffeemaker's base. With the points still selected, change to the Move tool and drag the points so that the top row of points is flush with the next row of points above it (pic30).

Go to the Perspective viewport and orbit around the object to make sure that all sides have been equally affected. We don't want any points feeling left out. You know what that's like, right? Your friend throws a

27

OK, now we're going to work on the detail at the top of the coffeemaker's back section. Go to the Right viewport and zoom in and pan to focus in on the top area showing in the reference picture. Once again, grab ye ole Knife tool by right clicking and choosing Knife from the contextual menu. Line up the Knife tool with the lip of the lid at the top of the coffeemaker; hold Shift and drag across the mesh (pic32). From the

top menu, choose Selection > Loop Selection. In the Perspective viewport, place the cursor near an edge in the top row of polygons until the top row of polygons turn yellow (pic34). Right-click and choose Extrude, and extrude the selected

row of polygons as shown (pic36).

No, you're not losing your mind. My picture numbers are skipping. To help keep file sizes down where I

Basic Modeling: A Coffemaker (Part 1)

By Todd Groves aka 3DTodd

geometry to accommodate the hot plate details where the carafe will sit. Select the first row of polygons on top, right-click and choose "Extrude Inner" to create the details needed for the heating element (pic43). Select the thin circle of polygons, right-click and select the can, I've left out some screenshots where possible.

Step 6:

Tutorial

Now we're going to edit some points along the extruded edge we've created to simulate the lid to the water reservoir at the top of the coffeemaker (pic37). Where the lip of the lid curves around the front we

the Top viewport using the same reference picture. Select the Cylinder primitive from the top dropdown menu, under the Cube primitive icon. In the Top viewport, scale up and move the Cylinder as shown (pic40). In the Caps tab, select the Fillet box and change the number of Segments to 1. This will create a

Extrude tool. Drag left to extrude upwards as shown (pic45). Now, select the top faces inside of the

will pull the points that make up the lip to match with the reference picture in the Top viewport (pic38). The bevel. Go to the Side viewport, and click and drag on the Radius arrows until the size matches the bevel in the reference picture (pic41). Make end result should look something like pic39.

Keeping it hot‌ Step 7: The next section of the coffeemaker we will work on is the bottom part where the heating element resides.

Again, the best place to start will be

the object editable by tapping the "C" key. Now you need to edit the

28

"lip" that you created. Retrieve the Extrude tool again and extrude downward. With the faces still selected, grab the Scale tool and using the middle cube of the Scale tool, scale inward as shown (pic46).

Even with the low poly count of this

Basic Modeling: A Coffemaker (Part 1)

By Todd Groves aka 3DTodd section of the coffeemaker, a quick render shows that from a distance the model appears normal (see pic47). We will add detail to this later to improve the resolution. of the heating element section with the base of the back section (pic53). If all has gone well, and you rubbed your stomach and tapped your head three times, then

Tutorial

highlighted in yellow. To make sure you've moved the points far back enough, maximize the Perspective viewport, and orbit into a position similar to pic50.

Step 8: you are now done with about two thirds of the coffeemaker. Not counting the other little doo-dads you can add later.

Now we will edit points along the back of the heating element to make it merge with the back section of the coffeemaker. Grab the Rectangle Selection tool and be sure to deselect "Only Select Visible Elements" in the attribute settings (pic48). Now move into the Top viewport. No

Step 9:

need to pack any clothes since we'll only be there a few minutes. A light lunch should suffice. As shown in pic49, select and move the points

Go into the Right viewport, and select the bottom two rows of points.

Again, making sure that "Only Select Visible Elements" is deselected so that points all around the mesh are being selected. Line up the rows of points to match the bottom section of the "back" section (pic51). Select the Knife tool and make a cut between the bottom two rows of points. Scale the new row with the bottom row of points to match the black-colored section of the coffeemaker, as you did with the "back" section of the coffeemaker.

Go into the Perspective viewport, and orbit until you see underneath the coffeemaker. Compare the base

Mmmm, coffee grounds.

Step 10:

29

Now we have to make something to hold the coffee grounds in. To make it easier to see what you're doing, click twice on the top gray dot next to the heating element object in the Object Manager to make it red.

Thus, hiding the object from view for the moment (pic54). Create a new

Cylinder primitive. Scale and position it as shown in pic55. To simulate the detail on the top of the coffeemaker you will need to create a

Basic Modeling: A Coffemaker (Part 1)

By Todd Groves aka 3DTodd

Tutorial

new circle of polygons. Using the Loop Selection tool, select the outer circle of polygons as shown (pic56).

Right-click and choose the Extrude Inner tool, and drag left to extrude

pic58. With the edges selected, right-click and select the Bevel tool.

Bevel the edge as shown in pic59.

Watch out for Part 2 of this Basic modeling tutorial in the next issue!

If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the WIP forum at www.3dattack.net. inward to match the detail as shown in pic57. Now, select all of the top polygons except the outermost ring.

Use the Extrude tool to extrude the polygons upward (pic58). Go into Edge mode, select the Loop Selection tool and grab the edge of the new surface. Refer again to

Till then, Todd

30

Artist Spotlight...

David Drayton

Name: David Drayton Age: 27 Occupation: Screen Designer Country: Germany

Spotlight

Software: CINEMA 4D R9, Photoshop, After Effects

MAPD SQUAD

Favorite places on the web: 3D Attack, www.latzkoworks.de

Artist comment: I began using 3D Tools in the Year 2000. Back then I tried a lot of Demos from 3DSMAX to Lightwave and Softimage. After finding out there was another 3D Software package called CINEMA 4D, I started to dig deeper into 3D and got hook on it. After finishing my training at Siemens AG as a Network Administrator, I quit working for Siemens and went back to School. I went to a professional school for Design & Art and got my specialized university-level degree. During my time in school. I worked as a freelance Graphic designer for several companies in Germany. Today I work for an architecture office.

I still work as freelance 3D artist doing animations, stills and motion graphics in the most diverse sec-

Spyflower

tions. Here's a current project I am working on http://www.3dattack.net/forum/showth read.php?t=2618.

3 31

Images: MAPD-Squad "Project": This image is a part of an animation, a Drone that observes the environment in its employment. I'm still in pre-production, writing a small script and drawing

Artist Spotlight...

David Drayton

the storyboard. Want to find out more visit http://www.3dattack.net/forum/ for information and updates.

Poly & Shroom

Poly & Shroom: This was my very first 3D Character. I made it in the year 2001. I'm still doing several W.I.P.'s. The Characters take part as Tutors for a Children's Book.

Their job will be to explain the world and their curiosity about it to children the ages of 5-10 years.

Spotlight

Amen: This image was done for 3D Attack's speed modeling contest. The main idea was to produce a stylized image of a crucifix.

Neo Bug: I made this little fellow for a future city.

Neo Bug was created in CINEMA 4D R7. As I love Mecha Designs, I had to make one of my own.

Spyflower: Another image created for the speedmodeling contest on 3D Attack. It wasn't my goal to produce an image that is photo realistic. The main goal behind Spyflower was to make something different.

Aiwa MP3 Player: This was my first experience with CINEMA 4D and it's modeling, rendering and lighting tools. I made this for school as homework 2001.

Pandeiro: A Prop for a Capoeira Animation Project.

Cyclone Vacuum Cleaner: This illustration was done for a Major Electronic Company in Germany. The main goal was to achieve a realistic look of the vacuum cleaner and to produce a multimedia manual.

3 32

Shader Building - Introduction (Part 1)

By Bram van Gerwen

This tutorial is an introduction to the building of materials while using only shaders. We'll learn how to use different noise types and effects in the different channels and how to use the blend modes to mix and combine them. You'll need the Advanced Render module to use Subpolygon Displacement however.

Tutorial

This month we'll do two materials, we'll create a circular piece of ground and a dirty reflective cylinder. First open the: 'ShaderBuildingBegin.c4d' file (You will find this file within the goodies folder).

The piece of ground will be a heap of sand with a cylinder pushed into it. Apart from the look of the material the elevation of the heap will be created by using SPD (Sub Polygon Displacement) in the shader itself.

So let's begin building this ground shader.

Create a Disc object, set its radius to 1080 and make it editable. This disc will become our heap of sand so rename it to 'Ground'. Create a new material for the ground and name it 'Ground Mat', then drop it onto the ground object. Click on the texture tag that appears behind the object and set its projection to Flat.

The texture isn't aligned the right way yet, so switch to the Texture Axis Tool and give the texture a P rotation of 90 and apply. If the flat texture projection isn't as big as the disc itself make sure the object and texture tag are selected and use the Fit to Object function, it can be found in the Texture menu in the Object Manager. Simply click ok and the texture will be stretched to the edges of the object, making a perfect fit. Now when we are editing the

material we can see in the viewport what we are doing with the material.

Let's add some colour next.

Go to the Color channel of the Ground Mat material. Collapse the Texture drop-down menu there and choose Layer from the list. The Layer shader simply let's you use the shaders and effects and blend them with the available blend modes.

To go into the layer shader you can now click on the field that says 'Layer' or click on the picture that accompanies it. We see five buttons in the layer shader properties: Image, Shader, Effect, Folder and Remove. The first three are visual elements that we can add, like a photograph, noise, RGB hue change, distortion etc. The folder enables you to combine the different effects in one particular folder without having them influence layers in other folders. Multiple layers in one folder will result in one combined output for that folder, thus you can have very complicated output per folder and blend those complicated outputs even further with blend modes to create ever more complicated materials. Lastly there is the Remove button which will logically remove any layer or folder you have selected.

Click on the Shader button and select Gradient. We have created the first layer with a gradient shader, this will become the overall colouration of the sand. In front of the layer there is a small eye icon, clicking this icon will hide the that layer until you click it again. Next you have the layer name, you can change it if you want, this is wise if you are going to build complicated shaders and need to know what layer does what,

33

rename this layer to 'Sand Colour'.

To the right of the name is a small picture which is a preview of the shader, to access the settings of the shader you must click this picture, remember that you can always click the back arrow on the right side of the attributes window (these back and forward buttons are very useful when working with layers, try and get used to them).

Next to the picture is the drop-down menu with available Blend modes, if you are familiar with working in photoshop or other paint/visual programs the list of items will be familiar to you. If the list is like martian to you please read the meaning of the individual blend modes in the manual (Page 801, The Shaders chapter), it is important to know what the modes do to create the effects you want. The slider next to the blend mode menu sets the intensity for the blend mode that is selected.

Now that we know what the layer is about, click on the small picture to edit the sand colour gradient. Set the gradient Type to Circular, as we have put the texture on a disc this is most appropriate. Set the Turbulence to 8, this will break up the linear look of the gradient with a turbulent algorithm. Enter the colours on the gradient like in picture 1.

Picture 1

Shader Building - Introduction (Part 1)

By Bram van Gerwen

Tutorial

On the left of the gradient is the colour in the middle of the circle and on the right is the colour on the outer edges. The gradient is calculated from the center to the corners of the square so we need to move the black color away from the edge and move it farther inward to prevent the gradient from being cut off at the edges and make the black appear at the edges of the ground object. We'll leave the colour like this for now, later we'll add some more detail when we know how the heap will look.

Go to the Displacement channel, set Height to 25, enable Sub-Polygon Displacement and load a Layer shader into the Texture field. Make your first layer a gradient like in the color channel, only this time we'll only use grey values as it is a for a displacement map. This gradient is going to provide the displacement for the main sand-heap, so rename this layer to 'Sandheap'. Set the Type of this gradient to Circular and set its Turbulence to 6, look at picture 2 for the grey values and placing. We want the heap to slope slightly with a increased elevation

reach the disc object. The first two are placed very close together resulting in a nearly sheer surface.

Unfortunately you can' see the displacement of the geometry directly in the viewport (you can with a plugin), so make a render in the viewport to see it. See picture 3 for result.

Picture 3

We now have a nice sand-heap with a shallow depression in the middle.

Now we'll add some ridges pointing outward. The Sunburst effect has the ideal shape to accomplish this.

Go to the bump layers and click on Effect, choose Surfaces -> Sunburst. A new layer named Sunburst is created, rename it to 'Ridges'.

Enter the sunburst settings like in picture 4. Go back to the layers and set the slider of the Ridges layer to 49 percent, else the effect is way

Picture 2

halfway ending in a sudden drop in the middle. where we will place our cylinder shortly.

As you see I set this gradient up while taking into account the calculation to the square corners, therefore the end part is mostly black as that portion of the gradient doesn't

Picture 4

too strong and would create very deep ridges. We're done with the displacement for this shader, let's make its appearance more realistic by adding some layers in the bump channel.

34

So now that we have made some overall deformation with displacement we'll enhance the look of the sand by adding some bump maps.

First let's make the sand grain.

Create a Layer shader in the bump channel and make your first layer a Noise shader, name the layer 'Grain'. In the noise shader set its Type to Dents, we want to use this to make a fine grain.

Set its global scale to 2 percent, remember the preview picture you see of the shader will be placed across the disc object so we need a very small scale. If you right-click on the preview picture you can choose the option 'Open Window...', this will open a window with the same preview picture, the advantage of this is you can enlarge the window and have a much more detailed look at the shader you're creating.

Also, this is extremely handy for seeing the main path of your shader, for instance if you are working on a shader with 5 layers you can have one window display the combined result while you are making changes in one particular layer, thus you see immediately how your actions affect the overall output of the shader.

Lastly set the Low Clip of the noise to 38 and the High Clip to 82 to get some more empty space in between our dots.

I could have used a simpler noise for this but Dents looks slightly better especially if you close in on the scene, its always a bit of experimenting with noise in your scene to see which one does the job the best. Go back to the layers and right-click on the small picture of the Grain layer and choose 'Invert Image', now that our spots are black we'll get actual dents instead of pro-

Shader Building - Introduction (Part 1)

By Bram van Gerwen

Tutorial

trusions. Next we'll add a layer to add some noisy turbulence to the lower part of the ground and distort it accordingly without distorting the Grain layer. The only way to do this is by using a folder with all layers that should be affected in there. So create a folder and in the folder create a layer with a Noise shader, name the layer 'Small Mounds'. In this layer set its Type to Wavy Turbulence, set Global Scale to 50, set Low Clip to 21 and set High Clip to 63. We want this turbulence to affect only the lower ground so now we'll add a gradient to tell the shader where to put the turbulence and where not.

Add a layer with a Gradient shader above the mounds layer, name it 'Mound Mask'. Make a gradient like in picture 5. Now that we have our mask gradient we need to choose the correct blend mode. We want

Picture 5

the turbulence only on the lower parts so we choose Subtract, this way the middle will be subtracted from the mounds while leaving the rest intact. When Subtract is chosen for the mask you can see the combined output of the folder in the small picture behind the folder. Now we need to choose a blend mode for the grain layer and the folder.

Because the grain layer is mostly white we can simply put the folder on Subtract as well and subtract the values of the folder from the grain layer, keeping the grain intact on the entire shader.

The ground is finished, Let's move on to the cylinder. The idea here is simply to have a shiny cylinder that has been shoved into the sandheap, the bottom should be dirty from the ground and the top still shiny. The dirty parts will have no reflection and the shiny ones will.

Ok let's start.

Create a new material and name it 'Shiny'. Put a layer shader in the color channel and make your first layer a Tiles Shader, it can be found under Shader... -> Surfaces -> Tiles.

Edit the shader and set its Pattern to 'Lines 2', set the Grout width to 22, set the Bevel Width to 2, set the global scale to 50, set its Orientation to V and enable Randomize color.

Now for the three colors, make Tiles Color 1 green, Tiles Color 2 yellow and Tiles Color 3 Green. We now have a very colourful outer skin of our cylinder, simple but nice. Drop the material onto the Cylinder and set its projection to Cylindrical. You have to make the cylinder visible to see it. The next step is to add the dirt and reflections.

Go back to the layers and add a Gradient above your Lines shader, name this layer 'Dirt A', set its blend mode to Multiply and set its slider to 78. Set up the gradient like in picture 6. Now create another gradient layer, right-click the Dirt A layer and select 'copy channel', then right click

Picture 6

the new gradient layer and select 'paste channel', name this layer Dirt

35

B. This kind of copying is handy if you have to create layers that are mostly the same, you only have to tweak a couple of settings. Change this new gradient according to picture 7. The Dirt B layer should also be blended using Multiply. Set the slider to 100 this time allowing the

Picture 7

full values of this gradient to be multiplied and resulting in some more defined and darker dirt splotches on the side of the shader. As you see the Multiply holds the appearance of your already used shaders intact here. For the finishing touch we'll add some smeared dirt by using the Fire effect.

Create your final layer, choose Shader... -> Surfaces -> Fire, name the layer 'Smears'. I'm going to Subtract this effect from the rest to create some different color variation instead of just adding it with Multiply.

Set the blend mode to Subtract and the slider to 80. You don't need to change much in the Fire shader, change the first black to white, change the red color to warm brown, set the U Frequency to 2, set the V Frequency to 0.8 and set the Turbulence to 2. Now if you check out your main shader you'll notice that burnt red smears have appeared additional to the dirt already there.

Time for some reflections. We want the clean parts to reflect fully and the dirty parts hardly or none at all.

This is ideal for we can simply use

Shader Building - Introduction (Part 1)

By Bram van Gerwen

the full layer shader from the color channel we just created. Go to the color channel, and from the dropdown at the Texture field choose 'copy channel'.

Then enable the reflection channel and go to the Texture drop-down menu there and choose 'Paste Channel'. The copied layer shaders appears in the reflection texture field.

Tutorial

Go to its layers. We need the reflection map to be grayscale so we'll need to take out all saturation from the layers, easily done with an effect. Choose Effect... -> Hue/Sat/Lightness.

Make sure the layer is above the previous four as it needs to affect all of them. Now grab the saturation dot and drag it to -100, taking out all colour information. With the current grayscale map you see now we get very subtle reflection differences but still most of the areas reflect, we want much less surface to reflect, we will do this by adding another effect. Choose Effect... -> Brightness/Contrast/Gamma. Set the contrast to 50 and the brightness to -18, these contrast controls allow us to make the already black areas to grow lighter areas darken, so that less reflection falls there making it look dirtier.

pretty much finished now, we notice that the cylinder doesn't match the ground that much, as a last step we'll add some layers to get the grey ground color onto the lower part of the cylinder.

Go into the Layer shader in the color channel and create a folder, drop the 4 layers into the folder.

Close the folder and create another one above the previous, set it to Exclusion and its slider to 97.

Create a Gradient shader in this folder, set its mode to Add and its slider to 94. Set up the gradient like in picture 8. Then go back to the layers and invert it. Before inverting

ignored. Now copy this gradient and create a new gradient in the new folder, copy the previous channel into this gradient, set the blend mode to Difference and its slider to 81. Make sure this gradient goes from Black down to Light Grey, then the Difference effect will look like we want it.

Lastly some finishing touches to the material most of us will be familiar with. Enable the Specular Channel and set the Width to 29 and the Height to 97. Then enable the Environment channel and load a Fresnel shader into the texture field.

Set the fresnel mix mode to Subtract and the mix strength to 52.

And this will be the end-result, Picture 9.

Picture 8

you'll notice that the top is blue and the bottom is beige, this is because white influences the colours with Exclusion, when it becomes black after inverting the influence is

Adding the bump now is a piece of cake. Simply copy the reflection channel and paste it into the bump channel. Then enter the shader and remove the Smears layer, we don't want that on in the bump map. Also change the three colors in the Tiles layer to white for an equal bump in the lines. With that done set the bump strength to -10 for an inverse effect and make a test-render. It's

That's it for this introduction to building shaders. Hope I've given you some ideas or opened some doors which you are now eager to explore.

As usual, if you have any questions or want to talk about shaders go to the 3D Attack forum, thank you.

Have fun shading, Bram.

Picture 9

36

SubPolyDisplacement with C4D and ZBrush

By SionCross

Hello Attackers! On the next few pages I will show you a 3 Step workflow between CINEMA 4D and ZBrush.

Geometry change the subdivision level to 1 and go to the Displacement Tab..enable Adaptiv and Mode you can leave the resolution at 1024.

1.In CINEMA 4D we create a simple cube….lay out the Uvs and export the mesh as an obj (wavefront) fileformat.

Picture 03

2.We use ZBrush to generate a simple displacement map and export that map to use it in CINEMA 4D. 3. In this part we make an XPresso expression that drives the SubPolyDisplacement Level based on the Camera Distance!

Now press Create DispMap and wait a bit for the calculation. When it's done the DisplMap is created as an Alpha Map..you have to convert it into a Texture to use it correctly in CINEMA 4D. Go under Alpha, select the map, and press the button Make Tx..After that you have to go to Texture and export the map by pressing the export button! Change the name and the format as you wish.

Tutorial

Picture 04

OK so lets get started!! Create a cube and give it 5 divisions...convert it into polys (c) and put a new material on it. Then switch to the BodyPaint UV layout and drag&drop the UV Tag onto the canvas. Turn on "use uv polygon edit tool" (Pic01) under Tools >> UV tools >> UV Polygons (Pic02). Now under UV Mapping and Projection click on

Picture 01-02

Cube2 or Box; they are the same in this case (Pic03). To use the full canvas size go under UV Edit >> Fit UV to Canvas (Pic04). Finally, export the cube into a wavefront-obj format!

Note: If something is unclear watch video01 in your Goodies Folder!

In ZBrush import your model under Tool >> Import and click drag the cube on the canvas. Go into EditMode by pressing on the Edit Button (T)..after this go under Tool >> Geometry and hit Divide several times. Now press the (G) key to switch into Projection Master..check off Color and enable Deformation, leave the other settings as they are..and press Drop Now! Change the brush to a SimpleBrush (typ 2) the Alpha to Brush 19 and the stroke to DragRectangle. I changed the Zadd-Intensity to 100% to get a strong deformation for this example!

Click&drag the Rectangle in the middle of your cube...and hit the (G) key to switch to Projection Master again and press the PickUpNow Button.

To generate a Displacement Map you must be at the lowest level on your mesh..so under Tool >>

37

Note: If something is unclear watch video02 in your Goodies folder!

Back in CINEMA 4D, double click on the material to get the Material Editor. In the Color option, load your Displ.Map to see were the map is facing..Normally it shows in the positive Z-axis.

To get the map facing towards you, rotate the cube 180° in pitch. Then reset the axis by clicking on the Use Object Axis Tool button and type pitch 0°. You also have to Flip the Texture Tag to get the correct map you created in ZBrush. To do this select the TextureTag and under texture choose MirrorVertically. Back in the Material Editor copy the Color Channel and paste it into the Displacement Channel. Turn on SubPolygonDisplacement and enable the normal Displacement!

Clear the Color Channel and close the Material Editor.

Create a Camera and give it a Target Tag under Rightclick Camera >> Cinema4D Tags >> Target...drag&drop the cube into the

SubPolyDisplacement with C4D and ZBrush

By SionCross

Target Object field! Switch into CameraView and make a position key near to Frame 90 & far at frame 0. Create a NullObject and give it an XPressoTag by Rightclick NullObject >> CINEMA 4D Tags >> XPresso..the XPressoEditor pops up!!

RangeMapper. Connect the Output of the DistanceNode with the Input of the RangeMapper and the Output of the RangeMapper with the Input of the SubdivisionLevel.

Note: If something is unclear watch video03 in your Goodies Folder!

Tutorial

You can load the "01_Displacement_Start" File to use the right values!!

Now we come to the main part of this tutorial, the XPresso Expression!

First, what will we do and what do we need? We need the Distance between the Cube and the Camera, so we need the position of each one..right?! Right: So drag&drop the Cube and the Camera into the XPressoEditor..select the CameraNode Leftclick the RedOutput >> Coordinates >> Global Position >> Global Position repeat this this step on the Cube (Pic05). Now create a

Picture 06

SubdivisionLevel! (Pic07) If we connect the Output of the DistanceNode with the Input of the Subdivision

Picture 07

Level..the SubdivisionLevel will jump to its maximum (12) when we move the camera the level stays at 12.

(Pic08).

Picture 05

DistanceNode..the DistanceNode calculates the Distance between the 2 objects..to do this Rightclick a clear spot >> NewNode >> Xpresso >> Calculate >> Distance (Pic06) ..and Connect the Outputs with the Inputs! So what should be driven by the Distance?!..In this case it's the SubivisionLevel of the Material!

To get this Attribute drag&drop the Material into the XPresso..you get a MatNode Leftclick the BlueInput >> SubPolygonDisplacement >>

Now we need to know the distance of frame 0 and at frame 90. There are 2 ways of getting them..1 way is to create a ResultNode and connect this one with the DistanceNode or you turn on the HUD display for the CameraDistance. In the final c4d scene I have both on..To get to the HUD display AttributeManager >> Mode >> ViewSettings and under HUD enable CameraDistance.

(Pic09). Now back to the RangeMapperNode..select it..go to

Picture 09

frame 90, and under InputLower in the AttributesManager, type in the value of 309 which is a little higher value then the current distance (308.942) and under OutputLower (which controls the Subdivision Level) give it a number like 6!

This means if the camera reaches 309 the SubdivisionLevel is 6

Picture 08

So what's missing???

We need to tell at which Distance the SubdivisionLevel 1 is and when 5,6 or higher are...here comes the all mighty RangeMapper into play!!!

Just create a RangeMapperNode..

Rightclick a clear spot >> NewNode >> XPresso >> Calculate >>

38

Now change the UpperValues..go to frame 0 and under InputUpper give it a lower value than 1493.805 something like 1493, and under OutputUpper set it to 1!!

This means if the camera reaches 1493 the SubdivisionLevel is 1 (Pic10).

SubPolyDisplacement with C4D and ZBrush

By SionCross

Picture 10

Note: If something is unclear watch video04 in your goodies folder!

Tutorial

This is just an example of what you can do with this Xpression. In the final .c4d file, I also connected the height and the strength to the RangeMapper, and connect the Light brightness as well!!

(You have to enable AutoLight to see something at frame 0) I hope this Tutorial helps you to clearly understand what you can do with the power of Xpresso. Feel free to test things out, but most of all, have fun :) Sion Cross

39

Sketch&Toon - Line Thickness

By Georg Niedermeier aka sad

Tutorial

Sketch & Toon is a very powerful module for CINEMA 4D that offers a wide range of options to create stunning pictures that look as if it were hand drawn. Paint your scenes with felt tip or pen, use markers or create time lapse animations of a picture´s accruement.

collection of preset styles. Its usefulness is unbeatable at times because sometimes a certain style utilizes many accurate settings and it would be a pain to create it for more than one scene.

In the Lines options you need to activate the types of lines you want to be calculated. My example uses Folds, Creases and Border.

Some of you who possess Sketch & Toon might have wondered how to make lines become thinner in relation to its distance to the camera.

Actually Sketch & Toon is relatively easy to use and it doesn´t take much to achieve an interesting style for the lines rendered by Sketch & Toon. That thinning lines effect can be produced in few minutes, though its rendering can be extremely time consuming depending what options are activated.

Picture 1

Pictures 1 and 2 show the difference between a picture without lines that have a thinning effect and the same picture with thinning effect. Notice that many details are absorbed by thick lines!

First of all you need a scene that you want to have cartoonish lines.

Don't forget to create a camera because we want to use it for the calculation of the thickness of our lines.

Switch to the Render Settings window once you´re satisfied with your scene. Go to the Effects panel and select Sketch & Toon from the Post Effect dropdown menu top-right of the Render Settings Window.

You will notice that CINEMA 4D automatically created a Sketch Material within the Material Manager. This material obtains its initial settings from the CINEMA 4D preferences. It´s not necessary for this tutorial, but it is good to know

Picture 2

that any setting of the automated Sketch Material can be changed to your likes.

Please switch the Control Level to Intermediate in the Main options.

This is necessary because otherwise you won´t be able to access all settings that we need in order to create the lines we want to.

There even exists an Advanced level but we don´t need it for our purposes. In this panel you are able to load and save settings which is very practical if you want to build a

40

The Render options contain the Line Anti-Aliasing options. Switch it to Good and keep in mind that it slightly lengthens rendering times. If you don´t like the Anti-Aliasing quality just select an even better setting.

Shading lets you control how Sketch & Toon handles the shading of your scene. Background shading can be set to Off which keeps the background of your scene as is while Color allows you to choose a certain color.Texture gives you the possibility to render a texture instead of a color. Both options would override for example, a Sky object if existent.

If you choose Color or Texture you can activate Texture Alpha in order to simulate paper and the soaking effect of ink, etc. For this tutorial please set the Background Shading to Off. The Object options contain even more possibilities. Off disables the shading effects so Cinema4D renders the shading just as if Sketch & Toon weren´t activated. Display Color sets the color a given object´s Display Tag. Custom Color lets you select a color of your choice.

Texture is self-explanatory.

Background utilizes the same setting that has been made in the Background options above.

Shading enables you to either let Sketch & Toon quantize the colors of an object as you might know it from CINEMA 4D´s native Cel-

Sketch&Toon - Line Thickness

By Georg Niedermeier aka sad Renderer, or you can switch to Gradient and create a custom gradient for the shading of Sketch & Toon. For this tutorial please set the Object Shading to Off.

Tutorial

That´s all we need to set up in the Render Settings.

Now click on to the Sketch Material found in the Material Manager.

Double click the material and click Thickness, set it to 3 and activate the Distance modifier. Notice the additional options that appear below.

Because we want the lines dependent to its distance to the camera you need to choose Camera in the Range dropdown list and Spline in the Mode dropdown list. If you were choosing Object in the Range dropdown list the lines would be scaled depending on the objects itself.

Because of that, every single object would start with thick lines fading to thin. Custom would allow you to define an exact range of how far or how close an object must be in order to have thicker or thinner lines. Anything that is fairer than the Min./Max. value defines will be rendered with the thickest respectively thinnest line style that has been defined. The Mode settings can either be controlled with a linear spline that contains two dots that can be moved up and down, or via a custom spline to which you may add several control points. Just click inside the 8x8 grid in order to add points. If you want to remove a point click and drag it outside of the grid.

Pictures 3 and 4 show you the difference of a linear thinning and a spline controlled thinning of Sketch & Toon lines. Notice the hard cut a linear distance modifier produces.

Now we arrive at the final step.

Create a spline that is similar to the

Picture 3

Picture 4

one seen in picture 3. Don´t take an initial thickness of 9! A value of 3 will be enough but feel free to choose another value if the result isn´t what you are looking for.

Because Sketch and Toon is a very complex module it´s advisable to read its manual thoroughly to understand all of the functions.

Thank you for your interest and Keep Attacking!

Georg Niedermeier aka sad

41

Creating a Building

By Aurety

In this tutorial, we will see how to model a detailed building in a very short time ( for this one : 1 H 30 minutes ). You can achieve very great pieces this way, and use some options to realize various models in a short time for a great render. It will be nice if some of you would share their models to our community and offer us a ton of buildings to construct some backgrounds or great towns. I have a dream...

Tutorial

Ok, so let's start... Turn on the chronometer!

2 - Needs for this tutorial: I added a color material to the cube to offer a better contrast. It's not necessary.

Place your best cube in the view and add some segments and size, in my case ( X = 1600; Y = 500; Z = 1000 and Segments X = 6; Segments Y = 7; Segments Z = 3 ).

(Pic01)

3 - Let's move some points. Select the "rectangle selection tool", uncheck the box " Only select the visible elements " to grab the points placed from backside and side.

Select and move the second points line from the top to Position Y = 490 and do the same for the second in bottom to Position Y = 10, we define here the floor and top of each level for our future building.

Do the same again for the intermediate level; select the two lines in the middle and set the size Y from 71,429 to 20 if you used my settings. Finally, move the two last lines for a similar value for the bottom of the future window we'll do. In my case, the down line to Position Y = 130 and the up line to Y = 380. I consider here that my level has 250m for height and the bottom of the window is placed to 120 meters up the floor. Of course, you can change this as you want. Here is the result, in front view. As you can see, my axis is localized on Y = 0.

(Pic02)

Picture 02_2

in the picture. (Pic2_2). Select now the "extrude inner" tool ( I keyboard ) to create the frame of the window.

Take care to uncheck the box "preserve groups" to act for each polygon, of course you can change that for anything else if you want to collapse the window. It's just a proposition for the tutorial.

Now move your mouse, with click pressed to create a little frame in each polygon or set the offset to 10.

Switch to the "Extrude tool' ( d keyboard ), set to offset = - 10 and "Apply". Do again " inner extrude ", and again the "Extrude tool', set to offset = - 3. ( Pic03-04-05) . The polygons selected will be nice place

Picture 01

Convert the cube to polygon object (hit the key "C" on your keyboard ) and switch the view to front in point mode.

4 - Time to build the model.

The goal to this step is to define two levels of my building. Before anything else, we'll change the coordinates axis of the cube to place it on the floor. Select the axis tool, and enter Y= - 250 to place the Y axis to 0 of the object. Now return to the Model tool and set to 0 the Y coordinate. The cube is placed on the floor, ready for a next step later.

Switch to the modeling layout so have all the tools in front of you for the modeling process. Ok, first select the polygons where we'll place the windows. It's not necessary, in my case, to select the symetrics because I will use the symmetrical object for the left side, so concentrate your efforts on the right side. I took those you can see

Picture 02

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Picture 02

Picture 03

for our windows, so go to menu Functions/Split. A new object appears in Object Manager called "Cube.1", rename it "Glass

Creating a Building

By Aurety

Picture 07 Picture 04

Picture 09

Cube.1 is our object for future windows. Rename it "Glass Window" or anything you want, to find it later.

Turn OFF the top red point in "Glass Window" object, in object manager to show the entire walls

Tutorial

Picture 05

Window". Create a new material with another color and drag it on this "Glass Window" object. At the end you will add some reflection and environment, but not at the moment. Return to the Cube object and delete the polygons not needed.

(Pic06-07).

5 - Now the balcony... Oops, I forgot one line in the middle to separate each level in two parts with 10 units as in the floor and the up, so use the "Knife tool" in loop mode to add it. Make a loopcut, and replace this new line of points to place them in Y = 250. Ok, add our balcony. I select these polygons (Pic08). And I make

Picture 10

shape. Use the K Key to activate the cutter tool in loop mode and " limit to selection " attribute checked.

(Pic11), be sure the " Create NGons " function is checked too. Set a nice

Picture 11

Picture 08

Picture 06

an extrusion for 100 with "preserve groups" checked. You should have something like this (Pic09). I want now a angle balcony so I just extrude this left polygon with an offset to 100. (Pic10) For the side shapes of my balcony, select the polygons who wear the future

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cut in the polygon selection in a vertical way and another one in horizontal way on the last polygon created. Extrude again the high part of these polygons for 100 Units.

The door-windows are built in the same way as the Windows, but I just checked the "preserve group" option. In short, we have "innerextrude/extrude/inner extrude/extrude/split". Rename the

Creating a Building

By Aurety

new created object : " Door Windows " . Add the same material as you did for the " Glass-Windows " object. Remove the unnecessary door-windows polygons on your original Cube. As you can see, I modeled my door separately. I'll let you organize all what you want to obtain the look you wish.

object and will name it "staircase_settings". We will add user data to him which will enable us to act on the size of our first step.

(Pic1_1)

Here's the step you should be on if you follow my tutorial settings (Pic12), You will find this step inside the tutorial folder. (file: step1.c4d) in your Goodies.

Tutorial

Picture 1_1

Click on the window "User data/Add User Data". A small popup opens, we will work for the length of our first step in detail and I would let to you carry out the others UD (User Data) alone. Within this popup windows, set these values inside like (Pic1_2) Picture 12

Ok, so prepare the next step : Model a Straight Stair and Spiral-Stair.

TUT'MINUTEÂŽ : MODELING A STAIRCASE The function of duplication of CINEMA 4D allows us in this exercise and the following (spiral Staircase) to climb right quickly. There coupled to simple XPressions to define our first step, we have the average ideal to climb the levels of modeling.

Picture 1_1

This small window (Pic1_3) will enable us to specify the type of the data which XPresso will treat. The Field Name, it is quite simply the

Pose a cube in the scene and enter the following settings (Size X = 120, Taille Y = 16, Taille Z = 30). Activate the option of bevel (Radius = 0,3 and Segments = 1). Here is our first stairblock. Pass directly to the end of this tutorial if you do not hope to use XPresso. You will add a null

Picture 1_3

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name of your User Data. In interface, choose the option with Float & Slider. Finally the type of data, here " Reals " because we will work with meters. Finally the values minimum and maximum. My stairblock currently makes 120 length, but I put 90 min. to allow itself to reduce it a little if necessary. At this step of the tutorial, you should have a small interface which appeared on the User Data section of your null object called " staircase_settings".

(Pic1_4). We will use this setting to influence size X of our cube. The principle is simple: We define a

Picture 1_4

driver parameter ( here the User Data has just created = Width ) to a driven parameter ( Size X ) which becomes controlled. We will define before all our original size X (Here Size X = 120). Position the Slider with 120. Click on the name of the UD, it passes in intensified brightness. Made click-right or ctrl-click to make appear the contextual menu and choose "Animation/Set Driver" (Pic1_5). That’s all! Remain to affect the Driven parameters. Go in Picture 1_5

Creating a Building

By Aurety

the attributes of the cube, click on X (in front of the field size X) and again Click-right or Ctrl-click and "Animation/ Set driven ( relative ) " (Pic1_6). And here are, your slider pilot from now on your size X . Add now, in the same way, Height and

Picture 1_6

Select your first StairBlock. Launch the duplication "Functions/Duplicate".

Think of checking "to generate instances". Take the linear mode, enter the height of stepstairs in Y (Here 14), and the depth in Z (here Z = 30). Remain on the tool "Duplicate" as long as your staircase is not in place from there on the number of steps. Once that it is good, you will adjust with your control tower XPresso by selecting the null object which contains User Datas. We are done with this little tutorial. (Pic1_10)

Tutorial

Depth while entering values as on (Pic1_7) and (Pic1_8). And staircase controls here you are: -) You will find the file stairs.c4d already carried out with this tutorial. (Pic1_9)

Convert your disc into polygonal object (Key C). In Edge mode, Choose "V key/Selection in mode loop" and choose the edges in the middle and set up the size to 50.

(Pic2_2)

Picture 2_2

In polygon mode, select these polygons, then "Function/Split". An object "Disc.1" appears in the manager of object. Remove your starting disc. (Pic2_3)

Picture 1_10 Picture 1_7

Picture 1_8

TUT'MINUTE速 : A SPIRAL STAIRCASE The principle remains the same one as the right staircase. We define a first Stairstep which will be duplicated in Y according to its height and a rotate angle. Add a disc to your scene with a radius 150. With 24 segments of rotation and 2 subdivisions. Switch to top view. (Pic2_1)

Picture 2_1

Picture 1_9

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Picture 2_3

Rename your new Disc.1 object "stair". Extrude the two polygons (touches D) with 17 for Offset, height of our stair. (Pic2_4)

Picture 2_4

Creating a Building

By Aurety

I activated the function of duplication. Think of checking "generate instances". Set the height of stair in Offset Y. Activate rotation and put 30째 in Rot.X. The axis being located at the center of the world, the staircase should rise in a balanced way. Apply. Still add, if necessary, steps via the attributes "duplicate", by adding instances. Let us return to our basic stair. Hide the copies.

(Pic2_5) Select the tool "Knife" in

Picture 2_7

Picture 2_9

Tutorial

34/2+(17/2)=25,5. I can set in position Y the calcul 34/2+(17/2) if I do not know the result. (Pic2_8)

Picture 2_5

loop mode and give two cuts near the edges to draw the plinths. Now, extrude for 17m, the polygons created on the top. (Pic2_6) Select the two edges of plinths located on the top, in front of stair. Their height is

Picture 2_10

Picture 2_8

Picture 2_6

to 34. Thus I can set directly in position y = 34/2 to place my plinth with precision. (Pic2_7) Select the two edges of plinths located on the top, in the medium of stair. Their height is to 34 but they should be with middle height,

(Pic2_9) (Pic2_10) Repeat this for edges located on the lower face.

Here is the result. File C4D is provided with this tutorial. (Pic2_11) MODELING: CYLINDER CENTRAL 3 Cylinders, 2 materials...

Hoping you know what extrusion is, I will not detail the stages of creation

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Picture 2_11

Creating a Building

Tutorial

By Aurety

of the central cylinder except some new operations like the fact of recording selections and of assigning a material to them. Here are some stages of the realization: -) Just like the cube, I pose a cylinder of 250 height and 267 of radius. I converted it into polygons (Key C) and replaced its axis in Y=0 and raises it of 125 to place it on the same level on the ground as the cube in Y=0 via the model tool. I position it in Z=-500 to place it in itscenter at the intersection of my cube. I create the same positions of lines of points of ceiling and floor to ensure a continuity of lines (Y=10 for bottom and Y = 240 for the top)...

Then I begin my work of extrusion (you will find the Cylinder.C4D file with this tutorial in your goodies).

(Pic13-14-15)

position them on the level of the nodes of Atom Array nodes.

I extrude my edges with the bevel tool and extrude them with the Extrusion tool backwards to create my joints. (Pic18-19-20-21-22)

Picture 15

"function/split" and in menu " Selection/set the selection". A red triangle appears near the object in the object manager. I click above and rename it "Glasses" (Pic16)

Picture 18

Picture 19

Picture 16

I drag my material of glass above, then I click on the icon of the ball in the object manager, I put the name "Glasses" in the field " limit to selection". It is textured!! (Pic17)

Picture 20

Picture 13

Picture 17

Picture 14

I duplicated my cylinder for the higher stage and placed it. After extrusion on the bottom one, I make

I create a third cylinder with 12 segments of rotation, and 4 in height.

I position it well on the same level that the higher cylinder and drag it into a "Atom Array " Object (Objects of modeling). That gives me the structure of my cylinder in volume.

I return to my cylinder of glasses and I select in loop my edges to

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Picture 20

Creating a Building

By Aurety

manipulate the Spline accordingly (Pic23).

Picture 24

Picture 25 Picture 21

Picture 23

Tutorial

Modeling : The Floor instances

Picture 22

Modeling : Balcony railing and Splines The railings are simple cylinders with a few extruded polygons inward and outward. The system of hook is a ring shape flattened on the Y axis and placed as a child of the cylinder.

To create the ropes which go through the railings, a simple Spline and a profile shape (here a circle) and I place my points in the holes of the ring from one side to the other side of the cylinder. I then add an object "Extrude NURBS"and it's done.

If I want to create an angle, I use the Knife tool to cut my spline and create a third point that I reposition using the move tool. The only thing left is to position these guard rails on the building, and then

As this course is primarily about the function "duplicate" and the instances, so let us continue. After a few minutes of modeling, you should be far from finishing your building level... right side !! And yes, there remains the left part. We quite simply will use the symmetry object. I forgot to then make a screen capture of this step in my realization, so I will do it on my object "step 1", i.e. the step without the staircases, the railings, etc... but the principle is the same one.

Switch to front view and in points mode on the "Cube" object, our building level. We will select all the points located on the left axis Y and will remove them (Pic24-25) Drag an object "Symmetry" located into the objects of modeling, that with a face with two colors (green and blue), in the scene and drag&drop your half-building inside. The building is reconstituted on the left mirror.

The Object "Symmetry" functions only on the first Object located in "Child". If you want to create sym-

48

metries of the other objects of the left stage left (staircases; support rembarde, etc...), either you drag X objects inside X "symmetry" object to treat each one of them separately, or you create a null Object which you drag into symmetry, after you have to drag all the objects that you wish to replicate in symmetry.

Another solution, you drag all your Objects in your "Cube", the halfbuilding in the manager of object.

Symmetry functions run perfectly on the hierarchies. Finally, we have our building level complete (Pic26)

Picture 26

I already started to change my materials on this step of the tutorial as you can see it on the images which follow.

Do not do anything for the moment, we will come to that soon after the phase of duplication. On the following page, I propose some views for visualizing the complete first level of our building. Take care with the hierarchies, the central Cylinder (contains three cylinder in fact), is not in the object "Symmetry" and is

Creating a Building

By Aurety

Tutorial

placed apart from this object. As for the right staircase, we will use the function "Duplicate" in order to assemble our levels with those settings, the height Y = 500 of the building. Rest to define the number of levels and not to forget that the bottom level will be used for entry or ground floor of the building and more in top, as structure of roof and consequently the last step. Here are little settings of "Duplicate" function. I create a Null Object which I name "Level", I drag all my hierarchy inside (see Image Building 21).

I select "Level", parent of all the other objects who constitutes it.

Here are my parameters of Duplication (Pic27 = before symmetry). (Pic28 = after symmetry) (Pic29) (Pic30).

It is simple to do: Select your instance and press on the key "C", which corresponds to the shortcut function "convert to polygonal Object". The instance breaks and releases from the copies of the multiple objects contained in the referent Object. Well, now you can edit your roof by simple extrusion, or the ground floor. But now that I know your ready in modeling, I leave you with the experimentation to finish your building. I attached various files for you as well as the final file if you wish to analyze the scene in more detail. (Pic32)

Picture 30

If you checked "Generate instances", you should obtain this.

(Pic31) Click on each instance to see on which floor they correspond.

What is brilliant with the instances

Picture 32 Picture 27

Picture 31

Picture 28

Picture 29

(and it is their goal), it is that if you modify your object referent (Here Level), the instances follow and change in an identical way, also I leave you with this stage to finish your building a little.

What is more elegant with the instances, it is that if I wish to modify one in particular, I'm not able to in this state. For example if I want to modify the instance "Level_3" to build my roof, or to create my ground floor, I must absolutely "break" the reference of the one with the other.

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Bye for now ...Aurety

50

Best of CINEMA 4D

Some of the best artists around the world using CINEMA 4D

Artist Comments: This is just a new Car visualization I made for my portfolio. My aim was to make a photo real Picture with nice reflections on the Car like in a studio shot. For the base reflection I took an HDRI and combined it with some well placed planes, some with a white self illuminating matt and some with a black one. Doing this I get rid of the overall HDRI reflections.

Image: Audi A4 Avant Artist: Maurice "MUCK-ONE" Jochem Country: Germany Website: www.muckone.com Date created: 6-20-05 Software: CINEMA 4D 9.1

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Image: Fairy Tale Artist: Paul Carrick Country: Scotland UK Website: www.stickywhippet.com Date created: 03-22-04 Software: CINEMA 4D 8.5, Paintshop Pro 8

Artist Comments: Both my first use of CINEMA 4D software and also my first major project using it. Not being a big fan of hefty manuals, I leapt in at the deep end. Thanks to the intuitive tools and interface of CINEMA it really didn't take long to get used to it and this was the result. Early stages in development of this image looked a little too "CGI" and I felt I needed to move towards a more painted style. This was achieved by using a lot of high resolution hand painted textures using my trusty Wacom and some photos of natural materials as a reference, this took a lot of time and effort. I think over 250MB of textures were finally used because most of the surfaces in the scene needed combinations of diffuse, bump and specular maps, even down to the tiny Salamander that I think went unnoticed by a lot of people! This was a project that I thoroughly enjoyed and couldn't have done so easily without CINEMA.

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Image: The Pistolero Artist: SĂŠbastien Florand (aka "Fluffy") Country: USA Website: http://www.piximedia.com Date created: 06-22-05 Software: CINEMA 4D, Storm Tracer, Shave and a Haircut, Photoshop

Artist Comments: This dude has been originally created for the Machineflesh challenge at CGTalk. I never had enough time to finish it during the challenge, but I liked him so decided to finish it anyway. Since I have a hard time with compositing a scene, it was a good exercise, that still needs improvements of course. The main idea here was to represent a mean mexican pistolero (a bandit) who wreaks havoc against another gang. Chaos with a comic side was the goal here, so I hope you'll like it.

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Image: Final Conquest Artist: Raymond O'Doul Country: USA Website: www.3dexplorer.net Date created: May 2005 Software: CINEMA 4D

Artist Comments: I've had the idea for this render swimming in my head for some time now. I hope you like it.

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Editor’s Notes Hello there Readers and Attackers!

WOW! Can you believe we are already on the July issue? 2005 is half over and we have some exciting things coming for you in the next few weeks. Be sure to keep checking back at the Attack shop, as we will have some great offers for you.

Every once in a while, on the 3D Attack forum, we throw up a Sudden Attack. What is a Sudden Attack, you may ask? A Sudden Attack is a challenge one of the forum admins will throw up suddenly for our members. They can run from a few hours to a couple of days in length, and come with some great prizes.

Check out our latest Sudden Attack here: http://3dattack.net/forum/showthread .php?t=2781 Remember these Attack’s are SUDDEN! They come without warning. Keep your eyes open for the next one.

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You will now find your Goodies folder at http://www.3dattack.net/goodies/ for download. This will allow us to make changes to the Goodies folder easily, (if needed) and provide you with the access to the Goodies whenever you may need to redownload them. Remember, the Goodies are copyrighted as is the magazine. These Goodies are for paying readers only. DO NOT redistribute your download link or your Goodies folder.

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