December2005

ISSUE - DECEMBER 2005

Page 3

Editors Notes

Page 4

3D Attack and Vital Disclosure Present “Story Time”

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Interview: Jana Rot by Tavy Ann

Page 13-19

JENNA Step by Step by Gary Zullo

PAGE 20

WIN Unity!

PAGE 21-23 zBlur - Working On A Project by Thomas Pasieka

PAGE 24-25 Modeling A Book by Bram van Gerwen

PAGE 26-27 Review: Discovering BodyPaint 2 & 2.5 by Mark Gmehling

PAGE 28-32 Interview: Dennis Miller by Tavy Ann

PAGE 33-35 Layered Shaders by Rui Batista

PAGE 36

Gnomon Workshop by Aaron Biscombe

PAGE 37-39 Artist Spotlight on Cornel Swoboda

PAGE 40-42 Best of C4D Gallery

Page 43

Attack Team

Page 44

Holiday Rendering by Sebastien Florand (Fluffy)

Editor’s Notes Happy Holidays Attackers!

BODYPAINT TRAINING DVD

Contact Information

The Holiday Season is upon us. A time for giving, receiving, sharing, caring, reflection and love.

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

3D Attack 158 S. Saginaw St. Chesaning, Michigan 48616 - USA

In the United States the first holiday of the winter season is Thanksgiving. Although Thanksgiving’s roots can be found in our rich American history, many families find it to be a time to reflection of all they are thankful for. 3D Attack would like to take this time to thank you, our readers. Thank you for all of your support this past year.

You make our work worth doing.

May you and your families be richly blessed throughout the holiday season and into the New Year.

Seasons Greetings,

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 different. You will now find your Goodies folder at http://www.3dattack.net/goodies/ for download.

This allows us to make changes to the Goodies folder easily, (if needed) and provide you with the access to the Goodies at all times.

Remember, the Goodies are copyright protected, as is the magazine.

These Goodies are for paying readers only. DO NOT redistribute your download link or your Goodies folder.

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 professionals 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/3DATTACK-CINEMA4DNEWS.xml

E-mail: 3dattack@3dattack.net Tutorials If you have any questions or comments regarding the tutorials within the magazine, please feel free to express them on or CINEMA 4D discussion forum at www.3dattack.net Harvey Reitano 1924 - 2005 The December 2005 issue of 3D Attack is dedicated to the memory of Harvey Reitano. He will be remembered with great admiration and much love.

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

Attack the CINEMA4D Magazine and all material contained therein are copyright protected. You may not disassemble or distribute any part of this publication without prior written consent from 3D Attack directly. Any

Reviews

attempts to do so will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law as it applies in Michigan, USA. This applies

If you would like 3D Attack to evaluate 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

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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 cannot guarantee that they are 100% error-free and therefore cannot issue refunds based on those errors.

Interview

Interview with Jana Rot - Fashion Designer

By Tavy Ann

Interview

Jana Rot - Fashion Designer

Tavy: Jana, it’s a true pleasure to speak with you today. We are looking forward to learning more about you and your work. Would you mind introducing yourself to our readers?

Where do you live…how old are you…etc…?

Jana: First, hello to all the readers of 3D Attack. It's a pleasure to do an interview for such a good 3D magazine, especially because it's dedicated to Cinema 4D. I was born about 26 years ago in Kranj Slovenia and I still live there. I've been interested in clothes since I was a little girl. When I was still in kindergarten I was very stubborn about what kind of clothes I should wear, so my mother had a real problem with me sometimes.

When I was a bit older I started drawing my own clothes and I still have some of my first sketches, and they look...hmm really funny. After I finished classical gymnasium in Kranj, I went on to study Fashion and Textile design, where I found out more about design, fashion, textiles and other things linked to this area. I graduated this year in June.

For my diploma I decided to do a collection of dresses made in 3D using CINEMA 4D, known for it's

user friendly interface and I can say now, it was a smart decision. With CINEMA 4D you can easily come to a wanted result.

Tavy: Can you tell us a little about your education? What are you currently doing to earn your living?

Jana: After I finished classical gymnasium Kranj I continued on with my education at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, Department for Textile and fashion design, where I graduated this year in June under the mentoring of Marjeta Godler, and co mentoring of AndraÏ Logar. My diploma with the title “3D Computer Technology for Development of Clothes Collection”, was nominated for the Student

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Preseren award which is the highest government given award for students here in Slovenia, the awards will be given in December. In October I had the first “real life” exhibition of my 3D collection called “Rot_Rhoeas”, which I think was pretty successful.

I'm currently working on some projects for a small company here in Slovenia called Thirdframestudios; they specialize in 3D animation for mobile phones. I'm modeling and texturing at the moment. Some other companies here in Slovenia have invited me to do some lectures on modeling and texturing, so I'll be also doing that in the next months or so. I am also looking for worldwide offers :) .

Interview with Jana Rot - Fashion Designer

Interview

By Tavy Ann

Tavy: What inspired you to combine 3D/CG and fashion design?

Jana: My boyfriend AndraĂ? Logar was very interested in 3D animation.

He went on to study 3D animation at the Media Design School in New Zealand three years ago. During that time I was finishing my education as a Textile and Fashion designer here in Slovenia and I had to think of what will I do for my diploma.

So, as I stayed in touch with him all through his learning process of 3D animation, we heard from each other almost everyday, and seeing what he was doing, he infected me with 3D. I started thinking of how, as a Fashion designer, I could implement 3D in my designs. At first I was aiming really high.

I wanted to do a catwalk animation of my own designed dresses, but when I started to learn CINEMA 4D,

and I actually started to work on my clothes, I realized that all areas such as modeling, texturing, lighting and animation are so extensive and take so much time to really get to know and use them, that I wouldn't be able to finish my project on time.

Although C4D is very easy to use, I left out animation and some other things. As no one at my faculty was doing something like this in 3D, (as far as I knew, and only a few in the world according to my knowledge), this was also another challenge for me. I was doing something new and that kept me going through the rough times. This is quite often the case with 3d graphics.

Tavy: What software applications are you currently using and why?

Jana: I use CINEMA 4D 9.0 for modeling, texturing, lighting and rendering of my 3D models of clothes, accessories and other 3D objects that I create for clients. I'm currently

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using Corel Painter together with my Wacom tablet for doing my sketches of clothes and accessories or just for drawing.

I also use Adobe Photoshop mainly for correcting images, and Adobe Illustrator for arranging images for printing. And for writing things down I use OpenOffice2. And I should not forget BodyPaint as an essential

Interview with Jana Rot - Fashion Designer

Interview

By Tavy Ann

Tavy: CINEMA 4D is known for being an “easy to learn” 3D application. When did you start using CINEMA 4D, and how long did it take you to learn its tools and begin designing your creations?

designs - They've been a sort of storyboard for my 3D designs, and then I started to work on real 3D. One dress, together with the accessories, took more than a month to finish. To complete all four, it took me, together with lighting and rendering, more than six months.

Tavy: When starting a new design, where do you start? Where do you end?

Jana: I have been using CINEMA 4D for about a year and a half and, I have to say, that you can fast and easily get your wanted result with it.

In my first 6 months with C4D I went through numerous tutorials I found on the web, books, and of course the CINEMA 4D Manual. First. My boyfriend, AndraÏ Logar, also helped me a lot. In that time I learned the tools, the basics of modeling, texturing, lighting and rendering. Then after first six months of learning the program I started to work on my creations. First, I did sketches of my

Jana: I always start with some kind of inspiration for my clothes or collections and end with a finished real life sewn dress or finished 3D dress.

The inspiration could be something from nature, something not so real, something from the past, or just something from my imagination.

Than I draw these inspirations on piece of paper, sometimes at the right moment when I get the inspiration! Then I gather all of my ideas or information’s and I draw down details, for which I think could be useful for the collection and then I

tool for texturing. But being a part of the CINEMA package, I often forget to mention this great piece of software.

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do figure sketches. This, I think, is also a classical approach for designing clothes. I do the same when designing clothes in 3D. For this particular collection, I took some photos of the “poppy”. I took these pictures a long time ago when my mother brought a bunch of poppy's home from a field near our home.

So, the photos of the poppy in different stages of its blossom were my inspiration. I would look at them when drawing details that I thought would be useful for my collection.

Interview with Jana Rot - Fashion Designer

By Tavy Ann

Then I started to do sketches on a computer with Painter and my Wacom tablet. I drew like thirty sketches, chose four of them, and started working on materials. I had to choose from which fabrics or materials the clothes and the accessories would be made of. I tried to find “real life� fabrics and used them, later on, when I was texturing and making 3D materials.

Interview

I also decided where the stitches, darts, zippers and other details of the clothes will go, and where, or how, these kinds of clothes should be sewn in real life, and how the fabrics should behave. After all the preparations, or when I did the storyboard, I started working in CINEMA 4D. First I started with modeling.

I modeled all four dresses together with accessories, continued with UV's for all the objects. After that I started working on materials and I had to figure out how to imitate the real live fabrics in 3D so they would look in 3D, like they do in real life.

When I was working on materials I had the fabrics and other materials, like leather, always by my side. I was always checking their parameters out and looking at what kind of reflection they have. Do they have Fresnel or not? What is their diffusion like? And so on‌. I was looking for irregularities and how certain fabrics behave. This wasn't an easy thing to do in 3D, and sometimes I did more than a hundred variations of the fabric. This is how I got the one that I was satisfied with. When I

had the materials that I wanted, I started texturing and sometimes I've combined or used more than three different materials on one part of a dress in order to get the look that I wanted. So I had, in average, more than fifteen materials on one dress.

Sometimes even twenty or more.

The basic lighting was set before I started working on materials. This enabled me to do test renders to see how the materials behaved and if they were looking as real to life as possible, according to the fabrics I had for reference. When all the materials were finished, the rendering started, which took approximately eleven hours for one dress without the separate details and single parts of the dress. When everything was rendered I did some corrections in Photoshop, and that is how I ended the 3D dress or collection.

Tavy: To date, what is your greatest achievement?

Jana: My greatest achievement to date would have to be my 3D diplo-

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Interview with Jana Rot - Fashion Designer

By Tavy Ann

ma. I have put so much of my life into it. There were times or days when I thought that I would never reach my goal, but with a lot of help and love from Andraz and my mother Vojka, I made it through the hard times of a intensive one year of work. I would like to thank them both again.

Tavy: Are you currently working on any projects you can tell us little about?

Interview

Jana: I'm currently working on some projects for company here in Slovenia called Thirdframestudios.

Soon I will start to work on a tutorial on how to make a bag. I have been getting some other offers as well.

The future seems bright.

Tavy: Do you see a future for 3D/CINEMA 4D in fashion design?

Jana: Yes, I think CINEMA 4D has a real perspective in fashion design, especially with features like Clothilde and Dress-o-Matic.

And especially if in the future we see specific plug-ins just for fashion design, like, for example, plugins or softwares for architects, this would be really nice. When I was doing my schooling I did some research on what kind of 3D programs exist for fashion design, and I didn't find any real 3D programs.

I mean all the programs for fashion and textile design aren't made in a way that a fashion designer would be able to model, texture, set lighting and render in a certain way for his own clothes. They are mainly library based, and there you can only use the already made parts of clothes, patterns and fabrics, put them together or change them in a

certain way. But these kinds of programs don't leave much room for a designer to be creative, but being creative is a fundamental of being a designer. On the other hand, CINEMA 4D offers all that.

You can model, texture and everything else in every way that you like.

I was very surprised when I've discovered how many new ideas you can get when working in a 3D program and how many new possibilities open with such tools that this kind of program offers.

I also think, that you start to think in a way that you have not thought before. Though we must never forget that 3D programs are just a tool to help us come to fresh, liberating ideas, and not just a tool that we are fascinated and limited with.

A real innovation in the fashion world would be a 3D plug-in or a program in which you could model clothes in a way that you can do in CINEMA 4D, and the end result

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would be patterns for your clothes.

Current fashion programs offer just 3D simulation of clothes from already made patterns, but this really isn't a very innovative way for a designer. So if there is anyone prepared to develop something like this, maybe even MAXON itself, please, let me know!

Tavy: Do you have any words of wisdom/advice for the thousands of aspiring fashion and graphic designers throughout the world?

Jana: Hahaha words of wisdom, well if I would have something to say it would be this: Don't ever stop doing what you think is worth of giving up some of your free time for, but never forget that love and health should be the first things on your mind. And of course, keep using Internet communities like 3D Attack or CG Talk and don't forget to return a favor!

Tavy: Jana, thank you so much for taking time from you busy schedule

Interview with Jana Rot - Fashion Designer

Interview

By Tavy Ann

to enlighten us with a little deeper look at you and your work. We are looking forward to what the future holds for you and 3D in fashion. Do you have any last words you would like to leave our readers with?

Jana: Thank you for this interview.

I'm very honored that you contacted me to do an interview for your wonderful magazine. I hope that the readers will, or have, enjoyed it. I would also like to thank all CINEMA 4D communities for all the help they

gave to me during the realization of my project.

And I wish to the 3D Attack team, to all the readers and to the magazine, an inspiring, creative, challenge filled new New Year (2006), with a lot of great 3D Stuff.

Have fun and keep the creativity going!

Jana Rot

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JENNA - STEP BY STEP

Tutorial

Gary Zullo aka Mr. Pixar

Hello my fellow Attackers! In this issue I am going to take you through an overview of JENNA and show you its power in simplicity. As you know 3D Attack and Core Arsenal have found a way to keep JENNA alive. CoreArsenal’s dedication to the CINEMA 4D community and 3D Attack’s desire to bring this fantastic plugin back, has blown life back into JENNA (!!). 3D Attack dug deep and pulled out the resources needed to obtain this “must have” plugin for distribution to the CINEMA 4D community. So, what do we want to accomplish in this tutorial? Well, I want to show you how each object works and how you can quickly create some crazy things by using them in different combinations. If feedback is positive I would like to then do another project-based tutorial in the future where you and I could explore JENNA in an actual project. So, if you would be interested in that please email us at: 3dattack@3dattack.net and voice your opinions ?

Ok, so some of you may be asking what the heck is JENNA anyway?

Well, allow me to answer that!

Simply put, JENNA is a real-time procedural geometry engine for objects and animated hierarchies in Cinema4D (R9.1+). The plugin objects include:

of work and effort, so you can understand what all of the buzz was about when it looked as though JENNA was gone forever…

Now, let’s discuss each object, what it does and how to use them.

ITERATOR

ITERATOR (transform-based multiple source object generator) TWEENER (object hierarchy blender) GRIDARRAY (volumetric object hierarchy distributor) MESHARRAY (material aware object hierarchy distributor) ALLIE (geometric material interpreter).

NICKL (loopable function-based deformer) displaceVIEW (material displacement preview) In addition to these objects, JENNA has some additional, and very useful, objects as part of the suite: Multiple Source (allows multiple source objects and hierarchies to be used in JENNA objects) uberNULL (pure null object) jTAG (Jenna data container tag) jSHADER (Jenna object data shader) If you’re new to JENNA then you’re in for a treat. If you are familiar with JENNA then you can attest to the fact that it is most likely a “musthave” plugin in your toolbox. JENNA can best be summed up as being CINEMA 4D’s Duplicate command on steroids! Certain things still cannot be done without it without a lot

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ITERATOR is a generator that allows you to create repetitive objects in a non-destructive editable way (e.g. Think of things such as fence posts along a field, techynurnies on a spaceship, people in a line, chains, ropes, lights, etc, etc.).

Under normal circumstances even

JENNA - STEP BY STEP Gary Zullo aka Mr. Pixar

CINEMA’s duplicate function would leave you with a lot of post-work to do in order to place these items, and that work would be destructive; meaning you’re stuck with what you did unless you remembered to save a file before going at it ? ITERATOR allows you to define symmetry and placement all from a comfy control panel and it’s completely nondestructive. Don’t like what you end up with? Reset your parameters, or remove the ITERATOR object and that’s that – back to “normal”!

Tutorial

Making it do something (basic):

Making it do something (advanced):

and then adjust the “Origin Offset” value to the position where the cones have made it through the entire text spline primitive. CTRLClick (CMD-Click on the MAC, I believe) again to create a key frame at frame 90. Rewind the animation time slider and press play. Pretty cool, eh?

TWEENER This is a more advanced example of how one can use the ITERATOR object generator.

Create a text spline primitive Create a cone primitive and change its “Bottom Radius” to 5, “Height” to 15, “Height Segments” to 1 and “Rotation Segments” to 15 Create a new ITERATOR generator (Plugins > CaJENNA > ITERATOR) Change the ITERATOR’s “Count” to 50

This is a basic example of how you can setup and use the ITERATOR object generator.

Create a primitive object (I used a cube)- Create the ITERATOR generator object (Plugins > CaJENNA > ITERATOR)

Go to the ITERATOR’s “Transform” tab and change the “Translate Vector” Y value to 10 and change the “Rotation Vector” Y value to 0.

Move the cone so that it is a child of the ITERATOR.

Since ITERATOR is an object generator we will need to drag the primitive object under the ITERATOR so that the primitive is a child of the ITERATOR.

Move the text spline primitive so that it is a child of the ITERATOR (until we add the cone as a child the text spline primitive will be iterate) In the “Path” tab make sure that the “Use Path” and “Tangential” are both checked.

As soon as the primitive is placed as a child of the ITERATOR you should immediately see an array of transformed primitives Now you can tweak the various values to describe each object’s placement, rotation, variation from the other objects, size, etc.

Make sure that animation time slider is at frame 0. Then CTRL-Click (CMD-Click on the MAC, I believe) the grey circle next to the “Origin Offset “parameter. This will create a key frame at our current frame (0) and at “Origin Offset” 0. Move the animation time slider to frame 90

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TWEENER is a generator that allows you to create objects by “blending” two object hierarchies.

Ultimately, TWEENER is a powerful interpolation generator. To function, it requires two source object hierarchies which are identical in their makeup (object types and vertex counts) but different in their parameters and/or vertex placement. For instance, by dropping a sphere into

JENNA - STEP BY STEP Gary Zullo aka Mr. Pixar

TWEENER, duplicating it to make a second sphere inside the TWEENER object, changing the radius of either sphere, and transforming either sphere (position is the most obvious ), a series of spheres is generated by mixing the two source spheres.

GRIDARRAY

Making it do something:

Tutorial

Create a cylinder primitive and use the following settings: radius=32, height=100, height segments=8 and rotation segments=18 Create a tube primitive and use the following settings: inner radius=34, outer radius=70, rotation segments=18, cap segments=1, height=19, height segments=1 This is a basic example of how you can setup and use the TWEENER object generator.

Create two separate (but similar) primitive objects. I used cubes.

Place some space between each object so that you can easily see the effect.

Create a new TWEENER generator.

Move both primitive objects so that they are children of the TWEENER Immediately after moving the primitives you should see the space between the primitives disappear and tweened objects fill the space Experiment with each parameter of the TWEENER as well as each primitive and see what cool effects you can come up with.

This not only works with primitive object but with splines, object hierarchies, etc. Feel free to try this same technique using splines instead of primitives. The only thing to remember is to make the splines editable (‘c’ key by default).

GRIDARRAY is an object generator that allows for the regular and arranged distribution of objects and hierarchies within a cubic volume.

The distribution of objects can be constrained to any combination of specific topological regions of the volume (corners, edges, faces, and volume). GRIDARRAY is ideal for the quick and efficient creation of crystalline, repeating structures as well as irregular, organic structures composed from a specific object (stars, dust, clouds, etc).

Drag the tube primitive so that it is a child of the cylinder. Create a new GRIDARRAY generator. Move the cylinder/tube hierarchy to that it is a child of the GRIDARRAY. You should immediately see the generator doing its job as our cylinder/tube object is duplicated several times Tweaking values such as variation, scale etc can yield some pretty ingenious results.

MESHARRAY

With a bit of experimentation and creativity you can realize a huge range of forms. It is well worth taking some time to explore the wealth of GRIDARRAY’s possibilities.

Making it do something: (See next picture) This is a basic example of how you can setup and use the GRIDARRAY object generator.

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MESHARRAY is an object generator that allows you to create instanced hierarchies based on the geometry

JENNA - STEP BY STEP Gary Zullo aka Mr. Pixar

of a source hierarchy that can be further influenced by material properties. Creation, source hierarchy selection, translation, scale, orientation, visible light color, and even final shading properties can be influenced by these material channels.

MESHARRAY’s support for animated deformed bodies offers a wealth of design opportunities.

Tutorial

Making it do something:

This is a basic example of how you can setup and use the MESHARRAY object generator.

Create four cube primitives Create a new MESHARRAY object generator (Plugins > CaJENNA > MESHARRAY). Either set “AutoUpdate” to “Always, or you will have to click “Force update” to see changes. Move the 4 cubes so that they are children of the MESHARRAY object. Immediately after moving the cubes you should see the effects of MESHARRAY on the cubes. Resize the cubes as follows: cube1=no changes, cube2=all size parameters set to 25, cubes 3 and 4=all size parameters set to 10 Since we are creating a noise-driven animation we need to create the material noise that will be the driver.

So create a new material. Add noise to the color channel. I used “Ober” at global scale=1000% and animation speed=1. This will give us a large enough scale to see the true

pattern of the function as well as seeing it animate over time.

In order to use the new material in the MESHARRAY object it first has to be applied to an object in the hierarchy. To avoid having the material being rendered on our MESHARRAY-created objects we can simply use an uberNULL (more on that in a bit) that will be ignored

by MESHARRAY when it evaluates the objects.

Create an uberNULL object (Plugins > CaJENNA > uberNULL) and move it so that it is the first child of the MESHARRAY object then click the green check (which will turn to a red X) to make MESHARRAY ignore it.

To use the material to influence the attributes of the instanced objects we must first place the texture tag in one the texture evaluation channels of the MESHARRAY object. Select the MESHARRAY object and locate the “Texture” tab in the Attribute Manager. Drag the texture tag from the uberNULL object to the first texture channel.

With the MESHARRAY object selected to go the “Parameter” tab.

Make sure “Density” is checked and set channel=1. Now play the timeline and change the “Density” “Tolerance”. In order to animate this one from the timeline you’ll have to set key frames, but you should see what can be done by simply playing with the tolerance value ?

ALLIE (See next picture) ALLIE is an object generator that allows you to utilize a grid of instanced hierarchies that can be further influenced by material properties. Creation, source hierarchy selection, translation, scale, orienta-

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tion, visible light color, and even final shading properties can be influenced by these material channels.

ALLIE is ideal for the quick and efficient creation of stylized, repeating structures as well as irregular, organic structures composed from a specific object (droplets on a surface, cloud structures, etc...). This particular generator is a lot like another plugin called “PlaceOnPoints” if you are familiar with its functionality Making it do something: (See picture on next page) This is a basic example of how you can setup and use the ALLIE object generator. Create a cube primitive

JENNA - STEP BY STEP

Tutorial

Gary Zullo aka Mr. Pixar

and set each of the size components to 50.Create a new ALLIE object generator. Move the cube primitive so that it is a child to the ALLIE object. Immediately after moving the cube you should see the effects of ALLIE (a cube instance will be placed on each point intersection). With the ALLIE object selected go to its “Transform” tab and change each of the “Count” values to 5

To use the material to influence the attributes of the instanced objects we must first place the texture tag in one the texture evaluation channels of the ALLIE object. Select the ALLIE object and locate the “Texture” tab in the Attribute Manager. Drag the texture tag from the uberNULL object to the first texture channel. With the ALLIE object selected to go the “Parameter” tab.

Make sure “Density” is checked and set channel=1. Now play the timeline and change the “Density” “Tolerance”. We have a noise driven animation my friends!

Making it do something (basic):

NICKL

This is a basic example of how you can setup and use the NICKL object deformer.

Since we are creating a noise-driven animation we need to create the material noise that will be the driver.

So create a new material. Add noise to the color channel. I used “Ober” at global scale=1000% and animation speed=1. This will give us a large enough scale to see the true pattern of the function as well as seeing it animate over time.

In order to use the new material in the ALLIE object it first has to be applied to an object in the hierarchy.

To avoid having the material being rendered on our ALLIE-created objects we can simply use an uberNULL (more on that in a bit) that will be ignored by ALLIE when it evaluates the objects.

Create an uberNULL object (Plugins > CaJENNA > uberNULL) and move it so that it is the first child of the ALLIE object then click the green check (which will turn to a red X) to make ALLIE ignore it.

deformations for animation, but also allows you to easily deform just about anything. NICKL gives you unparallel power related to deformations by giving you: numerous tweakable function defaults, realtime feedback and tons of falloff options. NICKL is still just as applicable now (NICKL2) as it was when it debuted.

Create a primitive object (I used a plane). Create a new NICKL deformer (Plugins > CaJENNA > NICKL). Since NICKL is an object deformer and works just as native C4D deformers do you will need to drag it so that NICKL is a child of your primitive, or other object The NICKL deformation should be immediately visible to you in the editor viewport(s). Tweak the settings to your liking. Try the different falloffs and functions for some really cool effects – easily! Press play and see what you’ve done ?

Making it do something (advanced): (See image on next page)

NICKL is an object deformer that allows you to easily define looping

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This is a more advanced example of how one can use the NICKL object deformer.

JENNA - STEP BY STEP Gary Zullo aka Mr. Pixar

would use the “Current State To Object” function).

Tutorial

Making it do something:

Create a text spline primitive We need to add sufficient detail to the points in the splines for the deformation to show well on the splines. So, first change the “Intermediate Points” value to “Uniform” and set the number to something like 30. Alter the different strength values until you have something that looks good ?

Alter the global scale value until golden brown. Now, press the play button. Since NICKL was created for loopable deformations; you just created an animation! As long as you haven’t changed any of the parameters in the functions tab the animation should loop seamlessly displaceVIEW

This is a basic example of how you can setup and use displaceVIEW. Create a new primitive object (plane for example). Create a new displaceVIEW object (Plugins > CaJENNA > displaceVIEW). Since displaceVIEW is a deformer and it works just like native C4D deformers it must be placed as a child to the object.

displaceVIEW is a new addition to JENNA that allows you to preview material displacement in the editor without any restrictions (or having to render). To my knowledge this is the only displacement previewer for CINEMA 4D currently. displaceVIEW can be converted to a polygon object from the deformed (previewed) geometry (for this you

Now we need to create a material that uses displacement, which is pretty easy to do. Create a new material, and go to the material editor. Check the box to enable the displacement channel and add a noise of your choice (I used Stupl @ 100% strength / 200m height).

Once you have a suitable material

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apply it to the plane primitive.

If displaceVIEW is enabled you should immediately see the flat plane become displaced according to the noise you applied to the material. If you want to change the way it looks then all you need to do is change your material accordingly and refresh the displaceVIEW object by clicking the “force update” button in the attributes manager.

Alternately, you can also set the “Auto Update” value to “Always” ? and any change you make to the material will immediately appear in the editor window

Some other invaluable JENNA items Multiple Source. This object is used mainly by ITERATOR and ALLIE to allow for multiple source object hierarchies. I know you’re probably thinking, “Wow! You don’t say?” LOL Let me explain…ITERATOR, by default, can only use a single object hierarchy instance. The same goes for ALLIE. This removes that limitation. GRIDARRAY also can make use of Multiple Source…think of using separate object hierarchies for the edges, surface and volume. This allows for limitless possibilities; and easily to boot. uberNULL uberNULL exists to eliminate an issue with virtual hierarchy baking in Cinema4D. If you use a NULL object without children objects in a virtual hierarchy (created by an array object for instance) the NULL objects will be deleted when the array object is converted to a real object hierarchy by using the “Current State To Object” command.

The uberNULL does convert and preserves the parental axis functionality. It can also be used (when dis-

JENNA - STEP BY STEP Gary Zullo aka Mr. Pixar

abled) for texturing evaluation purposes in MESHARRAY or ALLIE objects. jTag and jSHADER

Tutorial

jTAG is a data tag applied to objects instanced by JENNA object generators like ITERATOR, TWEENER, GRIDARRAY, MESHARRAY, and ALLIE. It stores data including UVW, Position, Texture 1 - 5 (these are the evaluated texture results of the texture channels associated with a generator object). These data channels can be used by jSHADER, XPresso, or even other plugins that add properties based on jTAG data jSHADER is a shader whose purpose is using the jTAG data created for JENNA object instances for shading during rendering. This adds an incredible amount of power to JENNA by allowing instances to become unique.

Summary: Well, first of all I’d like to thank you for making it this far. I realize that this tutorial may have been a bit long but I wanted to go over JENNA and all its functionality in great detail. I’ve personally never really seen any tutorials or much of anything JENNA-related on the web which is somewhat depressing.

So, I was more than excited to write this and share this invaluable tool with everyone. If you liked this month’s JENNA tutorial please let us know and if there is enough response I’d love to do a projectbased tutorial that moves away from how each parameter works and actually make something! You decide ?

You can find each of the scene files created in the tutorial in this month’s goodies (see the editor’s notes at the beginning of the magazine for more information).

Until next time -- Gary

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Unity is valued at $999.00. For a chance to win Unity e-mail your answer to the question above to 3dattack@3dattack.net, (hint: The answer can be found at www.unity3d.com under “Company�). UNITY should be your subject line and your answer and your real name must be included in the e-mail body. Your e-maill address with then be pooled with the other entries and we will pick one random winner on January 1, 2006. The winner will be notified via e-mail and on our forum at www.3dattack.net. *3D Attack staff and their immediate families are not eligible to enter and/or win 3D Attack prize giveaways. **Unity is currently only available for OS X.

zBlur - Wor king On A Pr oject

By T homas P asieka Hello there ATTACKERS! Well this is not really a tutorial, but surely an interesting piece of work

by Pierre Magnol. Pierre is a freelance artist is using zBlur and CINEMA 4D to create professional commercials. One example can be found on our 3D Attack page at: http://3dattack.net/shop/index.php?pl ugin=5

Tutorial

This commercial was completely produced by him using various 2D and movie layers.

A while ago Pierre and I made contact and he asked me to give his some assistance on a new commercial for ROSSIGNOL. He showed me some example shots of his current work and I noticed some artifacts in almost every scene. I took the time and explained why he was getting these artifacts and showed him some tips and tricks on how to avoid these while using zBlur.

For those of you that are not familiar with z-Blur, let me give you a quick description: 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.

can be a bit tricky at times and one would need a little experience with zBlur. The scene itself is very basic, but the combination of 2D motion graphics and animated 3D Objects makes this an interesting project.

Here is a shot of the scene completely without any blur effects. The different layers are placed all over the place in different levels. (See

The first screenshot (see big picture) will show you the setup for this shot. You will notice a lot of planes and cubes plus some extruded objects. A lot of the planes use 2D motion graphics (Picture in Picture) with alpha channels. Actually an easy task for zBlur, but the setup

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picture below) A nice little setup which gives the expression of a high tech product. Most of the graphics you see are done with Adobe Photoshop and the animation of these files, on the other hand, was then done in Adobe After Effects.

The very next picture will show you the result of Pierre's settings. I marked the various render artifacts right in the picture (1-6) and you can clearly see that the blur ends abruptly on several objects that use alpha channels and such. (See picture on next page). It seems like the transition is not smooth and you would most likely blame zBlur for this. Well, zBlur is not the problem, but as mentioned in the beginning, it requires a little training and knowledge with zBlur to avoid these "errors". Now let's have a look at

zBlur - Wor king On A Pr oject

By T homas P asieka

Tutorial

the top. This makes for a smooth transition. Here is a preview of the zbuffer (zBlurPreview), which is very

Pierre's zBlur Render Settings shown in the next picture (See picture below - zBlur settings). Pierre

settings, but have a look at the settings I've made in the next picture (See my settings in the pic below).

helpful and allows for easy and fast setups of your desired blur range.

The dark areas represent the "sharp" areas while the white areas represent the blurred areas, and in between (grey) is the transition. The preview window will allow you to set start and length of the zbuffer (Start at 0 and ends at 6400 - scene depended). The preview window will also allow you to "set keys" in order to create a camera animation with blur.

The following picture (on the next page) will show the end result of my settings. You can clearly see that there are no artifacts and we have a nice smooth transition. That's what we wanted! The scene is ready to be rendered in high resolution!

chose to use the "spline" blur type with a Sample Radius of 1 and 2 Iterations for a not so heavy blurring of his scene (The higher the Iteration the more blur). The Blur profiles almost shows a nice curve and Pierre is also using "Bleed Control" to get rid of the bleeding (blurring of edges around objects that should not be affected). There seems to be nothing wrong with his

I chose to go with a medium blur type and 2 Iterations in order to get pretty much the same result Pierre was after. I also chose to use the bleed control option, and as you can see, it goes from low to high (nice transition). Now here is a little trick.

As you can see the first point of this curve (bottom left) is not totally on the lowest setting, and the last point of the curve (top right) is not all at

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A little side note: zBlur requires a little knowledge. It is best to play around with zBlur on easy scenes to get a feel for it. Learn how to use the different blur types and learn how to use the preview window. zBlur is an amazing tool, but like with any other plug-in/software, it requires a bit of effort and time. But once you become a pro with zBlur, it

zBlur - Wor king On A Pr oject

Tutorial

By T homas P asieka

will be as easy as eating breakfast!

If you have problems using zBlur in your project, please don’t hesitate to ask us on the forum or directly write me e-mail, and we will check your scene or give you some tips and tricks!

Happy rendering!

Thomas

Check out some example renderings and videos on our shop page at: http://3dattack.net/shop/index.php?pl ugin=5 zBlur has been updated to version 1.5 and is now also able to create “bokeh” effects (see video on the bottom of the shop page for more information).

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Basic Modeling: A Book

By Bram van Gerwen

Basic Modeling - Basic Book using Splines

Tutorial

In this basic modeling tutorial we'll learn how to create a realistic looking hard cover book using some simple spline techniques. The splines are easily adjustable so that you can use your resulting document as a template to quickly create other books that differ in size and form.

Let's begin by drawing the rough form of the cover. Go to Top View (F2), look at Picture 1 and draw a similar spline using the Draw Bezier Spline Tool (selected also shown for reference). When setting down points with this tool you can hold the mouse down to drag out the tangents and aim the spline. Make sure you start drawing the bottom points at the 0 position of the axis so that we'll be able to mirror this spline properly in the next step. To check if both points are at the 0 position select them and go to the Structure Manager (under the Window menu).

The structure manager let's you edit the position and tangent positions of individual points. You can see the rows of the two selected points highlighted in the structure manager.

Make sure both of their Z values are set to 0. The other values with the arrows next to them are the position values for the tangents of that point.

Rename the spline to 'Cover Spline' when done.

When satisfied with the cover spline create a Symmetry object and drop the spline into it. You'll notice that it mirrors on the wrong plane, so set the Mirror Plane of the symmetry object to XY to get the proper result.

The spline for the cover is finished now and we are ready to extrude it.

Picture 1

Go back to the main view (F1), create an Extrude NURBS object and drop the symmetry object into it.

We need to change a couple of settings before it looks correct. First click the spline and enable 'Close Spline', this will close the gap in the spline and enable the extrude object to utilize caps. Next we have to change the extrude direction. Click the extrude object and change its rightmost value, which is set to 20 by default, to 0 and the middle value of 0 to 160. Now the book spline will be extrude along the Y axis. You might want to use a different value than 160 depending on what scale you drew the spline, as long as the dimension of the book look like in Picture 2.

We notice a little oddity in the middle of the cover where it closes the spline. The book appears to be one object but is in fact two. We want it to be one object. The procedure is quite simple but you have to pay attention to the points you are going to connect here. Duplicate the spline object for the cover and rotate it 180 degrees over the X axis (P 180).

Now the duplicate object is like the symmetry. drag the first spline out of the symmetry and delete the sym-

24

Picture 2

metry object, it looked fancy but this method is not convincing. After this select both splines and use the 'Connect' Function. A new spline will be created from the two loose ones.

The two loose ones can now be deleted.

Now comes the part where to pay attention. Go to top view and zoom in on the middle points of the cover that are on the X axis. Because of the loose splines combined those points are actually double and are on top of each other, they need to be welded together to work correctly. select one of the points and drag the just a tiny bit along the z axis so that you can see the other point underneath it. Now select both

Basic Modeling: A Book

By Bram van Gerwen

Tutorial

points, use the Weld function and click on the bright yellow point that appears between them. Those points will now be connected. To finish the spline you can now delete the other double point which isn't welded yet and enable the 'close spline' option.

The extrusion won't display the loop error in the middle anymore now.

Let's continue, to smooth the current flat caps go the the Caps tab of the extrude object and set both Start and End to Fillet Cap, the Steps to 4 and the radius to 1. This should give nice rounded edges. Lastly we need to get the subdivisions down a bit, a lot of them are generated along the back of the book. To remedy this select the spline, set its Intermediate points to Natural and its Number to 3. This will change how the spline extrapolates its extra points and build up the polygons accordingly.

Also a good way to keep polycount down if you are using a lot of spline objects in your scene.

Next we'll make the pages, this is not for animating so its just going to be a static object. Use the Draw Bezier Spline tool to draw a spline like in Picture 3 (selected also shown for reference). Don't drag out

Picture 3

tangents for the points except for the one indicated. This will give points with linear interpolation and will simply become sharp corners instead of rounded off. When the points are drawn select 'Close

Spline' in the spline options and the gap will be closed.

Now create another Extrude Nurbs object and drop the spline into it.

The pages section is of course a bit smaller than the cover itself. Set the Y position of the extrude nurbs object to 2.5 and change the Y movement to 156 in the object properties. This will give the pages a bit of room under the book and above.

To tweak out the form set the Intermediate Points of the spline to Natural and its number to 3. Result in Picture 4 (Left).

book. Result in Picture 4 (Right), I colored the cover simple green to show the different objects better.

The book is now finished. But because of the splines it is still highly adjustable. You can tweak the form of them very easily by dragging a couple of points. For instance you can make the back cover rounded by dragging the middle points outward, you can make the cover thickness thinner by dragging its outer points inward. A couple of examples shown in Picture 5.

Picture 5 Picture 4

The last detail is the piece of material (to which the pages are bound/glued) that sticks out with most bound books. Draw a spline like in Picture 4 (inset). Then create a Sweep NURBS object and a Circle Spline. Set the Circle spline to 0,5 and drop it into the Sweep object along with the drawn spline.

The circle spline must be above the other spline for the sweep to work.

You'll notice the spline being 'swept' with the small circle, but the ends are still flat. To round them of we'll simply enable the Fillet Caps in the Cap tab of the sweep nurbs object.

To prevent the sweep from getting thicker due to the fillet caps enable 'constrain'. When Start and End are set to Fillet Cap set their steps to 3 to get roundings and the radius to 0,5 to match the sweep. This part is now complete finishing off our basic

25

Texturing is also easy, If you only want to see the front take your jpeg of the book cover you need and apply it to the model with flat projection, then click the tag and select 'Fit to Object' from the texture menu.

If you also want a text on the spine it is better to make the cover editable and create a vertex selection for the front and the spine. That way you have more control over how you align the different textures.

Have fun making some books. If you have any more questions on making books please ask them on the 3D Attack Forum.

Bram

REVIEW: DISCOVERING BODYPAINT 3D R.2 & 2.5 WITH 3D KIWI

DVD Review

On October 11. Nigel Doyle a.k.a.

3D Kiwi launched shipping of his “DISCOVERING BODYPAINT 3D R.2 & 2.5 WITH 3D KIWI”-DVD. It’s available in the C4DCafe shop for $59.99 (including postage): HYPERLINK "http://www.c4dcafe.com/3dkiwi/bps hop/index.html" http://www.c4dcafe.com/3dkiwi/bpsh op/index.html The DVD (Rom) comes along in a slim case containing Flash Format video tutorials at 1024x768 px with 32bit depth color that ensures sharp and clear video on a computer monitor. Shipping is prompt as you can see by the buyers-reactions CGTalk (Nigel himself takes care handwriting, even Asian addresses are successful! http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthre ad.php?t=283264&highlight=Bodypa int+DVD" http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthre ad.php?t=283264&highlight=Bodypa int+DVD All of the included scene files are saved with the BodyPaint standalone CINEMA 4D Rel.8.2 format.

The videos are recorded from BodyPaint version 2 (CINEMA 4D Rel.9). During the making of this DVD MAXON announced BodyPaint 2.5. Due to this announcement, Nigel took the time to include an extra chapter where he shows the new features of BodyPaint 2.5 So now lets talk about the content: First of all I was really impressed by

the announced playtime of his DVD that is about 16 hours. My first thought was, “How the hell will he entertain the BodyPaint community for 16 hours?” Well, he does it and he does it well.

Chapter 1: In the first chapter Nigel gives a shortcut describing where the 16-hour journey is going to take us. This gives a nice impression of the senseful learning curve he has prepared (16min).

Chapter 2: Nigel then moves on to talk about what UV’s are and how to work with them. This gives the new user a general understanding of what BodyPaint is, and the possibilities it offers (44min).

Chapter 3: Then he takes 64 minutes to introduce the common BPcommands and tools, mixing of shaders and BP painted textures before he goes into detail with the bigger DVD projects (64min).

Chapter 4: Here Nigel shows how to work with BodyPaint’s time saving Paint Setup Wizard (41min).

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Chapter 5: UV Editing Tools are fully explained in this chapter, except the interactive mapping that is given an extra chapter.

Furthermore, Nigel shows optimizing/adding of a customized command palette (38min).

Chapter 6: Projection Tab Tools - A walk through of all BodyPaint Projection tools and their usage (34min).

Chapter 7: In Interactive Mapping I, Nigel introduces one of the most important mapping methods and demonstrates some problem solutions (28min).

Chapter 8: Interactive Mapping II is about mapping a complicated object (a Spitfire plane) (60min).

Chapter 9: Preparing the Spitfire for UV Mapping (36min).

Chapter 10: UV Mapping the Spitfire - divided in 8 parts (226min).

Chapter 11: Painting the Spitfire is divided in 10 parts and is the biggest project on Nigel’s DVD (299min).

Chapter 12: The last chapter is dedicated to the new features BodyPaint Rel.2.5 offers (39min).

DVD Review

Chapter13: Contains an alphabetical and chronological index about the DVD’s content (PDF -format) - a nice troubleshooting helper next to the manual.

I really enjoyed watching Nigel in (real time) paint his MkV Spitfire project-unrehearsed. He included all trials and errors. This really helps the viewer understand BodyPaint’s workflow and walks them through how to easily solve the little problems that are sure to arise.

The chronological and alphabetical index the DVD provides (PDF format), and the Introduction of Chapters are very useful. They will quickly guide you where you need to go.

Bonus Tutorials and Files: Nigel also includes bonus tutorials and files. Here he shows some of BodyPaint’s tools in action.

You will also find files (Me109f by John Logan – Ready to Get Unwrapped and Painted) on the DVD. Although you will not find an in depth organic character painting/unwrapping tutorial on this DVD, everything that is needed to

complete a project of this caliber is explained. Nigel explains BodyPaint’s possibilities with only technical meshes, but all the tool and mapping methods that need to paint a character a very well explained the give the general understanding you need to paint an organic mesh.

All in all, I think Nigel lifts the “Training DVD” to a new standard when it comes playtime and price, 16 hours for $59.99 (incl. Shipping).

Furthermore, his explanations are easy to follow and clear, even for non-native English speakers.

Nigel doesn’t leave one function or command unexplained. Every knob is analyzed and shown in action.

All explanations are well taught, as you can expect, if you are familiar with Nigel’s free tutorials on: "http://www.c4dcafe.com"

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On a side note: I enjoyed not having trouble with Alt-Tab while following/doing his tutorials. When comparing playtime, price and quality, I think this DVD is the best introduction to BodyPaint on the market.

It’s a must have for the newbie and pro alike.

Without any doubt, 5 of 5 ATTACK POINTS!

Interview with Dennis Miller

By Tavy Ann

Interview

Dennis Miller

Tavy: Hello Dennis, and thank you for taking time to speak with 3D Attack. Would you please share with our readers a little about yourself? Where you live....your career...etc?

Dennis: Hi Tavy. Thanks for asking!

I live in the suburbs of Boston with my wife, dog and cat. I work at Northeastern University in Boston, where I teach courses in electronic music composition and multimedia studies. I’ve been there many years (my only real job!) and plan to stay until they throw me out. It’s a great place to work - they love the idea of combining arts and technology - and my students force me to keep up on new developments. I also write about technology for Electronic Musician Magazine, where I am an Associate Editor.

Tavy: Can you tell us a little about your education? Where did you go to school...your major(s)...etc?

Dennis: I grew up in New Orleans (very sad...), where I graduated with a Bachelor’s of Music Composition from Loyola University. I then went to grad school first in Hartford (CT), then later in New York City. I fin-

Ammonite I. One of my earliest POVray images.

ished up at Columbia University, which was one of the pioneering institutions in electronic music, but I didn’t really focus on that while I was there (that came later).

It wasn’t until a few years after I left Columbia that I got interested in computer music. I convinced Northeastern to let me take some classes at MIT so I could get on the fast track with the subject. After another few years, I saw how similar some of the graphics languages (POVray, to be specific) were to the music programming language I was using (Csound), so I taught myself POVray (a work in progress..) and started to create images that had some of the characteristics of my music (repetition with variation, etc.).

I gradually migrated to moving images, where I was really able to apply techniques from music composition - both are time-based, after all - and along the way, I took courses in art history, art fundamentals and the like to begin my “new career.”

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Tavy: When I took a first look at some of your work I thought, ok this guy is an abstract artist and a good one at that. As I looked a little deeper and played a few of your animations I realized you have gone far beyond 3D abstract imagery.

You have found a way to successfully blend music, 3D and animation to produce some of the most stunning modern art I’ve ever seen. I guess my question to you would be, where did this all start?

Dennis: Well it just seemed so natural to try and organize the images in my animations along the same lines that I had been using in my music, which is also “abstract.” Take a sequence of images, “transpose” it, “invert” it, reverse it, lengthen or shorten its duration, flip it upside down... all of those things are very common ways to develop musical themes, and they all work well in abstract moving art.

But coming up with a lot of “raw material” - oftentimes, many variations on a few basic themes - is only

Interview with Dennis Miller

By Tavy Ann

Interview

Ammonite II A frame from a High Def animation that uses Jenna and Cinema 4D.

the start. The hard part is arranging all this material into a cohesive and integrated composition. And of course, the music and the images also have to “play well together,” so that becomes another part of the challenge (and the fun) of composing these pieces. Throw in the rendering time, and you can see why each of my “Concert” works took one year to complete!

But really, it all just comes down to intuition - what goes where and what comes next, how long to focus on one basic idea before moving on to another. That’s the approach I used in writing modern concert music for 20 years and it’s the exact approach I use in my mixed media works.

Tavy: What operating system are you using? Mac/Windows?

Dennis: I’m on the PC - just started out that way and stayed with it. But except for some rare exceptions, it’s all the same to me.

after all). Also, my last POVray work, Faktura, really seemed like it went about as far as I could go with that software.

Tavy: What software applications have you used, and are currently using, to create your beautiful work?

Why?

Fortunately, I came across some images created with DiTools (big round of applause!), and immediately bought CINEMA 4D. I’ve been totally immersed in it ever since (I own every book and have read most all of the tutorials) and feel as if I am just getting competent. I owe a lot to the great gang of users who hang out at Remotion’s site (thanks to Gunter, et al!) and at the other forums, and I’ve been amazed with the help and generosity of the entire C4D community. Except for POVray and Csound, which both had great support communities, I’ve never seen anything like it.

Dennis: I started out with POVray and ran with it for about 6 years, during which time, I created six of my Concert Animations. It’s incredibly open-ended - you can write pure math equations to generate images, or use any of hundreds of primitive objects, including many contributed by users. And of course, it is entirely free. But in Spring of 2004, I decided I wanted to try a “more traditional” 3D program so I could do some of the things (camera movement, real-time previews) that POVray just couldn’t do (it’s a scripting language,

29

So now I am strictly using CINEMA, and I look forward to all the new

Interview with Dennis Miller

Interview

By Tavy Ann

Introspection This image is one of my all-time favorites DiTools and Cinema 4D.

developments from both Maxon and the plug-in community. There are just an abundance of riches (including your own, Tavy!).

world. For me, working is one part escape and for the other part, an attempt to put something positive back into the world.

Tavy: Often when I ask an artist, “Where do you find your inspiration?” they will tell me in the shower, while driving in my car, by looking at the world around me etc..where do you find yours?

Personally, I think of my work as a way to explore creative challenges it’s not really so much “about” anything as it is an on-going effort to create an abstract work that can be as compelling and involving to an audience as any representational work. But since there is no story line per se, I have to give the different musical and visual elements their own meaning, and try to keep every-

Dennis: That’s a tough one. I have a great need to immerse myself in art, what with all the horrible things that are happening around the

30

thing unified and moving along, and I hope some of that is clear to the viewer.

Tavy: Your work has been seen at exhibits and presentations the world over. If you could pick one of your works as a favorite, what would it be and why?

Dennis: Tough question - like asking, which of your kids do you like the best?? I think the visual elements in Faktura are about as advanced as I will ever do, but the combination of color and movement,

Interview with Dennis Miller

By Tavy Ann

not to mention the shape of the basic objects, in Cross Contours, will be hard to beat. But hopefully, every new work will get better in some way, so my final answer is: My favorite work is the next one I create!

Tavy: Could you tell us a little about your workflow? Where do you start and end? How do you know when a piece is finished, or is it ever?

I don’t always work in a linear way sometimes I have an ending before a middle section. I also like to keep the music and the images moving along somewhat in sync - often, I will work on the music for a few days and it will get ahead of the animation; sometimes, it is the other way around. What I don’t want to do is finish an animation and then go figure out what the music will be (or vice versa, which I often did in my earliest works). So there’s a lot to juggle - and simply finding files on

Interview

Dennis: My work habits are much the same as they have been when I was writing concert music - constantly sketching, trying to stay focused, always looking for the line or thread that will hold a piece

together. The toughest part is always just committing to a beginning - getting started! Then things often seem to take on a life of their own, and in most cases, the work gets easier.

Julia After seeing a contemporary glass show at a museum in Boston, I gave it my best shot.

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my hard drives is no small task but I’m not complaining...

Tavy: Are you currently working on any projects that you could share a bit about with us?

Dennis: I guess you could say “Always working on a project....” (My wife wishes I would take a vacation some time, but she’s a cancer researcher, so she should talk!).

With all the resources available today - and CINEMA provides so many - I constantly find news ways to produce interesting images, though only a small fraction of them will end up in a piece. Right now I am exploring Katachi’s DPiT 3 and

Interview with Dennis Miller

Interview

By Tavy Ann

Frame from Release Release was a short animation created for the Voom High Def network.

getting some great “results,” plus DiTools is always on hand. I have four or five short “movements,” each with some similarities in the basic type of images, that might end up in a suite. That’s the plan, anyway. But if I can find some other way to connect them and bring them together into a unified composition, I could go a different route.

Tavy: If you could give one piece of advice to the millions of aspiring artists in the world, what would it be?

Dennis: Hang in there! Get advice from people you respect. Send your work out to festivals and conferences - they’re everywhere. But

remember that you are the only one that needs to be satisfied.

Tavy: Once again, thank you for sharing with 3D Attack and our readers a little about you and your art.

Any last words?

Dennis: Thanks for the opportunity!

It was a true pleasure interviewing Dennis Miller, his work in innovative and inspiring. Available on Mr. Miller’s website is a DVD collection of all 7 of his Concert Animations.

Although his still images are stunning, there is nothing like seeing them flying and morphing across the screen. Visit Dennis Millers website at www.dennismiller.neu.edu.

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Layered Shaders

By Rui Batista

Layers! Almost every graphic application has them and, lets face it, they are tremendously useful, if not completely indispensable.

They are also, luckily, present in CINEMA 4D. You can find them in the BodyPaint module, and you use them just like you do in Photoshop.

The other place you have layers is on the Material Editor, in the form of a shader, and this is exactly what I'm going to talk about.

Tutorial

Using the Layers shader is almost like having a small compositing application inside any channel of your materials. In fact, the Layers shader is like a Fusion shader on steroids!

You can add to the Layers shader whatever you would be able to use in any channel and you can combine all you want in whatever way you wanted. You can even add masks, to create more complex combinations.

Anything you add to the Layers shader is stacked on top of whatever is already there - you can change the position whenever you want, by dragging - and it will influence everything that is bellow it, just like the Layers floater, in Photoshop.

So, if you add a Colorize effect to the Layers shader, it will not just colorize the image that is directly bellow it, but it will colorize the result of everything that is bellow it. There is a way to change that rule, as we will see later. But first, let us explore the Layer shader dialog: The leftmost button, labeled "Image..." allows us to load a bitmap into the Layer shader. The following

button, labeled "Shader...", when clicked, shows a menu with all the procedural shaders available in Cinema4D. The third button, labeled "Effect...", when clicked, shows a menu with a set of effects specific to the Layer shader. We will talk about them right away. The "Folder" button, when clicked, generates a folder inside which we can place whatever we want: bitmaps, shaders, effects, other folders... We will talk a bit more about folders later because they are not there just for cleanup/organizational purposes.

Finally, the "Remove" button deletes whatever is selected in the bottom of the Layers shader dialog.

The effects that are specific to the Layers shader are the following:

The Brightness / Contrast / Gamma effect is, I believe, obvious enough.

Everyone has a TV set at home and knows how to control the brightness and contrast of the image. The Gamma parameter is not so obvious for non-professionals.

I will try to explain in a very simple and quick way: not all devices display/reproduce color the same way.

For example, if we feed a printer with a value of 75% of cyan, the end result may be a shade of 79% on the paper (due to uncontrollable rea-

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sons, like ink quality, paper quality, etc). The same can happen with monitors: the video board sends out an RGB value of 15,120,34 and the monitor displays a value of 13,117,30 (again, due to uncontrollable reasons, like phosphor quality, backlight lumen power, etc). The Gamma curve is used to correct those discrepancies.

For example, an image viewed on a Mac computer will always look brighter than when seen on a Windows PC computer, because those OSs use different gammas to display images. Actually, the gamma on Windows will almost always obliterate the darker shades and that is why Windows is so crappy for design work, but that is another subject ;-) So, Gamma is used mainly for correction. If you don't know how to use it, leave it. Stick to Brightness and Contrast.

The Hue / Saturation / Lightness effect allows to individually control the color (the hue means just that, color. If something is red, no matter what type of red, if it is yellow, no matter what type of yellow, etc), the saturation (is it a vivid color, a dull color or no color at all, as in... grey) and the brightness of the color (is it dark? is it light?).

The Posterize effect will reduce the number of colors of the image. For example, if you set the number of colors to 5, the image will only show 5 different colors, sampled from the most common colors of the original image.

The Clamp Color and Clip Color effects look similar, at first sight, but they do different things. Both have a Low and a High limit. The Low limit is 0% and the High limit is 10000%.

Layered Shaders

By Rui Batista

Tutorial

Yes, you read it right, ten thousand percent!! Don't forget that CINEMA 4D can deal with HDRI images too and those images can have pretty high luminance values. Now, for the difference between the Clamp and Clip color effects. Since the manual in not very clear about what they do, I will provide my explanation, based on my observation and interpretation of the outcome.

When you set a Low value in Color Clamp, all values below that brightness will become that value.

Meaning that, if you set a Low value of 23%, all brightness values bellow 23% will be, from now on, treated as 23%. The same for a High value, as in, if you set, for example, a high value of 77%, all brightness values above 77% will be, from now on, treated as 77%.

Setting a Low value for the Clip Color effect will set a NEW low value for the image bellow it.

Meaning, if you set a Low value of 23%, everything bellow 25% will be treated as 0% and the place where the 23% value was, is now treated as the new 0%, scaling all the brightness values above.

If you set, for example, a High value of 77%, the values of the brightness are adjust in a way that the old 77% brightness value is now treated as 100% brightness.

In this case, we can't say that everything above 77% is treated as 100% because, as we learned, these values can go as high as 10000%.

So, all the values are simply scaled.

Since this is all very abstract, I believe it can be better understood with a graphical representation: The Transform effect will "physically"

transform the image bellow it. You can rotate, flip vertical and horizontally, move and scale the image.

Actually, the Layers shader could be used just for transforming a bitmap, using the Transform effect because there is no other easier way to do these kind of manipulations.

When the image is moved/scaled/rotated, the missing content that should appear at the edges is filled in with a wrapped mirrored image. Having a hard time understanding the last sentence?

Just check out the sample pictures: This is done to minimize the evident seam that appears at the limits of

the images when they are tiled. But, some images are already prepared for seamless tiling and, for those, there should be an option to turn off this mirror/wrap behavior.

Unfortunately, there isn't. I already asked Maxon to include this but I'm only one voice shouting in the crowd. Please, go to http://maxon.net/pages/support/suggestions_e.html and ask for this addition (and any more you may

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want). Finally, there is the Distort effect. The pixels of the underlying image are shifted, depending on the brightness value of the noise type chosen from the Noise list. This is, by default, a 2D (X and Y) displacement. But, if you are creating volumetric textures, turn on the 3D option and the Z axis will also be evaluated. The Strength value defines how strong the displacement will be. The Noise Scale defines how big or small will be the noise pattern. Actually, the scale parameter should be called Frequency because higher values generate smaller noises, but this is not a perfect world! Some noises can have variable detail generation. The amount of detail is set by the Octaves parameter. The higher the value, the more detail you get, but also longer calculation times.

The Time Scale parameter defines how fast/slow the noise animates.

What? The noise animates? Yes, it does. But you will only see it when you render the final movie (if it is a movie) or if you press the left-mouse button (Command+click on the Mac) on the thumbnail preview of the material and choose Animate. My personal opinion is that the Time Scale parameter should default to 0%, because, usually, people don't want the noise to change over time.

What the user usually wants is simply a "distress" effect on the image.

But, if you are rendering a still, you will not see any animation, so, lets leave it this way. Finally, the Wrap options allows you to decide how the missing pixels from the edges of the image will be filled. HINT FOR MAXON!!! This is what we also need in the Transform effect!! Now that we saw what we can add to the Layers shader, let us see HOW we can add those things.

Usually, like stated before, whatever

Layered Shaders

By Rui Batista

Tutorial

you add to the Layers shader, appears on the top of the list and affects everything bellow.

How it affects, depends on the transfer Mode and the intensity at which it is applied. The intensity is how much the above image is blended with everything that is bellow it. Its like the Opacity slider in Photoshop. This can be changed by dragging the slider or adjusting the value numerically. The transfer modes are quite a few: Normal Multiply Screen Overlay Hard Light Soft Light Dodge Burn Darken Lighten Add Subtract Difference Exclusion Hue Saturation Color Luminance Levr Layer Mask You probably know all the transfer modes from Photoshop (that is why I will not explain each and every one, individually), except for the last two.

The Levr mode acts as a Threshold filter. If the brightness value of the pixel of the image bellow is darker than the brightness value of the correspondent pixel of the image whose transfer mode is set to Levr, the result will be black. If it is lighter, the result will be white.

The Layer Mask mode affects the way the layer above is displayed.

This is better understood with an image, as usual.

The top layer is a simple gradient

(1). The layer right beneath it is also a Gradient, set to Circular (2). Its transfer mode is set to Layer Mask so, it will serve as the layer mask of the layer above it. That is why, we can see a “hole” in the top gradient and, through it, see the bottom layer, a Tiles shader (3).

White pixels in the layer set to Layer Mask will make the top layer opaque. Black pixels in the layer set to Layer Mask will make the top layer transparent. Grey values will produce correspondent translucent results.

Clicking on the eye icon, on the left of each layer, will turn its visibility on and off. This will also affect the results of the final image, since each layer influences everything that is beneath it. So, turning a single layer off can produce drastic changes.

Double clicking the name of the layer allows us to change its name.

Why? Well, having a dozen layers named Gradient is not as clear as having layers with names like Green-Red, Contrast, Sky gradient, etc.

Clicking the little thumbnail at the right of the layer name enters edit mode for that shader/image. It resulting dialog depends on the type

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of shader/image, of course.

When the editing of that particular shader/image is finished, go back to the Layer shader dialog by clicking the left facing arrow at the top of the Material Editor window (the up arrow can also be used).

You can re-arrange the order of the layers by simply clicking and dragging them up and down. A little grey bar appears, showing where the layer will be placed, when the mouse button is released.

If you drag the little thumbnail, instead of the name, you will get a copy of the layer that you can place wherever you want.

Until now, I said, repeatedly, that each layer usually affects everything bellow it. But, what if we want to restrict a certain effect to a group of layers? Easy! We use a folder.

Consider a folder as an independent “universe”. Everything you place inside a folder (by dragging layers into it – the cursor chances to show that it will be placed INSIDE the folder) is evaluated first and then, the final result of the folder is combined with whatever is bellow it. Of course, the final result of the folder calculation can also be applied with variable intensity (opacity) and with different transfer modes.

Double clicking the folder name also allows changing its name. This is specially important because the name “Folder” is not particularly informative.

And this is it. The only thing you need now is to use your imagination and combine shaders and effects in the best way possible.

Rui Batista

REPORT - GNOMON SCHOOL

Hey Attackers, long time no see.

I’ve been busy this past few months with school, but of course I’m never to busy to bring our loyal readers an article or two. This month, I’m here to report on a event I recently attended here in LA on behalf of 3D Attack. Our friends at The Gnomon School of Visual Effects were kind enough to let me sneak in and observe some master digital artists at work during the first ever Gnomon Workshop: Live! I’m sure by now, most of our readers are familiar with the good people at Gnomon, especially their Gnomon Workshop division, which provides a plethora of training material in the forum of dvds. While its truly a godsend that Gnomon offers this kind of material so that boring folks like me can learn about ZBrush in the corner of my room while all the cool kids go out partying and engaging in general acts of debauchery, I think most would agree with me in that there’s nothing quite like learning from the source. That’s what this 2-day event was all about. The people at Gnomon seem to be pulling out all the stops when it comes to providing great educational resources for 3D Artists, and this was no exception.

While there were a few rough edges throughout the day I was there (I was only able to attend on the second day, which focused on digital painting techniques), overall the event went smoothly. The event seemed to feature most of the big names that spring to mind when thinking about the cutting edge of visual effects, from organic modeling to matte painting. On day one, which focused on 3D techniques and technologies, the instructors included: Eric Hanson, Kevin Hudson, Zack Petroc, Mayan Escalante, and the infamous Meats Meier. I’ll discuss the second day a

bit, as that was when I was there.

Scott Robertson discussed creating reflective surfaces in Adobe Photoshop, Dylan Cole discussed his approach to designing matte paintings, Neville Page explored rendering illustrations in Adobe Photoshop, Ryan Church of course discussed concept painting in Corel Painter, while Christian Lorenz Scheurer discussed conceptual art direction. My two favorite lectures were given by Dylan Cole and Neville Page. For an hour and a half, I sat in awe as Cole was able to render what to me looked like an excellent matte painting of a city in the time it takes for me to roll out of bed in the morning. He literally started with a blank canvas in Photoshop, and we watched every stroke that he put down, and it was fascinating to discover the different aspects of his painting as he was painting it. Of course along the way he explained what he was doing, what keyboard shortcuts he was attempting to use (he was having trouble transferring the mac commands to pc), and seemed completely fine with sharing all the little tricks he uses on a daily basis to make his work easier and faster. I really appreciated it, and I’m pretty sure I shan’t be painting 4K resolution matte paintings anytime soon.

But even though I probably won’t be making photorealistic film quality images, the techniques he showed were applicable to quickly mocking up concepts for your personal or professional projects. What was even better, is that Dylan encouraged people in the audience to shout out questions, which he would repeat for everyone- and then answer. Neville Page, as I stated above, was also another favorite.

Mr. Page is definitely an amazing artist, but what I found most appeal-

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ing about the techniques he demonstrated to us, was that I actually had a chance of doing them. I’m not sure if this was merely because I was watching him do it in front of me on a rather large screen, I was nevertheless impressed with the clarity by which he explained his methods. For his session, he walked us through the creation of an illustration he had made prior to that weekend- that of some sort of shiny beetle. He demonstrated the use of different Photoshop tools in the approximation and simulation of different surfaces and the interaction of light with them. It was highly informative. Overall, I was pretty impressed with Gnomon Workshop: Live, in its first iteration. Its definitely strange to sit in a huge space with hundreds of other people that want to do the same things that you want to do, but at the same time it’s a great feeling, and anyone who can facilitate that kind of atmosphere among artists should be applauded.

And on top of the great instruction that was being provided, Gnomon had also wrangled top art directors and representatives from studios such as Dreamworks Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Ubisoft, and Fheng Zhu design among others. I’m sure that guests were thrilled to have the opportunity to show their portfolios to these industry professionals, and I’m sure some careers were made in the process.

The pure networking potential of the event is kind of mind boggling when one thinks about it. We all lurk or participate in online forums in some aspect or another, but the opportunity to meet a real person that has your interests and who could possibly be your future collaborator on a short film, or your contact at that dream job, well- you get the idea.

Artist Spotlight Cornel Swoboda aka “Cornel”

Name: Cornel Swoboda Age: 24 Country: Germany

Spotlight

Software: CINEMA 4D 9.1, ZBrush2, Photoshop CS Website: http://www.nutshells.de Favorite resources on the web: 3dattack, c4dtreff, CGTalk, ZBrush Central

I was born in Silesia, Poland in the middle of April 1981. For more than 20 years now I’ve lived in Cologne, Germany. During my mercantile education I started getting interested in CG-graphics, so I switched from classic pen & paper to the first 3Dapp demos. This if when CINEMA 4D became my weapon of choice. I really don’t consider myself a professional 3D Artist, but more of a simple Graphics Designer like thousands of others. Maybe this is the reason I enjoy spending time in the different communities. It keeps the dialog open.

During this time, Thomas (Tank) Pasieka, introduced me to his plan to launch a new e-portal called 3D Attack. I’ve really enjoyed watching how successful 3D Attack has

become, and am really happy to be one of 3D Attack’s Spotlighted Artists.

As you can see from some of my images, I never understood the principles of XPresso, Thinking Particles and other node-based stuff. I didn’t find my interest in it till recently.

Don’t even ask for C.O.F.F.E.E. at this point! One good thing about being a C4D user is the great support that comes from the plug-in developers. I’ll let those talented people do that job!

I especially like to work with lights and shaders, experimenting, and just starting CINEMA 4D to see where the journey takes me. This is my way of “Zen Meditation”. While working for an advertising agency I

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did a lot of product visualization. It’s a very interesting aspect when working in 3D, but it’s definitely not something I can see myself doing for the rest of my life. I always try to keep a good balance between 3D work and 3D the hobby. The hobby side can really eat up a lot of time.

But then again, why do we have fall and winter?

Not too long ago I was asked by the European Space Agency (ESA) in Munich, Germany to join their team and work on an 80-minute documentation about space. CINEMA 4D was already integrated into their pipeline and the deadline was close (as always – what a surprise). With two graphicians and two scientists we spent 6 months faking, cheating, working and rendering with CINEMA

Artist Spotlight Cornel Swoboda aka “Cornel”

4D to solve this difficult task. For example... ask yourself how would you visualize a detailed flythrough of the galaxy with its billions of stars when you work on a regular workstation with 1GB of RAM? This was probably the most stressing, yet interesting time of my life. I would be more than happy to do it all over again.

Spotlight

Things are now moving a bit slower for me. I am currently busy with studying communication design and will work as a trainer for CINEMA 4D beginner courses in January of 2006 for 3dpowerstore.de.

I really try to keep as busy as I can.

PUH! That’s why most of my rendered pictures are months, or even, years old. Well, I also try to squeeze in 6 hours of sleep daily (minimum)! However, I have 2 private projects currently frozen, so keep visiting the 3D Attack Forums.

Maybe I’ll have some updates soon.

A few last words: Always do what you love and many doors will magically open.

KEEP ON ATTACKING! - Cornel

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Artist Spotlight

Spotlight

Cornel Swoboda aka “Cornel”

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

Image: Furniture on the Run Artist: Wes Ware Country: USA Date Created: 9/10/05 Website: www.wesart.com Software: CINEMA 4D and Photoshop Client: Guardian SPF Glass Agency: Gish, Sherwood & Friends Creative Director: Roland Gibbons

texture when I hadn't even built the entire scene yet. Not that it's a bad thing to achieve a realistic wood texture, but when the timeline for the project suffers for it then it's an issue.

I stepped back from the project for awhile and realized that I need to approach this in the same way I would a painting... work in broad, general strokes and refine the image as a whole as you go along so that at any point in the process, you have a "finished" piece. My workflow changed. As a Sole proprietor, I have to do it all myself (I do farm out a little but not much, I'm too much of a control freak).

Artist Comments: This piece really challenged the way I approach a project. Many different elements had to work together to tell the story. I absolutely love working in 3d, down to the smallest details. I find myself getting lost in the simplest things. I actually spent 2 days working on a procedural wood

There's no one working on the textures for me in the corner while I build the models. If I get ahead of myself then the timeline is doomed.

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Image: Radio GAGA Artist: Dejan Andric Country: Germany Website: www.pixel-guerilla.com Date created: 10-14-05 Software: CINEMA 4D 8, Gamma Correction

Artist Comments: Well... hmm ...had some spare time while digitizing 5 hours of Footage for an Edit on the next Day...so i grabbed a free G4..added Radiosity and Realism.. What a Night!

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Image: Gothic Artist: Matthew S. M. King Country: USA Website: http://matthias-art.tripod.com Date created: November 2005 Software: CINEMA 4D 7

Artist Comments: I modeled my cathedral after the Royal Abbey Church of St.Denis, where the Gothic style was invented. I used the number 7 as a base for all amounts and measurements, such as tangent values, surface subdivisions, and light intensity values. I chose not to texture it so to purely emphasize the modeling.

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