Maxon Cinema 4D 2023: Modeling Essentials

Maxon Cinema 4D 2023:

Modeling Essentials

A beginner’s guide that can help you speed up

hard-surface and volumetric modeling workflow

Pradeep Mamgain

Maxon Cinema 4D 2023: Modeling Essentials

© 2023 Neurons Factory. All rights reserved.

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Book Code: NFB002TD01

Visit our website at https://neuronsfactory.com for more information on the books, eBooks, and video courses published by Neurons Factory.

Acknowledgments

My gratitude goes out to all those who supported me during the writing of this book. This includes those who provided guidance, shared their comments, and assisted with editing, proofreading, and design.

Thanks to:

Parents, family, and close friends

I extend my appreciation to my mentors and teachers for their valuable insights and guidance, which have been of great advantage to me.

I express my gratitude to all the students I have taught in the different institutions. Their participation has enabled me to learn new things about computer graphics that were previously unknown to me.

Everyone at Maxon [https://www.maxon.net].

Finally, thank you for picking up the book.

About the Author

I’ll keep it short: I am a digital artist, instructor, and consultant, and the founder of Neurons Factory. My expertise in computer graphics is self-taught, and the Internet, where remarkable artists generously share their knowledge on YouTube, has been my primary learning resource. I enjoy guiding young aspiring 3D artists in their journey towards becoming professionals in the 3D animation and visual effects field. I have assisted my students in securing satisfying careers in these industries.

For nearly fifteen years, I have been involved in CGI. My passion for computer graphics has allowed me to acquire expertise in particle, fluid, cloth, RBD, pyrotechnics, and post-production methods. My primary software tools are Maya, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Photoshop, Nuke, After Effects, Filmora, and Fusion. In addition to computer graphics, I have an interest in web design/development, digital marketing, and search engine optimization.

You can contact me by sending an e-mail to [email protected].

Preface

The MAXON Cinema 4D 2023: Modeling Essentials book provides a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to create 3D models using Cinema 4D 2023. It is an excellent resource for individuals with varying levels of experience, including those transitioning from other software to Cinema 4D. This guide is designed to assist readers in getting started with modeling in Cinema 4D by teaching them essential concepts and techniques related to 3D modeling. By applying these skills, readers can produce hard-surfaced objects for their projects. Furthermore, the book covers the OpenVDB-based Volume Builder and Volume Mesher functions of Cinema 4D, which enable users to develop complex models by utilizing boolean-type operations such as adding and subtracting basic shapes.

The objective of this book is to help readers improve their skills as Cinema 4D artists and increase their workflow efficiency by offering a variety of tips, tricks, notes, and cautions throughout. It serves as a valuable teaching resource for anyone interested in learning modeling with Cinema 4D 2023. The language used in the book is straightforward and easily understandable, without any technical jargon. The book includes tutorials that take readers through each step of executing tasks in Cinema 4D 2023.

One of the most effective methods for skill improvement is through practice. This book includes practice exercises that are strongly recommended to help readers build confidence and prepare for real-world projects. By completing these exercises, readers can master the powerful features of Cinema 4D and gain the ability to create hard-surface models. By the end of the book, readers will have the necessary skills to work with confidence in Cinema 4D.

What are the key features of the book?

Learn about the user interface, navigation, tools, functions, and commands in Cinema 4D.

Covers all of the fundamentals as well as advanced subjects through easy-to-follow tutorials.

Polygon, subdivision, and spline modeling techniques are covered.

Volumetric modeling techniques are covered.

Comprehensive covering of tools and functions.

More than 39 tutorials are included, along with before and after files.

There are 36 practice exercises to put your newfound knowledge to the test.

Additional guidance is provided in the form of tips, notes, and cautions.

Important terms are in bold face so that you never miss them.

The material presented under the heading "What just happened?" provides an explanation of how the instructions are functioning.

Under the "What next?" heading, the content outlines the steps that should be taken after completing a particular step or set of steps.

The resources for this textbook include an ePub file that contains color images of the screenshots and illustrations featured in the book. These images are provided to enhance the learning experience and are included as part of the resources.

Access to the starting and ending states of each tutorial, as well as the resources employed in the tutorials, is available to you.

Who this book is for?

Beginners and intermediate users of Cinema 4D

Digital artists

Motion graphics artists

Indie game developers

And anyone who wants to learn Cinema 4D

Prerequisites

No prior modeling experience is required, beginners friendly

Cinema 4D software installed on a computer or laptop

Eagerness to learn and grow

Willingness to be awesome

How this book is structured?

This book is divided into the following chapters:

Chapter 1 - Introduction to Cinema 4D 2023: This chapter introduces you to the Cinema 4D interface and the primitive objects found in the Objects palette. Additionally, you’ll gain knowledge on Cinema 4D’s unit system, coordinate system, various interface components, and how to personalize the interface. Moreover, you’ll have the opportunity to practice creating models using primitive objects.

Chapter 2 - Tools: In this chapter, you will be guided through a set of important tools that will assist you throughout the modeling process. These tools are designed to create visual guides within the editor view, allow you to interactively position lights and adjust their settings within the scene, measure distances and angles, organize/duplicate/randomize objects, fix lens distortions, and create virtual tours.

Chapter 3 - Spline Modeling: This chapter is focused on introducing you to the fundamentals of spline modeling, including the various tools, concepts, and techniques involved in the process. By the end of this chapter, you should have a solid understanding of how to utilize spline modeling tools in your own projects.

Chapter 4 - Polygon Modeling-I: This chapter provides an overview of the polygon modeling tools, principles, and techniques. The section delves into various aspects such as polygon components, selection tools, polygon structure tools, modeling objects, and deformers.

Chapter 5 - Polygon Modeling-II: The topic of this chapter is centered around the generator and deformer objects. The chapter will discuss the features, functionalities, and applications of these types of objects.

Chapter 6 - Edge Flow and Topology: The main focus of this chapter is to guide you through the process of achieving a smooth and efficient topology for your models. The chapter covers various techniques and tools that can be utilized to become skilled at subdivision modeling.

Chapter 7 - Volumes: In this chapter, you will gain an understanding of the VolumeBuilder and Volume Mesher objects, and how they can be utilized to create 3D models efficiently using voxel-based boolean operations. The chapter also discusses volume filters, volume groups, and the Volume Loader object.

Conventions

Icons Used in This Book

Important Words

Important words such as the name of menu items, tool names, dialog box or window names, button names, and others are emphasized in boldface for better visibility and to highlight their importance. For example:

Click Circle in the Objects palette > Spline command group to create a circle in the editor view. In the Attribute Manager > Circle > Object tab, set Radius to 2. Make sure Circle is above Helix in the Object Manager.

Figure Numbers

Figure numbers are assigned in the following order: Figure 1, Figure 2, and so on. In tutorials, the sequence is reset at the beginning of each tutorial.

Naming Terminology

LMB, MMB, and RMB

These abbreviations stand for the left, middle, and right mouse buttons, respectively.

MEV Menu

This abbreviation stands for Menu in editor view. It depicts the menubar in each Cinema 4D viewport.

Tool

When you click an item in a palette, toolbar, manager, or browser, a command is executed to create/edit an object or do some activity, that item is referred to as a tool. For instance, the Move tool, Rotate tool, Loop Selection tool, and so on.

Right-click Context Menus

Right-click menus (see Figure 1) are contextual menus in Cinema 4D that allow rapid access to commands/functions/tools linked to the presently selected entities.

Hidden Menus

Cinema 4D includes a number of hidden menus. These menus allow you to easily select tools, commands, and functions. The M menu, for example, provides easy access to modeling tools. For example, if you wish to launch the Extrude tool, hit MT (see Figure 2).

Check Box

A small box (labeled 1 in Figure 3) that, when selected by the user, indicates that a certain feature has been enabled or a specific option has been selected.

Drop-down

A drop-down (abbreviated drop-down list; also known as a drop-down menu, drop menu, pull-down list, or picklist) is a graphical control element (labelled as 2 in Figure 3) similar to a list box that allows the user to select one value from a list.

Button

The term button (also known as a command button or push button) refers to any graphical control element (labeled as 3 in Figure 3) that allows the user to easily start an event, such as searching for a query, or interact with dialog boxes, such as confirming an action.

Window

A window (labelled 4 in Figure 3) is a discrete viewing area on a computer display screen in a system that supports numerous viewing areas as part of a graphical user interface (GUI).

Dialog Box or Dialog

An area on screen (see Figure 4) in which the user is prompted to provide information or select commands.

Trademarks

Windows is the registered trademarks of Microsoft Inc. Cinema 4D is the registered trademarks of Maxon Computer.

Access to Resources

This book is available through a variety of distribution platforms. If you do not have access to the resources used in this book, you can request them by visiting the following link: https://neuronsfactory.com/contact/.

Tech Support

Neurons Factory’s technical staff is always accessible to address your technical questions. If you encounter any technical difficulties while using the textbook, please contact the author at the following address: [email protected].

Errata

We have made every effort to assure the accuracy of this book and its accompanying content. Please contact us if you see a problem so that we may improve the book’s quality. If you find any errors, please report them at https://neuronsfactory.com/errata.

This will alleviate the annoyance of other readers. Your errata will appear in the errata section of the book’s web page once confirmed.

Chapter 1: Introduction to

Cinema 4D 2023

Welcome to Cinema 4D’s most current release. In every 3D computer graphics application, the interface is the first thing you notice. The interface allows you to view and interact with your scene. Cinema 4D’s interface is simple to use and extremely flexible. You may make changes to the interface and then store numerous interface configurations by using the Layout function. You can build different layouts and switch between them with ease.

Cinema 4D Interface Elements

You can launch Cinema 4D by selecting one of the following options:

Double-click on the Cinema 4D icon on the desktop

Double-click on a Cinema 4D scene file

Click Cinema 4D entry from the Start menu

Drag a .c4d file from the Windows Explorer to the Cinema 4D icon

Launch it from the Command Prompt

Open Cinema 4D Lite in After Effects

When you run Cinema 4D for the first time, you are presented with the UI (see Figure 1) as well as the Quick Start Dialog. I labelled various interface components with numbers in Figure 1. The following table outlines the primary UI components.

The Cinema 4D interface allows for complete customization, including the ability to personalize menus and create individual icon palettes. It’s possible to establish multiple layouts and easily switch between them by selecting a preferred style. To switch to a layout, you can select the corresponding tab from the area identified as 7 (Layout tab) in Figure 1. By choosing the appropriate tab, you can quickly switch to the desired layout. To change the visibility of a layout, you can click on the Layout button (marked as 14 in Figure 1) and choose the desired layout from the list. By doing so, you can toggle between showing and hiding the selected layout.

Document tabs may be found in the top-left region of the UI. This allows you to navigate through all open documents. The Untitled 1 tab is shown by default. The tabs may be rearranged by dragging and dropping. Close documents by clicking the x next to their name. A shortcut menu will appear if you RMB click on a tab, see Figure 2.

The Duplicate Object command duplicates the currently selected project, including its objects and settings.

To close all open projects, use the Close All Projects command. Alternatively, press Ctrl Shift F4.

The Close Others command dismisses all open documents except the one you’ve selected.

The Show in Explorer command will launch the WindowsExplorer and navigate to the path where the selected document is located.

A new project may be created by clicking on the + button.

In Cinema 4D’s customizable GUI, you can doc all windows/palettes into the main interface window. When you dock a window, the windows around it are resized automatically. To minimize display space, Windows can also be saved as tabs. If you’ve messed around with the windows and panels, just pick Standard from the Layout tab at the top of the interface to return to the basic GUI layout.

Initialization files

During startup, Cinema 4D imports various initialization files, the contents of which are integrated into the GUI. These files should be placed in the operating system’s user directory. Choose Edit > Preferences from the main menu, or press Ctrl E to launch the Preferences window. Now, in the bottom-left corner of the window, click the Preferences Folder button; Windows Explorer will show you the location.

Title Bar

The title bar is the first interface element and is situated at the top of the UI. It displays software’s name and version, as well as the name of the currently open document.

Main Menu

The main menu is located below the title bar. It contains practically all of the most significant commands, tools, and functions available in Cinema 4D. By clicking on the corrugated line at the top of the menu or sub-menu, you may tear it off from the main menu (see Figure 3).

Tabs/Windows

Managers are the most important aspects of Cinema 4D. Each manager gets their own window. This means that each manager can operate independently. Windows can be placed freely or docked into Cinema 4D’s main window.

The most important functions are already docked in the default layout’s main menu. When you adjust the size of a docked window, the surrounding windows are automatically resized.

In Cinema 4D, any window or command palette may be shown as a horizontal or vertical tab. Every window has a Grasp icon, which is represented by three little horizontal lines (marked by an arrow in Figure 3). To undock the window/palette, click this icon and then select Undock from the flyout (see Figure 4). The Object Manager is seen as a window in Figure 5. Drag and drop the Grasp icon to re-dock the window.

To turn this window to a tab (see Figure 6), click on the Grasp icon and then select EDIT > Tabs > Convert to Tab. To relocate a tab from one tab group to another, drag the tab’s Grasp icon onto a target group’s tab or grasp icon. Release the mouse button when the mouse pointer changes to a hand icon to finish the process.

Group tabs

When you drag and drop a window’s Grasp icon onto the Grasp icon of another window, both become tabs, even if the target was not previously a tab.

Folding windows and palette

To fold a window or palette, click on the Grasp icon while holding down Ctrl. The folded object will be shown as a corrugated line; click on the line to expand it. You can also drag the corrugated line anywhere in the UI to doc it.

Icon Palettes

In Cinema 4D, icon palettes are often referred to as toolbars. The palette commands can be presented as icons, text, or both icons and text. An undocked palette is a standalone window. It’s especially beneficial if you’re working with two monitors. The commands to change the appearance of icons can be accessed from the palette’s contextual menu. To enter the menu, RMB click on the palette or click on the Grasp icon. The following commands are available in this menu:

Undock

You can use this command to undock a window from the interface and place it in a separate floating window.

Visible in Full-Screen Mode

If several windows or viewports are in a group window and you execute the Full-Screen Mode command via one of these windows or viewports, this command will decide which of the windows or viewports remain visible in the maximized group window. The Full-Screen Mode function is used to switch the active manager to full-screen mode and back. The manager beneath the cursor will be switched to full screen mode with Ctrl Tab. Press Ctrl Tab again (with the cursor over the manager) to return the manager to its initial state.

Dynamic Content

The options in the Dynamic Content sub-menu are used to create palettes that displays different commands based on the mode chosen. It offers the following modes.

Off: The palette content will remain unchanged in the current state.

Document Mode: The content can be switched with the document mode, for example, Points, Edges, Polygons modes etc.

Active Tool: The palette content can be switched with the active tool; activate the respective tool when creating the palette content.

Active Object Type: The palette content can be switched with the active object type; activate the respective object type in the ObjectManager when creating the palette content, i.e., a Primitive, Deformer, Generator, etc.

Renderer: The contents of the palette can be adapted to the active renderer. Activate the desired renderer when creating the palette.

New Palette

Use this command to create an empty palette. This command is also available in the Window > Customization submenu. To add commands to the new palette, RMB click on it, and then choose Customize Palettes to open the Command Manager window. Now, for example, if you want to add Add to Render Queue and Edit Render Settings commands to the empty palette, in the Command Manager window, type render in the Name Filter text box. Now, drag Add to Render Queue from window to the palette to add the Add to Render Queue command (see Figure 7). Figure 7 shows the Add to Render Queue and Render Active Objects commands in the new palette on the right.

Load Palette

Use the Load Palette command to load a previously saved icon palette. The toolbar appears as a freestanding window that can be integrated into the layout.

Save Palette as

This command is used to save a palette in a file using the .l4d extension. If you want to save the entire layout including the newly created palette, choose Window > Customization > LAYOUTS > Save Layout as or Window > Customization > LAYOUTS > Save as Startup Layout from the main menu

New Group Window

You can create a new group window using this command. You can place several scalable windows into this group. This command is also available in the Window > Customization submenu.

Copy/Paste/Clear Commands

These commands are used to perform copy-paste operations on the palettes. You can copy commands from a palette and paste the content on an empty palette. The Clear command is used to clear the content of the palette.

Rename

Use this command to rename the active window.

Show

The options under the Show sub-menu display the commands as icons, text, and text below icons, respectively. Figure 8 shows the Spline command group in different styles.