Modeling Industrial Holes, release date (Mar 18th) – is a ‘bonus’ series demonstrating how the powerful modeling tools in CINEMA 4D provide options to produce specific structures, i.e., metal mesh filters and vents.
Modeling is like playing chess, you need to have three base elements: [1] Knowing the rules, [2] being experienced and [3] observing the play-ground. All these three let a computer play chess, but any experience is replaced with math. What comes above this base? It is [your] creativity! Which is by itself a longer theme. I have addressed it a while ago in a Siggraph’10 presentation at the MAXON booth. However, creativity is not replaceable, and is certainly not possible in an empty space. Creativity sits between procedurals and pure art. It touches both, but it isn’t any of these. (But back the computer-“game”: I have even integrated some XPresso solutions—to create holes, please check these out, thanks. :o)
This series builds a little bit up on the other “Speed Modeling Series”. But rest assured, it is not a prerequisite to watch the other one, even if I recommend this of course. The idea of this series is not only based on the idea to provide you with a wide variety of procedurals and ideas, it is more to show you in detail how far you can go with the native options already. This leads to know the [1] rules better , [2] creates experience (if done at least one time by yourself) and yes, it can’t replace the observation of your own game, but it gives you the options to [3] watch my few variations of that specific game. Filled with (hopefully) new impressions, the “library” of options and procedurals might grow and the creativity can connect more options to new results.
My training is strongly targeting practical use, as this series was developed for a master class (which covered just another hour during the day back then, as the addressed artists were absorbing things very fast). However, I ‘m happy to share this now here with the members of Cineversity. Yes, it is a specialized theme, and you might find plug-ins or other options to do some parts quicker perhaps. What I share here is one step further to be independent from extra tools; Which lets you work more freely.
On the end, you have to take care to expand your creativity constantly, but I like to feed the library that any creativity needs, and perhaps might inspire the one or the other. Thanks for your time.
What’s next?
This concludes the first torrent of specialized tutorials, mainly around JET as well Film-making and what I thought is important to know.
The next part is all about Photography, and focused around your scene creation. Photography connects the world with your scene. It establishes as well a better knowledge about images. These series will be broader in their targets, but certainly represents a representation of my passion for film and strong interest in Motion Graphics, but not limited to this. Over the years I got many question, e.g., “how to improve the quality of renderings”. I think that the old saying “low quality in—low quality out” applies to anything that you capture from the real world to use it in CINEMA 4D. If the photographic quality is not where it could be, it is really hard to improve the results once those images are used in C4D.
The next 200+ tutorials I’m working on will cover “HDRI”, “Panorama”, “Texture”, “Camera-Projection”, “Miniature photography for Camera-Projection”. In the center of these you will find a very specialized short series about white-balance, with a closer look to the needs for a 3D artist. Last but not least, a series about “Lighting in 3D like a photographer”. As these series build up on each other, I need to finish them all together. The content is an equivalent of a larger book (perhaps many books), but visualized. It is not a simple translation, as “reality” and “material/rendering/light/camera” behaves a little bit differently, which needs to be addressed carefully.
These upcoming series are based on my awarded work with cameras, and my filmic education e.g., at the “University of the Arts, Berlin”, as well decades of professional use. So, I go deep here, each time, and the “Camera Projection” series is based around a complete project, filmed on RED and already nominated for an award.
I hope on the end of my explorations to deliver some answers as well as for the “ACES” work-flow (Academy Color Encoding System) and what it means for anyone working in the Industry. Finally, “Color Science” in a nutshell, but I hope it will be presented in the best way, and not as a formula/diagram session only. Speaking of which, I don’t want to promise anything, but I make already notes for a “Color-Correction/Grading” series for 3D/VFX artists.
We will see if there is interest for a series like this. It would certainly complete a little bit more my efforts to bring the filmic thinking to CINEMA 4D. Besides that I will have of course some tiny bonus series as usual, like “C4D to NUKE”, and back to pure C4D tutorials, etc. So, lots to do.
Thanks for coming along so far. Enjoy.
Sassi
P.S.: ...the file is a little teaser.