09_Enero_2005 by Hiba Dweib

Volume 02 Issue 01 January 2005 | $2.99

HIGHLIGHTS IN THIS ISSUE: BASIC MODELING

New to modeling in CINEMA? Try your hand at Bram’s Basic Modeling tutorial on Page 6.

THE C4D QUIZ - WIN!

Correctly answer 3 CINEMA 4D questions for a chance to win the complete “Surface Suite” by dvGarage. Details on Page 20.

BLACK GRAPHICS

THE CINEMA 4D QUIZ ! WIN “THE SURFACE SUITE” Answer 3 Questions for a chance to win “The Surface Suite” by dvGarage Page 20.

Read the interview with Marco Weiß and Daniela Greulich the founders of “Black Graphics” on Page 10.

3D ATTACK QUICK INDEX PAGE 3-4

Exploring Lights Part 4 by Rui Batista

PAGE 6-7

Basic Modeling by Bram van Gerwen

PAGE 8-9

Blood Cell by PoserPro

PAGE 10-14

Interview with “Black Graphics” by Tavy Ann

PAGE 15-18

RealFlow3 Meets CINEMA 4D by PoserPro

PAGE 19

Multipass with Sketch and Toon by Aaron Biscombe

PAGE 20

The CINEMA 4D Quiz! Win “The Surface Suite”!

PAGE 21

Path Deformer 1.32 - Review by Thomas Pasieka

PAGE 22-23

XPresso - Getting Started by Base80

PAGE 24-28

Landscape Tutorial Part 1 by Georg Niedermeier

PAGE 29-33

Modeling A City Block in CINEMA 4D by Luis Tappa

PAGE 34-37

Interview with “Mash” matthew O’Neill

PAGE 38-40

Creating Seamless Tileable Textures by Rui

PAGE 41-47

Best of CINEMA 4D Gallery - Editor Notes

Exploring Lights Part 4 By Rui Batista

We finally reach the end of this series of articles about lights. Lots more could be said about lights, but there is no substitute for plain old experimentation, so I defy you all to test out lights for yourself. You are now armed with the basic arsenal of knowledge about light parameters and that is what you all need to get started.

Tutorial

If I said all that I consider necessary to start out, what could I present on this last article? What better than to finish with a comprehensive list of do's, don'ts, hints and tips about light? Juicy information. And that is what we all want, isn't it? Set the shadows to soft whenever possible. Soft shadows are faster to calculate than Area shadows and look much better than Hard shadows. Whenever possible, use "fake" area shadows by using an array of lights casting soft shadows. The calculation time will be much faster and the visual difference is negligible [1][2](see sample file). (Pic01)

Only set shadow casting for your main light. Too many shadows will create distracting compositions, will slow down render, and consume more memory. For Soft shadows, set the Shadow Map resolution as low as possible without compromising quality. If you get pixelated

(Pic02)

results - especially if the light is very far away - increase the Sample Radius of the shadow. But beware! This will increase render times and soften the shadow. With Area shadows, you almost never need a full accuracy on the Area Shadow Samples. Lowering this value will dramatically increase the render speed. If the shadow lands on a textured surface, the noise associated with lowering the samples is negligible. To make a softer shadow, increase the Area Shadow width. Soft shadows on omni lights require six times the memory and time it would require if the light was set to Spot. This is because Soft shadows on omni lights are treated like six spot light cones, pointing at all faces of a virtual cube. So, for Soft shadows, use Spot lights as much as possible. If you have no transparent objects (even only slightly transparent) casting shadows in your scene, turn off the Transparency option of the Shadows tab. The memory requirements will be only half of what it would be with this option turned on. Only use Volumetric lights when absolutely necessary. If a simple Visible light would do the trick, use it. For Volumetric lights set the Sample Distance parameter in the Visibility tab to the highest possible

value before you start seeing artifacts. Larger Sample Distance numbers will drastically increase render speed. Instead of using real geometry to create intricate shadows (window blinds, tree foliage, etc), consider using "gels". They are also known as "gobo" or light masks. Simply create a material with only the Transparency channel turned on. In it, set to black all the areas where you don't want light to pass. All other areas will "tint" the light with its color. (see sample file) Don't use only black as your shadow color. Slightly colored shadows will increase the interest of you scene and look much more realistic. As a general rule of thumb, use a shadow color that is the complementary of your main light color. How do you find the complementary? Using a color wheel selector, simply select the color that is diametrally opposite (at 180 degrees) to the one you have. [3] This is easy on the (Pic02)

Macintosh Color selector but, if you are using Windows, you will have to resort to a trick because Windows lacks a professional color selector. You much choose a HSV or HSV Color mode from the color mode selector and add 180 degrees to the H value if the previous value is

Exploring Lights Part 4 By Rui Batista

smaller than 180 or subtract 180 degrees if the previous value is larger than 180 (simply type "+180" or "180" after the number that it is there.) [4]

bounce lights will usually produce faster renders than radiosity renders. As an example, Pixar doesn't use radiosity and some of their scenes use as many as 200 lights, strategically placed. And we can't say their renders aren't gorgeous :)

Tutorial

Fake it! Your lights are great, but the shadows are too dark. Add another dimmer light with a falloff. There is an object that is too dark? Add a light and only include that object. Turn on and off shadows as it is convenient (careful with composition and too obvious incongruences). Unlike in the real world, lights in 3D applications are completely flexible. So, use and abuse them.

(Pic04)

Real world lights are never constant as they travel a distance. Unfortunately, lights falloff is turned off by default. To achieve realistic lights do turn on falloff. Don't use pure white lights. You will only achieve "sterile" hospital-like illumination. On theater stages, rows of colored lights emulate "white lights". Usually, red, green and blue lights are used and the illumination and shadows they produce are much richer than pure white lights. (see sample file) Play with the "No Diffuse" and "No Specular" options in the Details tab. Too many speculars or too few can ruin an image.

Finally, DON'T - and I really mean DON'T - use Lens Flares just because you have that option. Lens Flare is an optical error and photographers fight to prevent it from showing in their pictures. Lens flares are the most overused visual effect and it is usually not used correctly. I even have seen renders of candles producing lens flare!!! Don't forget, only really bright lights (or lights on a dark environment) produce lens flare. And only if shot with a low quality lens (without coating). Have fun illuminating your scenes. Be bold... experiment. And don't forget, lighting is what can make the difference between a believable image or a yeah-yeah-this-is-a-computer-render-image. If you have any doubts about lights, mail me at rui_mac@ruimac.com Rui Batista

Don't be afraid to add lights but keep in mind that each new light will add to the render time. Anyway, adding more lights to simulate

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Basic Modeling By Bram van Gerwen A 'Perfect Fit' technique. I’ve seen some new users of Cinema4D having trouble creating buttons on panels and other objects, so I thought I’d show them a nice and simple way to create them. The angle of this tutorial is not to model a specific object but to teach a basic technique that you can apply to all sorts of objects. The nice thing about this technique is that the objects it creates fit exactly through the holes they are put in.

Tutorial

To learn it we are going to model a simple panel with a couple of curved and rounded buttons. The information in the pictures serves as a reference to check if you are doing things right. 1 - We begin by creating the panel, after that we will create the buttons. Create a Cube and rename it to “Panel” in its basic properties under attributes. Set the size of the cube to X 400, Y 80 and Z 400. Set its segments to X 8, Y 5 and Z 8. Now convert the object into polygons using the “Make Editable” function (Function -> Make Editable). (Picture 01)

tool and holding shift while clicking on and dragging over the squares. (Picture 02)

(Pic02)

3 - Select the Extrude tool (Structure -> Extrude) and set Offset to -40 and Subdivision to 1 and then apply. This should give the result as shown in the picture. As you can see, the polygons have been extruded downward with only one subdivision on the extruded surface. The panel is now finished. Next are the buttons. (Picture 03)

2 - Select the Polygon tool and then the following polygons on the top of the cube (displayed in the picture below). You can make the selection easily by using the “Live Selection”

(Pic04)

5 - Select the Extrude tool again and set Offset to 60 and Subdivision to 2 and apply. This extrudes the polygons up creating 2 subdivisions along the way. (Picture 05)

(Pic05)

(Pic03)

(Pic01)

If not already selected use Select All to select all polygons of the Buttons object (Selection -> Select All). (Picture 04)

4 - Still with the polygons selected use the “Split” function (Structure -> Edit Spline -> Split). The Split function duplicates the selected polygons and puts them into a new object while keeping the geometry of the old object intact. Notice a new object is created in the object manager named “Panel.1”. Set the Panel object to invisible for now by clicking the upper dot behind its name twice and rename the newly created Panel.1 object to “Buttons”.

6 - Now create 2 HyperNURBS objects and drop the Panel and Button objects into them. Make the Panel object visible again by clicking the red dot. Both objects are now smoothed and because we took the polygons for the buttons straight from the bottom of the panel holes it’s a perfect fit. Make sure you have the polygons selected as in the picture. (Picture 06) 7 - The buttons are still too rounded at the moment. Flatten them out a bit by changing the selected polygons Y position to 46. If you switch back to the Model tool and select

Basic Modeling By Bram van Gerwen

(Pic06)

Tutorial

the HyperNURBS object of the Buttons you can change the Y position of the whole object to 2 to raise the buttons a bit. (Picture 07)

(Pic07)

8 - The panel and buttons are now complete, set the 'Subdivision Editor' field of both HyperNURBS objects to 3 to smooth off the objects a little more. Now we can add some lights and a simple texture to finish this scene a little bit.

9 - Create a Light and rename it to “Yellow Light”. In the general tab of the light set its color to R 255, G 247 and B 212. Set Shadow to Soft. In the details tab enable Linear Falloff and set its Inner Radius to 600 and the Radius/Decay to 2700. In the coordinates manager set the position of the light to X 620, Y 435 and Z 580. We now have a soft yellow light that provides the main lighting from the right. Duplicate this light now and rename the duplicate to “Blue Light”. Change its color to R 151, G 197 and B 255. Set the brightness in the detail tab to 75%, change the Inner Radius to 470 and Radius/Decay to 2400. In the coordinates manager set the position for this light to X -1000, Y 280 and Z 270. Now we have a second light that is slightly dimmed and provides some cooler blue lighting from the left. 10 - Create a texture in the material manager and rename it to “Red Buttons”. If you right click on the material preview in the attributes you can select a preview object of your liking, but set it to Rounded Cube which is closest to what we are modeling. Set its color to R 220, G 9, B 0 and set the brightness of the color to 90%. Enable the environment channel in basic properties of the material. In the environment

channel load a “Fresnel” into the texture field by clicking on it and choosing Fresnel from the list. Set the fresnel Mix Mode to Subtract and the Mix Strength to 43%. This should give a nice plastic-like material. Drop the material from the manager onto the Buttons object and render. (Picture 08)

(Pic08)

The scene is finished and looks a bit like a game controller now. We have created the buttons as one single object in this tutorial, but you can of course split the polygons in turn to create individual button objects that are easy to animate and to texture. There are lots of directions you can go with this technique, experiment with it on more complicated models and curved surfaces and you”ll see it can give some very satisfactory results. (See example on bottom)

Quick Example

Blood Cell By PoserPro

This short tutorial is called "Blood Cell" as I tried to create a funny look of an inner world : our bloodcell. The scene is a visual experiment for the shaders as well as the geometries.

Furrows, Fine Furrows, and Scale. As you can see from the time curve, each parameter changes in the 90frame duration. (Pic02)

one. And I assign a Banji shader with these main settings: ( Pic051) ( Pic052) ( Pic053)

Tutorial

It is done in R9, but I think you can achieve the kind of visual effect in R8.5 since it supports animatable parameters. There are no plugins or other programs used, so don't worry if you don't have one. The first thing we do is create a Landscape object, but we are not going to make land, we turn it into a spherical shape by checking " Spherical" in its Object Properties. The default parameters for landscape makes a rough rock like object, which isn't a good form for our tut. What we do here is to make it morph as time goes on, as a result, animatable parameters is essential for this purpose. Here are the basic properties. ( Pic01)

(Pic51) (Pic02)

Note: For the Rough Furrows, in F0, the value is 87%, and 100% in 90F; for Fine Furrows, in F0, the value is 18%, and 5% in 90F; and for the Scale, we have 3 keys, 0F/47F/90F and the values are 0.01/1.78/1.26. Hope this makes sense. Now play the animation to see how it works, a perfect sphere turns gradually into a rough fractal like form. For this, I assign the default Daniel Shader from the Material Manager. The rendered image at 35F is like this bloody substance. ( Pic04)

(Pic52)

(Pic02)

(Pic01)

(Pic53)

As you can see the size of height is lower than those of Length and Width of the land. The Landscape looks like a perfect sphere, and this is the initial shape in Frame 0, then we shall set key frame in different keys to create morphing effects based on the changed values of the parameters. Open Timeline and see there are some pivotal parameters that make it interesting: Rough

(Pic04)

Next, duplicate this spherical form and scale it down a bit, roughly 110% to the original size of the first sphere, uncheck the first sphere so we can focus on this new bigger

This creates a wax-like substance for the cell. I use an hdr image from hdri-studio( www.hdri-studio.com) as the environment map for this shader. The rendered image at 35F is like this. ( Pic05). Now with both spheres checked, make another render, we get a basic form of the cell and blood. ( Pic06). The final step is to create a camera that

Blood Cell By PoserPro

bigger mapped with Fog texture to create atmospheric conduction. This is the sample of the render at 42F. As for post effect, I suggest using Glow to add final touch, or do the composite work in another video-editing tool, it is up to you. ( Pic09)

(Pic05)

(Pic07)

span across the viewpoint of our camera. ( Pic08)

Tutorial

(Pic09)

If you have questions or problems regarding this tutorial then please contact 3dattack@3dattack.net or visit our forum at: http://www.3dattack.net

(Pic06)

moves and changes its focal length during the course of animation. The initial Position of the moving cam is -45.573/-65.809/-217.457 for its X/Y/Z coordinates. And the final is 1.644/41.191/122.819. As for the Focal Length, in 0 F, it is 25.079, and 5 in 27F. ( Pic07) Now set the View to Camera to see how the morphing of the spheres

(Pic08)

This ends the core of this tut. In doing the visual experiment, I also tried to use Metaball to spit small Sphere objects, and added an even

Keep on Attacking and see you soon! PoserPro

Interview with “Black Graphics” By Tavy Ann

Interview

Daniela Greulich

Marco Weiß

The work of Marco Weiß and Daniela Greulich "Black Graphics"can be seen all over the web. Recently, they were gracious enough to take a little of their time and give it to the readers of 3D Attack - The CINEMA 4D Magazine. I have personally watched their CINEMA 4D skills and business grow over the past few years and must say, "Keep an eye on these two!" Marco and Daniela are a true inspiration to those who are just starting out in CINEMA and the CG Industry. Please sit back and enjoy the little conversation we had about them, their work, and CINEMA 4D. Tavy: Marco and Daniela, thank you for taking time from your very busy schedule to share a bit about yourselves, your work, and Black Graphics. Our readers always enjoy a little personal background information. Would you mind sharing where you were born, now live, etc.? Where is Black Graphics located? Marco: Hello everyone. First many thanks to 3D Attack that you have picked us from the mass of many very good 3D Artists. We feel honored. I was born in a town in south Germany (nearby Heidelberg) 33 years ago. 5 years ago I moved near my place of birth, with Daniela, into a common apartment. Here we live and work giving every spare minute to Black Graphics. When not busy with Black Graphics, I'm a

Quality Manager for an automobile supplier. I've been doing this for 18 years. Daniela: I am 34 years old and was born in a small village 40 km from Marco's town. I worked as a project controller for an automobile engineering company for some years and then changed to a bank of an international automobile group where I currently work as a controller. Tavy: Together you have teamed up and developed Black Graphics (www.black-graphics.de). Can you share with us some information about your company? When did you launch it? What do you offer? Daniela: In 1992 I founded a part time company namely Black Graphics. The main focus of the company's performance was on company cards, business papers, company logos and illustrations. I met Marco in 1998. He as a computer and multimedia freak and was

immediately enthusiastic about my small company. Together we have extended the business area on web design, flash animations, databases and intranet solutions. In 2001 we developed a website project for a band. Due to this project we had the idea to offer a special website with content for bands, freaks and fans. Suitable to the Black Metal scene, we named the page "Black Graphics". At the same time Marco had begun to experiment with 3D programs. We showed his first 3D works in a gallery on the Black Graphics webpage. In 2003 we made a radical change. We drove all previous performances back to specialize in the direction of the 3D. While Marco was spending every free minute with Cinema 4D, I made a relaunch of the Black Graphics webpage. The Black Metal Content was replaced with 3D Themes. Since the name Black Graphics was meanwhile established in the web,

Interview with “Black Graphics” By Tavy Ann

Interview

feel enthusiastic. This keeps or work fun and guarantees the customers a very creative output. Due to our free choice we are able to plan very exact project timelines and guarantee the customers compliance with every deadline.

we kept it as a brand name, but our company is still called Graphics. Marco: Currently we offer the following services: Construction of 3D models and visualizations, modifications of existing 3D models, sales of 3D models, highres images from our online portfolio for print advertising and publications and tutorials about Cinema 4D. Vehicles and technical visualizations are our special subject. However, we have many ideas and plans that we would like to run in the near future.

the international promotion, negotiations with customers, and the Black Graphics webpage. My strength is modeling and doing 3D visualizations. We complete each other optimally, are our greatest critics, and enjoy together any small reached success. In addition, a big advantage is that we don't run Black Graphics to earn money for our living. For that we aren't forced permanently to hire for new orders. We take the liberty only to accept orders, which make us

Tavy: What set's you apart from all of the other CG related companies? Do you do business internationally? Marco: The biggest difference compared with other CG companies is probably that we live and work together. We proceed to work together as a 100%-team without mutual competition and envy. Daniela is our manager and does

Daniela: We operate internationally and deliver our work throughout the entire world. For example highres images to Singapore, France, Hungary, USA, or Articles and Tutorials to Taiwan, Australia, UK and so on. Due to my promotion activities, I was able to build up a permanently growing international network of CG companies, editors of print magazines, admins of CG web pages and artists. The network grants a permanent flow of information and gives us a lot of opportunities for new orders. Further, we pass orders which are not of interest to us, to other CG related companies and artists. Tavy: Individually, what's a typical day for you like in the Black Graphics office? Marco: A typical day during the week starts with getting up, drinking a cup of coffee in our home office, reading and answering emails and a short discussion about the tasks of the day. After that we leave our home to work in our main profes-

Interview with “Black Graphics” By Tavy Ann

sion. Back at home again in the evening we first have a small meal together and then start with our Black Graphics work. I work on orders or visit CG communities on the internet to see what's going on in the scene. Daniela answers requests, writes quotes, works on

new promotion actions and the Black Graphics website. Daniela: We spend the weekends, almost always, till late in the night at our computers. We use the two days to complete larger orders together. Each of us creates scenes

and illuminations of a finished model from our own ideas. The best result is then rendered in highres. Tavy: What first attracted you both to CG/3D? And why have you chosen CINEMA 4D as your application of choice?

Interview

Marco: At the end of 2001 I got a 3D shareware software from a computer magazine in my hands. I played around sometime with that program and found it fun. The shareware got boring very fast. So I tried out other different 3D programs like Cool 3D, Becker CAD, Movie 3D, and Creative Studio 3D. In addition I bought Poser 4 and Bryce 5. I wasn't really happy with any of these programs. I decided then to spend some more money on a professional 3D Software. CINEMA 4D was my favorite for two reasons. On the one hand, Creative Studio 3D was as pre-version of CINEMA 4D and the most fun to work with. And on the other hand, I had discovered the fantastic images of Carles Piles. Inspired by his images and the work with Creative Studio 3D I bought CINEMA 4D at the end of 2003. Since CINEMA 4D was easy to learn and easy to use, I was immediately affected by the c4d-rendervirus. Daniela: When Marco began to make 3D pictures, I saw this as a simple pastime. His first pictures didn't really meet my idea of an attractive graphic. After Marco, however, had experimented night after night and got better and better over months, I then got curious? The end result was Marco catching me with his enthusiasm for 3D and CINEMA 4D.

Interview with “Black Graphics” By Tavy Ann

sion to make cars and technical models in 3D after my own ideas. Every vehicle is a new challenge since a vehicle can seem only realistic if the model is made as clean and exact as possible.

Interview

Tavy: Would you please share with us your work flow for a typical car. Where do you start and end? Marco: There isn't any typical workflow for the fantasy vehicles such as the R9 Power Racer. I have the idea and the ready picture in my head and model it with CINEMA 4D. Sometimes I have new ideas during work and something completely different comes out at the end as originally planned. Originally, e.g., the R9 Power Racer should have become a racing broom ;) Tavy: Marco, your cars, futuristic vehicles, etc., can be seen all over the web and in print. 3D artists find their niche in many different areas. Whether it is character modeling, product and package design etc. Why cars for you? Marco: Since my youth I am a total car and technology fan. It is my pas-

For real vehicles I first must be able to feel enthusiastic about a model. If the choice is made, I first search for photos in different views on the web and print magazines. Perhaps, it sounds crazy, but I'm usually already in thought about the models construction, if I see only a beautiful vehicle. In principle, I make my vehicles with point to point modeling

and, at first, I try to use only very few polygons. I bring the exact shape of the individual components in form with weightings and the knife tool. The Release 9 of CINEMA 4D with its many expansions of the modeling and selection tools, brings primarily unbelievable advantages to car modeling. The modeling workflow in the construction of the vehicle is always the same: I start with the body work at the front and then work backwards to the rear. After this follows windows, lights, wheels, exhaust, outside mirror, windshield wiper, and radiator grille. Next I model the subfloor and the wheel casings. At the end I model, depending on the vehicle, a more or less detailed interior. Tavy: Daniela, you also are modeling in CINEMA 4D. Have you any formal education or training in CG? How long have you been using CINEMA? Daniela: I don't have a special education in CG. When I set up my company 12 years ago, I simply had a passion for computer graphics and had skills hand drawing. Everything I had to know for my orders I have taught myself and learned with the help of many books. With Marco's help I started with CINEMA 4D in November 2003. Marco has much more experience in Cinema 4D than me and shares with me all of his knowledge. Till now, I haven't made too many pictures of my own since I simply haven't enough time to do it. Some months ago Marco and I have split the project workflow. He does the main part of the work and models the 3D object. I make smaller parts as, f.e. tires or rims, and create special tex-

Interview with “Black Graphics” By Tavy Ann

Interview

merable CINEMA 4D communities. If you still need further help, post a thread with your request in a community. The last thing you should do is to write an e-mail to one of the many professional artists out there. Why do I recommend this? tures in 2D. Both of us illuminate and render the scenes in different variations. And at the end I do some post work in a picture publishing software if necessary. Tavy: Who are some of your favorite CINEMA 4D artists? Marco & Daniela: We like the work of many artists. But there are some artists we have a special relationship with. First it's Carles Piles. Inspired by his excellent images, we bought CINEMA 4D. In addition, we are fans of Fredi Voß, (rollmops) and Peter Hofmann, (pexel), who are great artists that we know personally. Tavy: Thanks again to the both of you. It's been a pleasure getting to know more about you and Black

Graphics. Do you have any words of advice for the many aspiring 3D artists throughout the globe? Marco: Many thanks for the opportunity to share more about us and for the interview. My advice for the 3D artist is: Spend a lot of time with CINEMA 4D and consistently follow your target. Don't get de-motivated by set backs, or by strong critics or ratings in communities and galleries, but see this as an incentive to carry on. Daniela: I would like recommend to everyone who starts with CINEMA 4D to read the manual, to buy books, look at training CD's, and to work through tutorials. Sit down and work out for yourself the basic knowledge. If you still need help, use the search function of the innu-

We get daily questions like: "How do I make a model in Cinema 4D?" or "What is a Hypernurbs-Object"? We could meanwhile fill a book with such questions. We always do the best we can and help at advanced questions, but don't have any sympathy with people who are too lazy to learn the simplest basics. Sorry for these hard words, but no professional company has the time to teach every beginner all the basics via email. If we would do, we could close our company. Happy Rendering :) Marco & Daniela www.black-graphics.de

RealFlow3 Meets CINEMA 4D By Poserpro

RealFlow is a powerful fluid simulation program. Now with the release of RF3, it has more cool features, such as rigid dynamics, soft bodies, constraints, wave and buoyancy. To me, it is an acclaimed program to have. NextLimit has updated its plugins to support other 3d apps, and CINEMA 4D is one of them. For this tutorial I will teach the workflow for using RealFlow with R9. It is nothing fancy, but I think it will be helpful for those who haven’t tried before.

Tutorial

This scene is about letting fluids flow down a slope of spiral path. It’s not hard to imagine how hard it is to simulate this without using a proper simulation tool.

Pic01a

What we do here is to use the spiral rail for simulation purpose, and the spiral thread as the actual path for the fluids to follow. (Pic02)

should look like a normal rail for the fluids to keep inside the groove of the rail. (Pic01b) Pic01b

First build a spiral slope. The structure is simply using s Sweep NURBS wrapping a Profile and Helix splines. ( Pic01)

Pic01

For Sweep NURBS, use this setting without checking Banking or Parallel Movement. (Pic01c)

The detailed parameters or settings for Helix can be seen the pics as shown here. Look, I just changed Angle to 10 so that the subdiv won't be too dense. (Pic01a) For the Profile spline choose "U Shape" instead, scale down a little, then hit the C key to turn it into an editable spline. Plane needs to be "XY". In Point Mode, "Select All" points and rotate -90 degrees in Rotation B. This way the spiral path

NURBS and a Circle with Radius 4m to create this spiral path.

Pic01c

Pic02

Try to adjust the parameters for Circle to reduce the subdiv. For example, I use Natural Intermediate Point and set the Number to 0. (Pic02a)

Pic02a

Make sure you choose the first Sweep NURBS, then Hit C to turn it into editable polys. Delete the Caps, as we don't need them. And in Poly Mode, Select all Polys and Triangulate them. (Pic03)

Duplicate the Helix and adjust the parameters to let it sit inside the groove. Then use a new Sweep

You need to turn the polys into triangle shapes for RealFlow to simulate correctly. Rename it "Spiral Rail". Now it is time to export the Spiral

RealFlow3 Meets CINEMA 4D By Poserpro

"Default environment" to Cinema 4D. then set the "Default scale" value to "0.01". For visual convenience, I also set the Layout by changing the grid color to cyan (0/170/255). (Pic05) From Objects at the right panel, use

parameters as shown in the pic. (Pic07a)

Tutorial

Pic03

Rail as NextLimit's Scene Data file (.SD). In Menu, choose Plugins>NextLimit>[NL] SD Scene Exporter 2.0, now we have a Next Limit SD Exporter 2.0 for Cinema 4D. This is the major threshold for C4D's Object to be read by RF, especially for exporting an animating scene. In this exporter panel, check Sv for "Spiral Rail at the upper left, ignore other boxes. In Outfile, save the object as "spiral rail.sd" for later use. Note: I have earlier created a scene file in RF 3 and named it "1209", so I can simply put this SD object in its Objects folder for convenient purpose. Now hit Save SD to complete the action. (Pic04)

Pic05

the "Import object" to load the spiral rail.sd, we can see the spiral rail has been in the viewport. RF3 has a different way to set the navigation of view. You need to press Ctrl key and use your mouse to rotate/pan/move the scene. Adjust until you see a better view of the spiral object. Last, use the right submenu to set the shading to Flat or Smooth. (Pic06) Note: If you can't see anything or

Set the Speed of the Circle emitter to 6.0, Vertical random to 1.0. (Pic07b)

Pic7b Pic06

the object is too big, it is because you didn't set the scale properly. Pic04

The first phase of the tutorial in C4D is done, now it is time to launch RealFlow 3. Before we start, I first advise you to set the basic settings in Preferences. In File>Preferences, open the Preferences, set the

Switch to Emitters tab at the right panel. From Emitter list, choose Circle as the emitter of our tutorial. Use the M/S/R to adjust its position and orientation to the tip of the spiral rail. (Pic07) In Particles, set the Type to Liquid, and change others

In Daemons tab of the right panel, add Gravity, no need to change its parameter. (Pic08) Then launch Scene tree. Simply hit <<Add All, this create the interactive state for the spiral rail and the emitter. You may remove Gravity01 from Spiral Rail.( pop08a) Now hit Action at the lower right to start the simulation. You can see the

RealFlow3 Meets CINEMA 4D By Poserpro

Pic10

Pic08

Tutorial

In Filters, choose Yes for Filter method, and change the parameters as shown in the pic. (Pic10a)

Pic10b

Pic08a

fluids flowing down the spiral rail. If your fluids flow out of the rail, try adjusting its position and orientation. (Pic09)

Pic10c

So far, so good, now we can export the particles as sequences of mesh. Open Export Central, just check Mesh01 in the MESHES. (Pic11)

Pic10a

Pic09

In the Options tab of the right panel, set the Frame End to 120. (Pic10) Now switch to Meshes tab, Create a new mesh for the particles(Mesh01).

Now select Circle01 and change the Field's parameters. (Pic10b) Then "Build mesh"( the eye icon) to see the mesh in the viewport. (Pic10c)

Pic11

Now back to the viewport, hit Reset at the lower right , then hit "Action" to start exporting the 120 frames of mesh. (Pic12)

RealFlow3 Meets CINEMA 4D By Poserpro

Pic12

Note: The mesh is exported as a sequence of BIN files. Normally C4D can't load BIN files, but with NL plugin we can do it easily. RF3 export the sequence of BIN files to the Mesh folder of the scene file.

Pic14 Pic14a

Tutorial

The workflow for RealFlow is done. Back to C4D, in Menu, choose Plugins>NextLimit>[NL] RealFlow Mesh loader v1, now we have a wave icon in OM, and from the Basic Properties we see a Sequence tab. From the Sequence, use the "…" button at the .bin File Sequence to find the exported bins. Simply select Mesh0100001. Now hit Play to see the fluid effect. Remember to change the frame count to 120 by clicking Ctrl + D. (Pic13)

Pic13

Here is the final look of this scene. (Pic14). Here is an extension for the fluid effect, which is inside a spiral tube now. (Pic14a)

Multipass with Sketch and Toon By Aaron Biscombe

This time around I've whipped up a quick and dirty tutorial on how to use the Sketch and Toon module along with multipass rendering.

(shot5.jpg). Lets return to our Render Settings window. This time, under the Multi-Pass tab, check Enable Multi-Pass Rendering. In the Channels drop down, select

The settings I'm about to walk you through will show you how to render your lines separately from the bulk of your image, allowing you to composite them in a 2d software like Photoshop, or a compositing application like Shake or After Effects. First, if you haven't yet done so, enable Sketch and Toon in the Post Effects tab of your Render Settings window (shot1.jpg).

(shot2.jpg)

(shot5.jpg)

Tutorial

Post Effects and Material Luminance. Also make sure to check Save Multi-Pass Image, and Multi-Layer File.

(shot3.jpg)

(shot1.jpg)

At this point, don't worry about modifying line styles or the default sketch material. All we are concerned with here is learning how to render our lines separately from our main image. Under the Render tab of the Sketch Render settings, check Post Render (shot2.jpg). You'll notice that once you switch Sketch and Toon to Post Rendering, a new tab becomes available in the Render Settings, Multi-Pass. Under Multi-Pass, you should see that Render RGB is checked. We can leave these settings as they are now (shot3.jpg). Create a simple object, or bring in a scene of your own. I'm using a sim-

Choose a path for your file to be saved to as well, and select your format. I chose Photoshop PSD (shot6.jpg). Now when you render

ple cube for this exercise (shot4.jpg). Now create a new material, disable all channels except Luminance, and in the texture pulldown, plug in a Cel sketch material. Apply this material

(shot6.jpg)

(shot4.jpg)

to your cube. In the Luminance channel of your material, click on the Cel texture tab to modify the settings. Uncheck Camera, and check Lights. Now when you place a light in the scene, the cube is shaded according to the cel diffuse ramp

to the Picture Viewer, a multi-layer PSD file will be saved to your hard drive. When you open this file in Photoshop or other similar program, you will notice that your lines are on a separate layer from your image. If you have any questions regarding this tutorial then please ass us on the forum: http://www.3dattack.net

THE CINEMA 4D QUIZ!

THE CINEMA 4D QUIZ

Answer five questions for a chance to win “The Surface Suite” by dvGarage!

THE C4D QUIZ!

RULES:

Answer three questions for a chance to win "The Surface Suite" by dvGarage. The Surface Suite is a 6-CD set of all the dvGarage Surfacing products valued at $249.00.

Answer the following three CINEMA 4D questions:

Reflection Toolkit Surface Toolkit Color Companion Aircraft Parts Water Damage

Question 2: What game can be played in CINEMA 4D?

Question 1: Version 3 of CINEMA 4D came out when and what was it's code name?

Question 3: On which computer did CINEMA 4D make its debut?

Pull into the dvGarage at www.dvgarage.com!

* E-mail your answers with your Real Name and THE C4D QUIZ in the subject line to 3dattack@3dattack.net no later that January 30, 2005. * Submissions answering all three questions correctly will be pooled together and a winner will be drawn randomly. * The winner will be notified on February 1, 2005 via e-mail, with a request for their mailing address for shipment of their prize. * The winner will be announced on February 1, 2005 on our forum at www.3dattack.net and in the March issue of 3D Attack - The CINEMA 4D Magazine. GOOD LUCK AND KEEP ON ATTACKING!

Path Deformer 1.32

Plugin Review

Plugin Review by Thomas Pasieka (Tank) Well plugins are a nice thing to have since they ease the work process quiet a lot in some cases. Not only that, they sometimes drastically shrink the time you have to spend during a project. The little “helper” I am going to talk about this time is called “Path Deformer”. Now what does that mean? As you already noticed it includes two words, Path and Deformer. A path is usually a spline created within CINEMA 4D which will allow you to animate certain objects on the spline or even align objects on a spline and so on. “Path Deformer” is actually a object deformer. You can just draw a spline and use “Path Deformer” to bend it and animate it along a spline.

should always remember that someone spent A LOT of time creating these helpful little tools. The price of this plugin is now 22 Euros, but it will double in price in the coming month so make sure to get it in time!

The ease of this plugin makes it even better! No complicated setup no complicated dialogs will bother you while using it. Path Deformer will simply show up in your Plugin Menu ,and once selected, it will appear in your Object hierarchy.

Well I think this plugin is a “must have”! It’s simple to use, inexpensive and just something you will have to have in your plugin collection. I can only give it a 5 out of 5 after playing around with it for a while.

your objects by using the “tangents”. This gives you a lot of control over your objects behavior during an animation or such. Renato Tarabello, the author, is constantly upgrading this plugin, so I’m sure we can expect some “new” features coming along with this helpful little tool.

As you can see in the image above, a special icon will be created and all you will have to do is “create” a spline and pick an object! You will see the “Path Deformer” parameter. “Offset” actually let’s you move your object along the spline. There are two ways to move your object. Either you choose the “Offset” settings or you simply move the object in your viewport. Pretty easy! Have a look at the next screen shot. You can clearly see that you can also “Twist” and “Scale”

Renato Tarabello also offers a lot of helpful short video tutorials on his website which will give you a little sneak peak on what you can expect from this plugin. We included a DEMO version for our readers within our “Goodies” folder. Check it out and give it a try! It’s sure worth a look or two. Make sure to visit his website for more information. Let’s talk about the price issue. We all know that people don’t like to pay for plugins and such BUT you

Price: 22 Euro Website: http://www.tarabella.it/c4d/ Version: 1.32 Platform: Windows and Macintosh Rating: 5 out of 5

XPresso - Getting Started By Base80

Xpresso Set-up Tips. I’ve made a list of recommendations on how to start to making an Xpresso. These are not rules, they are my personal preferences. Xpresso is very flexible and makes it possible to do things in many ways. Where do I put my XPresso tag? I prefer to put my XPresso tag on a null. And I prefer to put all the active components in that null. You can ofcourse choose to do it in whatever way suits you.(Pic01)

from object to object without loosing track of your user data.

Tutorial

One slider setupslider.jpg try to do as much as possible with only one user-data slider. I think less is more in this case. In the November Attack mag I’ve shown an aging banana. One slider changes shape, deformation and texture settings. UserData (UD) User-data is a tab of the attribute manager. (Pic02)

The tab is usually empty. You can make your own interface for your XPresso with user data sliders or check-boxes. It is almost like making a proper plug-in. Be careful with making the user data inputs. Once they are made they can not be dragged around. And don’t forget to give them names. When you drag the object with the user data in the XPresso editor it becomes available as an output port of the node.Here are some of the available User-Data input fields (Pic03). Where do I make the user data? This is actually an important point. I always put the user data sliders on the XPresso-tag itself and not on the null. This way I can drag the tag

Drag in everything you want in the editor. Everything that shows in the attributes manager is drag-able to the XPresso editor, even keys and sequences of the timeline are usable in XPresso. You can also drag selections of objects. In R.9 a lot of functions and tools are also drag-able to the editor, such as duplicate or knife-tool settings. Use result nodes. Result- and Spy-nodes are very useful. They give you feedback on what you are doing. Put them at the end of a calculation and make them of the right type (real, vector, ...). The spy=node only works inbetween two other nodes Working with internal values. My way of constructing big XPressos consist of separating three things. First and on the left I retrieve data out of the model such as collisions, positions and such. Then in the middle I treat the data and I make all my calculation. At the

end on the right side I give data back to the scenes objects. In the middle part, the calculations I try as much as possible to work with the internal units of XPresso nodes. Most nodes give data in a range between 0.xx and 1. A percentage of 50% is internally treated as 0.5. Try to keep things in that range. By the way, XPresso nodes are smart and adapt to each other automatically, so don’t convert back and forth. Only at the end I convert all small data to useful numbers, such as sizes or distances. One or more XPresso-tags Some prefer to make a lot of small XPressos, I prefer to make one big XPresso to handle everything at once. One XPresso has the advantage of having everything open, but sometimes splitting works better. I have noticed that some kinds of XPresso calculations don’t work well in large XPressos.To be able to navigate thru large XPressos it can be very useful to make xgroups. Make a selection of connected nodes and right-click to make a xgroup. Name the group for later use and usability. Keep things clean and tidy. Ever opened something made a year before and not knowing how it works anymore? I always name objects and xgroups. Try to use less nodes. I’ve come across XPressos made up of hundreds of nodes and after cleaning up a dozen nodes do the job as well. Use the grid and arrange things accordingly (Pic04). Some Nodes are “dangerous”. Time-Node. The time node works in seconds, but also in frames. Frames are not an absolute time coding. Some people work in 30 Frames per second others in 25 or 24 frames per second. So if you have to do

XPresso - Getting Started By Base80

removes connections between nodes with no good reason. Global Position vs. Position/Rotation/Matrix... In general the local data is the one to use and not the global. The local data refers to the objects relative position to its parent whereas the global data refers to the absolute 0.0.0 in your model.

Tutorial

exact things, do them in seconds and not frames. Get rid off result nodes. Once you are finished and everything works fine you have to delete your result nodes. They are very CPU intensive and can disturb the calculations and make delays in an animation. The spy-node does not show the same draw-backs. Ray-Collision-Node This node actually doesn’t work until you unchecked “Testing Only”. I’ve lost a lot of hair on this one (Pic05).

Random-Node If you expect a truly random effect use the Noise node instead of the random node. It is a lot more flexible to set up, use its position ports to make it more random.

Lets say you want to move an antenna on a moving car, then the Y movement of the antenna moves up or down relative to the (local) car and not to the (global) world. Otherwise, if the car would drive up a hill the antenna would hit the ground. Create a Pool In the XPresso editor there is a column on the left side with all the nodes, the “x-pool”. You can add your own there for later use. Just add your own folder and start dropping your x-groups (Pic06)

Just play around To really get started you should not be afraid of XPresso. Fiddle around, try things out, make errors, and most all, have fun!

Sound-Node The sound-Node unfortunately does not output sound. It is only useful for animating geometry. Undo Be careful to check all your connections after performing an undo. Sometimes XPresso just

Landscape Tutorial Part 1 By Georg Niedermeier aka Sad How to Create a Realistic Landscape Filled with Nonrealistic Props (Part 1). A tutorial by Georg Niedermeier, alias “sad”.

Try to create a landscape shape that reminds you of three cylinders laying behind each other (Picture 2 Picture 3).

Have you ever thought that a certain landscape picture that has been created within a 3D application lacks realistic depth? In my opinion, most of the landscape pictures seem to show very little of the vastness that a normal landscape of (for example) some Toscana areas have. Now I want to show you how to create landscapes that give the impression of a very wide world.

Tutorial

Chapter 1 Landscape object No. 1 Create a landscape object at first. Use the values that are given automatically (Picture 1)

(Picture02) (Picture01b)

we don't move our geometry in another direction, just lock the axis we don't want to use by deactivating the x and z axis (Picture 1c).

(Picture03)

(Picture01c)

Now we will change the shape of this landscape using the Magnet tool (Picture 1b)

The magnet tool is to be used in polygon, edge or point mode. The magnet is shown by a yellow circle with a point in its middle. The circle shows how far the influence of the magnet will be. You can change the settings in the attributes manager, but the standard settings are OK for our proposes. The yellow point gives you feedback on which group of polygons will be changed by clicking and dragging the mouse.

Keep in mind that we want to create a chain of hills, so we have to push the polygons as if we wanted to create ocean waves. We don't want to push the polygons into any direction, but only into the direction of the y-axis. In order to make sure that

Just play around for a little while in order to get a feel of the magnet tool. It is very easy to handle and creates some very natural shapes that are not too geometric, which is necessary for a believable landscape.

(Picture01)

Make it editable by converting it into a polygon object.

Chapter 2 The position of our camera. Now we have to create a camera object with a look at expression. (Picture 4).

(Picture04)

Make sure to activate the camera in our viewport menu (Picture 4b).

Landscape Tutorial Part 1 By Georg Niedermeier aka Sad

will result in an unnatural gap in the landscape. Therefore I have tweaked it until I've been satisfied with the result (Picture 8).

(Picture06)

appear in the lower part of the picture. In order to achieve that it can be necessary to move the camera target up. Just move it around and see what happens.

Tutorial

Chapter 3 Tweaking the landscape.

(Picture04b)

The standard position of the camera doesn't help us very much so we have to move it in front of the lowest part of our landscape. Try to find a position that looks nice and be careful not to show the edges of the landscape. No natural landscape shows really straight lines (Picture 5).

My picture shows that there is quite a high hill in the background. Since this is too high for a second landscape object to appear in the background, I will now move it down with the magnet tool.

(Picture06)

Chapter 4 Making the landscape big or landscape object No. 2. Create a plain object and move it directly behind the landscape object we've made earlier. Give it these position and values (Picture 9).

The yellow point in the middle of the magnet tool makes it very easy to find the right position for the changes (Picture 7).

(Picture06)

The new landscape object that we will create from our plain has to start below the end of our first landscape object (Picture 10).

(Picture05)

The following picture shows what we don't want to achieve (Picture 6). The camera needs to be in a position that makes the landscape

(Picture06)

Click and drag is all I have to do. Of course it's not guaranteed that the changes are finished after the first click and drag because it most likely

Convert the new plain into an editable polygon object. Switch back to the editor camera (Picture 10b). Rotate the viewport until our view is quite similar to the camera´s position. Because our camera has a

Landscape Tutorial Part 1 By Georg Niedermeier aka Sad

(Picture10)

(Picture12)

magnet and other useful values. If you want to know more about its effects it will be very useful to play around with the values. Please note that I've changed the radius to 200 meters (Picture 13).

Tutorial

(Picture10b)

(Picture14)

scale tool, which we know from tasks where we have to resize things. We cannot use it at once because the object axis of the plain is in its center and the use of scale would end up in an object its extent intersecting with the other object. (Picture 15)

very low position along the y axis, we are not able to see the plain and that's why we have to rotate the viewport slightly higher than the camera. The picture in your 3-D viewport may look similar to this one (Picture 11). (Picture13)

The second landscape in the background of our picture shall not have details that are too tiny and you can make that sure by using a bigger radius. Deform the plain in a similar way as we have deformed the landscape object earlier. Try to create three ridges of hills as well. (Picture11)

After you have rotated your viewport, it should look something like this (Picture 12). If you can not see the plain properly rotate the viewport to your own needs. The attributes manager of the magnet tool allows you to change the radius and many other things like the shape of our

After you have switched to the camera again, your result should look a bit like this one (Picture 14). I´m quite sure that you won't really like what you see but we are not yet finished. The 2nd landscape is too close and doesn't look wide at all, but we have a cool and very simple tool to get rid of that effect. The

(Picture15)

Select the axis tool and move it to the very beginning of the plain as shown in this picture (Picture 16). We can easily scale our plain along the z axis now because the object will literally grow from our new axis origin. Scale it until its appearance is satisfying for you. It is possible that our second landscape doesn't really fit our scene now. In order to give it a better position, just move it to a better place by moving it along the x-axis, too.

Landscape Tutorial Part 1 By Georg Niedermeier aka Sad

of the Attributes Manager for the camera. Check all three check boxes and give the end of Front Blur a value between 150 and 170 and the end value of Rear Blur a value between 500 and 550 meters (Picture 20).

(Picture18)

(Picture16)

Tutorial

That's my version so far: (Picture 17)

Let's make a good-looking scene! Create a distance light with target. The type of distance can be set in the Attributes Manager's General Panel of the light source. Just look for a drop-down menu called Type. (Picture 19)

(Picture20) (Picture17)

It's not yet perfect. Move the plain far away from our landscape object. Use the z-axis for that task. The plain is maybe too narrow now and in that case you may scale the plain along the x-axis too. Repeat that along the y-axis if the landscape plain in the back seems not high enough. Play around for a while until you find a pleasing appearance. (Picture 18) Chapter 5 Adding depth Well, our scene looks quite boring at the moment because there's no light source, no colors, or anything else.

In the right view your camera will now look something like this. (Picture 21).

(Picture19)

Create a sky object. As nature shows us every day, object's in the very distance seem to disappear in a thin bluish fog. This is called haze. Starting by version 8.5 of Cinema 4d, we can create this effect via the Depth of Field function of our beloved program. Here's how: Creating haze Select the camera in the object manager. Go into the Depth Panel

(Picture21)

If it doesn't look like this it is sensible to tweak that by hand. Click and drag the yellow point that marks Front Blur and Rear Blur. The Front Blur needs to start in the first fifth

Landscape Tutorial Part 1 By Georg Niedermeier aka Sad while Rear Blur should start in the first quarter of the gap between our landscape and the plain object (refer to picture 21).

Tutorial

(Picture21)

Now open the Render Settings panel in the Render menu and switch to the Effects settings. Click the little arrow on the right side of the word Post Effect in the corner on the upper right of the Render Settings panel and select Depth of Field. In the Basic options uncheck any check box. Ignore the Lens options and head to the Tint option. Check Use Tint (Picture 23).

After you have clicked in that red area, a handle will appear. Move it to the very left. A single click on that handle allows you to select the color you want. Click the little arrow right of the word Front Color and pick a white color. Now click the little arrow on the right side of the word Rear Color. The color picking tool will appear. As shown in picture 24 you have to click slightly below the very long black box on the right side of the word Rear Color. Move the appearing handle to the very left as you have done before. Again a single click on that handle allows you to select the color you want. Uncheck Edit Alpha and uncheck Display Result. Take a bright blue that you can see at a summer sky. Activate the Use Ranges check box too (Picture 25). Now you have reached the end of

(Picture23)

Change the Front Color into white. In order to do that follow the instructions shown here: (Picture 24)

(Picture24)

(Picture25)

part one of this tutorial. I hope you liked it and in the next issue of 3D Attack the Cinema 4d Magazine we will create trees and fields, a nice sun, some buildings and maybe a third layer of hills. If you have questions regarding this tutorial, just ask it on our forums at www.3dattack.net.

Modeling a City Block in CINEMA 4D By Luis Tappa Model a city block.

the Y axis, we can create our roof by only moving two points each tim : [pic-04] and [pic-05]

Tutorial

The idea behind this tutorial is to present you with an original way to build an architectural project. The basic idea comes from, as it's often the case, a constraint of time and budget. We had to model a complete city block, which is thirteen buildings all different in 4 days. Even though we had the blueprints of the buildings, we didn't think that timeline could be reached if we were to model everything in 3D from scratch, as it is quite a challenge. Pretty quickly, we decided to make a virtual cardboard model of the buildings, using as a texture the architect's technical drawings. We opted for box modeling as if one can create a car using a box, we certainly could model a house! And so, here is what we had in the end : Pic01

Pic04

Pic02

pixel. We create a cube and adjust it at the size of the building. In general, I think it's more simple to create a cube that won't cover the roof, this one can be created later by moving points. Then, we'll need to subdivide that cube, either by using the Knife tool or creating a good number of rows on the parametric cube before converting it and moving points later [pic-03].

Pic05

Pic03

We will now create some other rows which we will use to extrude the molding of the windows and doors. We will use 2 subdivisions in the Z axis and 9 subdivisions in the Y axis, following our shapes on the blueprint once again.

Setup: Using the technical drawings we created bitmap images of the front and side views, and of the roofs which would serve as guides for modelisation and as final textures applied on the models. Let's take this building for example: [pic-02]. We start from a cube. Modeling, being based on images, we work on a pixel based scale. One Cinema 4D unit equals one

Here we then trace our main construction lines from the side view, creating first our rows of points that will need to be moved later. We can see that with 2 subdivisions on the Z axis and 3 subdivisions on

We do the same thing on the front view blueprint to determine the number of rows in the X axis. Here you can see that we will need 9 rows. We will only create the ones for the windows and will create the shutters from separate shapes as it is more convenient [pic-06].

Modeling a City Block in CINEMA 4D By Luis Tappa

Pic06

moving some points in point mode. The first thing to do is to move all the lines and rows of points so they fit the polygon shape previously drawn. Here is the result in front view [pic-08]. We can now start moving some

Tutorial

Pic08

We start modeling by placing two planes at the same size of the blueprints "façade" (or front view) and "coupe" (profile view), and a basic cube for the building. As usual, all these objects are created at the center of the world along with their axis. We will then edit these objects to be able to move their axis in a more appropriate place, which is at the junction between the two blueprint planes. This way we can move all this at the center of the world. The building here in wireframe view with a display tag on wireframe mode so we can see through and see the blueprints [pic-07]. After editing our cube, we'll start Pic07

points to form the roof [pic-09]. Our building is starting to take

How can we see both the texture on our blueprints and have the model in wireframe at the same time? Place a Display tag on the object you model and check "Wireframe" mode. That way we can see both our blueprint texture and our wireframe model in shading mode, instead of using wireframe mode, which would wireframe everything including the blueprint planes [pic-11]. How can we increase the quality of

Pic11

the blueprint texture? Open the material panel and go in Illumination menu. Here you'll see the "texture preview size" parameter. Just increase the value [pic-12]. Let's go back to our modeling now.

Pic09

shape [pic-10]. At this step, it is good to remember

Pic10

a few principles I used that, if not obvious right away, are pretty important to model correctly :

Pic12

We'll extrude a few polygons to give more depth to the structure. It is

Modeling a City Block in CINEMA 4D By Luis Tappa

also the moment to adjust your points on the model to prepare for the extrusion. Select the window polygons, maintaining the Shift key to add to the selection to select all the windows at once. It is important to check the options of the active tool and make sure that "only visible elements" radiobox is checked, otherwise you could select the polygons at the back of the building that's a common beginner mistake.

sion value as the others. All these modelings will then be done using the cutter tool. Inevitably, in our case, we need to adjust some points on the X axis to align them correctly. Sometimes, we can't avoid a few triangles, but it is not important for that kind of modeling, as it is neither animated nor smoothed with hypernurb [pic-14]. For the extrusion of the bottom part,

With the polygons selected, go in the side view to adjust easily the size of the extrusion. Using the "D" key to select the extrude tool, click the view and extrude you polygons. Here are our windows now [pic-13]. Apply the same principle for the part

extrusion is important to avoid having some unseen polygons that we don't need between the extruded polygons [pic-16]. Our building begins to take shape.

Pic16

The only thing missing now are the windows on the roof [pic-17]. To model these windows, it would

Tutorial

Pic14

you can see that the elements are disposed along different Z values. In order,going inside the building, we have the columns, the brick area and the windows. In these kind of cases, we need to think like using layers, to progressively sculpt the different depths. First, we'll select the windows and the bricks area, and extrude these [pic-15]. To finish the windows, we make a Pic13

be difficult to use the extrusion, so we will have to model the polygons ourselves.

under the roof and the wall on top of the wall, using the front view. Let's take care of a few specific points of the building now. You'll notice that during our previous modeling phase we omitted a few areas like the windows sill, the brick elements or the first floor windows. The reason for that is that we want to keep the view as clear and uncomplicated as possible when we establish the basic shapes. The first floor windows didn't have the same extru-

Pic17

Let's place a few cutter strokes first to create some rows of points that we will need later [pic-18]

Pic15

new selection and extrude a second time, but only the windows this time. At the end, we have our three different depths. This kind of successive

We will use the two points at the bottom of the previously created rows and clone them (right-click in the view in point mode and "clone" function) and move them so they are placed in the future window spot. Using these two new points, we cre-

Modeling a City Block in CINEMA 4D By Luis Tappa

ly did a tiny extrusion to create a new row of points in order to detach the points of the window from those of the building's roof. To check whether you selected only three points, and not more, just pull out the selection info window (menu "window>selection info") and check that only 3 points are selected [pic23].

Pic18

For the three remaining windows, as they are identical, just select all the

Tutorial

Pic21

Pic19

ate three polygons to shape the walls of the window and a fourth one for the mini-roof [pic-20]. To model the roof of the window, it's

dow and extrude a little bit toward the top. Now, when we'll cut this polygon in two using the cutter, the newly created points won't be part of the building's roof. And it's also a lot cleaner because we avoid the three triangles that we had at the window level. We will take the opportunity to move the window inside more on the inside of the building. Select the front polygon and make an inner extrusion ("I" shortcut key) followed by an extrusion [pic-22]. We now just have to adjust the front

Pic23

polygons of the existing window and create 3 clones using the "clone" function from the right-click context menu in polygon mode. Just make sure that all the necessary polygons are selected, especially in areas where the polygons are small. Once duplicated, place the clones correctly according to the blueprints[pic-24].

Pic20

pretty simple, just select the roof polygon and apply a cutter stroke along the border of the window. Then, select the two created points and move them along the Y axis to shape the roof of the window. [pic-21]. The point created in the back is also part of the polygons of the roof of the building. If you move it, you also deform the roof. Is there a solution? Yes, just select the roof of the win-

Pic22

of the roof by moving the front point at the tip of the window's roof toward the back to give it a pyramidal shape. To finish up the roof, we just select the three remaining points at the back of the window and move them backward until they reach the polygon of the building's roof. Keep in mind that we previous-

Pic24

At this step, we have a little cardbox model which is suitable for background representation. For fore-

Modeling a City Block in CINEMA 4D By Luis Tappa

of result we can reach, with a classic render and using Sketch and Toons as a complement [pic-25a-b].

ground use, just detail as much as you like, there are really no limits to what you can do, but we will list a few important things: a flat texture projection is simple to use and understand but can produce some bad texture placements in the corners. If necessary, make a different selection and restrict a different texture to these problematic areas.

You can also use that same basic modelisation technique and apply realistic textures (here taken from a series of photos) to achieve a different result. Have fun!

The blueprint texture can be cleaned up a bit in a 2D software. The shutters could be modeled as separate objects for a better quality. Don't forget the details, they are the ones which bring a model to life (chimney, gutters, and so on…) With a few modifications, here is the kind

Luis Tappa - Bubbles 4D member.

Tutorial

Pic25b

Pic25a

Interview with “Mash” Matthew O’Neill By Tavy Ann

work. Why don't we start with you telling us a little about you? Where were you born, now live, how old are you, etc?

Interview

Recently I had the opportunity to interview Matthew "Mash" O'Neill of 3D Fluff, www.3dfluff.com. Not only is Mash a highly skilled 3D artist, but he's a man with a great personality. I hope our readers have as much fun reading the interview as I had giving it. I present to you Mash…… Tavy: Hi Matthew. Thanks for taking some time to share with 3D Attack and our readers. It's a great opportunity for us to pick your brain and learn more about you and your

Mash: Hey, this is a bit like writing a personal ad. WLTM SWF N/S.... Ok, I was born in Coventry (UK) in 1981, although I only have a bit of the northern accent left; I'm almost fully rehabilitated. Right now I'm in St Albans, a medium sized town just north of London which has less thieving scum than average. The girlfriend keeps trying to get me to move to Brighton though. Before this I was in a place called Luton, to give the non-UK readers an idea about Luton, it's the sort of place where you speed up to get as far away as you can. The main motorway has a minimum speed limit of

30mph to try and prevent the locals from stealing your wheels. I should probably get this out of the way now too. Nobody calls me Matthew. If someone calls my name from across the room I probably won't look because it's not something I associate with myself. I've been "Mash" since I was born.... you see my older brother couldn't say my name, only ever managing "Mashoo". So Mash just kinda stuck. Tavy: Ok, it's "Mash" from here on out! You're a "self taught" 3D artist. Would you say this is an advantage or disadvantage? Why? Mash: There are pros and cons to doing this but overall I would say it's the best way to go if you can. Teaching yourself isn't difficult; there are a mountain of books and tutorials you can use to get into the soft-

Interview with “Mash” Matthew O’Neill

Interview

By Tavy Ann

ware. The difficult bit of course is actually making your work look decent, this is where you must listen to and respect what others say about your images and animations. I chose not to go to university not only because of the amount of debt I would be in, but also because at the time, none of the output from the universities was even remotely impressive. The best prospectus I saw was from Hertfordshire University which proudly displayed a character called Mr. Clock. If you're impressed by a sphere and a few cylinders stuck together then it might have looked nice, but it didn't really float my boat. Since I left college at 18, not once have I ever been asked to show a single qualification. If you can do the work then it generally seems that no

one really cares what certificate you have in your back pocket.

the pies when they were under construction :-)

Tavy: Your professional portfolio has some length to it. Tell us a bit about some of your past and present projects.

The last project I worked on was the Lloyd Webber musical, The Woman in White. Essentially we replaced most of the sets with animated backdrops on a gigantic curved screen.

Mash: Most of my work thus far has been what most would consider bread and butter work. Jobs which aren't spectacularly interesting, but they pay well if you're capable of doing the work. Working on The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy was quite educational. I was doing pre-viz work with Sean Mathiesen who did LOTR; recreating real-world camera rigs, planning out large scenes to work out what would eventually be a real part of the set and which would be CG. Nothing you see in the film will be mine but I had my thumb in a lot of

This way the actors can actually go for a walk in the park and not just walk back in forth in front of a picture. Typically when you change a scene the whole stage is plunged into darkness whilst the stage hands change the set as fast as possible. Now they can walk through a projected door in the set, the imagery animates over to the next scene and then they emerge through a different door in the projection screen into the new room.

Interview with “Mash” Matthew O’Neill By Tavy Ann

Mash: I certainly can. The next disc will be interior lighting and rendering, this should be available by the time you read this, if not then we've missed our deadline ;-) After this there will probably be a modeling DVD, it all really depends what people want. We run polls on the main website every week so people can help decide what happens next.

Interview

Tavy: You've managed to find success in the industry, while many others don't. Do you have any advice for those just getting started in the 3D/CG industry?

It was met with a lot of bad reviews from the old fogies who think video will kill theatre and great reviews from everyone else. Now it has been confirmed that its moving over to Broadway so I'll probably be called up to do some extra work on the new version. Tavy: If you had not chosen to go into 3D, what career path might you have chosen? Mash: I can't really answer this as I have no idea in the slightest. If 3D were suddenly outlawed today on punishment of death I'd probably try to get a job designing or making computer workstations at somewhere like Boxx. Tavy: You, with Janine Pauke, make up 3D Fluff. I have personally had the opportunity to evaluate and review your new Training for CINEMA 4D DVD "Design and Visualisation". WELL DONE! Can you give our readers a hint as to what is to come in the future regarding the Training DVD's?

Mash: A few nuggets. Make as many contacts as you can and keep in contact with them. These people will often turn into sources of work later on in life. The theatre work came from one guy I taught years ago, he then remembered me and asked for my assistance on his project. The film work came from a pain in the arse customer who would constantly call me for technical support... work can come from all sorts of odd places, show yourself to be useful and efficient and you will be remembered when the time comes. Because of this I do not recommend you go straight into freelancing. A lot of people leave university and decide they'll do small freelance jobs to start; but where are these jobs going to come from? Agencies will want to see actual production work and experience. I suggest you find a place to work where you have contact with useful people. For me this was doing tech support and trade shows at Maxon.

For a lot of people this is fetching sandwiches and making tea as a runner in a studio. Tavy: What do you see in the future for both yourself and the CG industry: Or rather, what would you like to see? Mash: I see myself buying a cheap home in Spain, New Zealand or Florida, with a pool of course, making more training DVDs whilst relaxing outside with a laptop and a cool glass of lemonade. I see the rest of the industry as 100,000 underpaid and overworked slaves toiling at EA to meet impossible deadlines.

Interview with “Mash” Matthew O’Neill

Interview

by Tavy Ann

Tavy: What other things do you do aside from 3D? Entertainment, hobbies, relaxation, etc....? Mash: Its winter, I'm staying firmly indoors with my warm computer. When the sun comes out in April I'll be out on my motorbike scaring car drivers. Tavy: Once again, thanks for the interview. It was a true pleasure. Do you have any last words for our readers? Mash: Yes, Kitten and Squiggle. Matthew O'Neill - Mash http://www.3dfluff.com

Creating Seamless Tileable Textures By Rui Batista

This article is not exactly about 3D, but it deals with subject that is very important when doing textures for 3D rendering: how to create tileable textures. For an image to be tileable, it needs to be seamless. What is a seamless image? Its an image that, when repeated size by side (as tiles are laid), shows no visible clue of its limits. For example, this image (royalty free image CB035438, from Corbis. Thank you Corbis [Pic01]

Pic03

but most of them, do. I assume you are using Photoshop, from now on. Duplicate your image into a new layer.

Tutorial

Now you have two similar images, one on top of the other. Select the top layer image and choose "HighPass" from the "Other" submenu on the "Filters" menu [Pic04]

Pic05

Your image turned out mainly grey, isn't it? Don't worry. Just make it the most even grey you can while still seeing all details. You will end up with something similar to this [Pic06]

Pic04

Pic01

...when tiled, shows a visible clue of where the limits of the original image are [Pic02]. Pic06

Since all the luminosity of image is now even, we only have to change the transfer mode of this layer to Luminosity. This will transfer only the luminosity information to the layer bellow [Pic07]. Merge both layers into a single one. When we tile this new image we get something like this [Pic08].

Pic02

Why is that? Not only the textures on the left and bottom don't match their correspondent right and top textures but the luminosity of the image is not even [Pic03] Lets first deal with the luminosity. Not all images need this treatment

The following dialog will appear. [Pic05] For most images a Radius of 10 is enough. But try out different numbers. Our goal is to get the most even distribution of light possible.

Its much better not not quite perfect. But this is nothing a little calibration with the Curves or Levels commands (whatever suits you best) on the lower or upper section of the image will not fix. On my case, I

Creating Seamless Tileable Textures By Rui Batista

Now you can be sure that the topbottom and left-right edges line up correctly. Your "old" edges (the ones that DIDN'T lined up correctly) are now at the center of the image, creating a visible cross [13].

Pic10

Pic07

Pic13

Tutorial

Pic08

entered Quick Mask mode, selected the lower part of the image with a vertical gradient and used the Curves command to even out the bottom section. I ended up with this: [Pic09]. Pic11

Making sure the "Wrap Around" option is turned on, input on the "Horizontal" field, half of the width of the image (the value you took note of). On the "Vertical" field, input half of the height of the image [12].

Its time to do some Stamp work. Simply clone textures on top of that visible cross so that it looks perfectly seamless to you. After doing that, in my case, I thought that upper part of the image showed the texture at a much larger scale than the lower part. This was due to the fact that the original image was shot, not from above, but from an angle, increasing the sense of perspective. So, I simply selected the upper part of the image and squashed it down a bit [14].

Pic09

Now, for the next part, I need to know the width and height of my image, in pixels. For that, I Alt+click on the information field on the bottom of the document. I take note of both dimensions [Pic10]. Now (make sure you have nothing selected) I choose "Offset..." from the "Other" submenu on the "Filters" menu [11].

Pic14

After fine tuning the image a bit, this is what I came up with, once tiled: [15]

Pic12

Not bad! This image can now be used to create a larger (tiled) texture inside any 3D application. Even so, I advice

Creating Seamless Tileable Textures By Rui Batista

trast of the noise until you get a good random distribution that doesn't obliterate the color information. And that's it for now. More texture tutorials will follow. Until then, keep Attacking!! Rui Batista

Tutorial

Pic15

you to do one thing to destroy even more the repeated-tile sensation. In Cinema4D, apply this image to the Color channel but also turn on the

Diffusion channel. In it, place a procedural noise (SLA Noise) that will, only slightly, "interfere" with the color channel. Adjust the scale and conADVERTISING

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Best of CINEMA 4D

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

Image: Worm Yanker Artist: Raymond O'Doul Country: USA Website: Date created: 2004 Software: CINEMA 4D R9

Image: Fang den Hut (Kalenderblatt Juni) Artist: Hubertus Reuber Country: Germany Website: www.hr-art.de Date created: September 2004 Software: CINEMA 4D XL 8.5

Image: Lighting Artist: Jens Kappelmann "Jeso" Country: Germany Website: http://www.jeso.de.vu Date created: 26. Oktober 2004 Software: CINEMA 4D R8.5

Image: Digital Morning Artist: Sucan Marius (ROBO Design) Country: Romania Website: http://www.robodesign.ro Date created: September 03, 2004 Software: CINEMA 4D and Photoshop

Image: May Calendar Project Artist: Mark Gmheling Country: Germany Website: http://www.macling.de Date created: 2004 Software: CINEMA 4D

Editor’s Notes Hello there Readers and Attackers! HAPPY MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, and HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2005 is only a few days and, because of you, we’ve had a GREAT first year! We at 3D Attack are looking forward to bringing you the best we have to give in 2005. Be looking for exciting new articles, tutorials, interviews, and new products in the 3D Attack Shop. May 2005 bring you your hearts desires. The 3D Attack Team!

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The 3D Attack Team

3D Attack Team

Want to contact us? Need help? Got questions? Ask us!

CEO - Writer Thomas Pasieka - Tank tom@3dattack.net

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