August2005

UV Unwrapping without BodyPaint?Pascal shows you “how to do it” your-self in this amazing tutorial Page 29.

The principles of character animation.On page 38 follow Fluffy and learnhow to put some “life” in your charac-ters and animations.

Interview with the very talented RobGarrot on Page 5.

ISSUE - AUGUST 2005

C4D Quiz - WIN LUMEN!

Page 5-9 Interview with Rob Garrot by Tavy

Page 10-14 Modeling Methods by Rui Batista

Page 15-19 XPresso - Text Nodes by Base 80

PAGE 20-21 Review - The CINEMA 4D 9/9.1 Handbook by Tavy

PAGE 22-28 10 Modeling Tips by Jamie Hamel - Smith

PAGE 29-33 UV Unfolding Without BodyPaint by Pascal

PAGE 34-37 Vue5 Infinite Review by Aaron Biscombe

PAGE 38-40 The 12 Principles of Character Animation by Fluffy

PAGE 41 Skin Shader Review by Georg Niedermeier

PAGE 42-45 Basic Modeling - A Coffeemaker Part 2 by todd Groves

PAGE 46-48 Artist Spotlight on Christiaan Robinson

PAGE 49 Attack Comic by Sir Gong

PAGE 50-52 Best of CINEMA 4D Gallery

PAGE 53 Editors Notes

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http://www.doschdesign.com

WIN LUMEN! In this months C4D Quiz 3D Attack is giving away two copies of our new pluginLUMEN. Send an e-mail to [email protected] with WIN LUMEN as the subject line and I WANTLUMEN and your real name in the e-mail body. That’s it and LUMEN could be yours. We will thenpool all of our entrants and randomly pick two winners on September 1, 2005. We will announce ourtwo lucky winners on our forum at www.3dattack.net and notify them via e-mail. Our winners mustsupply us with the first 11 digits of their registered CINEMA 4D serial.

* 3D attack staff and their immediate families are not eligible to win LUMEN!

http://www.3dattack.net/shop/Plugs.html

Tavy: Hi Rob! Thanks so much fortaking time from your busy scheduleto share with our readers a bit aboutyourself and your work. As some ofour readers may not be familiar withyou, would you mind introducingyourself?

Rob: I've been a graphics art direc-tor animator and editor since about1991. My degree is in Business, butmy heart was never really in it. Inever went to art or design school,so all of my lessons have been "trialby fire". The first job I did was anannual report for the L.A. CountyCoroner's Office (yes I saw deadpeople) The department head sawme putting their brand new mac"desktop publishing" station togetherand said "great! It's here! You cando the annual report on that right?" Ilied and said yes! 6 weeks later Ihad an annual report. It wasn't verypretty though!

That was when I figured out that Imight be able to do that full time andget rid of the tie! When I first startedout doing print work I was carryingmy "art" around in a paper bag! Ididn't even know what a portfoliowas!! After a lot of late nights andembarrassment I landed a gig at theclothing company Cross Colors

designing t-shirt graphics, but gotlaid off. I started retouching inPhotoshop doing a lot of high-endfashion stuff (boy are they hairy!) Ieventually ended up at an entertain-ment advertising agency callFriedland, Jacobs (now defunct)doing trade magazine adds andpromo kits for television shows. Oneday the Friedland half of the compa-ny walked in and asked if I knewAfter Effects. I lied and said yes!!After a lot more late nights readingthe manual (it was made by cosanot adobe back then!!) I was creat-ing graphics for sales tapes andpromo packages. I left there andwent to Fox Kids Network. That"mac artist" job grew into "art direc-

tor" without me even realizing it.After a change in management andlots of "politics" I left the networkand went freelance. That was a littleover 6 years ago, and I've beenfreelance ever since. Since then,I've started editing, cutting promopackages and a few TV showsalong with the graphics work. I'vealso produced and directed a liveaction short film. Also I've justrecently started to try to learn char-acter modeling and animation.

In addition to my freelance designand editing work, I'm currentlyteaching 3D motion graphics andcompositing courses ( CINEMA 4Dand After Effects based 3d anima-

Interview with Rob GarrotBy Tavy

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Open for a promo package created for FX network. I use this project file in my classes to demonstrate usingCinema 4D cameras in After Effects. I've pulled out the all the FX logos to make it "legal" for me to show anduse at will.

http://bendingpixels.com/

http://bendingpixels.com/

tion for designers) at the Art CenterCollege of Design in Pasadena.

Tavy: What influenced your deci-sion to become an Art Director andEditor?

Rob: Paying the rent!! No, seriously,I was not at all happy in my previouslife of suits and ties. One day I meta older guy who kinda looked likeme who was a prime example ofsomeone just marking time waitingfor retirement.

He was lazy and had no energy andhe was wearing the EXACT samestriped dress shirt that I had onexcept that his was about 20 yearsold and dingy from smoking. Thenext day I had put in my 2 weeks

notice and grabbed my paper bag of"artwork samples" and hit thestreets.

Tavy: Having worked in both printand broadcast, if you could only pur-sue one, which would it be andwhy?

Rob: Broadcast without a doubt.Not to take anything away from printwork, but the challenges of anima-tion and storytelling really fascinateme in a way that print never did.

Tavy: All artists are their own worstcritics. What aspect of your work doyou think needs the most improve-ment?

Rob: I haven't really found my own

style yet. (even after almost 15years) I spend so much time creat-ing what the client wants that I neverreally get to focus on what I like tosee. Because I just hit the streetlooking for work as an artist, andtaught myself along the way, I neverhad that period of personal growthand introspection that most peopleget by going to art school. That isone of the downsides to being acommercial artist. It is very rare thatyou get to create something that istruly your own creation and no onecan take away from you. That is oneof the reasons I want to get intocharacter animation and animatedshorts. To try to find that personalstyle that I haven't been able to cre-ate yet.

Tavy: Artists are often influenced bythe work of others. Who has influ-enced your work and why?

Rob: There haven't really been justa few artistic influences over theyears. It has really been more of a"shotgun" approach to my inspira-tion. Probably one of the reasonswhy I haven't really found my styleyet! The great thing about the inter-net is that you can see SOOOOmuch amazing artwork. It is hard tofocus on just one! I have had somevery key people that have helpedme along the way at importantmoments in my career (both goodand bad moments!). When I startedretouching I got a job working withthese two guys that really elevated itto illustration. Todd Reublin andMike Elins. They both taught mehow to really look at an image andsee "into" it. Mike was an airbrushillustrator all thru the 80s and Ilearned how to blend and shape pix-els to create my "vision" for a partic-ular photo. Also when I was atFriedland Jacobs, my production


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Part of a 3 minute animation for a Taiwanese bank. This animation is running on monitors throughout thebank lobby in both Chinese and English. It uses Cinema 4D and After Effects.

manager Susan Sullivan was reallythe first person who made mebelieve I was an "artist". Until then, Iwas just "a guy who made graph-ics". She helped me see that I couldlegitimately call myself an artisteven though I hadn't been to artschool.

Tavy: What software applicationsare you currently using in yourwork?

Rob: All the usual suspects: Cinema4D, After Effects, Photoshop,Illustrator, Final Cut Pro. But I'vestarted trying to add some visualeffects and character tools to myarsenal. Things like matchmovingwith a program called Syntheyes.

It does the same thing as boujou ormatchmover pro, but it's only $350bux!!! Motionbuilder to try to learncharacter animation. I recently start-ed playing with BodyPaint andCactus Dan's IK plugins for CINE-MA. So many toys and sooooo littletime!!!

Tavy: How long have you beenusing CINEMA 4D and why?

Rob: I think since about 1996. Istarted out in electric image/formZon the mac at the time when thatwas really the only truly pro applica-tion combo for 3D on the mac. ButEI shipped a really heinous versionof their app that was not ready forprimetime and I lost about 2 weeksof work that was simply corrupted.

They were less than supportive andso I started looking for alternatives. Isaw CINEMA at Macworld runningon a Mac in German! It had all thefeatures I was looking for, true raytracing; a single workflow with a builtin modeler and most importantly it


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Logo animation for a production company. It uses the "old skool particle system" in Cinema to create the cloudof letters that collapses back to the center and explodes.

Still image of my "forehedimus" character using the awesome powers of his forehead todefeat his enemies. Cinema 4D and Photoshop.

ran on a Mac! I was at Fox Kids atthe time, so I talked procurementinto getting me a copy and I nevertouched EI again! I've tried other 3Dprograms (Maya and Lightwave) butI haven't vibed with them. I try des-perately not to be a zealot aboutanything (that wasn't always thecase) and to try to find the best toolfor the job. Cinema just fits with myworkflow the best.

Tavy: Could you break down yourcreative process for us? Your work-flow?

Rob: After doing a lot of magazineand web surfing looking cool stuff, Itry to start everything with a sketch.I'm not a very good illustrator, buteven a crappy sketch is better thannone at all it really helps to focusyou down.

If it is a logo, I'll start in illustratorcreating the parts and then I'll moveto CINEMA and do a rough assem-ble of the parts. I'll then move toAfter Effects and do a still "styleframe".

I usually prefer creating style framesin After Effects rather thanPhotoshop because I can movequickly to the animation phase oncethe design is finalized. I build thedesign elements with animation inmind. In the promo television world,you usually don't have the luxury ofa long design process with lots ofpresentations and approvals. Theclient wants it REALLY fast!

Tavy: Are you currently working onany professional projects you cantell us a bit about?

Rob: Right now I'm bouncing backand forth between editing the TomJoyner Sky Show (a live action

music variety show) and creating 3Danimations for the fall launch of ABCKids over at Johnson MurphyAdvertising. I'll make a rough cut ofthe show for a few days, and whenit's done, I'll go over there and workon 3D stuff until the approvals comein and I have to online the show. Ideliver the show, and then I'll headright back and keep working on theanimations. That really keeps any-thing from becoming boring!

Tavy: On our CINEMA 4D discus-sion forum, often members ask howthey can get their foot in the door asa professional in the industry. If youcould give them some advice…whatwould it be?

Rob: Really work on your peopleskills! Nobody wants to work with ajerk. Seriously, don't just focus onyour artwork and neglect personalinteraction. The way the job world isgoing, there will be fewer and fewer"jobs" but still lots of work to do.

That means you will have to be part

salesman part production managerpart art director part everything ittakes to get the job done. You couldhave really great art skills, but if youcan't look someone in the eye shaketheir hand and land the gig, art skillswon't do you any good at all…

Tavy: It's always a pleasure to getto know those working professional-ly in the industry a little better. Youare an inspiration to many. You arethe men and women who bring tolife the films and television programsthat entertain us; the magazines,billboards, and advertisements of alltypes that make us aware of what'snew on the market; the logo's thatcatch our attention…etc.

You are the people behind thescenes that often don't get therecognition they deserve.

Thanks again Rob for taking timeout for 3D Attack and our readers.We wish you continued success andwill be looking for more of your workin the future. Any last comments forour readers?


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Still frame from an animation of a robot named lamont that will hopefully be featured in a story I'm working onin my "spare" time.

Rob: Try not to get hung up onarguments or obsessions aboutwhich application is better, or Macvs. PC or great taste less filling.

Try to focus on creating art and thetool that you are using will not mat-ter. 3D Attack is an amazingresource! CINEMA is really building

up a lot of momentum in the indus-try and the Attack is a HUGE part ofthat. Thank you Tavy for making itall happen!!!

Rob


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Part of an animated action sequence I created to use as teaching materials in my compositing class. Everything except for theastronaut head and fire is 3D from cinema. The actor's head was shot on green screen and composited into the space suit.

Modeling Methods

This month I will present you withseveral methods of modeling. Don'tconfuse methods with techniques.Modeling techniques can be seen inJamie’s tutorial "10 Modeling Tips",also in this issue. My tutorial willsimply teach what possible methodscould be used for different types ofobjects and topologies.

To model any object, many model-ing methods can be used. There isno absolutely correct methods foreach and every object we may wantto model as we can always do thesame things in many different ways.But, knowing the different possibleapproaches, time and effort can besaved, as there are methods thatare more efficient than other forsome specific situations.

I will focus on eight main methods ofmodeling. Some of them are alreadycombinations of different methodsbut, even so, you can further com-bine any of the methods and evencreate more variations on each oneof them. There is NO CORRECT,HERMETIC way to use them. Aswith everything else, use your imagi-nation to mix whatever you want toachieve the final result. Ok, enoughtalk, lets go to the juicy part :)

Method #1: Primitive Modeling

Modeling with primitives is easy. Yousimple have to use the objects thatCINEMA 4D already ships with.Since you are dealing with primitives(mainly geometric shapes), onlyvery basic models can be built, butwith creative use of ALL the primi-tives, very spectacular results canbe achieved. The trick is not to con-sider only the geometric shape prim-itives. Get wild! Use the Array, the

Boolean, the Mirror, etc. Check outpicture 1. Only primitives were

used, even for the cracked column.When you open the file, be patient.The booleans involved (there arequite a few) take some time to cal-culate.

Advantages:- Smaller file size.- Usually, faster and higher qualityrender.- Geometrically more correct.- Usually, faster to model, as theshapes are already created.

Disadvantages:- More limited possibilities.- As more complex hierarchies startto form (more booleans, mainly), theeditor speed decreases.

Method #2: NURBS

Yes, NURBS are also primitives, butthey are a special kind of primitives,much more flexible than the regular"polygonal" primitives. The Extrude,Lathe, Loft and Sweep NURBobjects are extremely efficient increating all kinds of forms.

Since they use splines as their start-ing point, they are also very easy toedit. Besides, they are very eco-nomical in every aspect: RAM, filesize, adjustable display resolution

(Isoparms). I don't include here theBezierNURBS object as its use isvery limited and I don't include theHyperNURBS object too because Iincluded it in another modelingmethod that we will see later.Check out picture 2 and picture 3.Lathe, Loft and Sweep NURBS wereused to create the masts, the can-

vas and the stakes/wire respectively.

Advantages:-Smaller file size.- Usually, faster and higher qualityrender.- Easier editing.- Variable resolution.

Disadvantages:- Hard to combine different NURBtopologies.- Local editing of very specific areasis more complicated as each objectis a whole surface.- Although more flexible than simpleprimitive modeling, the possibilitiesare still limited to the characteristicsof each NURBS typology.

Modeling MethodsBy Rui Batista

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Picture 01

Picture 02

Picture 03

Method #3: NURBS to Polygon

Since, like I said before, its verycomplicated to edit specific areas ofthe NURBS objects and they arealso limited to they typology, whynot start with NURBS and thenmake them editable and start editingaway, like a regular polygon object?Nothing stops us from doing that, ofcourse. So, we can start by choos-ing a NURBS object that suits us forthe start and, once the main shapeis set, we convert the NURBS objectto an editable polygonal object (hitthe C key) and we can go on usingstandard point modeling techniques.Check out picture 4. Image 1shows the splines that define the

shape. Those splines, inside aLoftNURBS (2) will create a shape.With caps, I reach the shape I wantand change it to a polygonalobject(3). Now I could extrude thefaces to create some thickness (4).Placing this polygonal object insidean HyperNURBS, I smoothed theshape (5).

Some advice on this technique:- Always keep a true NURBS object(you can make it invisible or, betteryet, turned off by clicking the greencheckmark) and only convert aduplicate to a polygonal object. Thisway, if you need to make changes tothe original shape you still have it.- Mess with the spline IntermediatePoints and with the NURBS seg-

ments to make sure you don't endup with a polygonal object that hasan over-dense mesh.- When converting NURBS to poly-gons you can end up with separatedcaps. If you want, you can selectthem in junction with the main shapeand select Connect from theFunctions menu. If you REALLYwant them to be a whole mesh, runthe Optimize command.- The caps have an attachedPolygon Selection tag. When youConnect everything, all the PolygonSelection tags get together in theresulting mesh. If you still want to beable to select the caps separately,even after you have a whole mesh,DON'T delete the Polygon Selectiontags. If you also defined Fillet Caps,you will end up with more objectsand correspondent PolygonSelection tags.

Advantages:- Easy editing.- Variable resolution until you con-vert to polygon.- Has all the advantages of theNURBS modeling (until the changeto polygonal object) and, after that,all the advantages of standardpolygonal editing.- UV coordinates are automaticallycreated for the object and they areevenly distributed along the wholesurface.

Disadvantages:- All the disadvantages of theNURBS objects.- As soon as the NURBS objectchanges to a polygonal object, theresolution (mesh density) is settled.

Method #4: Metaballs

Yes, Metaballs are a great modelingtool. The problem with them

(besides slowness) is that theirname is misleading. People usuallyuse them with spheres, but they canbe used with any polygonal objectand with splines. When used withpolygonal objects, a "blob" is placedat each point of the mesh. This isnot so good because easily, a verycomplicated - and slow - Metaballwill be created. Also, it is not verycontrollable. But, with splines, every-thing changes. Check out picture 5.I created a few leaned splinesaround a set of cylinders. Then I

projected (Project command) eachone to the set of cylinders (picture6). After editing the splines a bit Iplaced them all inside a Metaballs

object (picture 7). Voilá!! Instantcandle wax. Ok, ok... I had to edit


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Picture 04

Image 05

Image 06

Image 07

the Metaballs parameters a bit, but itwas fast :-) Now, check out picture 8.Three spheres and a few splines,when placed inside a Metaballsobject created the character in pic-ture 9. With Metaball tags assignedto each object/spline inside the

Metaballs object, we can control thestrength of each component sepa-rately. We can even set a negativeinfluence, where an object carvesinstead of adding shape (that's whatI did with the "eyes" of the character,for example).

The same way as with the NURBSto polygonal modeling method,always keep a genuine Metaballsobject and only polygonize a dupli-cate, if you need. When you convertthe Metaballs to a polygonal object,the resulting mesh density is theone set in the Render Subdivisionsparameters.

Advantages:- Easy editing, especially withsplines.- Variable resolution until you con-vert to polygon (want to change the

placement of the generated meshgrid? Enter Axis mode and drag theMetaballs axis).- Excellent for organic forms.

Disadvantages:- Can become quite slow, speciallywhen many shapes and low valuesin the Editor Subdivisions areinvolved.- Sometimes hard to control. Fineadjustments are very complicated.- For smooth results, a high density- hence slower display - is required.

Method #5 - Box Modeling

This method is based in standardpolygonal modeling. The "trick" isthat we usually start with a subdivid-ed cube (picture 10). The

Segments X subdivisions mustalways be an even number. TheSegments Y and Segments Z subdi-visions are what is needed to getthe shape going. Then, the Cube ismade editable and half of it is delet-ed, usually the negative X part.Then it is placed inside a Symmetryobject and everything is then placedinside an HyperNURBS object (pic-ture 11).

This is the usual hierarchy for thebox modeling method (picture 12).Now we just have to start editing thepoints, edges and faces, using stufflike Extrude, Knife, Weld, Bevel,Slide, etc. Everything done to the

only half we have of the mesh isautomatically mirrored to the otherside. After some tweaking, I endedup with this face (picture 13). If weneed to increase the resolution of

the mesh, we just execute aSubdivide command but we mustturn on the HyperNURBS Subdivideoption, otherwise, the finalsmoothed shape would change.When extruding faces that have anedge on the mirror plane, we mustdelete the generated faces that arecoincident with the mirror plane, oth-erwise we get errors in the mesh.When modeling, sometimes wemust turn off the Symmetry object,temporarily, to access inner points.But that is as easy as clicking thegreen checkmark.


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Image 08

Image 09

Image 10

Image 11

Image 13

Image 12

Advantages:- Easy and fast modeling. Only onehalf needs to be edited.- Detail is added as needed.- Excellent for Symmetrical objects.

Disadvantages:- Only symmetrical shapes can becreated. If an asymmetrical shape isrequired, we must convert theSymmetry object to a polygonalobject, loosing all the power andadvantages of the mirroring method-ology.

Method #6 - Front and SideModeling

For this method we must haveaccess to front and side images ofthe item we want to model. Once wehave those (it would be perfect ifthey were the same relative sizeand be in the same relative verticalpositions) we trace them inFreeHand or Illustrator and exportthe paths to Cinema 4D. For thefront image we only need to tracehalf of the image if the subject issymmetrical. To export the paths toCinema4D save them as Illustrator3.x files and, inside Cinema 4D,choose Merge from the File menu.Once the paths are correctly orient-ed in relation to each other, placeeach one inside an ExtrudeNURBSobject. Adjust it so that you get twoperpendicular stripes (picture 14). Ilike to set the Intermediate Points ofthe splines to Natural and then

adjust the Number to a low value.This way I get a low number ofpoints that is more concentratedwhere the curves are more pro-nounced. Convert the twoExtrudeNURBS objects into editablepolygonal objects and fuse them intoone (Connect, from the Functionsmenu). Now you can start creatingconnecting stripes between the twostripes. I usually use the Bridgecommand but you can also use theCreate Polygon command (picture15). Create additional segments inthe middle of the newly created

stripes (you can use the Knife com-mand) and edit the newly createdpoints/edges/faces (picture 16). Goon adding faces, editing the pointsand closing the areas. As you can

see from the images, I created twoauxiliary planes with the image pro-jected in them, for reference. Youcan see how I did that on the filesthat relate to this article.Since we are adding faces one byone, some of them may end up withreverted normals. In the end, makesure all normals are points outward.If your model is symmetrical, youcan create a hierarchy similar to the

one used for the Box Modelingmethod. Whenever possible, try tostick with quadrangular faces, asHyperNURBS (I assume you will beplacing the mesh inside anHyperNURBS in the end) prefersquadrangular faces.

Advantages:- You work with references so themodeling can be more accurate oreasier to achieve.- Symmetrical and asymmetricalshapes can easily be created.- Detail is only added as needed.

Disadvantages:- You really need reference material.Without it is like modeling blindly orby memory.- It takes time and you really need tobe a decent "sculptor"- You always have to try to simplifyyour mesh in the end because youmay have to create additional auxil-iary points during the modelingprocess.- If you don't take care you can endup with a very messy mesh.

Method #7: Texture Modeling

There is a channel inside everymaterial that can manipulate geome-try. Its the Displacement channel.The bitmaps/shaders placed insidethis channel will effectively move thepoints of your objects in and out,along their normals. So, if you knowhow to control this channel, you cancreate effects that would be verytime consuming or even nearlyimpossible, if you had to model byhand. The problem withDisplacement is that it requires ahighly dense mesh to work correctly.The lucky owners of Cinema4Drelease 9.x don't have to worry withthat because they can use Sub-


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Image 14

Image 15

Image 16

Polygon Displacement. This methodwill subdivide the mesh only at ren-der time, allowing for a moredetailed displacement, even for low-polygon meshes. By default, theType of displacement is set toIntensity (Centered). This meansthat a grey value in the image willkeep the points where they were, alighter value will raise the points anda darker value will sink them. If youset the displacement Type toIntensity, a black value will keep thepoints where they were and lightervalues will raise them. Of course, allthis raising and sinking talk,assumes that the normals are allpointing outward. See picture 17.You can create materials that onlyhave the Displacement channel

turned on and then place that mate-rials at specific locations, with theMix Textures option of the materialtag turned on, to mix theDisplacement with the remainingmaterials. This allows for greater,local detail. See picture 18.

Advantages:- With certain shapes it’s much easi-er to create "geometry" than model-ing by hand.- The "modeling" can be animated.- Allows for local adjustments.- The original mesh is neverchanged and the texture can be finetuned until a good result is obtained.

Disadvantages:

- You only see the results when yourender (this can be changed usingplug-ins, like Jenna's displaceVIEWbut you will need a very densemesh).- If you don't use Sub-PolygonDisplacement you will need a verydense mesh.- It’s not easy to define precise dis-placements. Depending on theHeight value, the grey intensity ofthe image used in the displacementchannel and the Type of displace-ment, very different values can beobtained.

And this closes this tutorial. I didn'ttalk about another method know asPoint-by-point modeling because itcan be included in the BoxModeling, Front and Side or evenNURBS to Polygon methods. Youmay have use the Point-by-Pointmethod while performing any ofthese methods. In it, you create newpoints - by simply adding new indi-vidual points or by subdividing orcutting faces or edges - and then

you create faces by connectingthose points.With time you will startknowing what method better suitsyou, depending on the subject youhave to model.

As I told in the beginning, the bestway model is to combine the meth-ods. Anyway, now that you knowwhat methods exist (the ones pre-sented here are only a generaloverview, other methods could bepresented), you can start practicingand, hopefully, become a bettermodeler. Till next time and, keep onATTACKing.

Rui Batista


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Image 17

Image 18

This tutorial will show some tricksyou can do in XPresso using "string-nodes". And to make it a little moreattractive I've joined 4 new nodes(almost) unreleased before. Thetutorial has easy and maybe evenuseful stuff to start with and goes onto be quite difficult. The third part isreally "experimental" and not usefulat first glance. It is intended to provea method and reflect findings I did inthe last months. The last part is anexample I made and is quite fun andeasy to setup, it's a Chat withinCinema 4d.

Let’s start by introducing the newnodes-Time-Date - by Tengaal(fr) Thisnode outputs the date, time andyear.-Doc Name - by Tengaal(fr) outputsthe name of the current document-Text Read - by Rui-mac will importa text file of any kind also xml, cvsor html as long as it is text. (R9.x)-Text Write - by Rui-mac - adaptedby base80 will write text from cine-ma to an external text file. (R9.x)All the above nodes are Coffee-nodes, and are password protectedjust to unclutter the attribute man-age and the password is secret.[Picture0]

PART1Some simple exercises to start with.1.Let’s say I want to make rendersshowing the document name and

the date. Start by adding a text-spline in an extrude-nurb to yourscene. I will not explain the model-ing part as I expect you all knowhow to do that. You can point thetext at the camera or whatever.Drag the text-spline in the Xpressoeditor. Open the text-port on the left(in). Then take the Doc Name-nodeand the Time-Date-node (in thegoodies of this magazine). Now wewant to connect the Name port andthe date port to the text-spline.Therefore we will have to add those"strings" together. The string-nodesin XPresso could help here but Ifound that the math-add-node doesit in a very elegant way. So take athe math-node and set its type to"string". Enter the two strings to addon the left and it will simply put onebehind the other as an output.Connect the output to the splinetext. Easy does it. [picture1]

Nah, that is not so neat as expect-ed. There is no space between thename and the date;Name.c4d08/01/'05. So we needsome space there. Go to the math-add node and add an input port onthe left drag this new input portbetween the two already used portsand in the Attribute manager youtype some spaces. OK cool now wehave; Name.c4d 08/01/'05 and thatis better.

How to get rid of the filetype exten-sion (.c4d) ? I like the above setup,but really don't want the .c4d toshow in the renders. This time weneed one of the string-nodes, theLeft-string is the most appropriate. Itwill output a string starting from the

left with a given length. So we haveto determine the length. We couldtype it by hand, but you will have toget back there every time you createa new document, so they inventedthe Length-String-node. It counts thelength of the original string and out-puts it as an integer. Take a mathnode again and subtract the lengthof the filetype extension from thelength (usually 3 and a dot = 4) andfeed the result to the count-port ofthe Left-String node. So now wehave; Name 08/01/'05. [picture2]

So we have seen some of the Doc-node and the Time-Date-node. TheTime-Date node has a total of threeports. We have just seen the dateport, but you could use the time portto tag your renders as-well. I use thetime-port when I render animation toget an idea at what point a scenegets harder to render. The year portis nice to use for a Company-Name© Year. [picture3]

What we have learned is that theMath-add-node in string mode doesmost of the work for us and that is aneat trick. Tip Of the Formula-StringUse the Math-add trick to feed theFormula-deformer and the Formula-spline. [picture4]

XPresso - Text NodesBy Base80

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Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

This way you can easily use timenodes or even collision nodes aspart of the equation.

2. Honey, Dinner is Served!

We are all busy people working allday and sometimes our belovedpartners have a hard time getting atus. So here is a simple trick to lether/him intrude in your scene just bytyping to a plain text file. This exer-cise is to illustrate the Text-In node.Start by adding a text-spline in anextrude nurb to your scene. I will notexplain the modeling part as Iexpect you all know how to do that.You can point the text at the cameraor whatever. (yes I copied this sen-tence from above) For the purposeof this exercise I will call the user ofC4D "him/he" and the partner"her/she". We need to start by creat-ing an empty text file somewhere ona shared disk where she can find it.Preferably a not formatted text, butjust one that comes with a .txtextension. [picture5]

Let her open the file and type"Honey, Dinner is Served!" and savethe file without closing it.Now his setup. Open the XPressoeditor and drag the Text-spline in it.And take the Text-In node providedin the goodies of this magazine.Connect the list-port to the text-portof the text-spline. Go to the attributemanager and you will see that thetext-in node asks for a file name,click on the little button and find thefile on your hard-disk or server. Paf there is the "Honey, Dinner is

Served!" test in your spline. Youcould add the text to your HUD ifyou wish.Now she can modify the text in "I'veput it in the oven" and it will show onyour screen. There are some issueswith the update of the text, if you areworking in your scene the file willimmediately update, however if youare picking your nose it will not.[picture6]

OK base80 you are really silly tell usthe real advantage of this node. The above example is anecdotic,but comes very close to real life sit-uations as it comes to workflow inlarger companies. One personmakes a scene the other one pro-vides text in that scene.

Secondly, it is not always plain textyou have to get from the file, thenode can output position, rotation,spreadsheet-data, xml, rss, html,css, or whatever.

I made an XPresso that reads midi-files and that animates objectsaccordingly. And some of you mayhave seen that I made some niftyexamples in the 3D Attack forum.The data in the text file could bestock-quotes fetched from the net ormeteorological information, youname it. I will explain the basis ofmy text parsing/filtering method inpart 3.

PART2

Load and reload a picture in a tex-ture. I will deviate a little from thetext things to show you a trick tohave a texture with a picture in itthat is not in the document path.Let’s say that a colleague is making

a picture you have to use in yourscene. Both of you are in work inprogress, but you want to load itspicture anyway. The picture is savedon a server somewhere.First you create a new texture andyou load an image in the color chan-nel (this can be any image) Nowyou can drag the "bitmap" icon fromthe attribute manager to theXPresso editor.

Open the "file" input port on thebitmap node. Create a constant-node and set it to filename and pointit to the image-file on the server andconnect the port to the bitmap-node. [Picture7]

You now have a direct link betweenyour texture and the remote file, andwhen your colleague saves the fileyour texture will be updated. Now, to be SURE the texture isupdated before you start rendering,you need this little XPresso that trig-gers the update. The xpresso says;if frame==0 switch file to same file.So we use a compare node to com-pare a time-frame to (==) 0 and iftrue a condition to switch betweentwo the same files. [Picture8]

This trick will save you from a lot offrustration if you work in a team.Everybody has one day forgotten tohit the reload button in a texture to


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find out hours later the whole ren-dering is worthless. Texture is previ-ous rendering (R9.x) Well let’s getback to our text strings. And have alittle bit of fun with the above trick.The setup goes as follows, you wantto make an animation from a scenewith a television in it and you wantto the television to show what thecamera is seeing. You can try this athome. Connect your camcorder to atelevision and film the room with thattelevision in it. Most of you knowwhat happens, you get this strangetunneling effect with the scene in thescene in the scene,....

OK lets get started, build your ownTV-set and stick a texture to itsscreen. Open the texture and addan image to the color channel. Thiswill allow you to drag the bitmapchannel to the XPresso editor as inthe example above. We will nowsetup an XPresso that loads newimages in the texture. To get thisthing to work you need to renderyour animation as a imagesequence and not as a mov. We willpick-up the freshly made renderingto use it in the next rendering andso on. So there will be a lag ofexactly one frame. In the render set-tings Cinema 4d automatically putsa number behind each renderedimage as follows Image0001.jpg...What we need is to make a filenamestring that gets to the previously ren-dered image. We will use the math-add node again to add: the-location-of-the-rendering-folder-on-the-hard-disk + the-file-name + the-number +.jpg Start by adding a few constantnodes to the XPresso editor set to

string and paste the following ineach of them;1. you-hard-disk:desktop:project-folder:2. Imagename003. .jpeg. Behind the filename00 wewill add a Time-node set to framenumber minus 1. This will cause thexpresso to load the image0001 inthe second frame and 0002 in thethird and so on. Do you read me. Ihave the idea this is getting out ofhand here. [Picture9]

To get things right I start my anima-tion at frame 11 as to have a twodigit frame number and I have tomake the first render (img0009.jpg)by hand before launching the ren-dering of the sequence. Otherwiseyou get an error message.Maybe you will need to adapt somesettings in your particular case,especially if the rendering is morethan 99 frames.

PART3

Ok time has come to get to thehardcore stuff. We will do some textfiltering. In order to use more com-plex text files like xml, css, rss,cvs(spreadsheet) or html you haveto filter out the information youneed. We will use the Text-in nodeto read the text and some stringnodes to filter it to relevant informa-tion. The following example is just....an example. It is meant to get acomprehension of a method.

Tour de FranceLet’s say I got a job this summer toproduce graphics of the Tour deFrance. Every hour I have to make

an image of the overall standings. Iam lazy and found a way to letXPresso do the work for me.First, I found an applet that showsthe overall standings of the Tour, theapplet updates automatically andstores the downloaded data in ahtml file(http://www.haym37.com/tourde-france/tourdefrance.php). the appletshows the data like this;1. Lance ARMSTRONG 62:09:592. Ivan BASSO 2:46 behind3. Mickael RASMUSSEN 3:09...but the html looks more like this;(I've cut out some headers and stufffor the purpose of this tutorial)<tr class='ysprow1'><td height='17'> </td><td class='yspscores'height='17'>1. </td><td class='yspscores'height='17'>Lance ARMSTRONG</td><td align='right' class='yspscores'height='17'>62:09:59</td><td height='17'> </td></tr><tr class='ysprow2'><td height='17'> </td><td class='yspscores'height='17'>2. </td><td class='yspscores'height='17'>Ivan BASSO </td><td align='right' class='yspscores'height='17'>2:46 behind</td><td height='17'> </td></tr>...Fist we load the text into Cinema 4dusing the text in node. Connect aresult node to see the whole text.[picture10] To make the XPressowork I have to find out a way toextract the name and the time fromthis mess. Therefore I have to lookfor patterns in the html that areunique for every entry. The uniqueline that comes back is "'ysprow1'>"


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for the first cyclist and "'ysprow2'>."for the second and so on.To find this " 'ysprow1'>" we use afind-string, it will give us the positionof this string. [picture11]

The resulting number is the positionof this string in the html file. To getthe name "Lance ARMSTRONG "we use a Mid-string node. And feedthe count port with the result of theabove find-string-node plus thenumber of letters between"ysprow1'" and the cyclists name.This number is 121 in every entry.The problem is that we do not knowhow long the name of the cyclist isso we have to find this out. I use thefind string node and feed it with theresult of the previous mid-string so Iam sure it will look in the piece oftext we just found and I will look for"</td> to get a result of 17. So Iknow that "Lance ARMSTRONG "starts at 10 and ends 17 characterslater. So I use a mid string againand feed it with the result of the pre-vious mid-string and link the 10 andthe 17 to the position and countports. [picture12]

I took the same approach for thetime the cyclist is at. You have torepeat this thing for every cyclistand adapt it a little and it will outputall the relevant names and scores toyou. The filtered data can be usedto animate objects or to make

graphics in any way you like, andthe resulting animation will alwaysbe accurate and real time. I have made a setup here on a sec-ond hand mac that runs this kind ofXPresso, and I found a software thatmimics my mouse movements every10 minutes; the result is that render-ings are made automatically andthey are uploaded to a ftp server allthe time. This is a summer job welldone and you can find me at thecafe on the opposite side of thestreet during working hours.

This whole thing is a tedious job,and it is only worth while when tasksare repetitive . I will not provide thefile of this exercise, because it isjust meant to prove that this text fil-tering thing is possible in XPresso. I

am sure some of you might find thewhole thing complete nonsense, butothers might just find a way to solvea repetitive boring task this way.

As an exercise I have tested severalpossibilities with this method. Imade an XPresso that interpretsconverted midi-files and the result isan animation of a musical instru-ment. It works fine as long as themusic is not polyphonic.

I've done a test on an rss feed fromthe 3D Attack forum and it producesan image with the title and nicknameof the last post on the forum.Another test I made was to use sub-titling scripts to add timed text to ananimation. I think there could be a commercial


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use of the method in rendering stockquotes or meteorological data in 3din real-time. If you plan to get as far as trying todo a similar thing I will be happy tohelp you if needed.

PART4

Text out nodeThis node will write whatever youwant to a text-file. This can be theposition or rotation of an object. Or like in the above example of"Honey, Dinner is Served!" youcould make an XPresso to writeback to your wife from withinCinema 4d. I tested a setup to chatbetween two c4d files 1000 milesapart and it worked. It is also plausi-ble to create midi-files from an ani-mation in c4d, and if this is interest-ing one of you,just contact me.

I needed this node for a client ofmine who wants to move a robotarm in real life. I made a copy of thearm in Cinema 4d, and if all goeswell the real arm will move as doesthe arm in Cinema. This is the syn-tax the robot arm can read;

shoulder.VALUE = 40wrist.VALUE = 36gripper.VALUE = 23elbow.VALUE = 25

This is an easy syntax to createusing the math add node and someconstant node strings. I'll talk about this robot arm aroundthe end of the year and will write afull report for the mag if all goeswell.

Cinema 4d's Internal ChatFor now I'll stick at explaining theChat XPresso.What you need is two empty textfiles on a shared hard disk.

Let’s start the XPresso; we needtwo text-splines, one to receivemessages and another to write themfrom.

Now take both the text in and textout nodes provided with this tutorial.Connect them to the two text fileson your hard disk and connect eachtext splines to them. Save the docu-ment and make a copy of it, openthe copied c4d document on anoth-er machine and reverse the linkedtext files as to read and write to theopposite files than the other docu-ment reads and writes to. Voila youhave a chat within Cinema 4d,enjoy![picture13]

Writing to a file can be much moreuseful than a simple chat program. Itcould work to get a camera positionfrom an other model. You could con-nect a texture setting from one doc-ument to another, so when youupdate the texture all other docu-ments containing this texture willreflect that change.

PART5

Well thanks for reading my findingson these text nodes. I congratulatethe ones that came this far as it ishard material to read about. As Isaid before, I can help you setup aspecific XPresso that suits yourneeds. This tutorial can not explainall the ins and outs of "text-process-ing" in Cinema 4d, nevertheless Itried to give the general direction.


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The CINEMA 4D 9/9.1 HANDBOOKBy Adam Watkins and Anson CallCopyright 2005 by Charles RiverMedia

As MAXON upgrades CINEMA 4D,Adam Watkins and Anson Callupgrade their CINEMA 4D HAND-BOOK. Having read The CINEMA4D R8 Handbook, I knew therewould be no disappointment whencracking open the upgraded 9/9.1version. Once again the talentedauthors are able to convey, in lay-men terms, the ease of use of thiswonderful application, CINEMA 4D.

The reader will learn how and whythings work within CINEMA. Thisgives the reader a more conciseunderstanding of the theory behindthe tool, enabling them to better uti-lize the ideas within the tool.

With exemplary teaching skills,Adam and Anson explain the stan-dard CINEMA 4D workflow, explorethe various ways to use CINEMA'smodeling tools, give lessons on howto use CINEMA's animation tools(along with camera movement andcinematography, function curves and

the new Motion Blending function),and much more; 13 Chapters and426 pages of pure CINEMA 4DR9/9.1 educational enhancementand enjoyment.

With over 100 new functions andfeatures in CINEMA 4D R9, we canall use some explanation and train-ing in what things are and how theywork.

Some of the new functions worksimilarly to the old way of doingthings, but can be a tad bit confus-ing getting started. Adam andAnson, through the written word andeducational tutorials, help to makethe upgrade to CINEMA 4D R9 thatmuch easier.

Let's take a look at the Chaptersand their content:

Chapter 1: INTERFACEThe main Window, CommandPalettes, The Viewpoint, C4D'sBuilt-In Layouts, ObjectManipulation.

Chapter 2: BEGINNING MODELING3D Construction Theory, ModelingTools, Make Object Editable,NURBS, Splines.

Chapter 3: NURBSNURBS Generators, Splines, Howthe Generators Works, Tutorial -Modeling a Castle, Booleans,Tutorial - Modeling a Desk Lamp.

Chapter 4: POLYGON MODELINGPolygon Modeling Styles, Tutorial -Polygon Modeling a Basic HouseModeling Layout, Discover More,Tutorial - HyperNURBS Modeling aDolphin.

Chapter 5: MATERIALS & TEX-TURESMaterials, Tutorial - Applying Effects,Tutorial - Layered Shaders and theBanged-Up Old Robot, Rendering,Environment - Bump - andDisplacement Channels, renderSetting, Texture Mapping and anAlien Symbol of Doom, The TextureTool, More Dent.

Chapter 6: LIGHTINGLighting in Action, Tutorial -Nighttime Lighting for the DiningRoom, Tutorial - Daytime Lightingfor the Dining Room, Tutorial -Romantic Lighting for the DiningRoom, Tutorial - RadiosityRendering.

Chapter 7: ANIMATIONS BASICSAnimation Toolbar, Timeline, Tutorial- Bouncing Ball, Tutorial - Animatinga Camera, Tutorial - MotionBlending.

Chapter 8: CHARACTER ANIMA-TION IN CINEMA 4D AND MOCCACINEMA 4D, Things That Make orBreak a Setup, Core Concepts, TheTools, The MOCCA Toolset,Modeling, Technical Aspects of C4Din Character Animation.

Chapter 9: CHARACTER SETUP:A COMPLETE WALKTHROUGHThe Character, Modeling, Boning,Weighting, Control, Streamlining,The Final Structure, Some FinalTouches, Animation.

Chapter 10: CLOTHModeling Cloth, Cloth Tag, ColliderTags, Dressing for Success, Lettingit Fly, Tweaking.

Chapter 11: CAMERAS AND REN-DERINGCamera Anatomy, Rendering R9and Advanced Render, Rendering

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Book: The CINEMA 4D R9/9.1 HandbookBy Tavy

Tools, General Options, Effects,Options, Multi-Pass, QuickTime VR,Running through the Tabs, Tutorial -Radiosity - Using an Image as theLight Source, Tutorial - HDRI, FlashOutput via FlashEx.

Chapter 12: SKETCH AND TOONRaygun with Style, Tutorial -Sketching a Raygun, SketchMaterials.

Chapter 13: CUSTOMIZE THEC4D INTERFACECustomizing the Manager Size andLocation, Individualized Workflow,Command Palettes, commandManager, Menu Manager, Saving aCustom Layout, Preferences, HUD.

COMPANION CDAccompanying the book is a CD-ROM. The CD includes the installa-tion files for the CINEMA 4D Demo,both Mac and PC. You will also findthe files necessary to complete all ofthe tutorials in the book, all imageswithin the book in full color, textures,bonus tutorials, MAXON's documen-tation for CINEMA 4D R9, printablefiles that can be used as references,etc….

IN CONCLUSIONAfter reading The CINEMA 4D 9/9.1Handbook and working through afew of the tutorials, I have conclud-ed it's a must have for beginner andintermediate users of CINEMA 4DR9.

Advanced users may find some ofthe tutorials and documentation a bitrepetitive, but then again, no oneknows it all. If you have been con-templating purchasing this book,now is the time. It would make awonderful addition to any CINEMA4D users library of reference andlearning material. The CINEMA 4D

9/9.1 HANDBOOK is a definite HITwith 3D Attack!

Price: $49.95 USD

Where to purchase: http://www.charlesriver.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=113397

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Book: The CINEMA 4D R9 HandbookBy Tavy

1. HyperNURBS Basics2. Using the Bevel Tool3. Know Thy Knife Tool Inside Out!4. Using N-Gons5. Cleaning up a Boolean6. Create Polygon Tool7. Modeling Axis8. Normal Tools9. Using Generators Together10. Deriving Objects

HyperNURBS Basics

The HyperNURBS Object isundoubtedly one of the most power-ful Generators in Cinema 4D.(Image-01) One of the most impor-tant things to remember when mod-

eling using HyperNURBS;Quadrangles give a better resultthan Triangles. Try to keepQuadrangles in your mesh whenev-er possible. It's ok to get some trian-gles in there sometimes, but try tokeep them out of sight. One of themost common things that new usersdo that ultimately compromises thequality of their mesh, is cut themesh part of the way through. Thebest way to cut a HyperNURBSmesh is using a loop. (Image-02)(Image-03) What about hardeningthe Edges of a HyperNURBSObject? HyperNURBS Objects nor-

mally give a very smooth result. Iknow of 2 methods to harden theedges of a HyperNURBS Object,One is for very sharp edges, andone will give you hard edges thatstill have a smooth quality to them.The first method is to use theHyperNURBS Weight function.

Using the Edge Tool you can selectthe edges that need to be hardenedand hold the period key while drag-ging the mouse to vary the hardnessof the edges. A HyperNURBSWeight Tag will appear to the right ofthe selected Polygon Object andyou should see the edges interac-tively sharpening in the viewport.The other method I mentioned is to

select the edges to be hardenedand bevel them very slightly. Justselect the edges and using theBevel Tool, drag in the viewport andthe selected edges will split andstart to move apart. TheHyperNURBS Mesh will harden atthe edges, but not so much that itcreases. (Image-04) If you increasethe subdivision of the bevel, you canachieve an even sharper edge,

while still maintaining a slight curve.Remember to disable the N-Gonsoption when using the subdivisionoption for the bevel Tool. This tech-nique will surely give your modelsthose nice hard edges where youwant them and it gives you very nicespecular highlights!

When you cut a hole in yourHyperNURBS mesh, don't hesitateto use a Spline primitive such as aCircle to help you tune up the shapeof your opening. It can be very help-ful for creating openings that areperfectly circular. Give it a try; youcan thank me later ;-) Instead of cre-ating a separate HyperNURBSObject for each 'part' of your object,create a Null object and place it inyour HyperNURBS Object, thenplace all of the individual parts in theNull Object. Furthermore, if you

10 Modeling TipsBy Jamie Hamel - Smith

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want to have different levels of sub-division for each 'part', you can cre-ate a HyperNURBS Weight Tag forthe part that you want to change thesubdivision of, and by clicking theHyperNURBS Weight Tag; you canadjust the Editor and RendererSubdivision for that part alone.There is a tutorial in the August2004 Issue of 3D Attack that alsoexamines HyperNURBS by Lenno. It is well worth reading!

Using the Bevel Tool

The Bevel Tool is a most powerfultool. It can be used with the PolygonTool, Point Tool and Edge Tool. TheBevel Tool has its obvious uses,beveling edges, faces and points.But Why? Why do we need to beveledges? Well, certain objects benefitfrom a slightly beveled edge, whilefor other objects; it is almost a nec-essary step in modeling the object.A tabletop is a good example of anobject that doesn't really need abevel, but it would benefit from onegreatly. The following image showshow a single loop of edges beveledcan give a very nice specular high-light. (Image-05) The Edges on theleft are not beveled and the ones onthe right are. Next we will examine

the Bevel Tool being used withPolygons. When used in thePolygon Tool, the Bevel Tool is sim-ply an Extrude combined with anExtrude Inner When used on a clus-ter of polygons; it can create a sortof plateau effect, and when thePreserve Groups option is deselect-ed, it creates individual plateaus.(Image-06) With the release ofCinema 4D R9, the bevel tool, likemany of the other tools has had amakeover. (Image-07) The big dif-ference to the Bevel Tool is that a

'Type' option has been added. Thereare now 5 different types of bevelprofiles: Linear, Convex, Concave,Bezier and User. When using the'User' mode, you can use a spline

graph right there in the Bevel ToolOptions in the Attributes Manager todefine the shape of your bevel.Keep in mind that when using anymode other than 'Linear', you mustset the Subdivision of the bevel tosomething higher than 0. Whenusing the User mode, you must alsoset the extrusion depth of the bevel.So, now you should be on your wayto giving your objects nice finishededges! A well sized bevel on theedge of an object will almost alwaysmake it look so much nicer. And ifyou want nice Specular Highlightson the edges of an angular object,you need to bevel the edges!

Know Thy Knife Tool Inside Out!

The knife tool has been totallyupgraded with the arrival of Cinema4D R9. There are now 5 differentmodes of cutting. I will just runthrough the features of the knife toolthat remain standard or grayed outthrough all of the modes, and then Iwill give a description of each mode.(Image-08) First lets all notice the

most exciting part of the new KnifeTool Options; the Mode Menu! Hereis where you change the mode ofthe knife tool from the standard 'Linefrom point A to point B' style to amore powerful mode! The RestrictTo Selection option does exactlywhat it says; it allows you to onlyhave the knife tool cut the currently


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selected polygons or edges. TheSelect Cuts option selects the newlycut edges. This is very convenient;let's say you just cut a whole bunchof polygons and you wanted tobevel the resulting edges, just selectthis option before you cut and it willsave you the time of selecting all ofthe newly created edges! It is espe-cially helpful on complex meshes.The Only Edges option only cuts theedges of the mesh; this adds pointsto the edges that are cut, instead ofadding edges to the polygons thatwere cut. I have only used thisoption once or twice, but I can'texplain how convenient this is if theneed should arise. Although theVisible Only option is only availablein the Line mode, I will still talkabout it as if it were a standard fea-ture of the knife tool. It only allowsvisible edges or polygons to be cut.It's quite useful and pretty straight-forward. The final standard option isthe Create N-Gons option. Thisoption is in many of the structuretools and it tells Cinema 4D weatheror not you would like N-Gons to becreated. Again, it's pretty straightfor-ward.

Line Mode

The main options for the line toolare the Visible Only, Constrain andSingle options. We talked aboutVisible Only already, so let's justskip him. The Constrain option willmake the cutting line 'snap' to aspecified angle. The Single option isquite useful! When unchecked, it

turns the line into a polyline. Thisallows you to make multiple continu-ous cuts. (Use the 'esc' key to exitthe polyline mode.) The line modealso snaps to edges or points! Keepin mind that this snapping will over-ride the constrain option. This modeis best for rough cuts and I'm sureall of you are quite familiar with italready.

Hole Mode

This mode is used to cut holes inpolygons. It will only allow you to cuta hole in one polygon, in otherwords, it won't let 2 polygons sharethe same hole. It's really simple andthere aren't any special options forit.

Plane Mode

One of my favorite modes! Thismode is super powerful and I use ita lot. In short, it cuts straight throughthe object (respecting the restrict toselection option of course) on a cho-sen plane. You can choose weatherit is working with the World Axis orthe Object Axis, or even theCamera's Axis! The Slice option willevenly divide the cut(s) along theobject (or your selection). If there isonly one cut being made, it willappear in the center, if there aremore, they will be evenly spaced.Think of slicing bread. Cuts definesthe number of cuts and Spacing

defines the spacing in between thecuts (when the slice option is dis-abled) The Keep Lock option is abrilliant one! While you are placingyour cut, if you press and releasethe shift key, the yellow line repre-senting the cutting plane will stayput. This will allow you to go back tothe options and insert more cuts;change the cut position numerically,etc. It's a very powerful option andto be honest with you, it took me awhile before I started using it. TheLoop and Path modes also sharethat option.

Loop Mode

The loop option will subdivide a loopof polygons. It's my favorite and it'sgreat for characters and addingdetail to all sorts of objects! It givesyou a lot of freedom and it's veryversatile.

Path Mode

The Path mode is best described bychecking out Image-13. It simplycuts along a path of polygons oredges. Although very simple, theKnife tool is quite powerful, get toknow it inside out and it will saveyou lots of time and energy.

Using N-GonsN-Gons are a very powerful additionto Cinema 4D's arsenal of already


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powerful tools, although they wontdo you much good if you don't usethem. There are 2 ways that I knowof to create an N-Gon out of somepolygons. You can use the Meltcommand in the Edge Tool orUntriangulate in the Polygon Tool.(Image-14) (Image-15)You can also draw one by handusing the Create Polygon Tool. One

thing that I really like to use N-Gonsfor is beveling complex extrusions.When the surface being beveled istriangulated, Cinema 4D can have abit of trouble figuring out how best tobevel the edges. I'll demonstrate;create an empty Polygon Objectfrom the Objects menu. Now withthe Polygon, Points or Edges toolselected, select the Create Polygontool and draw a rough shape in thetop viewport (F2) it will create an N-Gon by default. Once you have yourN-Gon, Switch back to thePerspective viewport (F1), select thePolygons Tool and choose theExtrude command.

Extrude it a bit so that you have alittle extruded shape. Notice thateverything is nice and neat becauseof the N-Gon. Now lets add a Phongtag to the Polygon object; in the

Object Manager Right Click thepolygon object and choose Cinema4D Tags > Phong. Set the AngleLimit to 25. Select the Top Face (N-Gon) and Shift-Click the Edges Tool.This will convert the polygon selec-tion to an Edge Selection (cool trickright?) now that we have the edgesselected, we will bevel them. I choseto do a Concave Bevel with 4 subdi-visions. As you can see, I got a pret-ty nice result right? (Image-16) Nowlet's do it without the N-Gon and seewhat happens. Undo until you get

back to where we had the extrudedN-Gon (polygon mode). Select theN-Gon, right click and chooseTriangulate or Remove N-Gon theywill both triangulate the face, butthey do it differently. Now select theloop of edges. Since we have abunch of triangles in our way, theeasiest way to accomplish thiswould be to use the Loop SelectionTool.

The quickest way to access it is touse the default keyboard shortcut of'U~L' (by pressing U then L) or youcould just choose it from theSelection menu. Now once youhave those edges selected, bevelthem again, see what happens asthe bevel tool tries to find its wayaround those triangles. I'm sure youhave come up with a very… for alack of a better word, crappy result.It's quite obvious that Cinema 4Dhad no idea what to do in this caseand ended up mangling your mesh.

(Image-17) So there you have it,one plain and simple example show-ing why N-Gons are so powerful!They allow Cinema 4D to be more

flexible in its modeling methods. Iespecially like when I can import abuilding from my colleague that mayhave been modeled in Archicad orForm-Z (usually imported as .DXFor .3DS) and it come in triangulated,I can simply select all of the Polygonobjects in the scene and run theUntriangulate command… thenvoila! The building is so much easieron the eyes and it is much easier toselect entire walls or floor areas totexture them separately. Thank youN-Gons! We will use N-Gons somemore a little later in this tutorial, but Ithink that we have got it covered fornow.

Cleaning up a BooleanThis could be an entire tutorial byitself, so I am just going to examineone aspect of the Cinema 4D Booleobject that tends to cause problemsfor me. When most people hearBoolean, they freak out. A Booleancan be exactly what you need if youknow how to clean up the mess itusually leaves behind. With the newHigh Quality mode and the introduc-tion of N-Gons, Cinema 4D R9 is agreat version for getting to know theBoolean tool a bit better. My usualscenario is that I want to do an Asubtract B Boolean or an A union B.Usually you want to bevel the edgeof the Boolean to create a nice


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Image 14

Image 15

Image 16

Image 17

blend. Well these little things calledco-linear points are created some-times and they get in my way whentrying to bevel, similarly to the trian-gles in the previous section. Let'sillustrate the problem, and then I'llgive you a very quick workaround!(Image-18) Pane 1 shows the 2objects that I want to union. Pane 2shows them in the Boolean object

and all the new edges that theBoolean operation has produced. Italso shows our co-linear point. Inthis particular case, only 2 or 3 werecreated around the area of intersec-tion, but I have been in situationswhere literally dozens were created.These points are not bad or any-thing, it's just that they unnecessari-ly complicate the mesh and they cancause problems later on when tryingto do a fancy bevel or something ofthat sort. After the second pane ofthe image I checked the SingleObject and Hide New Edgesoptions.

By pane 3 everything looks fine, theedges are gone, and the mesh looksclean, but the unnecessary pointsare still there. In pane 4, I switch tothe Points Tool and see that thepoints are still there. Now we aregoing to get rid of them very quickly.Pane 5 shows me using a Loop

Selection to select the loop of edgesat the base, including the straypoints that we want to get rid of. Andfinally, in Pane 6, we will use a RingSelection to deselect the points con-nected to the ring of edges. By Ctrl-Clicking the ring of edges, it dese-lects any points connected to theends of the edges, or in otherwords, all the points we want tokeep. We are now left with only theco-linear points selected andbecause they are on an N-Gon, wecan safely hit the delete key and begone with them! I know that thisprocess may seem like overkill forsomething that is not really thatimportant, but I have had instanceswhere the co-linear point was just .

1 units away from the edge and youcan't see it in the editor right awaybecause they are so close to theother points. This method is sure tosave you time and frustration in acase like that. Try to do this as a routine whendoing Booleans. Now, it won't workin all cases, but it will help in mostcases. I hope I was clear about this,and if I was not, then don't hesitateto ask about it on the forums atwww.3dattack.net

Create Polygon ToolThe create Polygon tool does notactually create a polygon object; itmust be used with a polygon objectalready selected. You can create anempty Polygon Object from theObjects Menu, or you can just usethe tool on an existing PolygonObject. It is basically a tool thatallows you to draw a polygon usinga polyline. The cool features are theoptions to create a Quadrangle orTriangle Strip and the triangulationmethods. The tool is quite selfexplanatory, but I just thought that itwas worth mentioning. (Image-19)

The Modeling Axis A new level of control has beenintroduced to the Modeling Axis withCinema 4D R9, when you selectPolygons, Points or Edges, it givesyou additional control when MovingScaling or Rotating the selection. Itallows you to choose the Positionand Rotation of the Modeling Axis.In my example, I have created acube, made it editable and beveledone edge. Now I want to move theface, but I want to move it along inthe direction it is pointing in. In thedefault mode, the Position of theAxis is set to Selected and theRotation is set to Axis. This posi-tions the modeling axis at the centerof the selected elements and rotatesit according to the normal of theselected polygon or edge. This isperfect for me since I want to movethe selected polygon along its nor-mal. (Image-20) You can see thatthe modeling Axis is oriented andcentered on the selected polygon. If

you cycle through the differentmodes you will see that there arelots of combinations. You will alsonotice 3 X Y Z sliders in the screen-shot. These sliders move the axisalong the selected area. There isanother cool feature of the ModelingAxis; there are 2 keyboard short-cuts, F-10 and dragging in the view-


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Image 18

Image 19

Image 20

port will move the modeling axis,and F-11 and dragging in the view-port will rotate the modeling axis (byclicking on the handles) This allowsyou to freely move the axis. So, Icould orient the axis to a certainpolygon and move it while maintain-ing the rotation. It is a very usefuladdition to the R9 arsenal of tools!Use it and use it regularly, it willmake your modeling tasks easier.Notice that when you use the F-10and F-11 hot keys to move or rotatethe modeling axis, the modechanges to Free. You must returnthe mode to the one you want afterusing the hotkeys.

Normal ToolsThe normal tools operate in Polygonmode only and then can move,rotate or scale the normals of apolygon relative to its own axis (nor-mal) Let’s do a quick example,Create a Sphere Primitive, thenmake it editable, now select a fewpolygons that don't touch eachother. Choose the Scale Tool anddrag in the viewport to scale thepolygons. Notice how they Scale asa group. Now undo the scale andchoose the Normal Scale Tool Nowdrag in the viewport, notice howeach polygon scales on its own. Trythis with the Normal Move andNormal Rotate Tools as well; thistechnique is very good for car rims.(Image-21)

Using Generators TogetherThis tip is one that I use all the time!Ok, let's say you want to create acircular sweep, that's a pretty com-mon requirement, like a pipe or acable. Often, I would like to incorpo-rate a sweep into a HyperNURBSObject. If you create a Sweep with aRectangle Primitive instead of aCircle Primitive and make it a childof a HyperNURBS Object, it subdi-

vides quite nicely, and if you deacti-vate your HyperNURBS object, thesweep is also influenced. You canalso get some really strange lookingbends because of the way the rec-tangular sweep miters. (Image-22)Allowing NURBS objects to share

the same spline is also a very con-venient and cool way to work. Let'ssay you have modeled a swimmingpool using a LoftNURBS object, youcan create an instance of the top-most Spline and use the instance asthe path to sweep the coping for thepool. (Image-23)

NURBS objects and generatorssuch as the Array object, andinstances can actually slow downyour file. If you have used a genera-

tor or NURBS Object to create anobject and you don't think you willhave to modify the object anytimesoon, it is a very good idea to con-vert the object to polygons and dis-able the Generators. It is easier forCinema 4D to display polygons thanit is to generate the geometry con-stantly. A good tip that our very ownRui Batista gave me once is to cre-ate a Null Object called 'The Vault'or something to that extent andplace all of your disabled generatorsin that null for later use.

That way you can hide the Nullobject and it is very easy to findyour original objects at a later time.(Image-24) Here you can see that Ihave some exhaust pipes for my

concept bike model. The pipes arecreated using a SweepNURBSobject. I have made a copy of theoriginal hierarchy and disabled all ofthe generators, I have then placedthem in 'The Vault' so that they arehidden and out of the way. I havealso made the original

SweepNURBS editable. Cinema 4Dwill have a much easier time show-


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Image 21

Image 22

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ing a file that has a few polygonobjects in it rather than a file withlots of Generators in it, and I canretrieve the original Sweep at anytime to make changes.

Thanks Rui ;-)

Deriving ObjectsThis is a little tip that I developedwhile learning to model in Form-Z.Form-Z has a whole tool devoted tothis process, but it is still possible inCinema 4D. A prime example is thewindscreen of a car.

Let's say you have modeled thewindscreen of your car perfectly, youhave even modeled the thickness ofthe glass so your refraction looksperfect!

Now you want to model the rubberseal that surrounds the piece ofglass. The easiest way to do this isto derive the rubber seal from theshape of the windscreen.

Image-25 shows a corner of thewindscreen as the process happens.1; we select the loop of polygons atthe edge of the windscreen object.2; we use the split function to split acopy of the selected polygons into anew polygon object. 3; extrude the

polygons of the newly createdobject. 4; we now select the loop of polygons at the top of the extrusion.5; now we extrude that loop of poly-gons. 6; finally, you can bevel theedges of this newly derived object orsimply place it into a HyperNURBS

Object. (Image-25) There are lots ofother ways to use derivative model-ing, but the list is way too long tomention.

Here is one more; When working inedge mode, you can select edgesand then use the Edge to Splinecommand from: Structure > EditSpline > Edge to Spline.

From that point, you can use thenewly created Spline to sweep, loft,extrude or even just as a guide formodeling other objects.

Well, I think that concludes my 10modeling tips, I hope they were

helpful and I ask you to please logon to the 3D Attack Forums and letus know what you thought of thetutorial.

I'll see you on the forums,

Jamie Hamel-Smith (jamiehs)


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Image 22

http://www.tools4d.com/

When I first heard about UVs, I toldmyself "Wow ! Just as if 3D wasn'tcomplex enough..." So I was awarethere was a system to make some-thing with textures with thesestrange 2nd axes. Ok. Good... Andhow does it work ? When you askthis of a French 3D user, he gener-ally runs away before you finish yourquestion. So my next question was"Is it a French trouble ?" I asked thisof Fluffy, and he told me "no, this isa worldwide problem, people don'tunderstand UVs”. So, I'm not a spe-cialist, but I will try to share what Ilearned with UVs, exploring itmyself. The purpose was : "As Idon't own BodyPaint, what can I dowith C4D core module and somefree UV plugins found on the net ?"Let's see... and please forgive myFrench accent.

What are UVs ?

When we map a material on anobject, the software has to knowhow we want it to be displayed, andfor that, gives us several ways, suchas cubic, cylindrical, flat... and UVW.If it is easy to understand that cubicmode uses a cube to map the mate-rial, it's a more subtle for UVW. Theletters UVW are for a "parallelworld" to the XYZ world. The idea isfor a polygon object to have a sortof twin or ghost of this object, usedfor the map

How to see UVs ?

We'll have to add a little free plugincalled UV to object, from MichaelWelter. This plugin is able to trans-form UV maps into polygons.We canfind it here : http://www.welter-4d.de/fplugs/freeplugins_en.html

In an empty scene, add a cube andmake it editable. Run the UV toobject plugin, and see what hap-pens. The plugin adds a new nullobject, containing a polygon objectand a spline object. This one is des-tined to show the boundaries of thenew polygon object and is uselessfor what we want to learn.

Let's have a look at the polygonobject: it looks like a simple square(you may have to move it, as it iscreated at the center of the world).Switch to polygon mode and moveone polygone, to see if there issomething behind. There are sixpolygons. Unfortunately, they arestrangely attached, and it seems tobe very difficult to work with thisthing.

Let's try a second experience :erase the objects and add a cylin-der.

Make it editable and run the pluginagain. Observe the result. This time,it is a little more speaking: the newobject contains the same number ofpolygons, with the same shape. Ok,

but why are they disposed like this,as it is almost unusable ?

In fact, if you select one polygonand use the "select connected" com-mand, you can select and move themain cylinder and the caps inde-pendently. Looks interesting...

Third attempt: Let's take a cubeagain. This time, we will add a tex-ture. Add a simple material, such asbrick, and map it upon the object. Inthe attributes, switch the mode toflat, and rotate the texture so it isnot orthogonally aligned to the

geometry.

In the object manager, remove the

UV Unfolding Without BodyPaint By Pascal

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UVW tag, and go to Texture menu(in object manager), and select thefirst command, "Generate UVWcoordinates". A new UVW tag hasbeen added. Run the plugin again.This time, the new object has stillsix polygons, but their shape isslightly different.

Select the center polygon and moveit. You can notice you have generat-ed a flat cube. You can almost makeit a real cube, moving each point.

So, what have we learned withthese little experiences ? As it issaid in the name, the plugin UV toobject has created an object basedon the UV map. The UV map is thespace within the material is applied.In the first example, there were sixsquares piled up, because thedefault mapping mode of a cube,even with UVW mode, is cubic. Inthe second example, we found oneside the tube of the cylinder, and theother side, we found the caps. Thethird example shows another inter-esting thing: UVs are not only a

"clone" of the polygons, but also theangle used to map the texture.

How do UVs work?

Ok, now we can "see" the UVs, let'stry to understand the principle. Takea cylinder, and make it more simple,with only a few subdivisions. Make iteditable, use UV to object, andmove the polygon group as follows:

Now, add a brick texture to the origi-nal cylinder. You can see the materi-al use the default mapping of thecylinder, which wrap nicely aroundthe main cylinder and put a flat mapon each cap. If you look in the attrib-ute manager, you can verify that thisis the UVW mapping. Switch toother mapping modes: cylinder,cubic, flat, to see the difference.Then switch back to UVW mapping.

Ok. So as UVW is the most adaptedmethod for this shape, we can use itfor the cloned object based on UVs.Copy the texture tag to the clonedobject. There's something wrong.We have the same polygons, but wecan see no mapping. Something ismissing: the UV tag. Copy it fromthe original cylinder. That's it ! TheUV tag is the key !

Delete it, then add a cube, make iteditable, and copy the UV tag to thecloned cylinder. This time, we haveonly six textured polygons: the poly-gons from the cube.

Now we know how UVs work: Eachpolygon object have a "twin poly-gon" stored in the UV tag. Each"twin" loans its coordinates to a spe-cific part of the mapping. So theimportant object for the mapping isnot the object itself, it's the UV tag.


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Moreover, a UV tag can be copiedfrom one object to another with norestriction but the number of poly-gons. Ok, that's pretty cool, but nowthat we know how it works, wewould be very happy to control thedata of this UV tag...

Controlling UVs

In all we just learned, ControllingUVs will be quite simple. We havecreated objects, then clones, thenwe have copied UV tags from origi-nal objects to flatten objects. So, tocreate a personalized mapping on avolume object, we can start from aflattened object, then copy UVs fromit to the volume object. Why ?Because painting a texture is easierwithin two dimensions. Let's returnto our flattened cylinder : Delete theUV tag, change the texture type toflat, then make it as follows:

Banking it is useful to control thatthe method is ok. Now use the"Generate UVW coordinates" com-mand to create a new UV tag fromthe texture information (you mustselect the texture tag). Then eraseboth the texture and UV tags fromthe original cylinder. Copy the tex-ture tag from the flattened cylinderto the original. Again, nothing hap-pens. Copy the UV tag. Bingo.

Now we can control UV mapping.The last thing we have to learn ishow to create a flattened object.

Creating flattened objects and UVmaps

We now know that the most impor-tant thing is to store the informationin the UV tag, that can be copiedfrom one objects to others. We willgenerate UVs for a complex object :a stair. Well. A little stair. But if youcan make five steps, you can makeone hundred.To create our stair,we'll start from a simple cube andwill extrude it like this :

Now make it editable and switch topolygon mode. Delete all uselesspolygon, as we've got enough workwith the those we really need.

Now make a copy of the object andhide the original. Start to unwrap thesides of the stair: Use the modelingaxis function to move the axis cen-ter, and turn on the rotate quantizeto 90°. Before unwrapping the poly-gons, you have to disconnect them.Preserve groups and click Ok.

Rotate the first side of the stair, thenthe second. To unwrap the stairs,use the same method. It will be a lit-tle fastidious, as now you must do itstep by step. Turn on the radio oryour favorite CD to make the timeshorter. Well, you should havesomething like this :


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Finish by rotating every step. Nowwe will generate a texture map. Inthe front view, or the side view,depending how you worked, take asnapshot of your screen, then openit in Photoshop, or another paintingsoftware.

Here we have worked the snapshotto have a black and white blueprint.Not very important, as it's just alearning test. We also have lines toremember where the correspondingedges are. So now you can paintthe steps. Here we have a differentcolor for each step. Save the resultas a PSD file.

Back in C4D, create a material, thenload the PSD file in the color chan-nel. Drag it to the object.

The result is bad, as we still havethe old, useless UV tag. Delete it.Switch the mapping method to flat,then fit to object the mapping. Ifneeded, adapt the texture to view infront or side view. Now remove theold UV tag from the original object.Select the texture tag from the flatobject, then generate UVW coordi-nates.

Now copy both UV and texture tagto the original object.

Cool, now UVs have no secrets foryou. UVs are that simple.

UVs are our friends

This is a very simple example, buteven with very complex objects, theprinciple is always the same. Here,we have used a method that usesonly core C4D software and a freeplugin. In fact, you will learn thatvery often a manual unwrapping iseasier and faster than a plugin ormaybe even BodyPaint.

All we have done here could bemade with flat mapping and polygonselections. To be honest, that wasmy method before I decided to seri-ously work my maps and then learnUVs. The advantages to work UVsare a lot :

- Total control on the placement- Respect of the aspect ratio of themapping- File economy : You can create one


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very complex mapping to map anentire object.- Non linear work : You can easilymodify a mapping just by editing thetexture map file.- And so on...

Here are some examples of com-plex texture maps :

First is a denim texture. The unwrapmethod was almost the same,except this time, I also used scaletool to flatten the polygons. Beware,in this case, you modify the scale,so the result can be a strangestretching of the mapping.

The second example has inspiredthis tutorial : It's a complex stair of ascene that uses one only mapping.UVs are then useful to divide workin a few pieces of modeling and tex-turing.

Thank you for your attention, andhave now fun with UVs.

Pascal.


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Intro and Interface

I know I am not alone when I saythat as a new user to Cinema 4D, Imore than once excitedly beganwork on natural landscape andscenery scenes only to rediscovertime and again that the landscapeobject left a little to be desired.

While Cinema 4D is no doubt anexcellent software capable of beauti-ful results, there is also little doubtthat sometimes we all need a littlehelp. E-on software easily providesthis assistance and much, muchmore with the latest release of theirprofessional level natural 3Dscenery generation program, Vue 5Infinite. As you probably know frompress releases or visiting the web-site, Vue Infinite offers completesolution for the creation, animation,rendering, and integration of 3Denvironments. This new version ofthe software (which is the successorto Vue 4 Professional) also offers

several new technologies orimprovements- most impressiveamong these probably being thenew Ecosystem technology. In thisreview, we'll take a look at the mainfeatures that comprise the applica-tion, as well as what that means forthe Cinema 4D user. Vue, while aniche software, is a behemoth in

terms of features, gathering togethera wealth of options and technologiestogether in order to fulfill its functionof creating natural scenery. Assuch, we could never go over allthat it has to offer in this review, so Iwill try to focus on the most impor-tant aspects. First, lets talk aboutthe interface. There isn't really any-thing new in Vue's interface that willthrow users at least moderatelyexperienced with working in 3D soft-ware. It features a 3D viewport thatis by default set to the familiar 4view scheme found in most 3D soft-ware- the views are also resizeable.The timeline is dockable, something

Cinema users will appreciate, andyou can also pan and zoom within itas well. In addition, it features aWorld Browser that displays lists ofall objects, materials and texturesused in the scene. Layer functional-ity is also present, for quick manipu-lation and organization of theseassets.(you can use pics of generalinterface and world browser here)

Terrains

Now, lets talk about the Terrain cre-ation and editing functions. WithinVue, terrains are the basic buildingblocks of landscape creation. Thereare two types of terrains, standardand procedural, and they both canbe edited within Vue's impressiveterrain editor, which is a graphicalinterface that allows you to interac-tively apply different erosion andgeological effects, as well as paintthese same effects in real time.Using the paint brush, you can easi-ly sculpt a terrain to your liking, andthe terrain editor is quite simply ajoy to use. Standard terrains are ofa fixed resolution and render morequickly than procedural terrain.Because they are of a fixed resolu-tion, the detail in the geometry isalso fixed. This is where procedural

terrains come in. When you need aterrain that stands up no matter fromwhat angle, or how close, procedur-al terrains are what you will use.They are able to adapt their level of

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Vue5 Infinite ReviewBy Aaron Biscombe

detail dynamically, no matter howclose you zoom in. They are a bitmore complex to edit due to mathe-matics involved with its altitude func-tion, however E-on has made it pos-sible to "touch-up" procedural ter-rains using the terrain editor. In myuse of the software, I didn't noticeany huge drawback to this aspect ofworking with terrains, and waspleased with the results I was ableto obtain.

Atmosphere

My favorite feature in Vue 5 Infinitehas to be its atmosphere system.Combined with the advanced light-ing options available, rendering pho-torealistic scenes becomes a realityeven for novices. Not only doesVue come bundled with over 160predefined atmospheres, but itenables you edit practically everyaspect of your atmosphere, fromsunlight, to cloud cover, to theamount of breeze generated globallywithin your scene. When workingwith atmospheres, you can choosefrom 4 lighting models: Standard,Global Ambience, GlobalIllumination, and Global Radiosity.All models can yield pleasingresults, and its nice to have the flexi-bility of mixing and matching lightingmodels to suit the complexity of your

scene, while maintaining decent ren-dertimes. While at first, the speedof rendering when using these solu-tions might seem a bit slow, it isactually quite efficient for the typesof scene you'll be rendering, whichcan easily include millions of poly-gons. Illumination baking is also anoption (either globally or per-object)enabling you to speed up rendertimes significantly. Once you'vebecome acclimated to Vue's inter-face and you start to notice howyour tweaks influence the redraw ofthe small main camera preview,working with the atmosphere editoris a breeze. Within the editor, youhave tabs for manipulation of yourscene's sun, light, sky, clouds, fogand haze, wind, and special affects-every aspect of your scene'sambiance is at your fingertips. Itsclear while working with the programthat E-on is committed to becomingthe standard for creating and ren-dering natural 3D scenery.

Plants

Lets talk about plants. The vegeta-tion system in Vue is based on E-on's SolidGrowth technology.Basically, this system allows plantsto grow randomly within your Vuescene, so that no took plants arealike. These plants automatically

move in the breeze and you alsohave the option of having them reactto the stronger effects of wind. VueInfinite ships with some 50 or soplants ranging from simple grassesand shrubs to full-blown trees, andthese can also be edited in order tocreate your own species of plants.Editing plants is a little less easythan working with atmospheres orterrains, and at first or secondglance its not too transparent how tocreate something similar to the moreexotic plants included, but its defi-nitely not any harder than say, xfrog,and its definitely faster than creatingthem from scratch in your favoritegeneral 3D software.

Materials

The material system in Vue Infinite,much like other areas of the pro-gram, is rich and full featured, andallows for both the novice and theexperienced user to craft the perfect

material for his or her scene. Thereare three levels of editing: Basic,Advanced, and the SmartGraphfunction editor. There are too manypreset materials to count, and byexamining these, learning how tocreate the types of materials youwant becomes much easier. Thematerial editor is also where youcreate ecosystems, a special type ofmaterial that allows you to instantlypopulate your scene with hundreds

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of thousands of plants, trees andstones to achieve scenes that wouldtake hours to create otherwise. Forexample, there are quite a fewecosystem presets, among themsnowy mountain materials that auto-matically populate different treesand vegetation across your land-scape, while the underlying material(the snow) changes its appearancebased on the altitude of your land-scape. You can use any type ofobject you can load into Vue withecosystems, so the possibilities areendless. Ecosystems do have thepotential to take a toll on your sys-tem, so much like everything elsewithin the package, you have thecapability to edit almost everyaspect of the instancing, from howprevalent a certain object is in thescene, to whether or not plantsdeform around objects already pres-ent. Its quite an accomplishment.

Animation

Animation within Vue 5 is straightfor-ward. The program allows you toanimate many parameters fromobject properties, materials, atmos-pheres, clouds, to plants. In addi-tion, the Animation Wizard walks theuser through setting up differenttypes of motions, including convinc-ing fly-throughs. Vue can renderlow resolution previews of your ani-mation within the interface, enablingyou to quickly see what your anima-tion will look like before committingto a time intensive full-resolutionrender. I used this feature quite abit, and found it quite handy as Iwas testing some cloud animations.

Import/Export andSynchronization

So lets talk about importing andexporting. You can export practical-

ly everything from Vue into standard3D formats. Atmospheres can evenbe exported as HDR images.However, while Vue can exportentire scenes as 3DS Max orLightwave scene files, it can not doso for any other format. Cinema 4Duser will have to export each objectin their scene separately at C4D V5file format.

In addition, Vue can not import c4dfiles, but it can import 3DS and LWOfiles among many others. The prob-lem isn't necessarily that Vue does-n't export a wide variety of file types(in fact it does import quite a few), itshould just be noted that the properplanning will have to be taken aheadtime if one wishes to transfer filesand textures into Vue. Vue doeshowever have the ability to synchro-

nize camera and lighting databetween itself and the more popular

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general purpose 3D software (3DSMax, Cinema 4D, Maya, Lightwave,and Softimage). This enable you tomatch your renders between Vueand one of the aforementioned pro-grams exactly, for easy compositinglater.

This makes rendering a characteranimation with natural scenery inthe background easy to achieve.The plugin for Cinema 4D was noth-ing fancy, but it got the job done,once I told it which cameras andlights to synchronize, Vue instantlyrecognized the data, and askedwhether I wanted to import it. Onceyou do, its only a matter of tellingyour camera or light within Vue tosynchronize, and that's it.

Vue also features high -end com-positing options in abundance,allowing you to render g-buffer infor-mation with the RPF and RLA for-mats (which allow you to work withthis compositing data in programslike Combustion and After Effectslater), as well as allowing you to cre-ate separate renders for every pos-sible element in your scene andthen save to a multi-layer PSD file.

Conclusion

Vue 5 Infinite is definitely the mostcomplete software package for themodeling and rendering of photore-alistic natural 3D landscapes andscenery. It doesn't take long to getup to speed with how the programworks, but there are drawbacks. Iexperienced some stability issueson my Dual 2 gig G5, and eventhough Vue attempts to save yourscene when crashing, it was stillquite frustrating. Also, while thesoftware does import and export awide variety of file formats, whilesimultaneously offering excellent

compositing options to choose from,integrating Vue renders or anima-tions with other 3D renders is notreally that easy of a process.

It needs to be as streamlined and aspleasant to work with as otheraspects of Vue. This is definitely anarea where new users will find somedifficulties. But to be fair, E-on doessay that Vue 5 Infinite will integrateinto a professional pipeline, and pre-sumably any professional outfit willhave someone who understandshow to work with pretty pictures onhand. Also, as of the writing of thisreview, E-on software announcedthat a new plugin for 3DS Max andMaya, called Vue Fusion wouldallow for the seamless integration ofVue environments within the twoprograms.

Its due to ship this fall, and the light-wave and C4D plugins are not thatfar behind. I rate Vue a 4 out of 5because, honestly, its ecosystemsalone are an amazing addition toyour 3D toolkit; besides this howev-er, Vue gathers together a numberof indispensable tools that do theirjob as good as or better than manyother solutions out there, from the

atmospheres, to terrain editor, toplant instancing and animation, it's agreat tool.

I think the one thing keeping Vuefrom being a perfect solution, atleast on my system, were a few sta-bility issues, but by now, most 3Dartists know how to get around afew crashes now and then. I recom-mend Vue Infinite to any 3D artist orstudio looking to integrate morerealistic scenery into their projects.

Price: $599

URL: http://www.e-onsoftware.com/

Platform: PC/MAC CompatibleRating: 4/5

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Note: All movie files are locatedin the goodies folder at:

http://www.3dattack.net/goodies/

Animation is an old Art practiced formany years by masters who helpedcreate general guidelines and rulesto follow when one wants to animatea character. Be it on paper, a claymodel, an articulated model or a CGcharacter, these principles stay thesame and help bring life into thatlifeless being.

If you want a character to be believ-able by your audience, and conveyproperly the message you want topass across, it has to move proper-ly, react to its physical environmentand behave like it should based onour unconscious knowledge of howlife works around us.

These principles were all created tohelp in that respect.

1 Timing and Motion2 Ease In and Ease Out3 Arcs4 Anticipation5 Exaggeration6 Squash and Stretch7 Secondary Action8 Follow Through and

Overlapping Action9 Straight-Ahead Action and

Pose-to-Pose Action10 Staging11 Appeal12 Personality

Understanding these principles andknowing when and where to them isthe essence for a good characteranimation, so try to assimilate andunderstand what they are and whatthey allow you to achieve, and halfof the job is done!

1.Timing and MotionTiming is very important because itwill help define the type of actionone performs. Take the same action,animate it at different speeds and itwill be perceived completely differ-ently by your audience. Let's take alook at a concrete example :

I have a character doing a backstretching motion, then bending for-ward. Animate it slowly, and it willjust look as if he is stretching.Animate it faster, and it will look as ifhe is exercising. Animate it fasterwith a pause during the backwardmotion, and it will look as if he issneezing hard.

[See Animation 1- 3]

Timing brings dynamism, helps thestyle of animation you choose(snappy cartoon animation or morefluid/slow for realistic motion) andconvey the idea across.

2. Ease In and Ease OutObjects in the physical world areaffected by forces such as gravityand inertia. These will make amotion start by "easing in" (meaningit will start slowly, then accelerate),and stop it by "easing out" (meaningthat it will stop by decelerating). Alinear motion will feel unrealisticinstinctively, as we are not used toit. All motion is driven by theseforces and one should bear in mindthat they also should influence a CGcharacter if it is to move convincing-ly. A good example of this would bea character moving from side toside, from one foot to the other.Animate it linearly, and it will lookrobotic. Ease the movements, andwe will feel the weight, inertia of thatmovement.

[See Animation 4-5]

3. ArcsA human character is built withbones that rotate with joints. Thesejoints cause the limbs of a person tomove in an arcing motion, naturally.Apply this to a CG character, and itwill look natural, or at least "physi-cally" sound. A good example herewould be the movement of the armswhile walking.

They rotate around the shoulderjoints, and the tip of the hand movealong a wide arc. Animate this lin-early, and it will feel weird, as if thecharacter is forcing his hands tomove straight.

The sensation of weight and bal-ance would be compromised toowithout arcs, as they help maintainthe character's body mass alignedproperly to keep his balance andgive him momentum.

[Animation 6-7]

4. AnticipationAnticipating a movement helps warnyour audience that something isabout to happen. A movement isgenerally composed of three phases: anticipation, action and follow-through. Imagine a character on theverge of shooting out of screen.Since the audience will lose eyecontact with it pretty fast, you needa way to prepare for that action, to"warn" people that it will happen.Anticipation might also be neededfor the action itself, if your characteris preparing a jump for example, youwill need to make him crouch slight-ly before springing forward. Forgetto add that anticipation move, andthe character will look like a flea,jumping all of a sudden, as pulledby an invisible cable.

[See Animation 8-9]

The 12 Principles of Character AnimationBy Fluffy

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5. ExaggerationNo matter what is the style youchoose to animate your character(realistic or stylized), you will needto exaggerate some actions. Try tothink of it as a comedian in a theatredoing a Shakespeare play. Motions,voice intonations, expressions areall exaggerated. No need to be soobvious, though, Exaggerationneeds to be sometimes subtile andbalanced with realistic motion.Overdo it, and it will look ridiculous.Don't exaggerate enough, and theanimation will feel bland. A goodexample of this would be a charac-ter arguing with another one, slap-ping one hand repeatedly into theother. Stretch the arms forward,exaggerate that slapping movementand the force of the blow, and thepoint will get perceived more force-fully by your audience than if heslaps lightly one hand into the other.

[See Animation 10-11]

6. Squash and StretchSquash and Stretch is the processof deforming an object to show howrigid it is. A steel ball will keep itsshape if you let it drop on theground from your hands, a ballmade of jello will splat on that samefloor, and a rubber ball will squashand stretch afterward, following thebouncing motion and spreading outthe weight of the rubber material.One important thing to keep in mindwhen deforming objects in such away is that the object should retainits volume. No matter how hard youstretch or squash it, the matter isstill there, and shouldn't disappearout in thin air, but more precisely bemoved onto another part of theobject. A good example for this is tosqueeze a balloon filled with water.The balloon won't shrink down, it willjust displace the water to other

areas of its volume. The same prin-ciple applies to characters.Another good example would be acartoony character slamming his fin-gers with a hammer. The fingers willflatten under the impact of the ham-mer, and the finger tips will expandlike balloons so that the fingers orig-inally retain their volume.

[See Animation 12]

7. Secondary ActionSecondary action is an action that isnot the main action, but that helpsbring interest and life into the char-acter. The best example coming inmind would be the blinks of the eyeswhen a character is talking. Abreathing motion is also consideredas secondary action. They are notthe main action, but are present tofill the gaps and help convey themood of a character, his state ofmind or physical state.

[See Animation 13]

8. Follow Through andOverlapping ActionFollow Through is like anticipation,except that it follows the main actionand is played after that main actionis done. For example, your charac-ter jumps from one foot to the other.If you stop the animation on the foothe landed on, it won't look likemuch, giving it a really "fake" feel-ing. Give him inertia, looking as if hehas trouble balancing himself and itwill look a lot better.

Follow through is a bit like over-shooting the wanted position andcoming back to it, it helps convey afeeling of weight and lack of controlof our limbs (not everybody is aShaolin Kung-Fu master). FollowThrough also affects the way limbsand body parts come to a rest. A

hierarchy of bones shouldn't all stopat the same time. If we take themotion of an arm stopping for exam-ple, the hand should stop after thearm, lagging a bit behind it. Samething for the head, when a characterstops, the head should stop after thewhole body, since the head needs tobalance itself first, and differentobjects have different weights anddon't accelerate/decelerate at thesame speed.

[See Animation 14]

The Overlapping Action is an actioncreated by another action. Theantennas of an insect or the tail of adog movements depend respectivelyon the movements of the head ofthe insect and the butt of the dog.

[See Animation 15]

9. Straight Ahead Action andPose-to-Pose ActionAnimating an action straight aheadis usually using the process of ani-mating one frame at a time, not real-ly knowing where it will go in theend. This method has the advantageof leaving a part of unknown andspontaneous motion. This methodcan be difficult to time and tweakafterward.

Pose-to-Pose action is the action ofanimating from pose to pose. First,you plan your scene and pose yourcharacter at key passages (hencethe term "keyframe") and afterwardfill the gaps with tweaking. ThePose-to-Pose method is really use-ful when one needs to do a specificmotion at a certain time, to fit asoundtrack for example.

Some people use a mix of these twotechnics, by using poses and ani-mating the in-between straight


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ahead (adding secondary motionand main motion to it).A good example would be to pose acharacter crouching, then anotherpose standing. With Pose-to-Pose,the actions will simply be interpolat-ed, then tweaked. With the hybridstraight ahead approach, one couldmake the character summersaultbackward before standing, it usuallyhelps creativity.

10. StagingStaging is really important becauseit will affect what the audience cansee, and how it can see it. Onceagain, think of a play. Every impor-tant action is played out for thespectator, and clearly enough sothey can identify that action.

Think of your character as a silhou-ette, and try to present that silhou-ette so it is clear for the viewer,even if there are only the outlinesshown. If your character scratchesits head, but if the hand scratchingthe head is not visible, not much ofthat action will be understood. Allimportant parts for the action mustbe clearly visible.Staging is also theway and order with which you pres-ent your action.Here is a concreteexample : Let's say you have a flyon a table beside your character,

and you want the character to flattenit with his palm. If the fly is unmov-ing and the character is looking inthe other direction, then all of a sud-den slaps it, your audience will belost.

Instead, you need to make that flymove, fly maybe, that action willdraw the attention of the character,who will consequently turn his headand target the fly with his eyes, thenprepare the slapping action with ananticipation movement, then slap it.Here, everybody has understoodwhat he wanted to do, and your jobhas been to get the point acrossand show how he does it. This helpsunderstand the result : a flattenednasty fly.

[See Animation 16]

11. AppealYour character and presentation ofyour character must be appealing toyour audience. A good design, easi-ly understandable, but not too poor,will help you gain the heart of yourspectator. A charismatic character ismuch more interesting to watch.Colors and shape, as well as light-ing and camera angle all participateinto making your character appeal-ing. The motion itself, based on the

other principles, will help to bringcharisma to that character, andshould be kept in mind at all time.

12. PersonalityAll previous principles should bringyou toward bringing personality intoyour character if they are used prop-erly and efficiently. That is the goalthat every animator should strive for.The goal of a character animator isto bring life to a lifeless creature,giving him a personality and charis-ma through his actions, making hima sensitive being or a dispiseableone. Manage to do this, you'll havewon your audience's emotions andfeelings for that character and it willhelp you tell your story. Personalityis what should be kept in mind at alltimes when animating, this is themain goal. Ok, that was it for thetheory, everything is up to you now,and to practice. Animating a charac-ter is a long adventure that needspersistence, finesse, good acting onyour part and a good eye for obser-vation. It is often very rewarding tosee one's creation move and reactto its environment convincingly, andwell worth the trouble of it all. SoKeep on Attacking and always havefun!

Fluffy


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Vreel Skin is a multilayer shaderespecially designed for the calcula-tion of skin materials. It requiresCINEMA 4D release 8.5 or 9.1 andhigher and is designed for Windowsand MacOS X. Because it uses dif-ferent algorithms than the standardsubsurface scattering shader, youdon't have to worry whether anobject´s geometry is open or closed.This is very useful especially forcharacter modelers! Many of youwill know the issues where the innerof a character´s mouth is shiningthrough the outer surface whenusing the subsurface scatteringshader of CINEMA 4D. Vreel Skinputs this to an end because its mainpurpose is the so-called thin-layersubsurface scattering. With VreelSkin you will get control of speculari-ty, the shading and subsurface scat-tering effects. Vreel Skin is noreplacement for Translucent Pro orthe subsurface scattering shader ofCINEMA 4D. Yes, you can do cer-tain things that the aforementionedsolutions are able to do, but VreelSkin cannot replace Translucent Proor the native subsurface scatteringshader of CINEMA 4D. It is a usefuladdition for anyone who seeks apowerful skin shading solution forthe every day organic and charactermodeling needs.

This plugin renders extremely fastand even if you want to use compli-cated setups, Vreel Skin won't takeages to render.

Vreel Skin is a channel shader thatcan be used in any channel of thematerial editor. By using the LayerShader or Fusion you can evencombine it with other shaders. Forexample; it is possible to use a tex-ture in order to add veins thatappear slightly underneath theupmost layer of skin. You want to

create a character with peach skin?That's no problem with Vreel Skinbecause it contains an improvedcolor shader which can be con-trolled by a gradient and splinebased falloff. You want to animatethe strength of light shining through?You can do that without a fussbecause any value can be animat-ed.

Vreel Skin offers some very usefuloptions such as restriction of certaineffects by a vertex map, using tex-tures as depth - maps or for exam-ple a selector for the color of flesh.Vreel are hosting a lot of interestingshader files to download for free.Check it out at http://www.Vreel.de.

One thing about the manual: it givesprecise insight into the plug-in andoffers detailed description of allfunctions offered by Vreel Skin.Because of the complexity of VreelSkin it might be a bit confusing forbeginners. This is caused by thenature of the topic because it is nec-essary to understand the methodsand thoughts behind this shader

model. Don't you be scared! Getthe plug-in, make some tests, playaround with the settings and soonyou are in control of what's goingon.

By the way: it is big fun to experi-ment with the shader and therecome hundreds of possibilities tomind what it could be used for. Twotiny tips for a quick start: put theshader into the illumination channeland don't forget to insert a lightsource with shadows into yourscene.

This plug-in deserves a score of fivepoints out of five!

http://www.Vreel.de

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Vreel Skin ShaderGeorg Niedermeier

Step 11: To simulate the separation betweenthe top covering the coffee filterarea and the sides of the top sec-tion, you will need to create a newedge running around the top outeredge. Select the Knife tool, andchange the Mode to Path. With theouter edge polygons selected, movethe Knife tool until it is abouthalfway between the inside and out-side edges as shown in (pic60).Select the inside circle of the newpolygons created by the cut with theLoop Selection tool. Select the

Extrude tool, and extrude the poly-gons downward using the settingsindicated (pic61).

Step 12:In case you need an angle of thecoffeemaker that reveals the under-side of the filter cover, you can cre-ate an edge around the bottom ofthis section. Select the bottom poly-gons, then select the Extrude Innertool and extrude inward the samedistance as indicated for Step 10.Then choose the Extrude tool, andextrude upward as shown in(pic62).

Details, detailsStep 13:We're going to do a wee bit of backtracking here. Reveal theheating/bottom section of the cof-feemaker by clicking its red dotagain. To improve the renderingpossibilities of the coffeemaker, wewill add more resolution to this sec-tion. Within the Selection menu,choose the Ring Selection tool andselect the edges as shown (pic63).Right-click and select the Bevel toolfrom the contextual menu. Apply the

settings shown here in (pic64).

Le carafe de glass…

Step 14:Now we need to create the glasscarafe to pour the coffee with. First,replace the picture in the Right view-port with the reference picture of thecarafe. To best utilize the viewportfor creating the carafe, I suggest lin-ing up the center of the carafe pic-ture and the bottom (heating) sec-tion with the Y Axis of the viewport.To be sure you keep the pieces ofthe coffeemaker together, shiftselect each piece. Then use theblue/green axis for the bottom pieceto line up with the Y Axis (pic65).Note how each piece of the cof-feemaker has its own Y/Z Axis indi-cator. This is great for situationssuch as this. After you're satisfiedwith the alignment of the coffeemak-

er, grab the Bezier Spline tool again(pic66). Now to make it easier todraw the spline, remove the Y/ZAxis manipulator from the display sothat you won't accidentally grab it

Basic Modeling: A Coffemaker (Part 2)By Todd Groves aka 3DTodd

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while you're drawing. Select theDisplay menu, and choose Axis touncheck it (pic67). Refer to (pic68)

for an idea of how I drew the splineto create a profile representing thethickness of the carafe glass. Zoominto the beginning and end points ofthe spline and line them up with theY Axis. In this case, you can re-acti-vate the Axis manipulator to helpline up the points (pic69).

Step 15:After you're satisfied with the shapeof the carafe profile and aligned thepoints, it's time to use the LatheNURBS tool to create the carafeshape. Go to the NURBS dropdownmenu at the top and select theLathe NURBS tool (pic70). In theObject Manager, make the Spline achild of the Lathe NURBS object(pic71). You should now havesomething similar to (pic72) for your

carafe. Now place the carafe in theheating element section of the bot-tom section as shown in (pic73).Now unhide the other sections andorbit around the coffeemaker tomake sure the carafe has room

between it and the back section ofthe coffeemaker. You may need toadjust the depth of the bottom pieceif the carafe is poking inside theback section.

Step 16:Let's add a little detail to the carafeto represent the indentation neededfor the chrome strip that holds thehandle onto the carafe. Use theKnife tool to cut two lines throughthe carafe as shown in (pic75).Remember that "Visible Only"


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should be deselected in the Knifetool settings to make sure the "cuts"go all the way through the carafe.

Step 17:From the Selection menu, choosethe Loop Selection tool and selectthe new ring of polygons that werecreated by the two new cuts. Nowright-click and select the Extrudetool. You can use the settings in(pic76). Go into Edge mode, and

select the Loop Selection tool again.Shift-select the two edges shown in(pic77). Right-click and choose theBevel tool and in the Bevel toolOptions tab set the Inner Offset to1.2 and the Subdivision to 2. ClickApply. You should end up withedges shown in (pic79).If you would like edges that are

more round, simply Undo this lastaction and adjust the settings toyour liking.

Step 18:To make it easier to texture this sec-tion of the carafe, create a SetSelection to use with the chrometexture of your choice. Start out byusing the Loop Selection tool toselect the ring of polygons meant forthe strap. From the Selection menu,choose Set Selection (pic80). In the

Object Manager, select the red trian-gle that was created by the SetSelection tool. Go to the Name fieldof the Basic Properties of the SetSelection and type in "chrome"(pic81). As an aside, it occurred tome that it would be easier to movethe entire coffeemaker around if we

placed the pieces as children withina Null Object. Refer to (pic82).

And last, but not least, the everunder-appreciated carafe handle.

Step 19: OK, I was pushing it with that sillylittle pun. But, it's all I could come upwith at the moment. Sorry, I apolo-gize. Now we're in the final stretch.We're coming around the corner,approaching the finish. Now it's timeto model the handle for the carafe.As a suggestion, go to the viewport> Edit > Configure… and adjust theOffset X setting to line up the handlein the reference picture with themesh of the carafe (pic74).


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Step 20: Create a Cube primitive and startwith the settings in (pic83). Line upthe object with the side of the carafeas shown (pic84). Refer to (pic85)

to extrude and model the handle toa shape matching the handle in thereference picture (pic85). Delete thepolygons on the handle as shown in(pic86). Right-click and select theBridge tool and create polygons toconnect the two sides of the handle

(pic87). Model the top of the handleto create a "clip" that grabs onto thetop of the carafe as shown (pic88).

Now, add a Hyper NURBS andmake the handle mesh a child of theHyper NURBS object. You shouldhave a handle similar to (pic89). For more intricate details, like thepower switch and coffee level indi-

cator, use the techniques from thistutorial to create the geometry. Forthe power switch, I used the Knifetool to create the polygons I neededto model the panel and button in(pic90). A very small Extrude Innerwas used to create the appearanceof the snap-on panel surroundingthe power switch. The small ring of

polygons surrounding this area wereextruded inward to suggest thepanel shape.

If there is anything about this tutorialthat you find confusing, please postyour questions in the 3D Attackforum and I will gladly help you out.

I'm a big fan of 3D Attack magazineand their excellent web site. I hopeto return to these pages again withmore tutorials. I will always beindebted to the 3D Attack team fortheir excellent efforts in providing avaluable resource for Cinema 4Dusers.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial, andthanks for letting me share.

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Well I'm Christiaan Robinson, some of youmay have seen me around various onlineCinema 4D forums as "Flingster". I startedtaking 3D work seriously a couple of yearsback when I got a copy of Cinema 4D andsince then never looked back. I have no for-mal training or educational background in Artand I'm entirely self taught (some might say itshows :-). I went to University, but atschool/college, etc. I concentrated on themore, so called, academic subjects. However,since an early age I've been drawing andhave generally been interested in creativetype art endeavors. At college I had an Artteacher who insisted on re-drawing or over-drawing some of my pencil sketches, whichfinally made me give up the subject out ofannoyance. One of the biggest mistakes Imade, but just shows you what impact teach-ers can have on your lives. Anyway, I'm nowplaying catch up with the rest of the talentedartists out there. Seems like a late stage inlife, but when its in your blood you can’t helpbut be drawn to it. My Aunt and Uncle are

Artist Spotlight...Christiaan “Flingster” Robinson

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Name: Christiaan “Flingster” RobinsonAge: 34Occupation: IT AnalystCountry: England, UK

Software: Cinema 4D, BodyPaint,Zbrush, Photoshop, Maxwell

Favorite resources on the web:3D Attack Magazine, DiTools forum,CGTalk, C4D plugs

both talented artists in screen printing andwatercolours, so some of this probablyrubbed off on me over time.

I frequent various internet forums in myefforts to learn all I can, and would just like tothank some of those contributors to the vari-ous sites for their kind help over the last few

years. Its people like those at 3d Attack thathave allowed me to learn so much in the pastcouple of years in my spare time, and it does-n't go unappreciated.

The type of work I like doing people tend tocall abstract or trendwhore. I prefer to look atmy work as sculptural really. I'm fascinated by

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form, shape and movement whether simpleor complex, and try to get some of my piecesto reflect this love of an objects shape. I'mless interested in the typographic elements intrendwhore type images or the over donelook of some abstract work. Kind of difficult todescribe on a blank sheet of paper, they areessentially 3d sculptures on 2d paper, butsculptures that would be impossible torealise/build in a physical world usually. Ihope you enjoy them and I appreciate thefact they are not everyone's cup of tea.

Dr I.N.Nards : This is a little dated now, butstarted out as an experiment to try and repro-duce a wire style of a Maya artist calledMeats Meier. I used the ditools plugin suite tocreate a lot of the wires based around noiseand the heads contours. I did quiet a fewwip's for this and finally settled for this ver-sion which is a representation of the innardsof a droids head. Originally I intended to ani-mate the wires, but scene and geometry con-straints really limited this as a possibility inthe end. Solid Splines Pro plugin was alsoused so I could limit the memory require-ments of geometry. This image though takesan absolute age to render and I've learned alot since I created it, which will no doubt beused in future work.

The Green Woman: This and Dr.I.N.Nardsimage are both also my first forays into char-acter work from my usual sculptural work.The green woman image was supposed to bein opposition to the mechanical and moreapproaching the organic. For this I used asimilar technique, but also used Xfrog whichallowed animation with real geometry butnever did have time to explore more. Theidea was to have the so called camera mansurprised by this strange woodland creaturewith vines growing from her mouth...somehave said her expression is to static...but theintent was to convey a sense of regal arro-gance to her...but I'm learning like the rest ofus :-). The Green Man can be seen depictedin various churches around the world. It’s ori-gins are unknown, but thought to date backto pagan times and I felt i'd do a spin on a


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female version.

Fan: This is a piece of work that is very sim-ple in nature really, but I like the shape andhow the colours turned out. It does employ atranslucent shader created by Arndt vonKoenigsmarck, which helps create the colourrange and the warm blended feel to it.

Claw: Very often when creating work I do nothave any plan on what I'm creating. I justtend to experiment and then experimentsome more until I have something to workwith. Then maybe leave it for a bit and comeback to it later, then experiment some more

and so on, gradually building things up andsome times using different experiments in ablended piece. With this piece it came veryquickly and is very simple in nature, which isprobably part of its appeal to me. For the pasttwo years I have constantly battled in repro-ducing black and white or stark contrastingtype images, and this is one of the few suc-cesses in my mind where I managed to cap-ture some grey tone to it giving it a photo-graphic appeal I hope.

Flower: With this I used a shader fromRemotion called furry and was trying to getan organic type sculptural feel to the object.

FAN

Flower The Green Woman

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Hopefully it has a tactile quality to it thatmakes people want to reach out and touch it.Other plugins used where Jenna and Xfrog. Ilike volumetric type lighting or haziness a lotof the time in some of my pictures, but unfor-tunately they can take an age to render (theyoften on sculptural type images convince theviewer of depth). I'm notorious for using sim-ple light rigs, but costly shadow setups interms of speed/memory..but fortunately doingstills I can afford the time to render.Unfortunately in 3D those things that can helpconvince realism also tend to be expensive inoverhead. Some of the shader combinations Iuse also eat processor time, but usually theyhelp in the end with the overall look of animage, and I'd prefer to spend the time on therendering if I'm happy with the end result.

Hot off the Press: These are a couple of myworks just returned from the framers. Theyare giclee prints at an AO size print. Notcheap to print or frame because of the over-sizes involved, but the end result I'm prettypleased with and they will go towards anexhibition in the future. Most of the sculpturaltype work I do is intended for this scale really,so it can be hard to get an insight into what itwill look like large as opposed to somethingdisplayed at screen size. Hopefully you canuse your imagination a little with this. C4Dreally helps in this area because it’s able tohandle 16k x 16k image sizes at speed withexcellent memory usage and more important-ly without crashing! Very sorry about qualityof the photo, you just can't get good helpthese days ;-)

Salmon Formed: Again this is the result ofexperimentation, I love the simple two coloursto it and the unusual form created. The pieceshows off the sculptural feelings I'm trying toachieve or at least convey. The shape Iguess is typical of the sort of thing you seeposted on the net ala trendwhore/abstract,but I've tried to keep it so called, lean andmean, not introducing distracting typographyand light/shader effects. I do like these sortsof images, but its easy to get labeled and


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people tend to think you can knock them outquick for some trendy graphic design mag.This is not always the case, some of this sortof work takes a great deal of time and effortby the artists and yet this is often dismissedby 3d purists I guess. This is also a classictype of the image I like to create because on

a large print, covering a single apartmentwall, they look fantastic.

Thanks again to all the great people on thenet that have helped me out over the lastcouple of years and Keep on Attacking.

Salmon Formed

Hot of the Press

Best of CINEMA 4DSome of the best artists around the world using CINEMA 4D

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Image: Building With StairsArtist: Ges SmithCountry: GermanyDate created: July 2005Software: CINEMA 4D R9.1 and Maxwell Renderer

Artist Comments: This is my first "building". Done with the helpof a tutorial by AURETY of 3D Attack Magazine. My intentionwas to play with daylight and detailed structures.

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Image: Mp3 Player ConceptArtist: Jens Kappelmann “jeso”Country: GermanyWebsite: www.jeso-art.deDate created: 03-08-05Software: CINEMA 4D R9

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Image: Indigestion Artist: Steven BatemanCountry: United KingdomDate created: April - May 2005Software: CINEMA 4D Ce+, Silo,Photoshop

Artist Comments: I created this image forthe Master & Servant challenge at CGTalk,it was the first challenge that I have everentered and really enjoyed the whole expe-rience. I love to create caricatures and car-toon images, and as soon as I found outthe theme of the challenge I had a goodidea of what I wanted to do.

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Editor’s Notes

Friends of 3D Attack™

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*3D Attack the CINEMA4D Magazine and allmaterial contained therein are copyright protect-ed. You may not disassemble or distribute anypart of this publication without prior written con-sent from 3D Attack directly. Any attempts to doso will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of thelaw as it applies in Michigan, USA. This appliesfor both 3D Attack material as well as anynamed artist contained in its publications.Although we read through all the tutorials andproof-read them for errors we cannot guaranteethat they are 100% error-free and therefore can-not issue refunds based on those errors.

Hello Readers and Attackers!

3D Attack is pleased to announcethat we have teamed up with sever-al known and respected plug-indevelopers and will be releasing aline of plug-ins for CINEMA 4D.

The first in the ATTACK line of plug-ins comes from DeveloperChristopher Montesano Author ofLightGen http://www.biomekk.com/Chris has joined up with 3D Attackto bring to the CINEMA 4DCommunity “LUMEN”.

LUMEN and LUMEN Lite are nowavailable in the 3D Attack Shopwww.3dattack.net/shop

Visit the 3D Attack forum for moreinformation:http://www.3dattack.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3038

KEEP ON ATTACKING!

The 3D Attack Team

GOODIES FOLDERhttp://www.3dattack.net/goodies/As most of our readers know, yourgoodies folder usually comes zippedwith you magazine. We have decid-ed to do the Goodies a bit different.You will now find your Goodies fold-er at http://www.3dattack.net/good-ies/ for download. This will allow usto make changes to the Goodiesfolder easily, (if needed) and provideyou with the access to the Goodieswhenever you may need to re-download them. Remember, theGoodies are copyrighted as is themagazine. These Goodies are forpaying readers only. DO NOT redis-tribute your download link or yourGoodies folder.

ITALIAN C4D EVENTIf you are Italian or are going to bein Italy on August 18, 2005, be sureto stop in and check out C4D ForDinner. For more details pleasevisit:http://www.cinema4dfordinner.com/

GROUND TEXTURES VOL. 1New in the 3D Attack shop is ourGround Texture Volume 1 CD. 50seamless Ground Textures(2000x1500 pixel in TIFF format)and 15 Street Signs (2300- 2700pixel) alpha and bump maps includ-ed. More texture CD’s coming soon.http://www.3d attack.net/shop/

Tutorial and Article SubmissionsIf you would like to submit a tutorialor article, or have your software orplug-in reviewed by 3D Attack,please click on the following link forinstructions: http://3d attack.net/3dAttack/viewtopic.php?t=1405All submissions must be e-mailed toAttention: Tank at [email protected]

Advertising with 3D AttackIf you would like to advertise with3D Attack send us an e-mailrequesting our media kit and ratecard. [email protected]

TutorialsIf you have questions concerning aspecific tutorial or want to show us atutorial you have completed, feelfree to post your questions and workon our C4D discussion forums atwww.3dattack.net.

CHARACTER MODELINGOur series of character modelingtutorials by Mark Gmehling havebeen delayed till next month.


August2005

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