There was interesting question on Maxon Cinema 4D area in CGtalk forums
“How to do a smoke ring effect with Cinema 4D”.
Here´s my quick tip.
It´s possible to do a smoke ring in Cinema 4D R12 with
transparent texture on torus object and
animated noise shader in displacer
modifier. Here´s some settings in R12.
I hope you find it useful.
Displacer modifier with noise shader and animation speed set to 2.
I will propably post file later on.
Interesting stuff of Tron Legacy movie from the effect wizard himself
David Lewandowski. There were also other interesting people making cg stuff
for Tron for example Josh nimoy who directed Motion Graphics for Tron.
There is a good workflow page in Nimoy´s page.
Be sure to check out also Tron´s boardroom images on David Lewandowski website
Cinema 4D in top ten 3d software in 2013 review
Just recently Cinema 4D has been reviewed in top ten in
“2013 Best 3D Animation Software Comparisons and Reviews”
and has a very good review here.
“3D modeling and animation is an intrinsically complicated process, and the vast and varied applications for the technology make it hard to identify which software is most ideal for the task you are working on. We like MAXON’s CINEMA 4D because it is an approachable alternative to more intimidating 3D animation software packages. This software is easier to learn than most competitors, but it still possesses the depth required for professional use. The great toolset and approachability make it particularly relevant to graphic artists who have less familiarity with traditional 3D tools”.
The Review
Cinema 4D R13 scored a nice 9/10 in this review. It is already older version but has
the same tools except the sculpting tools which I think is the major special feature in R14.
Sometime you can spot a good errors in the top ten checkmark boxes -Paintable texture
: “The ability to paint directly on the surface of a model”. Misses a checkmark in Cinema 4D.
You have had this option for a long time in Bodypaint 3D´s projection painting tool. Maxon´s
Bodypaint 3d is integrated texturing tool inside Cinema 4D and also available as a standalone
version.
screen_bodypaint
I had a great week at work but now just wanted to relax and let some steam
so I decided to write a decent blog post for a long time.
I was inspired by the “The Best Animation Tools That Every Animation Artist Loves” article
because there was a selection of not so well known 2d animation tools like Toon Boom Animate
and TVP Animation. There was a screenshot of “3D Studio Max” but is actually from Lightwave and
not from 3D Studio Max at all. Or just a mistake?
The link for the story:
http://geekszine.com/best-animation-tools-that-every-animation-artist-loves-280.html
Even if you do 3d animation it might be useful to make some rough animatics also in 2d to later use
them as a reference for 3d animation. I find it vital skill for every animator to start
with storyboarding. It´s like to draw comics but you don´t necessarily have to ink the characters
but only plan the story with the images and character poses.
Cinema 4D in professional industry only?
Cinema 4D is getting a massive hype in professional scene because it
has been used as a texturing or animating tool in many hollywood blockbuster
movies like Avatar, Spider Man and Hulk.
This means also that in some circles it is now recognised even more as a professional only tool.
However this hype is only marketing speak because Cinema 4D is been also used in many educational
facilities all over the world under Maxon´s CAP programme (Cinema 4D Academy Programme).
So what´s the hype ?
The best 3d animation tool at the moment is
Cinema 4D. Just ask any professional motion graphics designer, artist or hobbyist.
It does not matter what level you are at the moment because it is easy to learn
because it´s well designed interface and workflow. For me it was personally
a best choice after 3D Studio Max because in Max you have annoying user experience,
interface and tools scattered all over the place.
What was best with my 3D Studio experience is that you got models
and tutorials much easier back in early 2000
but already as early as 2003 Cinema 4D XL 7 was already fresh
and easier to use and had better modeling tools than 3D Studio Max.
Now with the latest version R14 you have the sculpting tools a bit like in ZBrush.
You can call it a high end 3d modeling and animation package because that what
it is.
Screen and Cinema 4D
In the UK among many professional artists and freelancers who like to use it in their
client projects the BBC television has got it for program intros and motion graphics seen in television.
Cinema 4D has a great connectivity with Adobe sofware and this makes it
easy to work with software like Photoshop and After Effects. I like to
use it with Illustrator as well. There´s good tutorials of how to use Cinema 4D and After Effects together for example how to prepare
files for After Effects in Cinema 4D in youtube.
New features – sculpting
Propably the most interesting feature in r14 is sculpting. Before this kind of high polygon sculpting was possible to do only in separate programs like Zbrush,
Sculptris and 3D-Coat.
I think that user friendly Cinema 4D interface makes the sculpting process workflow even more effective when you´re already
familiar with the interface.
Of course you can also combine the native Cinema 4D deformers like bulge and taper to deform the general sculpt shape
and why not also animate the whole bunch.
Base meshes
There´s some base meshes available in content browser which is a nice feature if you do not have
time to model everything from the scratch.
More about sculpting feature. Links and videos!
Mostyle – (in german)
mostyle.tv C4D r14 special 01 / sculpting from mostyle on Vimeo.
There is a great review of this feature in Pariah Studios
website.
File is compatible with R10 and up.
You can change basic pattern size, detail and
color.
Go to models download page (registered members only)
Referring to this mail:
http://lists.blender.org/pipermail/bf-committers/2012-January/034972.html
I think the images speak more than thousand words…
Someone should really take responsibility of the
development of collada in Blender. There´s really
much useful 3d stuff in Blender community when
it comes to animation but really no straightforward
compability with Cinema 4D.
Sintel Rig collada export from Blender
To Cinema 4D….fail !
New year´s first new model. This is a sort of rubber or a plastic duck
you can find from bathroom or kids playground.
Compatible with R13 and uses the new SSS shader.
Download page (registered members)
This scene was made today with Cinema 4D displacer modifier
and with just a cube and a shader. Couple of light sources needed for render.
I made by following 3d Fluff´s tutorial on youtube and thought it would
be useful to share.
Do anything you want with it in commercial or hobby projects but not resell.
Download scenefile here (no registration needed)
