CINEMA 4D : The Artist's Project Sourcebook (Digital Media Academy Series)

363 Pages·2004·6.36 MB·English

by  Anne Powers

The Artist’s Project Sourcebook A n n e Po w e r s
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Powers, Anne.
CINEMA4D : the artist's project sourcebook / Anne Powers.
p. cm. — (Digital media academy)
Includes index.
ISBN 1-57820-242-6 (alk. paper)
1. Computer animation. 2. Three-dimensional display systems. 3. Cinema 4D XL. 4. Computer
graphics. I. Title. II. Series.
TR897.7.P69 2004
776'.6—dc22 2004012754
Printed in the United States of America
04 05 06 07 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN: 1-57820-242-6
Contents
Figure
Introduction xiii The Cosmic Receiver 21
Pandora’s Box 24
Who This Book Is for and How It’s Different xiii
Easy and Breezy 25
The 3D Environment and Workflow xiv
The Gyro 28
Acknowledgements xv
The Firefly Lantern 29
Using This Book xv
The Color Barrel 32
Guide to the DVD xviii
A Line and a Pole 35
1 The Starting Gate 1
2 Under The Hood 37
A Dynamic Dozen 1
Mechanics 101 37
The Galaxy Ball 3
A Petunia 38
The Barometer Cone 11
Creating a Center 40
Color Drops 12
Using Set Selection 46
The Bubbling Teardrop 14
Repositioning an Object Axis 46
The DNA Spinner 17
Creating and Repairing Polygonal Surfaces 48
The Starlight Lantern 19
Splines, Your Invisible Friend 58
iii
iv Contents
3 NURBS Modeling Tools 65 6 Better Under Lights 129
The Peephole Box: Extrude NURBS 65 The Virtual Studio: Three Point Lighting 129
Box Top Decoration: Loft Nurbs 68 Changing The Type Of Light 132
Curly Glass Tubes: The Sweep NURBS 71 Turn Up the Volume 134
Antique Lightbulbs: Lathe NURBS 73 Throwing Shadows with Gobos 136
The Stage Curtain: The Bezier NURBS 76 Blinking Puffs of Light 137
Putting It All Together: The Peephole Box 77 Editing Multiple Lights 138
The Amphibber: The Power of Hyper NURBS 78 Animating Light Position 139
Painting with Light 141
4 Deformers and
Other Modeling Helpers 95 7 Animation ABCs 143
Lively Props: Bend and Twist Deformers 95 A is for Airplane Hat: Working Out Timing 144
A Lump in the Pipe: Bulge Deformer 96 B is for Batty Box: Combining Time Curves
Boom! Explosion Deformation 98 and PLA 152
Broken Glass: the Shatter Deformer 99 C Is for Crown 156
Flag on the Play: Wind and Shear Deformers 100
Roll The Dice! Boolean Operations 101
8 Head Shots 159
A String Of Dice: The Arrange Function 106
Great Green Gobs: The Metaball Object 107 The Symmetry Method 159
Animating Facial Expressions 173
5 Materials in Depth 111
9 A Character and Her Bones 177
A Texture Totem: Exploring Materials 114
Editing Volume Shaders: BhodiNUT Charm 123 Building a Character 177
Using a Movie as a Material 124 Introducing Mocca 183
Animating Materials 125 Doing Your Character Homework 190
10 Animating a Character 195
Animating the Skeleton 195
Planning Motion 203
Contents v
11 Cameras in Control 205 15 Environment, Mood,
and Magic 245
Looking through a Camera 205
An Easier Way: Target Cameras 209 The Interior Environment 246
Animating a Camera on a Spline Path 210 The World Outside: Skies, Backgrounds,
and Cycloramas 250
A More Complex Camera Movement 210
The Outdoor Environment 254
Focal Length 212
Here Comes the Glitz 258
Animating a Camera on a Helix Spline Path 212
The Importance of Music and Sound 261
Animating a Camera to Follow a Moving
Object 213
Using Depth of Field 214
16 BodyPaint, the Artist’s
Switching Cameras in CINEMA 4D 215
Connection 263
A Critical Distinction 215
Looking through Other Objects 216 Getting to Know BodyPaint 263
Painting a Simple Model 263
Making a Weathered Sign 268
12 The Art Of Rendering 217
Painting a Head with BodyPaint 270
Investigating Render Settings 218
Artistic Rendering Effects 221
17 CINEMA 4D and Friends 275
Adobe Photoshop 275
13 Plug-ins 225
Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand 276
Commercial Plug-ins 226 Pixologic Zbrush 279
Shareware and Freeware 234 Synthetik Studio Artist and Corel Painter 280
Sources and Software for Splines 281
Sound Solutions 281
14 A Jolt of Xpresso 237 To the Web with You, C4D! 282
Organizing Libraries 284
What Is Xpresso? 237
Hardware Friends 286
Xpresso: Basic Anatomy 238
The Sticking Place 241
Stop Right There! 242
18 Tips on Type 287
What Else Can Be Done with Xpresso? 244
The Basics of Text Splines 287
And Now, Some Creative Text Messaging 290
Type Forms: Finishing Touches and
Creative Play 294
Animated Type Effects 299
vi Contents
19 Creating Elements for Appendix 319
Motion Graphics 301
Basics of the C4d Interface 319
The Rich 3D Space 303 Working with Objects 333
The After Effects Plug-in 307 The Model and Object Tool 324
The Basic Transform Tools 324
Rendering 328
20 The Creative Leap 309 Customization 329
Finding Your Voice as an Artist 309
The Holistic Artist 316
Index 333
Optimize Your Creative Time 317
Become An Art Historian 317
Cultivate Efficient Work Habits 317
Storyboards, Thought Charts, Animatics 317
3D as a Day Job 318
Introduction
Figure I.1
Close your eyes! Imagine you are once again nine years old. It’s early Satur-
day morning, and the radio says that rain has set in for the day. (The TV
is on the blink.) Whatever toy you reach for will have to entertain you a
long, long time. Maybe it’s an Erector Set, a dollhouse, a train set, or Legos. What-
ever it is, chances are it has lots of fascinating widgets that will keep you immersed
in building a world where your imagination is king.
Now that you’re older, welcome to CINEMA 4D, a powerful and seriously
professional tool with all the fun and engaging appeal of the ultimate toy. With
C4D, you’ll explore the definitive creative high—the adventure of inventing 3D
worlds. C4D provides you with access to a massive arsenal of tools for modeling
and animation without bogging you down with years of learning curve. Because
this application is so intuitive, you can get to work (and fun) sooner.
No other media lets you “wear so many hats” and exercise so many skills si-
multaneously. In the creation of exciting and vibrant 3D worlds, the very essence
of childhood play will be present in the most serious of work. Have fun!
Who This Book Is for
and How It’s Different
This book is about creating all kinds of artistic imagery using CINEMA 4D as a
tool. It is intended to be an enjoyable, attainable, and thorough introduction to
the creatively fluent use of C4D. In addition to being a great start for beginners, it
vii
viii Introduction
will encourage new ways of working and thinking for more seasoned C4D users.
It is especially suited for the visual dreamer who may feel overwhelmed by the
technical complexities of 3D and who may have had a hard time making the cre-
ative leap using digital tools. In spite of its playful and artistic nature, the text
introduces a wide range of skills for using C4D as a serious production tool for
almost any purpose.
Artists of all kinds—illustrators, motion graphics and print graphic designers,
and those who wish to animate goofy characters or solemn scientific data—will
find many engaging step-by-step examples that can be easily fit to their purposes.
Whether in film, TV, the web, or an instructional QuickTime movie in a classroom,
3D is unsurpassed for adding comprehension and visual enhancement. In today’s
world, anyone in any fieldcan benefit from using 3D as a clear and compelling vi-
sual communication tool.
The design of this book and the projects inside are perfectly suited for class-
room use, as well as for the learner at home. Busy teachers (probably with more
than just 3D on their educational plate) will find this text and the massive col-
lection of instructional goodies on the DVD a great helper.
By using project-based instruction that quickly rewards the reader with re-
sults, the text and DVD examples introduce the important concepts of CINEMA
4D without restating the manual. This book should be used in conjunction with
the manual, so that involved explanations will come straight from those who
know the software at its very core. The focus of this text is more about artistic
possibilities of CINEMA 4D, and how anyone can use C4D creatively.
The 3D Environment and Workflow
When you open CINEMA 4D and begin to work, the GUI (Graphical User In-
terface) lets you create and manipulate objects in a virtual working environment
which has three spatial dimensions and the element of time. Within this envi-
ronment there is a collection of virtual tools with which you can create and an-
imate virtual objects. Because you have the freedom to move your view of the
3D world, objects can be looked at and edited from any viewpoint or perspec-
tive. The workspace is infinite in size and can be configured with any units of
measurement.
The 3D environment is not the finished product but the virtual workshop
in which you are creating objects, scenes, and worlds. The final output is pro-
duced by rendering. In layman’s terms, a flat picture is digitally “painted” from
a chosen view of the 3D scene. This may be a still picture or a frame of anima-
tion. It may be highly realistic or manipulated so the final pictures are stylized
and have more of a painterly or illustrative look.
The Animation Pipeline
In large animation studios, individuals usually perform very specialized tasks and
their piece of the puzzle then feeds into the big picture. The Animation Pipeline