39_junio_2007

Table Of Contents June 2007

Page 3

Editors Notes

Page 5-8

Spotlight on “Julian Field aka Expressomech by Tavy Pasieka

Page 9-15

Boxmodeling a Character Part 1 by Mark Gmehling

Page 17-21

Advanced Texturing Techniques - Specular Maps by Thomas Pasieka

Page 22-26

Modeling a Kiwi - Part 2 by Brian Harrison

Page 27-29

Advanced Lighting Techniques - Flashlight by Thomas Pasieka

Page 30-34

Cup of C.O.F.F.E.E Part 12 by Rui Batista

Page 35-39

Modeling a Violin - Part 1 - The Body by Mark Glass

Page 40-42

Chit Chat with Thomas Pasieka

Page 43-48

The Prize Fight II - Round 1

Page 49

CINEMA 4D - Frequently Asked Questions

Page 50-52

Best of CINEMA 4D Gallery

Page 53

Contact Information

Editor Notes June 2007

Hi there Attackers,

CINEMA 4D ONLINE TRAINING - CINEVERSITY

The summer heat has finally arrived here in Michigan, USA. We are rapidly approaching the 90 degree mark! As the temperature heats up outside, so does the CINEMA 4D Community.

Now Over 600 Tutorials on Cineversity!

3D Attack, with MAXON have begun "The Prize Fight II". "The Prize Fight 1" was so successful, we've decided to give another go with a Fire and/ or Ice theme. This time around our entrants must sketch, model and animate a Fantasy Character/ Creature and battle their way through three exciting, yet challenging, rounds to win some great prizes sponsored by MAXON.

As of today, there are now over 600 tutorials live on Cineversity! At only $295 to join, that calculates out to less than 50 cents a tutorial! http://www.cineversity.com/ GOODIES All of your goodies for this and previous issues of 3D Attack - The CINEMA 4D Magazine can be found here: www.3dattack.net/goodies/

We are currently in Round 1 and invite you to take a look at our progress: http://www.3dattack.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f =90 We would also like to make note that a great new plug-in for CINEMA 4D is now available by developer Chris Montesano.

EDGESHADE EdgeShade is a pack of two shaders for CINEMA 4D 9.6+. SoftEdge enables you to easily soften hard edges on your objects. DrawEdge gives you advanced control for drawing wireframes of your objects.

You can find out more about EdgeShade and other great plug-ins by Chris Montesano for CINEMA 4D at:

ADVERTISING WITH 3D ATTACK If you would like to advertise with 3D Attack send us an e-mail requesting our media kit and rate card. 3dattack@3dattack.net Contact Information: 3D Attack 158 S. Saginaw St. Chesaning, Michigan 48616 - USA E-mail: 3dattack@3dattack.net

TUTORIALS If you have any questions or comments regarding the tutorials within the magazine, please feel free to express them on or CINEMA 4D discussion forum at www.3dattack.net

http://www.biomekk.com/index.php?cat=107 As always, thanks for your continued support and KEEP ON ATTACKING! The 3D Attack Team

CALLING ALL WRITERS If you have a knack for writing and would be interested in writing tutorials and/or articles for 3D Attack, feel free to drop us an e-mail at 3dattack@3dattack.net net for more information.

Spotlight on “Julian Field” aka “Expressomech”

By Tavy Pasieka

Jools: I started out with C4D SE5, which must have been around 10-11 years ago, having come across a review of it in Mac Format magazine.

This is going to sound trite, but, initially, it was my application of choice, due to it's relatively low cost! Today, it's because I have 'grown up' with it, as a 3D artist, and love the ease of use, along with the fact that it is modular, rarely crashes and offers a good all-round solution for the majority of projects.

Oh, yes, and because it features XPresso.

Tavy: What other software applications do use in your workflow?

Jools: Currently, just C4D 9.6 Studio, and Pages for creating decals, which may come as a surprise! In the future, I can see myself using Final Cut Studio 2, which looks stunning, as I need to make a show-reel, and some compressed content for the web and, possibly, iPod. Obviously, I use Logic Pro, for the music side of things.

Name: Julian Field (expressomech) Location: Kent, UK Age: 40 Occupation: Logic Pro Trainer/College Lecturer/Actor Website: www.young-sounds.com Favorite Resources on the Web: Base 80, MyFonts, Logic Pro Files, Sonikmatter, and, of course, 3D Attack!

Tavy: This may be a broad question, but of all your creations, what one are you the most proud of and why?

Jools: Currently, it has to be my 'Black Ball' Birthday Card. I have long wanted to combine XPresso and Dynamics in a project and with this one, I finally achieved it.

Tavy: Thanks for taking time to speak with 3D Attack today. Why don't we start with you telling us a little about you and what you do?

Jools: I am based in a small seaside town called Whitstable, in Kent, southeast England, UK. The weather's changeable and nothing much happens, but it's not a bad place to live.

The card features 20 Solvers, one for the ball and one for each of the elastics that support the letters, and I wasn't sure my aging PowerBook G4 would cope with that lot, but it did. What's more, I only baked the Solver for the ball! This was a great challenge, as Dynamics are not the most user friendly feature of C4D, but have great potential, if you're prepared to persevere with them.

With regard to my working life, I currently work part-time at my local college (Canterbury), teaching metal fabrication and welding. Aside from this, I teach Logic Pro 7 music software, on a freelance basis and also act professionally (I'm an absolute-nobody) on increasingly rare occasions.

I am also training to be a Music Careers Advisor with the UK Musicians' Union. All-in-all, variety is very much the spice of life, and long may it continue!

I am also rather pleased with the Party Popper, in this scene. The streamers worked out really well, and I'd like to mention Renato Tarabella at this point, as without Path Deformer, I couldn't have achieved this part of the project (I don't have MoGraph, as yet). I am also using Spline Tools in the development of my Player Organ, and rate both of these plugins very highly.

Tavy: When did you first discover CINEMA 4D and why is it your 3D Application of choice?

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Spotlight on “Julian Field” aka “Expressomech”

By Tavy Pasieka

Tavy: Who are some of your favorite CINEMA 4D Artists and why?

teams, who created the Myst series of adventure games, as these are masterpieces (particularly Riven) and a great influence.

Jools: There's so much talent on the forum, and elsewhere, but Jamie Hamel-Smith's work is superb, as is Deprite's Apache helicopter.

Tavy: What is your favorite feature in CINEMA 4D?

I single these two guys out, as I greatly admire their unfailing attention to detail, and shear love for what they do. Peter Fendrik's , 'Bird' series of characters are truly mind-blowing - beautifully realized and textured.

Jools: Surprise, surprise... XPresso! A turning point for me with CINEMA 4D, came with the purchase of Arndt von Koenigsmarck's, MAXON CINEMA 4D7 book.

Up until that point, I had no idea that procedural animation existed, let alone that CINEMA was capable of it, but the C.O.F.F.E.E. tutorials in this great title were a revelation!

I also enjoy Base 80s website, as he a fellow XPresso fan, with some interesting ideas. Finally, I know they aren't C4D artists, but I have to mention Robin and Rand Miller, and the various 6

Spotlight on “Julian Field” aka “Expressomech”

By Tavy Pasieka

From that moment onwards, I knew this was what I wanted to do with the package, and XPresso has enabled me to take things much further. It's so inspiring, and I find the further I delve into it, the more ideas it gives me. Fantastic!

Jools: I feel I have found a bit of a niche with my animated greetings cards, and plan to expand on these, with a view to selling them as on-line downloads, either via my own website, or an established card bureau. I'd also like to combine 3D, music and real-world video, but it depends how things pan out, I guess.

Tavy: If you could have one thing implemented into CINEMA 4D, what would it be and why?

Tavy: What do you do in your spare time for relaxation and enjoyment?

Jools: This will probably sound boring, but I'd really like to see a dedicated Fluid Dynamics module, as I could certainly find a use for them!

Jools: Fencing, as a sport to take part in, Cricket, as a sport to watch. I am perpetual reader, and like anything from classic fiction to science fiction.

Tavy: Where would you like to see yourself in 5 years artistically?

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Spotlight on “Julian Field” aka “Expressomech”

By Tavy Pasieka

I also enjoy films, particularly retro-futuristic productions with strong art direction, such as Brazil, Blade Runner and Metropolis (which partly inspired the art deco look of my Player Organ). I am also a life long Rock music fan, and when inspiration strikes, I write and record songs.

Tavy: Thanks for being our Feature Artist Jools.

It's always a pleasure to get to know members of the CINEMA 4D Community a little better. I'll give you the last word.....

Jools: Sincerest thanks for having me in the magazine, and for giving all of us the 3D Attack forum.

To all of you who have read these words, thanks for listening to my dubious thoughts, and keep on being inspired!

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Boxmodeling A Character - Part 1

By Mark Gmehling

Hi there Attackers, this time I'd like to show you my approach on modeling simpler characters.

You'll be able to follow this tutorial with every C4D version from R6 up, although some steps as adding loops with the knife tool or loop-selecting etc. are more time consuming with versions below C4D R9.

In this tutorial series I'd like to build a simple character that is equipped for animation, but on the other side, is not that complicated in the case of modeling.

That means I'll do the box-modeling approach, take a primitive and model the needed detail in it by extruding polys without adding points and bridge them to the best method for modeling a more complicated character (the so called poly by poly method).

As you may know I'm a fan of characters that don’t imitate reality and there are definitely some rules to follow that make sense in making a character convincing.

Let’s keep it simple but charming:

Next to a lot of aesthetical issues that are not discussable, because they're flavor related, the most important technical one is the polyflow:

To develop charming characters we need to do lots of sketches and develop an initial idea further.

I use to sketch a character when I liked it dozen of times and try different limb scales, mimics, poses etc on paper.

What do I want my character to be capable of?

Do I want to do facial animation or, in general, do I want to animate it?

The time you spend doing some scribbles is nothing in relation to the experiments you do inside C4D in 3D space. So, for this tutorial I've choose a character from my sketchbook that I always wanted to bring to life. (Image 01)

Does the character consist of enough loops to deform nicely when I place bones/joints in it?

I like to take care of all of these things because sometimes you want to animate a model that was developed for a still.

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Boxmodeling A Character - Part 1

By Mark Gmehling

a lot of polys to get well defined and to have enough points to manipulate nice expressions. I make my cylinder editable (C) and go to structureoptimize to connect the cylinders cap to the body.

This makes sure that it is behaving nicely in a hypernurb.

In top view (f2) I use the rectangle tool to select the right half of my cylinder to delete it (Backspace) (I make sure to disable Only visible" in the attributes of the rectangle selection tool).

01

After that I alt-click a symmetry object, alt-click a hypernurbs object and voila, my starting shape is ready for manipulation. [In older C4D versions the alt-create function is not implemented.

First thing to do when I'm satisfied with my sketch is to think about loops. This means I think about the areas that need circular loops that will behave nicely, while deforming in animation later.

This means you need to drag the cylinder onto the symmetry to make it a child and then drag the symmetry onto the hypernurbs.

In this case it’s the eye and the mouth area where I have to pay attention to the polyflow, and furthermore the leg area that will be extruded from the base shape. The arm origin is floating in this character design.

The alt click generation of objects comes in very handy when you have geometry out of the center of your scene and need a symmetry object there, as it creates Null objects or symmetry etc, exactly on the position of actual selected objects.] (Image 02/03)

Next to a nice look, it avoids any difficulties with weighting the shoulder area. This is always one of the hardest tasks when setting up a character for animation.

OK enough words now... Let’s start: I don’t place my character sketches in the editor window because, in the scribbling phase, I get the feeling for the character and notice what relationships are important to make the character work.

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Next to that I'm scribbling mostly 3/4 perspectives to get a better feel of the characters expression.

These perspective sketches wouldn’t be usable at all, so I have my sketches on the desk next to me and start with creating the most suitable primitive for the sketch.

In side view (F3) and Point-Mode I rectangle selected the rows of points in the middle and move (E) one near the top and the other near the bottom to define a nice edge. (Image 04).

I start with a cylinder with 24 rotation segments, three height segments and orientation default +Y. I chose that many rotation segments because the eye and mouth area and the arm holes need quite 10

Boxmodeling A Character - Part 1

By Mark Gmehling

I add two rows of points with the knife tool (K) in line mode (I make sure to have "visible only" disabled in the knife tool attributes) by dragging the knife with the shift key on hold to make sure I add horizontal cuts. (Image 05).

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After that I adjust the new point rows to define the main shape of the character by rectangle selecting and scaling (T) them, and moving (E) the point rows along the y-axis.

Your shape should look like PIC_06. I go on with adding three more rows for the eyes and arms.

Again, I use the knife tool (K) in line mode/ visibility only=off. You'll notice that the topology of the cylinder is getting edgy when you add rows of lines close together so you need to use the scale

I started with a low count of vertical point rows to be able to define my shape with the minimum of point row moving. So I stay in side-view and adjust my cylinder to a nice rocket shape by scaling (T) the top rows in x,y and z at once by dragging outside of the scale-handles.

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You will notice that the scale tools origin is not placed right for this operation because it messes up the symmetry. Here come the modeling axis attributes of the scale tool in. Since R9 it is possible to adjust the axis of the main manipulation tools (Move,Scale,Rotate).

So, in this case, I set the scales tools axis to x=100% to be lined up with my symmetry axis and I can scale without messing up my symmetry. Then 11

Boxmodeling A Character - Part 1

By Mark Gmehling

tool again to adjust the new rows to get a smooth topology. Now it time to switch to poly mode and to check which polys could become eyes and the ones that will become the armholes.

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With the live selection tool I select four polys that will make the eyes. In point mode I use the slide tool (Mo) to manipulate the points that will make the eye in a circular shape. The cool thing with the slide tool is that it offsets the points only along the topology. I just drag the points where I want them without messing up topology. (Image 07).

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Back in Polymode I extrude the selected polys inner (I) two times and then I extrude (D) the polys inside the cylinder mesh. After that I scale the, still selected, polys smaller (T) but before I set the scale tools x-axis back to 0%. This way I get a nice rounding that I fine tune by adding a point row inside the eye cavity with the knife tool in loop mode. After that I scale (T) this point loop larger to get a nice inner rounding. (Image 08).

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The next step is selecting the outer poly row (UL= loop selection) and extrude (D) them to add more geometry for facial expressions and eyebrow movement in this case. This looks quite weird on first sight and must be tweaked with the slide tool (Mo) in point mode by hand. It is a good idea to disable the nurbing from time to time to have a clearer view on the points that make the mesh.

Just use the q-key to switch from nurb to linear display. (Image 9/10).

12

Boxmodeling A Character - Part 1

By Mark Gmehling

You'll notice an ugly deformation above the eyebrows because the deformation is blended to the top of the cylinder shape- so we need to add one more cut above the eyebrow area- Knife tool (K) in loop mode adding a cut above the eyebrows and the shape looks nice again.

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Now I want to concentrate on the eyes themselves- so I add a sphere to my scene- leave its attributes default, but rotate (R) along pitch axis (P) 90 degrees. (Image 10) Now I scale (T) and move (E) it into place as seen in PIC_11. As you see I placed the Eye-sphere in a symmetry object to have a mirror on the other side. For now I leave the eyes as they are and concentrate on the armholes.

Again I select the polys that will make the armhole and, in point mode, I adjust the points in that area to get a nice circular shape using the slide tool (Mo). After that, the steps from above are repeated and I extrude the selected polys inner (I) and extrude them inside the cylinder shape (D).

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Do the first extrusion slightly and a second one more to define a quite hard edge. Now I select the outer poly loop and extrude it (D) to create a small ring around the armhole. (Image 11/12) The last thing in this issue is adding the legs at the bottom of the character. First I need to add two more cuts in point mode. After that, again the same game as above, selecting four polys that will make the leg origin/ adjust the points to a quite circular shape using the slide tool and then extruding inner (I) one time and moving the polys out.

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Then I go to the coordinates manager and set the y-size to 0 to liner them up on the same height.

Looking at them from below I adjust their shape to a circular one, again with the move tool (E). I scale them smaller (T) and extrude them two times to define the leg. (Image 13/14).

Now I go to side view (F3) and move (E) the new leg-point rows to a believable position. After that I add two diagonal cuts, one above and one below the knee area to create a harder edge. For the 13

Boxmodeling A Character - Part 1

By Mark Gmehling

area to define a harder edgy, and a loop at the thigh and shin. The last step is adding another loop at the thigh origin and adjusting the bodythigh transition with the slide tool (Mo) to create a transition that I like. (Image 16).

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foot I add a cut at the ankle region and select the polys shown in PIC_15 to extrude them twice.

After the first extrusion I set the z-size to 0 in the coordinates manager to have a good base to extrude the foot shape.

To define the flat sole I add another cut slightly above the sole area- Look at PIC_15. In side view I select the bottom row of the foot points and set their y-position to 0 in the coordinates manager.

(Image 15)

For the arms I create a cube and adjust its segments to x,y,z: 4,2,2 and its x,y,z-size to 200,10,10. I put it in a symmetry, and the symmetry in a hypernurbs, and place it next to the armhole. In side view (F3) I make the cube editable and adjust its shape to a more circular one by selecting the points with the rectangle selection and moving (E) them into place. In perspective view (F1) I adjust the point loops to my liking with the scale tool (T) (Image 17).

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In PIC_16 you can see how I adjusted the foot shape to fit the style I've chose in my sketches. I used the move tool (E) to bring the foot into a more pointy shape and added a loop at the ankle

14

Boxmodeling A Character - Part 1

By Mark Gmehling

Now I add more loops and move (E) and scale (T) them to bring the arm in a believable T-position for later rigging. So I need to pay attention to have a bend in the arm at the elbow area as I have it in the knee area to make the IK calculation easier later. Sometimes when try to rig straight-modeled arms or legs the IK can’t be calculated and you get flipping problems.

polys to a circular one in point mode with the slide tool (Mo). Now I do a slight extrude (D) and set the z-position in the coordinates manager to 0 to avoid normal distortions in the next extrusions.

I move the new poly slightly down and do two more extrusions to define the thumb shape. After that I adjust the finger shape by moving (E) points to lengthen it a bit. (Image 19)

To add the hands of my sketch I need to extrude the last polygons two times. Directly I scale (T) the new polys to flatten out the hand area (Image 18).

I hope you had fun following this tutorial and take part in the next one to finish the models mouth area and get it ready for BodyPaint.

Don’t hesitate to post on our forum if you have any problems following this tutorial or if you have any further questions.

KEEP ATTACKING!

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Mark Gmehling

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To bring in the thumb I just select two polys and extrude inner (I) to adjust the shape of the new 15

Advanced Texturing Techniques - Specular Maps

By Thomas Pasieka

Did you ever wonder what the Specular Color Channel is for? Yeah, I am sure at one point you did. Are you making use of it though? I bet you don’t or at least not that often. Or maybe you are even one of those people who don’t even know what it is for. Well that’s why I am writing this tutorial.

Let’s take a cardboard box for instance. I modeled and textured a cardboard box one day and found out that not a whole lot of people actually use the Specular Color Channel. Why? I don’t know.

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However, back to the box. Have a good look at the image below.

03 The image shows the nature of the box. Which means, the cardboard material itself is almost non reflective.

But in this case I have some tape sealing the box as you can see. Now this tape is of course (in most cases) reflective. So far so good. That’s the theory.

Ok, so let’s get on it. I took the texture map and opened that in Photoshop (or whatever else you like to use). I then masked those parts that need to have specularity.

I UV mapped the box and textured it using Bodypaint and Photoshop which was of course very simple in this case. Have a look at Image 02.

As you can see everything is layed out pretty well and the box is ready.

You can see that those areas that reflect are white while the rest ramains black. Pure white means 100% reflection though so we need to be careful with that. You can either choose a grey or take that image as it is into CINEMA 4D and change it’s “Whitepoint” in the material settings.

Is it? Not really. As mentioned earlier I want some specular on the tape that is on top and on parts of the side of the box. See Image 03 for clarification.

17

Advanced Texturing Techniques - Specular Maps

By Thomas Pasieka

using a bump map as you can see which makes for nice reflections and depth later on the reflective tape. Have a look at the “Reflection” Channel (Image 06). The Brightness is set to a low number (2%) or I would get way too bright

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Alright, so far we got the color map and the specular map which is simply black and white in this case. Let’s have a look at the material manager within CINEMA 4D now (Image 05).

reflections. As mentioned earlier I also changed the whitepoint of this texture as you can see in the next image (Image 07). To do that simply click on the little graphic representing the texture. The Whitepoint is set to 3.8 in this case. You will have

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The color channel of course contains our cardboard texture that I created. I activated the “Specular Color” Channel and loaded the newly created black and white image into it. I am also 18

Advanced Texturing Techniques - Specular Maps

By Thomas Pasieka

to play around with that since the reflection depend on how white/grey/black your texture is and of course lights and additional HDR Images will affect the specularity.

animation of this box so you can see how nicely it reflects. You will also see that it has a little bump to it if you go through it frame by frame. So overall I am very satisfied with the outcome.

I am using Global Illumination and one additional lightsource in my scene. This of course varies depend on object/scene. Choose whatever is best lighting wise.

You have to admit that the technique is not all that complicated. You basically create a black and white or grayscale image of the parts you want to be shiney and reflective.

Have a look at Image 08. You can clearly see that the tape is now reflective and interacts with it’s surrounding. The Cardboard material however remains dull with almost no reflection/specularity which is exactly what we want. I rendered an

I can think of lots of objects that would greatly improve in appearance if people would make use of a specular map. Try it for yourself and see the difference with your own eyes.

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Advanced Texturing Techniques - Specular Maps

By Thomas Pasieka

Let me show you this technique on a different object. Let’s say a plaster wall that is broken here and there and woodwork shows through. Well, if you do it the traditional way you would get specular all over the place. Not really convincing looking. Have a look at the next image.

because I don’t want specular on that area. I gave the other areas a little brighter color. This is a great way to drive your control specularity. Have a look at the specular map I generated in Photoshop (Image 10).

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I left some remarks on the image as you can see.

The woodwork for example should have no specularity while other parts should have more specular.

So after generating this specular map I simply put that into the Specular Color Channel like explained before.

This time I won’t change the whitepoint since I am happy with the grayscale image and it’s resulting rendering. Have a look at Image 11 to see the difference.

So what to do? Same thing. I opened the image (texture) in Photoshop and created a gray scale image. To be more precise I selected parts like the woodwork and made it totally black. Black

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Advanced Texturing Techniques - Specular Maps

By Thomas Pasieka

Image 11 clearly shows no specularity on parts where the woodwork is showing through. Perfect!

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Well that’s it. You should be able to do it yourself now. It’s really not that hard. As mentioned before you will find an animation of the cardboard box within the goodies folder and two bigger renderings of the plasterwall so you can compare.

Feel free to ask me if you are stuck. Simply visit our forum and ask your questions if anything was unclear within this tutorial.

Till then, Thomas Pasieka

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Modeling A Kiwi - Part 2

By Brian Harrison

Ok, the first thing we need to do is to open up our kiwi model from the first tutorial and get it ready for adding feet. So let’s start by cutting the kiwi in half so we can put him in a symmetry object and only do half the work.

So go into top view make sure the HyperNurb is turned off and you are in polygon mode. Take the (Live selection tool) with (only select visible elements) un-checked and select one half of the KIWI. (See Image 01) 02 01 Ok select the two points as shown in illustration No 3 (Image 03) And in the coordinates manager type (30) into the (Z) position and click apply.

Now delete that half of the KIWI. We now need to add the one half of the KIWI to a symmetry object, so add a symmetry object and drop the kiwi into it.

Now select the symmetry object and change the mirror plane that is in the attributes manager to (XY). You should now have a full KIWI again.

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Now we can make the leg for the feet to attach to.

Ok, you need to start by selecting the two polygons on the side of the KIWI shown in the illustration. (See Image 02)

Now select the polygon shown in illustration No 4.

(Image 04) Extrude them using the attributes manager. Type 28 into the (offset) parameter and click apply.

Now extrude them using the attributes manager.

Type 20 into the (offset) parameter and click apply. Ok, now that we have a basis for the leg we need to do a bit of point moving to acquire the desired shape. As I cannot go step by step on every point I will just go over the most important ones and you can come back and define the shape, as you like later.

We now have something resembling legs that we can attach the feet to, but first we need the square the bottom of the leg so it will match up with the foot. Turn off the hypernurb and select the points shown in illustration No 5. (Image 05) 22

Modeling A Kiwi - Part 2

By Brian Harrison

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We now need a 4th cube, which is (100M) on the (X) axis (50M) on the (Y) axis and (100M) on the (Z) axis. It also needs to have 3 segments on the (X) and (Z) axis. Now move this 4th cube so it is placed behind the 3 smaller cubes. (Image 07)

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Now move the points on the (X) and (Z) axis until the bottom of the leg is nearly square. Now, when we turn on the hypernurb the bottom of the leg should be nice and round, ready for the foot we are going to model.

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Ok, save your progress and open a new file. We are now going to model some simple feet for our KIWI. We start by creating a cube and scaling it down to (50M) on the (X) (Y) and the (Z) axis.

Now select all 4 cubes and make them editable by pressing (C) and then connect them by right clicking and selecting (connect) from the tool list.

You will now have a new object. Delete all of the objects except the new one.

We now need to copy this cube twice and arrange them in a line with a small space in between. (Image 6) 23

Modeling A Kiwi - Part 2

By Brian Harrison

Now go in to polygon mode and select all the polygons shown in illustration No 8 and delete them. (Image 08)

have something that looks similar to this. (Image 10). Let’s save the foot in to the same folder as the KIWI and close the file. Now reopen the KIWI.

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Go into point mode and fill in the gaps between the polygons using the (create polygon) tool bridging the gaps between the 4 cubes. You should get something like this (Image 09).

Go to (File) (Merge) and select the foot model you just saved. The foot model should be on the screen with your KIWI. All you need to do now is position the foot were it is going to stay under the KIWI ‘s leg. Once you have positioned it in the correct place you are ready to attach it to the KIWI. Take both the KIWI and the foot out of the Hypernurb objects and connect them by selecting both objects. Right clicking in the view port and select (connect) from the tool list. Now delete the old objects and place the new object into a Hypernurb object.

On the bottom of the leg delete the poly and connect the foot using the same process as on the feet. Go into point mode, and using the (create polygon) tool, close in the gaps. Hopefully your progress looks like mine. (Image 11)

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Ok, now the foot is attached to the leg we can tweak the whole mesh a little to make it look more like a KIWI. At the moment the whole thing is looking a little odd, but with a bit of point moving here and there we can get just about anything to look how it should.

We now have a foot with 3 toes. At the back of the foot select the middle polygon, and using the normal scale tool, scale it to (150%) and extrude it up about (30M) and delete the polygon. Now you can drop the foot into a Hypernurb. You should 24

Modeling A Kiwi - Part 2

By Brian Harrison

going through all of the points would take for ever, so I will go through some of them and you will have to do the rest by eye. The first set of points to move be the two on the chest shown in illustration 13. (Image 13)

11

Let’s start by going into the front or side view and selecting all the points shown in illustration 12.

(Image 12)

13

Just move these points forward on the (X) axis until the chest area looks rounder/thicker. The second set to move are the six on the KIWI’s back shown in illustration 14. (Image 14) Just move these points until the back of the leg becomes smooth and blends in with the rest of the body.

12

Now what we are going to do is use the coordinates manager to re-size parts of the mesh. Start by entering (-10) in to the (Y) position parameter and click apply, then (44) in the (X) position parameter. This should move the points up and slightly forward making the kiwi a bit shorter.

14

Ok, the KIWI is still looking a bit odd at this point.

This is because we need to move quite a few pints to thicken up some parts of the mesh, but 25

Modeling A Kiwi - Part 2

By Brian Harrison

There are lots more point moving you can do, but I can’t go through them all. Just look at the KIWI and keep selecting and moving points until you completely smooth him out. The process of mod-

This will come in handy later when adding morph targets to make the eye blink.

You now have a basic eye socket. You can now add a small sphere as an eye.

I hope you had fun modelling your Kiwi and found this tutorial helpful. If you have any questions feel free to post them on the forum at www.3dattack.net.

-Brain Harrison

15

elling bye eye is not something I can really explain in a tutorial. You just have got to keep at it until you get what you want.

The final step for this tutorial is the eye socket.

This is quite straightforward. Simply select the polygon shown in illustration 15. (Image 15) Select the (extrude inner tool) from the tool list.

Now, in the attributes manager to the bottom right of the view port, enter (4) into the offset parameter and click apply.

Make a second inner extrude manually just a small amount. Using the extrude tool extrude the eye socket inwards.

Now, using the knife tool, set on loop mode, make one cut right around the KIWI that goes threw the middle of the eye socket.

26

Advanced Lighting Techniques - Flashlight

By Thomas Pasieka

Well we surely all have used the standard “Spotlight”. Nothing really to exciting about the “Spotlight” within CINEMA 4D. However, here is the reason I am doing this rather short tutorial.

Not very convincing is it? The Flashlight doesn’t show the typical behavior of a regular Flashlight.

No out or inner rings with different brightness value. Pretty lifeless I’d say. Now what can we do about that?

I was playing a game called “Condemned Criminal Origins”. An XBOX 360 title which I rented. Well, besides the fun I had playing it at night I also payed close attention to texturing and lighting (which was done very very well).

Well, for instance we could make use of a “Light Gel” or also called “Light Map”. Here is a little description on Light Maps taken out of the CINEMA 4D Manual:

The main actor in this game is an FBI agent who on the hunt for a serial killer. A mature game with mature content. Ok, story and game aside, I paid attention to the lighting. The main character (Thomas) uses a Flashlight during the game since most environments are played during night. This flashlight looked amazingly well reproduced in the game. You really got the feeling you were holding a Flashlight in your hand. It looked realistic.

A gel (also known as a lightmap) is produced by assigning a material with a transparency map texture to a light source.

The light’s colored areas are then filtered by this texture and colored in exactly the same way that a slide projector projects a still picture. For example, the striped-shadow effect of a Venetian blind can be simulated by assigning a black-and-white striped gel to a light object.

So I thought to myself “How can one reproduce the same effect in CINEMA 4D?” Mind you, game engines handle lights completely different.

However, I reproduced the Flashlight in CINEMA 4D and it looks pretty good to me.

You can assign as many gels as you wish to each light object.

Ok, that pretty much explains the theory. Now let’s put our knowledge to use. I created an alpha texture for my spotlight with Photoshop. See below.

A lot of people use the standard spot light in CINEMA 4D to recreate a flash light look. This in my opinion is not really realistic looking or satisfactory. Have a look at the first screenshot on how a regular Spotlight looks when pointed at a wall.

01 02

27

Advanced Lighting Techniques - Flashlight

By Thomas Pasieka

I tried to reproduce the typical Flashlight look by hand in this case by adding or decreasign bright/ dark areas. For more realistic results you could of course take a picture of a real flashlight pointing on a wall and create a greyscale image. However, this is the map I created for my Flashlight tutorial and I think it looks pretty decent.

04

I loaded this alpha map into the “Alpha Channel” of my material. The Color Channel is just plain white. No texture.

05

03

So, we just created the Light Map/Texture. Time to apply it to the Light. Simply drag that texture on your Spotlight. Change the Projection Type to “Flat” and turn “Tile” off. What you should have now is something like this (See Image 04).

Well this looks better. Still not good enough for me. I created another light by duplicating the light once again.

We can clearly see a difference already. We got somewhat of a ring showing and we got a brighter spot in the middle while the brightness slightly fades the closer we come to the outer edge.

Mind you, I changed the brightness of those two duplicated lights to something like 50% and 25% brightness or everything would just be way too bright. So you will have to fiddle around with the brightness settings a little bit.

Well I am almost satisfied. It’s better. But not good enough yet. Doesn’t convince me yet.

I now have three Spotlights. Each has different brightness values and one in particular has a texture assigned to it using an alpha/light map. Not really that difficult but makes for a far more realistic look if set up right.

I added another light and placed it at the exact same location as the first one. This gives my current Flashlight a tad more brightness. Have a look at Image 05.

28

Advanced Lighting Techniques - Flashlight

By Thomas Pasieka

The Light I created last is used to create somewhat of an outer brightness which fades. I simply changed the lights “outer angle” just as I did with the second light. This is how it looks now (See last Image on bottom of this page).

can. Your images or rendering will look way more realistic.

I created a short little animation (nothing fancy) that you will find in the goodies folder (Divx encoded). You will also find the scene file itself in there. Play around with it and see how I’ve set up the whole thing.

Looks a lot better doesn’t it?

Light Gels or “Maps” can really make a difference in your light setup. Try to play around with it for yourself. Keep in mind that you can do all sorts of things with Light Maps.

Enjoy!

Thomas Pasieka

There are plenty of ideas that come to mind when thinking about Light Gels. Make use of them if you

29

Cup of C.O.F.F.E.E - Part 12

By Rui Batista

C4D-COFFEE-100008}x ' o?????? ^^^^^^ RRRRQQQQ RRRRQQQQ RRRRQQQQ ???????????????????????????? ??? /:0A 0%-7@GNU[agoz

Finally, we have reached the end of this series about C.O.F.F.E.E. I don't intend to fool you (or even myself) into thinking that these twelve lessons are all that you need to become a proficient C.O.F.F.E.E coder, far from it.

But now you have the basis - maybe even a little more than that - to start coding your own scripts and plug-ins.

??

'.5;AGOZchrx*5AKT[fr"-7AKValv!)19AIQZclxxxxxxzxxxxxxxxxx xxxxzzzzzzzzzzzzxxxx%x-!!--))-/11//99/1AA11II13EJEEJE3EO JEEW_p3ppWtpx~pp~!~-)~-1~/9~/A~1I~1Q~-Z~/c~1xxxpxpp WO!xxxx!!)19AI_!(x3pxxx3xp33tp3!3)31393A3I3Q3Z3c9pppH Op9pOppWX`fpxpppO`ppppWp9pTTT [f"-7Ar-7A-7A-).@KSK^invTTT KValvVlvVlv/).@KSK^inv!!T-8!!TT!8 !-8888888888888888!!!1-).@KSK^invBOX^dj|BBBBBB*X^d!B [ %f -r 7

You will step on a lot of difficulties and doubts, just as I still do. Yes, I still have to ask a lot of questions in the forums, do lots of research and a whole lot more of trial & error attempts, but I told you at the start of these lessons that I'm not a programmer, remember?

This is a snippet of my Aligner plug-in after compiling. I believe I can rest assured that no one will be able to understand how I coded it ;-) At least it looks a whole lot different than:

Knowing now that you will still face some difficulties, let me also tell you that the joy of finally having something we did, working just the way we wanted, is tremendously rewarding.

include "c4d_symbols.h"

Anyway, when you get stuck in some situation that apparently has no solution, you can always ask someone or perform a search at the forum on www.plugincafe.com

enum{ COUNT=1, STORE=2 }

So, what will I teach in this last lesson? I decided to talk about miscellaneous things... the stuff that is usually referred to as hints and tips. This is the stuff that you all like, isn't it? :-)

enum{ XMAX=1, XMED=2, XMIN=3, YMAX=4, YMED=5, YMIN=6, ZMAX=7, ZMED=8, ZMIN=9, XAXIS=10, YAXIS=11, ZAXIS=12 }

Ok, lets start...

Imagine you created the greatest plug-in of the universe - well, at least a nice one - and you want to distribute it (freely or commercially, that is up to you). But you would like to keep your code to yourself preventing others in finding out how you accomplished the tasks your plug-in performs.

To be able to do that you compile your plug-in.

Compiling is the process of converting all your source code - in a format that (hopefully) you understand - into a compact binary format that only CINEMA 4D understands.

var PLUGIN_ID=1011605; var MENU_NAME="Aligner"; var HELP_STR="Aligns, distributes and adjusts object positions."; ...

When you open a compiled C.O.F.F.E.E. script in a text editor you get what is usually referred as gibberish. Here is a sample of it:

30

Cup of C.O.F.F.E.E - Part 12

By Rui Batista

This is a snippet of the actual code that I wrote.

So, how do you compile a plug-in? The good news is that there is a plug-in that compiles other plug-ins. You have it inside the examples folder that resides inside the SDK folder for 9.5

02

03

So, just drag (or copy) the Compiler folder into your CINEMA 4D plug-ins folder. Once you restart CINEMA 4D, you will get a new item in the Plugins menu. (Image 02) Choose it and you will be presented with a file selector dialog. Navigate to the folder where your plug-in resides and pick the file with the extension .cof (Image 03)

side your CINEMA 4D plug-ins folder. You cannot keep both versions in the plug-ins folder because, at startup, CINEMA 4D will try to load both and the second one will conflict with the first one since they both have the same ID. Nothing dangerous will happen, but you will get an error message in the Console and that is boring.

After hitting Open, you may think that nothing happened, but navigate to the folder where your plug-in resides and you will see that a new file was created there. It has the same name as your .cof file but with an extension of .cob, standing for Binary C.O.F.F.E.E. (Image 04). I advise you to keep a folder with the .cof file saved in a safe place and keeping the folder with the .cob file in-

Also, the .cob file will load and run slightly faster.

Really, is only very, very, very slightly. But even a few microseconds faster, is faster, right? Your newly created .cob file still requires all the other files and folders inside its folder. In fact, the .cob 31

Cup of C.O.F.F.E.E - Part 12

By Rui Batista

gone. But, as in almost every other "hunting" situation, it helps to know the enemy. So, what types of bugs can you find? There are several types of bugs. I will show you a few of them and tell you how to fix them. For example, check out this script: main(doc,op) { var child,num; num=0; child=op->GetDown(); if(!child) return; while(child) { println("Name >GetName()); num++; }

04

of

child:

"+child-

println("The object "+op->GetName()+" has "+num+" children."); } Ok, can you spot the bugs in here? When you hit Compile (after typing it inside a C.O.F.F.E.E. tag, of course), it returns no errors so, apparently, it has no bugs in it. Or does it? Well, it does. It has two bugs and these are the ones that are not spotted by the compiler.

file is just a substitute for the .cof file. So, once again, remember to keep the .cof file in a safe place in case you want to make changes or, heavens forbid, clean a bug you found.

DON'T TRY TO EXECUTE THIS SCRIPT!! Otherwise you will have to force quit CINEMA 4D because one of the bugs is fatal.

Ok, speaking of bugs, I bet there will be many of them lurking around your code when you start writing your C.O.F.F.E.E. scripts. Even when you become a seasoned coder, be rest assured that bugs will always appear, uninvited, ready to make you feel lost and confused.

This fatal bug will create an infinite loop that will bring CINEMA 4D into a crash situation, so we must hunt for it first. Oh, this also shows that it is a good idea to always save your file before executing any script.

Don't take me wrong. I only say this because it is the plain truth. I started programming when I was fourteen (with a little interregnum of a few years when I was at college), and I still meet face to face with a huge crowd of bugs in almost all of my projects. Oh, and I'm almost 36 years old, now ;-) So, how do you prevent bugs? You don't! They are there... almost always. So, you hunt them down and exterminate them until they are all

This is especially true with scripts that are written inside a C.O.F.F.E.E. tag because these scripts are constantly being executed as soon as you do anything to change your document.

For this kind of bug you will have to trace your code, line by line and, maybe, create a hand32

Cup of C.O.F.F.E.E - Part 12

By Rui Batista

drawn chart for it. Don't worry it’s easy. You start with something like this:

Ops... shouldn't the child variable be already pointing to the next child? Ok, it seems that we found the bug. Since the child variable never gets updated, the while cycle never reaches the end, so we end up in an endless loop. So, we just have to add a single line of code to the script, like this:

As you can see we have a fictitious hierarchy, just to serve as an example, and we also have a little table with our variables. Bellow, we will fill in the values of the variables as we follow the script code.

while(child) { println("Name of child: >GetName()); child=child->GetNext(); num++; }

So, our num variable starts out with a value of zero and the child variable starts out pointing to the first child of the op object (we can be sure about that because the script returns if no child is found). We fill in the values of the variables below the correspondent column and also add a little arrow to signal the child that the child variable is pointing to, like this:

"+child-

Now it is safe to run the script.

But now, after printing the name of all childs, we get an error telling us: COFFEE ERROR! (5)Incompatible values... STRING / INTEGER File: expression Line: 16 The line number 16 is: println("The object "+num+" children.");

"+op->GetName()+"

has

The error is telling us that we are using a value that is incompatible with the instruction we are using. Mmmmmm, what could be wrong? The println instruction requires a string of characters, right? We are feeding it an expression. The first part is a true string: "The object ". Then we add it a function: op->GetName(). Since GetName() returns a string, all is ok. Then we add it another true string: " has ".

Now we follow the script... it prints out the name of the child, increases the value of the num variable by one and repeats the cycle. So, we annotate the current value of the variables, like this:

33

Cup of C.O.F.F.E.E - Part 12

By Rui Batista

Then we add it the variable num. But num holds a number!!! That is our culprit. We need to change the number into a string of characters that represents that number. Luckily, we have such a function, so change the line to:

If you are really into this coding stuff, there are a few books that can help you a lot. One of them is "The C Programming Language" by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie: (http://www.amazon.com/C-Programming-Langua ge-2nd/dp/0131103628/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-59429 85-0132913?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=117983401 8&sr=8-2)

println("The object "+op->GetName()+" has "+tostring(num)+" children."); Tadah!! Our script is now working fine.

Those two bugs are very common and the first one (the lethal one) is harder to track. But, as you can see, with a little methodical thinking, we can track most bugs.

The other one is "The C++ Programming Language", by Bjarne Stroustrup: (http://www.amazon.com/C%2B%2B-Programmin g-Language-Special-3rd/dp/0201700735/ref=pd_b bs_sr_1/102-5942985-0132913?ie=UTF8&s=boo ks&qid=1179834042&sr=8-1)

Other types of bugs can be subtler, like trying to use a value in degrees when it should be in radians or vice-versa. You must pay special attention to the types of data you must provide to the functions and what type of data they return.

Don't forget you can always place println instruction in strategic places in your code to display the content of specific variables or simply to check if some segment of code is being executed (for those purposes, a simple println("+++"); will do).

You may also type your expressions incorrectly.

For example:

The first one will teach you all the basics about the C language and the second one will give a more deep knowledge about C++ (C.O.F.F.E.E. is a type of C++).

Finally, don't forget about the www.plugincafe.com site. It is the home of a proficient community of C.O.F.F.E.E. and C++ programmers and they will do their best to help you out when you are in trouble or simply lost.

var1+var2*var3

It’s now time to wrap up. After twelve lessons about C.O.F.F.E.E., I hope you guys have, at least, the desire and curiosity to dig a little deeper into coding. I also hope that I was able to destroy the misconception that coding is a very complex thing that is only for those with a degree in computer science.

is not the same as (var1+var2)*var3 You must pay special attention to the order of evaluation of expressions, otherwise you will get different values from what you expect.

It’s not as simple as picking flowers, I agree, but it is not that multi-headed monster that you thought it was, before reading these lessons, is it?

Another possible bug is that the method you choose to do what you want is simply wrong.

Well, that is not exactly a bug. But it will make for a non-functioning script. Make sure you document yourself enough - there are lots of good resources on the net - and make as many hand-written sketches/layouts as you find necessary.

Rest assured that the more you code, the better you become at coding, like almost everything else.

See you on the forum... and have lots of good cups of C.O.F.F.E.E. :-)

Don't forget that you have a huge help reference in the SDK documents. Explore them as much as possible and all the folders that they include.

-Rui Batista

34

Modeling a Violin - Part 1 - The Body

By Mark Glass

Welcome to part one of a series of tutorials that will help you to create a Violin. In this part we will model the main body of the Violin. First load the ViolinTemplateSetup.c4d file, (this is in the goodies file), the scene file has the top and side view images setup ready. (Plane objects and viewport backgrounds have been setup, use whichever you prefer).

Select and rotate the bottom edge 90 degree clock-wise in the top view. This positions the lines at the center so we can use a symmetry object later. Select/rotate/move the other vertical lines to create the edge outline of the body.

Rotating and moving the lines this way keeps an even width for the edge. Use another plane object to create the Sound Hole shape. You should now have something similar to Image 1.

Create a plane object and rename it "ViolinTop".

Set the Width to 8, the Height to 574, Width Segments to 1 and the Height Segments to 26.

Select the "ViolinTop" object and move it up to the bottom of the top ridge of the violin, then move and rotate the Sound Hole shape in the right view to line up with the reference image, see Image 2.

Press 'C' to make it editable then click 'Use Edge Tool'. Now select the top edge and rotate it 90 degree counter-clockwise in the top view.

35

Modeling a Violin - Part 1 - The Body

By Mark Glass

5, delete the two points that have the arrows pointing to them. (Image 5) Deleting the points leaves two triangles, which is something you want to avoid when using a HyperNurbs object, but these can be made into quads when the symmetry object is used.

Using the right view move these new points to form the curve along the top of the violin. See Image 6.

Use the Knife tool in Loop mode to cut a line through the middle of the top, and then adjust the position of the new points to match the curve of the top (Image 7).

Now we need to fill in the rest of the top. Select the "ViolinTop" object and using the Bridge Tool create the polygons shown in Image 3.

An easy way to do this is to select the points and change the modeling axis orientation to Normal then move them outwards slightly.

Now Select the inner lines as in Image 4 and extrude them. Use the 'Set Point Value' tool with X Set - 0. You should now have the same as Image 36

Modeling a Violin - Part 1 - The Body

By Mark Glass

Before we add in the Sound Hole shape, we will create the bottom half of the body. Make a copy of the "ViolinTop" object and rename it "ViolinBottom".

37

Modeling a Violin - Part 1 - The Body

By Mark Glass

In the coordinate manager change to the Scale values, and enter -1 for Y, then click Apply. This will mirror the object on the Y-axis. Move the ViolinBottom object to line up with the image in the Right view.

Select the outside edges, but not the ones along the centre line, then extrude them with a value of 0.01, without deselecting, move these new edges upwards to the height of the outer edge bevel.

Extrude with 0.01 and move the lines to zero on the Y-axis.

Image 8 should explain it clearer. Hide the "ViolinBottom" object so we can work on the top.

If you take a look at Image 9 it shows the process of adding the Sound Hole shape into the top of the violin.

First of all you need to make sure the Sound Hole is not overlapping to many polygons, in the image it is within 4 quads. These polygons are deleted and the Sound Hole shape is connected to the "ViolinTop" object.

38

Modeling a Violin - Part 1 - The Body

By Mark Glass

Use the Knife and Bridge tools to fill in the gaps between the ViolinTop and the Sound Hole shape.

Two things to look out for when you connect the shapes together is to not add any extra points to the violin top edge as it won't match up to the ViolinBottom object, and to try and not add any triangles,(I created two, but if you plan it better you'll probably get none).

In the third picture of Image 9 the inner shape of the Sound Hole has been deleted, before deleting the polygons extrude them twice to create a small lip, then delete them to make the hole.

Use the same method we used to create the sides of the bottom half of the violin to create the sides of the top half of the violin.

In the next part we will be adding the Saddle,Neck,Pegbox and pegs.

Unhide the ViolinBottom object and connect it to the top half.

If you have any questions/suggestions please post them on the 3D Attack forum.

Select all the points and use the Optimize function to weld the center points.

-Mark (NoxAnima)

To make the edging, Loop select the edge faces, see Image 10, and then extrude them slightly. You will then need to delete the faces along the center line, see the top left of Image 10.

Now make the Violin Body a child of a Symmetry object and then a child of a Hypernurbs object.

You may need to adjust some of the top points to smooth out the mesh around the scroll shapes, apart from that the Violin body model is complete.

See Image 11.

39

Chit Chat With Thomas Pasieka - 3D Attack CEO

3D Attack: Hi Thomas, quite often we receive Emails from 3DA subscribers with questions concerning 3D Attack and you. Thanks for taking time to doing a little catching up with your readers.

3D Attack: How long have you been using CINEMA 4D and why is it your weapon of choice?

Thomas: Thanks. Well I hope I can answer some of the questions in more detail.

Thomas: I've been using C I NEMA 4D for about 10 years. I tried quite a few 3D Applications and even tried some of them in-between, for a month or two, but found myself sticking with CINEMA 4D.

3D Attack: One of the most common questions coming from 3DA subscribers is....do you use CINEMA 4D professionally? If so, can you tell us a little about your work with CINEMA? Thomas: Yes I do use CINEMA 4D professionally.

Not only am I CEO of 3D Attack, but I am also a freelance 3D Artist. Many years ago I only played around in CINEMA a bit to see the capabilities of this program.

I was amazed at how easy it was to use and dug deeper into it. I guess I dug too deep. I am still digging, exploring and for many years have used it professionally.

There are so many things to do and so many tasks that pop up to challenge you. It's almost impossible to master each and every aspect of CINEMA 4D, but that's what makes it fun, constantly being challenged. I love to learn so this is no big deal to me.

I have done quite a bit of product design and architectural visualization over the years. This doesn't mean I am restricted to this area. My area of interest is wide. As of late I have been doing a lot of Low Poly, or Game Modeling.

This is a new area for me, but I'm doing ok and have even done some professional Low Poly work. One thing I don't do is Character Animation. You can't do it all, can you?

I leave that to those who have particular interest in that area.

But then again, maybe I need to delve into Character Animation just to keep the learning process going.

40

The reason is actually this, I love the straight forward approach of CINEMA 4D. Most other application tend to clutter the interface and menus and you find yourself in a jungle of commands. As an artist I like things simple and straightforward.

I don't like to go through a series of key commands and scripting to archive something (although this can be done as well in C4D for those who need a little extra power). Same goes for BodyPaint 3D. I love the straight forward approach. BodyPaint doesn't feel like it's a totally different application. If you are comfortable with CINEMA 4D then you will feel right at home with BodyPaint 3D. In essence, CINEMA 4D and Bodypaint allow me to be artistic without being hassled by the program itself.

3D Attack: Do you use other 3D Applications in your pipeline?

Thomas: I sure do, although I don't use them as frequently as CINEMA 4D. I use Silo for instance, and like its ease of use. It's a subdivision modeler, and as such, the developer team pays attention to the things a modeler needs. They recently added displacement painting to the features.

This is why I am testing it. I like to play around with it and see what can be done, but so far it's only

Chit Chat With Thomas Pasieka - 3D Attack CEO

"playing". I used Modo for a little while to test the waters, but didn't like the pipeline and workflow. It sure has a good renderer, but I don't like the way materials and shaders are handled. Just my personal opinion. Modo has some nice modeling features, and all that, but it requires me change my workflow to "their workflow," which I don't like and don't have time for. zBrush is another story. I like what I see and definitely need to dig deeper into zBrush. They just released zBrush 3 and I hope the Mac version will be available soon. I have particular interest in creating normal maps and such for low poly objects. It's amazing what you can do with zBrush.

You can create awesome detailed characters or objects. zBrush is used quite often for Game Content and that's why I have a special interest in this application. I wish we would see more support in that area coming from MAXON. CINEMA 4D doesn't have real presence in the game industry and I think that needs to be changed.

For instance, BodyPaint is pretty much industry standard when it comes to texturing. I know a lot of people who use BodyPaint to texture their game models, but they don't use CINEMA 4D itself for modeling.

One of the reasons might be that CINEMA currently doesn't have a whole lot of export functions in that regard and it is missing functionality in some areas.

However, you can do what you need to do, but with the help of other applications.

3D Attack: MAXON?

Is 3DA directly affiliated with

Thomas: No we are not directly affiliated, but we do work closely with them and we are on their list of partners. We have very good and close contacts to MAXON, Germany and MAXON, USA. We help and support each other. We are independent, but rely on MAXON as they are the ones producing CINEMA 4D. Without them there would be no magazine.

3D Attack: What brought about the idea to start an electronic magazine based on CINEMA 4D? Thomas: Many years ago I was sort of frustrated with the lack of tutorial content on forums. One day we held a little competition, Modeling a "Mech" (Armored Battle Robot). I thought it would be a good idea to put my "Mech" on a fake magazine cover. Almost instantly my wife "Tavy" said, "Why don't we do a real 3D ATTACK magazine?", and the idea of the first CINEMA 4D based magazine was born. Here we are today, still doing the magazine and enjoying it.

3D ATTACK was the first to give the CINEMA 4D community their own magazine. I actually think there was only one other electronic magazine for 3D artists before we started 3D Attack, but it went under just before or after 3D Attack was born. I could be wrong about this, but I don't think so.

Over the years we have watched people put out magazines for other applications as well as CINEMA 4D. I believe we did set a trend a few years ago. All of a sudden you have a variety of PDF based magazines out there.

3D Attack: Can we expect anything new from 3DA in the future?

Thomas: Well you never know what my crazy brain cooks up. There sure is

Chit Chat With Thomas Pasieka - 3D Attack CEO

something coming in the near future. Right now we are focused on the magazine, but we always have little side ideas in the back of our heads. We shall see what the future holds.

3D Attack: Thanks again Thomas! When the readers have more questions we'll be sure to send them your way!

Thomas: Thanks. I am more than willing to answer any questions. Hope I didn't bore you too much ;) KEEP ON ATTACKING!

Image Info: The Character “Goulo” is courtesy of Sebastien Florand aka Fluffy The Skateboard is courtesy of Thomas Pasieka The Nike Truck and the Nike Logo is courtesy of Nike The Apple Products and Logo are courtesy of Apple Inc. The Crow is courtesy of “Silverback Productions” All shown images are done by Thomas Pasieka except for “Goulo” All images are copyright protected

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The Prize Fight II - Round 1

By Tavy Pasieka

Yes, that’s right! “The Prize Fight 1” was such a huge success that we have teamed up, once again, with MAXON to bring the CINEMA 4D Community “The Prize Fight II” – Fire and Ice.

Though we are currently in Round 1 (the sketching round) of “The Prize Fight II”, we are, once again, seeing some remarkable work coming from our entrants. In Round 1 our entrants must first sketch (hand draw) a Fantasy Creature/Character with a Fire and/or Ice theme.

If you recall, in the first “Prize Fight” our entrants had to battle their way through 3 exciting rounds, (Round 1 – the sketching round, Round 2 – the modeling round, Round 3 – the animating round), and develop a winning Olympic Character that would hopefully bring them some great prizes sponsored by MAXON Computer, Inc.

They must then take their sketch and drop it into a scene, we have provided for them, in CINEMA 4D R10. Please note, some of our entrants are 2D artists and have never used a 3D Application, let alone CINEMA 4D, but they are doing an awesome job.

In “The Prize Fight 1” we had some awesome entries. There were Olympic Cavemen, Speed Modelers, Swimmers, Futuristic Runners and much more. In the end there was one animation that stood out amongst them all, “The Equestrian Jump” by Sebastien “Fluffy” Florand. Sebastien stole the hearts of the judges with his brilliant animation starring “The Darn Snail and The Ant”.

You can view this winning animation at: http://www.pixiemedia.com/fc4d/concours/prize_fi ght.mov

One of the best aspects of “The Prize Fight” is the experience itself. Sure you have the opportunity to win some great prizes, but more than that you have the chance to learn and do things you have never done. Looking back at some of the entrant’s threads during “Prize Fight 1”, the threads are more like very lengthy tutorials (http://www.3dattack.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f =69), full of a wealth of information. I have no doubt that “The Prize Fight 2” will offer more of the same.

As I previously stated, we are still in Round 1, but the work coming in is AWESOME. On the next pages we invite you to view a few of the creations that are coming forth. Round 2 (the modeling round) will begin on June 4, 2007. Stay tuned, as the excitement has just begun!

“The Prize Fight II” can be located here: http://www.3dattack.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f =90 All images are copyright protected and may not be re-distributed and/or re-produced in any manner without consent from the artist.

Mark Gmehling Nigel Wood Jochen Stuhrmann Edwin Arellano Michael W. Penner Marion Kromodikoro Marcin Wojcik Dave Putnam

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The Prize Fight II - Round 1

By Tavy Pasieka

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The Prize Fight II - Round 1

By Tavy Pasieka

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The Prize Fight II - Round 1

By Tavy Pasieka

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The Prize Fight II - Round 1

By Tavy Pasieka

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The Prize Fight II - Round 1

By Tavy Pasieka

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Frequently Asked CINEMA 4D Questions June 2007

Q: I have measurements in cm, mm and inches, but I don't know how that translates using CINEMA 4D. Can someone please help me to understand how measurements are done to scale?

Q: I need an "Idiots Guide to Mograph" ....just trying to finally get around to learning how to use various functions. Can you suggest anything?

A: Mylenium has a bunch of great tuts here. http://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-b...ium_script.ht ml

A: CINEMA 4D uses Decimal Units... so decimal inches, cm, mm, meters, they are all the same.

If you wanted to type in 12 and three sixteenths inches, just type 12+3/16 and the system will convert it to decimal inches for you.

Q: I'm new to CINEMA 4D. How can you add two different models into the same project.

A: That's easy: open the first model and then just merge the second mesh to the first (File -> merge).

Q: I am thinking about purchasing R10 (I have 9.102 now). Well, I was wondering if the boxed set still comes with the same training video from R9, or if they added a new one for R10.

Q: I have done a simple animation which involved the 'camera' staying still and the objects moving, now what I want to do is make an animation where the 'camera' fly's around the objects.

Unfortunately I am not familiar with what this effect is called, which makes googling for an explanation on how to do this very difficult. I was wondering whether anyone could tell me what this effect is called?

A: With R10 a totally new Training DvD is shipped- Focusing on Character animation mostly (Rigging/animating) the new Mocca 3, Timeline features and of course modeling some props for the final scene. Best training material ever in my opinion.

Q: I'm new to C4D. Have been using Formz for around 6/7 years now but recently we purchased a copy here at work. I'm finding it tricky to pick up, especially the real basics. Are there any online guides or websites that could help?

A: I think what you're looking for is animating the camera along a path. Align to spline or align to path are search terms that should give you good search results.

You only need to draw a path with the bezier spline tool for example, and align your cam to it.

Just right click on your cam- add the align to spline tag. Drop the spline you created in the spline slot of the tags attributes and use the position slider to animate your cam position. Hope this helps.

A: The Quick-start tutorials that come with C4D are a great place to start. If you don't have access to the installation media you can download the quick-start pdf and scenes from www.maxon.net.

You can also download the FREE issues of 3D Attack - The CINEMA 4D Magazine http://www.3dattack.net/forum/showthread.php?t= 3488. C4D Cafe is loaded with free basic video tutorials www.c4dcafe.com. CINEVERSITY is an awesome training site for CINEMA 4D users.

There are many FREE video tutorials for non members. All together there are over 650 video tutorials for paid members who are looking for indepth training. You can visit CINEVERSITY at www.cineversity.com.

Q: I use a Wacom tablet on a Mac G5. Whenever I use the Wacom pen in CINEMA 4D R9 the objects move out of view. I've checked to ensure that I have the proper tool selected, but I get the same result. I tried adjusting the pen settings in the Wacom Tablet preferences and that did not correct the problem.

A: Have you checked the "Graphic Tablet" box in the CINEMA 4D preferences settings?

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Best of “Cinema 4D” Gallery A monthly selection of inspiring images

Image Name: Beatle Artist Name: Gerald Double Date Created: 4/3/07 Country: USA Software: CINEMA 4D Website: www.gerald-double.com

Best of “Cinema 4D” Gallery A monthly selection of inspiring images

Image Name: Croc Artist Name:John Shakespeare Country:Australia Software: CINEMA 4D 9.5, Photoshop Date Created: 5/15/07 Website:http://www.johnshakespeare.com.au

Best of “Cinema 4D” Gallery A monthly selection of inspiring images

Image Name: Emissary VII Artist Name: Zieben Lin Country: USA Software: CINEMA 4D Date Created: 5/6/2007

Contact Information June 2007

The 3D ATTACK Team Need to contact us? Got questions?

Thomas Pasieka, CEO 3dattack@3dattack.net Tavy Ann, VEO tavy@3dattack.net Chris Montesano, Site Admin/Developer chris@3dattack.net Rui Batista, Moderator/Writer Rui_mac@ruimac.com Mark Gmehling, Moderator/Writer macling@braincorps.de Darrin Frankovitz dfrankov@gmail.com Bram van Gerwen, Moderator/Writer killbots@mac.com Jamie Hamel – Smith, Moderator/Writer jamie3d@gmail.com Michael Mlynek, Moderator/Writer MichaelMlynek@gmx.de Website: http://www.3dattack.net Plugin Page: http://3dattack.net/shop/index.php?page=10

3D Attack the CINEMA 4D Magazine and all material contained therein are copyright protected.

You may not disassemble or distribute any part of this publication without prior written consent from 3D Attack directly. any attempts to do so will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law as it applies in Michigan, USA. This applies for both 3D Attack material as well as any named artists ma-

terial contained in 3D Attack publications. Although we read through all the tutorials and proofread them for errors, we cannot guarantee that they are 100% error free and therefore cannot issue refunds based on those errors. Copyright by 3D ATTACK 2004-2007 “3D ATTACK” is a registered trademark.

3D Attack 158 S. Saginaw St. Chesaning, Michigan - USA 48616 Phone: 989-845-3334 E-mail: 3dattack@3dattack.net

modo meets Cinema 4D

As a Cinema 4D user you know the power of Cinema 4D to create great images. modo is an excellent tool to use in conjunction with Cinema 4D, as it provides a unique blend of modeling, painting, and rendering functionality.

Giulio Zanardi of Architeturra3D in Italy used modo in combination with Cinema 4D to create a stunning visualization of large mountain chalet.

We invite you to see how modo can supplement and expand your software toolset for whatever your 3D projects may require.

Visit www.modo3d.com for a gallery of images and to get your own 30-day full featured trial of modo for your Mac or PC.

Images used by generous permission of Giulio Zanardi of Architeturra3D modo is a trademark of Luxology LLC. CINEMA4D is a trademark of MAXON Computer GmbH