november2005
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LearLearn hon how to makw to make stunning are stunning arcchihi--tecturtecture in the ge in the grreaeat tutorial bt tutorial byyBlenon paBlenon pagge 15.e 15.
PParar t 3 oft 3 of “J“Jamie’amie’s”s” ChainsaChainsaw tutow tuto--rial.rial. Get yGet your cour chainsahainsaw rw readeady toy torrun on paun on pagge 23.e 23.
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ISSUE - NOVEMBER 2005
Page 3 Editors Notes
Page 6-9 CINEMA 4D in the Classroom by Tavy ann
Page 10 C4D Quiz
Page 11-14 Procedural Shaders in CINEMA 4D by Rui Batista
PAGE 15-20 Architecture Tutorial by Blend
PAGE 21-22 MAXON USER MEETING by Mark Gmehling
PAGE 23-25 Modeling and Texturing a Chainsaw Pt3 by Jamie Hamel-Smith
PAGE 26-27 Vital Disclosure - BP2 Insider Secrets by Mark Gmehling
PAGE 28 Sound Driven Animation by Chris Montesano
PAGE 29-30 ZBrush Introduction Part 2 by Mark Gmehling
PAGE 31-33 3D Attack - A UFO Report by Georg Niedermeier
PAGE 34-37 Compositing Tutorial by Jeff Hogan
PAGE 36-37 Artist Spotlight on Mattias Bober
Page 39-42 Using DPit to Create Grass by A Bubbles 4D Member
Page 43-44 Spline Tools Review by Gary Zullo
03
Editor’Editor’s Notess Notes
READER COMMENTS
Dale NC -” WOW! I had no ideathere was a CINEMA 4D Magazine.Goodbye 3D World and HELLO 3DATTACK!”
Jeanne 3D - “Thanks so much for allof the hard work. Please hurry withthe next issue. I need my ATTACK”
Damsel - “Another wonderful radioshow you two! I think you reallygave out some good food forthought this week on supportingeach other and the software as wellas the plugin developers and the "lit-tle guy". Without our support, we alllose. Thanks Tank & Tavy for anoth-er great show and lots to thinkabout. Everyone alerted on PlanIT3D as always.”
Neosushi - “HOLY POLY Replica isgreat. It's ease of use combinedwith the clear setup of the Pluginsinterface. GREAT. As a motion gfxdesigner Replica is a must have.Even if your not a MoGfxDes. Thechainmail example combined withCloth is absolutely awesome. Keepup the great Work 3D Attack, I loveyour tools alot. Plus the Octoberissue is stuffed with alot of greatcontent. Gonna read mine in thelunch break.”
Attack the CINEMA4D Magazine and all material con-
tained therein are copyright protected. You may not dis-
assemble or distribute any part of this publication with-
out prior written consent from 3D Attack directly. Any
attempts to do so will be prosecuted to the fullest extent
of the law as it applies in Michigan, USA. This applies
for both 3D Attack material as well as any named artist
contained in its publications. Although we read through
all the tutorials and proof-read them for errors we can-
not guarantee that they are 100% error-free and there-
fore cannot issue refunds based on those errors.
Hello Readers and Attackers!
WOW! It’s been a busy month here
at 3D Attack. So much has been
happening. The magazine, radio
show, forum, and plug-ins.
Speaking of plug-ins...did you hear
the news? SHE’S BACK! JENNA
v.2.25! For more information
regarding JENNA v.2.25 visit our
forum at
http://www.3dattack.net/forum/showt
hread.php?t=3872
KEEP ON ATTACKING!
The 3D Attack Team
***GOODIES FOLDER***
http://www.3dattack.net/goodies/
As most of our readers know, your
goodies folder usually comes zipped
with your magazine. We have
decided to do the Goodies a bit dif-
ferent. You will now find your
Goodies folder at http://www.3dat-
tack.net/goodies/ for download.
This allows us to make changes to
the Goodies folder easily, (if need-
ed) and provide you with the access
to the Goodies at all times.
Remember, the Goodies are copy-
right protected, as is the magazine.
These Goodies are for paying read-
ers only. DO NOT redistribute your
download link or your Goodies fold-
er.
BODYPAINT TRAINING DVD
Nigel Doyle (3DKiwi) of
C4dcafe.com has released his new
BodyPaint training DVD.
Discovering BodyPaint 3D 2 & 2.5
with 3DKiwi is now available for
purchase at:
http://www.c4dcafe.com/3dkiwi/bpsh
op/index.html Be looking for a com-
plete evaluation and review of this
great new training DVD in the
December issue of 3D Attack.
3D ATTACK RADIO
Yep, 3D Attack is now doing a radio
type broadcast. Our goal with the
radio show is to have fun and bring
our listeners CINEMA 4D related
information. While we are not pro-
fessionals in this area, we hope you
will enjoy the show. Be sure to
check it out on
www.3dattack.ne/radio, or subscribe
to our podcasts within ITunes.
Simply go to the "Advanced" menu
in iTunes and choose "Subscribe to
Podcast...". Enter this link:
http://www.3dattack.net/radio/3DAT-
TACK-CINEMA4DNEWS.xml
Advertising with 3D Attack
If you would like to advertise with 3D
Attack send us an e-mail requesting
our media kit and rate card.
3dattack@3dattack.net
Reviews
If you would like 3D Attack to evalu-
ate and review your product, or if
you are a member of the press and
would like to evaluate and review
the 3D Attack line of plug-ins for
CINEMA 4D, feel free to contact
Thomas Pasieka at:
3dattack@3dattack.net
Tutorials
If you have any questions or com-
ments regarding the tutorials within
the magazine, please feel free to
express them on or CINEMA 4D dis-
cussion forum at www.3dattack.net
Contact Information
3D Attack
158 S. Saginaw St.
Chesaning, Michigan 48616 - USA
E-mail: 3dattack@3dattack.net
zBlur:
zBlur is a post effect for Cinema 4D which can be used as an alternative
to C4D's own DOF. zBlur does not cancel out other post effects, it does
not require the Advanced Render module, and it supports reflections and
bleed control.
zBlur also has a preview window and a reference object that can make
changes right in the editor.
LUMEN:
LUMEN is a plug-in for Cinema 4D which provides a fast and efficient
global illumination and special effects solution.
LUMEN creates an array of lights using a source object's points or poly-
gons. LUMEN source objects can be any polygon object, spline, primi-
tive, or primitive spline, and several light parameters can be controlled
with information derived from bitmaps or procedural textures.
OLX:
OLX is a Cinema 4D plug-in that replaces and extends Cinema's built in
Object Library functionality. Not only does OLX support submenus, it
also supports separate libraries for documents, scenes, objects, materi-
als, render settings and layouts.
LSD:
LSD is a post effect plug-in for CINEMA 4D that can be used to create
stunning color/special effects. LSD gives you the ability to use a new
created zBuffer or CINEMA 4D’s own zBuffer to colorize, desaturate,
and/or add grain and noise to your pictures or animations.
For a complete list of 3D Attack Plug-in features, prices, videos, tutorials and screenshots visit our shop at www.3dattack.net/shop/
Tavy: Hi Richard. Thanks so much
for taking time to speak with 3D
Attack today. Would you mind shar-
ing a bit about you and what you
do?
Richard: Hi Tavy. I would like to
start by saying that I am honored
that 3DAttack has an interest in our
program at Parish Episcopal School.
I live in the Dallas, TX area with my
beautiful wife Maria and awesome
newborn son Timothy.
I have a background in pathogenic
and cancer research, but currently
teach at a Christian private school
named Parish Episcopal School.
I teach courses in biology and 3D
Modeling & Animation, sponsor the
Marine Biology Research Club and
coach girl’s soccer. Can’t forget to
mention that I’m a huge soccer fan!
And I love to create using C4D!
Tavy: Why did you choose teaching
as your career path? How long
have you been teaching?
Richard: Wow. After graduating
from college, I joined the United
States Peace Corps. I spent 4 years
in southern Africa as a science
teacher. That experience was and is
one of the most pivotal moments of
my life.
I knew then that teaching was
something that I eventually wanted
to explore as a career when I
returned to the US. I had a wonder-
ful time! I’ve been teaching for about
8 cumulative years now with a num-
ber of years of research inter-dis-
persed.
Tavy: What brought about the idea
of implementing a 3D Modeling and
Animation program into the curricu-
lum at Parish Episcopal School?
Why CINEMA 4D?
Richard: I really got hooked on
computers and computer technolo-
gies when I returned from the Peace
Corps. I was always interested in
and dabbled in drawing and art, in
general. And, I have always been
and continue to be, a child at heart.
I love watching 3D animations and
cartoons. In fact, I am an avid
watcher of the Cartoon Network and
Boomerang, for their artistic value,
of course.
When I saw Pixar’s Toy Story a few
years back, I was blown away. I
knew then that I wanted to return to
my modest creative side and find
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out how they created the wonderful
3D animations and try to create my
own works. I spent a few years
exploring 3D art and animation and
tried demos of a number of the
other popular 3D applications. To tell
you the truth, I was not overly
impressed with some of the other
applications. They were either too
difficult to satisfy my immediate
needs or did not produce the quality
that I was looking for.
To make a long story short, I left
research, returned to teaching, and
found a great position with Parish
Episcopal School. It was only logi-
cal, with my interests in animation
and computer technologies that I
develop a 3D Modeling and
Animation program at the school.
It wasn’t difficult to implement the
idea to the school. Parish has
always been supportive of creative
and new ideas. I am blessed to be a
part of the school.
Why C4D? That’s easy. It is, in my
opinion, the most user-friendly appli-
cation while still possessing the
tools in producing professional quali-
ty renders.
I wanted to make sure that I chose
an application that was both profes-
sionally recognized and would allow
high school students the reasonable
opportunity to create vivid works in a
short period of time. C4D’s UI and
learning curve is ideal in teaching
our students the wonders of 3D
modeling and animation.
I taught myself how to model and
animate using C4D in a matter of a
couple of months. I feel pretty adept
at the modeling and basic anima-
tion. I still have much to learn, but
it’s always fun re-discovering C4D.
It’s my hope to eventually establish
a small production animation studio
using C4D at the school. I think that
it would be a huge success and
resource for the for kids and adults
within the Dallas community who
are interested in 3D modeling and
animation. I have big dreams, but
believe it can become a reality.
Tavy: How many students are cur-
rently enrolled in your CINEMA
class, and what are their ages?
Richard: I teach high school aged
students. Their ages range from 14-
18. My first class currently has 11
enrolled. I will have 19 next
trimester. The maximum class size
is 19.
Tavy: Can you give us an idea of
what your students will learn in a
typical semester? What is an aver-
age day like in your classroom?
Richard: 3D Modeling & Animation
is a trimester course. I am hoping
that, with the development and suc-
cess of the course, it will become a
full year elective in the future.
We meet every other day for 90-
minutes. During the first couple of
weeks, I introduce the students to
the UI. As I am showing the stu-
dents the UI, I am doing so by pro-
jecting what I am doing on my
screen to a projection screen at the
front of the room. I’m also helping
them become familiar with the UI by
demonstrating
modeling/texturing/animating tech-
niques.
After a few weeks, I let the students
go at it. Until I teach something new,
they are free to create whatever
their heart desires, within reason.
The students are strongly encour-
aged to ask questions and I do my
best to help them individually or as
a group. I believe that this is the
best way for students to learn. This
method instruction allows students
to move at their own pace. Let them
explore and discover what C4D is
capable of. This is what happens on
most days. They come in and start
working on their projects.
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Wolfi Roehrborn
Students have 5 projects to turn in
within an 11-12 week period. A mod-
estly simple multiple-choice test is
given to test their knowledge of the
application and at the end of the
trimester, a practical is given.
The practical will involve having stu-
dents pick an object from a hat and
modeling/texturing/animating that
object within a 90-minute period.
The objects are basic, but challeng-
ing enough that they are compelled
to dig beyond the surface to accom-
plish it.
This class is designed to be fun and
as an alternative artistic outlet.
By the end of the trimester, the stu-
dents will have a pretty good sense
of how to use most of the primitives,
scenes, deformations, the names
and functions of the UI, various
modeling modes, keyframe anima-
tion, materials/texturing, many of the
functions/tools, and a little Mocca.
The knowledge they obtain is cer-
tainly enough to get them shooting
out of the gates!
Tavy: My son is 12 years old, and I
am amazed at the speed in which
he is learning CINEMA 4D. He just
loves this application and it’s ease
of use. How are your students pro-
gressing? Do they enjoy what they
are learning?
Richard: My students are experi-
encing the same. They are having a
fantastic time with C4D. I spent a
good portion of my summer creating
a week-by-week syllabus/curriculum
and felt pretty good about it.
I had to toss it after 4 or so weeks
because the kids were learning so
quickly! It’s turned out much better
than I had anticipated. And I’m hav-
ing a great time teaching them!
I don’t even consider it work. I’ve
been amazed at the quality of work
my kids are producing having never
touched a 3D application before.
Tavy: Have any of your students
expressed a desire to pursue
3D/CG as a career?
Richard: Some have. Many of the
students are understandably in the
class to fulfill their art or computer
science requirements, but, there are
some very artistic and computer
savvy kids who are genuinely inter-
ested in 3D/CG.
I hope that this class will encourage
or inspire more of our kids to
explore the possibility of pursuing a
career in animation or computer
graphics.
Tavy: What do you do to keep
abreast of the changes and innova-
tions in education concerning 3D
and CINEMA 4D?
Richard: I go online! I read and
sometimes participate in the forums
in CGTalk, C4DCafe and 3DAttack,
and, of course, the Maxon website
to keep abreast of what is going on
in 3D and Cinema 4D.
I am convinced that the general
C4D community must be regarded
among the most welcoming and
helpful. I’ve learned a great deal by
visiting the forums.
Tavy: What is the greatest reward
you have received through teach-
ing?
Richard: The acknowledgment and
respect of my students. As a
teacher, I’m a work in progress and
I’m always trying to develop better
ways to teach. It really makes it all
worth while when your students rec-
ognize the efforts that you make as
a teacher and respect you. I love
being with the kids!
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Jackson Wimberly
Tavy: Thanks again Richard for
this opportunity and interview. We
at 3D Attack wish you and your stu-
dents much success. Do you have
any last words for our readers
and/or your students?
Richard: CINEMA 4D rocks! Thank
you Tavy and 3D Attack for this
opportunity to share a little bit about
myself and our great school. Keep
modeling AND animating! And, of
course, thank you MAXON!
I was really excited to have theopportunity to interview Richard andspotlight not only his work, but hisstudents as well. In Mid - Michigan, Itaught primary through high schoolgrades for 3 years in a small privateschool. Due to limited funding, itwas near impossible to implementprograms such as the 3D Modelingand Animation class ParishEpiscopal School has brought totheir curriculum. I give a big“thumbs up” to Richard and adminis-tration at Parish. The children areour future! Thank you for realizingthis and implementing programs thatwill shape and mold them for suc-cess!
A little note to Richard’s
students...YOU ROCK! KEEP ONATTACKING! -Tavy Ann
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zBlur is a post effect for Cinema 4D which can be used as an alternative to C4D's own DOF. zBlur
does not cancel out other post effects, it does not require the Advanced Render module, and it sup-
ports reflections and bleed control. zBlur also has a preview window and a reference object that can
make changes right in the editor.
WIN zBLUR
Answer the question below for a chance to win zBlur!
Question: What 6 plug-ins are currently available in the 3D Attack Shop?
Send an e-mail with zBlur in the subject line, the answer to the question above along with your real name in the e-mail
body to 3dattack@3dattack.net. You will then be pooled with the other entrants for a random drawing on December 1,
2005. Our winner will be notified via e-mail and on our CINEMA 4D discussion forum at http://www.3dattack.net
*3D Attack staff and/or their immediate families are not eligible to enter and/or win the C4D Quiz.
Procedural Shaders in
CINEMA 4D
This will be the very first of a series
of articles about the procedural
shaders that come, included, with
CINEMA 4D.
Before I start talking about the pro-
cedural shaders, I will explain in lay-
man terms (or the best I can), what
exactly a procedural shader is.
A procedural shader is a computer
program. Through calculations an
image is generated and that is what
is used to texture an object. There
are advantages and disadvantages
with procedural shaders. The advan-
tages are:
- Procedural shaders are usually
very small. They don't take up any
disk space and require less memory
than bitmap textures.
- Procedural shaders are resolution
independent. So, no matter how
much you zoom in or how big you
enlarge your objects, there will
never be any pixelation.
- They are also portable. This
means that you don't have to save
any additional file when transporting
your C4D file to another computer.
Of course, this only applies to CINE-
MA 4D native procedural shaders. If
you use third-party shaders, you
must make sure they exist in the
destination computer.
- Procedural shaders can be "intelli-
gent". Meaning that they can know
things that a regular bitmap texture
can't and react accordingly. For
example, they can know the angle
of a face in relation to the camera.
They can know the size of the
object. They can know the thickness
of the object. They can know what
lights hit the surface, etc.
The disadvantages are:
- Procedural shaders can be slower
than bitmap textures. This is
because with procedural shaders
calculations are involved.
Sometimes, these calculations can
be very complex and slow.
- Due to their mathematical nature,
procedural shaders can show a very
evident repeating pattern. this is
because a computer can't create
true random events (only natural
events can be truly random. On a
computer only pseudo-random num-
bers or events can be generated).
Creating a procedural texture that
looks "natural" is often hard to
achieve.
- Procedural shaders are an "all or
nothing" deal. When you apply a
texture based on a procedural shad-
er to an object, you are not able to
make the texture slightly different in
a specific area. With a bitmap, you
can simply paint a different motif or
locally adjust some pixels. With pro-
cedural shaders, even if possible, it
requires the use of masks and multi-
ple projections.
Now that we know a little more
about what procedural shaders are
and how they work, let us start with
the first shader of this series of arti-
cles: the Gradient shader.
You may think: "Mmmm, the
Gradient shader? Does this even
justify a whole article? I know what it
does... it does color gradients. What
is the science behind it?". Well, I
can assure you that almost all pro-
cedural shaders justify an article,
but I decided to start with one of the
"apparently" simpler ones.
Most of the options from the gradi-
ent shader are pretty self-explanato-
ry. For example, I will not teach here
how to add new color swatches or
how to adjust them, but I will sur-
prise you by explaining you some
options you always took for granted.
The Type of gradient has eleven
options. I can bet you almost never
used more than three of four at
most. The ones you use more often
are the 2D-U, the 2D-V, the 2D-
Circular and, maybe, the 2D-
Diagonal. It’s a shame because
most of the other options can be
very useful. I will explain them all,
nevertheless. I assume you know
what UV coordinates are (you need
to know that to understand how the
gradient is applied to the surface),
but if you don't, I will give you a brief
explanation.
All surfaces can have UV coordi-
nates. If they don't already, new UV
coordinates can be assigned.
Remember those 2D charts you
learned in school? There was an X
axis running at the bottom from left
to right, and a Y axis running at the
left side from bottom to top. You
could, for example, chart your
grades values (Y axis) along the
years you spent in school (X axis).
Ok, the UV coordinates are like
those charts: the U stands for X and
the V stands for Y. Now, imagine a
square chart. The U coordinates
(from left to right) range from 0
(zero) to 1. The Y coordinates (from
bottom to top) also range from 0
(zero) to 1. If you flatten your object
- you don't have to do so, it’s done
internally. This is just for the sake of
example - and place the flattened
out faces inside that square chart,
you can now visualize how the U
and V coordinates correspond for
each point on the surface of the
polygons of your model. Many mod-
els can easily be spread out into a
Procedural Shaders in CINEMA 4DBy Rui Batista
11
Tuto
rial
continuos surface, such as spheres
and torus. Some can't and you have
to split some parts.This is not really
very important right now. What mat-
ters is that you understand that all
surfaces can't have UV coordinates
and what those coordinates are.
So, the gradient type of 2D-U,
means that the gradient runs along
the U coordinate axis. Similarly, the
gradient type of 2D-V, produces a
gradient that runs along the V coor-
dinate axis. The gradient type 2D-
Diagonal will, obviously, produce a
gradient that runs along both U and
V axis, simultaneously. (Pictures
01,02 and 03)
The 2D-Radial type produces a gra-
dient that is just like a "radar", turn-
ing around a center that is located in
the center of the U and V coordinate
axis. (Picture 04) The 2D-Circular
type will produce a gradient that
spreads out from the center of the U
and V coordinate axis. (Picture 05)
The 2D-Box type is great for creat-
ing frames as it creates a gradient
that grows linearly from the center of
the U and V coordinate axis to the
edges. (Picture 06)The 2D-Star
type is similar to the 2D-Box type,
but instead of growing to the edges
of the UV coordinates system, it
grows to the corners. It’s like a diag-
onal 2D-Box. (Picture 07)
Finally, the 2D-Four Corner type is a
bit weirder. It creates a linear gradi-
ent from the center of the U and V
coordinates axis to the corners. The
colors it uses for the corners are the
colors of the first four color swatch-
es of the gradient. (Picture 08)
Ok, these were the 2D type of gradi-
ents. What about the 3D types?
They are gradients that are calculat-
ed as a volume, not as a flat surface
that is wrapped around or spread
along a surface. Are they useful?
Well, they can be, if used in objects
that show, somehow, that they are
solid, like when we use booleans.
So, if you take slices of those
objects, the "inner" color, calculated
by the volumetric gradient will
appear. When you choose any type
of 3D gradient, a new set of options
becomes available: Start, End and,
for Spherical and Cylindrical gradi-
ents, Radius. For 3D-Linear gradi-
ents, the Start and End parameters
(X,Y and Z components) define the
start and end coordinates of the gra-
dient, as a vector. For those not
familiar to vector, let us say that a
vector is a line with a defined start-
ing point and an end point. Besides
having a specific length, it also has
a specific direction. (Picture 09)
If you have the Space parameter (at
the bottom) set to Object, the coor-
dinates you type in the Start and
End parameters relate to coordi-
nates relative to the object. So, if
you move the object, the gradient
moves with it accordingly. If you set
the Space parameter to World, the
Start and End parameters relate to
the world coordinates. If you move
the object, it will move through the
texture, making it appear to flow on
its surface. This Space parameter
applies to all other types of gradient
too, of course.
For 3D-Cylindrical gradients, the
Start and End parameters define a
vector that is the center of the cylin-
der. Since the Start and End param-
eters define the location and direc-
Procedural Shaders in CINEMA 4DBy Rui Batista
12
Tuto
rial
Picture01
Picture02
Picture03
Picture04
Picture05
Picture06
Picture07
Picture08
Picture09
tion of the cylinder, the Radius
parameter defines its radius (obvi-
ous!!). (Picture 10)
For 3D-Spherical gradients, the
Start parameters (no need to use
the End parameters as they become
dimmed) define the center of the
gradient. The Radius parameter
defines the radius of the virtual
sphere where the gradient is creat-
ed. (Picture 11)
You didn't know all this stuff about
the types of gradients, did you? The
Gradient shader is proving to be
more powerful than it looked at first
glance and you can check out some
examples of the not so orthodox
uses of it in the samples files I pro-
vide. Ok, on with the remaining
parameters.
The Cycle parameters, when on,
allows the gradient to start over
once it goes over the end (and also
when it goes prior its start). This is
specially useful when the material
that contains a gradient is tiled.
(Picture 12 and 13) The Turbulence
parameter, when set higher than
0%, introduces "noise" in the gradi-
ent. It’s almost like steering the usu-
ally neat linear gradient. I always
like to add some turbulence, even if
as low as 1-3%, to move away from
the clean, accurate computer-graph-
ics look of the linear gradients.
The Octaves parameters defines
how accurately the turbulence is cal-
Procedural Shaders in CINEMA 4DBy Rui Batista
13
Tuto
rial
Picture10
Picture11
Picture12
Picture13
culated. Setting it lower will require
less calculations, but will render a
coarser turbulence. Setting it higher
will improve the detail of the turbu-
lence, but will increase calculation
times.The Scale parameter should
be named Detail. Increasing it will
create smaller details in the turbu-
lence. Decreasing it will make the
turbulence appear larger. So, just
think of it as an Inverse-Scale
parameter. The Frequency parame-
ter will animate the turbulence, set-
ting how many changes will occur
during a second of animation. Even
if you set it higher than 0 (zero), you
will probably see nothing different.
You usually have to render your
scene as an animation to see the
results, but you can check out the
animated turbulence in the gradient
before rendering. Just right-click the
thumbnail (Command+click on the
Mac) and choose Animate from the
contextual menu. Don't forget to turn
off the Animate, as soon as you
don't need it, because it consumes
a lot of time and resources when
you modify any parameter.The
Angle parameter will only work for
2D gradients (for 2D-Circular will do
nothing, of course). With it you can
rotate the resulting gradient. When
the Absolute parameter is on, the
gradient refers to the Turbulence
only, and not to the entire span of
the texture. Let us say that it creates
an even distribution of the texture,
lowering the contrast. I already
talked about the Space parameter
briefly, but I will now explain all the
options a bit more in depth.
When set to Texture, the gradient is
applied to the object and
moves/scales/rotates with it. It is
applied considering the projection
parameters of the Texture tag.
When set to Object, the gradient is
applied to the object and
moves/scales/rotates with it. It
ignores the projection parameters of
the Texture tag. When set to World,
the gradient is calculated in world
coordinates and the object
moves/scales/rotates through it. It’s
almost like the gradient is being pro-
jected by a slide projector to the
object. Setting the Space parameter
to Camera, the gradient is calculat-
ed as a camera projection. The
object moves/scales/rotates through
the gradient, and camera move-
ments also move the texture around
the object.The Screen mode calcu-
lates the gradient in the screen
space, including Z depth. The object
moves/scales/rotates through the
gradient and camera movements
also move the texture around the
object.
Finally, the Raster mode calculates
the gradient in screen pixels space
and has absolutely no depth infor-
mation. The object
moves/scales/rotates through the
gradient and camera movements
also move the texture around the
object.
Well, all the parameters are cov-
ered. There are a few hidden
parameters though... The gradient
parameters that only appear when
we unroll them, by clicking the trian-
gle on the left of the gradient color
band. I will not dig into those here,
because they are not really parame-
ters of the Gradient shader. My
advice: play with them. The
Interpolation parameters set to None
is particularly useful.
We reached the end of this article. I
hope you liked it and learned some-
thing about the apparently straight-
forward Gradient shader.
Much more will be covered in the
following articles. Stay tuned and...
Keep on Attacking :) -Rui
Procedural Shaders in CINEMA 4DBy Rui Batista
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Hello Attackers!
This tutorial will cover the basic set-
tings you need for putting up an
architectural ambient. We'll cover all
the steps, from importing your origi-
nal drawings/plan, setting up your
layout, modeling your ambient, set-
ting up the lights and finally render-
ing your desired views. I assume
you have a basic knowledge of the
main tools and commands in C4D.
I’ll also provide the complete file
used for this tutorial. Please do not
use this file or tutorial for any com-
mercial purpose. Thank you.
Let's start by importing your draw-
ings... 90% of the time when you
model an architectural ambient you'll
start by using plans you import from
AutoCAD or some other 2D soft-
ware. C4D has the ability to import
files from Illustrator and open it,
enabling you to use the lines... For
those of you who ignore that,
Illustrator can open all .dwg files,
maintaining all layers and proper-
ties, which can be pretty useful as
you will see later on.
A small note concerning importing
and opening files:
C4D can import Illustrator files with
version no later than v.8
As for Illustrator, it can import files
from AutoCAD ,but no later than
v2000. Therefore, make sure to
save your AutoCAD files in version
2000, and your illustrator files in ver-
sion 8.
That said, let's start working...
For this tutorial I’ve decided to
model my room up in the moun-
tain... it’s more of a small study with
a bed in it. Anyhow, I took some
basic measures, planned it in
AutoCCad, then passed it to
Illustrator. I saved the plan in vers8
(fig1). Let’s go to C4D. Open a new
file, click on open, and select the
Illustrator file. You'll see that the file
opens, and you have access to all
the lines you've drawn previously
(fig2). Two things are to be consid-
ered; C4D seems to ignore the lay-
ers used in illustrator; therefore
you'll get a whole bunch of lines
under 1 group (fig3).
We'll proceed as follows:
1. Select the group in the object
manager.
2. Go to the object coordinator and
reset the settings in x y and z to
zero moving your plan to the center
of the space. (fig4)
4. Go to the top view (do this by
clicking F2 or select it manually) and
make a rotation of the group of -90
degrees on Y.
5. As you have noticed, we need to
rotate some parts of the plan in
order to create a virtual cube (basi-
cally rotating the elevations we
made earlier). So select the set of
lines with the rectangular live selec-
tion tool (fig5), cut it (ctrl x) and then
paste it, this will allow us to select
the specific lines easier, put them all
under 1 group (alt + g)(fig.5a). Then
rotate change the rotation value on
P to ZERO (fig.5b)
6. Do the same with the other sides
we need and rotate them by 90
degrees to form the virtual cube
(fig6) (Change the names of each
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Fig.1
Fig.2
Fig.3
Fig.4
elevation to Side and Front). The
final step in setting our layout is to
“close” the virtual cube we’ve creat-
ed. We will do so in 3 steps:
Select the object axis tool of the
side elevation. Go to its rotation val-
ues in the attributes tab. Reset the
value to zero (fig.7). That will allow
u to rotate the gizmo back to its nor-
mal position.
Go to the snap settings tab, and
enable it to Snap 3D, deselect GRID
and GRIDLINE, and select POINT.
(fig.8). That will allow u to move and
snap the object directly from the
perspective view to any point.
Select your object move its gizmo to
the inner corner (the outer 1 repre-
sents the thickness of the wall)
(fig9), then select back the model
tool and move it near the inner cor-
ner of the plan view… it will snap
directly to it. (fig.10) Repeat the
same with the remaining elevations.
(fig.11) Once you’re done with that,
select all the groups we’ve created
and place them under a null object
(alt + g) and call it 2D References,
then go to tags, and add a
Protection Tag in order not to make
any mistakes with it later on.
Now that we have set our elevations
and plan, let’s start modeling it.
There's no specific way to be fol-
lowed. In this tutorial I’ll introduce
the way that suits me most.
Before starting, a small introduction
to snapping... snapping is very
important at this stage as it will be
quite useful to build the ambient.
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Fig.5
Fig.5a
Fig.5b
Fig.6
Fig.7
Fig.8
Fig.9
Fig.10
Fig.11
Snapping can be done in 3 modes
in C4D (3d snap, 2.5D and 2D) we
are going to use the splines import-
ed from Illustrator as guides and
snap to it to create our lines... You'll
ask yourself now, why are we not
using the splines already imported
from Illustrator; well for many rea-
sons: Even though the file we're
using now is not complicated, when
you import files from illustrator you'll
usually find yourself with a whole
bunch of lines which are difficult to
select or connected in weird ways. I
find it safer to rebuild above it. This
way you'll get clean lines, just the
way you want it, and your original
plans will be intact for a future
change or reference.
Let’s start by creating the floor…
Make sure that 3d snap is enabled
and the point tab is selected. Turn
off all the elevation groups you have
and leave the Plan active (fig12)
Then directly from the perspective
view, start by creating your spline,
snapping to the respective corners
(fig13)
Once done, make sure to check the
“close spline” tab, and drag into an
Extrude Object (fig14). Reset all the
values to zero, so you can get it
completely flat. Your floor is created.
Don’t forget to change the name of
the Extrude Object to Floor.
Now go back to the object’s manag-
er, hide the Plan group, and unhide
the Left Elevation. Then with the
same way you’ve created the floor,
using snap to point, start building
your spline (fig15) (Remember to
snap to the inner corner and not the
outer one).As we did with the floor,
create an Extrude Object with all
values ZERO and place the spline in
it. Rename it Left Wall
Repeat the same thing to create the
rear wall, and the right elevation
(fig16 and fig.16a)) Now up to the
front wall. Enable the Plan group,
and the Front Elevation. Then draw
the spline using the 3d snap, and
perform an extrude on Y of 850.That
will get it exactly to its limit on the
front elevation. (fig17). Do the same
with the 2nd window (fig.18) Now
select the last 2 splines you’ve cre-
ated, copy paste it, and move them
on the Y axis to Y 2660 m (fig.19).
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Fig.12
Fig.13
Fig.14
Fig.15
Fig.16
Fig.16a
Fig.17
Fig.18
Perform an extrude of -425 (fig.20)
Now that we’ve got our windows
settled, let’s create the remaining
walls by drawing the splines on the
Plan, as we did previously, and
extrude with a value Y of 2660
(fig.21)
Now that we’ve built all our walls,
we just need to create our ceiling.
We can easily do this by creating a
spline, snapped to the four upper
corners of the elevations we did. So
make sure snap 3d is enabled, with
snap to point selected and draw
your line. (fig.22), then just drag it in
an Extrude Object with all values
ZERO. Rename it to Ceiling. Now all
our 3d Volume is finished (fig23)
The next step is to put some furni-
ture in. I’ve kept it quite minimal in
this tutorial, just to give a general
idea. Let’s start with the bed. Go to
the top view (F2), create a cube,
and enter the following values in its
properties: X 1920, Y 106.5 and Z
2130. Position it good in top view in
order to match the plan. Then go to
the Right View (F3) and fix its posi-
tion there as well (fig.24) Rename it
to Bed’s base. Now copy paste it
and change the Y value of the new
cube to 266 m. Enable fillet, with a
radius of 40 and a subdivision of 5.
Reposition it like we did with the
base. (fig.25) Now to make the
bed’s feet, copy paste the “Bed’s
base”, and change its values as fol-
lows: X 1920, Y 43 , Z 2130. Then
position it according to the plan, like
we did previously. Your bed is done.
Select all the components and put
them all under 1 group (alt + g).
Rename it to bed.
On with the night tables. Draw a
spline over the plan, using 3d snap
to point, then put it in an Extrude
Object with an Y value of 400
(fig.26) Repeat the same operation
for the left night table. Don’t forget
to rename it.
Same thing for the table, draw the
spline using snap, (don’t forget to
close the spline). Once your spline
is drawn move it up by 768 (Y value
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Fig.19
Fig.20
Fig.21
Fig.22
Fig.23
Fig.24
Fig.25
Fig.26
768) that will get it to its position
according to the elevation. Then
extrude it with an Y value of 80 m.
(fig.27 and 27a).
I’ve also added a Corbusier chair I
had, a mac I modeled fast, and a
small office chair in order to fill up
the room a bit. You can add any
object you might have.
Now that we’re basically done with
the modeling, let’s put on some tex-
tures… I’ve used some basic tex-
tures here. Dark wood for the night
tables, bright for the bed, a different
1 for the table. You can be quite free
with these. The important thing is to
get the right texture for the wall…
When you’re using radiosity, basical-
ly you’re bouncing the light all over
the room, and blending all colors…
which gives you the realistic aspect
you see in every day life… Now a
good trick to keep your walls white
and not that affected by the other
textures is to play with the illumina-
tion tab. I basically created a white
shader with a 100% brightness, and
in the illumination tab, increased the
Generate GI strength to 150 and
lower the saturation to 70, which will
keep the bright white. (fig.28)
Apply this material to all walls. As
for the floor material, I went for a
normal wood texture, just added a
bit of reflection and a slight bump.
You can play with these settings till
it suits the mood you want to show
in your project.
Give big importance to the
Illumination tab as it highly affects
the colors and diffusion of light in
your render.
1 last touch. In order to speed up
the rendering time I’ve added a
Compositing Tag to the Mac object
and to both the Chairs, and I have
unchecked the Seen by GI tab. This
will allow C4D to exclude these
objects while rendering. Now, after
setting the textures, we will set up
the light environment… To simulate
radiosity I went for 3 light sources…
The first is the sky… Create a sky,
then go to materials, make a new
one, uncheck the color tab and the
specular, enable just the illumination
and lower its value till u get a
blueish light color. This material will
simulate the sky light diffusion.
(fig.29) Then I added the Sun,
which is basically made of a distant
light, with Hard Shadows enabled,
and I lowered the intensity to 65%.
Place this light on the windows side,
quite far from the model. (fig30)
Rename the light to Sun.
The last source to add is an omni
light inside the house. That will help
you diffuse the light easier. Ill keep a
very low brightness here of 8% (this
value varies depending on what you
need, a dark atmosphere a bright…
etc …) I’ll also enable Soft
Shadows, to help add a realistic
look to the ambient.
Once you’ve created all these light
sources, group them together, and
rename the group: Ambient settings.
Now that we’ve set our light, let’s
create a couple of cameras to make
our shots. Create a Camera with tar-
get, position it as in (fig.31) and
give it a focal length of 18. This will
allow us to have a wide camera
angle, and will give more depth for
the room. These “cheating” tips will
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Fig.27
Fig.27a
Fig.28
Fig.29
Fig.30
help you get a nice view of your per-
spective. Once your camera is set,
go the Camera’s tab on your per-
spective view and switch from Editor
Camera to Scene Camera.
Position it till you get the desired
angle. (fig.32)
Now go to the Render Settings tab.
In the General tab, put antialiasing
to Best, this will allow us to have
clean sharp renders. Go to the
Output tab and select the desired
resolution, I went for an 800 by 600
pixels with a film format HDTV.
On with the Radiosity settings,
enable Radiosity (standard) and
leave it with the default settings for
a start. Finally, in the Options tab,
unselect the Auto Light tab.
You’re all set to make the first ren-
der. (fig.33) It took me 5:30 min to
render it on a P4. 3.2 Ghz, with 1
giga of ram.
Now, as you can see ,we have
some splotches on the corners…
this is normal. In order to get rid of
these you have to play around with
the min and max resolution values
in the radiosity tab. The default val-
ues are 3 and 70, make these set-
tings higher and test your renders till
you get the descent result :)
You can add a couple of cameras,
and render different views (fig33a).
You can see here different shots I
made of the room, some with addi-
tional objects (poster, printer, closet)
, some with minor changes such as
the table’s form or the window’s size
(fig.34.35.36)
Hope you enjoyed this tutorial, in
another tutorial we will deal with a
more complex architecture, and see
an in depth view of how to manage
textures and lights!
Keep on Attacking!
-Bled
ArArcchitecturhitecture e TTutorial utorial By BlendBy Blend
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Fig.31
Fig.32
Fig.33
Fig.33a
Fig.34
Fig.35
Fig.36
On October 15/16, 2005 - MAXON
invited their users to Cologne,
Germany where the 1st MAXON
User meeting took place. A registra-
tion fee of 50? covered workshops,
project presentations, a catered
luncheon buffet both days and all
the non-alcoholic beverages one
could drink. (We did the alcoholized
meeting on Saturday and Sunday
evenings on our own around the
Cologne Dome- When we came
back to our hotel around 4 AM, we
started our laptops and did C4D
talk!
All registrants received an identity
card with their real name, forum
name and company. A cool idea, but
the execution could be improved.
While the MAXON logo was in large
bold type, the registrants name and
forum name were really hard to
read. This made it a bit difficult to
identify people with whom the only
contact you have ever had is on a
forum. Though, it all worked out in
the end.
On both days of the event, CINEMA
4D Workshops and Presentations
took place and were a great suc-
cess. There were a few difficulties in
the beginning, but MAXON made
corrections quickly. The first work-
shop was very crowded. People
were standing or sitting on the floor
next to the 20 laptops provided by
Intel. To make is possible for more
registrants to attend the workshops
comfortably, MAXON had to acquire
larger rooms. The BodyPaint work-
shop I joined was in a very crowded
little room and the instructor wasn’t
a CINEMA 4D user, so he wasn’t
able to provide answers to more in-
depth questions. MAXON reacted
fast and the following workshops
took place in larger rooms and were
done a few times a day. The tutors
(mostly maxon trainers) were really
good. All of the workshops covered
the basics and were interesting for
the new user or crossing over from
other applications. The project pre-
sentations took place in a big room
with 200 seats. These presentations
were really interesting for the more
advanced user, where our project
MAXON USER MEETING IN COLOGNEBy Mark Gmehling aka Macling
21
Inte
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w
related questions were answered.
The 3D-crowd was entertained by
some Speed challenges with differ-
ent topics, like shader development-
modeling- lighting- logo animation
etc. The 4 challengers workspaces
were beamed on the big screen. It
was a lot fun to watch their work-
flow. The speed modeling sessions
lasted 15 minutes and the crowd
was the judge. Lenno successfully
represented 3D Attack in the shader
development challenge and won a
handy holder for his desktop.
During the shader challenge, many
people gathered around Lenno to
see his work. This was a great
opportunity for us to give away 30
3D Attack Year One Collection CD’s.
We were delighted to find out that
about 90% of the users knew of 3D
Attack and subscribe to the maga-
zine. They love it!
All in all, the MAXON user meeting
was a great success! The CINEMA
4D Community consists of a 100%
friendly people. It was great to meet
so many 3D addicts.
It was especially fun to meet and
talk with old-virtual friends in real-
time. This is proof that we are not
alone in dreaming about splines or
thinking about poly count when we
look at a tree!
Here’s to waiting for the next User
meeting!
MAXON USER MEETING IN COLOGNEBy Mark Gmehling aka Macling
22
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Well, here we are, at the final part of
this tutorial. Start with the
Chainsaw-Part 2-Finished.c4d File
Modeling the ‘Pull Start’ Handle
This is a very simple object. It is T-
Shaped and very primitive. For this
object, we will simply start with a
cube and extrude faces until we
have the shape we want. I just
scaled the cube down and started at
the base, then extruded a bit, scaled
a bit, once the shape is roughed
out, drop the cube into the
HyperNURBS group and you can
rename it and add any additional
cuts you may need. (Image-01)
Modeling the Spark Plug Cap
The Spark Plug Cap (rubbery look-
ing thing with a wire leading out of it
on top the unit) This part is pretty
much the same modeling method as
the handle. Just start with a cube
and using the Extrude, Move, Scale
and Rotate tools, just box model
your object from there. (Image-02)
Modeling the Forward Handle
This is again, a very simple object,
but I will take you though it step by
step. Starting with a Cube, and
working in the Left Viewport, we will
rough out the shape of the handle.
Scale the cube down, then make it
editable (C) we will then extrude and
rotate the faces until you have
something looking like this. (Image-
03) Then we will switch to the top
viewport and scale the object along
the X-Axis until it lines up in the
underlay. Notice that there are holes
in the handle (check the reference
photography or the Top Viewport. To
get these holes, we need to create
some knife cuts at the edges of
them and then we will use the
bridge tool to create the holes.
Using the knife tool (either in Line
Mode or Plane Mode) make these
cuts in the top viewport to create the
geometry where we will use the
bridge tool. (Image-04) Now that we
have the grid laid out, we can select
the polygons where we want to
make the holes. (Image-05) And
bridge the polygons. Once that’s
done, I dropped it into the
HyperNURBS object and then I
looked at the reference photography
and I noticed that the handle tapers
a little towards the top, so I then
adjusted the shape by selecting the
points at the top corners of the
object and scaling them on the X-
Axis. Once that was done, I used
the knife tool in Loop Mode to hard-
en up the center area. (Notice the
extra edges running vertically along
the center of the object.(Image-06)
The final component of this part is
Modeling and Texturing a Chainsaw Part 3By Jamie Hamel - Smith
23
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Image 01
Image 02
Image 04
Image 05
Image 03
the bracket that holds it on, if you
switch to the Right Viewport, you
can clearly see the metal bracket
that this forward handle attaches to.
Create a New Polygon Object
(Objects > Polygon Object) and
using the create Polygon Tool (N-
Gons) trace the shape of the brack-
et. Afterwards, simply extrude it a bit
(with the ‘create caps’ option on)
and bevel the edges a bit.
A nice tip for this part is to select the
N-Gon on one side, then Ctrl-Click
the Edges Mode, that will convert
the Polygon Selection to an Edge
Selection and then you can bevel
the edges using the Bevel Tool.
(Image-07)
The Engine Cover
This part will be a HyperNURBS
Object that we will create by cutting
a cube using the knife until it fits our
needs. Start by creating a cube,
scaling it down to fit the area we are
working with (orange engine cover)
and making it editable, (Image-08)
(1) we will want to delete 2 faces
from the cube. The Front face and
the bottom face. (2) After doing that,
go to the top viewport (F2) and posi-
tion the left and right faces so that
they encompass the cover. (3) Add
Knife cuts (line mode) where the
details are in the cover, remember
to cut straight through the object
when doing so. Do this from the Top
Viewport and then from the Left
Viewport. Move the points so they
follow the contour of the orange
cover and then Drop the object into
your HyperNURBS group. (4) Once
you have the cover taking the shape
of the orange cover, and it’s in the
HyperNURBS Object, you may
notice that the top is too smooth and
curved. We need to add 2 more
knife cuts. One on each edge,
switch to the Perspective Viewport
(F1) and using the Knife tool in loop
mode, make these cuts. This will
harden up the edges to give a better
representation of the way it really
looks. (5) Once you have done that,
you can check the Left and Right
View ports, you need to move the
lower points up to meet the curve of
the cover. (6) You may see some
areas where you need to insert
additional knife cuts to get more
points and edges to make the
curves on the sides fit better, just
remember that when making these
cuts you must cut straight through
the object. Loop Mode is very effec-
tive at doing this. Once you are
done cutting it up, you will need to
make some additional adjustments
so your other objects don’t intersect
it too much.
Muffler (exhaust)
This object will once again be a
HyperNURBS Object. We will start
with a cube then scale it down and
make it editable. Position it near the
exhaust area. And drop it you’re
your HyperNURBS Group. Now I
can’t really see the exhaust too well
from the photos, so we are going to
model it a little rough. It looks like a
capsule shaped housing with some
fins on the top. Just scale and posi-
tion the cube so that it fits and add
knife cuts in the general areas that I
did. By now this should just be 2nd
nature, so just run with it. (Image-
09)
For the fins, I just used some cubes
and copied and rotated them so
they looked ok. I don’t want to get
too into modeling this part because
Modeling and Texturing a Chainsaw Part 3By Jamie Hamel - Smith
24
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Image 06
Image 07
Image 09
Image 08
it’s sort of sketchy from the photos.
You do get a nice view of it from the
Left Viewport however. As you can
see, I also rounded the edges of the
fins. (Image-10)
That’s enough detail for the body of
the chainsaw, this tutorial would be
way too long if we got into all the
details and this is already the 3rd
part, I’m sure it’s beginning to get tir-
ing. Let’s finish up with the rig for
the chain on the blade. Now it would
be a whole extra tutorial if I were to
break down the XPresso we are
about to use, so instead I have cre-
ated an XPresso that I use when I
am doing motorcycle chains and I
will teach you how to merge it into
your file and use it correctly.
The Chain!
Now, to start off, open the supplied
file called Chain-XPresso.c4d this is
a file that I have created to make
the implementation of the chain as
easy as possible. It’s an Expression
that I created a while ago to animate
motorcycle chains, we will modify
this file and use it to create the
chain for our chainsaw. It consists of
a spline that the links follow and an
inner link, also an outer link. Below
these are instances of the links.
They all have ‘Align to Spline’ Tags
on them. The expression controls
the align to spline values and as
more copies of the instances are
created, more links are evenly dis-
tributed along the spline. So, let’s do
it! Merge the Chain-XPresso.c4d file
with your chainsaw file from the File
Menu, Merge command. Once it
appears, go to the Left Viewport and
select the Spline Object, choose the
points tool, and select all of the
points, then delete them. We are
going to draw a new spline that fol-
lows the contour of the chainsaw
blade. Create a new spline by Ctrl-
Clicking in the Left Viewport and
trace the shape of the blade. Now,
we could just create a whole new
spline, but that would mean fiddling
with the XPresso tag and I’m sure
we don’t want to do that. Once you
have completed drawing the spline
with its new shape, switch to the top
view and line it up with the blade.
Now, in order to make sure that all
of the links are pointing in the right
direction at all times and that they
don’t flip around as their rotation
changes, we need to add a Rail
Spline to the Align to Spline Tags.
Copy the Spline in the Object
Manager by Ctrl-Dragging it and
once you have copy, delete the chil-
dren and the XPresso Tag from it.
This will be our Rail Spline, so you
can rename it if you like. Now, you
need to move the Rail Spline along
the Z-Axis as shown. (Image-10)
Now, the rail spline will ensure that
the X-Axis of all the links always
point towards it. To make this the rail
spline, we need to select all of the
Align to Spline Tags and drag the
Rail Spline into the Rail Path Field.
(Image-11) Once this is done, we
can create more copies of the link
instances. Select the 4 link
instances and Ctrl-Drag them to
copy them, make sure that they
alternate, inner link, outer link, inner
link, outer link etc… keep copying
them until the entire spline is filled
up with links. Switch to the Left view
and zoom in on an area of chain
and you will see when they line up.
(Image-12)
Once you have done all that, you
can then edit the 2 original links to
create any type of teeth on the
chainsaw blade that you like. Get a
little creative with it, remember since
the links are instances, once you
edit the 2 original links, all the oth-
ers will show the changes too! You
can even add additional objects as
children of the links and they will
also copy with the instances!
Well, that’s it for my Chainsaw
Tutorial, so as always, Keep on
Attacking, and if I have missed any-
thing, just contact me on the forum
or create a new thread about the
issue. Bye Bye - Jamie
Modeling and Texturing a Chainsaw Part 3By Jam Hamel - Smith
25
Tuto
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Image 10
Image 11
Image 11
Vital Disclosure
BodyPaint 2- Insider Secrets
Volume One
The expectation on this DVD was
really high considering the guys who
wrote the BodyPaint manual devel-
oped it. The DVD was offered at a
high discount for early purchase.
Many people took advantage of the
early purchase, but the Vital team
had a hard start with their first
Training-DVD-publication. Some of
you may have heard about some
shipping trouble and resolution criti-
cism. To make it short: The Vital
Distraction team took some harsh
feedback, but served their clients
well in the end.
At their own cost, Vital shipped a
second highres-version to all their
clients. They were finally able to get
some great feedback (well
deserved) about the content!
This is a double DVD package. DVD
1 contains the workshop video files
and the needed codec. DVD 2 con-
tains all project files. Cinema
Release 9 is used, but all steps are
easy to follow with older versions as
well.
So, now let’s talk about the content:
The DVD is separated into three
parts. Let’s take a short tour through
the chapters:
Chapter One (Interface):
UV’s in general: Explains what UV’s
are and why it is needed to unwrap
meshes to avoid overlapping when it
comes to paint detailed texture
maps.
Close look at the interface:
Walkthrough the material-, layer-,
color-, attributes, uv- manager, color
and brush presets that are used in
the later project, furthermore, a look
into customizing the layout.
Chapter Two (UV’s):
Using the set-up wizard: This allows
you to map lots of meshes simulta-
neously. Interesting for more
advanced BP Users is the workflow
that first UV-sets up all meshes and
later goes back and increases the
texture maps size using the setup
wizard.
Simple Interactive Mapping:
This section is dedicated to optimiz-
ing the wizards UV layout using the
interactive mapping method and
stitching the UV’s together.
RelaxUV/ Magnet Tool:
The relax UV/magnet tool comes
into play when optimizing complicat-
ed areas of a head, for example, the
ear and eye area or to get an even
interpolation of the UV’s here and
there.
Complex Mapping:
The complex mapping chapter is
dedicated to the mapping of the
characters cloth, using different
interactive projection types. Team
Vital pays attention to some needs
for UV mapping cloth to maintain an
even fabric flow.
UV Terrace:
Team Vital demonstrates the UV ter-
race command to automatically
place some UV’s you might have
missed during your setup to their
right places in your UV map. One
more timesaving little helper that
advanced BP users may have not
realized.
Chapter Three (Painting):
Photoshop:
Team Vital shows the needed steps
for creating tileable textures using
Photoshop for later usage in BP.
Texturepaint:
Shown here is the usage of the
Photoshop created tileable texture
inside BP.
Resizing Textures:
The setup wizard in material mode
is used to resize the UV maps/tex-
tures to sensible resolutions.
Creating Layers Text Tools:
Shows the steps to create the need-
ed layers/material channels to work
with.
Layer Masks/ Blending Layers:
This is a walkthrough of BodyPaint's
Layer Manager and its features,
including working with alpha layers.
Projection Painting:
Shows the power of BP’s Projection
Painting feature that allows you to
roughly texture a head using some
photos.
Cloning:
Demonstrating ways on how to opti-
mize photographed material for tex-
turing the project-characters head.
Advanced Projection Painting:
Team vital shows ways to detail the
texture of the project characters
cloth using photographed/scanned
textures that are tweaked inside
Photoshop.
Accurate Texture Painting:
Deals with some copy/paste bitmap
methods to detail the characters
cloth further. In addition to that, BP’s
clone tool and brush tool possibili-
ties are featured here.
Multichannel vs. Layers:
26
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VITAL DISCLOSURE - BP2 Insider SecretsBy Mark Gmehling
Team vital shows the fast forward
method to create bump and diffusion
channels out of the painted col-
ormap featuring some of BP’s inbuilt
filters.
Multichannel Painting:
Here is the usage of custom brush-
es and BP’s powerful multi-channel
painting feature to push the project
characters texture map forward and
adjust the results by using the layers
blend mode options.
Burn and Dodge:
This chapter is dedicated to the burn
and dodge tool most of you might
know from Photoshop. Team Vital
details the created textures and
lightens/darkens specific areas here.
Store and Remap UV:
Here Team Vital shares some tricks
they explored and show how to
adjust UV’s in an already painted
texture without having to repaint the
adjusted areas. This is one more
chapter that may be interesting for
the advanced user.
All of these topics are covered in
about two hours. I would say the
motto of this BP tutorial is: “quick
and efficient”. Team Vital didn’t want
to bore the audience ;)
Team Vital demonstrate the fast-for-
ward method to UV-Setup and tex-
turing a whole character, including
cloth, as fast as it is possible. The
English is good and understandable,
even for non-native-English-speak-
ers. All steps are well explained, as
you would expect from the guys that
wrote the BP manual.
The “Insider Secrets” DVD is a good
start for people who are experi-
enced with modeling, but new to
BodyPaint, I think more advanced
BodyPaint users might get some
additional knowledge here and
there, but most of the content cov-
ered is quite common texturing
work. Team Vital demonstrates the
fast-straight-forward method for tex-
turing using photographed material
and optimizing it to fit the needs for
usage in BP.
I hope the next releases will have a
better functionality of the embedded
video window. I had problems with
pausing the video and working with
the Alt-Tab Shortcut to bring CINE-
MA in the foreground.
The Video window is always in fore-
ground, thus making it difficult to
switch between application and
video. The price of 85 US dollars
seems quite high compared to the
playtime of the DVD.
Due to the price and playtime rela-
tion, I give this training DVD a 4 out
of 5 Attack Points. Please don’t mis-
understand this: The given informa-
tion is topnotch- all is well
explained- but I think they could
have recorded one more hour show-
ing some more into-depth tricks for
the more advanced user, further-
more the “workspace-behavior” is
improvable.
Visit HYPERLINK
"http://www.Vitaldistraction.com"
www.Vitaldistraction.com to have a
closer look at the coming C4D-
Training DVD’s. (In the meantime a
teaser clip, some screenshots and a
chapter teaser are available)
Team Vital is now shipping their
Cloth Training DVD ($85 including
shipping and handling) and are
working on a third DVD, of which
the topic is yet to be announced.
A bundle containing the BodyPaint
and Cloth DVDs is offered for $129.
27
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VD
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VITAL DISCLOSURE - BP2 Insider SecretsBy Mark Gmehling
Sound driven animation
There seems to be alot of interest in
sound driven animation, and it's fair-
ly easy to do with the XPresso
sound node.
The sound node has a couple of
main functions. The first of which is
the ability to programatically play
sounds in the editor, for example,
when two objects collide. This is
pretty useless in my opinion, as
there is no way to render out
the sound. The real usefulness of
the sound node lies in it's ability to
output the amplitude (volume) of a
sound file for any given sample or
time. An important thing to remem-
ber is that the sound node can only
use uncompressed WAV or AIFF
sound files. MP3s will not work.
Ok, let's try it out. Start with an
empty scene and create a primitive
sphere. Right click on the sphere in
the Object Manager and add an
XPresso tag. The XPresso Editor
should open automatically. Now
drag the sphere from the Object
Manager into the XPresso Editor.
This will create an Object node that
is linked to your sphere. Now create
a sound node by right-clicking an
empty part of the XPresso Editor
and choosing "New Node-
>XPresso->General->Sound" from
the popup menu.[pic001]
Click on the newly created sound
node and take a look at the
Attributes Manager. You should
have two fields: Filename and
Probe. Click the button next to the
Filename field and select a WAV or
AIFF file. Now create an input port
on the sound node for Time.
[pic002] Create a Time node with
the popup menu "New Node-
>XPresso->General->Time". Wire
the Time node's Time output to the
Sound node's Time input. This tells
the Sound node to use the docu-
ment's time for the position of the
sound file. Now on the Sound node,
create an output port for Left. In this
example we will only use the left
channel of the sound file, as we will
only be driving one parameter. With
some simple math, we could use
both channels for this (add left and
right together and divide by 2), but
for the sake of simplicity we will
stick to the left channel only.
The output for a single sample can
range from about -32767 to 32767.
So how do we make this usable?
With the help of the RangeMapper
node. The RangeMapper takes a
number in the input range (in this
case -32767 to 32767) and maps
the resulting number on another
range of numbers. So now add a
RangeMapper node from the popup
menu "New Node->XPresso-
>Calculate->RangeMapper". Click
on the RangeMapper node and in
the Attributes Manager set the "Input
Lower" field to -32767 and the "Input
Upper" field to 32767. Then set the
"Output Lower" field to 10 and the
"Output Upper" field to 200. [pic003]
Wire the Left output port of the
Sound node to the Input port of the
RangeMapper node. On the Sphere
node, create an input port for Object
Properties->Radius and wire the
Output port of the RangeMapper
node to the Radius input port on the
Sphere node.
Now play the animation in the editor.
The sphere should be changing size
based on the amplitude of the left
channel of the Sound node. To
adjust how the sphere's radius
responds, tweak the RangeMapper's
"Input Lower" and "Input Upper" val-
ues.
This method can be used to animate
almost anything, but it's just a start.
So experiment, get creative, have
fun and Keep on Attacking!
-Chris
Sound Driven AnimationBy Chris Montesano
28
Tuto
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Image 001
Image 002
Image 002
INTRODUCTION INTO Z-BRUSH
PART II (by Mark Gmehling)
Basic texturing fast forward method
Hi there Attackers- In the september
issue the first ZBrush introduction
tutorial was about creating tileable
textures within ZBrush. In this sec-
ond part I want to show one possi-
bility to basically texture a (C4D)
mesh using photos or self made
files within ZBrush.
In the ZBrush tutorial folder you’ll
find the C4D-scenefile pear.c4d, that
is a quickly blocked out mesh to
show you the basic steps of quickly
creating a base texture.
If you’re interested in its modeling
process, check out the file
blockingoutthepear.swf that is found
in the tutorial folder too.(I used the
extrude and extrude inner command
by shortcut (Extrude=D and extrude
inner=I)) In the end I exported the
pear mesh as an .obj (Wavefront)
file for further use in ZBrush- this obj
file is also found in the tuts folder.
The second video file,
ZBrushtexturing.swf, is about apply-
ing/projecting basic texture onto the
model- a method you may know
from BodyPaint. But before doing
that, I adjust the imported mesh’s
UV’s to avoid overlapping- this is
done by a few clicks inside ZBrush:
To import the tool I go to the Tool
Palette – Import- Select the obj. file
you wish to import. Draw it onto the
canvas and push the edit button or
just use the shortcut T.
To bring the UV’s in order, I go to
the Tools Tab- Texture field and click
the Check UV button: As expected,
the UV’s behave ugly- the overlap-
ping areas are indicated with red
color- the mesh will not be paintable
like this. So I decide to use the AUV
Tiling, which means ZBrush lays out
the UV’s automatically in checker-
board style- so each UV has the
same size- The only disadvantage
of this layout is that you’ll not be
able to paint further in another 2d
paint application than zBrush,
because the texture maps UV’s are
not in continuos order.
Only thing to do is click the AUV Tile
button and then the UV to texture
button- voila- nice isn’t it? To be
honest I don’t care about only being
able to paint in ZBrush because its
2D possibilities are that powerful.
ZBrush automatically creates a
default color texture to demonstrate
the UV layout. If you like, go to the
Tools Texture palette again and
check the UV’s again by clicking the
check UV’s button: No red there- all
is in best order ?
As I haven’t assigned the desired
texture size/resolution, I go to the
Texture tab and fill the size fields
with the pixel proportions I want to
create- I choose a 1024x1024 pixel
size and press new- a new white
texture is added in the texture
palette and is automatically applied
to the pear mesh.
At this point I end the edit mode by
clicking T again and clean the can-
vas Ctrl-N. No fear- The UV edited
mesh(ZBrush calls it a tool) remains
in the tool palette ;)
Now I import a self made texture(not
quite sense making in this case) by
going to the texture palette- import.
The imported texture is active auto-
matically- In the same palette I click
the Crop and Fill button to fill the
canvas with the active texture-
ZBrush checks if you really want to
adjust the canvas size because the
imported texture is bigger than the
current canvas size- I click “ok” and
the canvas is adjusted and filled. To
be able to see the whole canvas I
zoom out using the +- Keys or the
button on the right edge.
Now I select the pear tool from the
tool palette, draw it on the canvas
and go in edit mode as before (T)-
The tool automatically uses the
active texture- doesn’t matter at the
moment. I drag the mouse outside
of the geometry holding the shift key
to snap to an orthogonal view.
To project the background onto the
mesh I just go to the Transform
palette and use the 3d copy com-
mand- voila -our background is pro-
jected onto the pear mesh. I rotate
my mesh again- click 3d copy and
repeat this two more times to get
the whole pear hairy ;). Of course
you can do this from perspective
angles, but at this time I only want
to basically fill the mesh. You’ll
notice that the texture is updating
automatically after each projection.
By clicking Ctrl-N I clear the back-
ground that isn’t needed anymore.
Now I want to get rid of the seams
that came up at the tangential areas
during projection: I rotate my mesh
to get a good view on the problem
areas and go to the projection mas-
ter(G) –The default settings is ok for
now, as I only want to paint color so
I hit the drop now button. In the tool
palette I choose the clone Brush
that behaves like Photoshop's
Stamp tool most of you may know.
Before painting, I disable the Zadd
channel because I only want to
affect the colors of the texture. In
contrast to Photoshop, Ctrl-clicking
in an area defines the texture you
want to clone to another area. To
rotate the pear mesh I hit G again
ZBrZBrush - Intrush - Introduction Poduction Parar t 2t 2By MarBy Mark Gmehlingk Gmehling
29
Tuto
rial
and click the Pick up button. Then I
rotate to the next ugly seam, hit G
and drop the mesh to be able to use
the clone brush in projection master
mode- I repeat these steps till the
texture appears seamless.
To export the texture as colormap I
just go to texture- export and save it
as a psd file, for example.
Furthermore, I export the UV_edited
pear mesh by going to tool export
and save it as an obj again to open
it in C4D.
Back in C4D I open the just export-
ed UV edited pear mesh, and in its
materials color channel I load the
exported ZBrush Texture and won-
der why it’s looking odd when I ren-
der ;)- I just have to select the mate-
rial tag in the object manager and
go to Texture- flip vertical and all is
in order. Not a artistical render
indeed, but I think it shows one
technical approach to texture a
mesh fast and efficient. It was not a
sense making example, but working
with higher resolution photos to
basic texture a head is an interest-
ing way to texture fast forward.
I hope this was interesting and we
see you on board! Keep attacking!
Mark Gmehling
ZBrZBrush - Intrush - Introduction Poduction Parar t 2t 2By MarBy Mark Gmehlingk Gmehling
30
Tuto
rial
Is this the end of days? Have we
finally reached our destiny? It all
started in Chesaning, Michigan
where several UFO sightings have
caused car accidents and at least
one elderly individual was brought to
a local emergency room heart attack
symptoms. It’s a miracle that no
one has been severely injured. We
have managed to talk to 86-year-old
Booh Gahontas, who luckily sur-
vived his heart attack.
3D Attack: Mr. Gahontas, would
you please describe what you have
seen?
Mr. G.: Well boy! I haven't seen nut-
tin cause it was dark outside and in
the house. And outta nowhere
came that strange sound that woke
me outta a dead sleep. First thing I
saw was these strange lights. First
thought is that it was the sewing
machine. My wife, ya know, she’s
always forgettin to turn that thing
down. She's been a seamstress for
her whole life. Look at my trousers,
she made em, she's very gifted with
that. Even the neighbors come here
and ask for assistance with their
clothes. Even Mr. Carpenter, our
blacksmith, boy you should take a
look at our garden gates, it's just,
well, anyway, he created it and he
asked if mama couldn't...
3D Attack: Well, that's very interest-
ing, but what did you see?
Mr. G.: I have been watching Stan,
umm, Mr. blacksmith. I saw how he
made my garden gates. Boy I tell
you, he is one hell of a blacksmith!
3D Attack: Mr. Gahontas, did you
see a UFO?
Mr. G.: In Mr. Carpenter's garage?
Boy, you are talking nonsense! How
would a UFO get in his garage?
He’s not that talented! Let me tell
you, your shirt could use some
refinement from my wife! You know,
she's a very gifted seamstress!
3D Attack: Did you see a UFO?
Mr. G.: Let me just standup and
show you where I saw it. My old
bones ain't what they used to be.
When I was young, I was good at
sports. I was a good dancer and
boy... masses of girls were after me.
But those days are gone for a long
time now. Over there above the
hills, right where the tree is. No, not
this tree, but that one.
3D Attack: The left one?
Mr. G.: No, the right one!
3D Attack: What did the UFO look
like?
Mr. G.: A lampshade!
3D Attack: It looked like a lamp-
shade?
Mr. G.: I wonder how my lampshade
got here into my garden? Let me
just bring it back into the house.
This must have been the work of my
dog Dottie. She's one nasty little
beast, but I really love this honey.
Mama didn't like her, but I did, and
always will do. So, is that all you
wanted to know about the UFO?
Boy it’s getting late and mostly they
come at high noon. No wonder I
can’t show you one right now. You
want some whiskey? Boy I forgot,
not while yer on duty, right? That's
the youth of these days. Rude
behavior wherever ya go. And it's
getting worse.
At that point we stopped the inter-
view. We really weren’t getting far
with Mr. Gahontas. Fortunately,
many of our readers have provided
us with evidence that humanity is
facing its biggest challenge. It has
yet to be determined whether the
visitors from the sky are friend or
foe. Don’t push the possible reality
of Visitors from space to the back of
your mind. It’s far too important to
ignore.
Mr. Rorki was the first to report a
sighting in Scotland. He had big
trouble taking that photo due to
brain waves from space. They made
him want to paint the backyard of
his office with pink stars.(Pic01)
Flying barrels seem to be the next
step up from flying saucers. This
snapshot was taken by Elmata. The
aliens even waited while the street-
lights were red. (Pic02)
Sudden Attack - A UFO ReportBy Georg Niedermeier aka sad
31
Report
Image 01
Image 02
The next photograph shows a cru-
cial step in the beginning of the
invasion on earth. Is it by chance
that it's another sighting in Great
Britain area?(Pic03)
Obviously the aliens are not only
interested in Europe.(Pic04)
Bluepulse took an amazing picture
which shows the first meeting
between humans and aliens. The
child spent about two hours in com-
munication with the aliens.
Afterward, the kid fluently spoke
French and Russian.(Pic05)
Nils Meier from Germany has an
interesting theory about this picture.
He thinks that most of the tourists in
Berlin must be aliens. The day he
took that photograph he wanted to
go through the Brandenburg Gates
and ran into an obstacle that he
couldn't see. After some strange
noises the UFO became visible.
Something in that spaceship must
have been broken during the inci-
dent. Do the aliens posses a work-
ing cloaking technology?(Pic06)
Paul Hankin took a spectacular pic-
ture right at Big Ben. At the very
moment of the flyby, Big Ben started
playing its well-known melody -
backwards. The next time the
melody played, everything was
working normally.(Pic07)
Here is evidence that the aliens are
not quite talented with steering their
machines. Obviously the alien
wanted to park in front of the wall,
but it didn't include the wind in its
calculations, therefore it parked in
the wall.(Pic08)
More evidence that most aliens are
not very good at flying their flying
saucers. Silversurfer took a snap-
shot of an alien ship crashing.
(Pic09)
Sudden Attack - A UFO ReportBy Georg Niedermeier aka sad
32
Report
Image 03
Image 04
Image 05
Image 06
Image 07
Image 08
Image 09
One of our top-secret agents, Mr.
PVP sent us another great photo-
graph which portrays the aliens
interest in historical buildings.
(Pic10)
Nutriman was taken by the aliens.
They wanted to learn all they could
about skiing and winter. He had an
interesting conversation with them,
though he didn't understand their
native language. It seems that they
have been talking to him using PSI.
Unfortunately the ship contained no
wc, and due to the fact they fed him
tons of Humpclicktacktack and
about 25 glasses of fake lemonade
called Tyloclickmockpick, which tast-
ed like molten paper, he had to
leave due to human necessity.
(Pic11) Here's another interesting
picture taken by Greg Brotherton
and Ralf Leeb. We are happy they
were able to film that situation with
their DV-Cam.(Pic12)Pixelstone
made another sighting in Great
Britain. Hundreds of curious people
have come to see the source of
some strange music that is impossi-
ble to describe. We can only try to
word what he has listened to: ”It
sounded like a helicopter and a car
having an argument, and a little cat
trying to arbitrate while green pecu-
liar images run for cover under a
shower”. (Pic13) Mr. Raid from
Germany didn't follow the mass
panic in Berlin. He remained calm
and took this picture. Mrs. Merkel
and Mr. Schaeuble, alias “rock-and-
roll” greeted the visitors and invited
them to a cup of coffee.
Unfortunately, the aliens don't drink
coffee because it's toxic to their bod-
ies, so they made up some excuses
and ran ...err... flew away.(Pic14)
Smokey43 took a quick snapshot of
a high-speed flying saucer.(Pic15)
So if you ever see a UFO or an
alien, please don't run away, but
take a photograph! We have to
research whether or not the aliens
are a threat to humanity. Thus far
we’ve come to the conclusion that
they are here to offer friendship. We
want to believe! Obviously the
above article is fictitious. The
images in the article were created
by some of the wonderful members
on our CINEMA 4D discussion
forum at www.3dattack.net during
our most recent Sudden Attack.
What is a Sudden Attack? Every
once in a while (suddenly) we will
throw up a mini competition where
the entrants are given a few basic
rules and theme with the opportunity
to win some great prizes.
During this Sudden Attack the
entrants modeled UFO’s and made
some very nice compositions. We
wanted to include all of the great
images, but there were so many
entrants in this Sudden Attack we
just didn’t have the space. Take a
look here:
http://www.3dattack.net/forum/showt
hread.php?t=3721.
Be sure to keep an eye on the WIP
forum at 3dattack.net. Another
SUDDEN ATTACK is sure to pop up
soon, where you will have the
opportunity to show off your skills,
learn and win some great prizes.
Feel free to join any running Sudden
Attacks as well.
Sudden Attack - A UFO ReportBy Georg Niedermeier aka sad
33
Report
Image 10
Image 11
Image 12
Image 13
Image 14
Image 15
This is a tutorial done by one of our
Sudden Attack “UFO” guys. It is
more a picture tutorial than text
based. The tutorial will give you
some tips and tricks on “composit-
ing” with CINEMA 4D and
Photoshop. Please also visit the
forum and have a look at the entries
in our “UFO” Sudden Attack!
http://www.3dattack.net/forum/showt
hread.php?t=3721
Here we go!
Compositing Tutorial - A WalkthroughBy Jeff Hogan
34
Tuto
rial
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Compositing Tutorial - A walkthroughBy Jeff Hogan
35
Tuto
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5
4
3
I was born in Berlin - East Germany on
December the 12th in 1973. I had a
happy childhood and was always inter-
ested in painting, science and music. It
was hard to get a place of study in East
Germany, so I became an electrician (it
was a good paying job though).
Meanwhile, East and West Germany
were re-united again and I was able to
get my first computer, a C64. Then fol-
lowed by several AMIGAs. I started to
learn coding in Assembler and made
some of my first graphic demos, not
really exciting things :) At this time I got
interested in CG and began using some
of the classic 3D applications on the
AMIGA. For example, Reflections, Real
3D and also CINEMA 4D (I believe it
was version 2.5). At this time computers
were slow and I lost interest in 3D.
When I got my first PC I started with 3D
Artist SpotlightMatthias Bober aka “Bobtronic”
Spotl
ight
Name: Matthias Bober
Age: soon 32
Country: Germany
Software: CINEMA 4D 9.5, Silo,
Paintshop
Website: http://www.bobtronic.de
Favorite resources on the web:
3dattack, cgtalk, c4dportal, silo forum
again using the program Imagine. Then
came the Open Source boom and I
started using Wings3D and Blender. For
the first time I was really able to make
things how I wanted them. Some years
ago MAXON released CINEMA 4D CE+,
which was a great chance to get an
awesome program for little money. Since
then I’ve used CINEMA for all my 3D
works. In addition to CINEMA I use Silo,
which, in my opinion, is a great modeling
application. I’ve always enjoyed creating
Characters. It gives me great satisfac-
tion to bring something to life. I admire
the human body and try always to cap-
ture the beauty of it. Maybe that’s the
36
3
Artist SpotlightMatthias Bober aka “Bobtronic”
Spotl
ight
37
reason I can't make horrible monsters :)
Another thing I really enjoy is coding
plug-ins. CINEMA's SDK is very power-
ful and easy to use for someone with a
bit coding knowledge. I like to experi-
ment with shading, that’s why most of
my plug-ins are shaders. It is also a nice
feeling to make other users happy with
my plug-ins. It's my way of giving some-
thing back to CINEMA's community
which, in general, is very helpful and
friendly.
In the Spring of this year I was asked by
MAXON to become beta tester, which of
course I gladly accepted. I will be
always grateful for this. For the future I
would like to make my living doing 3D.
Here and there I’ve done some smaller
jobs. Here’s to hoping!
Hi all. Here’s a little tutorial that will
help you simulate hair or grass
using Deep Instant Tree:
"http://www.dpit2.de/"
http://www.dpit2.de/
The version used is the 2.5.
Well, before we get started, here’s a
little “tour” of the different functions
that we are going to use.
Plantage
Open CINEMA 4D and run the plug-
in Deep Instant Tree. We’re going to
use the ‘Plantage’ object.
It will help us create more or less
splines ( or polys) onto an already
existing object.
Create a »planar object » and
make it editable. Put it in the ‘
plantage’ (make it a child) object
and you will see that splines are
automatically created!(pic-003)
Choose the ‘plantage’ object in the
object manager , several setup tabs
are available. (pic-004)
In the tab shown above, we can see
several options. Let’s explain some
of these.
Render only:
This option is going to help you in
case you have alot of objects in
your viewport/render.
Load h.dept.settings:
Allows you to load pre-made setups.
Non destructive:
Allows you to display/disable the
supporting object (the planar object).
Random: Allows to random the
position of splines on our plane
object.
As mentioned above, we can pro-
duce splines or polys. This is made
possible through the ‘mode function’
which allows you to choose one of
the two. You should use the spline
mode by default (we’ll go into detail
later on how to make them visible in
your final rendering/viewport )
Don’t change the “View type” let it
be in default mode (unlimited)
Interpolation:
Allows you to choose between 3
modes:
None: Splines keep their original
aspect
Natural: Splines will be curved with
rounded angle
Uniform: Splines will be curved with
sharper angles. Intermediate points
will be placed equally along the
spline.
Intermediate points:
Allows to choose the level of subdi-
vision..
Polygon Selection:
Allows to create splines on a selec-
tion (in our case of our planar
object).
For example:
Select some polygons of your planar
object (in poly mode) then in the
selection menu choose ‘set selec-
tion’ (Pic-005)
A new tag appears next to our pla-
nar object, name it ‘01’
(Pic-006 pic-007)
Using DPit to Create GrassCreated by a “Bubbles4d” member
39
Tuto
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Pic003
Pic004
Pic005
Let’s get back to our ‘plantage
object’ and put our selection tag
in the ‘polygon selection’ option
(pic-008)
As you can see, splines are only ON
our selection (pic-009).
Before we continue, erase the
selection tag.
Density:
This function allow you to setup the
density of splines on our ‘planar
object’ (pict-010)
Density editor :
Density render :
Those functions will allow you to set
the density for your viewport/editor
or final rendering. The smaller the
value the more the density will be.
To go further, we have to choose
between 2 modes to set the density
(pict-011)
The density map mode:
Allows you to random the density
according to a vertex map.
Example:
Choose the planar object, switch to
point mode, and with the live selec-
tion tool paint a point selection (the
vertex painting selection must be set
to 100 (or else) (pict-012)
A vertex map tag appears next to
your object in your object manager,
name it “density” and put it in the
density map option. (pic013 to 015)
Using DPit to Create GrassCreated by a “Bubbles4d” member
40
Tuto
rial
Pic006
Pic007
Pic008
Pic009
Pic010
Pic011
Pic012
Pic013
Pic014
Pic015
You can see that the density of
splines is much higher where paint-
ed areas are at 100.
(pict-016a)
Great, now erase the vertex map
tag and lets have a look at the ‘dis-
tance mode’.
Distance:
Allows to set up the density depend-
ing on other objects.
Example:
Set the start distance option on 0
and the end option on 100.
Create a simple sphere and put it in
the object option.(pic-017)
Nothing happens…
Set the start distance option on 90
(pict-018 pict-019)
As you can see, the spline density
where our sphere is located is a lot
higher now.
If you set the density min map
option at 2, the density around the
sphere will be even higher. Put that
value to 50 and there will be no
more splines around the sphere (
that option is also working with the
density map mode).
Ok, erase the sphere and lets get to
the appearance tab. (pic-020)
The appearance tab:
Distance variation:
Allows us to smooth our splines giv-
ing them shapes more random. If
you increase the value, here’s what
you’ll get: (pic-021)
Set the “section editor” value option
on 13 (splines will be rounder), set
this value also in the “render sec-
tion” option to get the same result in
your final rendering (pict-022)
Length:
Set’s the length of our splines
Length map:
Allows to random the length of the
spline by painting a vertex map on a
planar object.
Using DPit to Create GrassCreated by a “Bubbles4d” member
41
Tuto
rial
Pic016a
Pic017
Pic018
Pic019
Pic020
Pic021
Pic022
Example:
Take the planar object and get into
point mode. With the live selection
tool, select your vertex map
(strength at 100) and the vertex
painting option set. (pic-023)
A vertex map is created, name it
“length” and put it in the option
‘length’ . (pic-024 pic-025)
Set the option length to 100 and the
length map to 10. Observe the result
(pic026)
Length variation:
Allows you to random the spline
length.
Well, let’s erase the vertex map tag
and go to ‘alignment. tab’
Alignment:
That tab allows us to set up the
gravity and direction of our splines.
With the setup shown below, you
should obtain this (pict027-028)
That’s all!
Now, it will be interesting to check
our splines/grass rendered. To do
so, we are going to use another
instant tree object, the: “plantvolume
object”
(pict-028)
Plantvolume
This object will allow us to “thicken”
our splines.(Pict-029)
I’ll let you explore the different
parameters as they are really basic.
Put the plantage object in the plant
volume object. Your spline will get «
thickness» and will be visible in
your render/rendering. Now is the
right time to “render” and should
look pretty similar to the picture
shown above.
Thanks and Keep on Attacking!
Using DPit to Create GrassCreated by a “Bubbles4d” member
42
Tuto
rial
Pic023
Pic024
Pic025
Pic026
Pic028
Pic027
Pic028
Pic029
PLUGIN REVIEW: SplineTools
(By Gary Zullo aka Mr. Pixar)
Hello again my fellow 3D
Attackers!!! Here we go with another
review for your reading pleasure.
This time I am going to review
Renato Tarabella’s latest plugin
“SplineTools” which we’ll refer to
as SpT for the rest of the review.
As we’ve come to expect with all of
Renato’s plugins SpT offers tremen-
dous value primarily in the area of
workflow. As I’ve come to know the
man behind the plugins (having had
the pleasure of reviewing several of
them), I’ve come to know that every
one of Renato’s plugins is born out
of a single reason. First and fore-
most it’s workflow-workflow-work-
flow. Renato typically develops his
plugins to ease the shear amount of
work _he_ has to do related to mod-
eling and animations. This is simply
another tool in his toolbox; and now
ours as well. Thankfully Renato
sees enough value in his work to
share with the rest of us mere mor-
tals ?
SpT itself is surprisingly straight-for-
ward to use considering the power it
yields. SpT is a generator that
allows you to procedurally join, con-
nect, project and subdivide…can
you guess….that’s
right…SPLINES!!! SpT will save
you, simply, from having to connec-
tion and joining potentially _many_
splines in your project and losing
editability in the process. Not to
mention the headaches that can
ensue from spline manipulation with-
in a complex scene (we’ve all been
there). Well, SpT allows you to han-
dle a collection of any number of
splines as though you were handling
any other generator object (e.g.
Cube, Extrude NURBS, etc). All the
power comes from a super-simple
attribute panel for the SpT generator
(seen below).
Yep that’s it. Can you believe that’s
all there is and yet it can do soooo
much? Me either! I found SpT easy
enough to figure out that I didn’t
have to go fiddling to get things
going. I was able to immediately use
the features. Just got right in there
and was using the thing. How’s that
for workflow performance enhance-
ment?
There are really three main “object
properties” in which SpT will work.
Those are:
1) Closed: This works just like it
does with splines natively in C4D. It
will simply close the resulting spline
so that it is no longer open (and all
points will be connected). Each
spline is independent of the others,
so each spline will be closed within
itself unless you also use “join”
below (Image02)
2) Join Spline: This mode will join
the ends of the splines (i.e. the end
of spline1 will be joined with the
beginning of spline2 and the end of
spline2 will be joined with the begin-
ning of spline3, so on and so forth).
For this feature think of 4 arc
splines, joined together they form a
circle. (Image 03-04)
3) Closest Ends: This is a truly pow-
erful mode in SpT. In this mode SpT
will intelligently determine the best
path in which to join your splines.
Whereas you would normally get a
horrible join (meaning your shape
integrity would potentially be
destroyed) most times SpT will join
in such a way as to preserve your
desired shape. (Image05)
SpT also has some other important
features such as:
Collision Object: This field allows
you to specify a polygon object in
43
Plu
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Revie
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Spline Spline TTools - Plugin bools - Plugin by Ry Renaenato to TTararaabellabellaBy GarBy Gary Zulloy Zullo
Image 01
Image 02
Image 03
Image 04
which SpT will attempt to collision
detect with. Unfortunately, object
generators are not yet supported,
nor are parametric primitives from
what I understand; only polygon
objects
Projection Direction: This specifies
the direction of project that SpT will
use if there is a collision object
defined.
Collision Distance: This is the offset
to be applied in the collision direc-
tion
Subdivision: After a projection is
computed SpT can then subdivide
the resulting spline
Also included is all the standard
CINEMA support for splines for
things such as Spline type, Plane,
Intermediate Points, Number of
Points and Angle. So there you have
it. SpT in all its wondrous simplicity.
Below I just wanted to include an
example of the spline projection
abilities of SpT. So, you can clearly
see that with a few settings and a lit-
tle tweaking you can project a spline
(or series of splines) onto any poly-
gon object you so desire.
I am thinking lots of repetitive details
could be “modeled” using splines
and adjusted to suit a particular pro-
ject’s need. Object re-use; more
workflow speed enhancement ?
(Image 06)
Summary:
If you do a lot of work with splines
you know what a pain they can be
to manage and so forth. SpT is an
excellent workflow enhancer in that
regard. However, if you don’t do
much work with multiple splines
then SpT may not give you any ben-
efit. That being said; Renato has
clearly demonstrated (again) that he
is very good at getting to the point
with this plugin and simply exposing
GREAT functionality.
As with most of his other plugins, I
find myself oft wondering “Why the
heck “that” feature isn’t native to
CINEMA”. So, to conclude: I really
liked this plugin’s capabilities, but it
may not be for everyone. If you do
any work with more than one spline
“ever” then you should definitely buy
this gem.
At 44 EUROS it will pay for itself the
very first time you try spline projec-
tion . SpT gets the “Me Likey” seal
of approval.
Price: 44 EUROS
Url: http://www.tarabella.it/c4d
Version: 1.01
Platform: PC/MAC
Support: R8.2+
Rating: 4/5
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Spline Spline TTools - Plugin bools - Plugin by Ry Renaenato to TTararaabellabellaBy GarBy Gary Zulloy Zullo
Image 05 Image 06
Best of CINEMA 4DSome of the best artists around the world using CINEMA 4D
45
Image: Bathroom
Artist: Juan Carlos Pèrez Ponce
Country: Mexico
Date Created: August 2005
Website: www.infograficagdl.com
Software: CINEMA 4D and Photoshop
Artist Comments: The bathroom of a small apartment in
Punta Mita, Mèxico.
46
Image: Grimm
Artist: Jacob Saariaho (Cpt. Jack)
Country: USA
Website: www.cptjack.net
Date created: april 2005
Software: CINEMA 4D
47
Image: Illness
Artist: Adam Benton
Country: United Kingdom
Website: www.kromekat.com
Date created: 9/24/05
Software: CINEMA 4D R9.5,
Poser, Photoshop
Artist: Comments: An interpretation of
what it is like to suffer an illness of inde-
terminate duration. The original was origi-
nally created rotated 180°, but I felt this
perspective intensified the theme, by mak-
ing it more uncomfortable for the viewer.
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Image: Meched and Haunted
Artist: Armin Schieb
Country: Germany
Website: http://home.arcor.de/drakath
Date created: September 2005
Software: CINEMA 4D 8 & Photoshop 7
Artist Comments: The evolution of that scene was really hard,
turned out very nice. Models are made in CINEMA 4D; Photoshop
was used for composition, clouds/dust and colors.
49
Image: "Detail"
Artist: Fredi Voss aka rollmops
Country: Germany
Date created: October 2005
Software: CINEMA 4 D 8.5 and 9.5
Artist Comments: The image is a compositing of a background
image I made for this picture and a cg-foreground. No global
illumination was used. Two lightsources and ambient occlu-
sion.Textured in BodyPaint.
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AC
OM
ICB
YS
EB
AS
TIE
NF
LO
RA
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© 2004-2005 3D ATTACK TM
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