Cinema 4D Maxon

Cinema 4D Basics

• Welcome to the Cinema 4D interface
• Using layouts and ‘workspaces’
• Setting up a project
• Frame rate and unit sizes
• Understanding the various windows, toolbars and viewports
• Navigating around a 3d space and using hotkey navigation
• Managing project settings correctly

Creating Objects in Cinema 4D

• Understanding basic object types and parameters
• Understanding the various types and forms, their settings and parameters
• Creating basic objects ‐ primitives
• Manipulating objects, moving scaling and rotating
• Using the attributes manager
• Understanding object properties and object tags

Understanding the objects hierarchy

• How the object hierarchy or objects list works as an organizational tool
• Cinema 4D’s parent and child structure ‐ understanding parent and child relationships
• Using the list to hide and display objects
• Using Null objects to control the hierarchy

Using Modifiers and Deformers to modify, distort and manipulate objects

• Creating Deformers and using them correctly within the object list
• Types of Deformers ‐ uses for animation and modelling
• Deformer limits ‐ using falloff

Making spline or outline objects to edit and create objects

• Creating basic outlines with the Bezier pen
• Making shapes and paths
• Bezier types, interpolation and curve interpolation
• Smoothing Beziers
• Text splines
• Using Illustrator paths

Creating more complex models using different constructor objects

• Extrusion objects
• Lofting ‐ making surfaces from profiles
• Lathing ‐ spinning objects in a virtual lathe
• Arrays ‐ multiple objects from a single source
• Booleans ‐ combination objects
• The Combine object ‐ turning separate elements into one
• Using subdivision surfaces for making smoother models

Using editable objects, points edges and polygons to create any shape or surface

• Points, edges and polygons ‐ the different editing modes
• Understanding detail level ‐ How many polygons?
• Using the Tool setting in the attributes manager
• Using the Selection tools
• Extruding and inner extruding
• Beveling polygons and edges
• Joining and breaking polygons
• Smoothing and Phong tags
• Face normal
• Alignment functions
• Avoiding common polygon problems

Creating and working with materials to change the colour, texture and properties of objects

• Making new materials and shaders
• Enabling material properties
• Colour, texture, reflectance and transparency
• Bump maps to enhance surfaces.
• Using bitmaps and procedural textures
• Creating a texture within Adobe Photoshop
• Applying materials ‐ material tags
• UVW mapping ‐ how to align textures with objects

Creating environments for objects

• An infinite ground plane ‐ the floor object.
• Making skies, skylight objects and physical skies.
• Creating “props” to assist with reflections
• Hiding environments for reflections

Adding lights and Cinema 4D cameras to give viewpoints

• Understanding the range of light types and light techniques
• Working with different light ranges and falloff
• Shadow types and their parameters
• Adding visible and volumetric lights
• Adding Skylights
• Creating and using a camera
• Setting lens settings and parameters
• Camera switching and editing

Creating simple animations using animation and Keyframing

• Basic animation techniques
• Understanding the animation workspace
• Getting things to move with Keyframes
• Using the Timeline to animate an element or function
• Using keys and curves
• Previewing an animation

Rendering and output to create still or animation sequences

• The Cinema 4D renderers
• Rendering set up ‐ size and frame rate
• File types ‐ Exporting frames and animations
• Adding Global Illumination for more realistic rendering
• Adding more effects to the renderer
• The Cinema 4D picture viewerRendering
• print and video

Further into Materials and UVW Mapping

• Using the Reflectance channel to create complex surfaces
• Correct use of Fresnel
• Using the Luminance channel to create light effects
• Transparency and refraction
• Material glow
• Using Bump and Displacement to dynamically create more detail
• Combination channels – Fusion and layers for complex texture channel control
• Effect layers within materials
• Getting better control of our UVW mapping; making materials “stick” to objects

Modelling More Complex Shapes and Surfaces

• Combining constructor objects
• Further into deformers
• Using Null objects to control the hierarchy and ensure correct results
• Complex polygon modeling
• Using Soft selections and advanced selection techniques
• Extracting splines from objects
• Objects clean up and correcting geometry
• Box modelling smooth surfaces with the subdivision surface

Using Mograph for Modelling and Object Creation as well as more Complex Animation

• Mograph object types and how to create them
• Modelling with Mograph
• Using the Mograph cloner
• Creating and using Mograph Effectors with Mograph elements
• Effector falloff
• Animating with Mograph

Introduction to the Cinema 4D Dynamic’s System

• Introducing real world physics into scene to allow objects to collide, bounce and deform
• Applying dynamics tags to turn objects into items with physical properties
• Using rigid bodies and cloth bodies
• Soft body dynamics
• Collider objects
• Controlling dynamics system settings

Rendering and lighting

• Exploring GI in detail
• HDRI workflow for more realistic rendering – skylight illumination
• Using luminant materials with GI
• Ambient occlusion
• Using the physical renderer
• Understanding antialiasing settings
• Fast updates with progressive rendering
• Reducing render times
• Advanced lighting and rendering – using global illumination
• Rendering multi pass renders for compositing
• Complex output formats for better renders
• Using compositing tags
• Alpha channel
• Introduction to Adobe After Effects Cineware
• Using Sketch and Toon Shaders

Refining Animation and Effecting Motion and Speed

• Refining timing with advanced Keyframe use
• Understanding the F-curve editor in detail
• Interpolation and curve types
• Combining Keyframes with dynamics
• Mograph animation in depth
• Camera animation with motion cameras
• Path animation and target tags

Introduction to sculpting 

• The sculpting layout
• Subdivision levels

Starting to sculpt 

• Creating a suitable base model
• Preparing the mesh for sculpting
• The sculpting brushes explored
• Tool settings
• Sculpting using layers

Using Cinema 4D Advanced Sculpting functionality to add detail

• Mirroring
• Hard surface sculpting
• Baking sculpt meshes
• Adding detail with stamps
• Using the brush tools to create and modify objects
• Creating Bump, normal and displacement maps
• Retopologising
• Masking in Cinema 4D
• Stencilling

By the end of the course the delegate will have the tools to create full 3D scenes and create finished output.

• Exploring MAXON CINEMA 4D R17 Studio Interface
• Working with Splines
• Introduction to Polygon Modeling
• Sculpting
• Texturing
• Lighting
• Rigging
• Animation
• Introduction to UV Mpping
• Composting in 3D Objects
• Rendering
• MoGraph
• Working with XPresso

This course is designed for

• Anyone who is new to Cinema 4D and wants to learn to create 3D stills and animations.
• Character animators