3D Attack - 2005 - 04

Volume 02 Issue 04
April 2005 | $3.99
HIGHLIGHTS IN THIS ISSUE:
REVIEW
Thinking of sidegrading or upgrading?

Check out Aaron Biscombe’s CINEMA
4D Release 9 Review on page 14.
TEXTURING TUTORIAL
GET DIRTY with Rui Batisa’s texturing

tutorial on page 10
MONO FLOP TUTORIAL
Interview with Dave Brinda

Learn a little more about Dave and
what he does on page 4.
How do you like your toast? Give
Base80’s Mono Flop tutorial a go! Be
careful not to burn the toast, page 25.
© Dave Brinda 2005

3D ATTACK QUICK INDEX
PAGE 4-8 Interview with Dave Brinda by Tavy Ann
PAGE 9 The C4D Quiz
PAGE 10-13 GET DIRTY! by Rui Batista
PAGE 14-17 CINEMA 4D Release 9.1 Review by Aaron Biscombe
PAGE 18-21 Lookout Tower Part 3 by Bram van Gerwen
PAGE 22-23 Combining Splines by Georg Niedermeier
PAGE 24 EMorpher Review by Thomas Pasieka
PAGE 25-28 Mono Flop Tutorial by Base80
PAGE 29 Micro-Tut-Formula Egg by Base 80
PAGE 30-35 Landscape Tutorial Part 3 by Georg Niedermeier
PAGE 36-37 Artist Spotlight “Raymond Salter” by Tavy Ann
PAGE 38-40 GNOMON ZBrush Review by Mark Gmehling
PAGE 41-43 How to Sort Particles With TP by Tabou
PAGE 44-46 Camera Animation in R9 by Georg Niedermeier
PAGE 47-52 Best of C4D Gallery
PAGE 53 CINEMA 4D Q&A
PAGE 55 3D ATTACK Comic by Sir Gong

By Tavy Ann
Tavy: Dave thanks for taking some

time out of your schedule for 3D
Attack and our readers. Some of
our readers may not be familiar with
who you are. Would you mind shar-
ing a bit about yourself?
Dave: Thank you Tavy, it's an honor

to participate. My name is Dave
Brinda, I'm 36 and live in northern
Interview
California with my wife and our two

kids. Dave: I graduated from The Art
Center College of Design in
As a creative professional, I've been Pasadena, California. I started out
working in the design industry for my professional career in commer-
the past 12 years. I currently special photography and quickly drifted
cialize in interactive and motion into the design world. I was interest-
graphics design and digital illustra- ed early on with the entire design
tion. process and began developing proj-
ects from concept to completion. In
Throughout my career I've had the the early 90's I had the opportunity
opportunity to work on some excit- to establish and direct a creative
ing projects and develop some services agency and one of the first
award-winning creative for clients digital photography studios.
including; Universal Pictures,
Twentieth Century Fox, Apple Tavy: CINEMA 4D is your 3D appli-
Computer, Cisco Systems, Disney, cation of choice. Why? What other
Sun Microsystems, and National applications are you currently using
Geographic. or would like to implement in the
future?
I got into 3D a year or two ago and
have since had the opportunity to Dave: Cinema 4D is an outstanding imagery I was able to produce. To
utilize those new skills in both my piece of software! What initially drew me, Cinema seems perfectly tuned
professional projects and for fun. me to Cinema was it's incredible to the needs of the individual
ease of use. Everything was so intu- artist...I can concentrate on what I'm
Tavy: Tell us about your education. itively designed, that I was amazed trying to express creatively and the
Do you have any formal education at how quickly I picked it up, and technical aspects don't get in the
or training in Graphics? was stunned at the quality of way. As I slowly gain more experi-
4
By Tavy Ann
ence with the program, I'm constant-

ly impressed with it's depth of fea-
tures and capabilities. I feel like I've
only barely scratched the surface.
As far as other programs I'm cur-

rently using, it's pretty much all the
graphics standards: Photoshop,
Freehand, AfterEffects, Flash, etc.
I've been dabbling with Apple's
Motion and can't wait to see where
they take that program. I'm also cur-
rently working on adding ZBrush to
my skill set, as I'm totally amazed by
that program and it's unique
approach to organic modeling.
Tavy: Dave your resume is impres-

sive! You have done work for some
of the big guys. Apple Computer,
National Geographic, Disney, Cisco
Systems, Sun Microsystems,
Interview
Twentieth Century Fox and

Universal Pictures, to name a few.
Can you give us a little insight into
your work for some of these compa-
nies.
Dave: Thanks Tavy, I have been for-

tunate to be able to work with some
great clients on some really exciting
projects. My Apple relationship
began with designing a series of in- RSS screensaver for the upcoming some amazing online experiences
store demos that utilized rich motion release of Tiger. My work for for entertainment properties like:
graphics and interactivity to show- National Geographic involved some "The Bourne Supremacy", "The
case their products in retail environ- 2D photo illustration. My work for HULK", and "A Beautiful Mind".
ments like CompUSA and Fry's Sun has involved a variety interac-
Electronics. I've since done several tive and motion graphics projects, Tavy: Of all of your professional
motion graphics projects like the and most recently some 3D virtual projects do you have a favorite?
"Welcome animation" for the Setup set environments done in Cinema. One you're the most proud of?
Assistant in OSX, an animated logo My work for Universal Pictures has Was the most rewarding?
for iTunes, and most recently an given me the opportunity to create
5
By Tavy Ann
Interview
It's really difficult to point out one personal project for a Cinema 4D ed the viewer to "participate" in the
overall favorite. In my professional design competition over at image. I really wish I would have
work, I'm really proud of the work I Renderosity. The premise of the had time to finish the image a bit
did for Apple on the in-store demos, competition was, what if flight had more (ie. Add some other signs of
but my recent work on the "Bourne been invented during the Medieval life, like people walking across
Supremacy" project was a lot of fun. era? What would the vehicles have bridges, horses and carts on roads
It was really rewarding to be able to looked like, how would they be pow- and maybe small village in the dis-
come up with a concept, visualize ered, what would a Medieval airport tance, etc.)
the overall experience, and then be have looked like, etc? My concept
able to actually build it all out in 3D. centered around the idea of utilizing Anyway, at some point, I'd like to
the natural environment. The lift of develop the project further...possibly
It was awesome to finally watch the hot air, the momentum of running into a book or maybe even a short
film and see how close the 3D envi- water and the updraft of a canyon film. I couldn't help but do a quick
ronments came to matching the film wall. animated version just for fun...it was
experience. As far as personal work, just begging to move :)
the "Medieval Airport" image was I envisioned the vehicles being a
really fun to work on, and I'm really cross between an old sailing ship Tavy: When developing a website
proud of how it turned out. and a hot air balloon. I also wanted for a major motion picture like The
to infuse a bit of a story, so I added Bourne Supremacy, where do you
Tavy: Your image "Medieval the two figures in the foreground. I start and end? Can you give us a
Airport", WOW! This is probably my wanted to let the viewer's imagina- look into your work flow?
personal favorite of all the work tion wander...who are they? Is it a
you've done. Can you tell us a little father and son? Dave: Each project is unique, but in
about this project? general my process is pretty much
Are the coming home, or arriving at the same regardless of the client, or
Dave: Thanks, it's one of my a new destination for the first time? I the type and size of the project.
favorites too. It was created as a wanted a sort of ambiguity that invit- It all starts with a little research (In
6
By Tavy Ann
Interview
the case of entertainment projects established design objectives, and Many aspiring 3D Artists, Graphic
that involves reading the script and eventually it develops into a suc- Designers, Web Designers, Motion
reviewing assets) and a dialog with cessful product that matches the Graphics Designers, etc. will read
the client to establish the goals of original creative vision, and exceeds this interview. Do you have any
the project. The overall goals are the client's expectations. words of wisdom or advice you
then translated into specific design would like to leave them with.
objectives that will be the basis for Tavy: You've got a lot on your plate
evaluating future design solutions. Dave, as do many professionals in Dave: My pleasure Tavy, I appreci-
Once we have a target that every- this industry. We all need time away ate the opportunity to share and am
one agrees on, we can move into from our work. What do you do to honored to participate.
the creative exploration phase. relax and get away from it all?
As far as advice, I'd say don't get
This is the brainstorming, sketching, Dave: It's all about family for too hung up on the technical aspect
"blue sky" phase where anything is me...just hanging out and spending of things. These tools are definitely
possible and there are no "bad" time with my wife and kids. I love important, and we couldn't do our
ideas. Eventually this develops into the outdoors, and enjoy hiking and job without them, but don't lose sight
an overall concept that will serve as exploring. Also, I've never forgotten of what your real value is. Your
a blueprint and guiding force for the my first true love of photography. It's unique point-of-view and creative
design production. kind of nice now that I've sort of vision is what will set you apart in
"reclaimed my amateur status"...I the long run. Being able to close
The typical design production phase can just shoot for the love of pho- your eyes and envision the end
involves comps in Photoshop, possi- tography without the pressure of it result is the greatest tool you have.
bly some 3D work in Cinema, ani- being a job.
mation in After Effects, and pro- The other pearl of wisdom I'd like to
gramming in Flash. The creative Tavy: Thanks again Dave for shar- pass is something I learned in
development during production is ing more about you and your work school and have carried with me
continuously evaluated against our with 3D Attack and our readers. ever since. It is from a poem
7
By Tavy Ann
Interview
"Beginners Mind" by the Japanese

Zen master Shunryu Suzuki: "In the
beginners mind there are endless
possibilities, in the expert's mind
there are few". It seems that some-
times the more of an "expert" we
become the more restrictions we
impose on ourselves, and we end
up limiting ourselves creatively. With
every new design challenge, try to
maintain the beginner's point-of-view
of endless possibilities, and never
lose your passion for learning.
I wish everyone the best, and

remember to work hard, do good
work, and never give up.
-Dave
8
E FO R M E R
N PA T H D
WI
N . O . T. A !
A N D
Renato Terabella http://www.tarabella.it/ is sponsoring the April "C4D Quiz" with some great
Prizes. By answering a simple question and sending an e-mail with "C4D QUIZ" as your
subject line and your answer to [email protected], you could win the following:
PATH DEFORMER - THE RIGHT WAY TO DEFORM VIA SPLINE
Path Deformer is a proportional path deformer that's easy to use. Like all standard deform-
ers there are not limits to your creativity. Simply choose the spline to use and your object
will be deformed without losing proportions. Path Deformer deforms the object along the
global z-axis and also has a banking parameter to roll the objects over a spline and an offset
parameter to control the position along the path. You can also place a Null-Object under the
deformator to have a precise reference for position and rotation along the path. Path
Deformer is a tool made by a 3D user for 3D users.
N.O.T.A - NOT ONLY TEXT ANIMATOR
N.o.t.a is an automatic motion generator that helps to animate the sequence of objects par-
ented to a null that owns the "N.o.t.a" tag. You need only to make a group of all the objects
you need to animate and set a destination keyframe for scale, rotation and position. Now
you are able to give another object (generally null) a position and rotation reference a start
position and play with all splines provided in the gui.
One entrant will win both Path Deformer and N.o.t.a by answering the following question:
Question - What is the name of the MAXON USA CEO?
E-mail your answer to [email protected] no later than April 30, 2005 for a chance to win
Path Deformer and N.o.t.a. We will pool all entrants and pick a random winner on May 1,
2005. The winner will be announced on our forum at www.3dattack.net and be notified via e-
mail.
*3D Attack staff and their immediate families are not eligible to enter or win "C4D Quiz" prizes.
9
Get Dirty - Texturing Tutorial
By Rui Batista
I bet you can spot a computer gen- is because your finger, rubbing is the same’ and the final render of
erated image from a real photo most against the plastic, actually polishes each (01) (02). To illustrate the tips
of the time. Why is that? Computer it. The dirt only gathers where the and tricks, I will be using the materi-
generated images are, usually, too fingers drags it to. And the polished als from the “dirtied” file. Enough
clean and too perfect. On the other area is also considered an “imper- talk! Let us go to the tips.
hand, real world objects captured fection” you must/should add.
on a photo are subject to wear and Where else does the dirt gather? On
tear on a daily basis. Some more the indentations. Those places are
than others, of course, but even a natural resting places for dust and
brand new object taken out of its grime. Even when you clean your
protective box can already have fin- mouse, if you do not use a hard
ger marks of the person who pack- brush and, maybe, some cleaning
aged it, some indentation caused by fluid, the indentations will keep the
a fall, a bit of dust that may already dirt in.
be inside its box, etc.
Besides shape, lets consider the
We can say, without fear of being materials. The mouse cord (no, its Picture 01
wrong, that there are no “perfect” not a wireless mouse) is made of a
objects. Those “imperfections”, softer, rubbery plastic. Therefore, it
when added to a computer generat- also grabs dirt easier than the hard
ed image, make it more believable. plastic case of the mouse.
Unfortunately, they are what is more
Tutorial
difficult to reproduce when dealing Lets now consider an object that is

with computer imagery. Before we situated outside, exposed to the
start adding “dirt” to our models, we environment. Let’s say a road sign.
must understand what “imperfec- Road signs are made out of metal,
tions” should be added. The best so they can get rusty. They only get
way to understand that is to observe rusty on the places where they are
the world around and know the “his- not protected by paint, though. So Picture 02
tory” of your model. Let me throw in rust only appears in places where Dirt is usually a layer on top of the
some examples: paint usually peals off or can get materials. In CINEMA 4D, we should
scratched off. Paint itself gets dirty follow the same metaphor: Create
You modeled a mouse, “the point- or less saturated with age, but not the clean base material and, as dif-
ing device, not the rodent”, and you evenly. As most objects, the road ferent materials, all the layers of dirt
want to add dirt to it. Where would it sign will get more damaged at you want to add to your model.
gather dirt? If it is not an optical ground level and that is where most
mouse, you could say that on the “wear & tear” must be applied. The trick into adding materials on
rubber ball. However, it is not neces- In a nutshell, adding dirt is not sim- top of other materials is to use, judi-
sary to add materials, dirty or not, to ply adding “noise” to your models. It ciously, the Mix with other Materials
parts that are not seen in the final must be a well thought out and bal- option and the Alpha channel of
render. So, from the visible parts anced process. your materials. It’s not as trivial as
where does a mouse get dirty? On one may think. Let us see how it
the resting place of the fingers, Instead of going through a painstak- works:
right? But wait, look at your mouse. ingly detailed tutorial that would only
If you have not cleaned it a little cover a couple of specific cases, I On the first image (03) two materials
while ago, you will notice that on the will present a set of tips and tricks. were added together. They were
exact place you place your fingers it For you to have something to work applied in the order that can be
is quite clean, shiny even. It is just with, I created a “basic” file and then seen on image (04). The Mix
dirty on the surrounding area of “dirtied” it up. You can open both to Textures option of the second mate-
where you place your fingers. That compare the materials ‘the geometry rial (Mat2) is set to ON. The result
10
By Rui Batista
Mix Textures option is turned off, the

second texture completely overlays
the first one.
On the fifth image (09), the Mix

Textures option is turned on. So, an
interesting effect happens: the first
textures, since it has an Alpha chan-
Picture 03 Picture 06
an Alpha channel too. So, it only

affects the texture on the places
where the Alpha channels are not
transparent.
Picture 04 The third image (07) is exactly the

can be seen as Mat3. WARNING!! same as the second image but the
Picture 09
Mat2 just has the Bump channel set. Mix Texture option of the second
So, its preview is showed as com- nel, defines what places are opaque
plete black (05). The color channel and what places are invisible. Then,
Tutorial
was turned on just for the illustra- by mixing the textures, the second
material is only applied on the
places that are set opaque by the
first texture.
This can all be done with more than

just two textures, of course. Just
remember that the Mix Textures
option mixes the texture with the
Picture 07
previous one (the one on its left).
material is turned off. So, the tex- Also, remember that textures are
tures are overlaid but not mixed. In ADDED, not Multiplied. So, colors
this case, the Alpha channel defines will brighten when mixed. Adding
what shows through. On the fourth several layers of Bump, using differ-
image (08), the placement of the ent materials with Mix Textures on,
materials was inverted. Since the is a great way to add richer detail to
models.
Complex textures can be created

Picture 05
with the Layer shader and by using
tions so that you can see some- combinations of noises and gradi-
thing. Otherwise, even the Color ents. As an example, the “dripping”
channels would be added and the rust beneath the door knob was cre-
resulting color would be too bright. ated using these settings:
The same applies for the following
example. The second image (06) is The Color channel (10) is simply a
exactly the same as the first one, Noise shader with dark browns. The
except, the material Mat2 now has Picture 08 Bump channel uses the same Noise
11
By Rui Batista
has the advantage of being able to

calculate dirt for any type of object it
is applied to, no matter if it is a
Primitive object, a NURBS object or
a polygonal object. The disadvan-
tages are the slowness of the
process and the flickering that can
occur in animations, even with high
settings. To avoid flickering, the Dirt
shader can be backed on a bitmap,
but for that you need very clean UV
coordinates on your object. Since
that can only be assured by using
BodyPaint, this method will be pre-
Picture 12 sented in a future tutorial.
Picture 10
You can “bake” the dirt on a Vertex
settings of the Color channel, except Map. This has the advantage of
it uses the default black and white being very fast and completely free
colors (11). The Specular channel is of flickering. The disadvantage is
set to low settings rust is not very that it only works on polygonal
shinny (12). objects.
Tutorial
You can create a "baked" Vertex

Map by choosing Calculate Dirt from
the Render menu. The dialog that
Picture 13
appears is very similar to the one
that the Dirt shader shows (14).
Y scale, set to Levr mode. Finally, Make sure the Map Type is set to
the forth shader, a Noise shader set Vertex Map. Set the parameters
to Multiply, adds graininess to the
whole mask. You may ask why I set
two gradients at the start when one
was surely enough? Using two, I
can adjust the stripes length inde-
pendently of their transparency. But,
if you prefer, you can use just one
gradient.
Picture 11
Finally, the complex part is on the Grime, dirt, dust. All these gather Picture 14
Alpha channel. A Layer shader con- more on the corners and folds than
tains four combined shaders. (13) on the flat surfaces. There are two (more about them in a moment) and
The first one is a vertical gradient main ways to add this and each one hit Start. After a little moment
that adds a bit of transparency to has advantages and disadvantages. (depends on the number of vertexes
the lower part of the mask. The sec- of your object) a new Vertex Map
ond one, a vertical gradient too, You can use a Dirt shader on the tag appears. Click it to check the
multiplied by the first one, will create Alpha channel, if you want to use an result. If it isn't what you want,
a ramp for the rust stripes. What independent material to add to oth- delete the tag and try again. The
creates the stripes is the third shaders (don’t forget to turn on the Invert accuracy of the Vertex Map dirt
er, a Noise shader with a stretched option of the Alpha channel). This depends very much on the density
12
By Rui Batista
of the mesh. To use the “baked” they travel is the Max Distance. How
Vertex Map in a material, you must wide is the “sprinkle” (the angular
use the Vertex Map shader. The spread) is the Spread parameter.
Vertex Map shader is also a great
method to blend two materials If any of the drops of the “sprinkle”
together in a very smooth way. To hit a surface, the point P is dark-
do that, the Vertex Map shader is ened, depending on the distance the
placed on the Alpha channel of the drop traveled before it hit something
material that will be blended. and the Contrast value. (16) If, after
traveling Distance it hits nothing, the
Then, we just have to "paint" the point P will get no dark contribution.
vertex map with a gradient. It’s a
shame that this method only works
with polygonal objects. For explain-
ing what each parameter means, I
will explain the theory behind the
Dirt calculation.
For each point P of the surface of

an object that has Dirt assigned, a
“sprinkle” of “dirt” rays is fired in the Picture 16
overall direction of the normal. Just
Tutorial
like this: (15) If you get artifacts (dirt appearing

where it should not), increase the
Ray Bias value. Unfortunately, this
has the effect of "pushing" the dirt
away from corners.
To finish this tutorial, I propose that

you dissect the
"old_door_knob_poly_extra.c4d" file. [email protected]
Picture 15 It uses all the tricks I presented here Keep on Attacking and get dirty!
and a few more. If you stumble into
The number of “drops” of the “sprin- something that you can't figure out,
kle” is the number of Rays. How far please contact me at:
13
MAXON CINEMA 4D 9.1 Review
By Aaron Biscombe
When MAXON unveiled Release 9 tures and enhancements, that cre-

of its flagship modeling and anima- ates an even more rich animation
tion software, they did so to the experience than before.
delight and adulation of users and
critics alike. The already sophisti- This month, 3D Attack has asked
cated and dependable software had me to review the XL Bundle of the
been revamped and revitalized with software, which rivals the feature set
the implementation of more than of other 3D giants, such as Maya
100 new features and functions. and XSI, and is suitable for both the
professional user, or the hobbyist
who is ready to take his projects to
the next level of sophistication. If
you are new to 3D entirely, or com-
ing from another software, you might
be unaware that the MAXON line of
products operate on a modular sys-
tem that allows those new to 3D or
transferring over to custom build
their own 3D Studio, tailored to his
Software Review
or her needs.
I hope this review can serve as a

friendly introduction to the program
for those new to it, as well as a dis-
cerning resource for those longtime
and professional users considering readily aware of the tools that are
While it was immediately clear that the upgrade. available to me.
the software's developers had paid
a significant amount of attention to The XL Bundle includes CINEMA 4D It's important that the interface is
the streamlining of the product's Core, the MOCCA 2 module, malleable so that I can create a
already impressive workflow and Advanced Render 2, Thinking workspace that is both comfortable
interface, with the inclusion of fea- Particles, PyroCluster, and NET to look at for extended periods, as
tures such as the Heads Up Display Render. In addition, as my personal well intelligently constructed for
(HUD), and a more global Attribute work is mostly non-photorealistic, or whatever task I am undertaking.
Manager, MAXON went on to NPR work, be looking for a review CINEMA 4D is more than suited to
delight its loyal community by intro- of the Sketch and Toom module in this task. I have never seen a pro-
ducing N-Gon support, a pumped-up the May issue of 3D Attack. gram so visually flexible. The inter-
modeling toolset, and an easy to face features menus that are
use cloth engine in Clothilde, which INTERFACE detachable, as well as beautiful
has many applications besides HUD that can display scene infor-
designing stylish outfits for charac- Lets begin with R9 Core. This forms mation directly on top of your 3D
ters, as CINEMA 4D's innovative the basis of our 3D experience, and viewport, in addition to a new global
users have already demonstrated. provides us with the tools to create pop-up that enables you to access
the necessary building blocks to any popular command sets on the fly.
Well, its almost summer, and while successful animated endeavor. As
other software companies often take a student, who has to balance any One of my favorite features, has
significantly more time to address 3D work with additional coursework been the consolidation of the many
problems in their product, MAXON in other areas, its very important to managers that veterans of C4D will
has provided Release 9.1, a free me that any project I undertake, I be familiar with- so that a single
update of more than 50 new fea- can do so efficiently, and that I am Attribute Manager is able to access
14
By Aaron Biscombe
any object tool, material etc. and around the default C4D knife tool, which walks the user through a
multiple instances of the Attribute and an uber-cool brush tool that was complete animation project from
Manager can be opened and perfect for soft-selections. scratch. However, while this materi-
locked, so that all your favorite al is excellent, and more than
options are available to you simulta- Release 9 includes a similar toolset enough for getting up to speed on
neously. to Mesh Surgery, including a vast the core software, I find the manuals
set of selection tools and modes, for the additional modules to be
Another of my favorite additions to including the new auto-selection and somewhat lacking, particularly the
the interface are the new view tweak selection modes, which MOCCA 2, and the Thinking
modes available in the viewports, enable you to quickly switch Particles ones.
here is an example of constant
shading, which enables you to see ANIMATION
the object wireframes even when
they are not selected. CINEMA 4D comes complete with
the tools necessary to bring your
MODELING projects into the 4th dimension,
including easy animation of parame-
I think its fair to say that almost ters, and a fairly functional timeline
everyone (including myself) was and an FCurves editor. I am not a
Software Review
falling over themselves with the power animator by any means,

introduction of N-Gon support into focusing mainly on modeling, but I
the modeling workflow. While R8.5 between points, edges, or polygons have to admit that the CINEMA 4D
was a very capable modeler and on the fly. R9 does have an awe- timeline feels quite clunky in com-
there were plenty of examples of some knife tool, that can cut holes, parison to other state of the art soft-
planes, or the traditional line cut that ware.
you might be familiar with from
Maya. You can constrain any of Take Motionbuilder for example,
these tools to selections, which I whose timeline is so elegantly
often do with the knife tool in path designed that I hardly even notice
mode. I think my favorite modeling its their, that's how wonderfully
addition though has to be the brush implemented it is- its second nature.
tool, which allows the user to sculpt And while it might be unfair to com-
objects interactively. It works beau- pare C4D to such a specialized soft-
tifully, and without slowdown, even ware, users care less about what is
on my puny Dual 867 Mhz G4. fair, and more about what works.
But again I have to emphasize that
great organic and hard surface mod- DOCUMENTATION beginning animation is ridiculously
eling available for CINEMA 4D, I easy to learn- it doesn't get any sim-
know that personally, coming from a One thing I've loved about CINEMA pler than 1-click keyframing.
Maya background, I found character from the first moment I started using
modeling challenging before R9. it, is the extensive documentation MATERIALS, LIGHTING, & REN-
that comes with the software. In DERING
I was also one of the many users addition to the PDF Reference and
that purchased The Third Party's Manuals that amount to some 3000 One of my hands down favorite
wonderful Mesh Surgery modeling pages of reading, there is a full color aspects of CINEMA 4D R9 is the
plugin, that enabled users to per- 170 page printed quickstart manual material manager. It just works. It
form various sophisticated modeling to help you get up to speed on the worked well in 8.5 and it works as
operations, such as loop and ring basics of the software. In addition well if not better now. Simply create
selections, as well as a ridiculously to all that, there is an excellent 180 a material and it appears with all 13
snazzy knife tool that ran rings minute video tutorial included on CD channels that you're familiar with
15
By Aaron Biscombe
from other 3D software. In addition,

there are over 50 shaders built in
that you can load into these base
channels and edit to your heart's
content.
It comes with excellent noise

shaders, and surface effects.
Meanwhile, there are nine types of
lights at your disposal, and numer-
ous ways to edit them. Back to the
materials, I've seen many requests
for MAXON to upgrade to a node-
based material system (complete
with snazzy node-based editor), and
while I admit that I would love to see
one as well, I wouldn't want that at
the expense of the ease of use of
the current system. In Maya, it took
Software Review
me forever to figure out how to cre-

ate the look I wanted in a material,
whereas in C4D, there are no tears
involved. In addition, even without
the Advanced Render module, C4D C4D its as easy as loading one into
packs one of the fastest raytracers a material channel. New to Release
available, without loss of quality, and 9 is SubPolyDisplacement, which
this important for any project. enables you to use texture maps to
There's a wealth of preset resolu- add depth to your scene, without
tions to render to, as well as output raising your poly count.
formats. On top of this, multipass
rendering in C4D is fairly easy to set MOCCA 2
up, and the software can save multi-
pass files specifically for Photoshop, I'm of mixed feelings about MOCCA
After Effects, Final Cut Pro or 2. On the one hand, I couldn't be
Motion, as well as Combustion. happier about the new Clothilde
cloth simulation engine. Its fairly
ADVANCED RENDER easy to start learning how to use,
and while learning how to dress
The Advanced Render module adds characters takes a bit of time, you
professional rendering tools to the quickly see the possibilities of cloth
3D artist's arsenal. With features when used in conjunction with vari-
like caustics and radiosity, global ous aspects of the software, like
illumination and vector motion blur, particles and collisions in general.
you have all the tools at your dis-
posal to create highly realistic, or I've seen some pretty convincing
highly stylized imagery. Advanced images of vehicle crashes that were
Render has excellent support for simulated using Clothilde. On the
HDR images- in many competing other hand, I still find character at this stage in the game, it should
programs they are a chore to set up setup in MOCCA 2 to be an unnec- be fairly simple for a beginning ani-
and implement in your render, in essarily painstaking task. I feel like mator to come in, read the manual,
16
By Aaron Biscombe
Software Review
and set up a simple, useable IK rig. THINKING PARTICLES and PYRO- CONCLUSION
It should be as simple as setting up CLUSTER
your bone chain, and drawing your I can't seem to recommend CINEMA
ik handles between the root and the While the default particle system 4D enough. It's wonderfully easy to
tip. that comes with CINEMA is suitable learn and use, the interface is flexi-
for basic particle effects, there are ble and easy on the eye, and
But in MOCCA 2, I always feel like times when something more com- MAXON seems really committed to
I'm starting out with a complex rig plex is necessary. This is where keeping it's users happy. The docu-
that I don't understand, and trying to Thinking Particles comes in. Just mentation is excellent, and tools
remove expressions and features like MAXON says, it is possible to don't just work well, they work beau-
until I'm left with something simpler, create effects based on particle and tifully. As with any software, there
and even then I still can't get it to object interaction, and when used in are some shortcomings, such as the
work properly. conjunction with XPresso truly difficulty of setting up characters in
sophisticated effects are possible. I MOCCA 2, but the rich online
There are definitely things that I personally find it takes me a while to resources (including the large and
enjoy about the module- I really get even the simplest particle effect friendly user base), more than make
enjoy the process of setting up a going, but I attribute that to my lack up for these few problems with
bone hierarchy with the bone tool, I off technical prowess, rather than workarounds, innovative techniques,
find it fits quite well into my work- any innate flaw in the system itself. and specialized plugins. I give
flow, and painting weights is a Cinema 4D Release 9.1 a 5 out of 5
straightforward process with Claude Pyrocluster, which is MAXON's volu- Attack points for being a full-fea-
Bonet; but I hope in the future metric shading module, works with tured, professional solution to a
MAXON looks into simplifying the either the default particle engine or wide variety of animation projects.
rigging process a bit. Thinking Particles to create realistic
simulations that can both receive
I personally have found that using light and cast shadows. Its definite-
Cactus Dan's IK Tools in conjunction ly an advanced tool, but its main
with MOCCA 2 provides a truly drawback is the time it takes to com-
enjoyable rigging experience. pute, which is rather lengthy.
17
Basic Modeling - Lookout Tower Part 3
By Bram van Gerwen
This is the final part in the modeling picture 1B. To make it a little more Transfer To field and hit apply. The
stage of the lookout tower, it will be interesting we will add connections instance of the cube will be moved
less intricate than previous parts as where the bars cross, we could just down where the lower bars cross,
we are going to be rounding off the add spheres there but that's a little picture 2B. We will now continue
model with a couple of details and boring so we will add slightly extrud- modeling the actual cube object and
add-ons. ed cubes there. the instance will change right with it,
very handy.
We will be adding bars in the win- Create a cube. Before we are going
dows, another stone array, stone to change it we want it in the right Select the Cube, make it editable
relief detail on the tower surface and position first. With the cube selected and rename it to 'Bar Connector'.
subtle cobbles on the top floor of the call the 'Transfer' function Switch to polygon mode and with
tower. We begin this tutorial by (Functions -> Transfer). The transfer the Live Selection tool select a
opening the appropriate file where function is extremely useful to move square of 4x4 polygons on the front
we left off in Part 2, so open the an object to a certain axis position of of the cube like in picture 3A.
TowerPart3Start.c4d file that came another object. In the Transfer Select the Bevel tool and set its
with the magazine. options tab we see a field called Extrusion to 1.4, its Inner Offset to
'Transfer to', drag the Bar 1 object
First we will add the bars. Create a from the object manager into this
cylinder, set its radius to 1.5, the field and hit Apply. The cube will
height to 100 and the Rotation now be moved to the centre point of
Segments to 12. Then change its Bar 1 (the cube is still very large but
position to Y 135 and Z -215. This we'll change that next).
Tutorial
will place the cylinder nicely in the

middle window like in picture 1A. With the transfer done go to the
object properties of the cube and
change its X, Y and Z Size parame-
ters to 7 and set all the X, Y and Z
segments to 6. Now you'll be able to
see a small subdivided cube exactly
where the upper bars cross, picture
2A. Make an instance of the cube
0.6 and subdivisions to 2 and apply.
The connector is basically finished
now but to make it look a bit more
crispy click on the Phong tag of the
object and set it to 30 percent and
hit enter, result in picture 3B. The
last step is selecting the 5 objects
we created for the window bars (the
3 cylinders, cube and the instance),
Duplicate the cylinder once (simple grouping them and rename that
copy/paste should suffice) and group to 'Window Bars'.
change the Orientation of the dupli-
cate to +X. We can see it sticking To put this Window Bars object into
out of the sides now so change its the other window sills as well we will
height to 40 and rename this cylin- create an instance of it and rotate it
der to 'Bar 1'. Duplicate Bar 1 and (Objects -> Modeling -> Instance) on the central point of the tower
rename the duplicate to Bar 2. Now and call the transfer function again. itself. So select the Window Bars
set the Y position of Bar 1 and 2 to This time with the instance selected object and make an instance of it,
147 and 114 respectively, result in drag the Bar 2 object into the then create a Null Object (Objects ->
18
By Bram van Gerwen
Null Object) and drop the window short edges that point inward and
bars instance into it. Switch back to you will notice it selects all short
the Model tool, select the Null edges on the dent extrusion like in
Object and rotate its H rotation to - picture 6B.
28.2 in the coordinates manager, hit
enter and you will notice the bars We only want to weigh the corners
being rotated into the left window so select the Live Selection tool and
like in picture 4A. To fill the right while holding ctrl drag over the
window simply duplicate the Null selected edges that are not on cor-
ners to deselect those, check pic-
ture 6C for reference. Then select
offset to -4, Subdivisions to 1 and hit the Loop Selection tool and while
apply. The selection will be extruded holding shift select the inner and
inward creating an indentation in the outer edge loop, this will give the
tower surface, result in picture 6A. result like in picture 6D.
We notice that the HyperNURBS
make our dent corners much too Now that the corners and edge
loops are selected, switch the
HyperNURBS on again and select
the Weight HyperNUBRS tool
(Structure -> Weight HyperNURBS).
Set it to 65% and click set, the
Tutorial
change will be visible immediately.

In order to make the weighted
Object and remove the - from the H edges look better we will need to
rotation value and hit enter, this will increase the Subdivision Editor set-
make the duplicate rotate to the ting in the HyperNURBS object
opposite side and fill the right win- properties tab, set it to 3 and hit
dow like in picture 4B. For clarity in enter. The indentation is ready and
your object manager rename the we will now put some protruding
Null Objects to Bars A and B respec- stones into it. Switch to Polygon
tively, feel free to group these bar mode and select the two lowest
objects again and rename that polygons on the indentation surface
group and also rename any other like in picture 7A. Then select the
objects I didn't tell you to rename. extrude tool and set its Extrusion to
As a scene grows it becomes vitally
important to give all your objects
appropriate names to be able to find
them back in later stages.
Next I will show thee how to make

one portion of stone relief on the
tower surface which you will be able rounded. We will weight those cor-
to add more randomly if desired. ners to make them sharper.
Zoom in on the wall left of the door- First temporarily disable the
way, select the Tower Body object HyperNURBS object by clicking the
and switch to polygon mode. With green check behind it, if the object
the Live Selection tool select the is still X-rayed disable that as well.
polygons like in picture 5. Then Switch to edge mode and with the
select the Extrude tool and set its Ring Selection tool click on both
19
By Bram van Gerwen
2, the Inner Offset to 1.4, we just want to create the illusion the tilted surface, picture 11A. Then
Subdivisions to 0 and hit Apply. that it's there. Open a new scene with the Move tool move them out-
Now do the rest of the polygons in and create a cube, set its dimen- ward along the X-axis until you get
the indentation in the same fashion sions to X 30, Y 20 and Z 30. A the result like in picture 11B. Create
until you have 10 stone protrusions small object so zoom in on it. Make a hyperNURBS object and drop the
like in picture 7B. We will also it editable and switch to edge mode. cube into it. Rename the
weight the stone edges to make Select the lower edge that lies paral- hyperNURBS object to 'Beam', then
them more square. Switch to Edge lel to the Z-axis and move it inward copy it and past it back into the
mode and with the Loop Selection along the X-axis like in picture 9. Tower scene. Back in the Tower
tool select all the top edge loops of You might find that the axis of the scene create another Array and
the stones like in picture 8A and edge is tilted when you select it. If drop the Beam object into it. We wit-
click Grow Selection (Selection -> ness our Beam object being nicely
distributed around the tower, but its
Tutorial
this is the case set the Axis to World

first in the Move tool Modeling Axis
options, now the edge can be
moved easily along the world axis
instead of it's own tilted one.
Grow Selection). This will increase
the selection to include the corners Now to finish off this object switch to not rotated the right way. Switch to
of the stones as well. Call the polygon mod, select the Knife tool, the Model tool, select the Cube
Weight HyperNURBS tool again set set it to loop and make cuts like in object inside the Beam NURBS and
it to 75 and click set. The stones will picture 10. These cuts will make set its H rotation to 90 in the coordi-
be transformed from their round sure the HyperNURBS will make nates manager. Now that's the
forms to square forms due to the smooth edges instead of a sphere. objects are oriented towards the
weights on the edges, check picture Next switch to front view and go into tower we need to decrease the
8B for the result. There now this Point mode. Select the Rectangle array radius to make them touch the
technique is mastered you can add Selection tool, disable 'only select tower surface. Click on the array
more areas of randomly protruding and set the radius to 233 and also
stones on the tower surface if you change its Y height to 36 in the
wish. But before you might do that coordinates manager. Lastly we will
we are going to add some other pro- add a little stone detail on the floor
trusions, namely the beams on on top of the tower. Switch to
which the second floor is suspended Polygon mode and go to top view
that stick out of the surface of the and set the Display of the view to
tower body. This is a very simple Gourad Shading for easier selection.
addition and will be done with a With the Live Selection tool select
slightly deformed cube and an array the polygons of the floor on top of
object. We're not actually going to the tower like in picture 12A. Now
model the second floor inside the visible elements' and drag across select the Knife tool, set it to Loop,
tower as you won't see that anyway, the 4 points on the middle cuts on enable 'restrict to selection' and
20
By Bram van Gerwen
make 2 cuts on each section so that behind the Offset to 50 and Apply. But modeling is only a part of creat-
you have fairly regular subdivisions, The Variation will extrude all poly- ing realism, Texturing and lighting
picture 12B. Now in Polygon mode gons with a variation of 50 percent create a very big part in finishing the
randomly select groups of polygons from the 1 offset value making scene. Of course I already provided
and single polygons while holding extrusions ranging from 0.5 to 1.5. a reasonably acceptable lighting
shift. We're going to create a cob- If you render now you'll notice the setup but the textures are still lack-
bled effect from these selections by variation has a slight but subtle ing. So we will tackle the texturing of
using the Extrude tool. So select the effect on the extruded cobbles. the Lookout Tower in part 4 of this
Extrude tool, set it's Offset to 1 and There, that's it for the main Lookout amazing tutorial to give it a far more
disable 'preserve groups', we don't Tower modeling. Basically the model
can be expanded with countless of
small details that don't require much
modeling at all. For instance create
a cylinder and put it tilted onto the
beam protrusion above the door to
create a flagpole, then with transfer
move a Plane object to the flagpole
position and scale and move it a bit
and you have a flag. Of course if
you want to make that more realistic
you'll need clothilde which would be
an entirely different tutorial. Also as I
Tutorial
said earlier on the stone protrusions

can be added anywhere on the
tower surface greatly increasing it's
stone looks. And if you're adventur- realistic look. Well that's it for now
ous, deform some editable spheres and have fun adding those details to
with the Magnet tool, just nudge it the tower. I'd like to see some
here and there to create some rocks results, so feel free to post your
and prop them up against the side efforts on the 3D Attack forum where
of the tower for even more realism. we can all laugh... umm, I mean
Some of these additions can be compliment and help you with your
viewed in the modeling ;)
want all the cobbles to be at the TowerPart3Finished.c4d file I provid-
same height so set the Var value ed and in picture 13 of course. Thanks and greetings, Bram
21
Combining Splines
By Georg Niedermeier
Combining splines in order to

extrude them
Quite often we are asked how sim-

ple logos can be made by Extrude
Nurbs. I think now it's time to pro-
vide you with a short and simple
tutorial for exactly that propose.
So let's get right at it.

Picture 05
Click at the Top View viewport to Picture 02
activate it. An active viewport win- makes the word c4d needs to be Switching the objects off prevents
dow is indicated by a blue rectangle called accordingly (Picture 03 confusion and deactivates it for the
around it. Create a Circle Spline Picture 04). viewport pipeline (Picture 06)
and change its Radius to about 400.
Now create a Text Spline and enter
the acronym c4d that we want to
use for this tutorial. Create a second
Text Spline and enter 9 into the text
field (Picture01)
Picture 03
Tutorial
Picture 06
Create an Extrude NURBS object

and make it the parent of the newly
created object. Picture 07
Picture 01 Picture 04
Move both text splines into the circle

spline. Notice that all three splines Select the three splines by clicking it
were created while the top viewport while holding down the shift key.
has been active. Doing that makes You can even click and drag the
sure that all three of our splines mouse in the Object Manager in
have the same position along the y- order to create a rectangular selec-
axis (Picture 02). tion. Connect the three splines via
Connect found in the Functions
In order to combine these three menu. CINEMA 4D creates a new
splines we have to make it editable spline object right above the other
by pushing c order by using the splines (Picture 05).
Make Editable function within the
Functions menu. Rename the Deactivate the old spline objects by
objects in accordance with their con- clicking the green hook. The green Picture 07
tent: For example the spline that hook will change into a red x.
22
Combining Splines
Double-click the extrude NURBS We are nearly finished, but there's

and change its attributes within the one thing that is really important.
Attributes Manager as shown in the Our final object will look much better
picture. if we create a fillet. Take a look at
picture 08 again and adjust the
Especially the object properties Caps and Rounding option accord-
need adjustment because at the ingly.
moment the spline object is extrud-
ed along the z-axis which in our The more steps you enter in the
case is wrong. Decrease this value Steps field the rounder the fillet will
to zero. be. Play around with the values in
order to see what happens with our
Because we want an extrusion object.
along the y-axis, we have to
increase this value to about 25. That is all. Of course you can use
Picture 08 splines that you have drawn by
hand, too. The only thing you have
to remember is to create all of the
splines you want to connect in the
same viewport window.
Picture 09
Tutorial
Picture 09
As always, If you have any prob-

lems or questions regarding this
tutorial then please feel free to ask
your questions on our forum at:
http://www.3dattack.net/forum/
Thanks
Georg Niedermeier aka sad
Picture 08
23
Plugin Review: EMorpher
By Thomas Pasieka
Well don’t we all want to morph

shapes once in a while? Don’t we all
use C4D and its tools to do so?
Don’t we all get a little frustrated
because the tools provided by C4D
could be easier to handle? There is
a solution to this...EMorpher!
I must say I am pretty impressed on

“how easy” to use this plugin is and
thus it makes me wonder why
MAXON hasn’t done it the same state” of your object. The Emorpher A little critique from my side: A better
way! tag will have to be on the null object. documentation would make it easier
Double clicking on the tag will open (although is already pretty easy to
Now what does it do you ask? Let use). All together I’m pretty satisfied
me explain. Let’s say you created a with this plugin! It’s as said before,
character and now you are ready to easy to use and worth the money. It
animate some facial expressions. will make your life a lot easier and I
also haven’t noticed any crashes or
Well, you could of course use CINE- bugs. This plugin is a “must-have”
Plugin Review
MA’S tools and go ahead and create for character animators or such who
your facial expressions and such. want to go that direction.
You will soon notice that this can be
a time consuming process and your
object manager will also get a little Summary: A timesaver all the way!
messy with the tools provided by a window and you will be able to Pricing is fair and the ease of use
C4D. create new morph targets. Simply makes this plugin a hit!
modify your mesh, and once satis-
That’s why you should have a look fied, you click on “add target” to Price: $40 USD
at EMorpher. This plugin will make it
easier and faster without creating URL:
too many duplicates of your main http://www.eggington.net/~eago/
object. Emorpher will create a “null
object” for each “morph” you create Email: [email protected]
and you will be able to mix those dif-
ferent “morp” targets by simply mov- Platform: PC/MAC Compatible
ing the null objects! Amazing, isn’t
it? Easy you say? RIGHT! That’s Rating: 5/5
how it should be.
Now, how exactly does that work? make this new morph pose available
Let me explain this with some (null object with name will be gener-
screenshots. First, you’ll create your ated). You can add as many poses
character or whatever else you as you want by repeating this
want. You will then convert your process.
model into a poly object (if not
already done). You can test your poses or delete
them, or even mirror them.
You will also have to create a “null Emorpher is really easy to use once
object” which will be used as “main you play with it for a little while.
24
Mono-flop in Complex Animations
By Base80
Mono-flop in complex animation with clear names, it makes life easi-

setups. er later on. I like my null object in
How to automate a toaster: correct places from the start, other-
wise XPresso can mess up things
Well here we go, yet another badly. If something has to rotate the
XPresso tutorial that seems difficult null containing the rotating part
at first, but that will make life easier. stands at the rotating point and not Light Timer
The Mono-Flop node. It is a mouth- in the middle of space. I animate
full, but basically in english it is a nulls, not objects. This is so I can The Switch is a bool (true/false) and
plain ordinary timer. Everybody adjust the object position within the sets the trigger on for 1 second set
knows about timers, like the one in null at will, after the XPresso is by a constant. The out port is con-
the hallway that switches the light done. Urgh, I am orthodox! nected to the brightness of the light.
off after a while. Well that is exactly Lets get started.........
what we are going to explore.
Honey can you switch the mono-flop The Mono-flop node Step 1 The User-Data and the
on please! XPresso tag.
I will start by explaining the mono-
What we will do in this tutorial is a flop itself. As said earlier it could Ok, we have a total of two different
little more complicated than a timer just have been named "Timer-node" parent objects, one is the toaster
on a hallway light. We will make a at birth, but why do it simple when and the other is the slice of bread.
completely automated Toaster. One you can do complicated? Actually there are two slices.
switch animates the whole thing. It Right-click on the Toaster object and
Tutorial
will even grill the bread, and if you - The input ports add an XPresso-tag. Ok easy!
make an error, it may even burn it. We will need some User-Data to
The mono-flop is driven by a Time- activate the toaster.
The idea behind this tutorial is to port, so you will always need a
have objects with associated behav- Time-node connected to it. Then I always associate user-data with
ior. I did the tutorial about "Aging there is the duration and it is count- the XPresso tag itself and not the
Bananas" with the same philosophy ed in frames and controls the... null object. One is free to do other-
(!) in mind. I prefer not using the duration of course. The trigger port wise, but the XPresso is more
timeline, it is a part of the software I is the one that starts the sequence. portable this way. Especially with
don't like a lot. I want to exclusively There are two modes: Normal and easy set-ups, this is the way to go.
use user-data sliders. The only time- OneShot. The reset port is there to
lined thing is the start of the reset the counting of how many So select the XPresso-tag and go to
sequence. For the rest it will show times the node has been used. the attributes manager, choose "Add
no key-frames at all. All aspects of user-data" from the menu at the top.
animation are done in XPresso and - The output ports Now name the user data "Start At
it even stops automatically. It is real (F)" or whatever and set the data
4D (3d + time) or an "animated Count counts the number of times type to Time and hit OK.
object" the node has been activated, very
practical for incremental things. (ele- Do it again and name it
Well ok, lets get started vators) The Outport is true or false "Duration(F)" and set the type to
to tell whether the monoflop is on or time, counted in frames by default.
Prerequisites (what you need) off. The State port is the most impor- We need a third one just for the fun
- A toaster tant in this case. Upon trigger it of it, Call it "Temperature(1...5)", this
- Some bread counts from 0.00 to 1 in the given one is to burn the bread beyond
- A little patience duration. This is actually our motor recognition ; ). Set it to integer and
or driver for our animation. wit a range from 1 to 5 in steps of 1
Before we start So The timer in a hall-way basically and hit OK.
I like clear setups of null objects, looks like this [Light timer]
25
By Base80
Step 2 The XPresso Setup use a math-node st to add. mono-flops. What we see is the first
Duplicate the compare thing above result jumping to true at the start
OK the hard part, the XPresso itself. and connect the result of the calcu- frame and until 30f further. Then the
The hard thing is that the movement lation to the second port. Now we "remaining time result jumps to true
of the toast going down and up have have a result of "1" at frame 30 for and a while later the end sequence
a fixed length, but the toasting itself the start sequence and another one result jumps to true while the remain
is flexible in length. The going down at the start of the end sequence. stays true. Whoaaaa! Isn't this sick-
and up take 30 frames each. So far so good. [compare2] ening. Well we are done with mono-
First thing we do is make a time flopping for the movement.
node. It is the driver of the anima-
tion our motor as it were. Step 3 The range mapping for
movement.
Then we drag the XPresso tag to
the XPresso editor and open the The fun part is always this one. The
Compare2
user-data ports on the right. To start range-mapping thing. Add a 3 range
the animation we need to compare Now we can proceed to the mono- mappers, to the State-ports of the
the current time with the start time. flop-nodes. Add two of them to the start and end sequence mono-flops
Create a compare node and set it to XPresso editor. Connect a time and to the Out-port of the remaining
==, attach the time node and the node to the Time-port and connect time mono-flop. The range mappers
"Start at"-user-data to it. To check the results of each compare node to will make the movement of the
what happens just connect a result the Trigger-port. As I said before the bread going down so we need to
node to the end. I have set the start going up and down sequences have know those two positions in our
Tutorial
to 30F, so when I hit play the result a fixed time span of 30 frames each. model. In this case y=0 for lower
nodes goes to 1 at the 30th frame, it So we can enter 30f to the duration- position and 10 for lower. We need
stays at 0 at any other frame. OK so port of each mono-flop in the attrib- these figures in the range mappers
far. [Compare] ute manager. We need to open the as such (input lower-input upper -
State-port for further processing. output lower - output upper;
This is a part of the setup so far. -start sequence 0-0.999-0-10
[monoflop] -remain sequence 0-1-0-10
-end sequence 0-1-0-10
(I had to put 0.999 in the first range
mapper because of a sudden jump
Compare
at the end of the start sequence.
Ok the second thing is setting the Some fiddling has been done here.)
time for the start of the going up of
Monoflop
the bread. The sequence takes 30 Now take a math node set it to Add
frames. So I have to subtract 30F We are not finished yet, we need a and add-up the three out-ports of
from the "duration" user-data. Easy, third mono-flop for the remaining the range mappers.
take a math-node set it to subtract time after the start sequence. For
and connect the "duration" user-data the trigger we add 30 frames to the At this point we have al the move-
and a constant set to time and to start frame and for the duration we ments of the toaster done. Try it,
30F. In this example I used a dura- subtract the start sequence from the connect the result to the position of
tion of 100F so the result is 70F, total duration. Hang in there people an object and hit play. We must be
isn't it? Now we need to do the com- we are almost there. We set the out- absolutely crazy to do all this for so
pare thing again to get the start time put of this mono-flop to OUT (bool- little result.
of this sequence. First we have to true/false).
add the result of the previous calcu- So we want more realistic move-
lation to the "start at" user data. The OK we will check if everything is ments. we will alter the range map-
result gives us the exact frame at alright. Just add a result-node set to per-splines to do just that. Make a
which the bread will go up. So we Bool to all the Out-ports of the spline in the first range-mapper that
26
By Base80
goes down in a curve. Leave the the use the temperature user-data as Step 5 The glow
remaining sequence range mapper the upper output. So the higher the
without spline and especially the last temp the higher the number that Hmm fed up? The glow texture and
spline is interesting. I want the toast comes out of the range mapper. light coming out of the toaster have
to make a small jump at the end. The texture made by buzhug has a to be made yet to have the right end
Watch the the images below for the even beige color for the un-toasted result. It is the same procedure as
final settings. bread and a dark brown for the the bread color without the freeze.
[rangemapper1] [rangemapper2] toasted bread. These two colors So only a range-mapper coming
reside in a fusion texture. The blend from the same mono-flop as above
slider mixes the two colors. We connected to the light's brightness
need to drag the fusion texture in port, the texture glow and fusion
the xpresso editor. (open the texture ports (between black and red) and
click on the fusion and drag its icon we are done. In the range mapper
from the attribute manager to the we can alter the spline to go slowly
xpresso editor) up and drop at the end to get a bet-
ter result. (See big picture on last
We will connect the range-mapper page of this tutorial).
output to the blend port of the tex-
Rangemapper1
ture, but we need a math node
(divide by 5) to accommodate the Congratulations if you have come
output numbers. When we animate this far. The method above is very
we will see the bread change color labor intensive and looks completely
Tutorial
like we want. Great! But at the end useless. And it is for a part. But our
of the sequence it flips back to nor- toaster is now fully functional and
mal and we don't want that. We that is nice. And we have learned to
need to freeze the grilled state until use a lot of nodes, and that is nice.
the end of the timeline. Take a
Freeze-node. Connect the Value to Side-notes
the previous range-mapper and the The volume light and the glowing
switch to the Out-port of the mono- texture. Walien has once again
flop (put a NOT-node in between for made a beautiful volume light, this
Rangemapper2 good results). time combined with a glowing tex-
ture. The texture is in the goodies
I changed the output upper to Now we have the bread toasting folder mapped on a plain geometry
accommodate the little bump in the already but the brown color doesn't for further exploration.
spline my end figure should be 10 reset at the start of the animation,
(so 12.5x0.8=10) Are we getting a For that We have to use a compare- The toaster model
headache. We are done anyway. node and connect a time node and Thanks to the excellent skills of
Now we have a smooth movement a constant of 0. Buzhug this tutorial has a less harsh
down and a nice little jump at the character. The toaster is inspired
end. We connect the result to a Flip-flop- loosely from toasters produced just
node's switch port and the not used after the second world war. Heavy
Step 4 the animated texture of the higher to the on-port. the result of Metal and Chrome. The modeling
bread (procedural) the flip-flop-node has to be connect- shows high definition modeling with
ed to the Freeze-nod. You probably economy of polygons.
For the burning of the bread we will want to shoot me at this time. OK
use the state port of the remaining we are done with the bread. It Thanks all for your patience and I
time mono-flop. So once the bread begins white and ends brown. The hope you will use the mono-flop for
is down it will start changing color. temperature user-data is there to your projects.
connect it to a range mapper and alter the effect.
27
By Base80
Tutorial
28
Micro Tut - Formula Egg
By Base80
Micro Tut-It-Yourself- Formula-

Egg-Thing
Here is a sample of what the formu-

la spline can do for you. The file is
in the goodies folder with the maga-
zine.
It looks complicated and it actually

is. Like most of us, I am not a math
head, but I am a math cheater.
I found the formula on the excellent
www.3d-meier.de and copy/pasted it
into the formula-spline. There are a
lot of very handy formula's and this
file is the ideal starting point for
them.
One thing to know is that Tmin and

Tmax are the limits within which the
formula is calculated and the nº of
samples define the resolution and
Tutorial
number of calculations of the spline.

Don't set the samples to high, Don't blame me for headaches, I am
because it is cpu intensive. also a formula-noob! Have fun!
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29
Landscape Tutorial Part 3
By Georg Niedermeier aka Sad
Welcome to part three of the land- with the exception that any discon-
scape tutorial! nected polygons will not be selected
by Grow Selection because it's not
In this part we will create some really connected to the other part of
details for our landscape: Grass and the object. If you want to really
some clouds understand what I've explained,
please take the time to experiment
Because we need to use the well with disconnect and split! It is the
known plug-in Hairdepartment, easiest way to move a split or dis-
developed by the B. G. S. group, a connected group of polygons along
German plug-in developer, you will the y-axis, to see where the differ-
find the Monster Edition plugin with- Picture 53 ence is.
in our “Goodies” folder. The edition
you will find in the goodies folder on the Internet, but we will focus on The result of the split function is a
works slightly different from the one the version that is available at the second polygon object with the
used in this tutorial. Nevertheless, BGS - group website, Version 1.83. same name and a .1 added to the
you can easily follow my steps. This version requires us to split the name (Picture 55).
selected polygons from the land-
Because we can't add hair instantly scape object. Splitting means that a
we have to create a selection of selection of polygons is copied to a
polygons that we want to use. In completely new polygon-object.
order to create that selection you (Picture 54) Picture 55
Tutorial
need to switch to the live-selection

tool and select a portion of our first By selecting the newly created
landscape object. Make sure that Landscape.1 object, your perspec-
you are in the top view window. As tive viewport will look like this:
you can see in (picture 52) I select- (Picture 56).
ed a strip of polygons along the
Picture 54
Sometimes people tend to mix up

Disconnect and Split. While Split
produces new objects that consist of
the selected polygons, Disconnect
kind of cuts the polygons off the
source object. Disconnect doesn't
produce another object, but makes Picture 56
Picture 52 the polygons that have been discon-
nected independent. Activate the Landscape.1 object and
fence. I have not selected the poly- Imagine a polygon object from execute the Hairdepartment plug-in
gons that make the perpendicular which several polygons have been found in the Plug-ins menu (Picture
poles of the fence. That is neces- disconnected. Say you want to 57) In order to see what the stan-
sary because we don't want the select all polygons of that object. dard values will produce, just click
grass to grow on those poles You make a rough selection and you the OK button within the main
(Picture 53). want to use the Grow Selection tool parameters window.
in order to select all other polygons
There exist different versions of that make the object too. CINEMA Hairdepartment will come up with
Hairdepartment that can be found 4D will do what you want it to do another window called Hairform. Hit
30
too low, memory usage will be huge. the behavior of the Angle Variation
Half the value will create four times option. The blades that are nearly
the grass. The Length value marks vertical will remain that way. A value
how long each blade of grass will of 50 percent will extenuate the
be. angle variation to 50 percent of its
value. Hit OK after you have entered
Radius lets you take control over the values and the Hairform window
how thick a blade of grass is. will come up (Picture 60).
Sections determines how many sec-
tions a blade of grass will consist of.
Those can be explained best with a
Picture 57 picture (Picture 59b).
OK and take a look at the results
(Picture 58).
Picture 60
Sidefaces determines the number of

sides a blade of grass will have. If
you enter 2 sidefaces you will get a
flat shape.
Picture 59b
Tutorial
Form: Hairdepartment offers 8 differ-

Gravity gives control over how ent forms of blades. Please consult
Picture 58 strong blades of grass are bent the manual of Hairdepartment to
downward. You can even enter understand what kind of forms are
It doesn't look like something that negative values. Length Variation available. You can leave it as is.
we want to create at the moment. helps to vary the length of the
Therefore we will undo this experi- blades. If you enter a value of 50 Start, Middle, End Depth (depth and
ment and execute the plug-in again percent, the length Value will be var- width) control the shape of our
and enter the values shown in (pic- ied by the Length Variation value. blades. This bill stands for bottom,
ture 59). Hairdepartment adds or subtracts 50 middle, top of the blades.
percent of the length value. A blade Imagine you look at a blade of grass
length of 100 units will result in in top view. Length is the thickness
blades between 50 up to 150 units along z-axis while width is the thick-
high. The Direction Variation value ness along the x-axis.
gives control how the blades will If you enter the values shown in pic-
appear. Based on the number of ture 60 the result will be a conical
Segments Hairdepartment changes shape of grass blades.
the direction in which the blades
Picture 59 grow. Middle (1.0-5.0) determines which
area of the blades is considered as
Distance marks the distance A high value of direction variation middle. Middle is not defined by the
between one blade of grass to combined with many segments will length of the blades but by the num-
another one. The higher this result in a very curled appearance of ber of sections. A blade with five
amount is, the less grass will be cre- the blades. Angle Variation adds sections consists of six segment
ated. A very low value will allow you variation to the angle of growth, points. Because Hairdepartment
to create a very dense meadow, but which results in a more realistic doesn't allow relative values the
be careful because if this value is grass. To Verticals lets you influence middle of such blade would contain
31
two segment points. This allows hypernurbs object and a cube.

you to move the middle of a blade Rename both objects to cloud.
up or down. In this tutorial we will (Picture 64)
leave it at 2. If you don't understand
what that explanation means please
consult the manual of Hairdepartment.
After you have and to the values as

shown in the picture hit OK again.
(Picture 61). Hairdepartment cre-
ates two new objects in the object
manager. The first one is a spline
Picture 65
Picture 67
Picture 64
Tutorial
Picture 61 It's is a good method to create

details of a scene within a complete-
object that relays the distribution ly new scene because a scene that
and direction I behavior of our is crowded with objects can easily
grass. The second one is the grass lead to confusion. If you are worried
geometry. If you don't like the about keeping the correct propor-
appearance of the geometry you tions you can copy another object
can delete the polygon object and from your full scene into the newly Picture 68
activate Hair Volume within the opened scene. Objects that are
Hairdepartment entry found in the copied from one scene into another In order to allow the rectangle selec-
plug-ins menu (Picture 63) one will keep their initial position. tion tool to not only select visible
If you do that the hairform window of The cube object should have values points we need to adjust the settings
the plug-in will appear and you can similar to these (Picture 65). within the Attributes Manager.
enter different values. Just play
Select the cube that you have If we do not deactivate the Only
renamed to cloud earlier and hit 'c' Select Visible Elements option CIN-
in order to convert it into a polygon EMA 4D will only select points that
object. In the object manager a are directly visible. A point that sits
polygon object can be discerned by exactly behind another point would
Picture 63 the blue triangle (Picture 67). not be selected because CINEMA
4D determines these points as not
around with the settings until you Because we want to create take out visible (Picture 69)
are satisfied. We will move on to that looks like a plastic toy we need
create a nice cloud, now. to shift points. Switch to the point Switch to the front viewport and use
mode and choose Rectangle the rectangular selection tool in
Open a new scene (don't close the Selection from the Selection menu. order to select the polygons on top.
landscape scene) and create a (Picture 68) After you have selected the points,
32
order to produce an object that

reminds you of a cloud. The very left
and very right points in the middle
must be selected together. In order
to do that you have to select the pair
of points on the left (or right), hold
the shift key down and select the
second pair of points. Maybe you
have selected some more points
Picture 69
and want to unselect one pair of
move it up along the y-axis. (Picture points? That's very easy: hold down
70) The cloud should get a slightly the control key (ctrl) and mark the
conical form. Switch to the right points you want to remove from your
viewport and scale the selected selection (Picture 72).
points along the z-axis (Picture 71). Picture 74
activate the Luminance channel.
The Luminance channel makes an
object which it is applied to inde-
pendent of lighting. Add the Fresnel-
Shader object by clicking the black
arrow right to the Texture selector
(Picture 75).
Tutorial
Picture 72
Picture 70
The last step of modeling our cloud
is to select the overhanging pairs of
polygons and to scale the selected
points along z-axis. Scale it to your
likes (Picture 73).
Picture 75
The Fresnel shader changes the
Picture 71 color of an object depending on the
angle in which a polygon is facing
The line of points on top of our the camera. The more it is faced to
object needs to have a zigzag the camera the more the color fades
shape. Make the necessary selec- into the color defined on the right
tions by using the rectangular selec- Picture 73 side of the gradient in the shader
tion tool. If you want to use the live The cloud is almost finished it only properties. The Use Bump function
selection tool please make sure to lacks some material which we will activates bump mapping and dis-
disable the Only Select Visible create now. Create a new material placement mapping for the Render
Elements option in the attributes by selecting the respective function drop-down list. This particular drop-
manager. Select one pair of points from the File menu within the down list - found directly under the
and move it up along the y-axis. Material Manager (Picture 74) checkbox - holds a number of com-
Repeat this step time and again in Deactivate any material channel and binations of rendering methods
33
which are interesting when it comes Click the drop-down list right to the
to transparent materials. Front Only Projection attribute and select
calculates the falloff on a given Spherical (Picture 77).
object´s front side only. The back-
side will be calculated black if it's
visible.
Front Trans calculates the falloff on

a given object´s front side only. The
backside will be calculated white if
it's visible. This option is very useful
Picture 79
for transfer and objects such as a
vase made of glass.
Back only calculates the falloff on a

given object backside only. The
front side will be calculated black if
it's visible.
Picture 77
Back Trans calculates the falloff on
a given object backside only. The Because the editor view is not capa-
front side will be calculated white if ble of rendering the Fresnel texture
Tutorial
it's visible. in real-time we have to render the Picture 80

image in order to see what happens
Front and Back calculates front and with our object (Picture 78). In contrast to the object mode the
back of the falloff (Picture 76). object scale of 1 is not changed
You can close the Material Editor when in model mode even if you
now. Assign the material by drag- scale it up or down. Switching to be
model mode is not absolutely nec-
essary in our case but it is good to
get used to that method because
huge differences in the scaling of
objects can cause trouble, especial-
ly when it comes to animation.
Please make sure to take a look at
Chapter 8: Tools Menu (model) and
Picture 78 chapter 11.10 of the Cinema4d man-
ual because it is essential that you
Our cloud is finished. Select the understand the difference between
Hypernurbs object and press ctrl c model and object mode.
in order to copy the object. Switch
Picture 76
back to the landscape scene and Rule of bump:
dropping it on the Hypernurbs paste the cloud by pressing ctrl p. Model Mode for modeling,
object. You will see that the texture (Picture 79) Object Mode for animating.
mapping is not correct. In order to The cloud is way too big so we have
change the mapping you need to to scale it down a bit. Activate the If you're satisfied with the size of the
bring up the texture tag attributes in Hypernurbs object and switch to the cloud, click the functions menu (the
the Attributes Manager by double- Model Mode which you can find Hypernurbs object should be
clicking the texture tag on the very within the tools menu of Cinema4d marked) and select duplicate
right of the Hypernurbs object. (Picture 80) because we don't need just one
34
cloud but 10 or 12 (Picture 81). loosely orientate on the values

Activate the options Duplicate, shown in picture 86. Switch to the
Options and Tool in the Attributes top viewport and get real-time feed-
back on your changes.
(Picture 86 - Picture 87).
Picture 83
which leaves only the cloud instance

Picture 81
objects marked (Picture 84).
Manager and make the settings
shown below (Picture 82).
Click Apply and take a look at the
Object Manager. CINEMA 4D has Picture 86
Tutorial
Picture 87
Picture 84
Picture 82 That's all for today. In the next
created a null object containing 12 We have to do that because the issue we will finish this tutorial. I
instances of the cloud object. It is Randomize function only works with hope you like this tutorial for so far.
possible to increase the number of selected objects. Choose the (Picture 88)
copies in real-time and if you are Randomize function (Picture 85).
satisfied unfold the cloud_copies
object by clicking the small plus on
the left of the object name. Mark the
cloud_copies null object and choose
Select Children from the Objects
Menu of the Object Manager. This
function selects all children objects
of a given parent object and the par-
ent object itself (Picture 83) Picture 85
Unselect the cloud_copies parent Click Apply and change the Move
object by holding down the ctrl key values in a way that the clouds
and executing a single click on it cover the entire scene. You can Picture 88
35
Artist Spotlight...
Raymond Salter
Name: Raymond Salter.

Age: 54.
Occupation: Building Construction
Country: United Kingdom
Software: CINEMA 4D R9 Studio

Bundle, BodyPaint 2, Poser 4, Paint
Shop Pro 6 and Imagine
Spotlight
Otter 18/1/2004 - Here I have made an attempt to simulate a wet clumpy fur effect of a otter drink-
Favorite places on the web: ing in a river using Hair Department and modeled in C4D 8.1.
3D Attack, Renderosity, 3D Valley, CG
Talk
Artist Comments: Hi I am 54 years old

and live in the United kingdom in a small
town in Wiltshire. I have worked all my
life in the construction industry. My first
interest in the creation of 3D images as
an hobby started on the Amiga. I do not
know how many of you will remember a
small program called Sculpt 3D, show-
ing my age now, but this gave me the
bug for modeling.
I then moved on to a 3D program called
Imagine, but when its development
stopped I found and changed to this
great modeling program C4D XL6, with
which and am now working with on a PC
and, as of late, have grown more and
more interested in modeling natural his-
tory subjects with my favorite modeling
program, CINEMA 4D. Of the images I
have created my favorite is the Cricket
which has been printed in 3D World. My
favorite artists are Pupi, Matthieu, Dez, Bumble Bee 11/2/2004 - A bumble bee modeled in C4D 8.1 collecting pollen and nectar from a
and Cartesius. flower top. Flower tops made from Hair Department and heads extruded out.
3
Artist Spotlight...
Raymond Salter
Window 11/10/2004 - The window part of this

image is all modeled with nurbs objects and
splines. Radiator is box modeled. There are
two deferent hdri images, one for inside and
one for outside, plus one light for shadows.
Spotlight
Great Green Bush Cricket 28/8/2004 - Here is an image of the largest Bush Cricket in England
modeled in C4D 8.1. The main skin effect was achieved with a slightly bigger outer skin with just
a transparency and reflection on it.
Mandrill 31/12/2003 - Mandrills come from Caterpillar 13/11/2004 - When I first saw one of these highly colored critters I just had
West African and are one of the largest forest to model it and try out the new CINEMA 4D R9. I mainly box modeled this one.
monkeys. The males are very colorful and
makes it ideal for modeling in C4D 8.1. All
textures are procedural. I used box modeling
and Hair Department for fur.
GNOMON ZBRUSH WORKSHOPS
Review by Mark Gmehling aka Macling

WITH MEATS MEIER
INTRODUCTION TO ZBRUSH:
ZBRUSH PRODUCTION PIPELINE
Most of us have heard about the so

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The Gnomon Workshop recruited

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DVD Review
Meier to release two DvD Packages:

"Introduction to Zbrush" and "ZBrush
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consists of 2 DvD's and was
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always, supporting Mac + PC
Format.
The "Introduction to ZBrush" DvD

comes along with 6 hours of video
tutorial lectures explained by Meats
Meier. It is announced as "for
ZBrush newbies", but I think it cov-
ers a lot of nice things to know, even the interface is working generally, No Tool or command is forgotten.
for the more experienced ZBrusher. how to handle the viewport etc. He You are told how to model highly
drags attention to the self explaining detailed meshes and how to export
First, Meats explains the Heart of (auto help) possibilities of Zbrush them to external 3D applications.
ZBrush- the "Pixol technology" and walks through every menu (yes You'll get to know to paint textures
(Pixols in contrast to common pixels really!!!) explaining what it does and with the 2.5 Toolset and how to cus-
are basically 3D pixels that can hold how it affects your work. tomize your own tools. Even as a 2d
3D depth, orientation and material painting software, ZBrush is offering
information). Each of the following Each tweak is shown- there's is no tools that are a match to the big 2d
lectures is based on the one before fast forwarding! He's getting more application functions.
and makes the audiences skills and more into detail in the following
grow by getting more and more chapters: 2.5D Tools, 3D Primitives, Furthermore, you learn how to
technical understanding of ZBrush's 3D Edit Mode, Alpha Skinning, export the needed maps to get your
features. Lecture two is about the Texturing, Zspheres, Multimarkers, million poly models rendered in the
ZBrush Interface: Meats is explain- Displacement, Creation, Rendering common 3D applications fast and
ing ways to customize palettes, how within zBrush, Zscripts, Preferences. easily and as detailed as in ZBrush.
38
edge and technical understanding of

Zbrush for sure. The Second DVD
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Material rendered by Meats Meier.
He teaches the complete workflow

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DVD Review
low poly mesh back in Maya.
The lectures covered are called as

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3D Package, Basics of ZBrush
Texture, UV's and Mapping,
Creating and Rendering
Displacement Maps Creating /
Rendering Normal Maps, Creating
Blend Shapes.
In Contrast to the Introduction to

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Meats teaches an efficient workflow

here that shows how much ZBrush
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and texturing process. Although
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You'll get to know an efficient work- Introduction to this awesome appli- (using CINEMA 4D) can say this
flow to fasten your skills. cation imaginable. Even the experi- Package is a must-have too to mas-
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And as I said before: Meats Meier understanding and skills after listen- ports SPD (Sub Polygon
explains every button, every palette, ing to Meats for 6 interesting hours! Displacement) you're only a few
every slider…nothing is left uncov- And the ZNewbie will finish the DvD clicks away from using the features
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39
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even for the not native english
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DVD Review
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40
How To Sort Particles With TP
By Tabou
The goal of this tutorial is to show dimension of the particles, 25

you how to direct particles precisely means that each particle will have
by carrying out a simulation of con- the quarter of the dimension of the
voying of objects that arrive mixed original object.
then are separated in different direc-
tions according to their color. This At this stage you get a flow of parti-
will use the concept of TP groups, cles aligned and spaced irregularly,
essential to master if you wish parti- as seen on picture 3. Now that one
cles to have different behaviors. emitter is ready we will duplicate it,
There are four steps to achieve this
effect :
1. Create and setup the first emitter, to refine the adjustments we will
which will be duplicated twice. modify the Pstorm-node directly.
Double click on the icon of XPresso
2. Set up an expression that con- to open the editor then select the
trols the three emitters to differenti- Pstorm-node and modify only the
ate flows in order to prevent that highlighted parameters, as illustrat-
several particles are emitted simul- ed in picture 2.
taneously.
3. Add an expression using the but we have to create first the

Tutorial
repulsion to prevent that the parti- groups of particles, essential to dis-

cles interpenetrate. sociate the three flows. Go to the
Thinking Particles settings window
4. Place and direct the deflectors and right-click on All in the Particle
then assign the various flows of par- groups field and add three groups
ticles to the corresponding deflec- and name them red, green and blue,
tors. like picture 4.
1 Create and set up the emitter
We need three identical emitters,

only the emitted objects will be dif-
ferent, so we will set up only one The birthrate controls precisely the
emitter, the two others will be dupli- flow, as we have set the value to 6
cates. Go to Objects menu /Object- the emitter creates a particle every
Library and add a TP Basic Emitter five frame (at 30 fps), this setting
then go to the attributes and modify preserve a minimum distance
the parameters like shown on pic- between each emitted object. Don't
ture 1. For now leave the Particle forget that the interval depends also
Group empty, we will change that on speed, therefore if you modify
later. Set the diameter to 1 and the the flow it will be necessary to
Spread Angle to 0, this enables us adjust speed and vice-versa.
to get a flow of aligned particles.
Set the lifespan to the total duration A light variation in speed avoids that
of your animation (frames), to avoid the interval between the particles is
particles to suddenly disappear. identical, that gives a more natural Leave the Particle Geometry object
The user-data does not give access feeling to the simulation. The size is of the hierarchy of the emitter in
to all the parameters of the emitter, a percentage which adjusts the order to not duplicate it, your hierar-
41
How To Sort Particles With TP
By Tabou
chy must be like illustrated on pic- 2 Differentiate flows

ture 5.
Select the parent Null object of the
group of emitters and add a XPresso
tag. The idea is to generate random
integers from 1 to 3, each number
will start one or the other of the
emitters. Add a random node, with a
Real output and, in the attributes duplicate the three nodes (Compare,
Now you can duplicate the emitter manager, check the positive values Condition and XPresso), then
twice, group the three emitters button, to get only values from 0 to replace value 1 by 2 in the second
together then change names and 1. To transform this result into val- condition node and by 3 in the third
materials as illustrated on picture 6. ues from 1 to 3 you will use a range condition node. Replace the refer-
mapper node. Set the range-mapper ence of the emitters, as illustrated
node to the values as in picture 8. on picture 10 (see last page bottom
So now the values from 0 to 1 are picture).
transformed to 1 to 4. It remains to
convert these real numbers (1,836, Preview what you got and you'll see
the three colors follow one another
in a random way.
However there remains a problem :

Tutorial
because of their different speeds

(remember, the speed variation
parameter which is not set to zero to
3,051 for example) into whole val- obtain irregular spaces between the
Drag each group of particles into the ues (1, 3). For that just add the blocks) some blocks collide with oth-
corresponding box of each emitter - Universal node and set it to Integer. ers and even cross them. The P
picture 7. It now remains to test this value as Repulse & Bounce node will enable
to start the corresponding emitter. you to fix this problem.
Add a Compare node and a
Condition node. 3 Avoid collisions
Connect input 1 of the compare The Object Library provides a TP

node to the output of the Universal Particle Collision object ready to
node and set the value of input 2 to use, all the parameters are set in
1. Connect the output of the com- the user data, like illustrated in pic-
pare node to the switch of the condi- ture 11.
tion node. Set the type of data on
Boolean and check only the box
Input 3.
Now we have three flows of parti- Drag the tag blue emitter into the
cles but if you launch a preview you XPresso window and connect the
will see only one because for the output of the condition to the Enable
moment the three emitters are iden- input port. You get a result identical
tical. To differentiate them you will to that illustrated on picture 9. Think
set up an expression preventing the of re-naming the tags your emitters,
emitters from emitting simultaneous- that allows you to recognize them
ly. easier in the XPresso editor. Now
42
How to Sort Particles With TP
By Tabou
As it is necessary to detect the colli- deflector. Launch simulation, if you

sions between particles that belong did not make an error the particles
to different groups you have to set are automatically directed towards
All to group A and B. the way which corresponds to their
color.
Test the simulation, the blocks do
not overlap anymore. Now we will Have fun !
set up the deflectors and the
XPresso that will allow to direct the tabou
particles towards different directions
according to their color. Thank you base80 for your transla-
tion.
4 - Separate the particles with
deflectors
As usual we will set up the effect for

a group, the red for example and
duplicate it later. There is no deflec-
tor for the green particles since they
go straight. The deflector is created
with Null object which help to place
and direct the effect easily, the Connect the PPass node to the
Tutorial
expression will determine the group Pdeflector node then duplicate both
of particles which will be affected. nodes. Replace the reference-object
Create a null object, place it at the with the R2 deflection, increase the
intersection of the three ways and value of Surface to 50 and decrease
direct it at 45° on the axis H. do not the Spin by 2. Duplicate the nodes
forget to re-name the object to give again and proceed in the same way
it an clear name, R1 deviation for for the third deflection by increasing
example. Duplicate the object then the value of surface to 100 and by
move approximately 300 units and changing the object by the R3
direct 57°. deflection.
Duplicate the object again then put Select the 6 nodes and duplicate
rotation at 0° and move it 150 units them. Change in the nodes PPass
on Z-axis and of 75 on the X-axis. of the red group to the blue group
Select the three deflectors and and in the PDeflector the red deflec-
duplicate them. Re-name the tor by the corresponding blue
objects and place them in a sym-
metrical way. Now the deflectors are
in place but we need to give them
the right groups of particles to fol-
low the right direction. Open
Xpresso of object TP Particle
Collision then add a PPass node
and a Pdeflector node. Connect
PPass node to the red group. Select
the Pdeflector node and set the
parameters like illustrated on pic-
ture 12.
43
How To Create A Camera Animation In R9
First of all we need a spline that ren- Play around with the tangents and
ders the path which the camera see how they work.The next step is
should follow (Picture 00). a little tricky because you have to
raise some points of the spline for
we want to create a camera anima-
tion that orbits around a object in the
center of the spiral while the spline
slowly ascends. Mark all points of
the spline object except the very first
one on the darker end of the spline
Picture 01b and move it up a bit (Picture 01f).
Picture 00
Switch to the top viewport and cre-

ate a Freehand Spline that reminds
you of a spiral by click-dragging in
the viewport (Picture 01).
Picture 01c Picture 01f

Tutorial
from the Edit Spline submenu within Unselect the second point using the
the Structure menu (Picture 01d) Live Selection tool. Don't forget to
hold down the ctrl key in order to
unselect a selected point. After uns-
electing the second point, move the
rest up a bit (Picture 01g)
Picture 01d
Picture 01
This function realigns the tangents
You will notice that the spline is of the spline which results in a very
quite edgy, but there exist a solu- soft curve (Picture 01e).
tion for that particular problem:
Activate the Live Selection tool and
mark and delete points that you
don't really need. Example: If there
are two points that sit quite close to Picture 01f
each other, just delete one or more
of it (Picture 01b). Now repeat these steps: unselect
another point, move up, unselect
Repeat that until the spline consist another point, and so on. Your front
of points that have a uniform dis- or side view will look something like
tance to each other (Picture 01c). Picture 01e this (Picture 01h)
In order to make our spiral shape If you don't like the position of a tan- Notice the little terraces at each
round again, select all points of the gent you can easily change the point. We don't want to keep it that
spline and choose Soft Interpolation position of it by using the Move tool. way because the camera animation
44
and the tangents can be moved up

or down only. Now that our spiral
object is finished we need to adjust
the settings which define the spline's
distribution of points. Adaptive and
Natural spline interpolation are use-
ful for splines that need narrow and
very soft curves. If we were using a
spline with such interpolation, the
camera movement would accelerate
Picture 01h in straight areas and break in nar-
row curves. The reason for that
would appear quite fidgety that way. behavior is the way CINEMA 4D cal-
Again the easiest way to resolve this culates interpolation of splines.
problem is to mark all points of the Movement speed depends on the
spline object and to execute the Soft distribution of interpolation points.
Interpolation function that we have Movement becomes slower at those
used earlier in this tutorial. points that stand close to each
other, while it becomes faster where
The terraces have disappeared points stand more apart. The inter- Picture 03
because the spline tangents are not polation points are not the spline Mark the Camera object in the
straight anymore but diagonal to points. Object Manager and assign the
Tutorial
each other. Feel free to change Align to Spline Tag. You will find it in
some tangents to see how they Double click the spline object and the File menu of the Object
influence the spline behavior. take a look at the Attributes Manager (Picture 04).
(Picture 01i). Manager. Click the drop-down list
right to Intermediate Points and
select Uniform (Picture 02).
Picture 04
Picture 01i
You will see the Align to Spline Tag
By the way, you can also work on in the Object Manager right to your
Picture 02
tangents and spline points in per- Camera object. Perform a double
spective view. Maybe you wonder The Uniform option makes CINEMA click on the tag in order to bring up
how that would be possible because 4D to change the distribution of the attributes of the Align to Spline
in perspective view you cannot interpolation points of splines. The Tag in the Attributes Manager.
move tangents and points quite interpolation points are distributed (Picture 05)
exact. That's not true because for- uniform, now.
tunately even spline points and That uniform interpolation allows our Drag-drop the spline object into the
spline tangents can be manipulated camera to move at a constant Spline Path drop box (Picture 06).
while axis are locked or unlocked. If speed. Create a Target Camera Make sure that the animation slider
you want to move a tangent up or object found in the Objects menu is positioned on the very left.
down, just lock the x-axis and z-axis (Picture 03). (Picture 07)
45
Add a keyframe. (Picture 07b)
Picture 05
Picture 07b
Picture 09
Move the keyframe slider to the right
(Picture 08). How about animating the camera
target along another spline?
Picture 08
If you don't want to use a target
camera you can try a standard cam-
Change the Position value to 100 era, too.
percent and right click the little dot
left to the word Position and add a If you want to look along the path it
keyframe, again (Picture 08a is moving on, just activate the tan-
Picture 07b) gential checkbox. Play around with
the possibilities and create breath-
Picture 08
taking camera action!
Tutorial
Georg aka Sad
Picture 06 Picture 08a
Picture 07 Put some objects in the middle of

the spiral and move the camera tar-
Right click at the little dot left to the get null object there, too.
word Position (Picture 07a)
The last action we have to take is to
Picture 07
activate the camera. Click the
Camera menu of the perspective
view and and select the camera.
(Picture 09)
Hit the Play Button.
That's all you need for a camera

that should move along a spline.
You can assign the Move along
Picture 07a Spline Tag to any object you like.
46
Best of CINEMA 4D
Some of the best artists around the world using CINEMA 4D
Image: Jeweller's Art Artist Comments: I have realized these jewels in order to
Artist: Danilo Ventura give them to my girlfriend. To give the true ones would
Country: Italy have been banal! (and expensive:) ) I'M NOT A JEWEL-
Website: under construction ER, so I'd gather informations, especially for details (clips,
Date created: 14/02/2005 stones, dimensions...ecc ecc) , for the rest... all fantasy!
Software: CINEMA 4D R8.2 Only my imagination and my LOVE
3
Image: Race Bike
Artist: Mas Guillaume "Quinn"
Country: France
Website: http://membres.lycos.fr/peluche203
Date created: January, February 2005
Software: CINEMA 4D R8.5
3
Image: Col. S. Bird Artist Comments: This image the III part of my Bird Saga.
Artist: Peter Fendrik (pupi)
Country: Hungary
Website:
Date created: 2005 02 28
Software: CINEMA 4D R9, BodyPaint, Photoshop
3
Image: Old Vampire King Artist Comments: This image is a personal plan. I have
Artist: Gianluca Mattia modeled all in hypernurbs. For the texture of the skin I
Country: Italy have used various levels for giving detail. I have made
Website: www.studioideabari.it/gianlucamattia various tests of lighting system and background, until
Date created: 2005 arriving to the final result. I have modeled the acces-
Software: Cinema 4d XL, Bodypaint 3d, Adobe sories to part and subsequently inserted on the model.
Photoshop The instrument magnet has helped to obtain the expres-
sion me makes, deforming the parts of the face. The
blood that falls has been added in photoshop. In the
scene two luminous sources are present, one spot and
3 one omni.
Image: Nature Artist Comments: I spent most of my time on this image
Artist: Jens Kappelmann "jeso" developing the lighting and textures.
Country: Germany
Website: www.jeso.de.vu
Date created: 21.02.2005
Software: CINEMA 4D R9 - BodyPaint R2 - Dpit 2.5
3
Image: RollBot Artist Comments: Post process in Photoshop (layered
Artist: PETER HOFMANN - peXel COPIC pen images). So it looks a bit like painted.
Country: Germany
Website: http://www.peXel.de
Date created: March 2005
Software: CINEMA 4D R9, PHOTOSHOP 6
3
The CINEMA 4D Q&A Pages
From the 3D ATTACK Forum
Q: Magnumstar: What's the best have 8.5 so it requires some extra illum folder with your project and
way to clean up a area of clustered steps as the duplicate tool is not save the shadow data for the first
polygons? enhanced like in R9. Simply use frame in there. The same data will
Functions -> Duplicate to duplicate be used for the rest of the frames
A: Fluffy: Select them and hit back- your object with the amount you and thus cut your render times in
space or delete. Go into point mode, want, all directions set to 0 so they half or something like that . For
then right-click in the viewport all are in the same place. Then moving stuff, this is not advisable of
(make sure no point is selected Select the object group that is creat- course.
first), then choose "optimize" with ed, go to Function -> Arrange and
the "remove isolated" option activat- enter the name of the spline on
ed, to get rid of all the flying points. which the objects are to be Q: Jerry: I've got an omni-light that I
Then use the bridge tool or Create arranged. That should do it. P.S. it is want to fade out to nothing. I've got
polygons tool to redraw your poly- advisable to make an instance of some visibility and noise on it, and
gons. If you meant simplify a mesh, your object first and then duplicate some dust. For some reason when I
then use the polygon reduction tool, the instance, this will save a lot of try to turn the brightness down C4D
that is available as a deformer memory if you are going to duplicate wont let me? Some sort of default?
Questions and Answers
(menu "object>deformation>polygon a lot. Or is it one of the other attributes

reduction"). For more details on this restricting the fade out? Any help
deformer -> take the manual in your would be magnificent!
bathtub! Q: Neosushi: Is there a possibility to
render the shadow-map only once ? A: Rui Batista: As a default, the
For example: render settings have the "Auto Light"
Q: Rubberfish: Does anyone know - Camera movement around a non option turned on. This will make
how to duplicate an object along a animated object Cinema4D create a default light as
spline? For example, 100 sphere's - Light array above this object. soon as you have no light present in
positioned equal distance from each Cinema always calculates the shad- your scene. So, when you turn your
other along a spline. With the first ow map new, but actually I think it only light off (whether by really turn-
sphere at one end and the 100th doesn't make any sense ! Maybe I'm ing it off or by lowering the bright-
sphere at the other end, with all the wrong, but is there a way to render ness to 0%), Cinema4D will, auto-
other copies in-between. only one shadow-map and make it matically, create a default light.
usable for all other frames ????
A: Bram: Yes I do! In R9 you can Does this makes sense?
just use the Duplicate option and the
set it to Along spline, then drop your A: Bram: Yeah, easily! In the render
spline in the field, set your dupli- settings options enable 'Cache
cates and hit apply. But I see you shadow maps'. This will create a
53
Editor’s Notes
Hello there Readers and issues and extra Goodies on one Friends of 3D Attack™
Attackers! CD! http://www.3d attack.net/shop/
www.doschdesign.com
WOW! Can you believe it’s already Tutorial and Article Submissions www.maxon.net
Spring? As winter passes and www.3duser.com.tw
Spring emerges, so does new life. If you would like to submit a tutorial www.3dtotal.com
The 3D Attack Team is looking for- or article, or have your software or www.cgtalk.com
ward to bringing new and exciting plug-in reviewed by 3D Attack, www.c4dcafe.com
tutorials, articles, reviews, artist please click on the following link for www.cinema4duser.com
interview, and great C4D Quizzes to instructions: http://3d attack.net/3d www.cactus3d.com
all of our readers in the future. Our Attack/viewtopic.php?t=1405 www.3dfluff.com
next issue, the May issue, has some All submissions must be e-mailed to www.spot4d.co.uk
great treats. You won’t want to miss Attention: Tank at www.3darena.de
it! [email protected] www.frenchcinema4d.com
www.sadbatu.de
Once again, we would like to thank Advertising with 3D Attack www.C4dHotline.it
our very supportive forum members www.peXel.de
and our dedicated readers. 3D If you would like to advertise with www.cgchannel.com
Attack has been blessed with the 3D Attack send us an e-mail www.c4dmodelshop.com
best. YOU ROCK! requesting our media kit and rate www.black-graphics.de
card. [email protected] www.tarabella.it/C4d/
Thanks and KEEP ON ATTACKING! www.sharbor.com
Dosch Design www.planit3d.com
The 3D Attack Team www.cartesiuscreations.com
Be sure to visit our friends at Dosch www.c4d.allplanforum.com
RSS Feed on the Forum Design www.doschdesign.com. www.renderosity.com
Check out their wide selection of www.designerinaction.de
Our new forum also has a nice new innovative and easy to use comput- www.3dweave.com
feature: RSS - Really Simple er graphics products. www.scifi-meshes.com
Syndication. This actually means www.ambientlight.co.uk
that you can get the latest posts Tutorials www.bubbles4d.com
without even visiting our forum. You www.mediaworks.fr
can simply get it via mail or a RSS If you have questions concerning a www.3dlinks.com
news reader, so you will always be specific tutorial or want to show us a www.cgchina.com
up to date on things. RSS is actually tutorial you have completed, feel www.c4dzone.com
still pretty new on the web, but it’s free to post your questions and work www.c4d-pl.org
growing rapidly and more and more on our C4D discussion forums at
sites are using it. We wanted to www.3dattack.net. *3D Attack the CINEMA4D Magazine and all
jump on the train and bring you this material contained therein are copyright protect-
great feature. To find out how to Best of CINEMA 4D Gallery ed. You may not disassemble or distribute any
enable RSS check here: part of this publication without prior written con-
http://3d If you would like to submit an image sent from 3D Attack directly. Any attempts to do
attack.net/forum/showthread.php?t= for consideration for the Best of so will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
1326 CINEMA 4D Gallery section of the law as it applies in Michigan, USA. This applies
magazine, please send an 800x600 for both 3D Attack material as well as any
THE MAGAZINE ON CD rendering to [email protected]. If named artist contained in its publications.
your image meets the level of excel- Although we read through all the tutorials and
Be sure to visit the 3D Attack shop lence we are looking for, we will proof-read them for errors we cannot guarantee
and check out our new Magazine contact you for more information. that they are 100% error-free and therefore can-
Collection on CD. 8 complete not issue refunds based on those errors.
54
Keep on attacking...
By Sir Gong
55
56

3D Attack - 2005 - 04

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Volume 02 Issue 04

April 2005 | $3.99

HIGHLIGHTS IN THIS ISSUE:

Thinking of sidegrading or upgrading?

GET DIRTY with Rui Batisa’s texturing

MONO FLOP TUTORIAL

Interview with Dave Brinda

© Dave Brinda 2005

PAGE 4-8 Interview with Dave Brinda by Tavy Ann

PAGE 9 The C4D Quiz

PAGE 10-13 GET DIRTY! by Rui Batista

PAGE 14-17 CINEMA 4D Release 9.1 Review by Aaron Biscombe

PAGE 18-21 Lookout Tower Part 3 by Bram van Gerwen

PAGE 22-23 Combining Splines by Georg Niedermeier

PAGE 24 EMorpher Review by Thomas Pasieka

PAGE 25-28 Mono Flop Tutorial by Base80

PAGE 29 Micro-Tut-Formula Egg by Base 80

PAGE 30-35 Landscape Tutorial Part 3 by Georg Niedermeier

PAGE 36-37 Artist Spotlight “Raymond Salter” by Tavy Ann

PAGE 38-40 GNOMON ZBrush Review by Mark Gmehling

PAGE 41-43 How to Sort Particles With TP by Tabou

PAGE 44-46 Camera Animation in R9 by Georg Niedermeier

PAGE 47-52 Best of C4D Gallery

PAGE 53 CINEMA 4D Q&A

PAGE 55 3D ATTACK Comic by Sir Gong

Tavy: Dave thanks for taking some

Dave: Thank you Tavy, it's an honor

California with my wife and our two

ence with the program, I'm constant-

As far as other programs I'm cur-

Tavy: Dave your resume is impres-

Twentieth Century Fox and

Dave: Thanks Tavy, I have been for-

"Beginners Mind" by the Japanese

I wish everyone the best, and

PATH DEFORMER - THE RIGHT WAY TO DEFORM VIA SPLINE

N.O.T.A - NOT ONLY TEXT ANIMATOR

Question - What is the name of the MAXON USA CEO?

difficult to reproduce when dealing Lets now consider an object that is

Mix Textures option is turned off, the

On the fifth image (09), the Mix

an Alpha channel too. So, it only

Picture 04 The third image (07) is exactly the

This can all be done with more than

Complex textures can be created

has the advantage of being able to

You can create a "baked" Vertex

For each point P of the surface of

like this: (15) If you get artifacts (dirt appearing

To finish this tutorial, I propose that

When MAXON unveiled Release 9 tures and enhancements, that cre-

I hope this review can serve as a

falling over themselves with the power animator by any means,

from other 3D software. In addition,

It comes with excellent noise

me forever to figure out how to cre-

will place the cylinder nicely in the

change will be visible immediately.