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Another night another frustration

Had a good idea today for an animation. Despite being an unapologetic, slightly obsessive Pearl Jam fan, I have never created any art using their music, or imagery. Figured I'd put together a quick animation using C4D since I am trying to learn the program, and I figured that working on a passion project would be a good way to keep going.

8 hours later I am still trying to figure out how to model a guitar pick. In 3DS Max I could model one in maybe 1-minute. 2 minutes if the cat decides to sit on the keyboard.

In case you were wondering what my cat on a keyboard looks like.

Anyway, this is apparently not a new phenomena. For all the things that C4D did right with motion graphics based art (abstract) they managed to go exactly the opposite direction for the modeling tools.

Looking through my search engine history is like looking through a timeline of roadblocks, if looks something like this:

C4D how do I isolate C4D Solve jittery animations http://www.c4dcafe.com/ipb/topic/70764-solve-jittery-objects-problem-cinema-4d-dynamics-tutorial/ Mike MCCready Pearl Jam amps (looking for reference pic) C4D how do I connect caps C4d caps not attached C4D why is a segment of my spline blue C4D how do I delete an edge without deleting a poly (apparently you can't) Eric Rosenfeld bikini C4D UVW Mapping C4D texture not showing up C4D Symmetry

You get the point.

Anyway, apparently I am not the only one who finds this program fairly cumbersome in the modeling department. Even the unofficial guru of the program Mr Greyscale Gorilla himself admits that he can't model.

Anyway, looking forward to more frustration tomorrow.

Milo (the cat) will sign off now by laying his furry ass on the keyboard.

fjaljjjkjladfjao;ijojerwkg iiiiii (weird, I never knew a Mac keyboard wouldn't repeat a letter when holding down on it when pretending that I am a sleeping cat)

#c4d #tutorials #pearl jam #cat #Milo

First run through. needs some work but not bad for learning on the fly.

#greg #3d #animation #c4d #springbreak

A few more test renders

Here are a few test renders to get lighting and materials fixed up. Need to add an environment, some reflections and better lighting.

Peeling up the words. Needs some fill light.

3D Falling into place

Money shot.

#greg #3darts #animation #springbreak #Mitchsucks

Laser Cut Test

Here is a frame of melted metal outline from the laser test.

To make it fade away I referenced this:

http://lesterbanks.com/2011/05/using-the-display-tag-in-cinema-4d/

Display tages are good, but the keyframing button location is a bit different than other keyframe buttons. Why do 3D programs alway hide the visibility tracks?

#greg #laser #weld #visibility

[M.Final] Finished Project!!

#mitch #fullsail #springbreak #final

[M.4] The final stretch

With only Animation and Compositing left I knew I was getting close. Next up was animating the ball and bat. It took awhile to get anything close to something that had fluid motion, but I was pretty happy with the results:

With the animation complete, all that was left was Compositing. Technically this isn't a 3d process, but is crucial when doing 3d projects as it allows for adjustments that are easier and faster to do in After effects versus the 3d software. I set up several render passes and render elements. When it was all said and done I had over 4000 frames. Having to re-render all of those frames is not only time consuming but expensive (If you used an online render farm like I did). Anyway, after bringing in all my sequences into after effects, I was able to add an Ambient Occlusion pass, adjust the colors on the bat, MLB logo and even add glow to the Compositing text object:

That was the last stage of the project, and also one of my favorites. All that was left is to render out the finished animation... I should have it posted above shortly, enjoy!

--M

[M.3] Its starting to come together...

At this point my idea was starting to take shape. Most of the basic elements were there and I was happy with how everything was going. At this point I started to create the different parts of this scene. I started by adding text for 5 elements of the 3d process I wanted to show: Modeling, Lighting/Materials, Animation and Compositing:

With the text objects added I roughed out the animation so I could start to get an idea of the timing I was working with. The cubes would go down reveal the text, stay down for awhile, go back up, and when they came back down a different text object would be displayed. With the basic animation done I added the rest of objects to my scene:

The objects themselves are quite simple. The lights were the most detailed object, but weren't difficult to make. I was done with the modeling portion of the scene, and then moved on to the Lighting and Materials part of my scene.

Once again this wasn't terribly difficult, though this was the first time I felt like I was fighting the software a little bit. At this point Modeling is done, Lighting and Materials are done. All that is left is Animation and Compositing.

[M.2] Update...

So after coming up with the idea, it was time to really get started. Usually this would mean storyboards, gather reference/inspiration,etc. This time around I skipped the storyboarding and dove right in. I generally don't like this approach but I felt like I had a clear vision of what I wanted to do, and since the concept was quite simple I felt it wasn't entirely necessary. First up was to block out my scene:

I added the turntable, environment and some text. This gave me a good start, but what I needed was a mechanism to hide and reveal the different components that make up the 3d process. I came up with a ring of cubes around the turntable:

The idea was to have the cubes move up and down to reveal the scene as it builds up:

At this point the idea was starting to come together, and I felt like I was making real progress, though it may not look like it yet! Stay tuned for another update!

--M

Night 2 Progress, Checklist and Issues

This is less a post for you and more a checklist of what needs to be done and what was done. But, since you are reading this, I'll try to be as coherent as possible. (you obviously have very little else to do, and anyone with that much time on their hands may be dangerous)

The animation is going to be an intro to the 3AN course. The idea is that a series of weld lines will cut the word animation out of a piece of steel, a blade will scrape it away and a typeset style block that says 3D will punctuate it by falling from above. This is in no way a combination of 3 different tutorials. As I am learning as we go, this will not be done anytime in the near future.

Tonight I ran into several issues. The first being that C4D is NOT 3DS Max. Once I got beyond that (and said angry things about Germans), I began trying to figure out how to do even the simplest actions. Placing cameras, aiming targets, attaching objects etc.

Apparently others had these questions (in broken English) on some 3D blogs.

Special thanks to Sergei who also didn't know how to "Connect and Delete" objects in 2007.

From there it was off to my old friend Illustrator, where I made the new semi-official 3AN Logo. (stay tuned for T-shirts) It's just text, so no pretty pictures for you.

Then breaking down the key animations.

1. Sharks with laser beams cutting through the metal

(sorry shark, you take too damn long to animate, we'll be using our imagination)

2. object scraping up the letters to reveal a hole

3. 3D block falling to the ground

Tutorials Researched (ie. copied with enough changes to avoid litigation)

Tracing the Text

http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/tutorials/how-to-make-custom-tracer-text-in-cinema-4d/

Peeling the Logo

http://www.cineversity.com/vidplaylist/peeling_logo/peeling_logo_part_2

Figuring out how to do a dynamics simulation

http://cgterminal.com/2012/06/02/cinema-4d-intro-to-rigid-body-dynamics-tutorial/

Figuring out how to start a dynamic simulation at a certain time

http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/19/878181

Realizing that is impossible, so I had to figure out how to hand edit dynamic keyframes http://www.c4dcafe.com/ipb/topic/71830-converting-dynamics-to-keyframe-animation/

An Excellent Recipe for Black Beans and Rice that I made for dinner

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/black-beans-and-rice/

-G

Tomorrow I get to work on timing, rendering, materials and the camera.

I'll probably be even punchier too.

#greg #c4d #3d #sharkswithlaserbeams #angryrussians #needtosleep

Learning on the fly

For my project I am looking at some popular online tutorials, altering them and combining them into an animation for the 3D Animation class 3AN. Its admittedly going very slowly due to the added challenge of doing the work in a different 3D package than I am used to. Day 3, no forward progress.

-G

#greg #gettingstarted

[M.1]The early stages of the process...

As most digital projects start out, I had to come up with an idea. After thinking about for quite awhile, I came up with a rather basic, but interesting idea. Not only would I show how I approach a 3d project, but show how all the different components of 3d that lead to a finished project. I also thought this would be a good opportunity to try a different 3d package than what I would typically use, and put it through its paces in something very similar to a production environment. With the basic idea realized, I started brain storming the best way to illustrate this. With the thought of trying to keep it pretty simple, I decided that something close to a turntable style presentation would allow me to illustrate the process while still allowing for easy transitions between the different components of 3d.

--M

Right?

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