Cineversity

In this Cinema 4D Quick Tip, Jonas Pilz shows you how to swap the colors of two color chips with ease. You will also learn that colors can be swapped between all sorts of objects, shaders, etc.

Create your own stunning ring-shaped space colony in Cinema 4D with this epic, 16-hour tutorial by Adam Benton (http://kromekat.com).
Adam is an award-winning creative artist based in the UK who has been fascinated by the idea of space colonies ever since he saw the first NASA concepts of these ideas as a child. This 11-part tutorial gives you a rare insight into creating stunning sci-fi images. By the end of the tutorial, you’ll be able to create your own renders of these astounding worlds where the horizon bends up and away from you. You’ll be in good shape to tackle other epic Cinema 4D images.
Modelling, sculpting, materials, lighting, rendering, and an escape pod full of tips and tricks await you on this voyage of Cinema 4D discovery. Join Adam in Part 1 as you construct the basic ring shape of the colony.

Create your own stunning ring-shaped space colony in Cinema 4D with this epic, 16-hour tutorial by Adam Benton (http://kromekat.com).
In Part 2, you’ll create the basic ring structure of the space colony. First, you’ll create a cross-section of the ring. To do this, you’ll use the Pen and Spline Arc Tool, and you’ll turn on grid point snapping to help place the points precisely. You’ll create the cross-section as two splines, which you’ll then join together using the Spline Mask tool. To help soften some of the edges, you’ll bevel them using Chamfer.
You’ll then generate the ring from the cross-section using a Sweep object and a Circle. To make life easier on yourself, you’ll then delete most of the ring to leave just one section. You’ll then rebuild the ring using the Cloner to replicate this section. Now any changes you make to this section will be replicated around the ring automatically. This saves you from having to do the same work multiple times around the ring.

In Part 3, you’ll add doors and windows to the basic ring structure you created in Part 1. But before you do that, you’ll separate the ring section into three separate meshes for the different parts so they can be treated differently: Habitat Section, Glass, and Hub Section.
Here you’ll use Selection tools, including Loop Selection and Fill Selection, to select the polygons for the different parts. You’ll use the Split command to split the selected polygons off into new mesh objects. One issue you’ll run into is that the polygons are facing the wrong way. You’ll correct this using the Reverse Normals command. You’ll also delete unused points that were left over when you used the Split command. You’ll wipe these out using Optimize.
It’s then onto the doors and windows, which you’ll create using Loop/Path Cut, Extrude and Extrude Inner. You’ll learn how to change the number of cuts and how to place them accurately. In case you need them later, you’ll add some basic rooms behind the windows. To make it easy to reselect polygons for areas such as windows, you’ll create Polygon Selection tags to store those selections.
You’ll also use these tags with materials to apply materials to those areas. For example, you’ll apply a glass material to the tag selections for the upper and lower windows.

In Part 4, you’ll create a framework to support the ring structure, railings to keep your colonists safe, and you’ll help them to feel more at home with lawn areas and funky balconies.
You’ll use Loop/Path Cut to create sections where grass should appear. To create the railings, you’ll first select edges of the Habitat Section where the railing should go, then generate a spline from these edges using Edge to Spline.
You’ll use this spline with a Sweep object and Rectangle to create the railing. To create the structs of the framework, you’ll again use Sweep. This time, you’ll use two Sweeps.
To create the main splines for the Sweeps, you’ll edit a cylinder and convert some of its edges to splines. And finally, for the balconies, you’ll move parts of the buildings outwards, then round the edges of these parts using the Bevel tool.

In Part 5, now that you’ve created the basic model, you’ll work on materials, lights and render settings. You’ll do a few test renders, and get more of a feel for how the final renders might look.
Some artists like to do all of the modelling first before adding materials and lights. But for a big project like this, Adam finds it very encouraging to see things taking shape early on. To start with, you’ll add colour bands to the accommodation. Each accommodation block will eventually have a different colour band (and different number, perhaps) so that residents will be able to tell which block or section they are at. Next, you’ll create a material for the white walls of the accommodation.
You’ll use Mod Noise to give the impression of panels, and Wavy Turbulence to make the walls look weathered. You’ll make the material for the accommodation windows more realistic, by layering a few Noise shaders to give the impression of lighting and details behind the windows. For the main glass structure, you’ll create a material that uses a Hexagonal pattern in the Tiles shader.
It’s then onto lighting. You’ll add an Infinite light to simulate the Sun, and an Omni light for blue light bounced from good old (out of shot) planet Earth. You’ll render some test shots using Physical Render and Global Illumination. Adam will then share a tip with you on how he simulates atmospheric perspective inside difficult shapes (you can’t use regular Environment Fog for this, as the atmosphere is only inside the ring).
Objects seen in the distance in the ring colony will pick up a blue tint from the atmosphere, adding realism and sense of depth. Things are really shaping up now!

n Part 6, you’ll increase the detail of the model. You’ll flesh out the framework and spine, and build a new transport section.
First, you’ll redo the framework to make it easier to edit. Then, you’ll make the rods in the framework much more detailed, using tools like Loop/Path Cut and Extrude. Next, you’ll edit the spine that runs above the roof. You’ll cut out areas of the spine and raise sections to increase the detail. Following this, it’s time to change plans for the transport system. It probably doesn’t make sense to have this located in the roof. The colonists would have to be whizzed up and down. Perhaps more logical is to build an underground system just below the accommodation.
You’ll use Colin the Colonist to help you get it the right height. On the way, you’ll tweak materials, add water vents to the ceiling, and make some changes that will make it easier to add landscape in the next video!

In this Quick Tip, Jonas Pilz shows you how to use the new Cache layer in the Volume Builder to speedup the volume workflow in Cinema 4D Release 21. This technique is especially useful when you use volume filters in your setup.

In this Quick Tip, Jonas Pilz shows you how to use the new AOVs in the node-based materials to render any node’s output as a multi-pass. This technique comes in very handy, if you need masks for parts of materials for compositing.

In this Quick Tip, Jonas Pilz shows you how to use the new Subfields workflow in Cinema 4D Release 21. Besides that, you will learn how to create a spiral using Fields.

In this Quick Tip, Jonas Pilz shows you how to loop animation of objects along splines. This is one of the tiny but useful features added to Cinema 4D Release 21.

In this video, we look at how to use a car rig created by Matteo Forghieri - https://vimeo.com/193269259

We start by looking at the rig in general and examining its settings. Then we look at how to apply that to a preset car model in Cinema 4D’s content browser.

In this Quick Tip, Jonas Pilz shows you how to create variations of Mixamo animations with the new Mixamo Control Rig template in Cinema 4D Release 21. It literally takes just a minute to setup the whole rig.

In this video, we look at how to start a modelling project like this by inputting the drawing directly into Cinema 4D so we can reference it directly.
Then using a Subdivision Surface and Symmetry Object, we start creating the shape and saving ourselves time by only having to model half of it, using the drawing to align my points and polygons with.
We also look at using polygon duplication to help create the toes once we have made the object editable and mirroring polygons to help update the wings.

We then move onto using sculpt within Cinema 4D to add in some better detail to the wings which are easier to do via sculpting. Then we look at starting to texture by getting Cinema 4D to create a basic UV map for us which I do a bit to clean up. Depending on your output will depend on how much time you want to spend tidying this up. Then we look at painting in some simple textures onto the Colour channel, adding in some Dodge and Burn to bring in some different colour tones. Then we add some detail to the reflectance and bump channels to give our character a bit more life.

Now in C4D R21 we can iterate faster by having different colors and icons for all objects and tags! In this quicktip, 1-on-1 instructor Darrin Frankovitz shows you how to quickly “read” complex architectural grass tag layers by using custom colors and icons.

So something that’s come up quite a few times on our videos, is the request to show how to model an exhibition stand.
As I explain in the video, this is something that is both relatively simple and tricky at the same time.
Modelling something like that isn’t too difficult, not having a specific design to model from, is the trickier part.
Once you’ve been allocated an exhibition space, normally you’d have an idea of the sort of layout you want, the sort of stuff available to you, the sort of stuff you could afford and you’d pop that all over to a designer who’d do the rest.
In this video, I have taken features from a few bespoke exhibition stands and given some tips and tricks on how you could model your own. 
Firstly you will start by figuring out your space by using a cube and making it the correct size.
Then you will use some textures from Cinema 4D’s content browser to add the floor.
You will then learn how to use splines and an Extrude NURBS in order to create the back archway.
You will use a simple cube and the bend deformer in order to add the front desks and upper struts.
Using splines and extrudes or simple cubes you can give yourself the back of the stand and the front panel.
Then you will learn how to apply some textures, correctly size them and then scale them to fit your model.
Simple, clean textures allow the stand to “stand” out as it were and then using extra content from the browser you can fill your stand with other things like chairs and TV’s.
Adding in simple lights, a physical sky, some luminent polygons and of course, Global Illumination and Ambient Occlusion, finalise your stand.

In this Cinema 4D Quick Tip, Jonas Pilz shows you how to swap projects automatically when dragging one project from the Finder or Windows Explorer onto a project which is already open in Cinema 4D. You will also learn how to make this the default behavior.

In this three-part tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a swimming pool in Cinema 4D. You’ll use the Caustics feature to create the typical, realistic dancing patterns of light that appear on the swimming pool floor. Skip straight to Part 3 if you are interested in the Caustics only. Parts 1 and 2 cover the modelling and texturing of the pool.

In Part 1, you’ll create the swimming pool model. For the main part, you’ll use a Cube as your starting point. You’ll use a Sweep object to create the border around the pool. You’ll create steps using a Sweep for the rails, and cubes for the individual steps. You’ll also model pool lights using primitive shapes.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to texture the pool. You’ll learn how to use the Tiles shader and how to apply it to parts of the pool using Cubic and Flat Projection. You’ll create a shiny metal, which you’ll use to texture the steps as well as the rings of the pool lights.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to add water and use Caustics to create the beautiful patterns of light on the pool floor. For caustics to work, the water must have a rippled - not completely flat - surface. To achieve this, you’ll use a Displacer modifier. You’ll explore the Caustics settings. And you’ll use Physical Render to get a better result. Now for the most fun part: you’ll render out your caustics animation and hopefully marvel at the dancing patterns of light!

In this series we will learn all the tools and methods necessary to reconstruct the background scene we used in the “Modeling and Animating a Logo” tutorial.
We will start with an overview of the scene, and explain how the scene is structured, and what tools and processed are involved.
One by one, we will go through all the object types in the scene, and learn how to use various modeling techniques, lights, materials e.t.c.
This series is aimed at the new Cinema 4D user, and should be used alongside all the other Tutorials on Cineversity.com, so go sign-up and start learning!

In this video, we will briefly revisit Cinema 4D’s interface, and start looking at the building blocks of the Motion Graphics Scene. We will also see how to render in the Viewport, to evaluate our creative progress, talk about hierarchies, and more.

In this video we will take a look at some of Primitives, also known as Procedural mesh Objects, that where used to build the scene. In particular, we will see the Cube, Cylinder, Sphere, Torus and Tube Primitives. In the process, we will learn about the Attribute Manager, and how to set values for various parameters.

In this video we will take a quick look at some of the available Procedural Splines, and introduce the concept of “orientation”.

In this video we will look at a couple of the Modeling Generators. These objects use Splines to build 3D models, and allow us to create a huge array of complex objects, while retaining full control of the parameters. Ion particular, we will see the Lathe and Sweep Modeling Generators.