Reference Manual
CINEMA 4D Programming Team Christian Losch, Philip Losch, Richard Kurz, Tilo Kühn, Thomas Kunert, David O’Reilly, Cathleen Poppe. Plugin Programming Sven Behne, Wilfried Behne, Michael Breitzke, Kiril Dinev, Per-Anders Edwards, David Farmer, Jamie Halmick, Richard Hintzenstern, Jan Eric Hoffmann, Eduardo Olivares, Nina Ivanova, Markus Jakubietz, Eric Sommerlade, Hendrik Steffen, Jens Uhlig, Michael Welter, Thomas Zeier. Product Manager Marco Tillmann. QA Manager Björn Marl.
MAXON Computer End User License Agreement NOTICE TO USER WITH THE INSTALLATION OF CINEMA 4D (THE “SOFTWARE”) A CONTRACT IS CONCLUDED BETWEEN YOU (“YOU” OR THE “USER”) AND MAXON COMPUTER GMBH ( THE “LICENSOR”), A COMPANY UNDER GERMAN LAW WITH RESIDENCE IN FRIEDRICHSDORF, GERMANY. WHEREAS BY USING AND/OR INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE YOU ACCEPT ALL THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IN THE CASE OF NON-ACCEPTANCE OF THIS LICENSE YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO INSTALL THE SOFTWARE.
(2) You are obliged to carefully store the terms of the agreement. Prior to the transfer of the Software you should inform the new user of these terms. In the case that the new user does not have the terms at hand at the time of the transfer of the Software, he is obliged to request a second copy from the Licensor, the cost of which is born by the new licensee. (3) After transfer of this license to another user you no longer have a license to use the Software. 5.
8. Damage in transit You are obliged to immediately inform the transport agent in writing of any eventual damages in transit and you should provide the Licensor with a copy of said correspondence, since all transportation is insured by the Licensor if shipment was procured by him. 9. Secrecy You are obliged to take careful measures to protect the Software and its documentation, in particular the serial number, from access by third parties.
or for the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland to: MAXON Computer Ltd, The Old School, Greenfield, Bedford MK45 5DE, United Kingdom. We will also be pleased to provide you with the address of your nearest supplier.
Contents 1 Getting to Know CINEMA 4D.............................................................................3 Important notes .................................................................................................................................... 3 What’s new in R9................................................................................................................................... 4 Starting CINEMA 4D .............................................................................
Textures .......................................................................................................................................... 41 X-Ray............................................................................................................................................... 42 Stacked Materials............................................................................................................................ 42 View Menu ......................................................
QuickDraw 3D Import................................................................................................................ 92 STL Import / Export.................................................................................................................... 92 Shockwave 3D Export ................................................................................................................ 93 UZR Export............................................................................................
Save Project ....................................................................................................................................... 147 Export ................................................................................................................................................ 148 Recent Files ........................................................................................................................................ 149 Quit.............................................
Caps And Rounding ...................................................................................................................... 233 Different materials for the hull, caps and rounding ................................................................ 236 Splines ............................................................................................................................................... 237 Spline Object ................................................................................
Target Light................................................................................................................................... 346 Sun Light....................................................................................................................................... 347 Sun tag .................................................................................................................................... 348 Making gels ..........................................................
Sky Object..................................................................................................................................... 430 Environment Object...................................................................................................................... 431 Foreground Object, Background Object....................................................................................... 433 Stage Object ..................................................................................
Texture Axis ....................................................................................................................................... 476 Inverse Kinematics ............................................................................................................................. 477 Multi-target kinematics ..................................................................................................................... 478 Animation.......................................................
Set First Point.................................................................................................................................517 Reverse Sequence ..........................................................................................................................517 Move Down Sequence, Move Up Sequence ..................................................................................517 Chamfer ..........................................................................................
Current State To Object ..................................................................................................................... 581 Duplicate ........................................................................................................................................... 582 Measure & Construction.................................................................................................................... 583 Transfer.............................................................
Batch Rendering ................................................................................................................................ 621 Make Preview..................................................................................................................................... 621 Render Settings ................................................................................................................................. 622 New Render Settings ...........................................
16 Coordinate Manager ....................................................................................689 17 Object Manager ...........................................................................................693 File Menu ........................................................................................................................................... 696 CINEMA 4D tags ........................................................................................................................
Bake Particles ................................................................................................................................ 728 Tags Menu ......................................................................................................................................... 730 Edit Tag ......................................................................................................................................... 730 Copy Tag To Children ........................................
The Material Editor ............................................................................................................................ 745 Material Preview ...................................................................................................................... 746 Color chooser........................................................................................................................... 748 Texture settings .................................................................
Brick ......................................................................................................................................... 827 Checkerboard .......................................................................................................................... 828 Cloud ....................................................................................................................................... 828 Cyclone ......................................................................
19 Timeline ........................................................................................................887 Animation Toolbar ............................................................................................................................. 888 Commands.................................................................................................................................... 888 Options ...........................................................................................
Close ............................................................................................................................................. 929 Edit Menu .......................................................................................................................................... 930 Undo ............................................................................................................................................. 930 Redo....................................................
Connect ........................................................................................................................................ 940 Divide............................................................................................................................................ 940 Markers From Selection ................................................................................................................ 940 Move/Scale .............................................................
Cycle ............................................................................................................................................. 957 Cycle With Offset.......................................................................................................................... 958 Bake Curve .................................................................................................................................... 958 Simplify Curve......................................................
New XGroup ............................................................................................................................ 988 New Node ................................................................................................................................ 988 Unpack XGroup........................................................................................................................ 989 Convert To XGroup ..........................................................................
Result, Spy ..............................................................................................................................1014 Sound .....................................................................................................................................1014 Spline ......................................................................................................................................1015 Time ..........................................................................
Order...................................................................................................................................... 1036 Iterator........................................................................................................................................ 1037 Hierarchy................................................................................................................................ 1037 Iteration ................................................................
Multi-Layer Display ..................................................................................................................... 1059 Image.......................................................................................................................................... 1059 Alpha ......................................................................................................................................... 1059 Components Menu .......................................................
1 Getting to Know
GETTING TO KNOW CINEMA 4D • 3 1 Getting to Know CINEMA 4D Important notes OpenGL CINEMA 4D starts in OpenGL mode. If you experience OpenGL problems, quit CINEMA 4D and restart CINEMA 4D with the Shift key held down until the splash screen shown below has closed. Hold down Shift while CINEMA 4D starts to activate software shading mode. CINEMA 4D will then start in software shading mode. Once the program has loaded, experiment with the OpenGL options in the preferences.
4 • CHAPTER 1 What’s new in R9 If you’ve used a previous version of CINEMA 4D, you’re no doubt itching to know what’s new. In these pages you’ll find a brief description of some of the key new features in R9. To find out more about a particular feature, look it up in the index or in the relevant chapter. Modeling N-gons support Without n-gons (left) and with n-gons (right). CINEMA 4D now supports n-gons. N-gons help to keep the mesh clean and easier and faster to work with.
GETTING TO KNOW CINEMA 4D • 5 Brush tool Paint detail, smoothness and much more directly onto your models. Improved Knife tool Optimized for R9’s n-gons, you can now make cleaner cuts. Stitch & Sew This new tool makes it easy to close holes between objects. Melt Great for simplifying needlessly complicated parts of your model, this fabulous tool will melt multiple polygons into a single n-gon. Background pictures Background pictures will now come in at the right width to height ratio.
6 • CHAPTER 1 Layout As requested by many users, the interface is slightly darker than before. This ensures the editor window takes centre stage and you’re not distracted by the rest of the interface. Drag and drop We’ve added yet more drag and drop functionality. You can now drag and drop names into boxes. For example, you can drag and drop a Polygon Selection tag into the Selection box of a Texture tag to restrict the texture to that selection. Previously, you had to type the name in.
GETTING TO KNOW CINEMA 4D • 7 Rendering Ray Depth The maximum Ray Depth value (render settings > Options) has been increased from 50 to 500. This is ideal for anyone rendering scenes containing complicated reflections, transparencies or alpha maps where a value of 50 wouldn’t be high enough. Intelligent cached Shadow Maps Shadow maps are cached when you render the first time and are reused for subsequent renders to speed up render times.
8 • CHAPTER 1 Starting CINEMA 4D To start CINEMA 4D, do one of the following: - Double-click on the program icon. - Double-click on a scene file. - Use the Start menu (Windows). Alternatively, drag-and-drop one or more CINEMA 4D files from Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac OS) onto the CINEMA 4D application icon or directly into the program. Template.c4d If the CINEMA 4D root folder contains a scene named ‘Template.c4d’, this is loaded during startup and all the settings defined there become effective.
GETTING TO KNOW CINEMA 4D • 9 Hotkeys 1 to 7 To use a hotkey, hold down the key and drag the mouse.
10 • CHAPTER 1 The user interface The CINEMA 4D user interface has many features you won't find in the Windows or Mac OS GUI: - You can dock all windows into the main window. - When you move a docked window, the surrounding windows are resized automatically.. - You can display windows as tabs to save display space. The CINEMA 4D GUI is freely configurable. You can create your own icon palettes (including folded icons) and edit the menus. You can define various layouts and switch between them freely.
GETTING TO KNOW CINEMA 4D • 11 Example modeling layout. Example texturing layout. Example animation layout. The fastest way to switch layouts is to click the topmost icon of the left tools palette. Choose the desired layout from the list of freely configurable layouts and menus that appears. You can add your own layouts to this list. To switch to one of the other preset layouts, click the topmost icon in the lefthand toolbar and choose the desired layout from the list.
12 • CHAPTER 1 A quick tour This section guides you through the GUI as it appears when you first start CINEMA 4D. Managers Managers are the main program elements in CINEMA 4D. Each manager has its own window and runs alongside the other managers. This means that each manager can operate independently, so that it is multi-threaded. This makes it possible — among other things — to render an animation in the Picture viewer while you work in the view panel.
GETTING TO KNOW CINEMA 4D • 13 If there is not enough space to display the full menu bar, a black triangle is shown. Click the triangle to reveal the remaining menu entries. Icon palettes The default layout has two icon palettes (aka toolbars) containing the most popular commands as icons. Some of the icons have a small black triangle, indicating a folded group of commands. To access the group of commands, click and hold the left mouse button.
14 • CHAPTER 1 - Rotate the mouse wheel in a text box to increase or decrease the value. In addition, you can enter math operators into text boxes. See the appendices. View panel The View panel is a collection of up to four viewports and is the heart of the program. This is where you build and animate your 3D models. Object manager The Object manager contains all your scene’s elements (objects). You can group objects hierarchically.
GETTING TO KNOW CINEMA 4D • 15 Snap settings Many types of snapping are available. For example, you can snap to the grid or snap to other elements. Attribute manager The Attribute manager gives you access to all properties of the selected objects, materials, shaders, tags, nodes, sequences, keys and tool options. See Chapter 21, ‘Attribute Manager’.
2 Views and Viewports
VIEWS AND VIEWPORTS • 19 2 Views and Viewports You can open as many view panels as you like. Each view panel has its own display settings. A view panel can display up to four viewports (views of a scene), each with its own display settings. Viewport icons When you orbit the camera, it usually rotates around the selected object’s origin; however, if you hold down Ctrl at the same time while you orbit the camera, the camera will rotate around its own origin instead.
20 • CHAPTER 2 Edit Menu Undo View / Redo View Each viewport has its own Undo View/Redo View functions (the Undo/Redo functions of the main window do not affect editor cameras, i.e. those in viewports). The short-cut for Undo View is Ctrl+Shift+Z. For Redo View, use Ctrl+Shift+Y. Film Move, Film Magnify, Film Zoom The arrows point in exactly the same directions before (left) and after (right) using the Film Move and Film Zoom commands.
VIEWS AND VIEWPORTS • 21 Frame commands Hold down the Shift key when using the following short-cuts to zoom all views instead of the active view only: Frame Selected Elements (“S”), Frame Active Objects (“O”) and Frame Scene Without Camera/Light (“H”). Frame Selected Elements The camera will move so that the selected elements (e.g. objects, polygons) fill the viewport and are centered. Frame Active Objects The camera will move so that the active objects fill the viewport and are centered.
22 • CHAPTER 2 Configure, Configure All The following conventions apply when using the viewport settings: - All options and parameters in bold are saved globally; they apply to all views and will be used each time you restart CINEMA 4D, create a new scene or open a file. - All other options and parameters are saved in the scene file. - Local options and local parameters affect the active view or selected views only.
VIEWS AND VIEWPORTS • 23 Display tab These settings mostly control how active and inactive objects will be displayed in the viewport. Title Here you can change the view’s name. This is the name displayed in the viewport provided Projection is enabled on the HUD tab in the viewport settings. Active Object Shading, Wire These settings define the display mode used for active objects.
24 • CHAPTER 2 Selected Only Disable this option to display all normals of the selected objects. Animation Path Enable this option to display the active object’s animation path as a yellow curve in the viewport. Edit the animation path as you would a spline, i.e. drag curve points to new positions. The tangents cannot be edited. Editing the animation path in this way allows you to adjust it without having to edit the keys. X-Ray To enter X-Ray mode, enable this option.
VIEWS AND VIEWPORTS • 25 Isoline Editing Isoline Editing enabled (top) and disabled (bottom). If this option is enabled, all the elements of the HyperNURBS cage object — i.e. its points, edges and polygons — will be projected onto the smoothed HyperNURBS object. This allows you to select these elements directly on the smoothed object.
26 • CHAPTER 2 Edge Points If you want object points to be displayed while you are working in edge mode, enable this option. Shaded Axis This option controls whether the object’s axis handles are shaded. Active Axis Stems If you want the object axis stems to have the same functionality as the object axis handles, enable this option. You can then, say, move an object along its Z-axis by dragging the Z-axis stem instead of having to drag the axis handle.
VIEWS AND VIEWPORTS • 27 Filter tab Almost any type of element that can be displayed in the viewport can be switched on or off here on the Filter tab. The options are self-explanatory except for the following: N-gon Lines N-Gon Lines disabled (left) and enabled (right). Each n-gon will be internally triangulated for rendering or animation. You can display these triangles in the viewport by enabling this option.
28 • CHAPTER 2 Scene This refers to scene objects such as the Floor object and Sky object. View tab Projection You can use this setting to change the projection type (e.g. to Perspective, Bird, Dimetric). Linked Camera This box does the same job as the viewport’s Cameras > Scene Cameras submenu — in other words, it allows you to choose which camera the viewport is linked to. Drag and drop the desired camera from the Object manager into this box.
VIEWS AND VIEWPORTS • 29 Safe Frames Render Safe Action Safe Safe frames are areas that will be in full view when played back on the target medium. Render Safe If this option is enabled, the boundaries of the film format are shown in the viewport. The aspect ratio of the film format is determined by the renderer. Title Safe, Size If this option is enabled, a frame is shown in the 3D viewport. To change the size of the frame, enter a new percentage value into the Size box.
30 • CHAPTER 2 Scale Axes With Object, Axes Scale If Scale Axes With Object is enabled, when you scale an object with the Object tool, the axes displayed in the viewport will also be scaled. Large or small axes can make it difficult to perform quick actions (move, scale, rotate) by dragging a particular axis. If the option is disabled, the object axes will stay the same size when the object is scaled. You can manually adjust the scale of the axes using the Axes Scale value.
VIEWS AND VIEWPORTS • 31 Editor Axis Position, Editor Axis Type, Editor Axis Scale, Editor Axis Text By default a small axis system is displayed in the bottom left of each view. Editor Axis Position defines whether — and if so, where — the editor axis system is displayed. Editor Axis Type defines which axis system is displayed: object or world. This axis system is especially useful for indicating the editor camera’s orientation when the world grid is switched off.
32 • CHAPTER 2 Rotation (OpenGL only) This parameter allows you to rotate the background picture. Transparency (OpenGL only) Defines the transparency of the background picture. Alpha Mode (OpenGL only) If the background picture has an alpha channel you can use this setting to specify how the alpha channel should be evaluated. None The alpha channel is ignored. Normal Uses the alpha channel to mask (i.e. hide) parts of the picture.
VIEWS AND VIEWPORTS • 33 Dynamic Grid If the Grid Spacing of the world grid is too large in relation to the object, this can result in jumps when moving it or its elements. In such cases use a lower Grid Spacing value. With this option you always get an optimal grid width on the screen, independently of the chosen grid spacing. This applies to the 2D viewports only. Use the drop-down list to choose the factors for the dynamic grid.
34 • CHAPTER 2 Cameras Menu Each viewport has its own independent camera, called the editor camera. The editor camera is active by default, but you can create and activate your own cameras. Unlike the editor camera, your own cameras are shown as objects in the Object manager. Scene Cameras To link a camera in the scene to the view so that the view ‘looks though’ this camera, choose the desired camera from this submenu.
VIEWS AND VIEWPORTS • 35 Left: The YZ view. Right: The ZY view. Front: The XY view. Back: The YX view. Top: The XZ view. Bottom: The ZX view. Military: X:Y:Z = 1:1:1. Frog: X:Y:Z = 1:2:1. Bird: X:Y:Z = 1:0.5:1. Gentleman: X:Y:Z = 1:1:0.5. This is a popular choice for architecture. Isometric. A popular choice for technical subjects (e.g. machinery). The X:Y:Z format is 1:1:1. Dimetric. Similar to Isometric, but with an X:Y:Z format of 1: 1:0.5.
36 • CHAPTER 2 Display Menu On this meny you’ll find display-related options such as the shading mode. To switch on realtime antialiasing, enable the Antialiased Lines option on the OpenGL Shading page of the preferences. Level Of Detail Choose from Low, Medium or High. The setting affects the level of detail (LOD) shown for objects that support LOD. The lower the setting, the faster the display.
VIEWS AND VIEWPORTS • 37 Display Filter To enable one option and disable all others, hold down Ctrl and from the menu choose the option that you want to enable. Use this menu to choose which types of objects are displayed in the viewports; by default, all types are enabled and therefore displayed. To hide, say, all splines in the viewport, choose Spline from the menu. To display splines again, choose Spline once more.
38 • CHAPTER 2 If your scene contains lights, the default light will be ignored when you render. Each viewport has its own independent default light. The default light settings are saved in the scene file. To use the lights in your scene once more instead of the default light, switch the display mode back to Gouraud Shading. The default light is in fact made up of two light sources that are opposite each other. This ensures that the entire scene, not just half, is illuminated.
VIEWS AND VIEWPORTS • 39 Gouraud Shading (Lines) In this mode you can add wireframes or isoparms to the Gouraud shading by choosing Wireframe or Isoparms from the Display menu. Quick Shading This is almost identical to Gouraud Shading. The difference is that the auto light is used instead of the scene’s lights to calculate the shading. This can lead to a faster redraw rate.
40 • CHAPTER 2 Wireframe The wireframe mode draws lines on the objects if combined with a mode that allows this such as Gouraud Shading (Lines). Isoparms This mode displays isoparm lines for objects that use them such as NURBS objects. Other objects such as polygon objects will be displayed in wireframe. This mode will only have an effect if used in combination with a mode that supports it such as Gouraud Shading (Lines). Box This mode displays each object as a box.
VIEWS AND VIEWPORTS • 41 Figure 1. Figure 2. By convention, the normals should point outwards from their surfaces, as in Figure 1. Objects with normals that point inwards may cause display errors. To remedy, reverse the normals, as illustrated in Figure 2, using the Reverse Normals command (Functions menu). The following picture demonstrates how backface culling applied to a sphere. Backface Culling disabled (left) and enabled (right).
42 • CHAPTER 2 Use Textures enabled in the Display tag (Attribute manager). Keep in mind that RTTM is only an approximation of the rendered result. RTTM may differ significantly, especially with large objects that extend towards the horizon. RTTM supports multiple textures. In other words, if you map several textures onto an object, all of these textures are shown in the viewport in realtime. This applies to textures restricted to frozen selections also.
VIEWS AND VIEWPORTS • 43 View Menu Each view panel can have up to four viewports. Each of these viewports may have its own: - camera projection type display mode Panels You can choose a single-view mode or all-views mode.
3 Configuration
CONFIGURATION • 47 3 Configuration CINEMA 4D has hundreds of commands and a freely configurable GUI. This means that there are many settings also. To keep CINEMA 4D easy to use, the settings have been placed in various, relevant parts of the program. This chapter shows you where to find these settings and how to use them. Configuration dialogs Preferences These settings control the general behavior of CINEMA 4D. For example, you can change the background color used by viewports.
48 • CHAPTER 3 Browser settings Here you can control the display of thumbnails in the Browser such as the size of the thumbnails and the file formats shown. To access the browser settings, choose Edit > Preferences from the Browser’s menu. The browser’s settings are saved when you save the scene. Snap settings These settings control the behavior of snapping. The snap settings are available for various tools and will appear in the Attribute manager when one of these tools is selected.
CONFIGURATION • 49 Graphical User Interface In this section you’ll learn how to configure the CINEMA 4D GUI. Among other things, you can tab windows, create your own icon palettes and change the menu structure. Windows Arranging You can load a previously saved layout or revert to the default layout at any time using the Window > Layout submenu. To change the position of a window, drag the window’s pin icon to the new position. A dark line will appear while you drag to indicate the new position.
50 • CHAPTER 3 Re-sizing Before moving the window’s edge. After moving the window’s edge. To change a window’s width or height, first move the mouse pointer to a window border; the mouse pointer changes to a double arrow to indicate the direction — vertical or horizontal — in which you can drag the border. Drag the border to re-size. The neighboring windows are re-sized automatically to make room. Undocking You can insert a window or a icon palette into an undocked window to form a new GUI group.
CONFIGURATION • 51 Docking New windows are undocked by default. To dock a window, drag its pin icon to the docking position. A dark line will appear while you drag to indicate where the window will be inserted. To test the docking feature, first add a new view panel by choosing Main menu: Window > New View Panel.
52 • CHAPTER 3 Tabs When you drop a pin onto another pin, both become tabs, even if the target was not a tab. You can display a window or icon palette as a tab. To create the tab, click the pin icon and choose Make Tab. To move a tab from one group to another, drag the tab’s pin onto a tab or pin in the target group. The mouse pointer changes to a hand to indicate where the tab will be inserted. Insertion is possible when the pointer changes to a hand.
CONFIGURATION • 53 Icon Palettes An undocked palette is a window in its own right. For example, it can contain several icon palettes and windows. This is especially useful if you are using more than one monitor. Icon palettes, also known as toolbars, may contain any command that can be selected from a menu. Commands in palettes can be displayed as icons, text or as icons and text. Icon palettes help you to reach important commands quickly.
54 • CHAPTER 3 - Right-click (WIndows) or Command-click (Mac OS) an existing icon palette to open the icon palette’s context menu. From this menu, choose New Icon Palette. Commands can only be added when the Edit Palettes option is enabled. You can add commands to the palette in two ways: drag commands from an existing palette into the new palette, or drag commands from the Command manager into the new palette.
CONFIGURATION • 55 Loading an icon palette Use the Load Toolbar command to load a previously saved icon palette. The toolbar appears as a freestanding window that can be integrated into the layout. Vertical or horizontal? Choose Transpose to toggle between vertical and horizontal alignment of commands. Rows and columns The value you select for Rows/Columns defines the number of rows or columns used for a palette.
56 • CHAPTER 3 Next, disable the Edit Palettes option. Click and hold down the mouse button on the visible command. The folded palette appears. Either release the mouse button and select the desired command or position the mouse pointer over the desired command before you release the mouse button. Note that the visible command is also a hidden command. If the Lock Icon command of the context menu is disabled, the visible command will be the most recently selected command.
CONFIGURATION • 57 The Command Manager The Command manager lists all of the commands that are available in CINEMA 4D. Use this manager to drag and drop commands onto custom palettes or submenus. You can also use the Command manager to define short-cuts. Inserting commands into palettes Enable the Edit Palettes option and drag-and-drop commands onto the palette. A dark line indicates where a command will be inserted.
58 • CHAPTER 3 To create a short-cut: - In the Command manager, click a command in the list to choose it. - Click in the Assign text box and press the desired short-cut. - Click the green tick to the right of the text box. The short-cut appears in the Current box. To remove the short-cut, click the red cross. Valid short-cuts are: a single key Ctrl + a key Shift + a key Ctrl and Shift + a key The short-cuts are saved in the “c4d_shortcuts.res” file within CINEMA 4D’s “Prefs” folder.
CONFIGURATION • 59 Assigning a short-cut hierarchy (main) and calling the short-cut (inset). Click in the second Assign box and press two or more keys one after the other. A tilde (‘~’) will be placed between the keys. Click the green tick.
60 • CHAPTER 3 The Menu Manager Use the Menu manager to edit submenus and drop-down lists. You can also add new submenus. The Menu manager and the Command manager enable you to configure CINEMA 4D’s interface freely to the way you like to work. The menus CINEMA 4D has more than a dozen menus. Use the drop-down list at the top of the manager to choose which menu is shown in the list. Submenus are prefixed with Submenu. To open or close a submenu, double-click it.
CONFIGURATION • 61 Inserting commands The Command manager lists CINEMA 4D’s commands. Drag-and-drop commands from the Command manager into the Menu manager. The mouse pointer will indicate the insertion mode. Copy, Paste, Delete/Cut Use these commands to copy, paste, cut or delete the selected command. Standard submenu items cannot be deleted. Rename This command allows you to rename your submenus.
62 • CHAPTER 3 To reset the menus to the factory settings, delete the “Prefs” folder within the CINEMA 4D program folder. Caution! This will also delete any keyboard shortcuts and menus you have defined. The quick access The quick access gives you a fast way to access menus. Be default you can call the quick access by pressing the ‘v’ key. You’ll see several groups of commands appear.
CONFIGURATION • 63 The Pin’s Menu Each manager has a pin that you can click to open a menu. Earlier we explained how to use the pin to arrange managers. The remaining commands on this menu are described below except for those described previously in this chapter. Undock Removes the current manager from the main window. The manager becomes a freestanding window that floats above the main window. Undock a tab to convert a manager to a floating window. Rename Renames a window or tab.
64 • CHAPTER 3 Preferences To reset the preferences to the factory settings, delete the file named ‘CINEMA 4D.prf’ in CINEMA 4D’s Prefs folder. The next time you start CINEMA 4D, the factory settings will be used and a new ‘CINEMA 4D.prf’ file will be created with these factory settings. In the preferences you’ll find settings that enable you to change the editor’s appearance and influence the operation of commands. To open this dialog, choose Edit > Preferences.
CONFIGURATION • 65 Use QuickTime QuickTime may crash if you use damaged image files; this is not due to CINEMA 4D and hence we offer the option to disable QuickTime. If you enable this option, CINEMA 4D uses QuickTime if it is installed on your system. Additional file formats will then be available. If the option is disabled, the Browser will work slightly more quickly because it then has fewer file formats to check.
66 • CHAPTER 3 Render Threads Use this drop-down list to set the number of render threads (the number of render lines in the viewport or Picture Viewer). On single-processor systems, there is little point in using several threads because this may reduce render performance and the threads may be assigned different portions of render time (unequal distribution in the viewport).
CONFIGURATION • 67 Interface Dialogs Use Style to control the order of the OK and Cancel buttons in dialogs. Windows uses OK on the left and Cancel on the right, while the reverse is true under Mac OS. Use Alignment to choose the alignment of the OK and Cancel buttons: left-aligned, centered or right-aligned. Help Text If the Help Text In Statusbar option is enabled, hover the mouse pointer over an icon an explanation of that icon will appear in the status bar at the bottom of the screen.
68 • CHAPTER 3 Delays If you are a Windows user you may have noticed that windows and menus open much faster in CINEMA 4D than on your desktop. You can use the options under Delays to simulate this delayed reaction for various actions within CINEMA 4D. Choose the action from the drop-down list. Set the delay for this action in the text box to the right. Colors Using the settings on this page, you can change the color of nearly all GUI elements in CINEMA 4D.
CONFIGURATION • 69 Viewport Options CINEMA 4D shades (i.e. draws) the objects in the viewport using one of two modes: Software Shading or OpenGL Shading (you’ll find options for these two modes on the Software Shading and OpenGL Shading pages). In Software Shading mode CINEMA 4D uses its own fast, optimized viewport shading engine. In OpenGL mode your graphics card’s OpenGL feature accelerates viewport shading (provided your card supports OpenGL). Which mode is fastest depends on your hardware setup.
70 • CHAPTER 3 The default value is 600 milliseconds. To prevent a less detailed display mode from being used, set Redraw Limit to a very high value such as 10000 milliseconds. Editor : Pixel These values specify the ratio of a pixel’s on-screen width to its on-screen height. The pixel ratio for most monitors is 1:1. However, some display media use a pixel ratio other than 1:1. This will lead to distortion unless the pixel ratio is adjusted accordingly. For example, circles will appear to be ellipses.
CONFIGURATION • 71 Textures Use Textures You can work more smoothly in the viewports if you disable this option. This option defines whether textures can be displayed in the viewport. This setting is applied globally, i.e. it affects all viewports. You can define this option separately for each viewport using the viewport settings, which apply to the active viewport only. Texture Interpolation Texture Interpolation set to Nearest (top right) and Linear (bottom right).
72 • CHAPTER 3 Up to three internal planes are created depending on which of the two options are enabled: Both options disabled Uses a single plane that should work with any graphics card. Active Object Plane enabled, Highlight Plane disabled Two planes are created. The second plane is used exclusively to redraw the highlighting. Both options enabled Three planes are created. The active objects are drawn on the second plane; the highlighting is drawn on the third plane.
CONFIGURATION • 73 Use Line Polygons Enable this option for faster wireframe display. It affects wireframe display only. Use OGL Points For Handles Enable this option for faster display of object points (the points that are displayed when you select the Points tool). Some graphics cards do not support this feature. Antialiased Lines If this option is enabled, lines are smoothed (antialiased) by the OpenGL implementation provided the mode is supported.
74 • CHAPTER 3 Software Shading Textures Use Textures You can work more smoothly in the viewports if you disable this option. This option defines whether textures can be displayed in the viewport. The setting is applied globally, i.e. it affects all viewports. You can define this option separately for each viewport using the viewport settings, which apply to the active viewport only.
CONFIGURATION • 75 Colors Use this page to define the colors used in the viewports. Select the element whose color you want to change from the list and pick the new color using the sliders or system color dialog. You’ll see either three color sliders or a color table depending on the Color System setting on the Units page. The color preview is displayed to the left of the sliders. If you click on this color box, the system color dialog will open.
76 • CHAPTER 3 Document Save RTTM Textures If you have enabled realtime texture mapping (Textures enabled in the viewport settings), small temporary textures will be created so that you can see textures in the viewports. These textures take a noticeable time to create and they must be calculated each time you load the scene. To speed up the loading process, enable Save RTTM Textures. The RTTM textures will then be saved in the scene file.
CONFIGURATION • 77 Import/Export About the Maximum Size value Some export filters allow you to control the size of the textures that are exported by setting a Maximum Size value. The value defines the maximum length of each texture’s longest side; the shorter side will be scaled automatically to constrain the proportions. 3D Studio Import / Export Scale This option is for import and export. Determines whether and by how much 3DS files are scaled when they are loaded or saved.
78 • CHAPTER 3 To combine the bones with the 3D model, first move, scale and rotate the model to fit the bones. This is much simpler than the reverse, i.e. adapting the bones to fit the model, due to the bones’ keyframes. Now place the bones and model in the same hierarchy, and the bones then control the model. As mentioned previously, you may experience difficulties when using many keyframes. In this case, reduce the number of keyframes. For details, see Chapter 19, ‘Timeline’.
CONFIGURATION • 79 DXF Import CINEMA 4D can correctly interpret the following elements: SOLID, 3D FACE, LINE, POLYLINE, CIRCLE, ARC, POINT and TRACE. All three-dimensional data is read in accurately. All documented POLYLINE combinations as well as height and elevation data are supported. The same is true of element coordinate systems, layer names and various line thicknesses. Scale Determines whether and by how much DXF files are scaled when they are loaded.
80 • CHAPTER 3 Triangulate Polygons DXF files may contain three-dimensional polygons. CINEMA 4D can triangulate these if this option is enabled. This means that the inscribed surface is generated as a 3D object. This is useful in most cases and therefore is the default setting. Unless the option is disabled, polygon lines are converted, which is useful for further processing in CINEMA 4D.
CONFIGURATION • 81 If you enable this option, all texture filename extensions of scene materials are automatically changed when they are exported (so that ‘image.jpg’ becomes ‘image.ppm’). This has the benefit that you don’t have to check if renaming is required for each material and attribute. Save Normals If this option is enabled, normal vectors are created for all surfaces. If not, the calculation of the normals is left to Direct3D. Generate Mesh Direct3D works with two types of models: Frame and Mesh.
82 • CHAPTER 3 FBX Import / Export Kaydara’s FBX file format (www.kaydara.com) is supported by most major 3D applications, including of course Kaydara’s MOTIONBUILDER software. FBX files are capable of storing not only geometry but also texture data and animation data including PLA. FBX Import Settings CINEMA 4D’s FBX import filter supports the main settings. If you import an FBX file that contains multiple takes, a dialog will appear allowing you to select which take to load.
CONFIGURATION • 83 Meshes, nurbs, patches FBX geometry objects will be triangulated and converted to polygon objects. PLA data will also be imported if present. Cameras Cameras are supported including the roll channel and FOV. The cameras will be imported as child objects of a Null object, thus allowing camera roll to be animated. Camera switchers will be converted to Stage objects with a corresponding animation track.
84 • CHAPTER 3 Lights FBX supports the following types of lights: omni, round spot and directional. Directional lights will be imported as parallel lights to ensure 3ds max files are imported correctly. The ambient and fog color will be converted to an Environment object to allow correct import into MOTIONBUILDER should you export the scene back to FBX later on. Materials and textures Materials will be imported and converted to the corresponding CINEMA 4D channels.
CONFIGURATION • 85 Bones and relative rest pose FBX files that were saved using an older version of MOTIONBUILDER contain so-called relative rest poses for the bones. This means that no specific rest pose can be generated in this format (which is why MOTIONBUILDER cannot convert these files; bones saved in earlier versions than MOTIONBUILDER 3.2 will be maintained in this format). In this case, the importer will try to generate a possible rest pose based on the animation data of mesh and bones.
86 • CHAPTER 3 - Open a Navigator window. - Expand the character’s tree. - Double-click on the Gaulix character. - On the Character Settings tab, do the following: - Disable the Active option to disable the character constraint. - If necessary, enable the Active option again. - Save your corrected scene. “This will update the TRS values of the nodes of Gaulix with the ones in the character constraint. The problem we have here was present only in the samples of MOTIONBUILDER 4.0.
CONFIGURATION • 87 So with 10%, rotation and scale keys that deviate by less that 0.0001 are considered to be identical. The threshold values for translation keys are one hundred times greater than those for rotation and scale. Start At Frame Zero If this option is enabled, the imported animation will start at frame 0 instead of at the frame defined in the file (which could be, say, frame 456). FBX Export Settings Coordinate system CINEMA 4D uses the left-handed coordinate system.
88 • CHAPTER 3 Lights Omni, round spot and parallel are converted directly. Options such as falloff cannot be converted. Other types of light are converted as follows: CINEMA 4D light source FBX conversion Spot (Square) Spot (Round) Parallel Spot (Round) Spot (Round) Parallel Spot (Square) Spot (Round) Distant Directional Tube, Area Omni Null objects added as parents to lights on import will be removed automatically on export.
CONFIGURATION • 89 Additional options Export As Text File If this option is enabled, the FBX file will be saved as ASCII text. This makes it easier, for example, for games developers to import animation into games engines. Key filters for translation, rotation and scale These parameters have the same functions as previously described for FBX import.
90 • CHAPTER 3 LightWave Import When opening a LightWave file, not only is the object geometry imported but also the rest of the scene including the camera’s focal length (especially useful when used with 3D camera tracking software such as MatchMover or 3D-Equalizer), texture maps, animation sequences and bones information. Additionally, UV coordinates and weight maps of LightWave [6] or higher are imported. Scale Determines whether and by how much LightWave files are scaled when they are loaded.
CONFIGURATION • 91 Monzoom Import This import filter allows you to load objects, materials, textures, light sources and the cameras of a Monzoom/Reflections scene. Scale determines whether and by how much Monzoom files are scaled when they are loaded. The earliest versions of Reflections are not supported. In these cases, load the file into a more recent version of Reflections or Monzoom and save it out as a new file. In Reflections/Monzoom, Phong shading can be assigned to individual polygons.
92 • CHAPTER 3 QuickDraw 3D Import Scale Determines whether and by how much QuickDraw 3D files are scaled when they are loaded. NURBS Subdivision, Sphere Subdivision, Cone/Cylinder Subdivision These settings specify whether and to what extent QuickDraw 3D NURBS, spheres, cones and cylinders are triangulated during loading. STL Import / Export The STL format is mostly used in the field of rapid prototyping to design moulds. The geometry is described as triangles.
CONFIGURATION • 93 Shockwave 3D Export Output Quality Geometry Controls the quality of the exported mesh. Values less than 100% reduce the number of polygons. Generally aim to reduce the number of polygons so that Shockwave can display the objects as quickly as possible. However, we recommend that you leave Geometry set to 100% and instead reduce the number of polygons using CINEMA 4D’s Polygon Reduction tool.
94 • CHAPTER 3 If you want to use alpha or transparency textures, add a Shockwave 3D Double Sided tag to each object that uses these textures. Alternatively, enable the Polygon Front And Back Visible option to make all surfaces double-sided. However, keep in mind that double-sided polygons slow down the display of the objects in Shockwave. For this reason tags are usually the best option.
CONFIGURATION • 95 Animation Export Options Export Animation To export animation, enable this option and set the accuracy of the animation export using Sample Frequency. If you disable Export Animation, the scene is exported at the current frame (i.e. as currently seen in the viewport) and without animation. Sample Frequency Controls the accuracy of animation, defined as the number of keyframe groups per second.
96 • CHAPTER 3 Shockwave 3D limitations Lighting Shockwave 3D is designed for realtime streaming; hence, Shockwave does not support a number of CINEMA 4D’s advanced lighting features.
CONFIGURATION • 97 Director camera Director does not support multiple cameras. Only one camera is available, named ‘defaultView’. If there is no camera in your CINEMA 4D scene named ‘defaultView’, a camera is exported automatically that shows the current view. Camera Animation To export a camera animation for playback in Director, in CINEMA 4D change the camera’s name to ‘defaultView’.
98 • CHAPTER 3 - Shockwave does not support the following material channels: Reflection, Fog, Bump, Glow, Displacement and Illumination. - Shockwave does not support the addition of materials on an object — the right-most material (as seen in the Material manager) is used. However, polygon selections are taken into account, enabling you to allocate multiple textures for the respective selection. UZR Export The UZR export saves a scene generated and animated with CINEMA 4D as a UZR file.
CONFIGURATION • 99 Filter Properties Texture Texture Format Defines the format of the exported texture. Progressive DCT streams the texture data. JPEG includes the texture as a JPEG file. Uncompressed RGB saves the textures as an uncompressed RGB file; you will see maximum texture quality using this format, but the UZR file size will considerably increase. Texture Quality Defines the exported texture’s quality.
100 • CHAPTER 3 Integrating UZR files in HTML When editing the UZR filename, keep in mind that it is case sensitive. Like standard image files, UZR files can be included in HTML web pages. To view the 3D model with a browser, the Java applet file ‘uzrviewer.jar’ must be provided. If you export to UZR, an HTML file is written. This file can be edited manually and the following parts are of special interest.
CONFIGURATION • 101 bgcolor Defines the color of the applet background. Enter any desired color value (e.g. #FFFFFFF for a white or #000000 for a black background). s_cameras Defines the text of the applet’s context menu item that lists the available camera positions. If this parameter is not set, the default value ‘Cameras’ is used. s_lights Defines the text of the applet’s context menu item that lists the available light sources. If this parameter is not set, the default value ‘Lights’ is used.
102 • CHAPTER 3 If camera rotations are enabled (see ‘nocamrt’, above), the camera can be rotated about its center by dragging and about the center of the scene by Shift-dragging. The camera’s zoom can be adjusted by Alt-dragging. You can (de-)activate the existing light sources using the check boxes next to each light source. If all light sources are disabled, the default lighting is displayed. The applet’s context menu The 3D model display can also be controlled from the applet’s context menu.
CONFIGURATION • 103 Textures This menu specifies the action CINEMA 4D is to take when exporting textures. None ignores the textures and saves only color information. Referenced means objects are saved with the paths to the textures. With File saves all textures directly in the VRML file (called inline textures). Any UV coordinates are also saved. Maximum Size RAM-permitting, CINEMA 4D allows you to use any size of texture.
104 • CHAPTER 3 CINEMA 4D is able to display and correctly render the imported objects thanks to these Normal tags. Keep in mind that if you edit the points of such imported objects, the Normal tags will no longer work properly and the mesh may produce shading errors. You can, however, move, scale and rotate the object itself and the tags will still function correctly. If you delete the Normal tag, the standard shading will be used instead.
CONFIGURATION • 105 Maximum Size VRML 2 provides two options for making textures available to their objects. The first option is identical to the one used in CINEMA 4D: a reference to the texture file is saved along with the VRML scene. If you want to go with this option, specify the value 0. The second option integrates the graphics data directly into the VRML 2 file. Since the texture is written uncompressed, in text format, a texture of 1000x1000 pixels quickly reaches a file size of 4MB.
106 • CHAPTER 3 Wavefront Import / Export Factor This specifies whether and to what extent Wavefront files are scaled during import and export. Import Normals See ‘VRML 1 Import.’ Material Preview Here you can customize the material previews that are displayed in the Material editor and Attribute manager. Default Size Defines the size of the preview in the Material editor and Attribute manager.
CONFIGURATION • 107 Texture Paths CINEMA 4D searches for texture files and animation files in the following locations: in the same folder as the scene; in the ‘Tex’ folder within the scene’s folder; in the ‘Tex’ folder within the CINEMA 4D folder. If a texture is not in any of these folders, add the texture’s folder to this dialog. You can specify up to ten paths. Each is searched recursively, i.e. sub-folders are searched too. Type the path name directly into a text box.
108 • CHAPTER 3 Use HPB System You may find this option useful if you are an experienced animator. If this option is disabled, the active object rotates about its local axes or the world axes when you use the mouse. However, when you play back the animation, the object may not rotate as planned. This is because CINEMA 4D records all rotations using the HPB system. If, on the other hand, you enable this option, the active object rotates about the HPB angles when you use the mouse.
CONFIGURATION • 109 Suppose you are working with a frame rate of 25 fps and the frame value is in the range of 0 to 24. If the minutes value is 0, you can omit it when entering SMPTE time codes. For example, 15:14 means 15 seconds and the 15th frame.
110 • CHAPTER 3 Quick Storage, Mixing Panel 1. Quick Storage, 2. Mixing Panel. Quick Storage Enable this option to display a row of color swatches where you can store frequently used colors. To save the active color to the quick storage area, do one of the following: - Drag and drop the active color’s preview onto a swatch in the quick storage row. - Ctrl-click on a swatch in the quick storage area. Mixing Panel Enable this open to display the mixing panel.
CONFIGURATION • 111 The enhanced color table (Color System set to Enhanced Color Table) gives you a quick way to choose colors and adjust their saturation and brightness. Click on the table and drag to adjust the color. The sliders — including those for saturation and brightness — will update in realtime. The preview for the color will also update in realtime. To open the computer system’s color chooser, click the preview.
112 • CHAPTER 3 Typical output devices for color are printers, imagesetters and computer screens. The first two use the subtractive method of color mixing (CMYK) and will not be part of our discussion here. Most important for CINEMA 4D is the additive method of color mixing, which is the one used for representing colors on monitors. CINEMA 4D characterizes all colors using three numerical values. Two different color models are used, which you can easily toggle between.
CONFIGURATION • 113 Figure 3: The colors that can be displayed can be represented in a 3D coordinate system. Figure 4: Less technical than RGB, and better suited to painters and artists, is the HSV system. The color pigments for the screen dots have been selected in such a way that when equal parts are added they result in a white that comes close to what the human eye perceives as a pure white.
114 • CHAPTER 3 XPresso Colors / Gui These two pages give you access to the XPresso editor’s GUI settings. You can configure the XPresso editor freely, from the size of the ports to the colors that are used.
CONFIGURATION • 115 Project Settings These settings apply to the active scene. To access these settings, choose Edit > Project Settings from the main menu or Edit > Project Settings from the Timeline’s menu. Frame Rate You can also set a frame rate in the render settings. However, the frame rate in the render settings is not used to recalculate the animation data. If the two frame rates differ, frames may be dropped or duplicated in the animation, leading to a reduction in animation quality.
4 Workflow
WORKFLOW • 119 4 Workflow There are many features in CINEMA 4D that help you to work more quickly, i.e. improve your workflow. These include: - To move, zoom or rotate a camera, use the icons at the top right of the viewport (drag the desired icon). The fourth, right-most icon toggles the active view panel between single-view and all-views. - Define shortcuts for the commands you use the most. Also, create an icon palette and populate it with the commands.
120 • CHAPTER 4 Asynchronous access to parameters Almost all parameters for objects, tags, structure tools, materials and shaders can be accessed and edited interactively using the Attribute manager (see Chapter 21, ‘Attribute Manager’). The parameters of objects can be adjusted interactively with the mouse, i.e. with visual feedback in the viewport. Drag an arrowhead up or down to adjust its parameter. You’ll see the change take place in the viewport in realtime.
WORKFLOW • 121 When you drag a material onto objects that overlap in the viewport, you can then choose which object receives the material. Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) the material from the Material manager onto the object in the viewport. A selection window opens containing a list of the objects hit by the selection ray. Choose an object from this list to assign it to the material. Smartpointer Referencing takes place using a smartpointer.
122 • CHAPTER 4 Using the Attribute manager together with multiple selection, you are able to set the selected objects all to the same values. For example, you can: - Hide all selected objects. - Set all selected objects to the same position. - Move all selected objects by the same distance. - Rotate all selected objects about their individual axis systems. - Rotate all selected objects about a shared axis.
WORKFLOW • 123 Working with Layouts CINEMA 4D windows, commands and palettes can be arranged in countless ways, as explained in the previous chapter. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to work with layouts and how to configure the Browser. We’ll begin with layouts. Changing the layout enables you to configure the layout to the way you like to work. For example, you can choose where toolbars should be placed and whether the Picture viewer should be open and tabbed.
124 • CHAPTER 4 The Browser The Browser is a powerful tool for managing your 3D projects. With it you can create thumbnails for all your digital assets — be they textures, 3D models, movies, scene files etc. — and save them as catalog files. Using these catalog files, you can quickly locate and use your assets the next time you need them. For example, suppose that sometime last year you created a catalog file with thumbnails of 3D office furniture.
WORKFLOW • 125 The Browser will recognize a movie file only if the corresponding codec is installed on your system. Creating a catalog To create a catalog file: - In the Browser, choose File > Import Directory. Use the system dialog that opens to choose the folder that contains the files you want to put in the catalog. If you need a folder to practice with, use the ‘Tex’ folder within the CINEMA 4D folder. CINEMA 4D automatically generates thumbnails for the files.
126 • CHAPTER 4 - Right-clicking (Windows) or Command-clicking (Mac OS) on a preview picture will open a context menu from which you can access information about the selected thumbnail and this allows you to use the Search dialog.
WORKFLOW • 127 File Menu New Catalog Creates a new, empty catalog. Any existing catalog in the Browser will be replaced with the new one. Open Catalog Loads a previously saved catalog into the Browser. Import File Loads and adds a file (scene, picture, material...) to the current catalog. A preview picture is generated. Import Directory Loads and adds the contents of a folder to the current catalog. Depending on the Browser’s preferences, sub-folders are either searched or ignored.
128 • CHAPTER 4 The solution to this is to use relative paths. This option ensures that paths are not stored as complete path names but instead as relative paths, starting from the catalog folder. Here, the location path of files is still used but you are free to define where the system is to begin its search. This anchor folder can be anywhere on a hard disk or CD-ROM. But, starting from that anchor folder and moving down, the same path hierarchy as that of the catalog folder must exist.
WORKFLOW • 129 This is how the structure could look. We have created and filled the folders with the relevant contents. As we are just concerned with browsing from here, only the three folders Mat, Obj, and Tex are of interest to us. Or have we forgotten an important folder? Of course ... we need to know where the anchor folder is located. Let’s look more closely. The CD will be called C4D Tools. Thus the folder of the same name within the mastering partition forms the anchor.
130 • CHAPTER 4 - Save the catalog with File > Save Catalog. - You are now ready to master the CD. To summarize: If Make Catalog Relative is enabled, then complete paths are no longer saved; instead, only the relative paths are used, starting from the catalog folder. From this location the current catalog folder and its sub-folders are scanned. This method only works if you have named the catalog and assigned the path with the Save Catalog As command (see above) prior to searching the catalog.
WORKFLOW • 131 Edit Menu Delete Removes all selected pictures from the catalog. The originals on the system disk remain unaffected. Select All Selects all preview pictures in the current catalog. Deselect All Deselects all preview pictures in the current catalog. Preferences These options only apply to new thumbnails that you add to the catalog; they do not act as a display filter for existing catalogs. Choose this command to open the browser’s preferences.
132 • CHAPTER 4 QuickTime Recognition If this option is enabled, QuickTime is used to load the files when you create a catalog. This can be useful since QuickTime enables CINEMA 4D to load files it wouldn’t be able to recognize otherwise. However, you might want to disable this option to speed up catalog file creation — with the option disabled, catalogs are created up to 40 times faster. Pictures If this option is enabled, pictures are displayed in the Browser.
WORKFLOW • 133 Function Menu Render All Recalculates all preview pictures that exist in the catalog. This is necessary, for example, if you change the picture size in the preferences or add or change files in the folders. You can cancel the new calculation at any time by pressing the Esc key. Info Opens a window for the selected thumbnail that displays information including the location, picture resolution and color depth. You can also access this command via the context menu.
134 • CHAPTER 4 Search For Scans the name and/or comment fields of the current database of the Browser for the text entered. You can also access this command via the context menu. To open the context menu, right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS). The Browser enables you to scan for filenames and/or comments. Enable the relevant options and enter the text and/or value you wish to search for in the field to the right. All thumbnails that match the find will be outlined in the catalog.
WORKFLOW • 135 Initialization Files CINEMA 4D loads several initialization files during startup. The content of these files is integrated into the layout. template.c4d During startup, CINEMA 4D checks its Prefs folder for a file called ‘template.c4d’. If the file is present, its settings are loaded and used as default values. This can be very effective if you keep using the same scene-specific settings (e.g. several different render settings). new.
136 • CHAPTER 4 Function graphs In these pages, you’ll learn how to use CINEMA 4D’s function graphs. A function graph defines how a value or parameter falls off over a certain distance. There are many places in CINEMA 4D where you can define a custom function graph. For example, you can define a function graph for the Bevel tool and Spline Deformer object. Click on the graph to create each point. The first two points are locked to the right and left edge of the graph respectively.
WORKFLOW • 137 Default Points If you want to use a specific number of points for a standard function such as Square or Cubic, enter the desired number of points into the Default Points box. Then right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) on the graph to open the context menu. From this menu, choose Reset to reset the graph to use the number of Default Points specified, then open the context menu again and choose the desired math function.
138 • CHAPTER 4 The HUD You can record keys directly in the HUD using the circles next to the parameter names. You can drag the Frame element (bottom right) to move forwards or backwards through the animation. The term ‘Head-Up Display’ (HUD) has its origins in aviation. In an aircraft, the HUD refers to the projection of readings onto a windscreen that enables the pilot to see them without looking down.
WORKFLOW • 139 Using the HUD To add object parameters to the HUD: - In the Attribute manager, select the parameters. (To select all the parameters, choose Select All from the context menu). - Right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) one of the selected parameters and choose Add To HUD from the context menu. You can adjust the parameters directly in the HUD. Click-drag a parameter to adjust its value. In the case of parameters that have drop-down menus, click the parameter to open its menu.
140 • CHAPTER 4 Double-click the Frame Time parameter and enter a value to jump directly to another frame. You can change some of the general information parameters directly in the view. To do this, double-click the parameter and enter a new value into the text box that appears.
WORKFLOW • 141 Display Object Displays the object name in front of each parameter. Name Displays the parameter name. Widget Displays a triangle that you can click to open or close parameter groups. In the case of individual sliders, the triangle displays or hides the slider. Frame Displays a frame around the parameter group. Key Displays the circles that allow you to record animation keys for parameters. Slider These options control the look of the slider.
142 • CHAPTER 4 Refresh Choose this command if you notice a discrepancy between the display in the Attribute manager and the display in the HUD. Remove Removes the selected elements from the HUD.
5 File Menu
FILE MENU • 145 5 File Menu To start CINEMA 4D, do one of the following: - Double-click on the program icon. - Double-click on a scene file. - Drag and drop one or more CINEMA 4D files in the Explorer (Windows) or the Finder (Mac OS) onto the CINEMA 4D icon. template.c4d During startup, CINEMA 4D checks its root folder for a file called ‘template.c4d’. If the file is present, its settings are loaded and used as default values.
146 • CHAPTER 5 Recognition of these formats is automatic. Filename extensions (Windows) are superfluous, as are types and creators (Macintosh). You can also use this command to view images or load other settings. Alternatively, you can open a file by dragging it in the Explorer (Windows) or the Finder (Mac OS) onto a viewport. Merge This command lets you add scenes, objects, materials, etc. to the active document. Revert To Saved This command reverts the scene to its most recently saved version.
FILE MENU • 147 Save This command saves your document without first opening the file selector. The scene is saved using the name chosen when you selected the Save As command (i.e. the name that appears in the title bar). If this is the first time you are saving a new document and it does not have a name yet, then the Save command behaves just like Save As. Save As Save As always opens the system file selector. The filename you enter here will be displayed in the document window’s title bar.
148 • CHAPTER 5 Export A scene can also be exported to a foreign file format for subsequent work in other 3D software. The file types described below are available. CINEMA 4D automatically adds the relevant file extension to the file. Each 3D program works differently, therefore it is not always possible to convert all information within a scene. Further, the result will always differ according to the materials and lighting used, so a manual re-working may be necessary.
FILE MENU • 149 STL (STL) Commonly used in the field of rapid prototyping, to create moulds. UZR (UZR) A format suitable for 3D streaming. VRML 1 (WRL) The Virtual Reality Modeling Language enables you to create platform-independent threedimensional representation of objects and scenes for the Internet. It has also proved useful as an exchange format for CAD programs, since it contains more file information than the often-used DXF format.
6 Edit Menu
EDIT MENU • 153 6 Edit Menu The Edit menu contains some of the most frequently used commands in CINEMA 4D such as Undo and Redo; hence, you’ll find these commands on most of the local Edit menus. Besides giving details of these commands, this chapter also explains the significance of the internal buffers and the drawing pipeline. Understanding how these features work will help you to avoid and/or solve various issues.
154 • CHAPTER 6 - Throughout the process, the buffer content itself is not altered — nothing is deleted. This enables you to restore the changes with the Redo command. Use Undo to move backwards through the undo buffer (i.e. the changes) and Redo to advance through the buffer. - Although nothing is deleted from the buffer, the buffer’s size must be prevented from taking up too much memory. This is the purpose of Undo Depth in the preferences — it specifies the maximum number of actions that can be undone.
EDIT MENU • 155 Why does the command ignore selection actions? Suppose you’ve scaled an object and used ten selection actions to select points in various locations. You then decide that the object is too large and want to restore it to its original size. This would require you to call the conventional Undo command 11 times, to undo the 10 selection actions and then finally the scale action. However, if you use Undo (Action), it skips over the selection actions and undoes the scale action immediately.
156 • CHAPTER 6 Copy You can copy and paste objects using drag and drop in the Object manager — Ctrl-drag one of the selected object’s names to a new position in the Object manager. Copies the selected objects or elements (including materials) to the clipboard. The objects can be copied from the clipboard to the active scene with the Paste command. You can paste repeatedly to create additional copies. Paste Inserts the contents of the clipboard (i.e.
EDIT MENU • 157 Selection Select All Selects all objects in the scene. Deselect All Deselects all objects or elements. If the Points tool is active when you invoke Deselect All, all the points of the selected object will be deselected. Similarly, if the Polygon tool or Edge tool is active, all polygons or edges of the selected object will be deselected. Select Children Adds the children of the selected object(s) to the selection.
158 • CHAPTER 6 The order in which actions are processed is what we refer to as the ‘pipeline’ — actions take place one after the other, as though they are flowing through a pipe. Since the whole process determines what is ultimately drawn on the screen, the entire concept is termed ‘the drawing pipeline’. Be aware of the drawing pipeline so that you can predict the outcome of applying several functions simultaneously.
EDIT MENU • 159 Evaluation order Expressions are evaluated from left to right as they appear in the Object manager. First the parent object is evaluated, then the order continues along the hierarchy tree; to display this tree, open the entire structure for a complex object group by choosing Objects > Expand Object Group in the Object manager. The objects are evaluated from top to bottom in the order you see them. Use Generators Generators are objects that create temporary hierarchical structures.
160 • CHAPTER 6 The following example clarifies why the evaluation order for deformers and generators begins with child objects. A Loft NURBS creates a temporary polygon object — it is a generator. Suppose the splines that describe the Loft NURBS are themselves deformed by several FFD objects (deformers). The hierarchy tree might look as in the illustration below.
EDIT MENU • 161 Settings Project Settings These are local settings that apply to the active project only. For details on these settings, look up ‘project settings’ in the index. Preferences The preferences enable you to change the appearance and behavior of CINEMA 4D. For details on these settings, look up ‘preferences’ in the index.
7 Objects Menu
OBJECTS MENU • 165 7 Objects Menu On the Objects menu, you’ll find not only a rich variety of object types for building all kinds of shapes, but also objects that allow you to add sound, lighting and more to the scene. Image © Benedict Campbell.
166 • CHAPTER 7 Attribute manager settings Basic Properties All objects have the same Basic Properties apart from a few objects that don’t have the Enabled and X-Ray options (for these object types — such as the Null object — the options are irrelevant). Name Here you can enter a name for the object. Visible In Editor Controls whether the selected objects are visible or invisible in the viewport. Visible In Renderer Controls whether the selected objects are visible or invisible in the renderer.
OBJECTS MENU • 167 Shaded Wire Mode, Shaded Wire Color You can define a custom wireframe color for the object that will be used when the object is inactive. Wireframe colors are visible in the following viewport display modes (set the desired mode from the view’s Display menu): - Gouraud Shading (Lines) Quick Shading (Lines) Constant Shading Hidden Line The Shaded Wire Mode controls when the Shaded Wire Color will be used: never (Off), only if the object has no materials (Automatic) or always (Always).
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 169 Primitives All primitives on the Objects > Primitive menu are parametric, i.e. they are created from mathematical formulae using a number of preset values. A consequence of this is that such an object is initially simply a mathematical abstraction and is not editable. In plain language, this means that primitives have no points or surfaces that you can manipulate. For example, you cannot edit a primitive using the Magnet tool, because the Magnet needs points to pull on.
170 • CHAPTER 7 In Figure 1, the cylinder’s Phong shading (i.e. smoothing) is on (left), off (center) and on but with the Angle reduced to stop the shading spilling over the edges (right). Figure 1. From left to right: Phong shading on but no angle limit, Phong shading off, Phong shading on with low angle limit. Figure 2. In Figure 2, the curved cylinder on the left has four segments, the one in the center has 16 segments and the one on the right has 72 segments.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 171 Cone This command creates a cone, whose base lies in the XZ plane (but see below). The Cone object is more useful than it first appears. For example, you can quickly create a drop of water by adjusting a few parameters. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Top Radius, Bottom Radius These values define the cone’s top radius and bottom radius The top radius is set to 0 by default, i.e. the top of the cone ends in a single point (see illustration, left).
172 • CHAPTER 7 From left to right: cone with Rotation Segments set to a low value (left), medium value (center) and high value (right). Orientation Choose a value from this drop-down list to set the cone’s initial orientation in space. Using this you can turn the cone on its axis very simply and, above all, quickly. Caps Caps Enable this option to add caps to the cone’s top and base. Caps enabled (left) and disabled (right).
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 173 From left to right: Fillet Segments set to 1 (a chamfer), 3 and 10. Top, Bottom, Radius, Height Enable Top and/or Bottom according to where you want to apply the fillet or chamfer. Radius and Height define the shape of the rounding. If both values are the same, the rounding is circular; otherwise, the rounding is elliptical. The following illustration shows a few of the shapes you can quickly achieve with the cone primitive.
174 • CHAPTER 7 Regular Grid, Width The Regular Grid option is only available when Slice is enabled. By enabling Regular Grid and entering a value into the Width box you can control the subdivisions within the plane of section of the sliced object. Small values produce a fine subdivision while larger values result in a coarse structure. This subdividing only affects the face (the plane of section) of the slice. Use this option only if you intend to process the object further after slicing it.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 175 Cube This command creates, by default, a cube whose sides are parallel to the coordinate axes of the world system. You can create many arbitrary cuboids by adjusting the various options. Rounded edges are optional. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Size X, Size Y, Size Z The values for Size X (width), Size Y (height) and Size Z (depth) define the size of the object.
176 • CHAPTER 7 Different cube shapes. The radius of the fillet can be no larger than half of the value of the smallest of the cuboid’s dimensions. If your cuboid has, say, a width of 100 units and a height and depth of 300 units, the maximum fillet radius is 50 units. Interactive editing The cube has three handles. Drag handle 1 to change the width (X), handle 2 to change the height (Y) or handle 3 to change the depth (Z). To re-size the cube interactively in the viewport, drag its handles.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 177 Cylinder This command creates a cylinder, whose ends (caps) are aligned parallel to the XZ plane. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Radius, Height These values define the basic dimensions of the cylinder. Height Segments Changes the number of subdivisions of the object in the lengthwise direction (cylindrical part only). Rotation Segments Defines the number of subdivisions of the object along its circumference.
178 • CHAPTER 7 Caps Caps Enable this option to add caps to the top and base of the cylinder. Otherwise, the cylinder is hollow. Caps enabled (left) and disabled (right). Cap Segments Defines the number of subdivisions of the caps in a radial direction. The subdivision along a cap’s circumference is defined by Rotation Segments. Fillet, Radius Assuming that the cylinder has caps you can use this option to apply a fillet or chamfer to the join between the cylinder body and the caps.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 179 Slice Slice, From, To Enable Slice to show a slice of the cylinder. Enter the slice angles into the From and To boxes. Regular Grid, Width The Regular Grid option is only available when Slice is enabled. By enabling this option and entering a value into the Width box you can control the subdivisions within the plane of section of the sliced object. Small values produce a fine subdivision while larger values result in a coarse structure.
180 • CHAPTER 7 Disc This creates a flat circular plate in the XZ plane. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Inner Radius, Outer Radius The value for the outer radius defines the overall size of the disc. A value for the inner radius of greater than zero generates a perforated disc. The inner radius can be no larger than the outer radius. Disc Segments, Rotation Segments Disc Segments gives the radial subdivision, Rotation Segments the subdivision along the circumference.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 181 Slice Slice, From, To Enable Slice to show a slice of the disc only. Enter the angles for this slice into the From and To boxes. Different disc cutouts. Interactive editing The disc has two handles. Drag handle 1 to change the outer radius or handle 2 to change the inner radius. The handles of the disc primitive.
182 • CHAPTER 7 Plane This command creates a quadrangle in the XZ plane, which is divided into further quadrangle surfaces. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Width, Height Define the size of the plane. Width Segments, Height Segments You can set the level of subdivision separately for the width and height. This is especially useful when you intend to convert the plane to polygons and edit it further.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 183 Interactive editing The plane has two handles. Drag handle 1 to change the width or handle 2 to change the height. The handles of the plane primitive.
184 • CHAPTER 7 Polygon This command creates a single polygon — a triangle or rectangle — in the XZ plane. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Width, Height Define the size of the polygon. Segments Enables you to change the degree of subdivision of the object. Triangle Enable this option to create a triangle polygon out of triangular shapes, rather than a square polygon out of square shapes. Orientation Choose a value from this drop-down list to set the polygon’s initial orientation in space.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 185 Interactive editing The polygon has two handles. Drag handle 1 to change the width or handle 2 to change the height. The handles of the polygon primitive.
186 • CHAPTER 7 Sphere This command creates a sphere composed of triangles and quadrangles. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Radius Use this to define the size of the sphere. Segments Defines the degree of the subdivision of the sphere. The sphere is divided along its latitude and longitude. However, like any other parametric object, until you convert a sphere into a polygon object with Make Editable, a sphere is always generated by calculation, no matter by how much you subdivide it.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 187 Render Perfect If you enable this option, a perfect sphere is generated by the math (if the sphere was not already distorted or deformed). This type of sphere has the advantage that it looks truly round and smooth. In addition, it renders faster than a polygon sphere. The Perfect Sphere stays perfect only as long as the object is not distorted (e.g. by scaling about an axis). If the Perfect Sphere is distorted it is converted to a polygon object before rendering.
188 • CHAPTER 7 Torus This command creates a torus (solid ring) in the XZ plane. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Ring Radius, Ring Segments With these values you define the size and the subdivision of the ring. The ring is a notional circle running round the center of the pipe. Pipe Radius, Pipe Segments Specify the size and the subdivision level of the pipe. The pipe radius can be no larger than the ring radius.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 189 Slice Slice, From, To Enable Slice to show a slice of the torus only. Enter the angles for this slice into the From and To boxes. Different torus cutouts. Regular Grid, Width The Regular Grid option is only available when Slice is enabled. By enabling this option and entering a value into the Width box you can control the subdivisions within the plane of section of the sliced object. Small values produce a fine subdivision while larger values result in a coarse structure.
190 • CHAPTER 7 Interactive editing The torus has two handles. Drag handle 2 to change the ring’s radius or handle 1 to change the pipe’s radius. The handles of the torus primitive.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 191 Capsule This command creates a cylinder along the Y-axis with hemispherical caps. Adjust the various properties to create all kinds of pill-shaped objects. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Radius Defines the object’s radius and the cap’s radius. Height The overall height of the capsule including the caps. Height Segments The number of subdivisions of the capsule in its lengthwise direction (cylindrical part only).
192 • CHAPTER 7 Orientation Choose a value from this drop-down list to set the capsule’s initial orientation in space. This gives you a quick way to turn the object on its axis. Slice Slice, From, To Enable Slice to show a slice of the capsule only. Enter the slice angles into the From and To boxes. Regular Grid, Width The Regular Grid option is only available when Slice is enabled.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 193 Oil Tank This creates a cylinder along the Y-axis with curved caps. By adjusting the parameters many different objects can be made, such as rivets. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Radius Defines the object’s radius. Cap Height This controls the cap curvature. A value of 0 produces flat caps. You can set values up to the same value as the Radius. For hemispherical caps, set the Cap Height to the same value as Radius.
194 • CHAPTER 7 Oil tanks with different segment values. Orientation Choose a value from this drop-down list to set the oil tank’s initial orientation in space. This gives you a quick way to turn the object on its axis. Slice Slice, From, To Enable Slice to show a slice of the oil tank only. Enter the angles for this slice into the From and To boxes. Regular Grid, Width The Regular Grid option is only available when Slice is enabled.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 195 Interactive editing The oil tank has three handles. Drag handle 1 to change the radius, handle 2 to change the height of the oil tank or handle 3 to change the height of the caps. The handles of the oil tank primitive.
196 • CHAPTER 7 Tube This command creates a hollow cylinder with walls of various thicknesses, whose ends are aligned parallel to the XZ plane. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Inner Radius, Outer Radius Adjust these values to change the size and the wall thickness of the tube. Rotation Segments The number of subdivisions of the tube around its circumference. A large value means a smoother tube with more faces. Tubes with different segment values.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 197 Cap Segments Defines the number of subdivisions of the cap in a radial direction. The subdivision along the cap’s circumference is given by Rotation Segments. Height The tube’s length. Height Segments The number of the tube’s subdivisions in the Y direction. Orientation Choose a value from this drop-down list to set the tube’s initial orientation in space. This gives you a quick way to turn the object on its axis. Fillet, Segments, Radius To fillet (i.e.
198 • CHAPTER 7 Regular Grid, Width The Regular Grid option is only available when Slice is enabled. By enabling this option and entering a value into the Width box you can control the subdivisions within the plane of section of the sliced object. Small values produce a fine subdivision while larger values result in a coarse structure. This subdividing only affects the face (the plane of section) of the slice. Use this option only if you intend to process the object further after slicing it.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 199 Pyramid This command creates a four-sided (5, if you count the base) pyramid. By default, the base of the pyramid is parallel to the XZ plane of the world coordinate system. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Size These values give the object’s dimensions in the X, Y and Z directions. Different pyramids. Segments The number of subdivisions applied to all surfaces.
200 • CHAPTER 7 Interactive editing The pyramid has three handles. Drag handle 1 to change the width, handle 2 to change the height (Y) or handle 3 to change the depth (Z). The handles of the pyramid primitive.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 201 Platonic This command creates a Platonic primitive. Several predefined shapes are available. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Radius This value gives the size of the circumscribing sphere inside which the object is placed. All corner points of the object will touch the surface of this sphere. Platonic object placed into the circumscribing sphere. Segments The number of subdivisions applied to all surfaces.
202 • CHAPTER 7 Type Here you can choose from a list of predefined Platonic objects. Tetrahedron, Hexahedron, Octahedron, Dodecahedron, Icosahedron and C60-Buckyball. Interactive editing Platonic objects have one handle. Drag handle 1 to change the radius. The handle of the Platonic primitives.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 203 Figure This command creates a dummy figure. Naturally, the figure is not intended for use as final output (for that, take a look at the excellent figures on the Objects > Object Library menu). Rather, the figure can act as a stand-in to represent your characters before you have built them.
204 • CHAPTER 7 Landscape Use this command to create a landscape in the XZ plane — from craggy mountains to gentle slopes. Fractals are used to generate the landscape. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Size These values define the object’s dimensions in the X, Y and Z directions. Width Segments, Depth Segments These values define the number of width and depth subdivisions. The more segments you use, the finer the structure. Both segment values set to 10 (left), 50 (center) and 100 (right).
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 205 Rough Furrows, Fine Furrows Change how craggy the landscape with these values. Low values result in gentle hills, high values produce rough mountains. In the following illustrations, the Rough Furrows value was increased from left to right. Different landscapes (from left to right: 0%, 50%, 100%). Scale This controls the height of the fissures in the landscape. Large values result in deep valleys, while smaller values give flatter landscapes.
206 • CHAPTER 7 Plateau Level The value works in the reverse way to Sea Level. Instead of being cut off from the bottom, the landscape is truncated from the top, creating flattened mountain tops. If the plateau level is set to 0%, a plane will result. If you switch off Borders At Sea Level then, after truncation, the landscape is lifted again to full height, i.e. the mountains become steeper. Plateau with borders at sea level (100%, 75%, 50%, 25%).
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 207 Spherical Enable this option if you want to wrap the landscape to form a globe. The radius of this globe is defined by half of the width value (the first Size value). The height of the landscape above the surface of the globe is taken from the height value (the second Size parameter). Spherical disabled (left) and enabled (right). Interactive editing The landscape initially has three handles.
208 • CHAPTER 7 Relief This command creates an object in the XZ plane that is similar to the landscape primitive. However, in this case an image is used instead of fractals to generate the height. The relief map interprets the different grayscales within the image as altitude values. If you choose a color image, the grayscale is formed from the average value of the red, green and blue components of the bitmap picture.
OBJECTS MENU • PRIMITIVES • 209 Size These values define the object’s dimensions in the X, Y and Z directions. Width Segments, Depth Segments The values define the number of width and depth subdivisions of the surface. The more segments you define, the finer the structure. Reliefs of different subdivisions (on the left 10, centre 50, on the right 100). Bottom Level This defines the height of the notional sea. The greater this value, the further the landscape slips into the sea.
210 • CHAPTER 7 Spherical Enable this option if you want to create a globe. The radius of this globe is defined by half of the width value (the first Size value). The height of the relief above the globe’s surface is taken from the height value (the second Size value). Figure 1: Spherical disabled (left) and enabled (right). Figure 2: The image used (top), the sphere relief from the front (left) and the rear (right).
OBJECTS MENU • NURBS • 211 NURBS On the NURBS menu, you’ll find some of CINEMA 4D’s most powerful modeling objects, including Extrude NURBS (for 3D logos etc.) and HyperNURBS (for any type of model, especially smooth shapes, such as characters). NURBS objects are generators, meaning they use other objects to generate their surfaces. NURBS enable you to create surfaces quickly and easily using simple curves or objects.
212 • CHAPTER 7 HyperNURBS For character designing especially, but for general modeling also, HyperNURBS is one of the most powerful sculpting tools available to the 3D artist. With point weighting, edge weighting and the subdivision surfaces of HyperNURBS, you can craft any shape at all — from high performance sports cars to characters that you can pose and animate easily. HyperNURBS is the most powerful modeling tool in CINEMA 4D and is ideal for character animation. Image © Yoichi Mimura.
OBJECTS MENU • NURBS • 213 Make the source object (termed the cage) a child of the HyperNURBS object. HyperNURBS object and cage object visible (left) and only cage object visible (right). Attribute manager settings Object Properties Use this page to specify the subdivision level for shading within the editor (i.e. the viewport) and for the renderer. The higher you set the resolution, the smoother the object becomes, but the more memory it uses and the slower it renders. Figure 1.
214 • CHAPTER 7 Figure 2: Use point and edge weighting to further refine your HyperNURBS models. In Figure 2, a cube (left) has been made a child of a HyperNURBS object to produce a sphere (center). Edge and point weighting has then been applied to produce a complex shape (right). Weighting enables you to refine HyperNURBS models without having to add new points and is especially useful for creating hard edges or points.
OBJECTS MENU • NURBS • 215 Weighting HyperNURBS models You can weight HyperNURBS models in one of two ways: interactively, or manually using the Live Selection tool. Interactive weighting Select the elements (i.e. points, edges or polygons) that you want to weight. Hold down the period key (‘.’) and drag left or right to set the weighting for the selected elements. The more weight you apply, the harder the surface will try to reach it.
216 • CHAPTER 7 Polygon mode Selected polygon. ‘.’ + drag. ‘.’ + Ctrl-drag. To weight all points and edges of the selected polygons, hold down the period key (‘.’) and drag. To weight only the edges of the selected polygons, hold down the period key and Ctrl-drag. Manual weighting Select the elements (i.e. points, edges or polygons) that you want to weight. Select the Live Selection tool. You can now edit the HyperNURBS weighting parameters in the Attribute manager on the HyperNURBS Weights tab.
OBJECTS MENU • NURBS • 217 Here two polygons overlap each other on the left side of the object — as a result, the polygon on the right has more than one neighbor and the surface is torn. Only connected polygons are rounded. To see which polygons are connected, select a surface, then use Selection > Select Connected. If you want to connect overlapping polygons, use the Functions > Optimize command. The sides of the cube are not connected to one another (left). The cube on the right is one piece.
218 • CHAPTER 7 HyperNURBS and n-gons An n-gon smoothed by HyperNURBS R7 (left) and normal HyperNURBS (right). You’ll find two types of HyperNURBS on the Objects > NURBS submenu. These are: HyperNURBS - N-gons are subdivided after they have been triangulated internally. - Use Isoline Editing mode is supported (Tools > Use Isoline Editing). - Weighting is supported. HyperNURBS (R7) - N-gons are subdivided correctly (without internal triangulation).
OBJECTS MENU • NURBS • 219 Extrude NURBS The Extrude NURBS object extrudes a spline to create an object with depth. The extruded object appears as soon as you drop the spline into the Extrude NURBS in the Object manager. You can also use splines to cut out holes. If, for example, a single spline object has two segments (an outer circle and an inner circle), the inner circle will be interpreted as a hole. CINEMA 4D detects hole splines automatically.
220 • CHAPTER 7 Flip Normals Flips (i.e. reverses the direction of) the normals of the Extrude NURBS. Usually, CINEMA 4D will point the normals in the correct direction. However, with open contours it is not possible for CINEMA 4D to know which way they should point. In this case, you can control the direction of the normals, either by changing the direction of the spline or by enabling the Flip Normals option. This option does not effect the caps, since their normals are always calculated correctly.
OBJECTS MENU • NURBS • 221 Lathe NURBS The Lathe NURBS rotates a spline about the Y-axis of the local axis system of the NURBS object to generate a surface of revolution, e.g. you can create a wineglass from a simple profile. The lathed object appears as soon as you drop the spline into the Lathe NURBS in the Object manager. Usually the profile should lie on the XY plane (because it will be rotated about the Y-axis). A profile spline. The result — a wineglass.
222 • CHAPTER 7 Movement Movement is the longitudinal distance from the beginning of the lathe to the end. If you set Movement to 0, the spline rotates on a circle. With any other value, it moves around a helix, enabling you to create shapes such as threads and screws. If you want to create several threads, set the Angle parameter to a large value such as 1800° for five revolutions and increase the Movement value so that the threads do not overlap. Scaling Scaling determines the final scale of the spline.
OBJECTS MENU • NURBS • 223 Loft NURBS The Loft NURBS stretches a skin over two or more splines (although see the tip below). The order of the splines in the Loft NURBS determines the sequence in which they are connected. The original splines. The splines in the Loft NURBS. You can use a single spline with a Loft NURBS to create a surface. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Mesh Subdivision U This gives the number of subdivisions in the U direction, i.e.
224 • CHAPTER 7 Isoparm Subdivision U Defines the number of isoparms used to display the Loft NURBS when the isoparm display mode is active. Organic Form If this option is disabled, the Loft NURBS lines pass directly though the spline points and the distances between the lines adapt to the spline points, resulting in a very tight form.
OBJECTS MENU • NURBS • 225 Subdivision Per Segment You can use this option to choose whether the mesh subdivision is divided evenly over the entire length of the object or evenly per segment (a segment is the section between one spline and the next). Enabling this option gives you more control over the object’s appearance when splines are close to one another. If the option is disabled, the number of resultant subdivisions per segment is calculated using the average distance of the segments.
226 • CHAPTER 7 Sweep NURBS The Sweep NURBS requires two or three splines. The first spline, the contour spline, defines the cross section and is swept along the second spline, the path, to create the object. The optional third spline (rail spline) can be used to modify the scale of the contour spline over the object’s length. The contour spline should lie on the local XY plane. You can use splines with multiple segments, e.g. you can sweep an entire word along the path.
OBJECTS MENU • NURBS • 227 Finally, there is another, much more powerful functionality — you can use a rail spline to control the direction and/or scale of the contour as it runs along the path. The path spline controls the positioning of the subdivisions. Adaptive spline interpolation is usually a good choice since it generates a relatively low number of surfaces. Uniform spline interpolation, on the other hand, is the better choice for animation since the subdivisions will be a uniform distance apart.
228 • CHAPTER 7 Growth Defines the size of the sweep. 100% means the contour spline is swept along the entire path. If the path is closed, you can set caps (but not rounding) when the growth is less than 100%. You can animate the growth by recording the Growth parameter. For example, you can gradually write a word by using a circle spline (e.g. radius 4, XY plane) as the contour and a spline in the shape of the handwriting as the path. Finally, record two keyframes for Growth.
OBJECTS MENU • NURBS • 229 Use Rail Scale If this option is enabled, the rail spline can be used to alter the scale of the contour along the path. The scale factor applied to each contour position is equal to the distance of the vector connecting the contour’s local origin to the matching point on the rail spline.
230 • CHAPTER 7 If this option is enabled, the contour spline will be placed between the path and the rail; otherwise, the rail controls the contour’s rotation about its Z-axis (provided Use Rail Direction is enabled). Flip Normals Flips (i.e. reverses the direction of) the normals of the Sweep NURBS. Usually, CINEMA 4D will point the normals in the correct direction. However, with open contours it is not possible for CINEMA 4D to know which way they should point.
OBJECTS MENU • NURBS • 231 Bezier NURBS The Bezier NURBS differs from the other NURBS in the sense that it does not require any objects. Bezier NURBS stretches a surface over Bezier curves in the X and Y directions. The control points for these curves pull on the surface like small magnets (apart from the edge points, to which the surface is fixed). The Bezier NURBS is perfect for smooth, curvy surfaces such as car wings, nosecones and sails.
232 • CHAPTER 7 The part of the closed surface formed by choosing Closed X, Closed Y will generally not intersect with itself if all control points corresponding to the outer edges of the original surface have unobstructed lines of sight to each other, with no control points or surfaces in the way. If you change the subdivision, the Bezier NURBS is reset to its starting state. Therefore, ensure you have enough subdivisions before you start.
OBJECTS MENU • NURBS • 233 Caps And Rounding This section describes the Attribute manager’s Caps and Rounding page for the Extrude, Lathe, Loft and Sweep NURBS objects. Start, End Use the Caps and Rounding page to change the rounding at the start and end of the NURBS object. If you set Cap And Rounding for Start or End, you can set the following parameters: Start Steps Here you enter the number of subdivisions for the rounding at the start of the object.
234 • CHAPTER 7 Fillet Type Choose the shape of the rounding from this drop-down list. When the constrained mode is active, all fillet types except the Engraved type extend the length of the extrusion of the NURBS object. 1. 1 Step 2. 2 Steps 3. Engraved 4. Linear 5. Convex 6. Concave 7. Half Circle Phong Angle Defines the smoothing angle between adjacent polygons that are part of the fillet. Hull Inwards / Hole Inwards The examples below demonstrate rounding inwards and rounding outwards.
OBJECTS MENU • NURBS • 235 Constrain This setting determines whether the object’s dimensions are preserved or whether the object should be inflated by the rounding. The thick line represents the initial spline Keep the following in mind when rounding with the Constrain option enabled. The pictures below demonstrate this issue. The top picture shows the initial contour. Rounding the contour with a small radius produces the desired result (center picture).
236 • CHAPTER 7 Different materials for the hull, caps and rounding You can apply different materials to the hull, caps and rounding. To do this, either convert the object into polygons with Functions > Make Editable (caps and rounding become separate objects) or use invisible selections (see below). For example, using the Extrude NURBS you can create marble letters with golden rounding. Restricting a material to an invisible selection — in this case, the rounding at the front of the text.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 237 Splines Spline Object This command creates an empty spline object. Like the Polygon object, it is recognizable on screen only by its origin and axes. You can use this object for the construction of your own splines. Curves Splines are primarily a sequence of vertices, connected by lines, lying in 3D space. The shape of these connecting lines (straight or curved) defines the interpolation.
238 • CHAPTER 7 - The spline is always created in the view of the active viewport. Bezier splines, B-splines, Cubic splines and Akima splines will be created on the construction plane in the perspective view or on the world planes of the remaining views. With a Freehand spline drawn in the perspective view, the spline will be created on the plane that is perpendicular to the camera direction. In all other views, the Freehand spline will be created on the world planes.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 239 On the left is a correct arrangement of splines and on the right we see spline segments arranged in an incorrect order. A spline object can be composed of any number of segments. However, all segments of a spline must have the same settings, e.g. they should be either all open or all closed and all have the same kind of interpolation.
240 • CHAPTER 7 - Choose Structure > Edit Spline > Break Segment. The connection to the previous segment is now broken. - Add further vertices. All new vertices now belong to the new segment. - You can create further segments. - If a spline consists of several segments, then new vertices are always created from the active vertex. If no vertices are active, then new vertices are generated at the last-created segment.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 241 Akima This spline type creates a soft curve between vertices. The interpolated curve always passes directly through the vertices. Overshooting does not happen with this type of curve. Akima interpolation adheres very closely to the path of the curve directly between the vertices but, because of this, it can sometimes appear somewhat hard. If this is not required, you should use Cubic interpolation. B-Spline This kind of spline also creates a soft curve between the vertices.
242 • CHAPTER 7 In the previous illustrations all tangents lie horizontally. Now let’s rotate the tangent of the upper point through 180° so that the left tangent end point lies on the right, the right on the left. You can see the result in this illustration. You can change the lengths of the tangents separately from each other. To do this, Shift-drag a tangent end point. You may set different tangent directions on the right and on the left of the vertex.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 243 If the tangents of two neighboring points have zero length, the segment that runs between the vertices will be linear. Thus, you can mix linear segments with curved spline shapes. If you double-click on a Bezier vertex with the Move, Scale or Rotate tool active, a dialog opens that allows you to accurately enter both the position of the vertex (in the spline’s object coordinates) and the position of the tangent end points (relative to the vertex) numerically.
244 • CHAPTER 7 None This method of interpolation locates points only at the vertices of a spline, using no additional intermediate points. You cannot enter values into the Number or Angle boxes. For B-splines, the vertices, and therefore points, might not be located on the spline curve. Natural This interpolation type first locates points at spline vertices. In the case of B-splines, points are located at positions on the spline curve closest to the spline vertices.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 245 Create Spline (Curves) The Spline object allows you to quickly create new splines from scratch. However, for some shapes this approach can be clumsy and unnecessary. For this reason CINEMA 4D includes spline curves. These are interactive tools that remain active until you select another tool, such as Move. You can thus create any number of these splines without the need to select the command each time.
246 • CHAPTER 7 Bezier, B-Spline, Linear, Cubic, Akima Using these commands, you can create the exact type of curve you require. Choose the desired spline type. Point editing mode is activated automatically. Click to create each point. Once you’ve added the desired points, either click the starting point to close the curve or press Esc to exit the mode. You can then edit the spline in the usual way (drag to move a point; Ctrl-click to create a new point, etc.).
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 247 Spline Primitives CINEMA 4D gives you a generous number of predefined curves. Add to this the possibility to convert vector based artwork files from other programs (see ‘Vectorizer’) and to add graphic characters (see ‘Text’) and you have a wealth of spline primitives at your fingertips. All of these spline primitives are parameterized.
248 • CHAPTER 7 Reverse If this option is enabled, the order of the points is reversed. Reversing the points of the spline primitive not only has an effect after the conversion to an editable spline curve. The reversal of points also affects commands such as Arrange. On the left is a spline, on the right the same spline with a reversed point order (the second spline vertex point is marked).
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 249 Arc This command creates arc elements. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Type With this option you choose the circle element to be used in your arc. Choose from Arc, Sector, Segment and Ring. Arc, Sector, Segment and Ring Radius Defines the circle radius from which the circular element is to be created. Inner Radius If you set Type to Ring, this defines the inner radius of the ring.
250 • CHAPTER 7 Start Angle, End Angle Using these two values you can define the start and end point of the arc element. 0° defines the value as the positive X-axis, 90° the positive Y-axis, 180° the negative X-axis, etc. These examples assume you are working in the XY plane, as mentioned earlier. Plane With this drop-down list you choose in which of the three planes the spline primitive is created. Reverse Enabling this option will reverse the point order of the spline.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 251 Circle This command creates circles, rings, ellipses and ellipse rings. It is also suitable for the creation of hoses or tubes using NURBS objects. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Radius By default the Circle command creates a circle with a radius of Radius. Ring, Inner Radius If the Ring option is enabled, either circular rings or ellipse rings are created. Here the internal radius of the ring is given by Inner Radius.
252 • CHAPTER 7 Circle, Ring, Ellipse, Ellipse Ring. Plane With this drop-down list you choose in which of the three planes the spline primitive is created. Reverse Enabling this option will reverse the point order of the spline. Intermediate Points, Number, Angle These interpolation settings define how the intermediate points of the spline are produced. For more information on these settings, look up ‘interpolation, spline’ in the index.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 253 Helix This command creates a helix — a spiralled, spring-like spline. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Start Radius, End Radius Enter the two radius values for the start and the end of the helix. Start Angle, End Angle These values specify the start and end points of the helix. 0° here designates that the relevant point is on the positive X-axis, 90° the positive Y-axis, 180° the negative X-axis, etc. Helix with 4 revolutions (left) and 3.5 revolutions (right).
254 • CHAPTER 7 For example, if the start angle is 0° and the end angle 720°, the helix makes two complete revolutions. If the helix begins at 180°, there will be only 1.5 revolutions. You can enter calculations into the boxes. In the above example you might use 4*360 instead of 1440. For the avid mathematician, the number of spiral threads is the results of the formula: (EndAngle – StartAngle) / 360°. Height This value defines the height of the helix in the Z direction.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 255 Plane With this drop-down list you choose in which of the three planes the helix is created. Reverse Enabling this option will reverse the point order of the spline. Intermediate Points, Number, Angle These interpolation settings define how the intermediate points of the spline are produced. For more information on these settings, look up ‘interpolation, spline’ in the index.
256 • CHAPTER 7 n-Side This command creates a regular, angular, closed spline. Among other things it is suitable for creating hoses and tubes when used with the Loft NURBS object. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Radius The n-Side object is created within a bounding circle. Radius defines the size of this initial shape. Sides This value defines the number of sides for the n-Side spline. Rounding, Radius Enabling Rounding to round all corners by the Radius value.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 257 Plane With this drop-down list you choose in which of the three planes the spline primitive is created. Reverse Enabling this option will reverse the point order of the spline. Intermediate Points, Number, Angle These interpolation settings define how the intermediate points of the spline are produced. For more information on these settings, look up ‘interpolation, spline’ in the index.
258 • CHAPTER 7 Rectangle This command creates a rectangle. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Width, Height These values define the size of the spline primitive. By default, the Width and Height are equal and produce a square. Rounding, Radius Enable Rounding to round all corners by the Radius value. Plane With this drop-down list you choose in which of the three planes the rectangle is created. Reverse Enable this option to reverse the rectangle’s points (but not the rectangle itself).
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 259 Star This command creates a star. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Inner Radius, Outer Radius The points of the star are based around two circles, the sizes of which are defined by the Inner Radius and the Outer Radius. A star, based around two circles.
260 • CHAPTER 7 Twist Use this to twist the points of the star around its own shape — ideal for saw blades. Enter a value from –100% to +100%. A value of 0% represents the basic, star-like position. From left to right: Twist set to –50%, 0% and 75%. Points This value defines the star’s number of points. Plane With this drop-down list you choose in which of the three planes (XY, XZ, ZY) the star is created. Reverse Enable this option to reverse the star’s points (but not the star itself).
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 261 Text You can add letters, characters and any other piece of text using this type of spline. Simply choose a font and type the text into the spline’s Text box. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Text Enter the text into the Text box. You can enter up to multiple lines of text — press Return to start a new line. The text appears in the viewport as a spline primitive when click outside the text box. CINEMA 4D generates text objects as connected splines.
262 • CHAPTER 7 With PostScript fonts, a standard file selector window opens, from which you can locate and load any desired PostScript font. CINEMA 4D works with the PFB (PostScript Font Binary) format of Type 1 fonts. Some fonts are poorly designed and will have noticeable overlapping edges. CINEMA 4D cannot improve these faults. Always use high quality fonts for best results. Kerning information is not evaluated by CINEMA 4D.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 263 Vectorizer Vectorizer allows you to create spline outlines from 2D pictures. To turn the outline into a 3D object, make the Vectorizer object a child of an Extrude NURBS object. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Texture Click the three dots button to open a file selector. Use the file selector to choose the picture that will be converted to splines. Click the black arrow left of the filename box to open the picture’s preview.
264 • CHAPTER 7 Width This parameter defines the size in the X direction. The height (Y direction) is calculated automatically using the picture’s aspect ratio and the Width value. Tolerance This defines the smoothing of the conversion. The higher the value, the smoother the contour appears. However, more and more detail will also be lost. The smaller the value, the more detail of the original picture will appear in the result. However, this can lead to staircase-like jaggies at the spline’s edges.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 265 4-Side This command creates various 4-sided primitives, such as trapeziums or parallelograms. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Type Choose a shape from Diamond, Kite, Parallelogram and Trapezium. Various 4-Sided objects (Diamond, Kite, Parallelogram and Trapezium).
266 • CHAPTER 7 a, b, Angle Depending on your choice of 4-Sided object, these values have different meanings as demonstrated in the illustrations below. The parameters a and b for the diamond. The parameters a and b for the kite. The parameters a, b and angle for the parallelogram. The parameters a, b and angle for the trapezium. Plane With this option you choose in which of the three planes the spline primitive is created. Reverse Enable this option to reverse the spline’s points.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 267 Cissoid Creates various mathematical curves. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Type Choose a shape from Cissoid, Lemniscate and Strophoid. The Lemniscate results from a special calculation, using a technique known as Cassini curves. Cissoid, Lemniscate and Strophoid. Width This value defines the overall size of the curve.
268 • CHAPTER 7 Tension This will only affect the Cissoid and Strophoid types. With the Cissoid, the larger the value you enter, the more the two arcs are pulled together on both the left and the right of the axis of symmetry. Increasing the Tension value on the Strophoid object has a similar effect to when used on the Cissoid. The arcs are pulled up further as the value is increased. The loop also becomes narrower. Various Cissoid objects with tension values of 50, 6 and 2.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 269 Cogwheel This command creates a cogwheel. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Teeth Defines the number of teeth for the cogwheel. Inner Radius, Middle Radius, Outer Radius The overall size of the cogwheel is defined by Outer Radius, while Inner Radius defines the depth of the teeth. For avid mathematicians: Depth of teeth = (outer radius – inner radius). The third value, Middle Radius, gives the height at which any bevel will start to take effect (see Bevel below).
270 • CHAPTER 7 Bevel As already mentioned, in addition to an inner and outer radius that define their depth, the teeth have another value, Bevel, that can be used to create different degrees of sharpness. This is entered as a percentage from 0% (no bevel) to 100% (pointed teeth). The bevel starts to take effect from Middle Radius. From outer to inner: Bevel set to 0%, 50% and 100%. Plane With this option you choose in which of the three planes the spline primitive is created.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 271 Cycloid This creates a sort of rolling curve. This curve is described by a point located on the circumference of a circle as the circle rolls along a straight line. (This point can also be located inside or outside the circle.) Cycloids, epicycloids and hypocycloids are particularly suited to rotating types of movement such as walking, gear mechanisms and planetary orbits.
272 • CHAPTER 7 Radius, r, a With the basic cycloid (a = R), the observed point P (that the curve forms) is on the radius of the circle. With the shortened cycloid (a < R), it is inside the circle radius, and with the extended (prolate) cycloid (a > R) it is outside. R = 2, a = 2. R = 2, a = 1. R = 2, a = 4. With the basic Epicycloid, the observed point P (that forms the curve) is on the radius of the outer circle (a = r).
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 273 R = 2, r = 3, a = 4. Special cases arise when the both circles are set to the same radius value (known as Pascal’s curve). If, in addition, point P is on the radius of the outer circle (a=r), the result is known as a Cardioid. (See the illustrations below.) R = 2, r = 2, a = 1. R = 2, r = 2, a = 3. R = 2, r = 2, a = 2 (cardioid). With the basic Hypocycloid, the observed point P (that forms the curve) is on the radius of the inner circle (a = r).
274 • CHAPTER 7 R = 8, r = 2, a = 1. R = 12, r = 3, a = 6. Start Angle, End Angle These values define the start and end positions of the rolling circle. There is a small, but crucial, difference between the Cycloid, Hypocycloid and Epicycloid values. For Cycloid, you simply define the values for the start angle and the end angle of the rotating circle. With Epicycloid and Hypocycloid, you define the values for the start and end points on the fixed circle.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 275 Formula This command creates a geometric curve based on a mathematical formula. You’ll find a list of all CINEMA 4D’s built-in commands, operators and constants in the appendix. Attribute manager settings Object Properties X(t), Y(t), Z(t) Enter a mathematical command, with dependant variable t, for each of these directions. Tmin, Tmax Specify the definition range here. Samples Using this value you can define how many vertices between Tmin and Tmax are to be created.
276 • CHAPTER 7 In the following illustration is a standard sine wave with a definition range of –1 to +1. Below it we see the same command but this time with a range of –2 to +2. In both cases, the number of steps was set to 10. The same curve using various ranges for t. As you increase the range of values that t can take, you may need to increase the Samples value in order to keep the curve smooth. Cubic Interpolation Enable this option to keep down the number of vertices.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 277 Intermediate Points, Number, Angle These interpolation settings define how the intermediate points of the spline are produced. For more information on these settings, look up ‘interpolation, spline’ in the index. Examples A curve generated by the parametric equations X(t)=100*cos(pi*t), Y(t)=100*sin(pi*t), Z(t)=100*exp(0.25*t), t=0...15: The curve in the 3D view. The curve in the front (XY view). The curve in the top (XZ view). The curve in the right (ZY view).
278 • CHAPTER 7 Curve generated by X(t)=100*sin(t)/t, Y(t)=100*log(t), Z(t)=100*sin(t), t=0.5...15: The curve in the 3D view. The curve in the top (XZ view). Curve in the right (ZY view). The curve in the front (XY view). Various parametric equations: The splines in a Sweep NURBS with a rectangle as a contour spline and (right) additionally in an Atom Array .
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 279 Flower This command creates a flower-shaped object. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Inner Radius, Outer Radius The inner radius defines the size of the inner area from where the petals begin to grow. The petals extend from the inner to the outer radius. Petals This value gives the total number of petals. Plane With this option you choose in which of the three planes the spline primitive is created. Reverse Enable this option to reverse the spline’s points.
280 • CHAPTER 7 Profile Attribute manager settings Object Properties Type Here you choose the profile shape. Height, b, s, t The relevance of the individual parameters can be seen in the following illustrations.
OBJECTS MENU • SPLINES • 281 Plane With this option you choose in which of the three planes the spline primitive is created. Reverse Enable this option to reverse the spline’s points. Intermediate Points, Number, Angle These interpolation settings define how the intermediate points of the spline are produced. For more information on these settings, look up ‘interpolation, spline’ in the index.
OBJECTS MENU • SPECIAL MODELING TOOLS • 283 Special Modeling Tools Null Object The null object might well mutter to itself “I cannot do anything, I’m a nothing!” And it would be right ... almost. If you call this function, CINEMA 4D creates an empty axis system in the 3D space. The object contains neither points nor surfaces and cannot be edited in the normal way. So what’s the point of the null object? Well, the null object can have other objects placed within it.
284 • CHAPTER 7 The use of a null object gives the desired result. The null must point in the same direction of the object and the object must be made a child of the null. Now the object can be rotated correctly, using the null as the coordinate system for rotation. Correct rotation behavior through the use of a null object. In addition, some tools that rely on a particular orientation of an object in 3D space (such as Rotate and Duplicate) profit from the use of a parental null object.
OBJECTS MENU • SPECIAL MODELING TOOLS • 285 Aspect Ratio Defines the shape’s height as a ratio of height:width. For example, to make the pyramid shape twice the height of its width, set Aspect Ratio to 2. Orientation Defines the orientation of the shape. Choose from Camera, XY, ZY and XZ. With the Camera setting, the shape will face the camera in all active viewports.
286 • CHAPTER 7 Polygon Object This creates an empty polygon object. Initially, all you’ll see in the view is its origin and axes. You can later fill this object with points and polygons using tools such as Add Point and Create Polygon. The polygon object can also be used as an alternative to the null object for grouping objects together. Polygon fundamentals A polygon is a triangle or a quadrangle. A triangle has the points A, B and C; a quadrangle has the points A, B, C and D.
OBJECTS MENU • SPECIAL MODELING TOOLS • 287 For planar quadrangles, if the interior angle at points B or D is greater than 180°, problems can occur when rendering — this is because the polygon overlaps itself, as in Figure 4 above. Another problem arises if all of the polygon’s points are on the same line. In this case, a surface normal cannot exist and the polygon is called a degenerated polygon, illustrated in Figure 5.
288 • CHAPTER 7 Example Suppose you want to bevel an area. First you cut around the area that you want to bevel (the inset picture marks the cut line). Above you can see the result of making the cut in an older version of CINEMA 4D (left) and in the current version of CINEMA 4D (right). With the older version of CINEMA 4D, notice how unwanted triangles have been created in the areas around the cut. These triangles will make it difficult, if not impossible, to select and bevel the desired area.
OBJECTS MENU • SPECIAL MODELING TOOLS • 289 To make parametric objects editable, i.e. to convert them into polygons or points, choose Functions > Make Editable. An icon like this in the Object manager means the object is a polygon object. An icon like this in the Object Manager means the object is a spline. Click this icon to make an object editable. Quadrangles for modeling In general, quadrangles are best for modeling and triangles are best for animation.
290 • CHAPTER 7 Array Object The Array object (Objects > Modeling submenu) creates copies of an object and arranges them in a spherical form or wave form. The wave (amplitude) can be animated. The original object must be a child of the array. The copies are placed around the array object’s origin. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Radius Defines the distance of the objects in the array (in the example above, the spheres) from the array object’s origin.
OBJECTS MENU • SPECIAL MODELING TOOLS • 291 Atom Array Object You’ll find the Atom Array on the Objects > Modeling submenu. It creates an atom-like structure from each of its child objects. All object edges are replaced with cylinders and all points are replaced with spheres. To obtain this particular atom-like model, make a Platonic primitive (Type set to Bucky) a child of the Atom Array. The Atom Array is especially useful for rendering polygon edges (i.e. the mesh).
292 • CHAPTER 7 Subdivisions Defines the number of subdivisions for the cylinders and spheres. You may need to increase this value to ensure smooth edges depending on how close the camera is to the atom array. Single Elements This option only matters when you make the Atom Array object editable (press the C key or choose Functions > Make Editable). If the option is enabled, each sphere and cylinder becomes a separate parametric object. If the option is disabled, a single editable object is created.
OBJECTS MENU • SPECIAL MODELING TOOLS • 293 Boole You’ll find the Boole object on the Objects > Modeling submenu. It performs realtime Boolean operations on primitives or polygons. This means that you can see the result in the viewport as soon as you make the two objects children of the Boole object (try two spheres for testing). The default Boolean mode is A subtract B. The Boole object also works with hierarchies.
294 • CHAPTER 7 High Quality The Boole object incorporates a high quality Boolean algorithm known as Better Boole. Enable the High Quality option to use the Better Boole algorithm, which generates a cleaner mesh with fewer polygons (triangles). Disable the option to use the standard Boolean mode. High Quality disabled (left) and enabled (right). There is, however, a disadvantage to the High Quality mode: when applied to complex objects, it may take longer to generate the result.
OBJECTS MENU • SPECIAL MODELING TOOLS • 295 Optimize Points This parameter is only available if Create Single Object is enabled. If the Boole object is converted to polygons (Functions > Current State To Object ), points within a set distance of each other are merged to a single point. Enter the desired distance into the box. In the example, the Boole has been applied to the top-right and bottom-right objects. The following settings were used. Left: Create Single Object disabled.
296 • CHAPTER 7 Instance Object To create an instance of an object, select the object in the Object manager that you want to instance and choose Objects > Modeling > Instance. The instance now appears in the Object manager. To change which object is referenced, first select the Instance object in the Object manager to display its settings in the Attribute manager. On the Attribute manager’s Object page, you’ll find a box called Reference Object.
OBJECTS MENU • SPECIAL MODELING TOOLS • 297 Metaball Object Think of the Metaball object (Objects > Modeling submenu) as an elastic skin that can be stretched over spheres, splines and points. The skin becomes active the moment you make such an object a child of the metaball object. If you move any of the child objects, the skin — called the hull — updates in realtime. You can use parametric spheres, splines (all types) or polygon objects with the Metaball object.
298 • CHAPTER 7 Hull Value Defines how tightly the hull is applied. Higher values mean that the hull is wrapped more tightly around the objects. Editor Subdivision Defines the number of subdivisions that are displayed in the viewport. The subdivision is specified in distance units. This means that you should lower the value to increase the number of subdivisions and mesh-smoothness. Increasing the value will reduce the number of subdivisions. It makes sense to use a high value here (e.g.
OBJECTS MENU • SPECIAL MODELING TOOLS • 299 Symmetry Object The Symmetry object works with geometry and splines only, not with lights, cameras and so on. The Symmetry object (Objects > Modeling) is especially useful when polygon modeling symmetrical (or nearly symmetrical) objects such as faces. Model just one half of the object and the other half is generated automatically.
300 • CHAPTER 7 Construction Plane Object The world grid is the default construction plane. The disadvantage of the world grid is that it cannot be moved or rotated. When you create a construction plane, the world grid is switched off. The construction plane (Objects > Modeling submenu) is an aid to object placement. You can place objects, splines and points onto the construction plane. For example, you can move and rotate the construction plane so that you can place tiles straight onto a slanted roof.
OBJECTS MENU • CAMERAS • 301 Cameras Camera Object You can add as many cameras to the scene as you wish. When you create a new camera (Objects > Scene > Camera), the camera will adopt the position and focal length of the active view. When placing and aligning a camera, CINEMA 4D uses the camera’s coordinate system. The X-axis and Y-axis define the focal or film plane, and the Z-axis is the direction in which the camera is pointing.
302 • CHAPTER 7 camera model used in computer graphic programs corresponds to a pinhole camera of The infinite sharpness. Therefore CG focal length is to be understood only as a simulation and corresponds in no way to a physical model. Short focal lengths give a wide-angle view and are ideal for a good overview of the whole scene. They do, however, distort objects in the scene — a particularly striking effect is that of a very short focal length.
OBJECTS MENU • CAMERAS • 303 Film Offset X, Film Offset Y Film Offset X Film Offset Y Suppose the CINEMA 4D camera worked like a traditional film camera, with images being recorded onto photographic film one after the other. Now imagine if additional image information could be recorded by moving this film along the X and Y-axis (beyond the strip of film in the example). This is exactly what these parameters do.
304 • CHAPTER 7 For the example, the scene was been split into four pictures. The camera’s Film Offset X and Film Offset Y were animated over four frames as follows. First frame: Film Offset X / Y = 0% / 0% Second frame: Film Offset X / Y = 100% / 0% Third frame: Film Offset X / Y = 100% / -100% Fourth frame: Film Offset X / Y = 0% -100% The result is four separate images that you can piece together in an image editor. When using radiosity, use Stochastic mode (Render Settings > Radiosity).
OBJECTS MENU • CAMERAS • 305 Front Blur, Rear Blur The settings determine the distance from the camera to the front and to the rear of the scene at which objects will become completely out of focus. Adjusting the camera interactively Although you can adjust the camera’s settings via the Attribute manager, the quickest way is to drag the camera’s handles in the viewport. To try out the camera’s interactive handles: - Choose File > New to create a new, empty document.
306 • CHAPTER 7 - There are two further, optional, planes that run parallel to the focal length plane — one in front and one at the back. These two planes (or just one of them) are available only if you select a depth of field (Front Blur, Rear Blur). At the center of each plane you’ll see another orange handle. Use this handle to shift the depth of field plane interactively along the camera’s Z-axis. Again, you can see these realtime adjustments in the viewport. - You may also adjust the focal range i.e.
OBJECTS MENU • CAMERAS • 307 Animated camera and target. These two splines give you a very precise way to control the camera position and orientation. You can fine-tune the animation using the F-Curves of the two Position parameters (Align To Spline tags). Tips - To ensure that the camera/null moves along the spline at a constant velocity, set the spline’s Intermediate Points to Uniform. - For extra realism, try adding a slight amount of shake to the camera using the Vibrate tag.
308 • CHAPTER 7 The name of the camera will be displayed green in the Object manager if the camera is used by the viewport and is not selected. If the camera name is displayed yellow, the camera is used by the viewport and is selected. Link Active Object You can view a scene through any object, not just through a camera. In the Object manager, select the object that you want to use as the viewport’s camera. In the desired viewport, choose Cameras > Link Active Object.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 309 Lighting Light Object When building a new scene in CINEMA 4D, a default light is used called the auto light. To change the default lighting setup for all future scenes, build a new scene that contains only the lights that you require for your default lighting and save this scene within the CINEMA 4D folder under the name ‘new.c4d’. This setup will be opened automatically each time you start a new CINEMA 4D scene.
310 • CHAPTER 7 Attribute manager settings General Color You can adjust the color of each of your lights using the slider controls and the text input boxes for each color element (RGB). You may change the color system (perhaps to HSV 0...255) using the drop-down list below the Color box. It is also possible to use the color sliders to achieve negative lighting effects, which is discussed in detail later in this chapter. Brightness Defines the brightness of the light source.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 311 No Light Radiation If you need to see just the visible light and/or its lens effects without the light source actually illuminating objects, enable this option. Should you need your light sources for special effects (such as the exhaust gas of a jet engine) enable this box for faster rendering. Show Visible Light Enable this option to show an approximation of the visible light in the viewports, not to be confused with illumination.
312 • CHAPTER 7 Types of light This section describes the types of light available on the General page. Omni. Spot (round/square). Distant. Parallel. Parallel spot (round/square). Tube. Area. Omni An Omni light source acts like a real life light bulb — casting rays in all directions. Placing an Omni light in the center of your scene will illuminate your scene evenly. Spot (round/square) Spotlights cast their rays in just one direction, which is along the Z-axis by default.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 313 Distant Owing to its characteristics, the distant light source itself cannot radiate visible light. The Distant light type is so called because it mimics light that is cast from an infinite distance. Using a Distant light would, for example, evenly illuminate the whole of a floor (provided the floor is flat). Since a Distant light is infinite, the light has no actual origin. Thus the exact position of a Distant light, near or far, has no effect on your scene’s objects.
314 • CHAPTER 7 Types of shadow This section describes the different types of shadow you can select for the Shadow option on the General page. The Shadow page itself is described later in this chapter. Soft shadow. Hard shadow. Area shadow. You can combine different light source types with different shadow types For example, an area light can cast not only area shadows, but hard shadows as well. None Select None if your light is to cast no shadow.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 315 Area Although Soft shadows are more natural than Hard shadows, they are still not perfectly natural. On careful examination you can see that the soft edge always has the same width. In nature this does not happen; the closer an object is to a surface on which it casts its shadows, the sharper this edge will be. Area shadows simulate this effect. CINEMA 4D calculates the shadow at the origin of the light source outwards (for all lights, whether Omni, Spot or Area).
316 • CHAPTER 7 Volumetric A visible light does not affect objects that lie in its cone of light — the light rays penetrate objects unhindered, casting no shadow in the visible light’s beam. In order for a shadow to be cast by a visible light, volumetric lighting must be used. The parameters for the visible Volumetric light are taken from the light source’s shadow map values: Resolution X, Resolution Y, Sample Radius and Parallel Width.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 317 Details Using the Details tab, you can access the individual properties of each of your light sources. Use Inner, Inner Angle Use Inner disabled. Inner Angle set to 0. Depending on the type of light you use, this will adjust either the Inner Angle (for a standard Spotlight) or the Inner Radius (for a Parallel Spotlight) of the light. Within the Inner Angle area, the luminosity value of the light source is 100%.
318 • CHAPTER 7 Aspect Ratio Enables you to stretch and shear the shape of the light’s cone. The standard aspect ratio value is 1. For example, increasing the value to 2 will double the light cone’s height relative to its width. Similarly, decreasing the value to 0.5 will make the light cone only half as high as it is wide. Brightness This value controls the overall brightness of the light source.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 319 Falloff A normal virtual light source will illuminate its surrounding environment with a continuous, linear brightness. However, this is not how all lights work in reality; real light sources will have their luminosity absorbed. Just as in nature, CINEMA 4D light sources are able to have their luminosity reduced over any distance. To achieve this, several falloff functions are available from this drop-down list, illustrated below.
320 • CHAPTER 7 Ambient Illumination Ambient illumination. Ambient illumination with Falloff enabled. Normally the brightness of a surface is determined by the angle at which a ray of light hits it. The greater the angle between the ray and a tangent to the surface, the more the surface will be lit by the light. When Ambient Illumination is switched on, however, this physical law is waived. Here the angle does not matter. All surfaces are lit with the same intensity. This results in a much flatter look.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 321 Colored Edge Falloff Colored Edge Falloff disabled. Colored Edge Falloff enabled. This option is only available when using a spotlight with Use Inner Color enabled. The normal behavior of the inner color is to spread in a linear direction along only the Z-axis of the spotlight, from its origin to the light source’s color (selected on the General page).
322 • CHAPTER 7 No Diffuse No Diffuse disabled. No Diffuse enabled. When No Diffuse is enabled, the color properties of an object are ignored by the light source; only specular surfacing is produced by the light. This can be useful for objects such as a golden signature, where you would like specular glints, but no lightening of the color properties.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 323 Far Clip From = 300, To = 300. From = 220, To = 300. Enable Far Clip to cut off the light source’s illumination abruptly. To use Far Clip, once again two values are needed. This time the From and To values denote where the cut off begins, and where the light source will fully vanish. Again, the larger the difference between these two values, the softer the transition. Individual clipping ranges using an Omni light.
324 • CHAPTER 7 Visibility Use Falloff, Falloff 100% Falloff. 0% Falloff. Falloff is the percentage reduction in the light’s density. The axial falloff of the visible light is set to a standard 100%. This means that from the origin of the light to its outer distance, the density of the visible light falls from 100% to 0%. So, if a value of 10% is entered into the Falloff box, the outside edge will be at 90% visibility. Enable or disable Use Falloff to switch falloff on or off.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 325 Use Edge Falloff, Edge Falloff 100 % Edge Falloff. 0 % Edge Falloff. Edge Falloff is relevant only with Spotlight sources. The Edge Falloff determines how quickly the light’s density decreases towards the edge of the light cone. If you enter a value of 0% (or disable Use Edge Falloff), you will produce a very hard visible light. A value of 100% gives a more gradual falloff from the inside of the light cone to its outer edge, until it reaches 0%.
326 • CHAPTER 7 Sample Distance The Sample Distance is relevant for visible volumetric lights. Adjusting this value defines how finely the visible light’s volumetric shadow will be computed. Larger values lead to a somewhat rough (but swift) calculation, while smaller values lead to a much finer, but more time-consuming, result. Take care with the Sample Distance values. Finding a happy medium (small for fine detail, but as large as possible for reducing render time) is the key here.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 327 Suppose the raytracer ray hits the light cone and the distance between the entry and the exit points of the light cone is 1,000 units. A sample distance of 50 units will mean that an intensity value and a shadow beam will have to be calculated 20 times (1,000/50). The shorter the sample distance, the longer the calculation will take.
328 • CHAPTER 7 Dithering This produces irregularities in the visible light, which can help to prevent unwanted banding or contouring in the visible light source. With certain light source combinations, such as visible lights that overlap, you may find that the 24-bit picture depth of your output device is insufficient and it may display color gradients in large steps. This display problem is known as ‘contouring’.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 329 Shadow Use the parameters on this page to fine-tune the scene’s shadow maps. Density Adjusting this value will vary the intensity of your shadow. A value of 100% means the shadow has full intensity. With 50% your shadow will be half transparent and at 0% the shadow is invisible. Color Here you can change the shadow’s color. Since shadows in nature are rarely jet black, this setting is more useful than it first appears.
330 • CHAPTER 7 The calculation of transparent soft shadows is memory-intensive. An Omni light source can sometimes use six times as much memory as a spotlight, because six shadow map calculations must be computed compared to the spotlight’s single shadow map. Clipping Influence If this option is enabled, the clipping settings on the Details tab are applied to shadow-casting as well as to illumination. Shadow Map 250x250 map size. 750x750 map size.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 331 Resolution Y With a spotlight, you can provide a non-square shadow map by entering a value for Resolution Y. Memory Usage CINEMA 4D automatically calculates the maximum memory use for the shadow map, which is shown here. This helps you to estimate how much memory will be needed for the shadow maps. Sample Radius Determines the shadow map accuracy. The higher the value, the more accurate the shadow is, at the expense of a longer render time.
332 • CHAPTER 7 Parallel Width This setting will only be active for Distant and/or Parallel lights. This is a visible light concept known as a light cube. The light cube has its length and width dimensions set to the Parallel Width value, the depth (Z-axis) of the light cube being infinite. Objects within the cube can cast shadows. This value cannot dynamically adapt to your scene, as it is possible for other objects to jump into the shadow-casting area during an animation.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 333 Soft Cone Enable this option to give the shadow cone a softer edge. This ensures that any object only partially in the shadow cone area casts a soft, fading shadow. Area Shadow Width High Area Shadow Width value (300 m). Low Area Shadow Width value (50 m). The area shadow is produced by a virtual Area light source (independently of the actual light source). The Area Shadow Width determines the size of this surface.
334 • CHAPTER 7 Noise Type Noise produces dark and bright areas. Chose from four types, including three types of turbulence that produce cloud-like effects. Noise. Soft Turbulence. Hard Turbulence. Wavy Turbulence. Octaves Only relevant for the Turbulence types above. The Octaves value determines the graininess of the noise. The higher the value, the grittier the appearance.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 335 Velocity Sets the speed of the irregularities. Brightness Using this you can raise the overall brightness of the irregularities. You can enter a negative percentage to reduce the brightness. Contrast Higher values increase the contrast of the noise, lower values reduce it. Local Enabling this option ensures that the local coordinates of the light source are nailed down. If the light source is moved now, the turbulence/noise will move also.
336 • CHAPTER 7 You may recall that on the General page you have the option to disable light radiation (No Light Radiation). If this option is enabled then the light source will no longer illuminate the objects in the scene, but all lens effects of the light will still be visible. This is handy, for example, in a scene in which the objects are already illuminated as you want and adding another light source for a lens flare will result in over-lighting the scene.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 337 Hi-8. Camcorder. Searchlight. Artifact. Star 1. Star 2. Star 3. Purple. Flashlight. Sun 1. Sun 2. Grey. Blue 1. Blue 2. Red. Yellow-green 1. Yellow-green 2. Candle. Brightness Controls the global brightness of the glow. To increase the brightness, enter a value above 100%. To reduce the brightness, enter a value below 100%.
338 • CHAPTER 7 Aspect Ratio Modifying this value allows you to change the aspect ratio of the glow. The glow appears circular at its default size of 1. Smaller or larger values shrink or stretch the glow’s aspect to a horizontal or vertical ellipse. Edit Click the Glow Edit button to open the Glow editor. The Glow editor is described later in this chapter. Reflexes Select the desired reflexes from this menu of presets. Brightness Controls the global brightness of the reflexes.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 339 Use Light Parameters If this option is enabled, the properties defined on the light’s General page also affect the glow/ reflex effects. For example, if the light source color is red then the glow/reflex effect also appears red. Fade If Behind Object Enabling this option will determine whether light sources that lie behind objects will still produce effects. Lens flares do not occur if light sources are behind objects, but glows or radiation can produce pleasing effects.
340 • CHAPTER 7 Glow editor To open the Glow editor, on the Attribute manager Lens page (with a light source selected in the Object manager), click the Edit button in the Glow pane. Glows are a type of over-exposure to light. When the light intensity is sufficient, this exposure bloom includes film grain in the areas surrounding a bright light, even though those areas are not illuminated.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 341 Type Choose a type of glow type for the currently selected element. This defines the distribution of brightness for the element. Size Here you set the overall size of the glow element as a percentage of the screen’s size. A value of 100% represents the distance from the center of the screen to the edge of the screen. Color To set the color of the glow element, click the box to the right of Size. The system color chooser will open. Select the desired color.
342 • CHAPTER 7 Size Here you set the overall size of the beam element as a percentage of the screen’s size. A value of 100% represents the distance from the center of the screen to the edge of the screen. Color To set the color of the beam element, click the color box to the right of Size. The system color picker opens. Pick the desired color. R This value defines the aspect ratio for the beam element.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 343 Lens editor To open the Lens editor, in the Attribute manager, on the Lens page (with a light source selected in the Object manager), click the Edit button in the Reflexes area. Lens reflections, (termed reflexes), are caused by the focal image of poor quality lenses. The colored shape produced is an artefact of the lens surface, the shape resulting from the shape of the lens. Large apertures produce small reflections, small apertures produce larger ones.
344 • CHAPTER 7 Position This value sets the positioning of the element on the screen. The axis on which all reflections lie travels through two points: the light source, and the center of the screen (which is also the center of the lens). Here the following values apply. 0% 50% 100% = light source = screen center = 2 x distance light source center Negative values place the reflections behind the light source. Size This value determines the size of the element.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 345 Objects box Click the icons alongside any object in the Objects box to enable or disable illumination, specularity and shadows for that object. Enable the right-most icon if the object’s children should also be affected by the inclusion or exclusion. From left to right: Object icon, Illumination, Specularity, Shadows and Include Entire Hierarchy.
346 • CHAPTER 7 Target Light When you choose Objects > Scene > Target Light, a light source and a Null object are created. The null acts as a target for the light. The light source can be any light type of your choosing and you simply move the null into the hierarchy of the object towards which the light should point. Now, when you move this object, the light automatically remains pointing at it.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 347 Sun Light The sun light source is a special case of a light. It is a light source with its Type set to Distant and Shadow set to Hard (you’ll find both these parameters on the General page of the Attribute manager). Additionally, the sun light source has an expression tag that allows you to define the exact time of day, date and geographical position for the sun.
348 • CHAPTER 7 Sun tag In the Object manager, select the Sun tag to display its settings in the Attribute manager. Attribute manager settings Tag Properties Latitude Enter the latitude of the desired location, such as 51.3˚ for London, 40.4˚ for New York, 35.4˚ for Tokyo, 48.5˚ for Paris or 50.1˚ for Friedrichsdorf. Longitude Enter the longitude of the desired location. 0˚ runs through Greenwich, UK. Negative values are west of Greenwich, positive values east.
OBJECTS MENU • LIGHTING • 349 Interpolate Time, Interpolate Date Use these options to control whether the time and date are interpolated. Examples 1 You want to simulate three days — the sun should fall and rise three times. Enable both options. 2 You want to animate several months with the clock always at 12 o’clock in the daytime. Disable Interpolate Time. Enable Interpolate Date. This prevents the time from being animated while still allowing the data to change.
350 • CHAPTER 7 Making gels A gel (also known as a lightmap) is produced by assigning a material with a transparency map texture to a light source. The light’s colored areas are then filtered by this texture and colored in exactly the same way that a slide projector projects a still picture. For example, the striped-shadow effect of a Venetian blind can be simulated by assigning a black-and-white striped gel to a light object. You can assign as many gels as you wish to each light object.
OBJECTS MENU • PARTICLES • 351 Particles Ever wanted to create shark-infested waters, an intergalactic fleet with hundreds of starships, or just some swirly cigarette smoke? CINEMA 4D’s particle system will do all of this for you, and much more, in a very easy and intuitive way. The optional Thinking Particles module enables you to create high-end, studio-quality particle effects directly within CINEMA 4D.
352 • CHAPTER 7 The particle stream can also contain mixed random particle objects (e.g. a variety of different birds). Simply drag the different objects into an emitter. These particles are then emitted in the same proportion. You can also use a metaball to achieve otherwise difficult effects, such as bubbling liquids. If the particles from an emitter are to be melded together into a metaball, the emitter must be a child of the metaball.
OBJECTS MENU • PARTICLES • 353 Baking Particles Under certain conditions it may become necessary to use the Bake Particles command for particle streams. What does this mean? Under normal conditions particle streams are rendered dynamically and sequentially, i.e. the position of a particle in the next frame depends on its position in the previous one. But this can cause problems in two ways ... First of all let’s consider rendering within mixed networks.
354 • CHAPTER 7 Emitter Attribute manager settings Particle Birthrate Editor Defines how many particles per second are to be created in the viewport. The particles are emitted randomly from the entire surface of the emitter. Birthrate Renderer Defines how many particles per second are to be created in the renderer. The particles are emitted randomly from the surface of the emitter. Visibility Defines how many of the particles should be visible.
OBJECTS MENU • PARTICLES • 355 Seed Seed is used to create the pattern of the particle stream. If you copy an emitter, you’ll notice that both emitters generate exactly the same pattern. If you want each stream to be unique, set the Seed of each emitter to a different value. For example, a seed value of 1 will create a completely different stream than a seed value of 0. Lifetime Gives the length of time a particle will be visible.
356 • CHAPTER 7 Emitter Emitter Type Choose whether the particles will be emitted in the shape of a cone or pyramid. X-Size, Y-Size Give the size of the emitter. You can also scale the emitter by selecting the Scale tool and dragging in the viewport. Angle Horizontal, Angle Vertical These parameters set the value of the emission angle.
OBJECTS MENU • PARTICLES • 357 Attractor The Attractor is a radially symmetrical gravitational force. With this modifier you can capture particles in a similar way that the sun captures individual planets. You can also create water whirls with this function. Outside of the range of the Attractor, the particles will move in a linear fashion. Particles inside the attractor’s bounding box are influenced by the attractor’s strength. The size of the bounding box does not influence the strength.
358 • CHAPTER 7 Deflector Balls colliding with the edges of a billiard table can easily be simulated using the Deflector modifier. A Deflector modifier deflects particles. A realistically animated billiard table could quite easily be created with just five deflectors (one for the surface plus four cushions). The emitter creates just one particle (a sphere for the ball) that never leaves the table, rebounding off the cushions. Beware of using fast moving particles with deflectors.
OBJECTS MENU • PARTICLES • 359 Attribute manager settings Object Properties Elasticity Indicates how bouncy the deflectors should be, i.e. the degree of rebound. With a value of 100%, the exit angle is the same as the entry angle. The smaller the elasticity value, the more the particle’s energy is absorbed by the deflector and the more the motion proceeds along the direction of the deflector. Split Beam If this option is enabled, the deflector divides the particle stream.
360 • CHAPTER 7 Destructor The Destructor modifier enables you to destroy (i.e. remove) particles from the particle stream. Particles are affected by the destructor if the origin of their local axes lands within the boundaries of the destructor (the size of the particle object plays no part here). So that the destructor has a definite effect, i.e. destroys particles, it must have a minimum thickness greater than the distance covered per frame by the particles.
OBJECTS MENU • PARTICLES • 361 Friction Friction reduces the speed of the particles, even bringing them to a complete standstill. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Strength Gives the strength of the friction, which affects how quickly the particles are slowed down. The friction coefficient can also be a negative value, in which case the particles will be accelerated. Size Defines the size of the Friction modifier in the X, Y and Z directions.
362 • CHAPTER 7 Gravity The gravitational force acts in the negative Y direction only (unlike the Attractor modifier), which is indicated in the viewport by a yellow arrow. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Acceleration Defines the strength of the acceleration due to gravity. A negative value for Acceleration produces repulsion instead of attraction. Size Defines the size of the Gravity modifier in the X, Y and Z directions.
OBJECTS MENU • PARTICLES • 363 Rotation Rotation imposes a velocity vector in the XY plane of the modifier that is always tangential to a circle whose radius connects the particle and the modifier’s Z axis. This rotation occurs around. The Z-axis of the Rotation modifier. For an interesting effect, place the modifier with its Z-axis parallel to the direction of the starting point of the particles. This will create a spiral-shaped helical movement.
364 • CHAPTER 7 Turbulence The Turbulence modifier continually assigns random velocities to the individual particles. Interesting effects can be made with an elongated modifier, resulting in twisting effects such as smoke. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Strength The strength of the turbulence. Size Defines the size of the Turbulence modifier in all three directions.
OBJECTS MENU • PARTICLES • 365 Wind Wind diverts and disrupts the particle stream in a particular direction. The wind’s direction is represented in the viewport as a fan with a yellow arrow that points in the direction of the wind. The speed at which the fan rotates in the viewport gives you an indication of the wind’s speed. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Wind Speed The strength of the wind. Size Defines the size of the Wind modifier in all three directions.
366 • CHAPTER 7 Examples Particle animation with light sources In this example, we’ll create a comet tail. Create a light source with the Attribute manager settings listed below. Only the values that you need to change are listed — leave other values at their default. General page Color = R 100%, G 50 %, B 0%; Visible Light = Visible; No Light Radiation enabled. Visibility page Outer Distance = 10 m; Relative Scale Z (i.e. the third Relative Scale box) = 200%; Additive enabled.
OBJECTS MENU • PARTICLES • 367 Metaparticles In this example, you’ll learn how to combine particles with metaballs. Note that the emitter — including its child — must be a child of the Metaball object. Start by choosing Objects > Modeling > Metaball to create a Metaball object. Now edit the settings in the Attribute manager. As with the first example, only the values that you need to change are listed — leave the other values set to their default.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 369 Deformers The deformer objects deform the geometry of other objects. You can use deformers on primitive objects, NURBS objects, polygon objects and splines. The deformer will affect its parent object and the hierarchy below that parent.
370 • CHAPTER 7 By default, all deformers in CINEMA 4D are represented in the viewport by a cyan cage. The cage and its handles represents how the deformation effect will be applied to the object. You can modify the deformer’s cage in several ways. The two most common ways are by dragging its handles in the viewport or by adjusting its values in the Attribute manager. The following sections on the individual deformer objects give more detail on the relevance of this cage and how it can be adjusted.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 371 Bend This deformer bends an object. Drag the orange handle on the deformer’s top surface to change the bend interactively in the viewport. Cube with 5x5x5 segments. The same cube with a bend deformation. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Size You can use the three input boxes to change the deformer’s X, Y and Z dimensions.
372 • CHAPTER 7 Mode There are three modes for bend deformation. Limited. Within Box. Unlimited. Limited The entire object is affected. Surfaces at a height between the top and bottom of the (undeformed) cyan box are bent and the other surfaces are translated if necessary to accommodate the bend. Within Box Surfaces within the (undeformed) cyan box are bent. Surfaces outside the box remain exactly where they are (they are unaffected). Unlimited The entire object is bent.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 373 Bone Modeling characters and moving their limbs and clothes realistically is one of the most challenging and rewarding tasks in 3D. One approach is to divide the character object into several objects and apply inverse kinematics. A downside to this method is that it requires you to split the mesh at the joints, which causes splits in the character’s surface. A better solution is to mimic nature by placing a skeleton (i.e.
374 • CHAPTER 7 Attribute manager settings Object Properties Null If this option is enabled, the bone becomes a null bone. You can use this null bone as a parent bone — in other words, as a parent axis system. Smart Bone Enable the Smart Bone option to apply a new bone algorithm. This algorithm is compatible with other 3D software and is also much faster. Once the option is enabled, a second option, Absolute Vertex Map, becomes available.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 375 The higher the power of 1/r, the greater the pull on the surrounding points, as shown in these examples: Function 1/r^2 Function 1/r^10 The bend becomes tighter in the joint region with increasing power for the radius setting. Lower settings are more suited to tube-like objects such as snakes; higher settings are more suited to anatomical joints such as elbows. The function must be defined in the bone at the top of the hierarchy (topmost in the Object manager).
376 • CHAPTER 7 Limit Range enabled, Minimum set to 35 and Maximum set to 95. The pictures above and below show how, in view of the original horizontal position of the bone: - the volume within the Minimum distance is rotated but not distorted; - the volume between the Minimum and Maximum distances is rotated and distorted; - the volume outside the Maximum distance is not influenced at all. Starting object; plane with bone.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 377 Fixation You can use this page among other things to define an irregular scale for a bone, e.g. to create irregular bone radii. Proceed with caution — the sub-systems will be distorted, which can lead to unexpected results. Fixed This option is primarily a visual feedback to indicate whether the bone has already been fixed. For example, disable the option to mark all bones which have yet to be fixed. Fix Bone Fixes the selected bones.
378 • CHAPTER 7 Show Proxy Enable this option to display the bone as a box. Start Size, End Size Define the size of the box in the X, Y and Z directions. Start Offset, End Offset These values allow you to move the start and end of the box away from the bone’s position. Laying out a bones hierarchy In this section we’ll create a hierarchy for a HyperNURBS leg. Once the leg is in the viewport, the next step is to create three bones, one each for the thigh, lower leg and foot.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 379 Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. We need just one more bone, the foot bone. In the side view, pull the foot bone out from the lower leg bone (Figure 3). Move into the top view and ensure that the bone runs through the middle of the foot. The bone may spin around its Z-axis when you drag its handle. If this happens, rotate the bone about the Y-axis of the world coordinate system using the Rotate tool instead, otherwise problems may occur later when the bone is animated.
380 • CHAPTER 7 Now adjust the radii for the lower leg bone until they enclose the entire lower leg and part of the foot. Next, adjust the radii for the thigh bone so that they enclose the entire thigh and part of the knee (Figure 6). Slight overlaps are fine. What is important is that all parts of the leg are influenced by at least one bone, otherwise uninfluenced points will be left behind when the bones are animated, causing the leg to tear.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 381 Bones are activated automatically when you fix them. However, just activating the bones will not fix them! You must fix the bones before activating them. Once you have fixed the bones, you can activate and deactivate them as required. You may be wondering what happens if you activate a bone before it is fixed.
382 • CHAPTER 7 You can solve this problem by defining either a polygon selection or a vertex map for each leg. There is no need to define a restriction for each part of the leg — it is sufficient to restrict each leg as a whole. For our example, a polygon selection per leg is adequate, since the points in the HyperNURBS cage are spread out.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 383 Bulge This deformer makes an object bulge or contract. Drag the orange handle on the deformer’s top surface to control the bulge interactively in the viewport. Cube with 5x5x5 segments. The same cube with a bulge deformation. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Size You can use the three input boxes to change the deformer’s X, Y and Z dimensions. Mode There are three modes for bulge deformation: Limited, Within Box and Unlimited. Limited. Within Box.
384 • CHAPTER 7 Limited The entire object is affected. Surfaces at a height between the top and bottom of the (undeformed) cyan box are bulged and the other surfaces are translated if necessary to accommodate the bulge. In the example, the result is the same as Within Box. However, the effect differs when the bulge deformer is moved or rotated. Within Box Surfaces within the (undeformed) cyan box bulge. Surfaces outside the box remain exactly where they are (they are unaffected).
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 385 Explosion FX With Explosion FX, you can quickly create and animate realistic explosion effects. It produces clusters out of the object it is deforming, over which you have a great deal of control. To animate the explosion, animate the Time parameter. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Time Drag the Time parameter’s arrowheads to preview the animated explosion in the viewport.
386 • CHAPTER 7 Direction This sets the direction in which clusters can be accelerated — along all axes, along two axes, or along one axis only. Use Variation to vary the direction of each cluster. This helps you avoid uniform shapes to the explosion. If you have set Direction to a single axis, enable Linear if you want equal force to be applied to all clusters. Blast Time Like Strength, this affects the amount of force applied to the clusters.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 387 Cluster Thickness, Variation Enter a Thickness value here to give exploding clusters volume. The volume is achieved by extruding the cluster surfaces in the direction of their surface normals. To reverse the direction of the extrusion, enter a negative value. Use Variation to vary the thickness of clusters. Density, Variation Here, enter a density so that the weight of each cluster can be calculated and taken into account. Use Variation to vary the density of clusters.
388 • CHAPTER 7 Selections + Polys Each polygon selection forms a cluster. Each unselected polygon also forms a cluster. However, if you type the name of a selection into the Mask box, a cluster is formed for that selection and a cluster is created for each remaining polygon. Disappear, Kind, Start, Duration Enable the Disappear option if you want the clusters to shrink and eventually disappear during the explosion.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 389 Range, Variation Beyond the red radius, only gravity accelerates the clusters. Gravity is limited by the blue radius. This (blue) frame defines the area in which gravity has an effect. However, all clusters inside the blast range (red frame) will be affected by gravity regardless. Use Variation to prevent a perfect sphere of gravity. Rotation Speed, Decay, Variation Speed defines the speed of rotation of the clusters. A negative value reverses the direction of rotation.
390 • CHAPTER 7 Special Wind, Variation The Wind value defines the strength of the wind effect. The wind blows in the direction of the exploding object’s Z-axis. Use Variation to vary the wind for each cluster. Wind does not take object weight into account. Twist, Variation Use Twist to twist the clusters about the Y-axis of the exploding object. Use Variation to vary the twist for each cluster.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 391 Explosion The Explosion deformer explodes an object into its constituent polygons. The recipient object explodes from the deformer’s origin. Drag the orange handle to control the state of the explosion interactively in the viewport. The Explosion object does not support vertex maps. To animate the explosion, animate the Strength parameter. For a complete explosion, set Strength for the first key to 0% and Strength for the second key to 100%.
392 • CHAPTER 7 Angle Speed This value defines the angle through which each polygon rotates during the entire explosion. The direction of the rotation axis for each polygon is random and changes over the course of the explosion. End Size This value defines the relative size of each polygon at the end of the explosion. If the value is set to 1, the polygons will remain the same size throughout the explosion. If the value is set to 0, the polygons will disappear by the end of the explosion.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 393 FFD The FFD deforms objects freely using any number of grid points. The FFD deformer affects vertices of any object that reside within the original unmodified FFD cage. You can animate an FFD deformer using morph targets or PLA. In contrast to the other deformers, you must edit the FFD in point mode (there are no handles to move, only grid points to manipulate). Cube with 5x5x5 segments. The same cube with an FFD deformation.
394 • CHAPTER 7 Formula The Formula object uses mathematical formulae to deform other objects. Drag the handles to control the size of the deformer. All surfaces — including those outside the cyan box — are affected. The default formula creates circular waves. Try dropping the Formula deformer into a sphere and then drag the time slider on the animation toolbar. The Formula box dimensions scale the effect of the formula. Each dimension of the box scales the result of the formula by that dimension.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 395 Manual You can enter separate formulae for the X, Y and Z directions. This enables you to combine several formulae. Spherical The effect radiates spherically from the deformer’s origin outwards. Cylindrical The effect starts from the deformer’s Y-axis and travels radially along its X-axis and Z-axis. X Radial The effect starts from the deformer’s origin and travels along its X-axis only. Y Radial The effect starts from the deformer’s origin and travels along its Y-axis only.
396 • CHAPTER 7 Melt The melt deformer has no cyan bounding box. The recipient object melts radially from the deformer’s origin. Drag the orange handle to control the state of the melt deformation interactively in the viewport. The recipient object will melt onto the Y plane of the deformer’s origin. Consequently, the melt deformer is usually placed at the bottom of the recipient object. Any part of the original object below the deformer’s XZ plane will be truncated. Cube with 5x5x5 segments.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 397 Radial Randomness Defines the variation in outwards motion. Melted Size Defines the final width of the recipient object relative to its original width. The default value is 400%. Imagine a melting ice cube — the width of the puddle left behind is naturally much larger than the original width of the ice cube. Noise Scale The higher you set this value, the more irregular the surface becomes during the melt deformation.
398 • CHAPTER 7 Polygon Reduction The Polygon Reduction deformer enables you to reduce the number of polygons of any CINEMA 4D geometric object and operates in a flexible and intuitive way. Polygon Reduction is available from the Objects > Deformation menu and behaves like any other deformer – just choose Polygon Reduction and place the resultant object into the Object manager hierarchy of the object that you want to affect.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 399 - Now move this object into the hierarchy of the object that you wish to affect; you can place the Polygon Reduction object anywhere within an object’s hierarchy – polygon reduction will take place on this object and all its children. It works as a deformer. While the polygon reduction is taking place, information on the process (including the original and the expected final polygon count) will appear in CINEMA 4D’s status bar (bottom left).
400 • CHAPTER 7 In Figure 1, below, the triangle (polygon) C has overlapped the A and B polygons of the mesh. Or, perhaps more clearly, with the neighbor triangles of the collapsed edge being vi, vj in Figure 2. A normal reduction should result in Figure 3 (or Figure 4 in 3D). Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 401 For instance, consider a cylinder. This option will ensure that the cylinder wall will be continuous, and have a continuous boundary at the top and bottom of the side walls that approximates the original boundary. The cylinder will also retain its caps, consisting of polygons that define a continuous boundary that approximates the original boundary. However, the resulting wall and caps may not meet perfectly at their boundaries.
402 • CHAPTER 7 As with other deformers you can turn Polygon Reduction on and off using the tick icon alongside the Polygon Reduction object in the Object manager. You can do this at any time that Polygon Reduction is part of the object’s hierarchy. The Polygon Reduction deformer turned on. The Polygon Reduction deformer turned off.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 403 Here is an example of sliver triangles generated as a result of the reduction (if the Polygon Quality Preservation option is not used): ... and sliver triangles preserved when this option is on, due to their existence in the original object mesh: Such preservation results from the fact that the algorithm detects that collapses in the area of the slivers will lead to other slivers and therefore postpones the reduction.
404 • CHAPTER 7 Here are some results generated with Polygon Reduction: A 3D head with 6,876 triangles, reduced to 3,437 triangles . The head rendered with 6,876 triangles, 3,437 triangles and 1,715 triangles. A 3D plane with 998 triangles (front) and 20,000 triangles (rear). The same 3D planes showing the object mesh. A reduced sphere with 528 triangles (front) and the original sphere with 8,448 triangles (rear).
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 405 An example of reduction applied to a non-manifold plane object with complicated boundaries.
406 • CHAPTER 7 Shatter The Shatter deformer has no cyan box. The recipient object shatters into individual polygons, which then fall to the ground. Drag the orange handle (this may be difficult to see when the Strength is set to 0) to control the state of the shatter deformation interactively in the viewport. The shattered polygons will fall parallel to the Y-axis of the deformer. Consequently, the Shatter deformer is usually placed at the bottom of the recipient object.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 407 Randomness Defines the percentage by which the individual polygon speeds may vary from the perfect, uniform value. The Shatter object does not support vertex maps.
408 • CHAPTER 7 Shear This deformer shears an object. Drag the orange handle on the deformer’s top surface to control the shear deformation interactively in the viewport. Cube with 5x5x5 segments. The same cube with a shear deformation. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Size You can use the three input boxes to change the deformer’s X, Y and Z dimensions.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 409 Mode There are three modes for shear deformation: Limited, Within Box and Unlimited. Limited. Within Box. Unlimited. Limited The entire object is affected. Surfaces at a height between the top and bottom of the (undeformed) cyan box are sheared and the other surfaces are translated if necessary to accommodate the shear. Within Box Surfaces within the (undeformed) cyan box are sheared. Surfaces outside the box remain exactly where they are (they are unaffected).
410 • CHAPTER 7 Spherify The Spherify deformer attempts to deform the object into a spherical shape according to its Strength setting. The Spherify deformer has two orange handles in the viewport that you can drag interactively to adjust its radius and strength. To increase the smoothness of the spherical deformation, increase the number of subdivisions of the objects being deformed. Subdivided cube before deformation. Strength set to 70%. Strength set to 100%.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 411 Spline Deformer The Spline Deformer deforms objects using two splines: an original spline and a modifying spline. The Spline deformer considers the differences in position and shape of the two splines and deforms the object accordingly. The Spline deformer is especially useful for character modeling and animation. For example, you can use several modifying splines to quickly and easily create various facial expressions or tendons stretching the skin.
412 • CHAPTER 7 Attribute manager settings Object Properties Original Spline Drag and drop the name of the original spline from the Object manager into this box. The original spline should rest on the surface of the object you want to deform. Modifying Spline Drag and drop the name of the new spline from the Object manager into this box. The Spline deformer calculates the difference in distance and shape between the splines and moves the points that are near the original spline accordingly.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 413 Radius Low Radius value. High Radius value. The Radius value defines the deformation distance at right angles to the splines. Use Length Enable this option if the two splines have a different number of points. The Spline deformer then spreads out the points internally to improve the accuracy of the deformation. Full Polygons Enable Full Polygons if artefacts appear when the object is deformed. Full polygons will then be taken into account rather than points only.
414 • CHAPTER 7 Spline Rail Spline Rail deforms polygon objects using up to four splines that define the target shape. Before Spline Rail deformation (left) and after (right). Create 1, 2 or 4 splines to form the target shape. The splines must be arranged in a particular way relative to a reference object, which can be the Spline Rail object itself or any other object in the scene. You’ll learn how to arrange the splines and how to assign the reference object in the following section.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 415 The deformation is directional. The splines should start at the -Z-axis direction of the reference object and end toward the +Z axis direction of the reference object. X Spline Top, X Spline Bottom These splines should also lie on the XZ plane of the reference object and should be as parallel as possible to the X-axis. One of the splines should be above the other and the splines should point in the same direction as the reference object’s X-axis or Z-axis.
416 • CHAPTER 7 Example Suppose that you want to squeeze a cube through a funnel that is represented by two splines. To do this, proceed as follows: - Choose Objects > Primitive > Cube to create a cube. - In the Attribute manager, change segments X, Y and Z to 10. Changing the segments will enable us to create a smoother deformation. - In the viewport, change to the XY view (by default, select View > View 4). This gives us an orthographic view of the XY plane.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 417 - Hold down the Ctrl key and click to create the first point in the viewport. Ctrl-click and make a second point to create a diagonal line as shown in the picture below. - In the Attribute manager, disable Close Spline on the Object page. This is very important. - Double click on the spline’s name in the Object manager and name it Left.
418 • CHAPTER 7 - Select the Left spline in the Object manager and duplicate it by pressing Ctrl-C (Windows) or Command-C (Mac OS), then Ctrl-V (Windows) or Command-V (Mac OS). This will create a new spline named Left.1. - Select the Model tool and in the Coordinates manager change H to 180. Your splines should now look like those in the picture below. - In the Object manager, double click the Left.1 spline’s name and name it Right. - Choose Objects > Null Object to create a null object.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 419 - Select the cube and move it along its Y-axis until the top of the cube is level with the top of the funnel, as in the picture below. - Choose Objects > Deformation >Spline Rail to create a Spline Rail object. - In the Object manager, drag and drop the name Spline Rail onto the name Cube to make the Spline Rail a child of the cube. - Click the name Spline Rail to select the deformer; this displays its settings in the Attribute manager.
420 • CHAPTER 7 - With the Spline Rail still selected, in the Attribute manager, change Mode to Limited. The Attribute manager should now look like this: - Select the Spline Rail and move it along its Y-axis. The cube will be deformed by the two splines as you move the deformer. Switch to the 3D view if you wish to see the effect in 3D. As with all deformers, the Spline Rail can be animated using CINEMA 4D’s animation tools.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 421 Taper This deformer narrows or widens objects towards one end. Drag the orange handle on the deformer’s top surface to control the taper deformation interactively in the viewport. Cube with 5x5x5 segments. The same cube with a taper deformation. Attribute manager settings Object Properties Size You can use the three input boxes to change the deformer’s X, Y and Z dimensions. Mode There are three modes for taper deformation: Limited, Within Box and Unlimited. Limited.
422 • CHAPTER 7 Limited The entire object is affected. Surfaces at a height between the top and bottom of the (undeformed) cyan box are tapered and the other surfaces are translated if necessary to accommodate the taper. Within Box Surfaces within the (undeformed) cyan box are tapered. Surfaces outside the box remain exactly where they are (they are unaffected). Unlimited The entire object is tapered. Strength This is the strength of the taper.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 423 Twist This deformer twists an object about its Y-axis. Drag the orange handle on the deformer’s top surface to control the twist deformation interactively in the viewport. A deformer can only work with what you give it. If you wish to twist the recipient smoothly, ensure that it has a sufficiently high number of segments/subdivisions along the twist axis. Cube with 5x5x5 segments. The same cube with a twist deformation.
424 • CHAPTER 7 Mode There are three modes for twist deformation: Limited, Within Box and Unlimited. Limited. Within Box. Unlimited. Limited The entire object is affected. Surfaces at a height between the top and bottom of the (undeformed) cyan box are twisted and the other surfaces are translated if necessary to accommodate the twist. Within Box Surfaces within the (undeformed) cyan box are twisted. Surfaces outside the box remain exactly where they are (they are unaffected).
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 425 Wind This deformer generates waves on an object. The wind blows in the deformer’s positive X direction. The wind deformer is animated automatically (click the animation toolbar’s Play button). Drag the orange handle on the Z-axis to change the amplitude of the waves interactively in the viewport. Drag the orange handle on the X-axis to change the size of the waves in the X and Y directions.
426 • CHAPTER 7 Size This value scales the deformer in the X-axis and Y-axis. Increasing this value will have the effect of increasing the frequency of the waves. If the Flag option is checked, Size will also cause a more abrupt change in the size of the X-axis envelope. Frequency The frequency determines the speed of the waves. Turbulence This setting adds secondary waves in the X direction, with amplitude in the +Z direction.
OBJECTS MENU • DEFORMERS • 427 Wrap In the viewport, you’ll see that the wrap deformer has a flat surface and a curved surface. The curved surface represents the part of the sphere or cylinder around which the recipient object will be wrapped. The straight surface represents the total area that can be wrapped around the curved surface. If the recipient object is larger than the flat surface, then only the part that lies within the flat surface’s borders will deform correctly onto the curved surface.
428 • CHAPTER 7 Wrap Cylindrical wrap. Spherical wrap. Determines whether the recipient is wrapped around a sphere or a cylinder. Longitude Start, Longitude End These angles define the horizontal span of the curved surface. If Start is set to 180° and End to 360°, the curved surface forms half of the cylinder or sphere in the horizontal direction. Latitude Start, Latitude End These angles define the vertical span of the spherical surface.
OBJECTS MENU • MANAGING YOUR ENVIRONMENT • 429 Managing your environment Floor Object This command creates a Floor object. The floor always lies in the XZ plane of the world coordinate system, stretching to infinity in all directions (when you render). You may create as many floors as you need and use them all at the same time in CINEMA 4D. You could, for example, use multiple floors as pseudo skies on to which you can add cloud layers of differing transparency.
430 • CHAPTER 7 Sky Object By default, only the topmost Sky object in the hierarchy is used. If there are several Sky objects in your scene, you can control which one will be rendered using the Stage object. This command creates a Sky object. In contrast to the Floor object, the sky is an infinitely large sphere, whose center is the origin of the world coordinate system. If you want to apply a texture (e.g. the 2D cloud shader) to the sky, you should use Spherical or Cubic projection.
OBJECTS MENU • MANAGING YOUR ENVIRONMENT • 431 Environment Object By default, only the topmost Environment object in the hierarchy will be rendered. If you want to change the environment during an animation, use the Stage object with a parameter track. Use the Environment object to define several global scene parameters such as the scene’s environment light (also known as ‘ambient lighting’). You can use the Environment object with volumetric shaders.
432 • CHAPTER 7 Enable Fog Switches fog on or off. Color, Strength These parameters define the color and brightness of the fog. Distance Environment fog fills the entire screen, stretching to infinity. Distance refers to the fog’s intensity by specifying the distance over which a light beam will lose its intensity completely. As the light loses intensity, the fog color is added.
OBJECTS MENU • MANAGING YOUR ENVIRONMENT • 433 Foreground Object, Background Object By default, only the top-most Foreground/Background object in the hierarchy will be rendered. If you want to change the Foreground/Background object during an animation, use the Stage object with a parameter track. To render (or show in the viewport) a foreground or background image, you may assign a textured material to a Foreground or Background object, just as you would to any other object.
434 • CHAPTER 7 A CINEMA 4D object (the bridge) fits neatly into both a foreground and a background image (scene by Joachim Hoff). Foreground and background pictures can also be tiled. For this effect, use the Texture tag’s settings. Foreground and background pictures are scaled to the film format during rendering. Transparent sections of the background are ignored. Animations and frame sequences can also be used for foreground and background pictures.
OBJECTS MENU • MANAGING YOUR ENVIRONMENT • 435 Stage Object The Stage object behaves like a movie director. It determines when a camera, an environment, a background and so on are used within an animation. For example, you can create many different cameras in your scene and use the Stage object to decide when to cut to a particular camera. You can also use the Stage object to switch between Sky, Foreground, Background, and Environment objects.
436 • CHAPTER 7 Selection Object When recording keys in autokeying mode, you can restrict the recording to specific objects by using a Selection object. Then, only those objects that are assigned to the Selection object can be animated. Attribute manager settings Object Properties hierarchy icon Restore Selection If you click this button, all objects that are assigned to the Selection object (i.e. all those in the List box) are selected in the Object manager.
OBJECTS MENU • SOUND • 437 Sound CINEMA 4D provides sound rendering within your scenes. Two different options are available: 2D Sound Rendering and 3D Sound Rendering. With 2D sound rendering you use the Timeline like a multi-track audio mixer (as in many video editing programs). You can create any number of sound tracks, assign WAV files to them and adjust the timing, the volume and the balance, depending upon your requirements. This procedure is suitable for synchronization (e.g.
438 • CHAPTER 7 Loudspeaker This command creates a Loudspeaker object, which is required for the calculation of 3D sound rendering. You can assign a WAV sound file to a loudspeaker object in the Timeline and later record the sound information emitted by the loudspeaker with one or more microphones. Loudspeaker objects are displayed in the viewport as 3D objects (simple loudspeaker shapes), but they are hidden when rendered so that they will not interfere with your scene.
OBJECTS MENU • SOUND • 439 Outer Cone, Outer Angle Enable the Outer Cone option to limit the falloff of the loudspeaker within a cone defined by Outer Angle. Possible values lie between 0° and 180°, but cannot fall below the value of the inner angle. Inner Cone, Inner Angle In order to define an inner angle, you must first enable Outer Cone. With Inner Cone enabled, you can define an inner falloff angle (Inner Angle).
440 • CHAPTER 7 Mono Microphone This command creates a mono Microphone object. Microphones are used for the recording of emitted sound information. In order to create 3D sound data, you must use at least one Microphone object. The parameters of the Microphone object resemble those of the loudspeaker object. So you can define a conical effective range and regulate the falloff (and the sensitivity).
OBJECTS MENU • SOUND • 441 Show Cone And Falloff The cone defines the microphone’s pickup area. With this option you can define whether, in the viewport, the effective range (cone and falloff range) of the microphone, as well as its handles, are displayed. The option is enabled by default. Disable the option to avoid clutter in complex scenes. Outer Cone, Outer Angle Enable Outer Cone to limit the pickup area of the microphone within the cone defined by the Outer Angle.
442 • CHAPTER 7 Falloff, Inner Distance, Outer Distance The type of falloff is only effective between Inner Distance and Outer Distance. The optional falloff values of the microphone define the range of the pickup area. Additionally a type of falloff can be selected. Inner Distance and Outer Distance define the start and end of the falloff. The falloff controls how the sensitivity of the pickup is to decrease over distance. This shows the various types of microphone falloff, graphically.
OBJECTS MENU • SOUND • 443 Stereo Microphone Use this to create a stereo microphone. Sound information for the left and right sound channels can be rendered automatically. The stereo microphone object exists primarily to create stereo sound data quickly and easily and differs therefore from the mono microphone previously described and also from the predefined groups of microphones described below. The distance between the two sound channels (stereo) can only be defined for this special microphone object.
444 • CHAPTER 7 Stereo This ‘stereo’ microphone is not an object in the conventional sense, but a predefined group of objects containing two mono microphones. This function creates a group of objects that contains two conventional, spatially shifted mono microphones. - Microphone_L (for the left stereo channel). - Microphone_R (for the right stereo channel). You can make individual adjustments to the characteristics of both microphones (see ‘Mono Microphone’ earlier in this chapter).
OBJECTS MENU • SOUND • 445 DTS 5.1 DTS 5.1 is a standard recording format for many cinema productions. The first number refers to the five sound channels. The front three (left, center, right) use the frequency range from 20Hz to 20kHz and the two surround channels the range from 80Hz to 20kHz. The rear channel is the sub-woofer, which uses only low frequencies in the range between 20Hz and 80Hz.
446 • CHAPTER 7 DDS EX 6.1 DDS EX 6.1 is a modern method from Lucasfilm TXH and Dolby Laboratories Inc. It uses an additional middle surround channel to offer the listener a particularly good localization of auditory perspectives. Otherwise it is compatible with Dolby digital 5.1. The number ‘6’ from the name refers to the six available channels. The front three (left, center, right) use the frequency range from 20Hz to 20kHz and the three surround channels the range from 80Hz to 20kHz.
OBJECTS MENU • SOUND • 447 SDDS 7.1 SDDS 7.1 works, in principle, like Dolby Digital 5.1. Additionally, however, the number of center channels is increased from 1 to 3. This makes a better sound distribution possible with the large and broad projection screens in cinemas. Otherwise it is compatible with Dolby Digital and DTS. The number ‘7’ in the name refers to the seven available channels.
OBJECTS MENU • OBJECT LIBRARY • 449 Object Library On the Objects > Object Library submenu you’ll find a useful collection of pre-built models, including some outstanding human characters made with CINEMA 4D’s HyperNURBS tool. Adding models to the object library You can add your own models to the Object Library menu. This gives you a quick way to add frequently used objects to your scenes.
8 Tools Menu
TOOLS MENU • 453 8 Tools Menu Move This tool lets you place the selected object or element anywhere in a viewport, subject to other options like snap, whether certain axes are locked, etc. When moving objects, CINEMA 4D distinguishes between the world coordinate system and the local object coordinate system. This distinction is especially noticeable when movement takes place in different axial systems and only the X-axis is activated, say.
454 • CHAPTER 8 You can also lock the movement to an axis by double-clicking the arrowhead for that axis, which will then turn yellow. You can then drag from any position in the viewport to move the object along the locked axis (you no longer need to drag the arrowhead itself). To change which axis is locked, click one of the other axis arrowheads. To unlock the axis, double-click its arrowhead or one of the other axis arrowheads.
TOOLS MENU • 455 Attribute manager settings Modeling Axis The modeling axis is designed to be used during the modeling stage. It works with polygon objects in the point, edge and polygon modes. The Modeling Axis tab is described here and is available for each of the following tools: Move, Scale, Rotate, Live Selection, Rectangle Selection, Freehand Selection and Polygon Selection.
456 • CHAPTER 8 Root The origin of the object that is at the root of the hierarchy. Parent The origin of the object’s immediate parent. Bounds The center of an invislbe bounding box that just fits the selected objects. You can offset the position of the modeling axis away from the bounding box center using the X, Y and Z sliders. Points The center of all object points (including points that are not selected). Camera The center of the camera view.
TOOLS MENU • 457 Retain Changes If this option is enabled, the modeling axis will temporarily retain its position after being moved or rotated. For example, suppose Axis is set to Object (in this mode, the modeling axis will be positioned at the object’s origin). You select some polygons and move them to a new position by dragging an axis arrowhead. The modeling axis will move along with the polygons while you are dragging the polygons to their new position.
458 • CHAPTER 8 Scale When scaling objects, note that you can either use the Model tool or the Object tool. Use the Model tool when you are modeling scale and the Object tool when you are animating scale. For more details, look up ‘Object tool’ and ‘Model tool’ in the index. With this tool you can re-size the selected objects or elements. When in Scaling mode, CINEMA 4D distinguishes between the world coordinate system and the local object coordinate system.
TOOLS MENU • 459 To constrain (i.e. lock) scaling to one axis only, drag the box at the end of that axis. This saves you from having to lock axes manually. You can also lock the scaling to an axis by double-clicking the box for that axis, which will then turn yellow. You can then drag from any position in the viewport to scale the object along the locked axis (you no longer need to drag the box itself). To change which axis is locked, click one of the other axis boxes.
460 • CHAPTER 8 Rotate This tool rotates the selected objects or elements when you drag the mouse from an empty space within the viewport. When rotating objects, CINEMA 4D distinguishes between the world coordinate system and the local object coordinate system and you can choose to rotate in either system. As long as the object lies parallel to the axes of the world coordinate system you will not notice a difference when you rotate in either system.
TOOLS MENU • 461 - Choose Objects > Primitive > Cube to create a cube. - In the Coordinate manager, under Rotation, set B (bank) to 30° and click Apply to apply the angle to the cube. - In the animation toolbar, disable the Position, Scale and Parameter icons so that only Rotation is active. - Click Record. Open the Timeline if it isn’t already open and you’ll see that a new rotation sequence with a key at frame 0 has been created for each rotation track (H, P and B).
462 • CHAPTER 8 Rotating multiple objects When multiple objects are selected, a shared axis system appears in the viewport between the selected objects. You can rotate the objects using the shared axis system or you can rotate the objects using any one of their object axis systems (click the origin of the object axis system that you want to use). Attribute manager settings Modeling Axis Look up ‘modexling axis’ in the index. Snap Settings Look up ‘snap settings’ in the index.
TOOLS MENU • 463 Move, Scale and Rotate with mouse and keyboard Moving, scaling and rotating with the mouse To move, scale or rotate the selected objects without their children, hold down Ctrl while you drag. You can use the mouse for moving, scaling and rotating. A left/right drag manipulates the X-axis while a back-and-forth drag controls the Y-axis. For the Z-axis you have to use the right mouse button. Macintosh users; as usual, use the Command key to simulate the right mouse button.
464 • CHAPTER 8 Magnify Use the Magnify command to zoom in on a particular region of the work area. To define that area, drag a rectangle around it. Alternatively, click to zoom in by 25% or Ctrl-click to zoom out by 25%.
TOOLS MENU • 465 Modeling modes Default Mode This is the modeling mode that was used prior to CINEMA 4D R9. In this mode, you can select either object elements (such as points, edges or polygons, depending on which tool is selected) or the objects themselves. Auto Switch Mode This mode is designed for use with the Live Selection tool. Move the mouse pointer over a selected object’s elements (points, edges or polygons). When the mouse pointer is over an element, the element will highlight yellow.
466 • CHAPTER 8 Tweak Mode Tweak mode used with the Move tool and Extrude tool. As its name suggests, the Tweak mode gives you a quick way to tweak polygon models. To use Tweak mode: 1. Select a tool that supports tweak mode, such as Move, Extrude or Bevel. 2. Move the mouse pointer over a selected object’s elements (points, edges or polygons). When the mouse pointer is over an element, the element will highlight yellow. 3. Move the mouse pointer over the element that you want to tweak.
TOOLS MENU • 467 If N-gon Triangulation mode is enabled, an n-gon will be internally retriangulated each time you move one of the n-gon’s points. If the mode is disabled, you can retriangulate the n-gons manually by choose Functions > Retriangulate N-gons. Use Isoline Editing If this option is enabled, all the elements of the HyperNURBS cage object — i.e. its points, edges and polygons — will be projected onto the smoothed HyperNURBS object.
468 • CHAPTER 8 Camera With this tool you work with the camera that is being used in the active viewport. All subsequent actions affect the camera in this viewport. In the planar viewports (XY, ZY, XZ) you can move and magnify the displayed area; in the 3D viewport you can change the Editor camera or the Object camera. You can move in the following ways. Keyboard short-cuts Action Result 1 + drag Move camera left/right/up/down. 2 + drag Move camera forwards/backwards.
TOOLS MENU • 469 To zoom by moving the camera forwards or backwards - Select the Scale tool and drag left or right. To zoom by changing the focal length - Select the Scale tool and right-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS). Rotating the camera The 2D viewports cannot be rotated. To rotate the camera about the origin of the selected object (or the world coordinates if no object is selected), select the Rotate tool and drag. If no objects are selected, rotation is about the world origin.
470 • CHAPTER 8 Points You can quickly access commands for points from the context menu by right-clicking (Windows) or Command-clicking (Mac OS) on a point. Select this tool when you want to edit an object’s points. All subsequent actions such as rotation and scaling will affect the points. In addition, the Delete function on the Edit menu now refers to the points of the object rather than to the object itself. As soon as the tool is selected, all points of the object are represented by small squares.
TOOLS MENU • 471 Edges You can quickly access commands for edges from the context menu by right-clicking (Windows) or Command-clicking (Mac OS) on an edge. Click this tool when you want to edit the edges of polygons. Selected edges are red. You can select and edit edges in much the same way as for points. To select an edge, drag over the edges with the Live Selection tool, just as you would to select points (or use any other selection tool).
472 • CHAPTER 8 Object Axis Use the Object axis tool if you want to set move and rotation points for Inverse Kinematics or to align objects created with Duplicate or to create a Lathe NURBS object with a spline contour. The Object Axis tool enables you to modify the axes of the selected object without affecting the object’s points or polygons.
TOOLS MENU • 473 Model Select this tool when you want to move, scale or rotate an object during the modeling stage. To move, scale or rotate the selected object, select the Move, Scale or Rotate tool from the Tools menu (or click the appropriate icon on the left toolbar) and drag from an empty space within the viewport. You can also move, scale or rotate by entering new values for these parameters in the Coordinate manager or the Attribute manager.
474 • CHAPTER 8 Example Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4. Consider a scene with two objects, a (polygon) sphere and a cube (Figure 1). The cube is a child (sub-object) of the sphere. The axial length of both objects is 1/1/1 (the default). - Now choose Tools > Object to select the Object tool. Select the Sphere. In the Coordinate manager’s Size column, set the drop-down list to Scale and set X (Scale) to 2.
TOOLS MENU • 475 Texture You can edit one texture at a time only. If multiple Texture tags are selected, the grid lines will not appear and cannot be edited. This enables you to edit the active texture. As soon as you choose this tool the texture of the object is shown and cyan grid lines appear. The mapping (i.e. the type of projection) is taken into account. The grid lines are drawn according to the type of projection chosen, e.g. spherical mapping is shown with a spherical cyan grid.
476 • CHAPTER 8 Texture Axis You can edit one texture at a time only. If multiple Texture tags are selected, the grid lines will not appear and cannot be edited. This tool enables you to edit the texture axes of the active texture. As soon as you select the tool, the texture of the object is shown and the texture envelope appears. You can move, scale and rotate the envelope in the usual fashion (by dragging with the Move, Scale or Rotate tool selected).
TOOLS MENU • 477 Inverse Kinematics Ensure that only one object is selected before using the Inverse Kinematics tool. If multiple objects are selected, the IK tool will be unable to move them. This tool enables you to move hierarchical objects interactively using inverse kinematics (IK). For example, you can grab the hand of an arm and move it to the required position. The arm will follow automatically, obeying any rotation restrictions you have applied to the joints.
478 • CHAPTER 8 CINEMA 4D’s Figure object is mainly included in CINEMA 4D to help you learn how to set up an IK figure. To create the Figure object, choose Objects > Primitive > Figure. Next, select Functions > Make Editable — this converts the figure into polygons with separate limbs, an existing hierarchy and all the tags you need to get started. To use IK, select the IK tool and the Move tool, click a body part such as a hand, then drag within the viewport.
TOOLS MENU • 479 Lower Leg, Joint and Toe are each assigned an IK tag (Object manager menu: File > CINEMA 4D Tags > IK). In the Object manager, click the IK tag to display its parameters in the Attribute manager. On the Attribute manager’s Tag Properties page, you’ll find a Target Object box. Drag and drop the object that you want to act as the target from the Object manager into the Target Object box.
480 • CHAPTER 8 Animation Ensure that only one object is selected before using the Animation tool. If multiple objects are selected, you’ll be unable to edit their paths. Selecting this tool lets you edit the animation path of the selected object. You can drag the path’s points to new positions and you can use the Move, Scale and Rotate tools to move, scale and rotate the entire path. The Axes Using these options, you can restrict movement, scaling or rotation to specific axes.
TOOLS MENU • 481 Coordinate System Here you decide in which coordinate system an operation will take place. Not all options work with both systems. Scaling of object axes for example can occur only within the object coordinate system. The object coordinate system is the local system of an object, shown in the viewports by the colored axes; X (red), Y (green) and Z (blue). Each object has its own object coordinate system. For each type of operation, CINEMA 4D remembers the state of the coordinate system.
482 • CHAPTER 8 Moreover, the HPB angles create naturally interpolated movements that are particularly useful for aeroplanes, cars or cameras. When you rotate around a particular axis in the XYZ system this may cause all three HPB components to change. The result is a tumbling animation. With the HPB system this cannot happen. Although the HPB system is excellent for animation, it is useless when it comes to constructing objects.
TOOLS MENU • 483 A further example clarifies the decoupling problem This example should to clarify why CINEMA 4D uses the Euler system. You’ll find this system easy to use once you are familiar with it. - Suppose for a moment that CINEMA 4D doesn’t use Euler angles. Imagine a point on the X-axis in position 100/0/0. - Rotate the point 90° around the Y-axis. It then lies exactly on the Z-axis at 0/0/100. Now keep rotating, this time for 30° around the X-axis. The point now lies in the ZY plane at 0/87/50.
9 Selection Menu
SELECTION MENU • 487 9 Selection Menu Selection Filter To enable one option and disable all others, hold down Ctrl and, from the menu, choose the option you want to enable. Use this menu to choose which types of object can be selected in the viewport (by default, all object types are selectable). Enable an option to enable selection for that object type, or disable the option to prevent selection. You can still select objects in the Object manager even if their object types are disabled.
488 • CHAPTER 9 Object tab Enable the options for the types of objects you want to select. For example, to select all nulls and all bones (but no other types of object), enable Null and Bone and ensure the other options are disabled. Types of object not present in the scene will be ghosted. Suppose you have ten lights in your scene set to the same brightness and arranged around a car. You want to adjust the brightness because the render is too bright.
SELECTION MENU • 489 Tags tab Enable the options for the types of tags you want to select. Types of tag not present in the scene will be ghosted. Restrict to Active Objects Enable this option if you want to select like tags of the selected objects only, rather than all like tags in the scene. For example, suppose you have ten characters in the scene, each with many Texture tags, and you want to select the Texture tags of Bob and Lisa only. In the Object manager, or in the viewport, select Bob and Lisa.
490 • CHAPTER 9 Main selection tools When using the Move, Scale or Rotate tools, you can click to select individual points. Live Selection. Rectangle Selection. Freehand Selection. Polygon Selection. This group of selection tools — Live, Rectangle, Freehand and Polygon Selection — enables you to select points, edges and polygons in various ways. CINEMA 4D remembers the selection for each selection tool. When you return to a selection tool, that tool’s previous selection is re-selected.
SELECTION MENU • 491 Attribute manager settings Options Radius (Live Selection) This determines the radius of the Live Selection brush. While holding down the mouse button, the radius can be changed with the mouse wheel. Pressure Dependent Radius (Live Selection) If you own a graphics tablet, you can enable this option to make the radius dependent on the pen pressure. The Radius value defines the maximum radius, i.e. the radius when full pen pressure is applied.
492 • CHAPTER 9 Tolerant Edge Selection (Live Selection) This option applies to edge mode only. If the option is enabled, an edge will be selected if the Live Selection tool touches any part of it. If the option is disabled, the edge will only be selected once 75% or more of it has been painted. Mode (Live Selection) Normal This is the standard mode for the Live Selection tool. It hides away the vertex painting and soft selection settings.
SELECTION MENU • 493 Soft Selection The soft selected polygons before (left) and after (right) being moved up the Y-axis. Selecting polys with soft selection allows you to move them with a smooth interpolation between themselves and the unselected polygons. Increase the Radius value to affect a greater number of polygons. Soft selected elements can be editing using the Move, Scale and Rotate tools.
494 • CHAPTER 9 Mode In clockwise direction starting from top left: the selected surfaces, Group mode, All mode, Center mode. The Mode defines where the radius starts. Choose from the following: - Group: The radius starts from the center of each selected element group. - Center: The radius starts from the common center of all selections. - All: The radius starts from the edges of the selection. Graph Here you can define a custom falloff if Falloff is set to Spline.
SELECTION MENU • 495 Loop Selection You can select loops in all three modes (point, edge and polygon) using this selection tool. What are loops? Loops are elements (points, edges or polygons) that are connected together in the shape of a loop. Loops are commonly used when modeling 3D characters because they help to ensure perfect deformation when a character is animated or posed using bones. These loops frequently need to be edited. Loop Selection gives you a quick way to select the loops.
496 • CHAPTER 9 Stop At Boundary Edges enabled (left) and disabled (center); Select Boundary Loop enabled (right). Select Boundary Loop If enabled, this option allows only boundary loops to be selected. If the tool doesn’t seem to be working, check that this option is disabled. It allows only boundary loops to be selected.
SELECTION MENU • 497 Ring Selection This tool is the same as Loop Selection except it selects elements that form a broad ring-shape. The tool works in all three modes (point, edge and polygon). From top to bottom: Ring Selection in polygon, edge and point mode. Outline Selection In polygon mode, this tool selects the edges that outline the selected polygons. Move the mouse pointer over the polygon selection.
498 • CHAPTER 9 Fill Selection In edge mode, Fill Selection creates a polygon selection from an existing edge selection (preferably closed). Move the mouse pointer over the edge selection. When the polygons for the selection highlight yellow, click to select those polygons — polygon mode will be activated automatically. Creating a polygon selection from a closed edge selection using Fill Selection.
SELECTION MENU • 499 - If the Edges tool is selected, the edge selection is converted to a polygon selection. If the Tolerant option is enabled, all neighboring elements are selected. Suppose you’ve selected a point on a Cube and you want to convert this to a polygon selection. If Tolerant is enabled, all polygons that use the point will be selected. If Tolerant is disabled, no polygons will be selected. You can also convert the selection by Ctrl-clicking the appropriate tool.
500 • CHAPTER 9 Grow Selection The initial selection. Adjacent polygons are now also selected. With this command you can add to a selection. All adjacent points, edges or polygons (depending on which mode you are in) are added to the current selection. Shrink Selection Before using Shrink Selection. After using Shrink Selection. This command shrinks the selection by deselecting all points, edges or polygons (depending on which mode you are in) at the edge of the selection.
SELECTION MENU • 501 Hide Unselected This command hides all unselected elements of the same type as the selection tool. If you hide unselected polygons, their points are hidden also. However, in point mode, only the deselected points are hidden, not the polygons attached to them. Unhide All This command makes all hidden elements visible again. If a point, line, or polygon selection tool is active, then this command unhides only that type, otherwise this command will unhide all types.
502 • CHAPTER 9 Attribute manager settings To access commands for a selection tag, select the tag in the Object manager. The commands appear in the Attribute manager. Tag Properties Restore Selection Restores the frozen selection. All other elements of the object are deselected. Select And Hide Others Selects the frozen selection and hides all other elements (points, edges or polygons). Select Points/Edges/Polygons The frozen selection is added to the existing selection.
SELECTION MENU • 503 Set Vertex Weight This command is especially useful when working with deformation objects. You can use it to restrict a deformation object’s influence with precision. For example, you can use it so that a twist deformer twists the head of a figure only, not the entire body. The most powerful application for this command is to create vertex maps or weight maps for bones. Therefore, the steps involved in using vertex maps is described in the section on bones.
10 Structure Menu
STRUCTURE MENU • 507 10 Structure Menu The Structure menu has various tools that allow you to adjust the structure of polygon objects and spline objects. Most of these tools are available in the point, edge and polygon modes. Any objects that you want to use with these tools must be editable. You can make objects editable by selecting them and choosing Functions > Make Editable. Usually, the Structure tools affect the selected points, edges or polygons only.
508 • CHAPTER 10 Attribute manager settings Each structure tool has up to three tabs of settings that you can adjust in the Attribute manager: Options, Tool and Snap Settings. The settings on the Options tab are different for each tool and are described later in this chapter, in the descriptions for each structure tool. The Tool tab settings are the same for each tool, as are the Snap Settings. The Tool tab and Snap Settings tab are described below.
STRUCTURE MENU • 509 Snap Settings Snapping works when moving elements but not when scaling or rotating them. Snapping gives you a quick way to accurately place objects in the scene. With snapping enabled, you can snap elements to other elements, e.g. one point can snap to another point, or a spline point can snap to the axis origin of another object.
510 • CHAPTER 10 This option allows you to enable and disable the use of a construction plane. Using a construction plane, you can constrain the creation of points and splines to a plane of your choosing. To create a construction plane, choose Objects > Modeling > Construction Plane. If no construction plane is present, the world grid (if enabled) is considered to be a construction plane. If there are several construction planes in a scene, the topmost visible plane is used.
STRUCTURE MENU • 511 Snap 2D Designed for use in the 2D viewports. In Snap 2D mode, the source point is snapped only if it is at same depth as the target point and within range of the target. In this case, depth is dependent on your selected viewport as follows: in the frontal viewport, the Z values of the elements must be equal; in the side viewport, the X values must be equal; and in the plan viewport, the Y values must be equal.
512 • CHAPTER 10 Edge Points have higher snapping priorities than edges. With this option enabled, the source is snapped to polygon edges. All visible, polygonal objects in the scene are considered. Polygon If you enable this option, the source is snapped to the surface of the target polygon. All visible polygonal objects in the scene are considered. This is particularly well suited to drawing splines on to polygon objects, for example. To do this you should disable all other options and use Snap 3D.
STRUCTURE MENU • 513 Perpendicular Here the source is not snapped if the source and target spline curves are tangential to each other, but only if the curves are perpendicular to each other. This option can be very time-consuming. Subdiv. See ‘Spline Grid’. Quantize The Quantize settings affect the mouse sensitivity when modeling and editing objects, points, surfaces and so on.
514 • CHAPTER 10 Edit Spline Before you can apply any of the tools or commands on the Edit Spline sub-menu to a spline primitive, you must first make it editable by choosing Functions > Make Editable. Hard Interpolation This command is not available for B-Splines. Before. After. This command switches all selected points to hard interpolation. If no points are selected, all points of the spline are automatically changed to hard interpolation.
STRUCTURE MENU • 515 Equal Tangent Length This command can be applied to Bezier Splines only. All other types of spline have preset interpolation which cannot be changed. Before. After. For each selected point, the shorter tangent handle is set to the same length as its partner tangent. If no points are selected, all points are automatically included in the action. Equal Tangent Direction This command can be applied to Bezier Splines only.
516 • CHAPTER 10 Join Segment Before. After. A spline can consist of several unconnected segments (a text spline is a good example of this). If you want to connect two of these segments, select one or more points of each segment and use the Join Segment command. The start points of each spline are joined to the end points of the other spline. If you directly select the end points of the two segments, however, these are also joined.
STRUCTURE MENU • 517 Set First Point This command requires a point selection and works in point mode only. When you choose this command, the selected point of a spline is defined as the new start point of the spline and the remaining points are re-sorted accordingly. If there are several segments within the spline, you can select a point or points within each segment; each segment will be re-ordered according to the chosen point(s) within it.
518 • CHAPTER 10 Chamfer Chamfer is an interactive tool. This means you control the tool directly with the mouse; select the tool then drag left or right within the viewport. Chamfer converts each selected point to two points with soft interpolation between them. Using this you can, for example, round the corners of a square by chamfering the points once or even several times. Only the selected points are chamfered. If no points are selected, all connected points of a spline are chamfered.
STRUCTURE MENU • 519 Create Outline For best results, use a Linear or Bezier spline. Before. After. This tool also works interactively. Select the tool and drag left or right within the viewport to create an outline around the original spline. The entire spline is outlined. For best results, the spline’s points should be planar. If the original spline is closed then the outline is created as a new segment with a reversed point order compared to the original.
520 • CHAPTER 10 Cross Section The splines must be selected in the Object manager. Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4. With this interactive tool, you can create cross sections for a group of splines; we’ll refer to these as ‘rail splines’. Cross sections are always created at right angles to the current view. You should therefore select a view in which you can see the rail splines directly from the side. Figure 1 shows some splines before any cross sections have been created.
STRUCTURE MENU • 521 Attribute manager settings Constrain Angle Perhaps you would like to be able to draw the cross sections only in certain directions, rather than free-form. To snap the cross-section to particular directions as you draw it, define a Constrain Angle and hold down the Shift key while you drag. The value you enter in Constrain Angle is used to define the direction of the cross section, starting east (to the right) in the current view and working anti-clockwise.
522 • CHAPTER 10 Preserve Groups If this option is enabled, the elements are disconnected from the object in one piece (provided they were connected to begin with). If the option is disabled, the elements are separated from one other as well as from the object. Edge To Spline This command creates a spline from an edge selection. A spline (right) is created from the selected edges (left). Line Up For best results, use a Linear or Bezier spline. Before. After.
STRUCTURE MENU • 523 Project The accuracy of the projected spline depends on two factors: how finely the spline is subdivided (the Project function does not add new points) and the alignment of the splines to the surface. For best results, use a Bezier spline. Using this command, you can project splines onto object surfaces. Consider a simple helix and a sphere. You can project the helix onto the sphere’s surface then, with a Sweep NURBS object, create a half-peeled orange skin.
524 • CHAPTER 10 After choosing the Project function, a dialog opens. Use this dialog to choose the type of projection. CINEMA 4D projects the spline onto all visible surfaces (hide the surfaces of any objects that you want to exclude from the projection). View Projects the points according to the current view in the viewport. If several projection possibilities exist for one point with this projection, the surface that lies the furthest away in front of the camera is selected.
STRUCTURE MENU • 525 Split If you want to delete the separated part from the original object, you can choose Delete directly after Split since the selection is still active (this works only if you are in polygon mode). The Split function differs very slightly from the Disconnect function; the difference is that, when using Split, the disconnected surfaces leave a separate object behind. The original object is not changed. This tool can also be applied to splines.
526 • CHAPTER 10 Add Point This tool allows you to add new points to objects. The tool works in all three modes: point, edge and polygon. A selection is not required. You can add points onto polygon surfaces or onto edges. Using the Add Point tool to project and move points in the polygon mode and edge mode. To add a point onto an element (polygon or edge): - Move the mouse pointer over the element. When the mouse pointer is over the element, the element will highlight in yellow.
STRUCTURE MENU • 527 In point mode, use the following keys to help you more easily select the element: Shift When you are working with dense mesh, highlighting polygons can be tricky when there are lots of edges getting in the way. In these cases, hold down the Shift key to exclude edges from being highlighted. Ctrl on the object This adds a point on the polygon or edge without connecting it to the mesh. Ctrl off the object The point will be created on the construction plane if one exists.
528 • CHAPTER 10 You can now keep the mouse button pressed to drag the point around, before letting it drop by releasing the mouse button in its final position. The shape of the curve does not change, since the tangents are adapted automatically (although when using the Cubic, Akima and B-Spline types of interpolation, by their very nature, the shape of the curve cannot be precisely maintained). Bridge Bridge enables you to create connections between unconnected surfaces.
STRUCTURE MENU • 529 Polygon mode In polygon mode, before you use the Bridge tool, you must first select the polygons that you want to connect. Then, using the Bridge tool, drag and drop from one side to the other. A yellow line will appear to assist you. See also ‘Using Bridge in polygon mode’. Using Bridge in polygon mode Figures 1 to 3 demonstrate how to connect two polygon cubes together using Bridge. - First select the polygons that you want to connect.
530 • CHAPTER 10 - Choose Objects > Polygon Object to create an empty object to which we can add points and polygons. - On the left toolbar, select the Points tool. - On the top toolbar, ensure that the Move tool is selected. - Ctrl-click six times in various places within the viewport to create two rows of points in roughly the same positions as those in Figure 6, below. If you click in the wrong place, you can quickly reset the Bridge tool by pressing the Esc key.
STRUCTURE MENU • 531 Brush The Brush tool enables you to: - deform polygon mesh in various ways - paint and edit vertex maps The Brush tool works in all three modes (point, edge and polygon). When the Brush tool is selected, you’ll see a yellow sphere appear in the view. All of the object points that are inside this sphere will be affected by the tool. In most of the brush modes, the object point closest to the sphere’s center will be highlighted yellow.
532 • CHAPTER 10 Attribute manager settings Surface If this option is enabled, the brush will affect a surface-oriented area instead of the entire 3D space inside the yellow sphere. This is especially useful when modeling fine details. Falloff The falloff functions for the brush are the same as those for the Magnet tool. For information on these modes, look up ‘Magnet tool’ in the index. Strength This defines the strength of the brush effect. To invert the effect, hold down Ctrl while you paint.
STRUCTURE MENU • 533 The following brush modes apply to vertex map painting and editing (select the desired vertex map, otherwise a new one will be created). Paint: Paint the vertex map weighting. Blur: Blurs the weighting. Useful for smoothing out and preventing abrupt changes in the weights. Original vertex map (left) and the vertex map after being edited in Blur mode (right). Bleed: Takes the weighting from the center of the brush and spreads this value over the Radius.
534 • CHAPTER 10 Close Polygon Hole Closing a polygon hole. Poor old Meg from the Objects > Object Library menu has stumbled over a loose bit of carpeting and hit the floor with a thud. And now there’s a gaping hole in her forehead! But there’s no need for surgery — CINEMA 4D’s Close Polygon tool can soon patch up Meg to look as good as new. The Close Polygon Hole tool works in all three modes (point, edge and polygon). To use the tool, move the mouse pointer over the hole.
STRUCTURE MENU • 535 To create a polygon surface: - In the viewport click once in each position where there should be a corner point. A yellow preview of the new polygon surface will appear, which will be updated as you add further new corner points. - Do one of the following: - Click again on corner points, including the last or first created. - Change to another tool. - In the Attribute manager, click the Create Polygon button.
536 • CHAPTER 10 Here you can choose which type of polygon to create: N-gon A single polygon with as many corner points as desired. Triangle Strip, Quadrangle Strip If you want to create a strip of polygons, enable one of these options. The Shift and Ctrl keys will have no effect while you are creating strips. N-gon Subdivision This setting is available if Create if set to N-gon.
STRUCTURE MENU • 537 Edge Cut Edge Cut applied to the selected edges with Create N-gons disabled (center) and enabled (right). The new points can still be offset. The Edge Cut tool allows you to interactively subdivide the selected edges. You can adjust the parameters in the Attribute manager or in the viewport (in the viewport, Shift-drag to adjust Scale; Ctrl-drag to adjust Offset; Crtl-Shift-drag to adjust Subdivision). Edge Cut works in edge mode only.
538 • CHAPTER 10 Iron If your mesh looks too uneven, smooth it out using this virtual iron. The tool works in all three modes (point, edge and polygon). The Iron tool works by smoothing out the selection in areas where the angle between neighboring edges is equal to or greater than a threshold angle (‘Angle’). The strength of smoothing is controlled by the Percent value. To use the Iron tool: - Drag in the viewport to vary the Percent value (i.e. the strength of smoothing).
STRUCTURE MENU • 539 Knife The Knife tool allows you to cut polygon objects and spline objects. The tool works in all three modes (point, edge and polygon). When you are cutting polygons, there are many parameters you can adjust to precisely control the cut. The Knife cuts the polygons by creating new points and edges along the cutting line. If you’ve made a selection, the cut will be restricted to the selection.
540 • CHAPTER 10 Loop mode The Loop mode enables you to subdivide edge loops. Move the mouse pointer to the position along one of the edges that the new loop should cut through. A yellow preview will appear to indicate where the new cut will be placed. Click to apply the cut. Path mode This mode requires an edge selection or polygon selection. Move the mouse pointer in the area of the selection. ‘Path’ will then attempt to cut a path (displayed as a yellow preview) through the selection.
STRUCTURE MENU • 541 Offset (Plane, Loop and Path modes) In Plane mode, Offset defines the position of the cut. In Loop mode, Offset defines the cut position along the selected edge (mouse position). In Path mode, Offset defines the cut position along the width of the cut. Keep Lock (Plane, Loop and Path modes) If this option is enabled, you can lock the cutting line in place by pressing Shift. Then, as you adjust the knife’s parameters, the cutting line will be updated in realtime.
542 • CHAPTER 10 Magnet With the magnet, you can pull sections out of polygon objects or splines. Click anywhere on the object(s) and drag the mouse. The further the points are from the mouse pointer, the weaker the magnet’s pull on them. If you hold down Shift while you drag, the points will be moved parallel to the normal of the yellow highlighted point.
STRUCTURE MENU • 543 Mode Here you can choose which type of falloff is used by the magnet. If Mode is set to Spline, you can use the spline graph to define a custom falloff function. To learn how to use graphs in CINEMA 4D, look up ‘function graphs’ in the index. Constant. Linear. Dome. Bell. Circle. Needle. Coords, X, Y, Z Here you can choose in which coordinate system (Object, World or Camera) and in which directions (and by how much) the magnet can pull in the X, Y and Z directions.
544 • CHAPTER 10 Mirror Using the Mirror tool, points and polygons can be mirrored. This tool functions in point or polygon mode. In point mode, only the selected points are mirrored (without their surfaces). If no points are selected, all points are mirrored. In polygon mode, the selected surfaces are mirrored. If no surfaces are selected, all surfaces are mirrored. Mirror can also be applied to splines. The selected points are mirrored as a new segment. Mirror functions interactively.
STRUCTURE MENU • 545 Screen In this mode, the object is mirrored in the current projection plane. If you first click in the area of the upper or lower window border, you get a horizontal mirror axis. If you first click in the area of the right or left window border, you get a vertical mirror axis. Mirror Plane This mode is available for the world and the object coordinate system. Select the XY, ZY or XZ plane.
546 • CHAPTER 10 Duplicate Points If this option is disabled, the selected elements are simply mirrored. If the option is enabled, the selected elements are first duplicated then mirrored. This gives you a mirrored copy of all the selected elements. Duplicate Tag Selection If this option is enabled, existing frozen selections or vertex weight tags are used when mirroring.
STRUCTURE MENU • 547 Leave The point coordinates will not be changed for the respective axis. Set Sets the point coordinates to the Val value along the respective axis. Center Centers the points along the respective axis. Quantize If, during the building of an object or a spline, the points have not been aligned to a grid, the Quantize mode can achieve this afterwards. All selected points (or the points of the selected edges or polygons) are snapped onto grid points.
548 • CHAPTER 10 Screen The set value refers to the virtual coordinate system of the current view. The screen coordinate system is the same as the (virtual) coordinate system of the camera, which is shifted to the place of the object axis. The XY plane is parallel to the projection plane. The Z-axis is perpendicular to this. In And Out (Crumple modes) If this option is enabled, each element may move inwards or outwards. With the option disabled, the elements will move outwards only.
STRUCTURE MENU • 549 Stitch And Sew The primary purpose of the Stitch And Sew tool is to join together object edges that have the same number of points. The tool works in all three modes (point, edge and polygon). However, it works with somewhat limited functionality in the polygon mode. In most cases, a selection is required. Stitch And Sew applied to the selected edges. To use the Stitch And Sew tool, in point or edge mode select the edges that you want to join.
550 • CHAPTER 10 Polygon mode The tool works differently in polygon mode. This mode only makes sense if a polygon strip is selected that is a single polygon wide. The selected polygon strip’s top row of points will be welded with the strip’s bottom row of points. You can modify the functionality using the Shift key and Ctrl key. If you hold down the Shift key at the same time, a new polygon will be created in the same place as the selected polygon strip.
STRUCTURE MENU • 551 Weld The Weld tool can weld several object points or spline points into a single point. Select the points that you want to weld together, choose the Weld tool and click on a point to choose where the welded point will be placed (you’ll see a yellow preview appear). If you click elsewhere instead of on one of these points, the welded point will be placed at the center of the selection (again, this is marked by a yellow preview).
552 • CHAPTER 10 Bevel Negative values can be used to bevel inward. This tool enables you to bevel the selected points, edges or polygons. If no elements all selected, then all points, edges or polygons (depending on the mode) will be considered. To apply the bevel (Inner Offset and Extrusion), drag the mouse left or right. To adjust the Extrusion value while in polygon mode, Shift-drag instead. To adjust the Inner Offset value only, Ctrl-drag.
STRUCTURE MENU • 553 Var (Extrusion) Var 0%. Var 60%. Varies the height of the extrusion. The value you enter is subtracted from 100% to give the start of the variation range. This option only has an effect if Preserve Groups (see below) is enabled. 0% No deviation from the Extrusion value. 60% All selected polygons are beveled between 40% and 100% of the Extrusion value. 100% All selected polygons are beveled between 0% and 100% of the Extrusion value.
554 • CHAPTER 10 Above, you can see the problem that arises when starting with an Inner Offset value that is set too high. To remedy, set Inner Offset to a lower value. Var (Inner Offset) Var 0%. Var 60%. Varies the inner offset. This option will have no effect if Preserve Groups (see below) is enabled. 0% No deviation from the offset value 60% Edges of selected polygons are inwardly beveled between 40% and 100% of the Inner Offset.
STRUCTURE MENU • 555 Create N-gons If you have specified extra subdivisions for the bevel’s extrusion, but you don’t want to see the extra edges in the viewport, enable this option. Type Here you can specify the type of bevel that will be applied. Convex, Concave and Bezier apply to edge bevels. Note that Subdivision must be set higher than 0. Edges prior to beveling (top left) and, clockwise: Convex, Concave, Bezier, Linear. Linear Produces a straight bevel.
556 • CHAPTER 10 Preserve Groups Preserve Groups disabled. Preserve Groups enabled. If this option is enabled, the connected surfaces will stay together, provided they do not exceed the angle set under Maximum Angle relative to each other. Polygon mode Example To create a faceted sphere: create a sphere, make it editable, switch to polygon mode, ensure that no polygons selected, disable Preserve Groups and in the viewport, drag the mouse. Before beveling. After beveling.
STRUCTURE MENU • 557 The highlighted edges before beveling (top left) and after beveling with various Extrusion and graph settings. The Maximum Angle and Extrusion values have no effect in edge mode. Point mode In point mode, the selected points will be beveled — that is, the points will be replaced by several points that you can adjust interactively by dragging the mouse. In point mode, the only Bevel parameters that are available are Inner Offset and Subdivision.
558 • CHAPTER 10 Extrude This tool extrudes selected points, edges or polygons. If no elements are selected, all of the object’s elements will be extruded. To extrude interactively in the viewport, drag left or right within the viewport. The extrusion takes place along the normals of the selected surfaces; the average value is evaluated from all the normals to be extruded.
STRUCTURE MENU • 559 Subdivision Subdivision set to 0 (left) and 3 (right). Defines the number of subdivisions along the extrusion. Create N-gons If this option is enabled, n-gons will be created along the length of the extrusion. Although you won’t see edges along the length of the extrusion, the Subdivision setting is still applied internally. Create Caps (polygon mode) Enable this option to create a cap at the base of the extrusion. This gives you a quick way to create a closed volume.
560 • CHAPTER 10 To extrude along an object or world axis instead of along the normals, perform an extrusion with an Offset (i.e. extrusion length) value of 0; then move the new surfaces using Move: To extrude, say, in the Z direction, lock the X and Y axes: Extruding edges To extrude the edges interactively, drag the mouse (this changes the Offset value, i.e. the length of the extrusion). With the mouse button still held down, you can Shift-drag to change the direction of the extrusion.
STRUCTURE MENU • 561 Extrude Inner Before extruding inwards. After extruding inwards. This tool operates in a similar way to Extrude. However, in contrast to Extrude, the selected polygons are extruded inwards or, optionally, outwards. To inner extrude interactively, drag left or right within the viewport. Attribute manager settings Maximum Angle If Preserve Groups is enabled, polygons not exceeding this angle to each other will stay together during the extrude inner.
562 • CHAPTER 10 Subdivision Here you can define the number of subdivisions for the inner extrude. Subdivision set to 0. Subdivision set to 3. Create N-gons Enable this option if you have defined subdivisions but want to avoid the additional edges between the original polygons and the inner extrude that this would normally cause. Preserve Groups Preserve Groups enabled. Preserve Groups disabled.
STRUCTURE MENU • 563 Matrix Extrude The Matrix Extrude tool is similar to Extrude, but with one difference: you can make as many extrusion steps as you want in one go. This is achieved by defining a relative value for move, rotation and size, which is then applied at each step. Matrix Extrude can be applied to polygons. The polygons are extruded individually — groups of surfaces are broken apart.
564 • CHAPTER 10 Keep in mind that the RAM used by the object can rise sharply when using Matrix Extrude — the hairy sphere example uses hundreds of times more RAM than a standard sphere. Attribute manager settings Steps Defines the number of extrusions for each polygon. Polygon Coordinates With Polygon Coordinates disabled, all of the cube’s polygons have been extruded in the same direction. Matrix Extrude depends on the polygon coordinates system if this option is enabled.
STRUCTURE MENU • 565 Scale Sets the scale factor for each extruded step. A value of 100% will keep each step the same size as the base polygon. Values less than 100% result in smaller scaling and values larger than 100% increase the surface size along the appropriate axis. Rotate Use these input boxes to control the rotation of the extruded surface around the individual axes.
566 • CHAPTER 10 Smooth Shift Smooth Shift is very similar to the Extrude tool. With Smooth Shift, however, the connected surfaces are extruded coherently. The direction in which the surfaces are extruded with Smooth Shift is determined not only by the normals of the selected surfaces, but also by the normals of the adjacent (unselected) surfaces. This makes it quick and easy to extrude lumps.
STRUCTURE MENU • 567 Subdivision Subdivision set to 0 (left) and 3 (right). The Subdivision value defines the number of subdivisions along the smooth shift extrusion. Create N-gons Enable this option if you have defined subdivisions but want to avoid the additional edges between the original polygons and the smooth shift extrusion that this would normally cause. Normal Move This tool is available in polygon mode only. Before. After.
568 • CHAPTER 10 Normal Scale This tool is available in polygon mode only. Before. After. Use this tool to scale selected polygons perpendicular to their normals. Use this tool interactively by dragging left or right within the viewport. You can also drive the tool with numeric input. Attribute manager settings Value The value for the scale. 100% means the surfaces are doubled in size. Normal Rotate This tool is available in polygon mode only. Before. After.
STRUCTURE MENU • 569 Attribute manager settings Value The value for the rotation. Structure Context Menu You can quickly access various commands for points, edges and polygons from the context menu. Different commands are available depending on whether you’re working in point, edge or polygon mode These commands are mostly from the Structure menu and Functions menu. To access the context menu, right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) on an object.
11 Functions Menu
FUNCTIONS MENU • 573 11 Functions Menu Make Editable CINEMA 4D’s primitive objects and spline primitives are parametric, i.e. they have no points or polygons and are instead created using math formulae and parameters. Since these objects have no points or polygons, they can’t be edited in the same way as normal polygon objects and splines. For example, you can’t select and move points, nor can you apply commands like Extrude and Create Outline.
574 • CHAPTER 11 Linear Mode Options Per Step This option defines whether the values for Position and Rotation apply from one object to the next or from the first object to the last. For example, suppose you have selected three spheres and set the Position Y value to 300. If Per Step is enabled, the first and second spheres will be 300 m apart; the second and third spheres will also be 300 m apart; and the first and third spheres will be 600 m apart.
FUNCTIONS MENU • 575 Scale Scaling with the origin at the object center (top) and away from the object center (bottom). Enable Scale controls if the objects will be scaled. Each object will be scaled towards or away from its origin. Therefore, ensure that each object’s origin is in the object’s center. The Scaling starts with the first object selected in the Object manager (this object stays the same size).
576 • CHAPTER 11 The spiral staircase in the example below was created by moving the origin away from the object center. A spiral staircase achieved by moving each object origin away from the object’s center. Circle Mode In this mode the selected objects are arranged along a virtual circle. Options Per Step Has the same function as previously described for the Linear mode. Position Enable, X, Y, Z The Enable option controls whether the selected objects should be arranged along the virtual circle.
FUNCTIONS MENU • 577 Radius Defines the radius of the virtual circle. Start, End These values define the start and end angles for the virtual circle. If Start and End are set to 0° and 360° respectively, the objects will be arranged at regular intervals along a full circle; the first and last object will be placed one on top of the other. Move You can specify an additional movement for the selected objects on top of the movement due to the circular arrangement and first object.
578 • CHAPTER 11 Along Spline mode In this mode you can arrange the objects along a spline. You can optionally specify a rail spline. Per Step Has the same function as previously described for the Linear mode. Position Enable, X, Y, Z Enable the Enable option to arrange the positions of the selected objects. Depending on in which directions you want the objects to be arranged, enable the X, Y or Z options.
FUNCTIONS MENU • 579 Rotation Enable Rotation Here you can enable rotation for the objects. The objects will then be arranged along the spline with the axis specified by the Align value tangential to the spline. Rail Spline You can use a rail spline to control the alignment of the objects. Drag and drop the rail spline from the Object manager into this box. The alignment axis is defined by Align. Bank The Bank is the angle by which each object is rotated about the object axis defined by Align.
580 • CHAPTER 11 Center This command centers objects in 3D space. It affects all the objects that are selected in the Object manager. The selected objects’ children are also affected. CINEMA 4D calculates the size of the object group; think of this as a three-dimensional cuboid which encloses the objects and imagine an axis system whose origin is at the center of this cuboid. This imaginary cuboid (Figure 1, below) is important in understanding the alignment options. Figure 1. Figure 2.
FUNCTIONS MENU • 581 Connect Using this command you can create a single object from multiple objects. For example, you might connect a fence consisting of hundreds of individual planks to form just a single fence object. Not only does the connected object take up less display space in the Object manager, it is also renders more quickly even though it has the same number of polygons. You can connect Polygon objects or Spline objects (not spline primitives, though — the splines must be editable).
582 • CHAPTER 11 Duplicate RAM-permitting, this function enables you to create as many duplicates of the selected objects as you wish. The function also lets you move, scale and rotate the duplicates and arrange them along a spline. Copies defines the number of duplicates that will be created. The duplicated objects will be placed inside a Null object named ‘*_copies’, where ‘*’ represents the name of the object that is being duplicated.
FUNCTIONS MENU • 583 Measure & Construction Measurement and interactive adjustment of the angle between two cubes. You can easily perform the following tasks using the Measurement and Construction tool — referred to as ‘M&C’ in the following: - Measure the distances and angles between objects. - Adjust the distances and angles numerically after taking the measurement. - Store measurements in a Measurement object for use later on. To measure and change object distances: 1.
584 • CHAPTER 11 To move an object’s individual points, edges and polygons: 1. Select the appropriate tool (Points, Edges or Polygons). 2. Select the elements that you want to move. 3. Hold down both Shift and Ctrl and drag and drop a measurement line from the start to end of the distance that you want to measure. Create a second measurement line if you want to change the angle. 4. Adjust the Distance and Angle values.
FUNCTIONS MENU • 585 Attribute manager settings Options Selection The M&C tool allows you to store multiple measurements. A new measurement is created each time you click the New Measure button. Use the Selection drop-down list to choose which measurement is currently active and has its settings displayed in the Attribute manager. Show This option controls whether the active measurement is displayed in the viewport. New Measure See ‘Selection’, above.
586 • CHAPTER 11 Delete Measure Deletes the active measurement. Create Object This button creates a Measure object, which enables you to store measurements. The Measure object stores almost all options, parameters and measurements. See also ‘Selection’. To change a Measure object’s distance and angle values: 1. In the viewport or Object manager, select the objects involved in the measurement. 2. Choose the M&C function. 3.
FUNCTIONS MENU • 587 Transfer Use this function to transfer the selected objects to the position, scale and/or rotation of another object (defined by Transfer To; this object is sometimes called the reference object). You can also specify which coordinates should be transferred. For example, to set the selected objects to the same height as the reference object, enable the options for Enable Move and Y and disable the other options.
588 • CHAPTER 11 Move The maximum values by which the objects may be moved. For example, values of (100,0,0) allow the objects to move by up to 100 units from their original positions in the X direction, but there will be no movement in the Y and Z directions. Scale The objects are scaled from their origins, therefore the position of the origin is important. The scaling can also be affected if any of the axes has been scaled independently of the object using the Object Axis tool.
FUNCTIONS MENU • 589 Align Orthogonally Resets a distorted system to conventional perpendicular axes. Offsets Primitives, light sources and all other non-polygonal objects can only be partially reset with the Offsets option, or possibly not reset at all. If Offsets is enabled, only the axes are restored, not the points — the points remain in their distorted state. Reset Sub-Objects Resets the axes for all child objects as well for the parent. To learn why this is useful, do the following.
590 • CHAPTER 11 Figure 3. Figure 4. - Take the cube out of the sphere hierarchy so that it is no longer a child (drag-and-drop in the Object manager). The X-axis and Y-axis no longer form a right angle (Figure 2). - Ensure that the Cube object is selected. - Choose Functions > Reset System and in the dialog that opens, enable Align Orthogonally and disable the other options in the dialog. Click OK to reset the cube’s axis system. - Rotate the cube. The cube no longer distorts when rotated.
FUNCTIONS MENU • 591 Why exactly are these normals needed? CINEMA 4D cannot easily recognize an object’s inner and outer surface without extra information. A basic sphere has an inner and an outer side, but only one surface level, which can be confusing. We need a better definition. Let’s define this single surface level to have an inner and an outer property. Outer designates, in principle, the direction in which the surface normals point and inner is therefore the opposite direction.
592 • CHAPTER 11 Reverse Normals Reversing the normals is achieved by changing the point sequence in a polygon (see Chapter 24, ‘Structure Manager’). This function is similar to Align Normals. Here, however, the normals are reversed. If no polygons are selected, all the normals of a selected object are reversed. With an active selection only the normals of the selected surfaces are considered.
FUNCTIONS MENU • 593 Collapse With the Collapse function, the selected points, edges or polygons are scaled down to a size of zero towards their center point. These points are then welded together. The function works in all three modes (point, edge and polygon). Before Collapse (left) and after Collapse (right). Melt Before (left) and after (right) the Melt function has been applied to the selected points, edges and polygons. This function melts away the selected points, edges or polygons.
594 • CHAPTER 11 Edge mode Removes the selected edges; points that have become superfluous as a result (i.e. points that are no longer part of an edge) are also deleted. Polygon mode Removes the inner edges of selected polygon groups. The Melt function is useful during the modeling process only. When it comes to rendering or animation, there are no benefits to Melt because any n-gons created by the function will be internally triangulated.
FUNCTIONS MENU • 595 Optimize If you were to build an object from many individual triangles and quadrangles — by using the Connect function, say — very often some of the points and surfaces would be duplicated. For example, the parametric primitives can contain duplicate points after being converted to polygon objects. You can eliminate these double elements with the Optimize function. The appearance of the object will not change, or will change only slightly, when using this function.
596 • CHAPTER 11 Subdivide With this command you can partition polygon objects or splines. If no polygons are selected when subdividing a particular polygon object, then all polygons are partitioned. Otherwise, only the selected polygons are subdivided. Subdivision The number of subdivision steps to be applied. Proceed with caution — the number of surfaces (or the number of points), and therefore the RAM required, for any object rises dramatically with each increase in this value.
FUNCTIONS MENU • 597 Triangulate Triangulate converts all of an object’s polygons to triangles. Generally, when modeling try to use quadrangles as much as possible since they are rendered faster than triangles and in addition tend to shade better. Untriangulate If you have an object built only of triangles (e.g. imported from another program), CINEMA 4D can try to convert the triangles into quadrangles. This works only as long as the triangles that you want to convert will result in a planar quadrangle.
598 • CHAPTER 11 Remove N-gons This command converts the selected objects’ n-gons to triangles and quadrangles. While you are modeling you can check up how the n-gons would be triangulated by enabling the N-gon Lines option in the viewport settings on the Filter tab (viewport: Edit > Configure). Keep in mind that these triangulation lines may change at any time while you are editing the mesh. Array An array is a list — an even arrangement of elements.
FUNCTIONS MENU • 599 The disadvantage of this method is the many individual objects that result from it. With the Array tool you duplicate just the surfaces (or points) and not the complete object. Thus you can produce a complete meadow from a single blade of grass. Clones Defines the number of clones along each object axis. This value also includes the original element. For example, if you enter the value of 2 for all three axes, it results in a total number of 2x2x2=8.
600 • CHAPTER 11 Clone This tool enables you to duplicate the surfaces or points of an object and optionally rotate the duplicated items about the object axis. You may also specify an offset that is used to move the duplicated elements along the object axis. Only selected elements (surfaces or points) are cloned. In point mode the selected points are cloned individually without their adjacent surfaces.
FUNCTIONS MENU • 601 Offset Gives the distance from the start element to the last clone along the selected object axis. All intermediate clones are distributed evenly over this distance. Scale This parameter enables you to scale the clones. The scale of the clones will increase gradually all the way to the last clone. Enter the size of the final clone as a percentage of the start element’s size. For example, if you want the last clone to be twice as large as the start element, set Scale to 200%.
602 • CHAPTER 11 Disconnect This command is also available on the Structure menu. Look up ‘Disconnect command’ in the index. Explode Segments This command is also available on the Structure menu. Look up ‘Explode Segments command’ in the index. Split This command is also available on the Structure menu. Look up ‘Split command’ in the index. Break Phong Shading Phong shading is broken for the selected edges. The Phong tag’s Angle Limit option will be enabled automatically if it isn’t already enabled.
12 Plugins
PLUGINS • 605 12 Plugins Plugins are auxiliary modules that extend the function range of a program. In CINEMA 4D, plugins are able, for example, to automate particular functions, to make new tools available (perhaps for modeling or animation), to add new import and export filters or to add new shaders. For this purpose, CINEMA 4D includes a powerful programming language, C.O.F.F.E.E., available to both developers and end-users. C.O.F.F.E.E.
606 • CHAPTER 12 ASCII Animation Import This plugin allows you to load ASCII-format CSV files (‘comma-separated values’) containing animation data. The plugin can also load TXT and ASC files. Values in the CSV file are separated in some way such as by commas. For example, a typical CSV file could look as follows: Frame, X Position, Y Position, Z Position 0, 100, 0, 0 1, 105, 0, 0 2, 110, 0, 0 etc. To use the plugin, select an object and choose Plugins > CINEMA 4D > ASCII Animation Import.
PLUGINS • 607 Scaling (Only Real) Each real value imported from the CSV file will be multiplied by this value. Changing the scaling in this way is necessary when the values you are importing from another program are very different to the values typically used in CINEMA 4D. Separator Here, choose which character separates the values in the CSV file. Track The imported values will be stored in animation keys, in the Value parameter. Here, choose the format for the key values.
608 • CHAPTER 12 Initially, these tracks are not assigned to parameters. This is because CINEMA 4D has no way of knowing which track should be applied to which parameter. The next step is to manually assign the imported tracks to the parameters that they should animate. To do this, add tracks for each parameter that should be animated. For example, to create a Position X track, in the Timeline choose File > New Track > Parameter > Position > X.
PLUGINS • 609 FlashEx FlashEx exports single objects or entire scenes in Macromedia’s Shockwave Flash format (SWF files). Using this format you can save entire animations for use on the Internet or in CD-ROM applications. The most important reason for using the SWF format is to save and animate vector lines. Although you can also export SWF files with embedded bitmapped graphics, the main strength is the vector output (for animations that include embedded bitmapped graphics, use .avi, .mov or .
610 • CHAPTER 12 Optimize For The Width and Height input boxes enable you to specify the optimum display size. When an SWF file is opened directly, most Internet browsers will display it in full screen mode but if you have enabled the Generate HTML option it will be displayed using this optimum size if possible. This size can be changed afterwards using any HTML editor. Optimize For settings are especially important for the display of lines and the Gouraud and Comic modes. (See also ‘Mode’, below.
PLUGINS • 611 Comic Flat Limited, Comic Round Limited Comic Flat. Comic Round. These two modes draw the objects cartoon-style. The Flat mode is the more suitable of the two for angular objects. Since the Comic modes generate shaded surfaces based on vectorized raster images, the accuracy is limited to pixels and therefore not as clean as the vector-based modes such as Wireframe or Solid. Just like a normal 2D picture, when you scale the SWF document there will be a loss of quality.
612 • CHAPTER 12 Background tab The background color is defined on this page of the FlashEx dialog. When importing SWF files into certain applications such as Macromedia Director, this background color can be made transparent. Lines tab Outline If this option is enabled, lines are drawn for all outer edges and intersecting lines. Edges Angle If this option is enabled and two polygons face each other at an angle greater than the one entered, they are drawn as edges.
PLUGINS • 613 Width This slider defines the vector line width and ranges from 0 to 20. A value of 0 creates a hairline which is still drawn as a hairline even if the SWF file is scaled larger in the Internet browser. When using values above 0, the lines are scaled with the document. An SWF file with an optimal size of 320 x 240 pixels and a line width of 1 pixel will display a line width of 2 pixels if it is scaled to a document size of 640 x 480 pixels. Merge Planes Merge Planes disabled.
614 • CHAPTER 12 The default options should be fine in most cases. For example, a quality setting of Automatic High results in the lines being antialiased. However, if the processor is unable to play back the animation properly with this setting, the Quality is reduced and the lines are drawn without antialiasing. The browser will do this automatically. FlashEx Tag Each object can be assigned a FlashEx tag (Object manager: File > CINEMA 4D Tags > FlashEx).
PLUGINS • 615 The FlashPlayer can’t display my SWF file properly in realtime. The scene is probably too complex. The player needs to draw all the vector lines in realtime and the processor speed determines how well it manages to do that. You need to simplify the scene. In 3D video games, characters often have less than a thousand polygons. How can I make the lines a similar color to the object color? Do one of the following: 1. Use FlashEx tags and define the line color manually per object. 2.
616 • CHAPTER 12 SpaceMouse This command is available only if you are using Windows. The SpaceMouse is an input device especially designed for 3D applications. Use this command to access controls that enable you to fine-tune this device.
13 Rendering
RENDERING • RENDER MENU • 619 13 Rendering Graphics card do not affect render speed. CINEMA 4D’s render engine supports 16-bit textures. The Render menu contains all the options you need to render a picture or animation. You can define several render presets, such as for preview and for final rendering. This saves you having to change the settings one by one each time. Using the render settings, you can also switch on effects such as multi-pass rendering.
620 • CHAPTER 13 Render Active Object If you want to save the picture or animation, you must render to the Picture Viewer instead using the Render To Picture Viewer command. If an alert appears when you render, see ‘Render Alerts’, above. This command renders the selected objects and their children in the active viewport. A render progress bar will appear in the bottom left corner of the screen. To cancel rendering, press Esc or click the mouse button.
RENDERING • RENDER MENU • 621 Batch Rendering Before you batch render, ensure each scene has a save path in its Render Settings. Also, render each scene individually as a precaution — you can abort each test as soon as the picture starts to appear. This is to check that no alerts (such as the missing textures alert) will interrupt batch rendering. This command enables you to queue up to ten scenes for rendering. The scenes will be rendered one after the other automatically.
622 • CHAPTER 13 The movie is saved in your CINEMA 4D folder under the name ‘preview.mov’ or ‘preview.avi.’. The movie will be overwritten automatically the next time you generate a preview, so if you want to keep a permanent copy of the preview, use the movie player to save it under a different name. Preview Mode Choose whether the preview movie should use the same shading as the viewport (As Editor) or render-quality shading as defined in the render settings (Full Render).
RENDERING • RENDER MENU • 623 New Render Settings To add default render settings, start a new scene and use New Render Settings to create the settings. Save this empty scene in CINEMA 4D’s root folder using the filename ‘template.c4d’. You can use this command to create new render settings. The Render Settings dialog opens.
624 • CHAPTER 13 Bake Texture (formerly SLA ‘Baker’) The Bake Texture command requires a high-quality UV map where the UVs do not overlap. For this reason, the BodyPaint 3D module is recommended. This command, which was previously known as “Baker,” allows you to create a bitmap of anything that effects an object’s shading, including shaders, textures, lights, and shadows. The command is located on the Render menu.
RENDERING • RENDER MENU • 625 - Enter the desired resolution, save path and format for the bitmap. - Select a Texture tag in the Object manager. The UV mesh must be optimized, i.e. no UV polygons may overlap. - Choose which channel to bake and enable the options for the effects that should be included, such as Illumination and Shadows. - Click Start to generate the bitmap. Load the bitmap into the diffusion material channel as a texture.
626 • CHAPTER 13 Illumination This gives you the lighting that affects the texture. The picture above shows the Illumination channel for the example scene. Shadows Choose Shadows to include any shadows on the object. Composite This option allows you to bake layered textures (i.e. multiple Texture tags on the same object, one texture on top of the other). When baking a parametric object, UVW mapping will be used regardless of the projection set in the Texture tag.
RENDERING • RENDER MENU • 627 Resolution, Pixel Buffer, Background, Path, Format You can define a bitmap’s resolution, background color (the areas without UV polygons), save path and format. The Pixel Buffer allows you to remove artefacts around polygon edges when using MIP or SAT mapping. Start, Cancel Bake the texture or cancel baking. Calculate Dirt Without dirt (left) and with dirt (right). One way to improve the realism of your renders it to add dirt to the scene.
628 • CHAPTER 13 This method involves a 2D shader and has two key advantages: It works with parametric objects, and you needn’t worry about the object’s UVs. 2. Using the Render menu (Render > Calculate Dirt) to create vertex maps or complete bitmaps. This method is only suitable if you own BodyPaint 3D, because a suitable UV mesh is required (with UV polygons that do not overlap). In the case of vertex maps, note that generators are switched off during creation.
RENDERING • RENDER MENU • 629 Material manager / Attribute manager settings The same parameters are available for vertex maps, bitmaps and shaders. Ray Bias Increase this value if you notice artefacts on the polygons. Maximum Distance The greater this value, the further the rays travel in order to determine the level of exposure of a given point. A greater value also creates dirt areas at a greater distance from creases, cracks and so on. The lower the value, the smaller the dirt areas.
630 • CHAPTER 13 Contrast Adjusts the contrast of the dirt. Include Subobjects This option is only available for the second method: Calculate Dirt. Subobjects are taken into account and receive separate vertex maps.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 631 Render Settings The settings in this dialog control many aspects of the rendering process; be sure to check all the values before you commit to a final render of your scene or animation. The render settings are saved automatically with the scene. General Name Enter a name for the settings. This name will appear in the Render menu so that you can switch between different settings.
632 • CHAPTER 13 Transparency None. No Refraction. With Refraction. None Transparency and alpha channels will not be rendered. No Refraction If you have placed a transparent object inside another object, the inner object may be black when rendered. To remedy, increase the Ray Depth value on the Options pages. Transparent materials will be rendered without refraction. If you are working with alpha channels, use No Refraction; otherwise, the surfaces will be opaque when rendered.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 633 Floor & Sky Only Only the floor and sky objects in the scene will be reflected. This allows for much faster rendering than All Objects and is a good compromise between no reflections and full reflections for timecritical projects. All Objects All objects in the scene can be reflected by relevant reflective objects. If there are no reflective objects in the scene, the render time will not increase, even when this setting is selected. Shadow None. Soft Only. All Types.
634 • CHAPTER 13 Output The settings on the Output page refer to rendering in the Picture Viewer only. These settings have no effect on rendering in the viewports. You must render to the Picture Viewer if you want to save the rendered image. Resolution Defines the size of the rendered image. Choose the resolution from the drop-down list or enter your own values in the two input boxes to the right. The drop-down list includes most common video formats.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 635 Pixel The two values specified here define the ratio of a pixel’s on-screen width (left box) to its on-screen height (right box). The pixel ratio for most monitors is 1:1, so usually you do not need to change this setting. However, some display media use a pixel ratio other than 1:1 and the setting must be adjusted to avoid distortions such as circles appearing as ellipses.
636 • CHAPTER 13 Field Rend. Avoid using field rendering with the depth of field effect (Advanced Render module); otherwise, the image quality will be badly affected. When field rendering, use a non-lossy compressor or no compression at all. Lossy compressors (e.g. JPEG, M-JPEG) blur the fields and are not suitable for field rendering. Poor results are likely with such compressors. Use field rendering for smoother playback when working with video.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 637 Save Save Image, Path When setting the path, keep the following in mind to avoid filename issues when moving the files from one operating system to another: use a maximum of 22 characters for the filename. For example, Mac OS 9.1 has the following limits: filename length: up to 31 characters — four characters for the file extension, (e.g. “*.tif”) — five characters for the sequential numbering when outputting a frame sequence (e.g. “_0023”).
638 • CHAPTER 13 Windows and Macintosh If you are using Windows, you must install QuickTime to take advantage of these features. - QuickTime Movie Small: a variant of the Cinepak codec is used to produce compact movies of reasonable quality. However, you won’t be able to play the movie backwards, nor will you be able to convert the movie to individual pictures (the movie is time-compressed). - QuickTime Movie Big: a variant of a non-lossy codec is used.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 639 DPI Use this setting to choose the DPI (dots per inch) for the following picture formats: BMP, TIF, PICT. The DPI affects a picture’s print size and, in certain applications, its display size. The DPI setting does not affect a picture’s Resolution (Output tab); the picture’s pixel dimensions remain the same, only the calculation regarding how many of those pixels (dots) should be printed or displayed per inch is changed. You render a picture that is 720 x 900 pixels.
640 • CHAPTER 13 In the illustration, the alpha channel causes a dark seam. This is because both the picture and the alpha channel were rendered with antialiasing. By definition, the color picture and the alpha channel must be multiplied and so the black is calculated twice. You can avoid this dark seam by using the Straight Alpha option instead. Note that straight alphas are suitable for compositing only; they are unusable as conventional pictures.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 641 Separate Alpha Alpha channels are usually integrated into TARGA, TIFF or PICT pictures — that is, they are saved as part of the image file. However, if you want to save the alpha channel as a separate file, enable this option. In addition to your color picture (e.g. ‘room.tif’), you will also have a file containing the alpha channel (e.g. ‘A_room.tif’). Alpha channels are always saved in the TIFF format.
642 • CHAPTER 13 3D lights & cameras (After Effects and Combustion only) You can also export CINEMA 4D’s camera and lights, including animation, and edit them in After Effects (5.5 or higher) or Combustion. The following camera data is supported: - Camera position. Camera orientation. Focal length. Camera to target distance (provided the CINEMA 4D scene used a target camera). The following types of light are supported: - Point. - Parallel. - Spot.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 643 The project in CINEMA 4D. The project in After Effects. The project in Combustion. The project in Final Cut Pro. The compositing programs will import the composition correctly provided that the compositing program is on the same computer as CINEMA 4D. When importing into After Effects, the compositing project file must be in the same folder as the passes; otherwise, the picture sequences or videos must be replaced manually.
644 • CHAPTER 13 Antialiasing Antialiasing removes jagged edges from your images. It works by breaking down each pixel into sub-pixels; rather than calculate just one color for a pixel, several color values are calculated and averaged to produce the final color for the pixel. Using the settings on the Antialiasing page, you can remove jagged edges. The top right inset box shows jagged edges without antialiasing, the bottom right inset box shows the smoothed result of applying antialiasing.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 645 Antialiasing None. Geometry. Best. None Switches off antialiasing. Rendering is exceptionally fast, but edges are jagged. Geometry The default antialiasing mode. Object edges are smooth when rendered. Best Switches on color antialiasing. Antialiasing softens color contrasts, such as shadow edges. Object edges are smoothed also. Filter The antialiasing will be blurred or sharpened according to your choice.
646 • CHAPTER 13 Catmull. PAL/NTSC. Still Image The default filter. It ensures sharp edges and is best suited to still images. For crisp, sharp stills, keep in mind that you may need to change the Sampling setting of materials. Although the default Sampling setting, MIP, is a good choice for materials on objects that extend towards the horizon — such as a floor — for things like bottle labels you’ll get a much sharper picture by changing Sampling to Square, Alias 1, Alias 2 or Alias 3.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 647 Softness Defines the softness of antialiasing for the Blend, Area and Cone filters. Threshold Neighboring pixels that differ in color by the Threshold value or more are antialiased. The default Threshold value is 10%. Depending on the scene, you may need to lower Threshold to about 3%. Min Level, Max Level If artefacts appear (e.g. small shadows become absorbed), either reduce the Threshold or increase the Min Level.
648 • CHAPTER 13 Radiosity, Caustics These settings will be available only if the Advanced Render module is installed. For more details about Advanced Render, please contact your local MAXON representative or visit maxon.net. Advanced Render is an optional module that includes global illumination (radiosity), caustics, enhanced depth of field, enhanced glow and a highlights filter. Natural lighting is made easy using the radiosity features of the Advanced Render module.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 649 Effects Use this page to control which post effects are rendered. To choose a post effect, click the Post Effect button in the top right corner of the dialog and choose the desired effect from the menu that appears. The effect will be added to the list below the Enable Post Effects option. To remove post effects from the list, select their names in this list (using Shift-click) and press the Backspace key.
650 • CHAPTER 13 Object Glow Glow effects are post processed effects: They are applied only after the picture is fully rendered; thus you cannot see glow effects in reflections or through transparent objects. Glow effects will be rendered if they are used in your scene. Lens Effects Lens effects will be rendered if they are used in your scene. Remote Use Remote if you want the picture or animation to be passed to another application automatically.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 651 Object Motion Blur Use scene motion blur if you want to blur shadows, reflections and so on. Object motion blur does not blur these features. With a real-life camera, motion blur arises when an object flies past the camera at great speed (‘object’ motion blur) or when the camera pans rapidly (‘scene’ motion blur). The advantages of object motion blur (OMB) are that the effect is rendered quickly and there are no stroboscope effects.
652 • CHAPTER 13 Scene Motion Blur Scene motion blur will also blur shadows, reflections and so on. Object motion blur, on the other hand, does not blur these. With a real-life camera, motion blur arises when an object flies past the camera at great speed (‘object’ motion blur) or when the camera pans rapidly (‘scene’ motion blur). This motion blur helps to create the illusion of real motion rather than a sequence of still pictures and so it is of great use to animation software.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 653 If the motion is rapid, you may need to use a high setting to avoid a stroboscope effect (Figure 2). If you use scene motion blur in your scene, you may be able to reduce the amount of antialiasing. Stationary elements in the frame are antialiased perfectly, whereas moving elements are not antialiased.
654 • CHAPTER 13 Cel Renderer Using this post effect, you can render pictures and animations in a cartoon style. Color disabled (left) and enabled (right). Illumination enabled (left) and disabled (right). Outline enabled (left) and disabled (right). Edges disabled (left) and enabled (right). Edge Color black (left) and white (right). Background Color white (left) and black (right).
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 655 Color The render time increases linearly with the number of polygons. If this option is disabled, objects will usually be rendered with black outlines on a white background. When Color is enabled, all objects will be rendered using a reduced color palette (depending on the Quantize and Steps settings) and black outlines on a black background. This gives the rendered subjects a cartoon-like feel.
656 • CHAPTER 13 Edge Color Use this to change the color used by Outline and Edges — even if the Color option is disabled. Background Color This setting changes the background color provided that Color is disabled. When Color is enabled, the option has no effect. Quantize, Steps From left to right: Quantize enabled and Steps set to 3, 7 and 20. To render the cartoon effect with ‘color steps’, enable the Quantize option and set steps to the number of color steps.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 657 Options Active Objects Only If this option is enabled, only the selected objects will be included when you render the scene. Auto Light When enabled, if there are no lights in your scene, CINEMA 4D uses its auto light (a standard light source) during rendering so that you can see the objects. Log File If this option is enabled, a render log will be recorded in ‘Renderlog.txt’ in the CINEMA 4D folder.
658 • CHAPTER 13 Blurry Effects Use this option to enable/disable the blur effect for the Reflection and Transparency material channels. Volumetric Lighting Enable this option if you want shadows to be cast in visible light. Since the effect is processorintensive, you may want to speed up test-renders by disabling the option. Use Display Tag LOD If this option is enabled, the renderer will use the level of detail specified in Display tags.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 659 The Cache Shadow Maps option works intelligently. For example, suppose there are three lights in your scene that are casting soft shadows. You then change the parameters for one of these lights. CINEMA 4D will recalculate the shadow map for that light to ensure a correct result and will reuse the cached shadow maps for the two other lights to save rendering time.
660 • CHAPTER 13 A Ray Depth of 1 means that calculations are finished for a pixel once its ray hits something in the scene. Transparencies and alphas therefore will not be visible. A value of 2 means that after a ray has hit a surface a second ray is calculated for the transparency. The higher the Ray Depth, the further rays are followed into the scene and the results rendered. The results shown above contain transparencies and alphas and have been rendered with ray depths of 2, 4 and 8.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 661 Shadow Depth Calculations are made to see if a surface point lies in the shadow of another object; additional shadow rays are sent from the surface in the direction of the light source. The value you enter for this setting determines for which generation of rays shadows are calculated. For example, if you reduce the value to 2, shadows will not be rendered for reflected, transparent or refracted rays.
662 • CHAPTER 13 Multi-Pass Multi-pass is ideal for trying out various lighting setups for your rendering The setups will be rendered more quickly as a single multi-pass file than as separate projects. Multi-pass rendering makes it easy for you to post-edit your renders in compositing software such as Adobe After Effects, Photoshop and Combustion. With multi-pass you can split the CINEMA 4D rendering into separate layers such as shadows, reflections, highlights and each separate light source.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 663 Add Material Layers, Add All These commands are useful to plugin developers only. Remove Selected To select a layer, click its name in the selection list. To add a layer to those already selected, Shift-click or Ctrl-click the layer’s name. Removes the selected layers from the list. Remove All Empties the selection list. Blend Channel Creates a blended layer. For example, you can blend Shadow, Radiosity and Caustics as a single layer.
664 • CHAPTER 13 The layers RGBA Image. Shadow. Depth. Reflection. Refraction. Specular. The lower part of the Channels drop-down list shows the layers that you can add to the multi-pass rendering, a selection of which is illustrated above. These are RGBA Image, Ambient, Diffuse, Specular, Shadow, Reflection, Refraction, Radiosity, Caustics, Atmosphere, Atmosphere Multiply, Illumination and Depth (the remaining layers in the list — i.e.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 665 Depth multi-pass channel with Front Blur and Rear Blur enabled. The Depth channel defines the distribution of depth in the scene. This information can be used in compositing applications to create visual effects. Black parts represent the focus (Target Distance on the Camera’s Depth of Field page in the Attribute manager). The contrast of the grayscale Depth channel is controlled by the camera’s blur settings.
666 • CHAPTER 13 Multi-Layer File The image may look different when viewed in another application depending on which blend modes are supported. For example, if the application has no true Add mode, highlights may appear washed out and need correcting. Differences are also possible when using a combination of colored lights, especially when using Brightness settings above 100%. If this option is enabled, all layers are saved in a multi-layer file.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 667 Mode Use Mode to control how the diffuse, specular and shadow information is layered for each light source that has its own layers. 1 Channel: Diffuse+Specular+Shadow Adds one blended layer for Diffuse, Specular and Shadow. 2 Channels: Diffuse+Specular, Shadow Adds one blended layer for Diffuse and Specular, and one layer for Shadow. 3 Channels: Diffuse, Specular, Shadow Adds one Diffuse layer, one Specular layer and one Shadow layer.
668 • CHAPTER 13 QuickTime VR Lens effects cannot be used with QuickTime VR movies. If the optional NET Render module is installed, note that QuickTime VR object and panorama movies cannot be rendered over a network. They must be rendered on a single computer. You can use the options on this page to create QuickTime VR panoramas and QuickTime VR object movies.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 669 Vertical Settings There are two built-in resolutions for QuickTime VR on the Resolution drop-down list (Output page): 1248 x 384 QTVR and 2048 x 768 QTVR. Also on the Output page, set Film Format to Automatic. You can type in your own resolution using the input boxes to the right of the Resolution drop-down list. Ensure that the values you enter are divisible by 4. These settings apply only to QTVR object movies. Here, Steps specifies the number of rings.
670 • CHAPTER 13 Apple recommends: These are Apple’s recommended settings (from ‘The QuickTime FAQ’): - Use focal lengths of 15 mm, 28 mm or 35 mm. - Do not use fish-eye lenses. - For interior shots, use a 15 mm lens. This gives you a vertical visibility range of 97°. - Use a 15 mm lens. This lets you reduce the number of shots in one pan to 12. - If you are using 35 mm lenses, create additional rings for the view upward and downward.
RENDERING • RENDER SETTINGS • 671 Movie Formats Common movie formats are listed below. Computer playback: Resolution Description Film Format Pixel (X to Y) Frame Rate 160 x 120 draft 320 x 240 348 x 288 Fields NTSC MPEG1 4:3 1 29.97 even lower PAL MPEG1 4:3 1 25 odd upper Film Format Pixel (X to 1) Frame Rate TV playback (video): Resolution Description Fields 640 x 480 NTSC 4:3 1 29.97 even 720 x 486 D1 NTSC 4:3 0.9 29.
14 Window Menu
WINDOW MENU • 675 14 Window Menu Most of the following menu entries activate a window or manager. If the window or manager is already open, the call brings it to the front. Otherwise, the window or manager appears in a new, freestanding window. To dock this into the interface, drag the window’s pin icon and drop it where you want the window to be docked. A black line appears while you drag to indicate the docking position.
676 • CHAPTER 14 Reset Layout This command resets your CINEMA 4D layout to the original, preset layout. This is particularly useful if you need to call our support team since you and they then have a common interface from which to work. Your own customized layouts can increase your workflow enormously, but when searching for an elusive problem a common, standardized layout is essential. Save As Startup Layout Saves the current working environment as the startup layout.
WINDOW MENU • 677 Menu Manager You can use this manager to rearrange CINEMA 4D’s menus. You can revert to the original structure at any time by clicking the Revert To Original button. Default Layouts Here you’ll find a list of all layouts in CINEMA 4D’s ‘Library/Layout’ location. To load one of these layouts, choose its name from the list. Default Main Menus At the bottom of the Layouts submenu, you’ll find a list of default main menus. To choose a menu, select its name from the list.
678 • CHAPTER 14 Object Manager Opens the Object manager, if it is not already open, and brings it to the front if it is hidden behind any other windows. Using this manager, you can select objects (even those that are not visible in the viewport), change the object hierarchy, add tags and expressions and much more. See Chapter 17, ‘Object Manager’. Material Manager Opens the Material manager, if it is not already open, and brings it to the front if it is hidden behind any other windows.
WINDOW MENU • 679 F-Curve Manager Using this manager, you can edit F-Curves quickly and easily. F-Curves control the interpolation between keys. See Chapter 20, ‘F-Curves’. Attribute Manager You’ll use this manager frequently. Here you can edit all object properties or even animate without opening the Timeline. You can create your own GUI elements, such as sliders, and you can link parameters (set driven keys) and much more. See Chapter 21, ‘Attribute Manager’.
680 • CHAPTER 14 Picture Viewer Opens the Picture viewer. Most of the time, you won’t need to use this command because the Picture viewer opens automatically when you choose Render > Render To Picture Viewer. See Chapter 24, ‘Picture Viewer’. Coordinate Manager Opens the Coordinate manager, if it is not already open, and brings it to the front if it is hidden behind any other windows. This compact manager is useful for editing the position, scale and rotation of objects.
WINDOW MENU • 681 Structure Manager Opens the Structure manager, if it is not already open, and brings it to the front if it is hidden behind any other windows. Here you can view and edit the numerical data of points, polygons, UVW coordinates and vertex maps. See Chapter 23, ‘Structure Manager’. Browser Opens the Browser, if it is not already open, and brings it to the front if it is hidden behind any other windows. Use this to manage your projects and control your digital assets.
682 • CHAPTER 14 Global Status Bar This opens the Global Status Bar, which displays information — such as the render time — in a separate window. By default, this bar is docked at the bottom of the main window. Selection Info Only selected polygon objects or splines have information shown in this window. If you have selected a parametric object, modifier or other such object, the window remains empty. Opens an information window containing information about the selected object.
15 Help Menu
HELP MENU • 685 15 Help Menu MAXON Online Get the latest CINEMA 4D updates, news, support issues, tutorials and more using these links to the MAXON website. An Internet browser and Internet connection are required. Help (CINEMA 4D) This opens the online manual copied to your hard drive during the standard installation process. Personalize Your initial serial number will expire after three months of use, after which you will no longer be able to use the program.
16 Coordinate Manager
COORDINATE MANAGER • 689 16 Coordinate Manager You can also set the position, scale and rotation of objects using the Attribute manager. In addition, the Attribute manager’s context menu enables you to animate these and other object properties directly, without having to open the Timeline. See Chapter 21, ‘Attribute manager’. The Coordinate manager allows you to manipulate objects numerically. It displays information relating to the tool you are using.
690 • CHAPTER 16 Note that you may be changing the axes of child objects unintentionally when you change the axes of the parent. Try to avoid using world coordinates for animated rotation. CINEMA 4D converts all world coordinates into local coordinates, which can lead to unexpected behavior if you do not use local coordinates in the first place.
17 Object Manager
OBJECT MANAGER • 693 17 Object Manager The Object manager is the center of object administration in CINEMA 4D. Here you can select objects, change object hierarchies and manipulate tags. On the left part of the manager you’ll find a list of all objects in the scene. Hierarchies are shown as a tree structure. You can collapse and open hierarchies, just as you can on your computer desktop. You can use drag-and-drop to re-group or, by holding down Ctrl while you drag, copy objects.
694 • CHAPTER 17 Many commands can be reached in the Object manager, using the context menu. To access the context menu, right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) an element such as a type icon, a tag or a visibility dot. The commands shown will depend on the type of element from which you selected the menu. When you select a command in the Object manager, it is applied to the selected object or objects.
OBJECT MANAGER • 695 Mouse techniques Function Action Select object Click on the object. Rename object Double-click on the object name (you can also rename the selected objects on the Basic Properties page of the Attribute manager). Edit object Click on the object and edit its parameters in the Attribute manager. Select tag Click on the tag. Edit tag Click on the tag and edit its parameters in the Attribute manager. Move selected object or tag Drag-and-drop.
696 • CHAPTER 17 File Menu CINEMA 4D tags In the Attribute manager, you can animate any parameter that doesn’t have a cross to the left of its name. See Chapter 21, ‘Attribute manager’. You can add a variety of properties to objects using tags. For example, you can add smoothing (Phong tag) or prevent an object from being edited accidentally (Protection tag). To add a tag to an object, select the object or objects that should receive the tag and choose the tag from this menu.
OBJECT MANAGER • 697 Expression A: Animation, 10 Expression B: Animation, 0 Expression C: Animation, -1 Expression D: Expression, 5 This results in the following order of execution: Expression C (-1 being the lowest priority value of the four expressions). All animated objects in the scene (all animated objects in CINEMA 4D have a priority of Animation, 0).
698 • CHAPTER 17 Align To Path Suppose you’re animating an aeroplane. You’ve created the path it should follow using a Position track, but the plane always points in the same direction (Figure 1). To get the plane pointing in the right direction, use an Align To Path tag (Figure 2). Then, the object will always follow the animation path with its Z-axis parallel to the tangent of the path. The object’s X-axis always stays parallel to the XZ world coordinates.
OBJECT MANAGER • 699 Align To Spline If a spline has its intermediate points set to Uniform, this is also taken into account for the spline animation. The object will then follow the spline at a uniform speed. If you want to define an animation path for an object, we recommend that first of all you create the path as a Spline object. This has an advantage over the keyframe method in that you can create B-Spline paths and use tools such as the magnet.
700 • CHAPTER 17 Rail Path You can optionally use a rail path. Drag the spline that you want to act as the rail from the Object manager into the Rail Path box on the Attribute manager’s Tag page. This has a similar effect to the Align To Path tag in the sense that the object’s Z-axis remains parallel to the spline’s tangent at all times. Tangential If you enable Tangential, the effect is similar to that of the Align To Path tag, i.e. the object’s X, Y or Z-axis is aligned to the rail path.
OBJECT MANAGER • 701 C.O.F.F.E.E. You have two ways to create your own expressions. You can either program code using CINEMA 4D’S native C.O.F.F.E.E. programming language or you can use the XPresso Editor to create expressions easily without having to type a single line of code. XPresso is ideal if you’re the kind of 3D artist who has no interest in programming, but would like almost infinite control over the behavior of your 3D models. To learn about XPresso, see Chapter 22, ‘XPresso Editor’.
702 • CHAPTER 17 You create a floor with a white material (with the RGB values matching the white color of the web page), but when you render the picture, the floor is not the correct brightness. To remedy, add a Compositing tag to the Floor and enable Background Compositing. The floor will now illuminate itself evenly at full brightness while still receiving the car’s shadow. Force Antialiasing, Min, Max, Threshold The Threshold value you enter here is used only if it is lower (i.e.
OBJECT MANAGER • 703 Seen By GI To enable or disable GI globally, use the Radiosity option in the render settings (Radiosity page). Enable this option if you want the object to generate radiosity. If you disable the option, the object will not generate radiosity. This setting has no effect unless the Advanced Render module is installed. Add to Object Buffer Use this page to specify up to six object buffer IDs for the object.
704 • CHAPTER 17 Level Of Detail If the tag’s Level Of Detail option is enabled, it is always used in a viewport, even if Display Tags is disabled on the viewport’s Display menu. This has the same effect as the command of the same name in the project settings. You can use it to control the level of detail for generators and deformers. The tag’s value overrides the value in the project settings.
OBJECT MANAGER • 705 IK You can use this tag to set an IK target that the IK chain will try to reach. In the following example we created four nulls — one for each hand and each foot. We then placed the foot nulls on the floor and the hand nulls on the bar and assigned these nulls to IK tags. When we moved the figure’s body, the hands and feet remained in position. When the IK tag is selected, you’ll find a Target Object box on the Attribute manager’s Tag page.
706 • CHAPTER 17 The HPB angles refer back to the object’s parent system, i.e. if the object is in a hierarchy, the parent system takes the place of the world system. One easy way to set the values is to select the object and read its coordinates in the Coordinate manager. You can then add and subtract to calculate the minimum and maximum values for the Kinematic tag. Example - Change into View 2 (XZ plane) and create a Bone object (Objects > Deformation > Bone).
OBJECT MANAGER • 707 - In the Object manager, select the first bone. Now Shift-click the remaining bones so that all bones are selected with a bright red color instead of a dull red color (bright red indicates selection while dull red means that a parent is selected. All bones must be bright red). In the Object manager, select CINEMA 4D Tags > Kinematic from the File menu. - Ensure that all three bones are still selected, since we want to change all their parameters at the same time.
708 • CHAPTER 17 Metaball You can assign this tag to the children of a Metaball object for further control of the metaball mesh. Negative Influence The object will repel the hull rather than attract it. Strength Defines the size of the meta-hull. A value of 100% means that the meta-hull is as large as the original object; at 50%, it is half the size of the original object; at 200%, the meta-hull is double the size of the original object. Radius Traditionally, metaballs are based on spheres.
OBJECT MANAGER • 709 Phong This tag gives objects a smooth appearance. The picture below left shows a sphere before and after a Phong tag is applied. Look closely at the right sphere and you’ll notice straight lines around its silhouette. Phong shading does not increase the number of polygons. Rather, think of it as an illusion that loses its effect around the silhouette. If you need to smooth the silhouette region, you must use more subdivisions (perhaps try placing the object in a HyperNURBS object).
710 • CHAPTER 17 Smoothing is a good way to reduce render time and save on memory. Without the Phong tag, an object would require a far greater number of polygons in order to appear smooth. Note that smoothing can only take place across connected surfaces (surfaces that share points). How Phong shading works Each surface has a normal (often called a ‘surface normal’) that is perpendicular to its surface.
OBJECT MANAGER • 711 Use Edge Breaks The broken edges in red and the rendered result. When in edge mode, CINEMA 4D allows you to break the Phong shading along edges using the Break Phong Shading command (Structure menu). When breaking individual edges, the effect will only occur if the end points of the edge are surrounded by connected polygons. In the following illustration, the effect of breaking will be visible for edge A, but not for edge B.
712 • CHAPTER 17 Protection Use this tag to prevent accidental changes to an object. You’ll be unable to move, scale or rotate any object that has this tag. You’ll need to remove the tag before you can make any such changes. The Protection tag does not prevent scaling with the Object tool. It does, however, prevent scaling with the Model tool. Restriction You can use this tag to restrict a deformer’s effect to a selection of points.
OBJECT MANAGER • 713 Stick Texture This tag pins down all textures onto the object’s surface so that when parts of the object are deformed in some way — such as lips smiling and then frowning — the texture is locked to the surface and deforms along with it. The usual way to pin textures down is to use UVW mapping. However, UVW mapping is problematic when used with HyperNURBS, especially when the cage moves from an area of few points to an area of many points. This is illustrated in Figures 1 to 4, below.
714 • CHAPTER 17 If you assign a Stick Texture tag to a texture that uses Flat mapping with Side set to Front, the “Front” information will be lost and the texture will be mapped to both sides of the object. The Stick Texture tag has an interesting side-effect: if you make a Polygon object a child of a Symmetry object and texture one half, the texture will be mirrored to the other side automatically.
OBJECT MANAGER • 715 Sun You can use this expression to simulate the sun’s position. The expression is applied automatically when you create a Sun Light object. Target If you apply this tag to an object, the object will point at another object’s origin automatically. Drag the target object into the Target Object box in the Attribute manager. The object that you’ve assigned the tag to will then point at the target object with its Z-axis, and will keep pointing at it even if you move the target object.
716 • CHAPTER 17 Texture If a child object has no Texture tags applied to it, it uses the Texture tag(s) of its parent. However, there is an exception: If a light has no Texture tag and is a child of another light, it will not inherit its parent’s Texture tags. This is to prevent child lights receiving gels automatically. This command creates a new texture geometry. Initially, no material is assigned.
OBJECT MANAGER • 717 You can apply the Vibrate tag not only to cameras, but to any type of object. Regular Pulse If this option is enabled, the object pulsates using a regular pattern shaped like a sine wave. Seed This parameter is available only when Regular Pulse is disabled. It controls the starting position of random vibration. Two objects that are set to the same Seed value will pulsate synchronously. If you want to prevent this, ensure that the objects use different Seed values.
718 • CHAPTER 17 XPresso By assigning this tag to any object in your scene, you can create your own expression using CINEMA 4D’s powerful expression builder, XPresso. The XPresso Editor will then open automatically. Using XPresso, you can create almost any type of behavior for objects and link behaviors to one another, allowing endless automated interactions between the objects in your scene. To learn about the XPresso Editor, see Chapter 22, ‘XPresso Editor’. C.O.F.F.E.E.
OBJECT MANAGER • 719 Save Objects As This command saves the selected object. The system dialog for saving files will open, which you can then use to save the object to hard disk. Display Tags You can use this option to show or hide tags in the Object manager. Close This command closes the Object manager.
720 • CHAPTER 17 Edit Menu Undo Undoes the last change, restoring the scene to its previous state. For example, if you accidentally move an object, choose Undo to restore the object to its correct position. Choose Undo repeatedly to undo the changes one by one. Redo Redo redoes a change. Select Redo repeatedly to continue restoring the changes. You can traverse the recent development stages of your scene by using Undo to move backwards and Redo to move forwards.
OBJECT MANAGER • 721 Show Objects Makes the selected objects visible in the viewport by setting their top visibilty dot to green. Hide Objects Makes the selected objects hidden in the viewport by setting their top visibility dot to the red. Invert Object Selection Inverts the object selection: objects that were selected before the command call will become deselected, while the objects that were deselected will become selected.
722 • CHAPTER 17 Objects Menu Object Display You can also set the following properties on the Basic Properties page of the Attribute manager. The items in this menu control the viewport and render visibility for the selected object. Alternatively, you can change the visibility using the visibility dots in the middle column of the Object manager: Both dots are grey by default. The upper dot controls viewport visibility, the lower dot render visibility. Each dot has three states: grey, green and red.
OBJECT MANAGER • 723 Object Activation Generators and deformers are two of the most important object types in CINEMA 4D. Generators use other objects or data to create new surfaces. Generators include most NURBS types. Deformers modify an existing object. Deformers include not only those listed in the Objects > Deformation menu, but also HyperNURBS, metaballs and the Symmetry object.
724 • CHAPTER 17 Search The Search tool gives you a powerful way to search for objects and tags in the Object manager. When you select the command, the following dialog will appear: Objects that match the search criteria will become selected in the Object manager. You can search by name, by object type, by tag type and so on. To open a search menu, click the triangle button next to the Search text box.
OBJECT MANAGER • 725 The search syntax * a character sequence of any length ? any single character # any single digit (xx,yy,zz) ‘xx’ or ‘yy’ or ‘zz’ [x] the expression before the ‘[x]’ must be present x times {} these brackets appear when you are searching for a particular type of object or tag (see ‘Objects, Tags‘. You can enter search syntax between the brackets to refine the search.
726 • CHAPTER 17 Cube{base}/Texture{*} Selects all Texture tags assigned to a cube named ‘base’. Bone{a[3]} Selects all bones named ‘aaa’. Search First Active Object When working with a complex scene that has hundreds of objects, it can take a while to find the object you want in the Object manager. In these cases, you may find it quicker to click the object in the viewport and choose Search First Active Object. The selected object will then be shown in the Object manager.
OBJECT MANAGER • 727 Connect Look up ‘Connect command’ in the index. Select Children Adds the children of the selected objects to the selection. Show Tracks Shows all animation tracks of the selected objects in the Timeline. Show F-Curves Shows all F-Curves of the selected objects in the F-Curve manager. Object Information This command displays the following information about the selected object (including its children): size in KB, number of points, number of polygons and number of objects.
728 • CHAPTER 17 Fold All This command collapses all hierarchies. In this state, objects take up the least amount of space in the Object manager. Unfold All Proceed with caution if your scene is very large. In these cases you may want to unfold the hierarchies by hand. Large projects often have more than 1000 objects. The display speed will be just as slow as if 1000 files were to be displayed hierarchically in your operating system’s window.
OBJECT MANAGER • 729 To bake the particles, select the emitter in the Object manager, choose the Bake Particles command, set the parameters in the Bake Particles dialog as desired (see below) and click OK. A Baked Particles icon will appear in the Object manager, to the right of the emitter. From, To Use the From and To values to mark the period over which the particles will be baked (the default values cover the entire project length).
730 • CHAPTER 17 Tags Menu Edit Tag This command is only of use if the Attribute manager is closed. It opens the Attribute manager, where you can then edit the parameters of the selected tag. You can also open the Attribute manager by double-clicking a tag. Don’t use this command if the Attribute manager is already open and you want to edit a tag. Instead, in the Object manager, select the tag or tags that you want to edit.
OBJECT MANAGER • 731 Texture Menu Generate UVW Coordinates You can use this command to generate UVW coordinates. This is especially useful for imported objects that do not have UVW coordinates. UVW coordinates prevent a texture from ‘slipping’ when you deform the object. You generate UVW coordinates starting from a normal projection mode such as Flat. To generate UVW coordinates - Create a texture, allocate it to the object and set the desired projection type such as Flat. - Generate UVW coordinates.
732 • CHAPTER 17 Assign UVW Coordinates Selective UVW mapping is intended for you to optimize projection for a single texture. If you want to use more than one texture, use the Texture tag’s Selection parameter. If the object has no UVW coordinates (i.e. no UVW tag), new coordinates are created automatically. This command enables you to texture an object with several different projection types using a single UVW geometry and a single Texture tag.
OBJECT MANAGER • 733 Fit To Object, Fit To Image, Fit To Region Fit to Object. Fit to Image. Fit to Region. Fit To Object If you select this command, the texture will be made to cover the object completely — the texture will have a length of 100% in both the X and Y directions. Fit To Image You must apply your texture with Flat projection if you want to use this command. Type the name of an image into the dialog.
734 • CHAPTER 17 Mirror Horizontally, Mirror Vertically Mirror Horizontally. Mirror Vertically. Mirror Horizontally flips the texture horizontally. This effect is the same as if you were to view the texture’s reflection in a real mirror. Mirror Vertically flips the texture vertically, effectively turning the texture upside-down.
18 Material Manager
MATERIAL MANAGER • 737 18 Material Manager Good materials are every bit as important to photorealism as good modeling. Using the Material manager, you can accurately recreate any type of material. A thumbnail is displayed for each material, which, by default, shows how the material looks when placed on a sphere in front of a striped background. You can change the size of the thumbnails using the following commands on the Material manager’s Edit menu: Mini Icons, Small Icons, Medium Icons and Large Icons.
738 • CHAPTER 18 File Menu New Material This command creates a new material with default values (white with specularity). The new material is placed at the start of the material list. Shader This menu lists CINEMA 4D’s volume shaders, including the volume shaders formerly known as SLA (such as Cheen and Banji). These shaders are described later in this chapter. Load Materials This command loads materials, adding them to any materials already in the scene.
MATERIAL MANAGER • 739 Edit Menu Undo, Redo Undo undoes the last change, restoring the last change you made to a material. Choose Undo repeatedly to undo the changes one by one. Redo redoes a change. Select Redo repeatedly to continue restoring the changes. Cut Cut deletes the selected materials from the Material manager and copies them to the clipboard. You can use the Paste function to retrieve the material from the clipboard, even if you have changed the active scene (i.e.
740 • CHAPTER 18 Material List You can choose to display the material icons as a vertical list. To revert to the original display mode, in the Material manager, choose Edit > Material. Mini Icons, Small Icons, Medium Icons, Large Icons Choose one of these settings to determine the size of the material previews (the default is Small).
MATERIAL MANAGER • 741 Function Menu Select Materials Of Active Objects Use this command to select the materials used by the selected objects or Texture tags. The Material manager will scroll if necessary in order to display these materials. Find First Active Material Shows the first selected material in the Material manager. Render Materials, Render All Materials To abort the rendering of the thumbnails, press the Esc key.
742 • CHAPTER 18 When you delete a material from a group, the material is deleted completely. In other words, it is also deleted from the All group. A red tab name indicates that at least one of the tab’s materials is selected. New Material Group Creates a new material group. Use the dialog that opens to name the group. You’ll see a tab for the new material group appear at the top of the Material manager.
MATERIAL MANAGER • 743 Apply Creates a Texture tag for each selected object. Each of these tags is assigned the selected material. You can also apply materials using drag and drop. If you drop the material on to an existing Texture tag ... ... the tag’s previous material is replaced by the new one. However, if you drop the material onto the object’s name, a new Texture tag is created for the material. Rename Use this command to change the name of the selected material.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 745 The Material Editor The Material Editor enables you to edit the properties of the materials used in your scene. To open the Material Editor, double-click a thumbnail in the Material manager. The Material Editor is ‘non-modal’. In other words, there is no need to close it before you can edit another material. Simply click once on another material in the Material manager and its settings will appear in the Material Editor. Materials can also be edited in the Attribute manager.
746 • CHAPTER 18 Material Preview To toggle the material preview on or off, click the triangle next to the preview. To rotate the preview, right-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) or Shift-drag the preview. Material preview context menu To change the display settings for the preview, right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) on the preview and choose the new settings from the context menu that appears. Animate Enable this option to switch on animation for the preview.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 747 Default, Flat (2D), Sphere, Cube, ... Use a simple object as the preview to ensure rapid preview updates. Here you can choose a different shape for the preview. You can choose from predefined shapes (the Default setting corresponds to the material preview shape selected in the preferences), and you can create your own shapes and add them to the list. To add your own shape to the list, save the shape (i.e.
748 • CHAPTER 18 Materials and XPresso You can access materials and shaders from within XPresso expressions. To add a material or shader to an XPresso expression, drag and drop the material preview or shader preview from the Material Editor into the XPresso Editor. Color chooser You can specify a color on most of the material channel pages using a color chooser. For details on how to use the color chooser, look up ’color chooser’ in the index.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 749 Load Image Opens a file selection dialog that allows you to load an image into the material channel. You can also load images by clicking on the three dots button on the far right of ‘Texture’. Edit Loads the shader’s parameters or image’s parameters (see above) into the Material editor. Edit Image Opens the image in the default image editing application specified for your computer.
750 • CHAPTER 18 If you click ‘No’, CINEMA 4D will save an absolute path to the image and you’ll see the path appear in the input box. When copying the CINEMA 4D scene to a different computer, be sure to copy over these textures as well — a useful command here Save Project from the main File menu (look up ‘Save Project command’ in the index for more details on this command, which equates to the ‘Collect For Output’ command you may be familiar with from working with other software tools).
MATERIAL EDITOR • 751 Shader Properties The Sampling value is described later in this chapter. The File box displays the name of the texture and, if used, the absolute path to the texture as well. To choose a new bitmap, click on the three dots buttons and use the file selection dialog that opens to load the new bitmap. The Reload Image and Edit Image buttons are described earlier in this chapter. Animation CINEMA 4D also allows you to use movies as textures.
752 • CHAPTER 18 Sampling Use Sampling to control how the texture’s pixels are interpolated. MIP and SAT are the best choices for animation or for objects in still pictures that extend towards the horizon, such as floors. Square, Alias 1, Alias 2 and Alias 3 should, in general, be used for still pictures only — they generate crisp, sharp textures, but are too sharp for animation and if animated will be likely to flicker.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 753 Circle Circle sampling uses a circle of texture pixels (the ones surrounding the intermediate value). Textures that are enlarged at render time tend to look more natural with this type than with the None type. However, as the examples demonstrate, straight lines are problematic and tend to look frayed. In addition, the texture is very jagged near the horizon. Circle sampling is, however, a good choice for very small textures (e.g.
754 • CHAPTER 18 Figure 1: Rendered with MIP sampling. Figure 2: Rendered with SAT sampling. The downside to MIP and SAT mapping is that they require extra memory. MIP mapping needs an extra byte of memory per texture pixel, SAT mapping requires an extra 12 bytes per texture pixel. Although SAT mapping produces better render quality than MIP mapping, MIP mapping uses much less RAM and hence is the default interpolation type.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 755 MIP and SAT mapping only approximate the optimum computation, since a precise computation would increase the render time greatly. SAT mapping is more accurate than MIP mapping. But sometimes these approximations can make a texture too blurred or too sharp. So the Blur Offset and Blur Scale options enable you to blur or sharpen the mapping. Blur Offset softens a texture. Blur Scale fine-tunes the strength of the MIP/SAT mapping.
756 • CHAPTER 18 Color The settings on this page define the basic color of the material, such as RGB 255/0/0 for red. If you want to create a more complicated material, such as a checkered pattern that uses several colors, you can load a texture. The texture is layered above the color. If you want to see the color only and not the texture, set the Mix Strength value to 0%. Texture, Mix Mode, Mix Strength For details on these settings, look up ‘texture settings’ in the index.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 757 Diffusion The Diffusion page lets you darken and lighten the material in specific areas using a diffusion map. Diffusion maps are especially useful for making material look dirty and more realistic. You can use either a normal texture or a shader as the diffusion map. (If the texture is colored, it will still be treated as a grayscale map.) The darker a pixel in the diffusion map, the darker the corresponding region of the material.
758 • CHAPTER 18 Luminance A luminescent object can be seen even when there are no lights in the scene. It is self-illuminated. Texture, Mix Mode, Mix Strength For details on these settings, look up ‘texture settings’ in the index. You can use the three dots button to load an image that is to act as a luminance map. The brighter a pixel in the luminance map, the more luminescent the corresponding region of the material.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 759 Transparency Here you can define the transparency. If the material has a color, the color is automatically reduced with increasing transparency. The equation is: color percentage + transparency percentage = 100% . So a white material with 0% transparency is white (100%). A white material with 50% transparency is 50% white (gray). A white material with 100% transparency has no color. Refraction You can simulate the refractive index by setting the Refraction value.
760 • CHAPTER 18 Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. When a ray hits a closed surface (Figure 1) with transparency and refraction, the ray is bent to simulate refraction. The bent ray is considered to be inside the object. When the ray reaches another surface of the object (the exit side), it is bent back as in real life. However, if the object is open, the ray may not hit a second surface of the object (Figure 2). Thus the ray may not be bent back and the refraction effect may be inaccurate.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 761 Figure 4: Fresnel Reflectivity set to a high value (left) and low value (right). The Fresnel option simulates this phenomenon for you. The Fresnel Reflectivity controls the strength of the Fresnel reflections (see Figure 4). For example, provided Fresnel Reflectivity is set to 100%, if you set transparency with RGB values of 80%, 80%, 80%, the material is 80% transparent and 0% reflective when the viewing angle is 90 degrees.
762 • CHAPTER 18 Texture, Mix Mode, Mix Strength For more details on these settings, look up ‘texture settings’ in the index. Figure 6: Transparency may be controlled by a transparency map or by the Transparency Color. You can load a texture as a transparency map using the three dots button. The brighter a pixel in the transparency map, the more transparent the corresponding region of the material.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 763 Min Samples / Max Samples These parameters will only be available if Dispersion is set to a value higher than 0%. Increasing Min Samples and/or Max Samples gives a higher quality blur, but a longer render time also. CINEMA 4D uses samples to create the blur effect. Rather than take samples at even distances, the samples are concentrated where they are most needed. Max Samples defines the number of samples used for the most important areas.
764 • CHAPTER 18 Reflection If there are many reflective objects in the scene, you may notice that shadows do not appear in the reflections on some of these objects. To make the shadows appear, increase the Shadow Depth value in the Render Settings (Options tab). Use the Reflection page to set a material’s ability to reflect. The color that you set determines the color of the reflection. You can also use a colored texture — this is known as a reflectivity map.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 765 Figure 1: Some reflectivity effects using a reflectivity map. Figure 2: Blur Dispersion values of 85% (left), 0% (back) and 65% (right). The effect in Figure 1 was created by using a grayscale reflectivity map. The reflectivity map was based on the original tile and joint texture. In the areas covered by a tile, the reflectivity map is white. In the joint areas, the reflectivity map is black. The resultant map means that only the tiled areas, not the joints, are reflective.
766 • CHAPTER 18 Min Samples / Max Samples These parameters will only be available if Dispersion is set to a value higher than 0%. Increasing Min Samples and/or Max Samples gives a higher quality blur, but a longer render time also. CINEMA 4D uses samples to create the blur effect and, rather than take samples at even distances, it concentrates the samples where they are most needed. Max Samples defines the number of samples used for the most important areas.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 767 Environment Environment reflections are rendered very quickly, since the raytracing mode is not required. The Environment page uses a texture to simulate reflection. Here, in contrast to the other pages, the Color and Texture are multiplied by the Mix mode instead of being added. So why would you want to use the environment property instead of reflection? One reason is that your scene may not have enough objects to produce good results when reflected.
768 • CHAPTER 18 Tiles X, Tiles Y The environment property is independent of the projection type of the material. The environment is always placed spherically around the object. Use Tiles X and Tiles Y to set the number of tiles in the X and Y directions. These tile settings are used instead of the Texture tag’s tile options in the Attribute manager. Exclusive Exclusive disabled. Exclusive enabled.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 769 Fog Fog uses the refractive index defined on the Transparency page and disables the transparency. Fog and transparency are thus never rendered together. You can render either fog or transparency, but not both for the same material. These parameters enable you to simulate fog or gas clouds. Objects with such materials are translucent, but weaken the light that shines through them according to their density. Light rays weaken as the pass through the fog.
770 • CHAPTER 18 Bump You can enter values much higher than 100%. High values are especially useful when using MIP or SAT mapping, because these interpolation types tend to flatten the surface slightly. The settings on this page enable you to simulate bumps. You must use a texture with this channel. It is only from the grayscales in this image that the bump map (a height or relief map) is calculated. Strength The strength of the bumps. The higher the value, the rougher the surface.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 771 Texture, Mix Mode, Mix Strength For details on these settings, look up ‘texture settings’ in the index. Figure 2 shows an even surface viewed from the side. The surface has a uniform brightness. However, if you use a bump map for the same surface, CINEMA 4D interprets the brightness values of the picture as height values for the surface (Figure 3). Figure 2. Figure 3. These height values are converted into a profile, whose height affects the inclination of the normal vectors.
772 • CHAPTER 18 Alpha Many of CINEMA 4D’s shaders have built-in alpha channels. An alpha channel enables you to use an image to mask out areas of the material, allowing any background to show through. This is useful for faking detail in 3D. The idea is to define areas of the material that effectively become non-existent so that any underlying materials or objects show through. A classic example would be a 3D tree.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 773 Soft This enables you to fade textures and materials from one to another, which gives you even more ways of creating realistic-looking objects. With Soft enabled (the default setting), the Color and Delta settings lose their meaning. The texture map is now used to decide which ranges should be faded. A white texture pixel in the image means that here the material is to be 100% opaque. If the texture pixel is black, the underlying material shines through 100%.
774 • CHAPTER 18 Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. You can now select a slightly different color on the Alpha page and see the effect immediately. However, some background may be left around the leaves, branches and the trunk. So the result is not quite right yet. For a more accurate result, create an alpha channel in your image editor and integrate this into the tree image; for details on how to do this, consult you image editor’s documentation.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 775 Specular You can enter a Height value up to 1000%. High values can be very effective in Metal mode. Here you can adjust the width, height and falloff of highlights on the material. For a matt surface, use broad and low specular values; for shiny surfaces, narrow and high values are appropriate. Mode Three modes are available: Plastic, Metal and Colored. Plastic lighting model. Metal lighting model. Colored lighting model.
776 • CHAPTER 18 Falloff, Inner Width You can adjust the shape of the falloff curve using the Falloff slider. Needle, bell and even rectangular shapes are possible. The Inner Width slider enables you to define an area inside the specular that has no brightness falloff. Inner Width set to 10 (left) and 90 (right).
MATERIAL EDITOR • 777 Specular Color Here you can select the color of the highlights. The strengths of the colors on the Color page and the Specular Color page are added together. The total color here is multiplied with the normal color of the highlight. For example, if you have a white plastic highlight, you can define its color here directly.
778 • CHAPTER 18 Glow Glows cannot be seen through transparent objects, nor in reflections. The glow you specify here does not act as a light; other parts of the scene will not be lit by the glow, nor will any shadows be cast. This page enables you to create a soft glow. Inner Strength specifies the intensity of the glow over the material surface; Outer Strength is the intensity of the glow at the edges (see Figure 1, below).
MATERIAL EDITOR • 779 If a random percentage is defined, the intensity of the glow in each animation frame is increased and decreased in a random pattern, as follows: 0% 100% No change Maximum change Frequency specifies how often the glow radius changes. The amplitude of the change is given by the Random value.
780 • CHAPTER 18 Displacement Displacement is similar to Bump, the difference being that here the object is actually (not just apparently) deformed. This difference is best seen at object edges. In the sphere example below, the left half of the sphere uses bump mapping, while the right half uses displacement mapping. Displacement mapping works much better in the areas near the edges, whereas in these areas, the bump map loses its effect.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 781 Type Intensity, Intensity (Centered) Intensity mode. Intensity mode (top) and Intensity (Centered) mode (bottom). In the Intensity mode, the displacement takes place in the positive direction. Black parts in the displacement map produce no displacement, white parts produce maximum displacement. In the Intensity (Centered) mode, the displacement can take place in both positive and negative directions. A gray value of 50% results in no displacement.
782 • CHAPTER 18 To use polygon coordinates for the displacement, choose RGB (X,Y,Z Local). To use world coordinates instead, choose RGB (X,Y,Z World). In general, local coordinates produce the best results because they take the directions of the individual polygons into account. Texture, Mix Mode, Mix Strength For details on these settings, look up ‘texture settings’ in the index.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 783 Illumination The radiosity and caustics parameters will only be available if you have installed the optional Advanced Render module. These parameters are described in the Advanced Render manual.
784 • CHAPTER 18 Diffuse Falloff Use this parameter to adjust the falloff of diffuse reflection. The default value of 0% means normal falloff. Diffuse Level (Oren-Nayar only) You can use this parameter to alter the strength of diffuse reflection for Oren–Nayar. The default of 100% means normal diffuse reflection — enter a lower value to reduce the amount of reflection. Roughness (Oren-Nayar only) Adjust this value to match the roughness of your material. The default setting is 50%.
MATERIAL EDITOR • 785 Assignment In this box, you’ll find a list of all objects in the scene that use the selected material. Using the context menu, you can carry out commands on these objects that relate to the selected material. To open the context menu, right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) on an object’s name in the list. Remove Removes the material from the selected object (i.e. deletes the object’s Texture tag). Remove All Removes the material from all objects.
THE SHADERS • 787 The Shaders Shaders (also known as procedural textures) are more sophisticated than conventional textures. Shaders are computed using mathematical formulae, whereas conventional textures are pixelbased. One advantage of shaders is that they do not become pixelated when viewed close-up. Shaders allow you to create textures that simply are not possible with texture maps or other methods.
788 • CHAPTER 18 Channel shaders To open a channel shader, click the triangle button next to the Texture box and choose the shader from the drop-down list that appears. To edit a shader, click the shader’s name or preview picture. The following parameters will appear. Basic Properties You can assign a name to the shader. This name is used to refer to the texture in the XPresso editor and Timeline.
THE SHADERS • 789 The Blur Offset and Blur Scale are present on the Basic Properties tab of all shaders and are described elsewhere in this manual (see index). Shader Properties These are the individual properties for each shader. You’ll find descriptions for these properties in the following pages. Working with shaders in the Material editor Multiple selection Shader channels support multiple selections.
790 • CHAPTER 18 Color This is not a shader as such, but simply a means to define a color using the color chooser. Noise Noise is a special type of channel shader that produces 30 types of noise. The shader can calculate the noise in 2D (Space set to UV 2D) or in 3D space. The advantage of 3D noise is that you don’t have to worry about mapping or seams in the texture. Shader Properties Color 1, Color 2 The colors in the noise will be interpolated between the two colors that you specify here.
THE SHADERS • 791 Octaves Octaves of detail in the noise. Space What space to calculate the noise in. UV (2D) The noise is projected in 2D. Texture The noise is calculated in object space and remains the same regardless of object position or orientation and takes into account the projection modifications of the Texture Tag. Object The noise is calculated in object space and remains the same regardless of object position or orientation, but does not use the attributes of the Texture tag.
792 • CHAPTER 18 Detail Attenuation Used for antialiasing. In most cases, it should be left at 100%. However, if you are animating and getting texture flicker, then try setting this higher. Set it lower for crisp stills. Delta Delta is a scaling factor to use in sampling the noise for evaluating the slope that is to be used in the bump channel. This allows you to get very sharp bump with minute detail.
THE SHADERS • 793 Types of noise Blistered Turbulence Box Noise Buya Cell Noise Cell Voronoi Cranal Dents Displaced Turb.
794 • CHAPTER 18 Gradient The Gradient shader allows you to create gradients of many different types in 2D or 3D space. Using gradients To access additional gradient parameters, click the triangle next to the gradient. The knots or handles below the gradient are used to set the color and position of colors in the gradient. To add a knot, click in an empty area below the gradient and a knot of the color at that position will be added. To remove a knot, drag and drop it away from the gradient.
THE SHADERS • 795 Linear Knot Uses a BoxStep function to weight an interpolation between the knot to the left of the sample point and the knot to the right of the sample point. It uses the bias handles to offset the interpolated value. Linear Linear falloff/growth between the knots. No bias handles. None Uses the color of the knot to the left of the sample point. Pos The position of the currently selected knot or bias handle on the gradient.
796 • CHAPTER 18 2D - Circular 2D circular gradient from the center out. 2D - Box 2D gradient linearly from the center to each edge in U and V. 2D - Star 2D gradient linearly from the corners in UV. 2D - Four Corner 2D gradient where the first four gradient knot colors are used as the colors at the UV corners. 3D - Linear 3D gradient linearly from start point to end point. 3D - Cylindrical 3D gradient cylindrically around the vector defined by start and end point of radius.
THE SHADERS • 797 Angle Rotates the entire color gradient. Absolute If this option is enabled, the gradient refers to the turbulence only, not to the entire texture. Space For 3D gradients, this defines space that the gradient is calculated in. Texture The gradient is calculated in object space and remains the same regardless of object position or orientation and takes into account the projection modifications of the Texture tag.
798 • CHAPTER 18 Cycle disabled (left) and enabled (right). Turbulence set to a low value (left) and a high value (right). Scale set to a low value (left) and a high value (right). Absolute disabled (top) and enabled (bottom). Octaves set to a low value (left) and a high value (right). Fresnel This shader calculates the angle (falloff) between surface normals and the viewing angle and uses this information to attenuate the output.
THE SHADERS • 799 Front Trans Calculates the falloff for the front of the object and then sets the back of the object to white if it can be seen (good for use in the transparency channel). Back Only Calculates the falloff for the back of the object and then sets the front of the object to black if it can be seen. Back Trans Calculates the falloff for the back of the object and then sets the front of the object to white if it can be seen. Front and Back Calculates the falloff for all surfaces intercepted.
800 • CHAPTER 18 Lightness The lightness of the color, from black (-100%) to white (100%). Colorize If this option is enabled, the texture will be converted to grayscale. You can then color the grayscale texture using the Hue and Saturation settings. Brightness Adds the values of all color components. Contrast Regulates the overall contrast of the texture. A value greater than 0 raises the contrast, a value less than 0 lowers the contrast. A value of -100% produces a completely neutral gray.
THE SHADERS • 801 Fusion Fusion allows you to combine two textures with a mask using the blending modes standard in photo editing applications, as if they were layers. Using a blend, you can set the opacity of the Blend channel to mix with the Base channel and also modify the mixing with the Mask channel.
802 • CHAPTER 18 Overlay If the Base channels’s color value is less than half of the maximum value, the Multiply blend mode is used. If the color value is greater than or equal to half the maximum value, the Screen blend mode is used. This shows patterns or colors of the Blend channel while preserving the shadows and highlights of the Base channel. Hard Light If the Blend channel’s color value is less than half of the maximum value, the Multiply blend mode is used.
THE SHADERS • 803 Exclusion Similar to Difference mode, but the effect is softer. This mode is the equivalent of Screen - Multiply. Hue The hue of the Blend channel is applied to the Base channel. Saturation The saturation of the Blend channel is applied to the Base channel. Color The hue and saturation of the Blend channel is applied to the Base channel. Luminance The luminance of the Blend channel is applied to the Base channel.
804 • CHAPTER 18 Layer The Layer shader is a powerful tool for combining multiple shaders and bitmaps in the same material channel. You can stack shaders and bitmaps into layers and folders. You can define various blend strengths and modes. Alpha channels are supported. You can apply effects to individual layers or all layers. To change the order of the layers, drag and drop them to their new positions. Image Bitmaps can be loaded using a file selection dialog.
THE SHADERS • 805 A new addition is the Layer Mask mode. This applies a grayscale alpha channel to the first active overlying shader or folder (this layer must be on the same branch of the hierarchy). To set the layer’s opacity, use the slider or text box next to the blend mode. Context menu To access the context menu, right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) on a shader or shader name. You should be familiar with these commands already.
806 • CHAPTER 18 Colorizer Colorizer takes the value of an input channel and remaps it based on a gradient. This is very useful for colorizing shaders such as noise. Input The aspect of the input texture to remap. You can remap input Luminance, Hue, Saturation, Lightness, Red, Green or Blue channels. Cycle This option determines what happens in areas where there is too much brightness. If the option is enabled, the color gradient will be repeated when the brightness value exceeds ‘1’.
THE SHADERS • 807 Posterizer The Posterizer shader is a filter that is used to adjust another shader or image. It allows you to adjust the number of levels per color channel of the texture for posterization effects. Texture This is the source image or channel shader to affect with the Posterizer filter. You can bring in and affect any image or 2D shader available to CINEMA 4D. Levels Number of levels of color, between zero and maximum intensity.
808 • CHAPTER 18 Color This is the diffuse color of the backlit surface. Algorithm This is the illumination algorithm to be used. Internal is the CINEMA 4D internal illumination model, Oren-Nayar is an alternative illumination model that is meant to look more like a rough surface. Illumination Maximum illumination intensity. Roughness Only applies to the Oren-Nayar illumination algorithm. The higher the value the rougher the surface appears. Shadow Intensity The opacity of the shadow.
THE SHADERS • 809 Distorter Distorter takes the value of an input channel and distorts it using the value from another texture channel. Type This is the distortion algorithm to be used. Directional The value of the distortion channel is added to the sample coordinate of the texture. Bidirectional The value of the distortion channel is added to the sample coordinate of the texture if the value is between 50-100% and is subtracted if the value is between 0-50%.
810 • CHAPTER 18 Amount Global distortion amount. 100% means distortion values from 0 to 1 in UV and 0 to 10 in 3D. X, Y, Z X is the distortion amount in U for 2D and X for 3D. Y is the distortion amount in V for 2D and Y for 3D. Z is the distortion amount in Z for 3D. Delta Delta is a scaling factor to use in sampling the texture for evaluating slope to be used in the bump channel. This allows you to get very sharp bump with minute detail that is not possible with the standard bump delta.
THE SHADERS • 811 Object The vector is specified in object coordinates and the falloff is affected by the object’s orientation. In this way, the falloff sticks to the object as it changes rotations. World The vector is specified in world coordinates and is not affected by the object’s orientation. This is the most common setting because it allows the object to move and have the falloff stay oriented in a consistent direction.
812 • CHAPTER 18 Algorithm Specifies which illumination model Lumas will use. The drop-down list provides for two choices: Internal, which is the standard Lambertian model, and Oren Nayar, which provides for a roughness variable allowing the user to go from simple surfaces (0 Roughness, identical to Lambertian), to complex rough surface (1+ Roughness, which provides a matt surface, such as linen or dirt). Roughness Dictates how rough the Oren Nayar illumination model will be.
THE SHADERS • 813 Intensity Scales the specular Color to produce attenuation in the specular reflection of the surface (this simply means it makes the color darker when the value is close to zero and brighter when the value is closer to 100% or above). The appropriate range is 0% - 1,000%. Size Sets the size of the specular reflection. Appropriate value range for size is 0.001% - 200%. Contrast Provides contrast for the result of the specular sample color. Implements a standard contrast function.
814 • CHAPTER 18 Projection The type of projection utilized to define the anamorphic (disproportional) scaling of the specular highlights. It can also define the scratch direction to be used with the reflection and environment convolution groups. The projections are transformed by the Texture tag used to apply them to an object. Experimentation is absolutely required to understand these parameters. Planar A flat XY planar projection.
THE SHADERS • 815 Length Defines the scratch length in the space of the scratch pattern. Smoother milled surfaces would use a higher scratch length and rougher surfaces would use smaller values. The appropriate range is 1% - 1,000%. Attenuation Scales the amount of detail of the scratches based upon the sample’s angle to the camera and the distance from the camera. The larger the values, the greater the attenuation, causing less scratching (better for animation).
816 • CHAPTER 18 Projector Projector allows you to alter the projection of a shader or image. This is useful for having different mappings in separate channels of a material, especially when used in conjunction with other shaders such as Nukei or Fusion. Note that 3D shaders do not work with Projector. Texture This is the source image or shader to be projected. You can bring in and project any image or 2D channel shader available to CINEMA 4D. Projection The projection type to use.
THE SHADERS • 817 Tile If enabled, the 2D texture will tile in UV the number of times specified in the Tile X and Tile Y parameters. Seamless If Tile is enabled, then enabling Seamless causes the tiles to be mirrored so that they tile seamlessly. Position X, Position Y, Position Z Offset of the 3D texture space. Size X, Size Y, Size Z Scaling of the 3D texture space. Rotation H, Rotation P, Rotation B Orientation of the 3D texture space.
818 • CHAPTER 18 Objects Drag the names of the object or objects that will be used to calculate Proximal from the Object manager into this box. In the case of particles, drag the Emitter (CINEMA 4D particles) or Particle Geometry object (Thinking Particles) into the Objects box. Exclude Parent If Include Sub-objects is enabled and Exclude Parent is checked then the parent object is disregarded in the Proximal calculations.
THE SHADERS • 819 Linear Intensity is 100% of the Intensity value at Start Distance, 0% at End Distance and falls off linearly in between. Square Intensity is 100% of the Intensity value at Start Distance, 0% at End Distance and falls off by the square of the distance in between. Cubic Intensity is 100% of the Intensity value at Start Distance, 0% at End Distance and falls off distance cubed in between.
820 • CHAPTER 18 End Distance The distance at which the object no longer affects the surface luminance. A value of 100% means 100 m. However, when using Polygon Radius, the percentage value is the same as the polygon radius, which of course can be different for each polygon. Intensity Maximum intensity that each object / particle adds. Ripple To see the results of this shader, you must render to the Picture viewer. The Ripple shader is best used in the bump channel.
THE SHADERS • 821 Particle Dependent This option only affects Thinking Particles. When enabled, the size of the ripples will depend on the size of the particles. This takes the PStorm node’s Distance and Distance Variation values into account, allowing variations in the ripples. Object Drag and drop the object that you want the particles to collide with into the Object box. Particles If you are using CINEMA 4D’s native particles, drag and drop the emitter object into the Particles box.
822 • CHAPTER 18 Variation set to 1 (left) and 2 (right). Width set to a high value (left) and low value (right). From left to right: W Factor set to 1.5, 1 and 0.7. Diffuse Intensity set to 0.3 (left) and 0.8 (right). Diffuse Variation set low (left) and high (right). Intensity, Variation The Intensity controls the overall brightness of the color reflexes. A value of 0 means no effect at all, while bigger values result in brighter color reflexes.
THE SHADERS • 823 Use CD Effect If you enable this option, the shader is optimized for cylindrical surfaces and you can render wedgeshaped, prismatic color effects, such as those seen on CD surfaces. Width Width defines how far the gradient spreads out. Peak Normally the entire rainbow colored spectrum is visible only if the angle between the light source and the camera forms a straight line. Increasing the Peak value allows you to generate a larger color spectrum.
824 • CHAPTER 18 Spline This shader textures an object based on a spline that is projected onto the surface. In the example above, the shader has been loaded into the Alpha channel. With the Spline shader, you can texture primitives without having to create an extra bitmap texture. You can also use splines to cut precise shapes out of objects by placing the Spline shader in the alpha channel, for example. Additionally, you can choose your background, fill and line textures.
THE SHADERS • 825 - Ensure the spline is smaller than the object. Drag and drop the spline into the Spline box in the Attribute manager (if the box is ghosted, disable the Text Spline option). - Set Plane to the plane in which the spline lies or mostly lies (this is XY for spline primitives by default). Enable Fill and choose background texture and line texture colors that will make the spline easy to see on the object. - Fine-tune the position and size using X Offset, Y Offset, X Scale and Y Scale.
826 • CHAPTER 18 Fill, Use Fill Color To fill areas inside the spline, enable the Fill option. If the Use Fill Color option is enabled, the Fill Color is used to fill the spline, otherwise the Line Color is used. Bump Width From top to bottom: Increasing Bump Width value. Defines the width of the bump effect around the lines. Text Spline Here you can enter text that will be projected onto the texture. Set Plane to XY (the default plane for spline primitives).
THE SHADERS • 827 Vertex Map This shader renders a vertex map as a grayscale image. In the example above, the vertex map is displayed on the left arm and on the right arm you can see the rendered result. Areas with maximum weighting are colored white and those with minimal weighting black. The shader was originally designed for use with the Dirt shader, which enables you to calculate dirt as a vertex map. The Vertex Map shader works well with HyperNURBS — ensure that each Vertex Map tag has a unique name.
828 • CHAPTER 18 Checkerboard This shader creates checkerboard patterns. Color 1 and Color 2 define the colors of the two tiles. U Frequency and V Frequency define the size of tiling, i.e. the fineness of the structure, in two independent directions. Higher values result in smaller tiles. Enter unequal values, such as U=1 and V=2, for rectangular tiles. Cloud To create Cirrus-like clouds, use different values for U and U, such as 0.25 and 1 respectively.
THE SHADERS • 829 Cyclone This shader simulates a cyclone texture. The Cyclone shader has an alpha channel that you can use within the Material editor on the Alpha page. Use the gradient to define the color of the cyclone. Frequency defines the timing of the cyclone rotation, i.e. the strength of the storm. Rotation determines the effective density of the cyclone, the higher the value the more spirals in the storm. Level affects the number of clouds in the cyclone.
830 • CHAPTER 18 Fire The wall of flame stretches infinitely in the U direction. Good flame materials can be created by using this shader both in the Alpha channel and the Transparency channel. This shader simulates a wall of fire, whose color you can define using the gradient. The Fire shader has an alpha channel that you can use in the Material editor on the Alpha page. U Frequency and V Frequency determine the fineness of the structure. Thus U=1 and V=1 results in regular flames, U=1 and V=0.
THE SHADERS • 831 Galaxy This shader simulates a galaxy with spiral arms, whose color you can define using the gradient. The Galaxy shader has an alpha channel that you can use within the Material editor on the Alpha page. Angle is the degree of rotation of the spiral arms. Spiral Arms is the number of spiral arms. Marble This shader generates 3D marble structures. Use the gradient to choose the color of the marble. The Frequency values define the marble’s level of detail in the X, Y and Z directions.
832 • CHAPTER 18 Metal This shader simulates metallic surfaces. The gradient specifies the color of the metal. Increase the Frequency for finer details. Planet This shader is effectively four shaders combined in one: Saturn, Saturn’s Ring, Uranus and Neptune. Choose the desired shader from the Type drop-down list. Saturn Because of its fast rotational speed, Saturn has an elliptical shape.
THE SHADERS • 833 Saturn’s Ring Saturn is approximately one third as wide as its famous rings. So that stars shine through between the rings, activate the alpha channel of any material to which this is applied. You may want to make the rings quite transparent since in reality these rings are huge numbers of tiny rock and ice particles that allow the light from beyond to shine through. Simulates the rings around Saturn — the D, C, B, A, F and G rings, with the Cassini and Encke gap.
834 • CHAPTER 18 Rust This shader simulates rust on metal surfaces. You choose the colors for the metal and rust using the gradient. Rust specifies how much of the material is rusty. Increase the Frequency value for smaller rust patches. Simple Noise This shader creates a random pattern that can be used, for example, for sun surfaces and stone reliefs.
THE SHADERS • 835 Simple Turbulence This shader creates colored fractal turbulence. The gradient determines the colors of the turbulence. U Frequency and V Frequency determine the fineness of the structure. U=1 and V=1 create a radial-like pattern, while U=1 and V=0.25 give elongated shapes. The higher these values, the greater the detail (or frequency) in the relevant direction. Octaves is the number of iteration steps for generating this fractal turbulence.
836 • CHAPTER 18 Stars This shader creates a star-filled wallpaper. Color 1 is the color of the wallpaper. Color 2 is the color of the stars. Streaks is the number of star tips or points. Inner Radius and Outer Radius determine the dimension of each star, given as a percentage of a UV unit. Density is the average number of stars per UV unit. You may find it helpful to think of the preview as an element that is one UV unit in each direction. Sunburst This shader generates sun flares and eruptions.
THE SHADERS • 837 Tiles Tiles is a channel shader used to generate tiles and patterns. Grout Color Color between the tiles. Tile Color 1, Tile Color 2, Tile Color 3 The colors to be used for tiles. Pattern This is the pattern type. You’ll find pictures of each pattern type later in this chapter. Grout Width Grout width as a percentage of the tile. Bevel Width Width of the tile bevel as a percentage of the tile inside the grout.
838 • CHAPTER 18 Global Scale Scaling of the tile pattern. U Scale Scaling in the U direction. V Scale Scaling in the V direction. Radial Scale Scaling radially for the patterns that are radial-based, such as radial lines. Rotate This setting allows you to rotate the pattern about its center point where this makes sense, such as with radial lines or spirals. Delta Delta is a scaling factor to use in sampling the texture for evaluating the slope to be used in the bump channel.
THE SHADERS • 839 Types of Tile Pattern Brick 1 Brick 2 Circles 1 Circles 2 Circles 3 Hexagons Lines 1 Lines 2 Parquet Planks Radial Lines 1 Radial Lines 2 Random Rings 1 Rings 2 Sawtooth 1 Sawtooth 2 Scales 1 Scales 2 Spiral 1 Spiral 2 Squares Triangles 1 Triangles 2 Triangles 3 Waves 1 Waves 2 Weave
840 • CHAPTER 18 Venus This shader simulates a gaseous planet with cloud structures that are whirled around by the Coriolis stream. The gradient determines the colors of the clouds and the background sky. Increase the Frequency values for finer details in the X, Y and Z directions. Rotation determines the degree of whirl or turbulence caused by the Coriolis stream. Water This shader generates water surfaces and is ideal for use in a material’s bump channel for simulating water surfaces.
THE SHADERS • 841 Wood This shader simulates wood patterns. The Type drop-down list defines the type wood that is simulated: Custom, Walnut, Mahogany, Jacaranda or Pinewood. The gradient defines the color of the wood. Increase the Frequency values for finer details in the X, Y and Z directions. Turbulence defines the degree of growth irregularity (0% = even concentric annual rings, 100% = a more natural, uneven ring appearance).
842 • CHAPTER 18 Material shaders Most of CINEMA 4D’s shaders are channel shaders, i.e. shaders that you can load into material channels, such as Color and Bump. In addition to the channel shaders, CINEMA 4D offers a number of shaders that are materials in their own right. You cannot load these materials into material channels. To create a material shader, choose the desired shader from the Material manager’s File > Shader submenu. Fog This shader simulates volumetric fog. Color The color of the fog.
THE SHADERS • 843 Frequency Increase Frequency for finer detail in the X, Y and Z directions. Type Set Type to the desired falloff for the fog: Linear, Exponential or No Decrease. Linear decreases the fog intensity along the Y-axis of the texture axes. Exponential decreases the fog intensity along the Y-axis of the texture axes. No Decrease means constant fog density. Thickness, Decrease The lower the Thickness value, the thinner the fog.
844 • CHAPTER 18 The former SLA volume shaders Long-term users of CINEMA 4D will remember the SLA volume shaders. Over time, these SLA shaders have become increasingly integrated into CINEMA 4D. Although there are minimal differences between SLA shaders and standard shaders, SLA shaders still have unique features. In these pages, the unique parameters of each former SLA volume shader are described first, followed by a general description of the shared material channels.
THE SHADERS • 845 Back Opacity The back surface opacity. The back surface works the same as the front surface opacity. Keep in mind that the back surface is affected by shadows also. Edge Opacity This causes the edges of an object that points further away from the camera to be more opaque. 0% creates no effect while values greater than zero add to the edge opacity. Refraction Index The refractive index for the material. Internal Reflection Allows refracted rays to reflect when appropriate.
846 • CHAPTER 18 Wood page Color Colorizes the ring and grain function. Experimentation is required to fully understand and use this control. Ring Intensity Reduces or increases the prominence of the annual rings. While the parameter can go negative, its useful values are between 50% and 150%. Ring Scale Scales the rings of the wood before being stirred by the turbulence function. Ring Turbulence, Turbulence Scale Stirs the annual rings so they may have a more natural look.
THE SHADERS • 847 Radial Variance Causes the rings to become asymmetrical around their origin. Trees rarely grow perfectly circular rings because they are rarely perfectly round. This parameter allows for the natural deformation of the annual rings. Variance Scale Scales the noise used for the Radial Variance. Grain Intensity Amplifies the grain pattern within the wood. A percent value of zero removes the grain totally, while a value of 100% gives a very amplified grain pattern (this also affects bump).
848 • CHAPTER 18 Gradients page Color gradient Is used to alter the base color of the object based on the angle between the camera and the surface normal (the left side of the gradient is the edge of the object while the right side of the gradient is the center of the object). Opacity Gradient Causes the opacity of the object to change according to the angle between the camera and the surface normal. White is opaque while black knots are transparent.
THE SHADERS • 849 Danel Danel was conceived to allow the ability to create surfaces that include metallic, gloss, painted, and anisotropic materials. The material channels for Danel are described later in this chapter. Mabel Mabel was conceived to allow users the ability to create marbled stone textures that generally consist of a body and a vein surface. Mabel differs from the other shaders in that it has a Veining channel for creating marble patterns.
850 • CHAPTER 18 Veining page The veining channel controls the size and mixing of the two vein surfaces. You also can change the relative color variance and turbulence of the veins as well. There is only one veining group that is shared by both surfaces. This group of parameters contains attributes of the veining function. The function is basically an alternating gradient on the Y-axis that can be perturbed using a noise function.
THE SHADERS • 851 Variance Turbulence Noise function used to vary the veining. Variance Amplitude Amount of variance applied to the veins. Variance Octaves Octaves of fractal detail used in the variance function. Variance Scale The scale of the variance function. Variance Contrast Contrast applied to the variance noise. Nukei Nukei was conceived to allow users the ability to create surfaces that include rusted and weathered materials that generally have two distinct surfaces with different attributes.
852 • CHAPTER 18 Fusing page The fusing channel controls the mixing of the two surfaces and the attributes of the interface between them. There is only one Fusing channel that is shared by and controls Surfaces 1 and 2. Texture Uses a standard texture (a bitmap or channel shader) for the fusing of the two surfaces. Projection The projection type to use.
THE SHADERS • 853 Seamless If Tiles is enabled, enabling Seamless causes the tiles to be mirrored so that they tile seamlessly. Position, Size, Rotation Position is the offset of the 3D texture space. Size is the scaling of the 3D texture space. Rotation is the orientation of the 3D texture space. Paste Tag Pressing this button causes the settings of the currently selected Texture tag in the Object manager to be pasted into Nukei’s parameters.
854 • CHAPTER 18 1 Edge Width, 2 Edge Width The width of the edging around the interface between Surface 1 and Surface 2 that protrudes into Surface 1 and Surface 2. 1 Edge Bump Amplitude, 2 Edge Bump Amplitude The bumping of Surface 1 and Surface 2 around the interface between Surface 1 and Surface 2. Alpha A page Opacity The opacity for the surface. With Alpha, you can layer Nukei over other shaders and textures.
THE SHADERS • 855 Other material channels Here you’ll find a list of the material channels that are shared by the former SLA shaders. Diffuse page The Diffuse group applies to the currently selected surface in the surface combo box below the preview. Color Sets the base diffuse color of the surface. Algorithm Specifies which illumination model will be used.
856 • CHAPTER 18 Contrast Provides contrast for the result of the diffuse sample color. Zero causes no effect, 0.0% - 100% causes standard contrast, above 100% causes a wrap contrast (the values that go above 100% wrap around to 0% again, used to create the Candy materials), negative values provide an inverse contrast that simulates materials that seem luminescent, such as silver. Appropriate values are -500% to 500%. Volume Color (Banji only) This defines the Volume color for the object.
THE SHADERS • 857 Size Sets the size of the specular reflection. Appropriate value range for Size is 0.001% - 200%. Contrast Provides contrast for the result of the specular sample color. Implements a standard contrast function. Appropriate values are 0% - 100%. Glare Works with Intensity by using the edge falloff (multiplied by the Falloff scalar) to change the intensity of the specular reflection.
858 • CHAPTER 18 Falloff Mixes the results of the Reflection Color • Intensity and Reflection Edge Color • Edge Intensity. Smaller values provide for more Reflection Color, while larger values provide more Reflection Edge Color. The appropriate range is 0% - 500%. Reflection Depth Attenuation (Banji only) Causes reflections to fall off based on how many times a ray has been reflected off of other surfaces. Distance Falloff (Danel only) Turns on or off distance falloff for reflections.
THE SHADERS • 859 Jitter (Danel only) Defines the maximum random offset of the reflection convolution associated with the anisotropic scratch convolution algorithm. This parameter is only active when Utilize Anisotropic Scratches is checked because the radial convolution is a completely stochastic function (jitters 100% all the time to the boundary of the radius). Jittering is very similar to dithering in effect. Appropriate value range is 0% - 100%.
860 • CHAPTER 18 Glare Scales the Edge Color before it is mixed with the Intensity and Environment Color result to create the final environment color sample that will be used to attenuate the reflection sample provided by the Environment texture. Appropriate values are 0% - 200%. Falloff Mixes the results of the Environment Color • Intensity and Edge Color • Glare. Smaller values provide for more Environment Color, while larger values provide more Edge Color. The appropriate range is 0% - 500%.
THE SHADERS • 861 Ambient page Color Defines the base ambient color used to attenuate (multiply by) the scene ambient color provided by CINEMA 4D. You must have an Environment object active in your scene for this to effect your surface at all. Intensity Scales the Color before it is mixed with the Edge Intensity result to create the final ambient color sample that will be used to attenuate the ambient sample taken by CINEMA 4D internally. Appropriate values are 0% - 100%.
862 • CHAPTER 18 Roughness page Used to add bump or grit to the material. Some of these settings are not available for the Banji shader, because Banji has a channel to create wood structures. Function The noise function utilized to calculate the bump and the grit. You can review the noise types very easily in the Noise channel shader to get a feel for what they are. Experimentation is very necessary. Amplitude Scales the amplitude of the bump algorithm. The appropriate range is 0.0001% to 1,000%.
THE SHADERS • 863 Delta Delta is a scaling factor to use in sampling the texture for evaluating slope to be used in evaluating the bump. This allows you to get very sharp bump with minute detail that is not possible with the standard static bump delta. Hard Bump Uses an implicit algorithm to calculate the bump, producing more realistic dented surfaces. Often used when creating steel doors with anisotropic highlights to create large dents.
864 • CHAPTER 18 Anisotrophy page Projection The type of projection is used to define the anamorphic (disproportional) scaling of the specular highlights. It can also define the scratch direction to be used with the reflection and environment convolution groups. The projections are transformed by the Texture tag used to apply them to an object. Planar A flat XY planar projection. Auto Planar Automatically projects on a plane parallel to the current normal.
THE SHADERS • 865 Roughness X, Roughness Y Scale the highlights in the X direction or Y direction defined by the Scratch Projection algorithm. The appropriate range is 0.1% to 10,000%. If the X & Y roughness are the same, the standard internal specular algorithm is used. Amplitude Scales the effect of the scratch of the specular highlights. The higher the value, the more scratched the speculars will look. The appropriate range is 0% - 100%. Scale Scales the scratch pattern itself.
866 • CHAPTER 18 Assignment page On the Assignment page, you’ll find a list of all objects in the scene that use the material. For more details on this page, look up ‘Assignment tab’ in the index.
TEXTURE MAPPING • 867 Texture Mapping To apply a texture to an object, do one of the following:: - Drag the material from the Material manager and drop it on to the object’s name in the Object manager. The texture settings will appear in the Attribute manager. The mouse pointer will change during this process to indicate the add state: - Select the object in the Object manager and select the material in the Material manager. In the Material manager, choose Function > Apply.
868 • CHAPTER 18 Tag Properties Material You can assign a material to the Texture tag by dragging the material from the Material manager and dropping it into this box. If multiple Texture tags are selected, the material will be applied to all of them. If you click the triangle button next to the Material box, a menu will appear with the following commands: Clear Removes the Texture tag’s material. Show In Manager Displays the Texture tag’s material in the Material manager.
TEXTURE MAPPING • 869 Selection Selection enables you to use different materials on different parts of the same object. This is a convenient way to add, for example, labels to objects. First of all you need a Selection tag: - Select the object, select the Polygons tool and select the Live Selection tool. - Select several polygons (if you selected a primitive object, you must first convert it to polygons using Functions > Make Editable). - Choose Selection > Set Selection to create a Polygon Selection tag.
870 • CHAPTER 18 Side (decal mapping) Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4. Suppose you project a texture onto a tube with Flat mapping. If you move the camera around to look at the other side of the surface, you will still see the texture, but it will be the wrong way round. You can solve this problem by using a decal — a material that is projected on one side of the surface only.
TEXTURE MAPPING • 871 Offset X, Offset Y, Length X, Length X, Length Y The Offset and Length settings define the position and size of the texture in the X and Y directions on the texture envelope. For example, if Length X and Length Y are both set to 100%, the texture covers the envelope completely. Tiles X, Tiles Y The Tiles values are the number of times the texture fits onto the texture envelope in the X and Y directions (Length X and Length Y).
872 • CHAPTER 18 Seamless Seamless is generally of little use for photographed textures, although you can generate interesting patterns. The option is best suited to patterns, such as wood, stone or marble. If the Seamless option is enabled, tiles are mirrored to prevent visible seams. However, this sometimes leads to a butterfly effect in the pattern. Tile If you enable the Tile option for a 2D or 3D shader it is not, strictly speaking, tiled, but instead fills the entire object seamlessly.
TEXTURE MAPPING • 873 Artefacts with the Noise shader in the Bump shader and Use UVW For Bump disabled. Artefacts may appear in certain areas in the border area between two neighboring UV polygons, especially when using the Noise shader with a high Delta value. This is caused by the discrepancy between the coordinate systems of the object polygon and the mapped UV polygon. This is a general problem and can only be resolved by increasing the geometry’s resolution.
874 • CHAPTER 18 Types of mapping To choose how a material is placed onto a surface, set Projection to the desired mode. The modes available are demonstrated below and explained in the following pages. Spherical applied to a plane. Spherical applied to a cylinder. Spherical applied to a sphere. Cylindrical applied to a plane. Cylindrical applied to a cylinder. Cylindrical applied to a sphere. Flat mapping applied to a plane. Flat mapping applied to a cylinder. Flat mapping applied to a sphere.
TEXTURE MAPPING • 875 Spherical Spherical mapping projects the texture onto the object in a spherical form. Spherical projection is rarely suitable for flat objects. There is distortion with cylindrical objects also. Cylindrical This mapping type projects the texture onto the object in a cylindrical shape. Cylindrical projection is rarely suitable for flat objects. It also leads to distortion when used with spherical objects.
876 • CHAPTER 18 Primitive objects and NURBS objects have internal UVW coordinates and do not have a UVW tag in the Object manager. You can still use UVW mapping with these objects. If you convert a Primitive object or NURBS to a Polygon object, a UVW tag will appear in the Object manager. You may be wondering why there are three coordinates (UVW). What’s the third coordinate for? Conventional textures have two coordinates, one for the horizontal position (X) and one for the vertical position (Y).
TEXTURE MAPPING • 877 Selective UVW Mapping CINEMA 4D has two ways of allocating texture projections to polygon selections (rather than to the whole object as described above). The first method is described below. For details on the second method, look up ‘materials, restrict to selection’ in the index. Selective UVW mapping allows you to apply a different projection type to several regions of the object using the same texture geometry.
878 • CHAPTER 18 Camera Mapping Keep the limitations of camera mapping in mind. For example, you cannot rotate a full 360° around a building. The photo is usually already distorted by perspective so, at certain angles, you will get a distortion of a distortion and poor texture quality. With camera mapping, the texture is projected from the camera onto the object. Suppose you want to use a photo and have it interact with your models.
TEXTURE MAPPING • 879 Attribute manager settings Camera Drag the camera that should project the texture into this box. Size X, Size Y If you click the Calculate button (see below), the size of the texture in pixels will appear here. You can also enter the size manually if you wish. Aspect X, Aspect Y If the pixel aspect ratio of the image is not 1:1, enter the ratio here.
880 • CHAPTER 18 This analogy can be related closely to CINEMA 4D’s behavior. Your object has a base material. You have additional materials on top of the base material. In order to see the base material, the overlying materials must be scaled down and not tiled. You can do this by scaling down the texture geometry and at the same time disabling the Tile option. If two materials overlap and you want to see the bottom one, you must make a hole in the top one.
TEXTURE MAPPING • 881 The graffiti is the top material layer; it uses an alpha channel to remove the non-graffiti parts, thereby exposing the next layer down, the poster material. Even though the poster material is on a layer above the bricks, the bricks can still be seen because the poster material has been scaled down and is not tiled (i.e. the poster does not cover the entire surface). The brick material was made using a color channel and a bump channel.
882 • CHAPTER 18 Returning to the wall example, Figures 3 and 4 show the results of mixing dirt into the poster and graffiti textures. This was accomplished by using the Mix Textures option. The illustrations below show how this was done. On the left, the bump10 texture has been mixed with the poster texture, which is to its left in the Object manager, to dirty it up. The bump10 texture stops at the poster texture: it does not continue on to the brick texture, because the poster texture is non-additive.
TEXTURE MAPPING • 883 The texture is often slightly out of proportion after scaling. Select the Texture tag and, in the Attribute manager, set the Length values as desired. Since the length cannot exceed 100%, you may need to divide both values. For example, if your texture is 800 x 600 pixels, you might set the lengths as follows: Length X 80 8 32 Length Y 60 6 24 Conversion Factor / 10 / 100 / 100 x 4 etc.
19 Timeline
TIMELINE • 887 19 Timeline CINEMA 4D’s Timeline is a powerful tool for controlling and playing back animation. Like a sheet of music, the timing of the elements is represented horizontally. However, unlike sheet music, each element in an animation is represented by a key. Each horizontal line in the Timeline is called a track. Tracks control how objects are animated, from simple position animation to complex effects such as morphing. A track can contain one or more sequences.
888 • CHAPTER 19 Animation Toolbar The animation toolbar provides you with a quick and easy way to record and navigate the animation. By default, the animation toolbar appears in the lower part of the workspace and contains animation tools as well as a slider called the time slider. The time slider determines which frame is currently shown in the viewports. You can also access the animation toolbar’s commands from the Animation menu.
TIMELINE • 889 The other options on the menu are: Active Elements Keys will be recorded for the active objects (i.e. the objects that are selected in the Object manager or viewport). Restrict Editor Selection If this option is enabled, the only objects you will be able to select in the viewport are objects that are assigned to the Selection object. Restrict Keyframe Recording Applies to recording with the Record button.
890 • CHAPTER 19 - Click the Autokeying command. Autokeying - Move the time slider to the frame at which you want to record the keys. Set the objects to the desired settings (Position, Scale, etc.) for this frame. The changes are recorded automatically. To restrict autokeying to particular parameters, in the Attribute manager, select the desired parameters and right-click (Windows) or Command-click( Mac OS) on the name of one of the parameters to open the context menu.
TIMELINE • 891 Default Interpolation produces a soft, smooth movement. The tangents are always straight so there will never be a kink in the curve. However, this method produces overshooting of the F-Curve if values change substantially over a short period of time. This can lead to unwanted behavior; for example, you may find that, following a position change, an object moves the wrong way for a short time.
892 • CHAPTER 19 Animation Menu The Animation menu on the main menu contains the same commands as the animation toolbar and, in addition, contains the following commands. Record Link XYZ Subchannels When recording parameters that have subchannels — such as the R, G and B channels of a light source or the X, Y and Z channels of a Position track — use this option to choose whether all three subchannels are recorded (three keys) or a single component only (one key).
TIMELINE • 893 Play Mode Use the items in this submenu to choose the playback mode for the animation. Preview Range Restricts the playback to the Timeline’s preview range (the frames between the two green markers). Simple The animation is played once only. Cycle As soon as the end of the animation is reached, the animation is played from the start. Ping-Pong The animation is played forwards and then backwards.
894 • CHAPTER 19 Working in the Timeline Improving workflow Drag-and-drop By default, the Timeline displays all of the objects in the active scene (look up ‘Automatic Mode’ in the index for more details). If you switch to Manual mode by clicking the lock icon in the top right corner of the Timeline, you can choose which objects are displayed. Simply drag the desired objects from the Object manager and drop them into the Timeline.
TIMELINE • 895 Context menus Four context menus are available within the Timeline. Which context menu appears depends on where you right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS): on a layer icon, on the ruler, on a track or object name, or on a sequence. The commands in these context menus are described later in this chapter. The Objects area Automatic mode In Automatic mode, the Objects area contains a list of all objects and materials in the scene.
896 • CHAPTER 19 Manual mode In Manual mode, you can choose exactly which elements are displayed in the Timeline. Simply drag and drop the desired elements into the Timeline. For example, you can drag materials from the Material manager or objects from the Object manager and drop them into the Timeline. To display the entire hierarchy in the Timeline, hold down the Shift key while you drag and drop. To display all animated elements, in the Timeline, choose Edit > Show All Animated.
TIMELINE • 897 Using layers offers you many advantages and often saves much clicking and searching in the Timeline. Try to become accustomed to using layers, especially when working with complex animation. As an example, you could place all objects that have complex inverse kinematics assigned to them to a specific layer and switch the remaining parts of the animation to hidden so that you can work on the IK parts in isolation.
898 • CHAPTER 19 Setting markers To create a marker, Ctrl-click on the Timeline ruler (within the ruler lines) at the point where you want to place the marker. By default, CINEMA 4D assigns the second layer color to all new markers, and numbers these automatically and consecutively throughout. Alternatively, you may also select File > New Marker from the Timeline menu and manually enter its position, name and color.
TIMELINE • 899 Recording animation You may notice problems when animating small changes over a very long period of time. For example, you may see a pulsating effect if an object initially at rest starts to rotate with constant acceleration over a period of 2500 frames. Such problems are due to the insufficient processor accuracy of current computer processors. However, this tends to affect extreme cases only. If such cases, break down the animation into several smaller animations.
900 • CHAPTER 19 - In the animation toolbar, drag the time slider to frame 30. In the viewport, move the cube to the position it should reach by frame 30. Click the Record button. - To play the animation, in the animation toolbar, click the Play button. Done. The cube changes its position continuously from frame 0 to frame 30 frames. The yellow animation path is shown in the viewport — this is the path followed by the cube.
TIMELINE • 901 - Move the time slider to frame 30, move the cube to a different position and right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) one of the ‘P’ letters again. From the context menu that appears, choose Animation > Add Keyframe. - To play the animation, in the animation toolbar, click the Play button. Done. The cube moves during frames 0 to 30. Using this method, you can record animation for almost any parameter.
902 • CHAPTER 19 Keyframing in the Timeline You can create tracks, sequences and keys manually in the Timeline. Before you can record keys, you must first create a track and a sequence. To create a track, in the Timeline, select the name of the object that should receive the track and choose the desired track from the File > New Track menu. The name of the track will appear to the right of the object’s name in the Timeline.
TIMELINE • 903 - Ctrl-click anywhere on the position sequence. A key is created where you clicked and the key’s parameters are displayed in the Attribute manager. - In the Attribute manager, set Time to 0 and set Value to 0. The Attribute manager also displays values for the selected key’s tangents. Although you can enter values for these parameters also, most of the time it’s quicker and easier to set these values using the F-Curve manager.
904 • CHAPTER 19 Selecting elements The Timeline offers you many different ways to select elements. The simplest of these is to select a single element: Simply click on an object, track, sequence or key. The element (including its child tracks, sequences or keys, as relevant) is then colored or bordered in red. You can also select multiple elements. Shift-click an element to add it to the selection. To remove an element from the selection, Shift-click the element once more.
TIMELINE • 905 Using drag and drop to copy and move CINEMA 4D enables you to move or copy elements within the Timeline quickly and easily using drag and drop. As a basic guideline, to change from the standard move mode into copy mode, hold down the Ctrl key while you drag and drop. When using drag and drop in the Timeline, always check the mouse pointer. For example, the mouse pointer shows a small ‘+’ sign when copy mode is active.
906 • CHAPTER 19 Example You have created a more complex position animation with a dummy object. (This should have the same dimensions as the final, lavishly modeled complex object.) Next you want to transfer the position track to the complex object. - In the Timeline, drag the name Position from the dummy object onto the complex object. Selection handles You can also move and scale sequences and keys using the selection handles in the Timeline ruler.
TIMELINE • 907 File Menu New Track > Parameter You can animate almost any parameter of an object. When you choose New Track > Parameter, a submenu will list all of the selected object’s parameters that can be animated. To create new keyframes, in the Timeline, do one of the following: - Right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) on a sequence and choose New Key from the context menu that opens. - Ctrl-click anywhere on the desired sequence.
908 • CHAPTER 19 Example Using a Parameter track, CINEMA 4D enables you to morph one material to another. For example, by morphing a skin texture to a stone texture, you can turn a character from flesh to stone. For this example, you’ll morph a sphere’s material from wood to marble. - Create a wood material and a marble material using the Wood and Marble shaders. - Create a Sphere object. Assign the wood material to the sphere. - Open the Timeline if it isn’t already open.
TIMELINE • 909 - Ctrl-click on the Material sequence at frame 0 to create a key. In the Attribute manager, note that the Wood material is already assigned. - Ctrl-click on the Material sequence at frame 90 to create another key. - Now drag the marble material from the Material manager and drop it into the Material box in the Attribute manager. This assigns the marble material to the sphere at this point in the animation.
910 • CHAPTER 19 New Track > Morph Using this track, you can smoothly transform one shape into another. You can morph Polygon objects and Spline objects; however, you cannot morph primitives or spline primitives. You can only morph between objects that have the same number of points. For example, you cannot morph a sphere into a cube when the sphere has many more points. Rather, you should morph between modified duplicates of an object.
TIMELINE • 911 - The next step is to create a morph target for a puddle. To this end create a third target object by copying the original. Name this new object Target3. This time, scale the target to flatten and widen it. Use the Magnet tool to tug at the edges to form an irregular puddle shape (Figure 3, above). Remember to have the Model tool selected before scaling. - The target objects are now ready to be used. Hide the targets in the Object manager but keep the original sphere visible.
912 • CHAPTER 19 Attribute manager settings Select a key in a Morph track to display its properties in the Attribute manager. Key Properties Name You can enter a new name for the key into this box. Time Defines the frame at which the key is placed. To move the key to a different frame, set this parameter to the desired frame number. Morph Target Drag the name of the target object from the Object manager into this box. Bias From top to bottom: Bias set to 0, 40 and -100.
TIMELINE • 913 New Track > PLA This track lets you animate the points of polygon objects and splines. Primitives and spline primitives must be made editable using the Make Editable command before you can use them with PLA (Point Level Animation). Use a key to record the positions of all points belonging to the selected object. This method enables you to animate changes in the shape of objects or splines.
914 • CHAPTER 19 Attribute manager settings Select a key in the PLA track to display its properties in the Attribute manager. Key Properties Name You can enter a new name for the key into this box. Time Defines the frame at which the key is placed. To move the key to a different frame, set this parameter to the desired frame number. Bias From top to bottom: Bias set to 0, 40 and -100. Controls the interpolation between the keys. You can use this parameter to ease-in and ease-out the PLA (i.e.
TIMELINE • 915 New Track > Sound When you render a movie file, CINEMA 4D does not include sound. To add the sound to the rendered movie, render the sound and use a video editor to combine the sound with the movie. This command creates a new Sound track and sequence for the object selected in the Timeline. Using sound sequences, you can apply AIFF or WAV sound files to any objects. You will need to do this if you want to use CINEMA 4D’s 2D and 3D sound rendering features.
916 • CHAPTER 19 Sound, Size, Frequency, Length, Channel, Bits Click the button with three dots and use the system dialog that opens to choose the sound file that you want to assign to the object that is selected in the Timeline. Information for this sound file, such as its file size and frequency, will then be shown in the lower part of the page.
TIMELINE • 917 New Track > Time The Time track gives you a quick and easy way to control the timing of any animation track using a curve known as a time curve. For example, suppose you’ve created a track that moves a car from the start to end of a road at constant velocity. When you play back this animation, the car starts abruptly, as though it goes from 0-100 in zero seconds. Naturally, this is unrealistic. We need the car to accelerate gradually over a number of frames.
918 • CHAPTER 19 - In the Attribute manager, you’ll find a box called Time Track. Drag the name Time from the Timeline and drop it into the Time Track box to assign the Time track to the Position.X track. The Timeline now looks as follows. When playing back the animation, you won’t see a difference yet because the Time track’s curve rises linearly from 0% to 100% (the percentages refer to the Position.X parameter).
TIMELINE • 919 - Next, edit the key at the end of the sequence (i.e. at frame 90) and set the key’s value to 0%. You can create the keys in the Timeline or in the F-Curve manager. The Timeline now looks as follows. - Play back the animation and watch how the sphere’s motion has been changed. Now the sphere reaches X=300 by about frame 45, then it ‘reverses’ all the way back to its starting point by the end of the animation — even though the Position.X track has just two keys.
920 • CHAPTER 19 New Sequence Use this command to create a new sequence on the active track. It opens a dialog, enabling you to enter the start and end time of the sequence. To the right of these values, the overall length of the sequence is displayed. You can optionally make the sequence loop a number of times. You can enter the overall loop length or number of loops. These two values are linked to one another and will change according to each other’s value.
TIMELINE • 921 Left Border, Right Border Define the frames at which the sequence starts and ends. Loop Border, Loops, Soft To repeat the sequence, set Loops to the number of repetitions or set Loop Border to the frame at which the loops should end (the loops will commence immediately after the sequence). Loop sequences are shaded a lighter gray than the sequence proper. You cannot add keys to loops. If you want CINEMA 4D to interpolate softly between the loops, enable Soft.
922 • CHAPTER 19 For example, suppose you want the robot to look at a space ship before and after the rotation sequence. In other words, from frames 0 to 29, the robot will look at the space ship. From frames 30 to 60, the robot rotates its head as defined by the rotation sequence. Then from frame 61 onwards, the robot once more looks at the space ship. You can achieve this as follows. First you create a Target tag that points the robot’s head at the space ship. You lower the priority of the Target tag (i.
TIMELINE • 923 New Key Use this command to create a new key on the active sequence. It opens a dialog, allowing you to enter the time position of the key. Once you have entered the desired position and clicked OK, the key is created and its properties are displayed on the Attribute manager’s Key Properties page. You can also create a new key by Ctrl-clicking on the sequence at the position where you want to add the key. Again, the key’s settings are displayed in the Attribute manager.
924 • CHAPTER 19 Interpolation L / R Using these drop-down lists, you can set separate interpolation types for the left and right tangents. Custom A handle is shown for the tangent in the F-Curve window, where you can drag the handle freely to rotate and scale the tangent. You can also enter values into the Time L / R and Value L / R boxes. Soft The default interpolation. Soft attempts to interpolate between the keys as smoothly as possible.
TIMELINE • 925 Taking the foot example a little further, while the foot is on the ground, you’ll want to prevent it from sinking through the floor. Although you can do this by setting the interpolation between the keyframes to linear to straighten out the curve, this may cause problems later if you need to adjust the keys. The clamp function is used to straighten out the curve (just like linear interpolation would do) between keys that have the same values.
926 • CHAPTER 19 New Marker This command creates a new marker on the Timeline ruler. Markers are ideal for simplifying the look and navigation of the Timeline. After calling this command, a dialog opens that enables you to define the timeframe position and the name and color of the marker. You can also create new markers directly on the Timeline ruler. To do this, Ctrl-click on the lower half of the Timeline ruler.
TIMELINE • 927 2D Sound Rendering With 2D sound rendering, CINEMA 4D creates uncompressed stereo WAV files in 16 bits @ 44.1 kHz. You can render 2D sound data with this command. CINEMA 4D creates a single, coherent WAV sound file, based on the sound sequences in the Timeline. Any volume and balance information in the keys is included in the file. With this feature, you are, in effect, in front of a multi-track recording machine that allows you to cut and mix many sound files non-linearly.
928 • CHAPTER 19 3D Sound Rendering With 3D sound rendering, CINEMA 4D creates uncompressed mono WAV files in 16 bits @ 44.1 kHz. You can render 3D sound data with this command. CINEMA 4D creates a WAV sound file for each Microphone object in the scene and calculates the volume and pitch of each sound file according to the position and speed of all cameras and microphones in the scene.
TIMELINE • 929 Preview Performs 3D sound rendering for the part of the document marked as a preview range(i.e. the area in the Timeline between the green markers). Raytracer Performs 3D sound rendering for the number of frames defined in the render settings. Close Closes the Timeline. The animation created in the Timeline is preserved.
930 • CHAPTER 19 Edit Menu Undo This command is used to undo the last change made to the animation. If you use this command several times, one after the other, first the last change you made will be undone, then the editing prior to that change is undone and so on. By default, CINEMA 4D saves the last ten edit steps internally and all of these steps may be undone. You can change the number of undo steps in the preferences, on the Document page.
TIMELINE • 931 Delete Deletes the selected animation elements. To delete all the animation tracks of an object, in the Timeline, select the object’s name before using this command. Delete All Markers Delete all existing markers from the Timeline. Select All Selects all visible and invisible elements of the Timeline (objects, tracks, sequences and keys). Deselect All Deselects all elements of the Timeline (objects, tracks, sequences and keys).
932 • CHAPTER 19 Arrange Mode This command works in manual mode only. When the arrange mode is active, objects can be freely rearranged in the Timeline, allowing you to even change the hierarchy completely without affecting the hierarchy in the Object manager. However, note that you can’t edit keys or tracks while the arrange mode is active. As soon as the arrange mode is activated, the mouse pointer changes to a hand instead of the usual arrow.
TIMELINE • 933 When you add a key to a sequence, the new key may replace an existing key, regardless of whether you place the key manually or whether you use autokeying. For example, suppose a sequence has an existing key at frame 12.23 and a new key is placed at frame 12. The original key (12.23) will be deleted and the new key will be snapped to frame 12. CINEMA 4D also snaps sequences and keys when scaling them. This prevents keys from being at non-integral positions such as frame 3.476532.
934 • CHAPTER 19 Other elements, such as object tags and material shaders, are hidden in the list initially and you can access them by clicking on the triangles next to the object and material names. Clicking on the triangle for an XPresso tag gives you access to the nodes that it contains. To access subordinate elements, such as child objects or shaders within shaders, click on the parent element’s “+” icon. You can switch between automatic mode and manual mode at any time.
TIMELINE • 935 View Menu Frame All This command enables you to center the entire animation within the visible work area of the Timeline. If necessary, the view will be scaled horizontally. Frame Selection Centers the selected elements (sequences and keys) within the visible work area in the Timeline. If necessary, the view will be scaled horizontally. Frame Start Centers the visible work area in the Timeline from the start of the animation. The view is not scaled.
936 • CHAPTER 19 Filter Menu The options on this menu control which element types are displayed in the Timeline. The last four items on this menu — Show Position Tracks, Scale Tracks, Rotation Tracks and Other Tracks — apply to either manual mode or automatic mode. The remaining options apply only to automatic mode. All items except Show Branches control whether a particular element type is shown. Show Branches is available only when Show All Objects is enabled.
TIMELINE • 937 Objects Menu Rename Object Renames the object that is currently selected in the Timeline. Search Active Object This command scrolls the Timeline and opens a hierarchy if necessary to ensure that the object currently selected in the Timeline can be seen in the Timeline. Fold All, Unfold All These commands close or open all hierarchies in the Timeline. This action is also applied to invisible and locked objects. Bake Object Not all types of animation can be baked.
938 • CHAPTER 19 Spline To Position Track This converts a spline into an animation path. First, select the object whose animation path you want to change. Next, choose this command. In the dialog that opens, enter the name of the spline that should be converted to the object’s position tracks and click OK. CINEMA 4D will create new X, Y and Z position tracks for the object so that it follows the path of the spline.
TIMELINE • 939 Sequences Menu Record Selected This command creates a key at the current frame for all selected sequences. Insert Preview Range Before. After. This command gives you a quick way to create a gap in each selected sequence. The gap is created between the two (green) preview range markers. To create the gap, CINEMA 4D splits each selected sequence in two at the position of the left preview range marker. The second part of each split sequence is then moved to the end of the preview range.
940 • CHAPTER 19 Connect This command is especially useful when you want to loop a motion that is made up of several sequences. By connecting the sequences into one, you can then loop the motion using the Attribute manager settings for this sequence. Using this command, you can combine several individual sequences. You can connect as many sequences of a track as desired. The sequences must be positioned next to each other, but do not have to touch (i.e.
TIMELINE • 941 Move/Scale This command opens a dialog that enables you to move and/or scale the selected sequences. Move Defines by how many units or frames the selected sequences are to be shifted to the right. Negative values will cause a shift to the left. Scale Defines the factor by which the selected sequences are to be scaled. For example, if the value is 1, the sequence remains unchanged. With 2, the sequences are doubled in length and with 0.5 the sequences become half their original length.
942 • CHAPTER 19 Layer Menu Color Selection With this menu you can assign one of the eight predefined colors to the elements (objects, tracks, sequences and keys) selected in the Timeline. Select Layer Choose one of the eight layer entries from the Select Layer menu to select all elements that belong to this layer in the Timeline. Toggle Layer Tracks with hidden sequences cannot be deleted. Choose one of the eight layer entries from the Toggle Layer menu to hide the layer.
TIMELINE • 943 Loading XL R7 scenes The following issues apply when loading animated scenes created in CINEMA 4D XL R7: - Motion groups cannot be loaded. To remedy this, in CINEMA 4D XL R7, ungroup the motion groups (Timeline: Sequences > Ungroup Motion) and save the scene. Load this scene into CINEMA 4D R9. - Plugin tracks will be loaded only if the plugin is compatible with CINEMA 4D R9 and is installed.
944 • CHAPTER 19 - Ctrl-click on the sequence at about frame 45 to create the second key. Again, the checkerboard material will be assigned to the key automatically, but this time it needs to be changed to the Marble material (see next step). - Drag and drop the marble material from the Material manager into the Material box in the Attribute manager (the Material box for the Material sequence). This assigns the marble material to the second key.
20 F-Curve Manager
F-CURVE MANAGER • 947 20 F-Curve Manager F-Curves, short for function curves, control the interpolation between keys. Since they have no fixed units, they can be used to control any parameter that can be interpolated. F-Curves are shown only for those animated parameters that can be interpolated. Parameters that cannot be interpolated — such as the Shadow setting of lights — do not have F-Curves. The way in which keys are interpolated has a major effect on animation.
948 • CHAPTER 20 However, most of the time, you’ll probably want to edit F-Curves using the more spacious F-Curve manager, where it can be easier to edit the curves accurately. In addition, the F-Curve manager provides a number of commands that are not available in the Timeline. Also, when you open the F-Curve manager, the F-Curve List (to the left of the display) is integrated by default. Among other things, this list helps you to control which F-Curves are displayed in the F–Curve manager.
F-CURVE MANAGER • 949 Editing keys F-Curve keys are created and edited in the same way as in the Timeline. To create a new key, Ctrl-click on the F-Curve. To select a key, click it. To select multiple keys, click one of the keys then Shift-click the remaining keys that you want to select. You can also select by dragging out a rectangle selection — all keys inside this box will be selected when you release the mouse button.
950 • CHAPTER 20 When you move and scale F-Curves in relative mode, the real values of the keys are not changed. All that you’re doing is moving and scaling the F-Curves closer to each other so that you don’t have to scroll and zoom each time you want to edit a different F-Curve. F-Curves that you’ve moved or scaled in this way are indicated by an ‘R’ just to the left of the F-Curve (see Figure 2).
F-CURVE MANAGER • 951 F-Curves in the Timeline When working with F-Curves in the Timeline, to access an F-Curve, click on the ‘+’ symbol that is just to the left of the track’s name. To create a new key, Ctrl-click on the F-Curve. To select a key, click it. To select multiple keys, click on one of the keys and then Shift-click on the remaining keys. You can also drag a rectangle selection to select keys — all keys inside this box will be selected when you release the mouse button.
952 • CHAPTER 20 Edit Menu Undo, Redo Undoes the last change you made in the F-Curve manager; select the command multiple times to undo the changes you’ve made one by one. Redo undoes the last undo. Delete Deletes the selected keys. Select All, Deselect All, Invert All Use these commands to select all keys, deselect all keys and invert the selected keys. Remove All Hides the selected F-Curves. The curves still exist, but are no longer displayed. F-Curve List Opens the F-Curve List.
F-CURVE MANAGER • 953 View Menu Frame All Zooms all F-Curves to fit the window. Frame Selection Zooms the selected keys to fit the window. Auto Relative Auto Relative scales each curve to fit the 0-100 range of the F-Curve manager’s Y-axis using a special relative mode. The real values of the keys are not changed. All that you’re doing is moving and scaling the F-Curves closer to each other so that you don’t have to scroll and zoom each time you want to edit a different F-Curve.
954 • CHAPTER 20 Velocity Displays the velocity of all curves in the same color. You cannot edit the velocity of curves directly, since it is derived from the F-Curves. To change the velocity, edit the F-Curves. Curves Menu Custom Tangents Linear Interpolation / Soft Interpolation Linear Interpolation. Soft interpolation. F-Curves are Bezier curves. Just like a Bezier spline, you can define hard or soft interpolation between points.
F-CURVE MANAGER • 955 Function Formula The F-Curve produced by the formula sin(t*2*pi). Using the Formula command, you can use math functions to create almost any shape of curve. The Keys value defines the number of keys that will be created. The variable ‘t’ represents time and may have a value from 0 (the start of the sequence) to 1 (the end of the sequence). Angles must be entered in radians.
956 • CHAPTER 20 Ease In, Ease Out Ease in. Ease out. The Ease In and Ease Out commands help you to achieve realistic motion by adding acceleration and deceleration phases to the animation (ease in and ease out). The commands affect the selected keys only. With Ease In, the change in the parameter slows to a virtual standstill before each selected key. With Ease Out, after each selected key, the change in the parameter gains slowly at first, then ever faster. Easy Ease Before.
F-CURVE MANAGER • 957 Clamp Before. After. Suppose your curve has neighboring keys, each set to the same value, and you want a straight line between them to ensure that the parameter stays at the same value. However, soft interpolation curves the line curved between the keys. To straighten the curve between neighboring keys of the same value, select the keys and choose Clamp. Move Moves the selected keys by specific values.
958 • CHAPTER 20 Cycle With Offset Before. After. This command is similar to Cycle except that each repetition begins at a height equal to the height of the highest key in the selection (or previous repetition). Select at least two keys before choosing this command. Bake Curve This command lets you add keys to the curve without changing its shape. This is especially useful if you’ve created the general shape of the curve and you want to add fine details.
21 Attribute Manager
ATTRIBUTE MANAGER • 961 21 Attribute Manager 1. Displayed parameter groups. 2. Lock/unlock. 3. Selected parameter. 4. Parameter has a key at the current frame (indicated by a filled red circle). 5. Parameter has an animation track but no key at the current frame (hollow red circle). 6. Keyframe selection (red highlighting). 7. User-defined slider. 8. Open new Attribute manager (right icon). 9. Parameter cannot be animated (no circle). 10. History buttons.
962 • CHAPTER 21 Recording keys in the Attribute manager To record a key for the parameter at the current frame, Ctrl-click on the parameter’s circle. Ctrl-click the circle again to delete the key at the current frame. To delete a parameter’s animation track, Ctrl-Shift-click on the parameter’s circle. Editing parameters To edit a parameter in the Attribute manager, do one of the following: - Enter the new value into the parameter’s text box.
ATTRIBUTE MANAGER • 963 There are further ways to navigate the Attribute manager: - Drag, say, a material from the Material manager and drop it onto the parameter group tab for a Texture tag. The tab will be activated if it isn’t already. - Click and hold down the mouse button and drag over the parameter groups that you want to display. Scroll bars will appear if there is insufficient display space. To scroll the display space, drag the scroll bars or click in an empty part of the window and drag.
964 • CHAPTER 21 Click the up arrow button to move up by one hierarchical level. This also works with shaders. For example, suppose you have created a material and loaded the Fusion shader into its color channel. You have also loaded shaders into the Fusion shader itself, i.e. you have shaders within shaders. Using the up arrow button, you can display the settings that are on the next level up. History menu Right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) on a navigation arrow to open the History menu.
ATTRIBUTE MANAGER • 965 Next Keyframe, Previous Keyframe Moves the time slider to the next/previous keyframe (if present) for the selected parameters. Delete Keyframe Deletes all of the selected parameters’ keyframes at the current frame. Alternatively, Ctrl-click the red circle next to one of the selected parameters’ names. Each parameter with a filled red circle next to its name has a keyframe at the current frame. Add Track Creates tracks for the selected parameters.
966 • CHAPTER 21 - In the Attribute manager, right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the P.Y box to access its context menu. From this menu, choose Animation > Set Driver. (The P.Y box controls the sphere’s height, i.e. its Y position.) - In the Object manager, click the cube’s name to select it and display its settings in the Attribute manager. - In the Attribute manager, right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the P.Y box to access its context menu.
ATTRIBUTE MANAGER • 967 Remove Keyframe Selection Removes the selected parameters from the keyframe selection. Clear Keyframe Selection Deletes all keyframe selections for the selected objects. User Interface This submenu appears when only one parameter is selected. It allows you to adjust the parameter’s interface. For an existing parameter, you usually have a choice between a numeric text box (Float), a slider (Float Slider — No Edit Field) or a combination of both (Float Slider).
968 • CHAPTER 21 Select All, Deselect All Select or deselect all parameters. Edit Entry If you’ve used the Attribute manager’s Add User Data command (User Data > Add User Data) to create your own sliders or other GUI elements, use Edit Entry to edit these GUI elements. For example, you can change the minimum and maximum values for sliders. Remove Entry To delete a slider or other GUI element that you’ve created, select the element and choose Remove Entry.
ATTRIBUTE MANAGER • 969 In the example above, two spheres have been selected in order to display their parameters in the Attribute manager. The shaded Radius box indicates that the spheres have different radius values. To set both spheres to the same radius, enter the desired value into the shaded box for Radius. The box will turn white to indicate that the parameter now has the same value for both spheres.
970 • CHAPTER 21 Choosing the display mode Suppose an object and the Knife tool are currently selected. The Attribute manager can only display one type of settings at a time, so how does it know whether to display the object’s settings or the knife’s settings? This is precisely what the display mode allows you to control. You can switch which element is displayed using the Mode menu.
ATTRIBUTE MANAGER • 971 User Data Add User Data Use this command to add your own GUI elements such as sliders. These GUI elements are stored by the object and appear in the Attribute manager each time you select the object until you specifically delete them. The GUI elements have the following functions: - You can use the GUI elements to drive other parameters. To learn how to create set driven keys, look up ‘set driven keys’ in the index.
972 • CHAPTER 21 String Interface set to String (upper parameter) and Multi Line String (lower parameter). Integer Interface set to Integer (upper parameter) and Integer Slider (lower parameter) . Float From top to bottom: Interface set to Float, Float Slider and Float (No Edit Field). Unit Choose the parameter’s units: Real, Percent, Degree or Meter. Although nodes work in radians instead of degrees (360˚ = 2*pi radians), by setting Unit to Degree you are able to enter values in degrees.
22 XPresso Editor
XPRESSO EDITOR • 975 22 XPresso Editor In earlier releases of CINEMA 4D, to create extra interactions between objects required you to manually program C.O.F.F.E.E. expressions; and you can still do this if you wish. However, with CINEMA 4D’s XPresso node editor, you can set up complex, automated object interactions simply, by drawing lines from one object to another.
976 • CHAPTER 22 XGroups XGroups are containers for nodes, other XGroups and their wires. Like real containers, XGroups help you to put related items ‘in the same box’ for better organization. You’ll then find it easier to understand, navigate and modify the expression. In addition to acting as a container, an XGroup can be connected to nodes and other XGroups. You can save and load XGroups to reuse them in other projects. Use XGroups to organize nodes into groups.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 977 To unprotect an XGroup, you do almost the same as you did to protect it, except in reverse. First, click on the Unprotect button and enter your password into the dialog that appears. To reveal the contents of the XGroup, disable View > Locked from the context menu and choose the desired display mode from the context menu’s View submenu. Nodes CINEMA 4D’s nodes work in radians. In other words, nodes use angular values from 0 to 2*Pi rather than degrees from 0 to 360˚.
978 • CHAPTER 22 Ports Ports are the inputs and outputs of nodes and XGroups. To add a port, choose the desired port from the inputs menu (blue square) or outputs menu (red square); in these menus, ports that have already been added are ghosted. Add ports using the inputs and outputs menus (the blue and red squares in the node’s top corners). Values are passed via ports. Output ports are shown as red circles, input ports as blue circles.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 979 - Click the node’s inputs menu (the blue square) and choose the name of the User Data port. You will now be able to send values to the port via the User Data parameter on the Attribute manager’s User Data page. See the XPresso tutorial in the CINEMA 4D Tutorial manual for a working example of why user data is useful. Wires Wires enable you to connect the ports of nodes and XGroups.
980 • CHAPTER 22 Wires will convert compatible data types automatically. For example, if you pass a real value, such as 72.163, to a node that works with integers only, the connecting wire will convert the real value to an integer automatically — in this case, to 72. Creating a new XPresso expression The first step in building an expression is to add an XPresso tag to one of the objects in the scene (Object manager: File > CINEMA 4D Tags > XPresso).
XPRESSO EDITOR • 981 In these cases, use the input box to control the order in which expressions of the same XPriority are evaluated. Enter a number from -500 to 500 for each expression. The expressions will be evaluated in numerical order, lowest number first. Recall that, provided the value in the input box is 0, the expression will be evaluated at the same time as the group that you choose from the XPriority drop-down list.
982 • CHAPTER 22 Font The Font data type stores information for a chosen font, including whether it should be used as a TrueType or PostScript font. For example, you can use the Font data type to vary the appearance of a text spline. The Font data type cannot be converted to other types. Gradient The gradient data type consists of a large number of values that represent a gradient. It cannot be converted to other data types.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 983 Normal A normalized vector is a vector of the same direction, but with a length of 1. Object The Object type is a sub-type of Link and is used for object data only. Among other things, this data type gives you access to an object’s global and local matrices. See also ‘Link’, above. Priority The Priority data type contains the XPriority and its numerical value, plus details on the order of evaluation. This data type is used for the priority port of tags.
984 • CHAPTER 22 Time The Time data type gives you access to the animation’s current time. Keep in mind that this value is affected by the frame rate. For example, if the rate is 25 frames per second, the Time value for frame 24 is one second exactly. The Time data type is especially useful for controlling dynamic processes since it enables you to take an animation’s progress into account.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 985 XPresso Editor Menus File Menu Load XGroup, Save XGroup As Load XGroup imports a previously saved XGroup into the selected XGroup. If no XGroup is selected, the XGroup is loaded directly into the XPresso Editor. Once loaded, the XGroup uses its standard size setting, i.e. its contents will be hidden. To show the contents, right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the XGroup and choose either View > Extended or View > Fullscreen from the context menu.
986 • CHAPTER 22 Enable, Disable If you disable a node or XGroup that is between two enabled nodes or XGroups, no values will be passed through. In effect, the enabled elements will be disconnected from each other. Nodes and XGroups with missing or disabled parameters have a yellow title bar. Using these commands, you can switch nodes and XGroups on or off so that you can test parts of an expression in isolation without having to disconnect wires.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 987 Show All Displays the entire expression in the XPresso Editor. Align To Upper Left Moves the entire expression to the top left corner of the XPresso Editor. No zooming takes place. Center Nodes Moves the center of the expression to the center of the XPresso Editor. No zooming takes place. Align To Grid Aligns the nodes and XGroups to the XPresso Editor’s grid. Custom Menu The commands in the Custom menu relate to plugins and modules.
988 • CHAPTER 22 XPresso Context Menus In the XPresso Editor, the context menu provides quick access to commands that are specific to nodes, XGroups and ports. Some of these commands are available from the context menu only. The commands shown vary, depending on whether you access the context menu while the mouse pointer is over a node, XGroup or port. If you access the context menu while the mouse pointer is over an empty space in the XPresso Editor, the commands for XGroups are also shown.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 989 Unpack XGroup This command is the reverse of Convert To XGroup. The selected XGroup is deleted and its nodes and wires are moved to directly within the XPresso Editor. Convert To XGroup This command creates a new XGroup and moves all selected nodes and XGroups, including their wires, into the new XGroup. Align To Grid The selected nodes and XGroups are aligned to the grid. Zoom Here you can choose from various preset zoom levels.
990 • CHAPTER 22 Ports Remove Unused Proceed with caution when using this command — it deletes all unconnected ports, including any that may be in use and receiving values from the Attribute manager. This command deletes all ports that are not connected to the selected node(s) and/or XGroup(s). To delete ports individually, choose Delete Ports from the port’s context menu, or double-click each unconnected port that you want to delete.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 991 Disable Use this option to disable or enable the selected nodes and XGroups. This can be especially useful for testing parts of an expression without having to disconnect wires. (You can also enable and disable nodes and XGroups from the XPresso Editor’s Edit menu.) Disabled elements have gray sides and are ignored when the expression is calculated. If you disable a node or XGroup that is between two enabled nodes and/or XGroups, no values will be passed through.
992 • CHAPTER 22 The XPresso Manager The XPresso manager provides a simplified overview of an expression as a hierarchical list of nodes and XGroups. In addition to providing this clear overview, the XPresso manager is useful for quickly selecting elements, changing their order and rearranging the hierarchy. Nodes that belong to an XGroup are listed below their parent XGroup and are indented. To open the XPresso manager: - The XPresso manager is integrated into the XPresso Editor by default.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 993 The XPresso Pool The XPresso Pool provides a quick way to add nodes to the XPresso Editor. The XPresso Pool contains all of the CINEMA 4D nodes, to which you can add your own pools, where each node is configured to suit your needs. For example, suppose you often need to create a Math node for integer subtraction (Data Type set to Integer and Function set to Subtract).
994 • CHAPTER 22 Edit Menu Create Pool Choose this command to create a new pool for your own node configurations. Use the dialog that opens to define a save path for the pool (note that groups are saved to the ‘Library / xnode folder within the CINEMA 4D folder); the pool is saved automatically and will be made available each time you restart CINEMA 4D. To add your own node configurations to the pool, first configure the nodes as desired in the XPresso Editor then drag and drop the nodes into the pool.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 995 XPresso Nodes XPresso’s nodes are arranged by class and then by group. The XPresso class contains all the nodes that belong to the CINEMA 4D core application. Nodes belonging to plugins or other modules, if present, are listed under a different class. For details on these additional nodes, please refer to the documentation supplied with your plugins and modules. General Group Bounding Box This example queries the size of the bounding box for a spline object.
996 • CHAPTER 22 Box Size Outputs the maximum dimensions of the bounding box in the X, Y and Z directions, as a vector. Keep in mind that, in contrast to the Coordinate manager, the choice of coordinate system has a major influence on the result. Box Point 1 to Box Point 8 Outputs the coordinates of the corner points that make up the bounding box. Collision In Object mode, colliding polygons can be assigned different materials.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 997 Sphere A virtual sphere is placed around each of the objects. If these two virtual spheres intersect, the node detects a collision. If Include Children is enabled in the Attribute manager, these two virtual spheres will also enclose the child objects. Object This mode detects collisions between the two objects at the polygon level. This is the most accurate type of collision detection but also the most CPU-intensive.
998 • CHAPTER 22 Polygon Index 1 If a collision has been detected, this port outputs the index number of the polygon in Object 1 that collided first (provided Collision Type is set to Object or Distance). Polygon Index 2 If a collision has been detected, this port outputs the index number of the polygon in Object 2 that collided first (provided Collision Type is set to Object or Distance).
XPRESSO EDITOR • 999 Freeze The Freeze node is like an electronic switch. If a value of 0 is passed to the node’s Switch port (or if you disable the Switch option in the Attribute manager), the input value is passed straight through to the output, i.e. the switch is closed.
1000 • CHAPTER 22 The following output ports are available: Count Outputs the total number of objects in the Link List. Link Outputs the index number of the object selected in the Link List. Memory The Memory node stores previous states and values. You can then use these values. The History Depth parameter (in the Attribute manager) defines the number of states stored. Set the data type in the Attribute manager. If History Depth is set to 1, only the current state is stored, i.e.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1001 MonoFlop The MonoFlop node in this example is enabled every nine frames. The MonoFlop node then remains active for 0.2 seconds before becoming inactive again. The MonoFlop node is a Boolean switch with a built-in time delay. Once triggered, the node counts down a specified number of frames. The node outputs a Bool value of True while it is counting down.
1002 • CHAPTER 22 The following output ports are available: Count Outputs the total number of times that the node has been triggered. You can reset this counter by passing a value of 0 to the Reset input port. Out Outputs a Bool value of 1 if a countdown is in progress. Otherwise, the port outputs a value of 0. State If the node is currently counting down, this port outputs a decimal value between 0.0 and 1.0 that indicates how far the countdown has progressed.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1003 The following input ports are available: Amplitude This value scales the result of the node by multiplying it. An Amplitude of 1 leads to noise results in the range of -1.0 to +1.0. Frequency The Frequency controls the generation of the noise structure. Higher frequencies lead to more changes in noise per unit of time. Octaves Defines the level of detail for the noise structure. Increase this value for greater detail and more fluctuation in the values.
1004 • CHAPTER 22 Object The quickest way to create an Object node is to drag the object, material or tag from the Object manager or Material manager into the XPresso Editor. The Object node represents a CINEMA 4D object, material or a tag. If you use the context menu to create the Object node, the node is automatically assigned to the object that owns the XPresso tag.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1005 Absolute Reference This is the default mode. The node references the object that is shown in the Reference box. If you want to use the expression in several places in your scene, avoid using the Absolute Reference mode, otherwise you’ll need to change the referencing of the objects each time. Relative Reference This mode is similar to Use Start Position. It enables you to reference an element relative to the object that owns the XPresso tag.
1006 • CHAPTER 22 First In Scene Chooses the first object in the scene. Last In Scene Jumps to the scene’s last element. Start Distance With some Start Position modes, you might want to jump several steps in the hierarchy in one go. In such cases, use Start Distance as a multiplier for the Start Position. For example, to reference an object that is three positions after the object that owns the XPresso tag, set Start Position to Successor On This Level and set Start Distance to 3.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1007 The node is enabled if its On port receives a Bool value of True (1) or disabled if it receives a Bool value of False (0). The node will be enabled automatically if you do not add the On port. Object This allows you to assign a different object to the Object node. This has the same effect as dragging a different object from the Object manager and dropping it into the node’s Reference box in the Attribute manager.
1008 • CHAPTER 22 Next, connect the Compare node’s output to the input port of the node that sets the position for the cubes (see above). Now, when the index reaches ‘2’ during the iteration, the Compare node will switch off the position assignment and the third cube won’t have its position changed. Point Here the node outputs two values: the object’s total number of points (here, eight) and the position of the point whose index value is 4.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1009 Polygon This node outputs two values: the object’s total number of polygons (in this case, six) and the position of the fifth polygon’s center (index value 4). This node gives you direct access to an object’s number of polygons and their positions. To use a Polygon node, first create an Object node for the object whose polygon data you want to access. Click the Object node’s Outputs menu (red square) and choose Object from the menu that appears to create an Object port.
1010 • CHAPTER 22 Random The Random node outputs decimal numbers in the range of -1.0 to +1.0. Two modes are available for generating these numbers: Free and Time. Choose the desired mode in the Attribute manager. The node can output random values of the following data types: Bool, Integer, Normal, Real or Vector. Specify the desired data type via the node’s output port.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1011 Ray Collision The ray has been created between points P1 and P2. The expression places the sphere at the point where the ray hits the cube. This node generates a ray and checks if and where it hits a polygon object. If you want the ray to collide with primitive a object or a NURBS object, you must convert the object to polygons before using it with this node. The following input ports are available: Object Here, connect the polygon object that you want to fire the ray at.
1012 • CHAPTER 22 The following output ports are available: Collision This port signals whether the ray has hit the object. A Bool value of 1 indicates a collision, a Bool value of 0 means the ray missed the object. Distance If the ray has hit a polygon, this port outputs the distance from Ray Point1 to the polygon first hit by the ray. To switch on this port, in the Attribute manager, disable Test Only.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1013 Reference This Reference node finds the object that is directly below the Cube object (Path = ‘D’ for ‘Down’), i.e. the Sphere object. Once found, the object (i.e. the Sphere) is then passed to an Object node, which in turn outputs the object’s name: ‘Sphere’. With this node, you can access an object using a relative search path. This path is described by the letters ‘U’, ‘D’, ‘N’ and ‘P’.
1014 • CHAPTER 22 Result, Spy The Result and Spy nodes are troubleshooting tools. Result displays, in the node itself, the value at its input port. The Spy node passes the value to its output port rather than displaying it. You can check the output of any element by connecting it to a Result or Spy node. The Result node has an input only while the Spy node has an input and an output.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1015 Sample A sample is the smallest unit that a sound file can have. The number of sound samples per second can vary greatly depending on the compression and quality of the sound file. This port gives you access to every sample. Time Usually, you’ll want the sound to be played back at its original speed. However, if you want to play the sound at a faster or slower rate, connect your own time to this port.
1016 • CHAPTER 22 If Use All Segments is enabled in the Attribute manager, the Offset value refers to the length of the entire spline including all its segments. If the spline is composed of one segment only, you can ignore the Segment port (the segment will be used automatically). The way in which a spline is subdivided depends on its interpolation settings. For example, points may be concentrated around the bends.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1017 Time You can access various animation parameters via the following output ports: Delta The time interval between two frames, given in seconds. End The end of the animation as defined in the project settings. Frames per second The frame rate as defined in the project settings. Frame Current frame since the start of the animation. Loop end End of the preview area (the green area in the Timeline), given in seconds. Loop start The start of the preview area, given in seconds.
1018 • CHAPTER 22 Start The start of the animation as defined in the project settings. Time Current time is seconds since the start of the animation (internally, this is more precise than ‘Real’). Weightmap An object’s first Vertex Map tag is accessed. The first point (index = 0) is assigned a weight of 0.5 (i.e. 50%). Weight maps store a value between 0.0 to 1.0 for each point in an object. These values affect how strongly each point is influenced when deformers such as bones are applied to the object.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1019 Adapter Group The nodes in the Adapter group convert a value from one data type to another. Although XPresso’s wires convert various data types automatically, you can use an adapter node to force a particular conversion. Matrix2Vectors This adapter splits a matrix into its four components: the Offset (also known as V0) and the three vectors V1, V2 and V3.
1020 • CHAPTER 22 Vector2Reals The Vector2Reals node performs the reverse operation of the Reals2Vector node — it splits a vector into its three component (Real) values. For example, a rotation vector is split into its H, P and B components. Vectors2Matrix This adapter converts the four vectors Offset, V1, V2 and V3 into a matrix. This node performs the reverse operation of the Matrix2Vectors adapter.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1021 Bool Group The nodes in the Bool group perform various Boolean functions. Each Bool node uses the Bool data type, which has two possible states only: True (represented by 1) and False (represented by 0). Bool The Bool node performs various Boolean functions. On the Attribute manager’s Node page, choose the desired function. AND The output is True if all inputs are True. Otherwise, the output is False. OR The output is True if at least one input is True.
1022 • CHAPTER 22 NOR (Not OR) If at least one input is True, the output is False. Otherwise, the output is True. NOR performs the reverse operation of OR. NXOR (Not Exclusive OR) If an even number of input is True, the output is True. Otherwise, the output is False. NXOR performs the reverse operation of XOR. NOT This node negates a Bool value. If the input is True, the output is False. If the input if False (0), the output is True (1).
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1023 Calculate Group Absolute This node calculates the absolute value of the input and outputs the result. The absolute value is the input value without its sign. For example, if the input is -230.5, the node will output 230.5. Choose the node’s data type in the Attribute manager. C.O.F.F.E.E. This node enables you to integrate C.O.F.F.E.E. code with your XPresso expression. You can add any number of input ports to the node and rename them via the node’s context menu.
1024 • CHAPTER 22 Keep in mind that some restrictions apply when using C.O.F.F.E.E. programs in C.O.F.F.E.E. nodes. In particular, neither the project nor the objects in the scene can be accessed directly by the C.O.F.F.E.E. code. Instead, pass the desired information — such as an object’s position — to the C.O.F.F.E.E. node via another node. The C.O.F.F.E.E.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1025 Cross Product Outputs the cross product of two input vectors. The cross product creates a vector perpendicular to the plane of the two input vectors. For example, you can use this node to calculate the surface normals of polygons yourself. Choose the node’s data type in the Attribute manager. The direction of the output vector depends on the direction of the plane between the two input vectors, but not on its length.
1026 • CHAPTER 22 Dot Product Here the dot product is used to calculate the angle between two input vectors. The following applies: the dot product of Vector 1 and Vector 2 = the length of Vector 1 * the length of Vector 2 * the cosine between Vector 1 and Vector 2. The dot product, or scalar product as it is often called, calculates the projection of a vector onto another vector.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1027 Sqrt Calculates the square root of the input. Floor In this mode, the input is rounded down to the nearest integer value. For example, the input 4.95 produces the output 4. Ceil In this mode, the input is rounded up to the nearest integer value. For example, the input 4.01 produces the output 5. Pow This mode raises the input to the power of the input. For example, an input of 5 is raised to the power of 5, to produce an output value of 3125. Pow2 In this mode, the input is squared.
1028 • CHAPTER 22 FloatMath Node This node, on the other hand, always carries out its calculations using the Real data type. If the node receives input values of a data type other than Real, they will be converted to the type Real before the operation is performed. In the case of an input value of the type Vector, the length of the vector will be used. Formula The Formula node outputs the result of a mathematical formula. Enter the formula on the Attribute manager’s Node page.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1029 Math The Math node performs a math operation such as addition or multiplication. Choose the function and data type in the Attribute manager. Add Adds the inputs together and outputs the result. This is the default function. Subtract Subtracts the second (and any additional) input from the first and outputs the result. Multiply Multiplies the inputs and outputs the result. Divide Divides the first input by the second input by each of the remaining inputs and outputs the result. E.g.
1030 • CHAPTER 22 MatrixMulVector This expression coverts one of the cube’s coordinates from local to global coordinates. A local vector is a vector whose components have been calculated using an object’s local coordinate system. If you multiply a local vector by the object’s global matrix, the result is a global vector. Therefore one use of this node is to convert a point’s local position to world coordinates. You can also perform the reverse operation (i.e.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1031 Range Mapper This node remaps a value from one range to another. For example, suppose the height of an object should control a light’s brightness using a set driven key. When the object is at 0 m, the light’s brightness should be 0%. When the object is at 2 m, the brightness should be 100%. Using the Range Mapper node, the object’s height can be remapped from the range 0 to 2 m to the range 0 to 100%. In this case, a height of, say, 1.5 m would be remapped to 75%.
1032 • CHAPTER 22 Clamp Lower, Clamp Upper These settings automatically restrict the input value to the input range (i.e. to values from Input Lower to Input Upper). If the input is outside the range, it is clamped to the Input Lower value or the Input Upper value — whichever is closer. For example, suppose the input range is 0 to 36 and the output range is 0 to 100. An input value of 38 would be clamped to 36 (the upper limit of the input range), leading to a remapped output of 100.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1033 To create a point, click on the graph; to move an existing point, drag the point; to delete a point, drag the point out of the graph. The graph’s X-axis represents the input value, the Y-axis the output value. You can influence the spline’s curvature using a Tension slider, which you access by clicking the triangle next to the graph. The strength of the Tension slider controls the interpolation between the spline’s points.
1034 • CHAPTER 22 Logic Group The Logic group nodes enable you to compare values. Most of these nodes use the Bool data type, which has two possible states only: True (represented by the value 1) and False (represented by 0). Compare This node compares two values using one of several comparison operators and outputs the result as a Bool. The node outputs a value of ‘1’ if the comparison evaluates to True or a value of ‘0’ if the comparison evaluates to False.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1035 Condition The Condition node is like a switch that has two or more states. You can add any number of states to the node by adding a port for each state from the Inputs menu. The Switch value determines which state the node outputs. For example, if Switch is set to 0, the node outputs the first (i.e. topmost) state. If Switch is set to 1, the node outputs the second state and so on.
1036 • CHAPTER 22 Order Use this node to determine which is the larger of two values. Possible outputs are 1 (first input is the larger value), -1 (second input is larger) and 0 (inputs are equal). Set the node’s data type in the Attribute manager.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1037 Iterator These nodes have one thing in common: they can each output many values per frame. For example, a single iterator node can output the position of each object in the scene. Iterators correspond to the ‘for next’ loop commonly used in computer programming. Iterators enable objects, materials, object points and object polygons to all be processed in one go.
1038 • CHAPTER 22 Relative Reference This mode is similar to Use Start Position. It enables you to reference an element relative to the object that owns the XPresso tag. Unlike the Use Start Position mode, you enter a path that gives the node instructions on how to reach the element. The starting position is the object that owns the tag.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1039 Start Distance With some Start Position modes you might want to jump several steps in the hierarchy in one go. In such cases, use Start Distance as a multiplier for the Start Position. For example, to reference an object that is three positions after the object that owns the XPresso tag, set Start Position to Successor On This Level and set Start Distance to 3. Reference Path See ‘Relative Reference’, above.
1040 • CHAPTER 22 On The On input port takes a Bool value that enables (True) or disables (False) the node. The node is enabled automatically if you do not add this port. The following output ports are available: Count The total number of objects in the hierarchy being searched. In other words, this is the maximum number of objects that the node would be able to find via the Iteration Path. Object The objects found.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1041 Material You can use the Material node to, for example, access a particular material in the Material manager. Here, the first material, then the second material, and finally the third material are passed on to an object. The Compare node controls the progress in the Material manager according to the current animation time. The materials are changed automatically over time. This node searches for materials in the Material manager. The search begins with the top left material.
1042 • CHAPTER 22 The following output ports are available: Count The total number of tags found. This value depends not only on the search criteria but also on the value of the Maximum Materials port. (The Maximum Materials value can limit the number of materials the node outputs, even if there are further materials of the desired type). Material The materials found. ObjectList When you want to introduce a known number of objects into the expression, this node is often the quickest way to do it.
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1043 Tag Connect the desired Selection tag (point, polygon or edge) to this port. The following output ports are available: Count Outputs the total number of elements in the Selection tag. In the case of edges, this value will actually be double the number of edges in the tag. This is because the node will output the number of points that make up the edges, not the actual number of edges.
1044 • CHAPTER 22 On The On input port takes a Bool value that enables (True) or disables (False) the node. The node is enabled automatically if you do not add this port. The following output ports are available: Count Outputs the total number of tags found. This value depends not only on the search criteria but also on the value of the Maximum Tags port. (The Maximum Tags value can limit the number of tags the node outputs, even if the object has further tags of the desired type).
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1045 Set Driven Keys Set driven keys provide an easy way to create object interactions without using the XPresso Editor directly. A set driven key is a relationship where one parameter controls another. For example, suppose you want a door to open and close automatically as a character enters a room. The character’s position can be used to control whether the door is open or closed. The object parameter that does the controlling is the driver.
1046 • CHAPTER 22 Relative Driven Keys There is a second variation of set driven keys: relative driven keys. These allow values to be set directly or with a range mapper node that is created automatically. In both cases the Input Upper, Input Lower, Output Upper and Output Lower parameters are adjusted accordingly.
23 Structure Manager
STRUCTURE MANAGER • 1049 23 Structure Manager Data is shown only if the selected object is editable. To make a primitive editable, select the primitive and choose Functions > Make Editable. Like a spreadsheet, the Structure manager processes data directly within cells that are divided into rows and columns. You can edit data numerically for points (including spline points), polygons, UVW coordinates or vertex maps. The Structure manager shows the data for these items of the selected object.
1050 • CHAPTER 23 Navigating the Structure manager Selection To select a row, click the row’s left column (the Point or Polygon column). To select multiple rows, click the first row that you want to select then Shift-click the remaining rows that you want to select. To remove a row from the selection, Shift-click the row again. Selection frame To select a cell, click it. You can also change which cell is selected using the cursor keys or the Tab key and Shift-Tab.
STRUCTURE MANAGER • 1051 File Menu New Line A new line is inserted into the table below the selection frame. If you are in the point mode (default), a new point is added to the object. This is created at the object origin (X=0, Y=0, Z=0). By entering suitable X, Y and Z coordinates, you can change the spatial position of the point. If the active object is a Bezier spline, you can also enter values for the tangents. If you are in the polygon mode, New Line adds a new polygon to the object.
1052 • CHAPTER 23 The ASCII file must start with a header (the ‘Point X Y Z’ in the example above) and each row must start with the point number. The values within each line may be separated with a TAB character, a comma, a semicolon or a combination of these. Each line must end with the ASCII LF (linefeed) character or the CR (carriage return) character, or a combination of both. Thus the ASCII file can be created on a Macintosh, Windows or Unix computer.
STRUCTURE MANAGER • 1053 Edit Menu Undo, Redo Undo undoes the last change to the object’s structure. The previous values are restored to the cells. You can set the undo level (i.e. how many changes are remembered and can be undone) on the Document page of the preferences. Redo undoes (i.e. cancels) the last undo. The redo level is the same as the undo level set on the Document page. Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete Cut removes the selected row(s) from the table and copies this to the clipboard.
1054 • CHAPTER 23 Mode Menu All modes operate independently of the tool that you are using in the viewport. For example, you can process points in the Structure manager while working on polygons in the viewport. If you want the elements selected in the Structure manager to be shown in the viewport also, you must change to the appropriate tool. For example, if points are shown in the Structure manager, select the Points tool from the left toolbar.
24 Picture Viewer
PICTURE VIEWER • 1057 24 Picture Viewer For quick animation previews, use the Render menu’s Make Preview command. CINEMA 4D enables you to render either in the viewports or to the Picture Viewer using the commands on the Render menu (see Chapter 13, ‘Rendering’). Although you can render in the viewports when you want a quick test render of the current frame, you must render to the Picture Viewer when you want to render an animation or save the picture or animation.
1058 • CHAPTER 24 File Menu Open Opens an image file and displays the image in the Picture Viewer. Save Picture As Format, Options The list of file formats may vary depending on the QuickTime codecs installed. Specifies the file format for the picture. If the selected file format supports extra options, access these by clicking the Options button. Depth, DPI Some file formats support 16 bits per channel, i.e. 48-bit color.
PICTURE VIEWER • 1059 However, if you are rendering the animation as a sequence of still images, such as a TIFF sequence, the frames already rendered are saved using the save path chosen in the render settings. If you want to keep these saved frames, you must change the save path in the render settings before you next render, otherwise these frames will be overwritten.
1060 • CHAPTER 24 Components Menu Red, Green, Blue CINEMA 4D renders all images using the RGB color system. With these three options, you can filter out the separate colors. This allows you to check, say, the red separation of a render without needing to launch a separate image editor. Grayscale If you enable this option, the image will be displayed in grayscale.
Appendix
APPENDIX • 1063 Formulae You can type in a formula for the Formula spline primitive and the Formula deformer. In fact, you can type in a formula wherever CINEMA 4D accepts a value, e.g. in the Coordinate manager. This appendix lists all the units, operators, functions and constants that you may use in your formulae. You may enter values using any of the units listed below (examples in brackets) - regardless of the basic units defined in the preferences (CINEMA 4D will convert the units for you).
1064 • APPENDIX The function parser has the most important arithmetic operators built in. You can combine operations freely, for example: 2km + exp(sin(4mm*pi)) / ((sin(14cm))^2 + (cos(14cm))^2).
APPENDIX • 1065 Programming plugins The built-in XPresso node editor gives you extensive control over how CINEMA 4D objects interact with one another. In addition to XPresso, CINEMA 4D provides you with a powerful programming language that enables you to produce plugins that can extend the core functionality of CINEMA 4D. The COFFEE programming language COFFEE, CINEMA 4D’s plugin language, is not based on macros or scripts but is a complete and powerful programming language in its own right.
1066 • APPENDIX COFFEE support Support for CINEMA 4D developers is available exclusively on MAXON Computer’s Plugin Café website: plugincafe.com. Here you will find, among other things, the SDK. This contains the COFFEE compiler and detailed descriptions of the programming language and the interface libraries. It is, of course, possible for commercial plugin manufacturers to keep their source code secret and proprietary.
APPENDIX • 1067 TARGA Bit depths Compressors 24, 32 Uncompressed Only TGA-1 is supported. With QuickTime installed other variants are also imported. PICT Bit depths Compressors 4, 8, 16, 24, 32 Uncompressed RLE compressed With QuickTime installed all PICT variants are imported (as long as the QuickTime compressors are available). BMP Bit depths Compressors 1, 4, 8, 16, 24 RLE-4 RLE-8 JPEG Bit depths Compressors 24 n/a Grayscale JPEGs and progressively compressed JPEGs are not supported.
1068 • APPENDIX B3D Bit depths Color formats 8, 24 n/a B3D is the native file format of the BodyPaint 3D module. Layers, layer masks and channels are supported. RLA, RPF Save your multi-pass files in RLA or RPF format if you want to post-edit in compositing programs like After Effects and Combustion. RPF is an extension of the older RLA format. RPF supports all the channels listed below (RLA supports the channels from Z to Coverage): – Z Information on camera <-> object distance.
APPENDIX • 1069 Animation Formats AVI This format can be read and written only under Windows. Using QuickTime, AVI animations can also be used on the Macintosh, depending on the codec. When using AVI animations as textures, only the first video track is evaluated; all others (e.g. music) are ignored. If the first video track contains data other than images these are also ignored. Only 24-bit formats are supported.
1070 • APPENDIX – The following material channels are imported: environment light, specular color, specular settings (which are recalculated), transparency, luminance, color texture, specular texture, transparency texture, environment texture, relief (bump) texture, luminance texture. – UV mapping is copied. – Animation. – Position, scaling, rotation and light sequences are adjusted to suit CINEMA 4D. – Textures can be renamed automatically on loading.
APPENDIX • 1071 – ASCII 3DM files cannot be written, only binary. DEM Landscape Import – CINEMA 4D does not support the DEM-SDTS format. – The VistaPro DEM format (binary) is supported. – Files to be imported need to have the extension '.DEM' because the file itself contains no information about its origin. DEM files without this filename extension cannot be read by CINEMA 4D.
1072 • APPENDIX – Hierarchical saving of all objects: NURBS are converted to polygon objects. – Object names are converted, special characters are filtered/converted. – Textures: If there are any textures, the program looks for the color texture, the luminance texture and the environment texture (in that order). Color textures, even inline textures, are saved as files. – WWW links and addresses are saved: when an object is selected in the web browser, the program branches to that link. VRML 2.
APPENDIX • 1073 Support What can you do when you are stuck and the manual does not appear to help? You may want to contact technical support. MAXON, and its distributors worldwide, will help you with any technical problems you encounter. So that we can help you as efficiently as possible, please keep in mind the following: Please contact us (or your local distributor) in writing if possible, preferably by email.
1074 • APPENDIX Please tell us which programs you have running at the same time as CINEMA 4D. If you are using Mac OS, please let us know which system extensions are loaded. Sometimes, another program or a system extension (Mac OS) may cause a problem indirectly. Please include details of your hardware configuration. “I have a Macintosh/PC” is of little help on its own.
Index
INDEX • 1077 Symbols 2D Sound Rendering 927 range of 927 3D Formats 1069 3D Sound Rendering 928 3D Studio 1069, 1070 import / export 77 A Absolute node 1023 accuracy and radiosity 648, 702 in network, bake particles 728 Action Safe 29 active material, find first 741 active object copy active tag to children 730 render 620 search for first 726 search Timeline 937 shading of 23 Adapter nodes 1019–1020 adaptive antialiasing 647 Adapt Thread Priority option 64 Add Point tool 526 Add To Object Buffer command 7
1078 • INDEX Band Size setting 30 Banji shader 844 Bank 481 with Kinematic tag 705 Banzi shader 845 basic units overriding 1063 Batch Rendering command 621 Bend deformer 371 Better Boole 294 Bevel tool 552 Bezier NURBS object 231 bias handles in XPresso gradients 794 Biovision BVH import 77 blur render settings 658 to soften a texture 753 Blur Offset setting 754 Blur Scale setting 754 BMP 1067 Bones 373 and HyperNURBS 373 fixing 377 laying out a hierarchy 378 limiting influence 375, 379, 381 setting the st
INDEX • 1079 Chamfer tool 518 change name of material 743 channel record sub-channels 892 channels in Picture Viewer 1059 channel shaders 788 Checkerboard shader 828 Cheen shader 847 children copy tag to 730 of object, select 720 CINEMA 4D R7, loading scenes with animation 943 CINEMA 4D XML export 78, 148 Clamp node 1024 Clipboard 155 clip mapping for materials 772 close all 146 file 146 Material manager 738 the document 146 XPresso editor 985 close the Structure manager 1052 the Timeline 929 Close All com
1080 • INDEX default interpolation in F-Curves 890 layouts 677 mode 465 settings 145 XPresso layout, reset to 986 Deformed Editing option 25 deformers 369 and level of detail 704 and restriction tag 712 and UVW coordinates 731 Bend 371 Bone. See Bones Bulge 383 Explosion FX. See explosions FFD 393 Formula 394 Melt 396 Polygon Reduction.
INDEX • 1081 DirectX 148 Direct 3D 148 DXF 148 FBX 148 QuickDraw 3D 148 Shockwave 3D 148 STL 149 UZR 149 VRML 1 149 VRML 2 149 Wavefront 149 Export ASCII Data command 1052 expressions evaluation order 159 expression tags 696 new XPresso 975 nodes 977 Use Expressions option 158 XPresso, camera dependency 981 XPresso, new 980 XPresso, priority 980 external compiler for C.O.F.F.E.E.
1082 • INDEX function graphs 136 Fusion shader 801 G Galaxy shader 831 gels 350 Generate UVW coordinates 731 generators 159 Use Generators option 159 Genlocking.
INDEX • 1083 K key interpolation 923 new, in Timeline 923 selection, in Timeline 931 keyboard short-cuts 57 keyframing and Bake Object 937 and layers, in Timeline 896 autokeying 889 creating keys in Timeline 898 in the Atrribute manager 900 in the Timeline 902 move in Timeline 905 Kinematic tag 705 Knife tool 539 knots interpolation, XPresso gradients 794 L Landscape object 204 language choose 64 Lathe NURBS object 221 caps and rounding 233 launching 8 layers and the Texture tag 716 colors, in Timeline 94
1084 • INDEX in Timeline 897 magnetic, in Timeline 898 new, in Timeline 926 Timeline, navigation 898 MatchMover.
INDEX • 1085 mode, in Structure manager 1054 retriangulating 597 N-gon Triangulation mode 466 name of port, show 990 render settings 631 navigation in Structure manager 1050– 1054 in Timeline, with markers 898 reversing the orbit 65 Negate node 1030 Neptune. See Planet shader NET Render bake particles 728 single pictures 303 new key, in Timeline 923 marker, in Timeline 926 morph track 910 parameter track 907 PLA track 913 sequence, in Timeline 920 sound track 915 time track 917 new.
1086 • INDEX Metaball 297 Mono Microphone 440 Oil Tank 193 Particle Emitter 351. See also particles Plane 182 Polygon 184 primitives 169 Pyramid 199 Relief 208 SDDS 7.1 447 Selection 436 Sky 430 Sound objects.
INDEX • 1087 emitter type 356 examples 366 Friction 361 Gravity 362 lifetime 355 metaparticles 367 Rotation 363 save with scene 76 seeding 355 speed 355 Turbulence 364 viewport display 355 visibility 354 Wind 365 paste cells in Structure manager 1053 from Clipboard 155 into Timeline 930 in XPresso 985 material 739 object 720 Paste Channel command 749 path for WAV file 927 spline, animation 699 Perfect sphere 187 personalize 685 Phong shading, how it works 710 Phong tag 709 PICT 1067 Picture Viewer 680, 105
1088 • INDEX Adobe Illustrator 89 Biovision BVH 77 DEM 78 Direct3D 80 DXF 78, 79 LightWave 3D 90 Monzoom 91 QuickDraw 3D 91, 92 Shockwave 3D 93 STL 92 UZR 98 VRML 1 102, 103 VRML 2 104, 105 Wavefront 106 Interface Colors 68 Texture Paths 107 Units 107 Viewport 69 XPresso 114 premultiplied alpha 773 Preview animation 621 restrict playback to, in Timeline 893 size of in Material manager 740 preview range adjust 939 delete 939 insert 939 in Timeline 897 primitives 169 priority of expression 696 of XPresso exp
INDEX • 1089 properties of object, compositing tag 702 region 620 renderline during render 1060 threads 66 to Picture Viewer 620 visibility of object 704 visibility of objects 722 Render Active Object command 620 Render HUD option 658 Render menu 619–630 Render Region command 620 Render Safe 29 render settings 631–672 alpha channel 639 animate post effect 649 antialiasing 631, 644 as movie 637 blur 658 caustics 648 cel renderer 654 color correction 656 color depth 638 delete 623 dither 641 DPI 639 edges fi
1090 • INDEX layer, in Timeline 942 materials of active object 741 node 985 tags of selected materials 743 XGroup 985 selection get Time curve from 941 handles, in Timeline 906 link Timeline to Object manager 933 quantize, in Timeline 941 selections convert types 498 displaying 37 filtering 487 Freehand Selection tool 490 freeze selection 501 grow selection 500 hide 500, 501 inverting 499 Live Selection tool 490 Polygon Selection tool 490 Rectangle Selection tool 490 restore 718 selecting 487 Selection men
INDEX • 1091 sky and reflections 633 SLA shader 844 Slice regular grid option 174 Slide tool 548 Smartpointer 121 Smart Live Selection option 70 Smart Window Refresh option 70 smoothing how it works 710 with antialiasing on render 644 Smooth Shift tool 566 snap settings introduction 15 mouse sensitivity 513–569 to frame, in Timeline 932 Soft Interpolation command 514 soft selections 493 sort materials 742 sound 437 2D 927 3D 928 DDS EX 6.1 object 446 DTS 5.
1092 • INDEX moving cells 1049 new line 1051 pasting 1053 selecting data 1053 view menu 1053 Structure menu 507 context menu 569 Sub-Polygon Displacement Memory setting 66 Subdivide command 596 Sun tag 715 surface normals 40 Sweep NURBS object 226 caps and rounding 233 Switch node 1022 T tabs introduction 13 tags Align To Path 698 Align To Spline 699 Anchor 700 C.O.F.F.E.E. 701 C.O.F.F.E.E.
INDEX • 1093 sound track 915 spline convert 938 time curves 917 time track 917 view options 935 Timeline ruler 897 Time curve get from selection 941 time curves 917 Time node 1017 Time track 917 Tinted Poly Normals option 24 Tinted Poly Selection option 24 Title Safe 29 show in view 29 toggle layer, in Timeline 942 Tolerant Edge Selection option 492 toolbar animation 888–891 toolbars. See also icon palettes load 675 tools. See also Structure menu Animation 480 Camera.
1094 • INDEX gouraud shading 38, 39 quick shading 39 skeleton 40 wireframe 40 show normals 23 software shading 31, 69, 74 Title Safe 29 Undo 20 View menu 43 visibility of objects 722 viewport settings 22 disable backface culling 28 disable textures 28 projection type 28 show safe frames 29 View panels 19 visibility of object 722 of objects in render 704, 722 of objects in viewport 722 visibility dots 722 visible light 315, 324–350 volumetric light 316 render setting 658 VRML 1071 VRML 1 export 102 import 1
