Learning C4D, AE and Illustrator

This is a blog to show CInema 4D, After Effects and Illustrator hints and tips. View my work at www.jam-moore.com

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Converting a stroke into a shape object (Ai)

Simply left click the stroke that you want to convert into a shape object and head up to the menu bar and select Object > Expand and click OK. Once done, the stroke weight will not be editable so ensure this is correctly set before converting.

This is useful is a stroke is not enabling you to align items correctly. When aligning, it alights anchor points, so if stroked they can appear out of line.

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Following previous tutorial I posted you can achieve the same technique as the first example. Adding random effectors and animating random properties you can create a more dynamic piece.

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Using Mograph to Clone Objects Along a Path...

The first thing you need to create is a spline that the objects will be created along. I have chosen a preset helix spline:

The next thing we need is a cloner, this is found under the mograph menu:

We will also need some items to to be cloned. For this i'll use some simple primatives, but you could use any object. Each of these items then needs to be made children of the cloner as such:

Now me need to edit some of the cloners properties to make sure it clones along the spline we created earlier. The first thing we need to change is the cloner mode to 'Object' and then the spline needs to be dragged into the 'Object' field. I also changed the 'Clones' to 'random' just to create some variation but it's not essential.

Also, if you increase the number of clones you should have something that looks roughly like this:

Ensuring the cloner is still selected, head to the mograph menu and add a 'Plain' effector to the cloner.

In the plain effectors properties, you want to turn off position by making all values '0'. Then turn on scale, uniform and absolute scale and turn the scale value down to -1. Also, change the transform space to Effector. This should make your cloned objects disappear.

The next thing we need to do is create a 'Mospline' from the morgaph menu:

We also need to edit the properties of the MoSpline to make it behave properly. We need to change the MoSpline mode to 'Spline', then head to tab titled 'Spline' and drag our original spline (helix) into the field named Source Spline.

Now we need to head back into the Plain effectors properties and under the Falloff tab we need to change the shape to 'Source', check 'Invert' and drag the MoSpline into the field 'Source Link'

Then to get the cloned objects to appear along the path, we head to the MoSpline and keyframe the 'Start' value. Head to the frame you want the animation to begin on and CTRL+Click the dot to set a keyframe, move to the final frame that you want and change the start value to 100% and key frame it again.

That is complete now. You can also add random effects to the cloner object to create a little variation within the shapes including size, rotation and position.

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Creating Basic Glass

Starting with a new material, change the basic color to a darkish grey.

Then turn on transparency and turn the brightness down a litte.

Next, turn on Specular and adjust the width to 21% and Height to 52%

Change the reflection to 70%

Here's a preview of how the rendered material looks.

You can adjust the reflectivity, transparency, color and specular properties to achieve the look you are trying to get.

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Creating textured materials

Using a bump map is a great way to easily add texture to a material.

Create a new material and enable the bump map property.

Then you need to click on the arrow next to texture, head down to surfaces and choose whichever you want. For this example I chose tile.

You can then click the name of the texture you chose in the texture field to view more options for modifying the texture.

Play around with the settings until you have the desired effect you want. For this I used the pattern called 'Weave' and just scaled it down using the U and V scale. Here's an example of how the texture renders:

This tip is useful for creating materials quickly such as brick walls by using the 'brick' texture from the surface menu, or using the weave, scaled down is useful for quickly creating textures of chairs or sofas..

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Loop Selection

Loop selection (U,L) is very useful for selecting loops or bands of polygons or lines around an object.

Then simply click on the loop you want to select, the tool will then select all polygons/lines to complete that loop as follows:

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Selection Tag and Adding a Material to a Selection

If you've ever selected polygons and wanted to easily be able to revert to that selection, follow this simple time. First make your selection and then head to Select>Set Selection

This will create a selection tag next to the root object in the object manager that appear as a small orange triangle. Simple double click to restore this selection.

If you then wanted to add a material to this selection tag, add the material that you would like to apply to the selection and drag the selection tag into the field called 'Selection' in the materials attributes.

This will apply the selected material to the desired selection like this:

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Centre an Axis to an Object

If you've worked with Cinema 4D for some time, i'm sure you'll have encountered a problem with having an object that has an axis somewhere that you don't want it, like in this image:

To remedy this, simple head to Mesh > Axis Center > Center Axis to

Alternatively, you can move the axis to anywhere you want it, using the Axis Modification button and simply dragging to where you want the axis to be.

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Sweep Nurb

Using the sweep nurbs allows you to create geometry using two splines. One spline is used to follow another spline. In this example I will use a helix and star spline.

Start off creating two splines, i'm going to use a helix for a path for a star shape to be created along. I slightly edited the two splines using the attribute manager.

Then, we need to add a sweep NURB.

Then simply drag your two splines to the sweep nurb to make them children of the sweep nurb.

After doing this, we'll be left with this shape:

If yours doesn't look like that, swap the order of the star and the helix.

This tool can be useful for creating things such as pipes that curve and go around corners etc. You could also animate the 'end growth' in the sweep nurb attributes to create a simple animation where the star 'grows' along the helix spline we created earlier.

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Spline Outline

This is an extremely useful tip for creating geometry from splines. Let's say that you have a complicated spline drawn out and want to create another spline where all the lines are parallel to original spline. This would be easy to achieve using the 'Outline' tool. Create your spline, then head into point selection mode, right click and choose ' create outline'.

Then simply click and drag anywhere in the viewport in create an outline of the object.

This spline can then be added to an extrude NURB to create 3D geometry.

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Symmetry

The symmetry object is very useful for modelling symmetrical objects and adding objects to both sides easily and quickly, such as car mirrors or guitar tuners. Or for creating entirely symmetrical objects, you can simple model half of it and the other half will be created by the symmetry object.

Let's say we have this strange object and want to create the cylinder and cone on the other side of the sphere. We could copy, rotate and move the geometry, but a better, quicker way would be to use the symmetry tool.

Take the objects that we want to copy, in this case, the cone and cylinder and group them together by selecting them, right clicking and selecting group objects, shortcut (Alt+G).

This will create a Null object with both these pieces of geometry inside. You then create a symmetry object, accessed under the Array tool.

Then simply drag the null into the symmetry object to make the null a child of the symmetry object:

This will make the items under the null appear in the other half of the sphere as follows:

This is a very useful tool for speeding up modelling workflows.

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Spline Interpolation

This is a small, but very useful tip.

Let's say you've made a spline but changed your mind of a few points, for example, you've created a shape and want to create a sharp edge instead of a curved one. To edit this, simple go into point selection mode, select the point you wish to change, right click and select 'Hard Interpolation'. If you have a shape with straight edges and want to create a soft, curved edge, select 'Soft Interpolation'

Before:

After:

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Creating Splines, Modifying and Extruding

Creating splines is useful for creating complicated shapes. To do this, simple draw out a spline using on of the many spline types. I'm just going to use a bezier spline to create a custom shape:

When the last point has been drawn, select 'Close spline' in the attributes to create a complete spline.

I then added another simple circle spline at the location where I want the shape to be cut out of the other.

Next we need to add a spline mask, found on the top bar by clicking and holding on the 'array object' button.

Next, we drag both the splines into the spline mask to make them children of the spline mask object. Then all we have left to do is to change the attributes to whichever work for you. To get mine to work properly I had to select 'B subtract A' and then change the Axis to 'ZY'

If we wanted to cut further shapes out of this one, we can do this by right clicking on the spline mask object in the object manager and selecting make editable. This will create a spline that can be altered using point select mode to fine tune the shape. We can then add the next splines we wish to cut out, and dragging both splines into another spline mask object and altering the attributes again.

We can also subtract multiples splines at once by creating all the splines we want to subtract like this example where the squares will be cut out of the circle.

We then need to select all of the shapes to be cut out, so in this example, each of the squares. To do this, we need to make each of the splines editable and then we can right click and 'connect objects and delete'.

This creates one spline from the ones that we have selected and deletes the original splines as they are no longer needed. We then follow the technique we used earlier of creating a spline mask, adding both splines and then changing the spline mask attributes. After doing this we are left with a shape like this:

This shape can then be further modified or added as a child to an extrude object to create a 3d shape from the spline. To do this, create an extrude NURB and then simple drag the spline to the extrude NURB in the object manager.

Then the only thing left to do is to edit the attributes of the extrude NURB to add movement to the corrent axis to make the object 3D. After playing with the attributes we should be left with this:

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Adding Texture to a Cushion with Sculpting

First thing we need to do is change the layout to the sculpting layout. This is done using the layout selector in the top right of the standard layout.

Increasing the amount of polygons on the object will make sculpting easier and allow more precise sculpting to be applied. So we use the subdivide tool to create more resolution within the object.

Then, using the 'Pull' tool. Simply click and drag across the object where you want to raise the surface or hold ctrl and click to push the surface in.

This can be very useful for creating a 'worn' look for soft materials use as cushions.

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Splitting polygons to create separate objects

With an editable object selected, select the polygon selection mode from the toolbar on the right.

Now simply select the polygons which you want to detach from the object using the live selection tool, ensure 'only select visible' is checked in the tool attributes manager. Once the desired polygons are selected, right click and select 'Split', or press the shortcut (U,P)

This will create a new object, visible in the object manager below the object you originally selected. This new object will have the same name as the orignal object which can get confusing so it's best to rename it by double clicking it in the object manager. If you select the original shape, your polygon selection will still be selected so you can delete these polygons to create a hole for a door, or an object to fit into the other.

This is a great technique for creating doors that fit perfectly into a frame.

The only thing left to do is to delete the unused points left behind by going into point selection mode, selection the entire object using the rectangle selection tool and then right clicking and selecting optimize (U>O).  This is how the model will look before optimizing and how it will look afterwards:

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Extrude and Extrude Inner basics.

The Extrude and Extrude Inner tools are both usable on editable objects. They are accessed by right clicking in a viewport while in point, edge or polygon selection mode. Keyboard shortcuts can also be used, (D) for Extrude and (I) for Extrude Inner.

The extrude tool is used to create extra polygons that are 'pulled out' following the objects normals. Very useful for creating object rims, protruding shafts for items such as vehicle steering wheels.

Extude inner creates extra edges parrellel to the edges of the polygon selected as shown below:

Using this tool in combination with the Extrude tool can be very useful. If you use the extrude inner tool to create a smaller edge, you can then use the extrude tool to create a rim for an object. This is done by selecting the newly created polygons.

Then using the Extrude tool, you can pull these polygons upwards to create a lip or a rim around the object.

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Knife Tool Basics

The knife tool is a very useful tool to have. The shortcut key is (K).

There are a few different modes that the knife tool can be used in. The 'standard' mode is 'Line'. To use the knife tool in Line mode, take any editable shape (select object, keyboard shortcut 'C'), and then simple draw on the object where you was the extra lines creating, you can snap to edges to for a little more precision while making cuts. Here is an editable cube primitive with multiple cuts.

'Loop' mode is also a very useful way of using the knife tool. Select loop mode in the tools attributes. Loop mode is to create a line that goes all the way around an object, in a similar way that subdivisions can be added before making an object editable, as follows:

The knife tool is also very useful when used with a hypernurbs modifier. The hypernurbs modifier essentially smooths out an object to make it look more organic. But if certain sections are too smoothed out, you can a loop around the area that you want to look sharper, as in this example below:

1. A smoothed rectangle using hypernurbs.

2. Where the extra loop will be placed to create a sharper edge instead of the round one seen above.

3. The effect that this extra loop has made on the overall shape.