Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

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Okay, full disclosure; I’m not saying that what I’m showing here is going to work for everyone. This is just how I’ve done design and dealt with clients during the years that I’ve been doing this, and I can only hope that you take away something when it comes to moving on and looking to do this as a career. Remember that this is just an example and a guideline on the “hows and whys” of project workflow and management, and not the final word. And if any of you seasoned pros out there have any of your own tips to add, please be sure to share them in the comments so the greenhorns can learn something!

This is Day 2 in a series. Go to Day 1.

Final Effect Preview

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

This is Day 2 in a series. Go to Day 1.

Don’t miss more CG tutorials and guides, published daily – subscribe to Cgtuts+ by RSS.

Final Effect Preview

Step 1

Open the NAMETHISFILE.c4d file provided. It contains a track link already modeled.

Step 2

Drop the Link into a Mograph Cloner object (Mograph menu>Cloner Object). Set the Count to 60, the Mode to Linear, and the Displacement to 24m on the Z axis.

Step 3

Create a Bezier Spline object (Objects>Create Spline>Bezier), and draw out a spline similar to the one below. This spline was drawn from the side view (Press F3) and is roughly 600m long by 100m high. Be sure to click and drag when you create the new points to give smoother curves.

Step 4

Insert a Spline Wrap object (Mograph>Spline Wrap), and group it with the Cloner object by selecting both objects in the objects manager and pressing alt+G.

Step 5

Click on the Spilne Wrap object in the Object Manager. In the Attribute Manager, set the Banking to 270 degrees, the Mode to Keep Length, the Axis to Z+ and drag the spline from step 3 into the Spline box.

Step 6

Depending on the total length of your spline, the links will either have a gap or an overlap (overlap is pictured in this image).

Step 7

To remedy this, adjust the number of Count in the cloner object until you reach the closest fit without overlapping. From there, adjust the Z value to fine tune. In this case, the Count was reduced from 60 to 58, and the Z value was increased from 24 to 24.1. This closed the tiny gap that was left over

Step 8

If all is well, your track should look something like this. Now on to the wheels and rigging.

Step 9

Create a cylinder (Objects>Primitives>Cylinder).

Step 10

Set the Orientation of the cylinder to X+, the Rotation segments to 50, and the Height to 20.

Step 11

Move the cylinder into place and adjust the Radius setting so that it fits between your top and bottom tracks. In this example, the cylinder was reduced from 50m to 48m.

Step 12

Right click the cylinder in the object manager and select Make Editable (alternatively, press C with the object selected). Then, select the Phong tag and set the Phong Angle in the Attribute Manager to 22 degrees

Step 13

Go into Polygon mode and select the Knife tool (Structure>Knife). Set the Mode in the Attribute Manager to Loop, and make two cuts as shown below.

Step 14

Use the Loop Selection tool (Selection>Loop Selection) and select the ring of polygons in between the two cuts.

Step 15

Extrude the polygons selected (Structure>Extrude).

Step 16

Go into Point mode, select the center point of the wheel, and move it back by 10m. Hold shift once it’s moving to snap the movements to increments of 10.

Step 17

Create a Tube (Objects>Primitive>Tube). In the Attribute Manager, Set the Inner Radius to 10m, the Outer Radius to 15m, and the Height to 5m.

Step 18

With the Tube selected, use the Transfer tool (Functions>Transfer), and hover the cursor over the wheel. A line will appear between the Tube and the wheel. Click and the Tube will be transferred to the surface of the wheel.

Step 19

Create a Cylinder. Set the Height to 8m, the Radius to 2m, and the Orientation to Z+. Name this Cylinder “Bolts”.

Step 20

Insert a Cloner Object (Mograph>Cloner) while holding alt, and the Cylinder will be placed under the Cloner in the Object Manager. Set the Mode to Radial, the Radius to 12m , and the Count to 6. Name this Cloner object “Bolts Cloner”.

Step 21

As with the previous step, select the Cloner object and use the Transfer tool (Fucntions>Transfer) to center the array on the wheel by clicking on it, the rotate the Cloner by 90 degrees so it will line up with the wheel.

Step 22

Place the Tube under the “Wheel” object in the Object Manager. Then, select the Cloner for the Bolts and the Wheel object, and group them (Right click>Group or Alt+g). Name this group Wheel.1.

Step 23

Use the copy paste function to copy the wheel out. Once you have four wheels, select them all and duplicate them. Move this new group behind them and offset it as shown below.

Step 24

To build the gear, create a Cogwheel Spline (Objects>Spline Primitives>Cogwheel).

Step 25

Scale the Cogwheel Spline to fit in the path you’ve created, then in the Attribute Manager, adjust the number of Teeth to fit your path. In this case, the magic number was 13. The Inner Radius in this image is 45.6, while the Outer Radius is 55.8.

Step 26

Drop the spline into an Extrude Nurbs object (Objects>Nurbs>Extrude Nurbs) and set the Movement to 8m. Be sure to zero out the other Movement boxes. Position the gear to fit inside the stirrups.

Step 27

Select the Wheels, the Gear, the Spline, and the group that contains the Splinewrap and Cloner and group them all together. A good name for this group would be “Track”.

Step 28

Select all 8 wheels. right click them, and add a Roll-It tag. Roll-It is a free plugin and can be downloaded from the link at the top of this post. We’ll use Roll-It to automate the rolling of the wheels and gears, which will in turn deform the track.

Step 29

Under the Roll-It tag, manually set the Radius to that of your wheel. In this case, the wheel was 96m in diameter, so the Radius is set to 48. The Calculate function should not be used as the tag is on a null object and will always result in a radius of 0

Step 30

Add a Roll-It tag to the Cogwheel spline (not the Extrude Nurbs object). The Radius value for the gear is very tricky, and will be tweaked later on in the tutorial.

Step 31

Right click on the Spline Wrap object and add an XPresso tag. XPresso is Cinema 4d’s node based programming environment. It’s proven to be a valuable time saver and today we’ll build a very simple script.

Step 32

Double click on the Xpresso tag and you’ll be greeted with a grid. From the Object Manager, drag and drop the Spline Wrap object and the front-most wheel into the Xpresso window as seen below.

Step 33

Right click on the small red box on the wheel (this is the output box for your wheel) and add a Rotation.P port (Coordinates>Rotation>Rotation.P). Now right click on the blue box (input) on the Spline Wrap, and add an Offset port. (Object Properties>Offset). The Offset value controls the position of the track in its journey around the spline.

Step 34

Right Click anywhere in the XPresso grid and add a Math node (New Node>XPresso>Calculate>Math). Position it between the Wheel and the Spline Wrap node, and drag wires between the inputs/outputs as illustrated in the image. The output of the Wheel’s rotation is “carried” over to the Math node, which will hand it off to the Spline Wrap.

Step 35

The problem now is that the output of the Wheel’s rotation doesn’t translate directly to the Offset setting for the Spline Wrap. It has to be geared down, so to speak. Click on the Math node, and look over to the Attribute Window (below the Object Manager). Set the Function to Divide, and set the Input to 30. This is a number you will have to tweak, as it is affected by the length of the spline, the diameter of the wheels and so on.

Final Tweaks

The last step is to tweak the values of the Math Node to ensure that the track sticks to the ground and doesn’t slide forward or backward when moving the parent object. The value of the Radius in the gear’s Roll-It tag should also be tweaked to match up with the track. In this case, it was reduced from 55m to 51.5m to match the speed of the track.

All that is needed to animate the track and roll the wheels is to move the parent object (named Track in this tutorial) forward or back. This group can also be dropped into a larger parent object such as a tank and will animate automatically

Further options

An optional addition to the rig is to add a Morph Tag (Right click>Character Tags>Morph) to the Track Spline, and to set a Morph Target of the spline straightened out as shown below. This is achieved by simply moving one of the points on the spline upward. On larger vehicles such as tanks, the heavy metal tracks straighten out like this when the vehicle accelerates or suddenly hits the brakes. The Morph Target value can be keyframed to work this into your animations. This step is mostly unnecessary for smaller, rubber tracked vehicles such as robots.

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Final Effect Preview

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

Don’t miss more CG tutorials and guides, published daily – subscribe to Cgtuts+ by RSS.

This is Day 1 in a series. Go to Day 2.

Okay, full disclosure; I’m not saying that what I’m going to show here is going to work for everyone. This is just how I’ve done design and dealt with clients during the years that I’ve been doing this, and I can only hope that you take away something when it comes to moving on and looking to do this as a career. Remember that this is just an example and a guideline on the “hows and whys” of project workflow and management, and not the final word. And if any of you seasoned pros out there have any of your own tips to add, please be sure to share them in the comments so the greenhorns can learn something!

Tutorial Details

Final Effect Preview

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

This is Day 1 in a series. Go to Day 2.

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Final Effect Preview

Step 1

Create a Cube object (Objects > Primitive > Cube) with the dimensions “1300 x 450 x 500″.

Step 2

Make it editable (Functions > Make editable).

Step 3

Select the top and two sides polygons with the “Polygon tool” (Tools > Polygon).

Step 4

Delete them. You should have something similar to the image below.

Step 5

Create a Sphere object (Objects > Primitive > Sphere) with 40 segments and 100 cm radius. Make it editable (Functions > Make editable).

Step 6

Create an Infinite Light (Objects > Scene > Infinite Light).

Step 7

Place it far away from the sphere object, but make sure it is pointing towards the sphere.

Step 8

To add “Vraylight” tag to the Infinite light, select the Infinite light , right click and go to “VrayBridge Tags > VrayLight”.

Step 9

Under the “Vraylight” tag settings , choose the “Sun light” tab, and turn on the “Physical Sun” and “Physical Sky” sections.

Step 10

Under the “Common” tab, turn on the “Enable shadows” section.

Step 11

Enter the “Render Settings” (Cmd + B).

Step 12

Choose the Vraybridge section from the right panel to enable it.

Step 13

Click the VrayBridge which has just appeared in the left panel.

Step 14

Choose the “Indirect Illumination” (GI) tab, and select “GI on”.

Step 15

In the same screen you can find the “Presets” section. Here you can set the quality.

Step 16

Choose “Very Low Quality” for a fast render.

Step 17

Add a camera object (Objects > Scene > Camera).

Step 18

In the Perspective view, go to “cameras > scene camera > camera” and select it to make it the default scene camera.

Step 19

To add a “VrayPhysical” camera tag to a camera object, select the camera object , right click and go to “VrayBridge Tags > VrayPhysical camera”.

Step 20

Change the “F-Stop” value to 1, and the “Shutter Speed” to 6000.

Step 21

Select the “Vraylight” tag which is assigned to the Infinite light, and under the “Sun light” tab, set the “Turbidity” value to 5 and the “Intensity” multiplier for “Phys cam” to 0.3.

Step 22

Turn the GI quality up to a higher preset, hit render, and you’re done!

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Final Effect Preview

Click Here to Open a High Rez Version

Step 1

Create a Plane object (Objects > Primitive > Plane) 800 x 800 m and 80 x 80 segments.

Step 2

Create a Formula object (Objects > Deformation > Formula) and drag it under the Plane object.

Step 3

Move the Formula object near to the edge of the Plane object.

Step 4

In the Attributes of the formula object, modify d (u,v,x,y,z,t) to something that you like, but keep the formula wavy. I used “Sin((u)*2.0*pi)*0.2*((u+v)*0.3)”.

Step 5

Move and rotate the Plane object slightly. I used -2, -6.5, and -27 for x, y and z, and -4, 13, and 18 for h, p, and b.

Step 6

Make the Plane object editable (Functions > Make Editable) and tweak the Plane using the move, scale and rotate tools with soft selection enabled. Note: For soft selection set a big radius (roughly 400 to 600 m) so you can tweak many polygons while keeping just a few selected.

Step 7

Select all polygons (ctrl+a) and extrude them (Structure > Extrude) with an offset around 10 m, Var. 100%, and the “Preserve Groups” option unchecked.

Step 8

Extrude the selected polygons again with same settings but set the Var. to 140%.

Step 9

Use Extrude Inner (Structure > Extrude Inner) with an offset 1m on the selected polygons, then Extrude them with (Structure > Extrude) an offset of around 2m. Delete the Phong tag if it was assigned.

Step 10

Find a good point of view and add a camera object. Note: I usually add a camera early so I can create my scene around the camera.

Step 11

Create three linear Spline objects (Objects > Create Spline > Linear) around 500m in all axes. Change the Type to Cubic.

Step 12

Create three Circle objects (Objects > Spline Primitive > Circle), with a radius of 40m, then create three SweepNURBS objects. Drag pairs of Circle objects and Spline objects into the SweepNURBS objects.

Step 13

Select all three Spline objects and change the Intermediate Points to Uniform, and the Number to 16. Select all three Circle objects and change the Intermediate Points to Adaptive, and the Angle to 30 (all these numbers & angles may vary from spline to spline). You need this step to make most of the SweepNURBS polygons square-shaped. For all SweepNURBS objects, change the Caps option to None at both the Start and the End.

Step 14

Make all of the SweepNURBS editable (C on keyboard). Select all of the polygons and Extrude them an Offset of 10m, a Var. at 90%, and Preserve Groups unchecked. Use Extrude Inner on the selected polygons with an Offset of 3.5m, and then Extrude selected with a negative Offset of around 6m. Delete the Phong tag.

Step 15

Move the SweepNURBS behind the Extruded plane.

Step 16

Create an Akima spline (Objects > Create Spline > Akima) around 1500m high, duplicate it, and move it to create some sort of arc.

Step 17

Create a Loft NURBS object, and add both the Akima splines to it. Tweak Mesh Subdivision U and Mesh Subdivision V to make the polygons square (30 x 20 should do).

Step 18

Make the Loft NURBS editable, select all of the polygons, and reverse the normals (Functions > Reverse Normals). Delete the Phong tag.

Step 19

Extrude selected polygons (Offset around 100m, Var. 100%, Preserve Groups unchecked), use Extrude Inner on selected polygons (Offset 10m), extrude selected with Offset around -20m, Var ~90%.

Step 20

Duplicate the Loft NURBS, move both objects behind all of the others, move up one of Loft NURBS objects slightly.

Step 21

Create a Spline object above the plane, use B-Spline Type, with Intermediate Points as Subdivided and values of around 2 for Angle and Maximum Length.

Step 22

Create a Circle object with a Radius of 10m, Intermediate Points as Adaptive, and an Angle of 15. Create a SweepNURBS object, and drag the Circle and B-Spline objects under it.

Step 23

Create another B-spline with Intermediate Points as Subdivided, an Angle of 2, and a Maximum Length of 2m.

Step 24

Duplicate the SweepNURBS object from step 22 and replace the spline object with the newly created one.

Step 25

Select both SweepNURBS objects and make them editable. Delete caps.

Step 26

Select all polygons in both splines, and Extrude them with an Offset of 3m, Var. at 100%, and Preserve Groups unchecked. Use Extrude Inner on selected polygons with an Offset of around 0.3m, then Extrude them again with an Offset of -1m and Var. at 100%.

Step 27

Create a Sphere object (Objects > Primitive > Sphere) with a Radius of 50m, Segments at 34, and Type set to Hexahedron. Position it above the Plane and Sweeps.

Step 28

Make the Sphere object editable, select all of the polygons, and Extrude them with an Offset of 10m, Var. at 90%, and Preserve Groups unchecked. Use Extrude Inner on selected polygons with an Offset of 1.5m, and then Extrude them again with an Offset of around 4m. Delete the Phong tag.

Step 29

Time to set some environment parameters. Create a Sky object (Objects > Scene > Sky).

Step 30

Create two Light objects with Colors of orange and grey-orange, Intensity of 70%, Type set to Spot, Shadow set to Area, and Visible Light set to Volumetric. Under Visibility, set the Outer Distance very high so it will go through plane object.

Step 31

Create a Cube object (Objects > Primitive > Cube), and scale it up so it will cover the Plane and the two Sweeps. This Cube will be used to hide some areas of the scene from illumination.

Step 32

Make the Cube object editable, and select and delete some polygons. Assign a Composition tag (right-click in Object Manager, Cinema 4D Tags > Compositing) and uncheck the Seen by Camera option.

Step 33

Now you need some materials. Create a new material (double click in the material manager). Double click on the material to open the material editor.

Step 34

Under Color, set the Brightness to 89%, and the Gradient as Texture. Under the Gradient Properties, set the Gradient to light orange and light blue colors, the Type to 2D-V, and Turbulence to 38%. Uncheck Specular and assign the material to the Sky object.

Step 35

Create a new material and set its Color to white. Leave Specular as is, and assign this material to the Plane and both Loft NURBS.

Step 36

Create a new material and set the Color as dark grey, and Brightness to 75%.

Step 37

Under Reflection set the Brightness to 60%, use Fresnel as Texture, and set Mix Mode to Multiply.

Step 38

Under Specular, set the Mode to Colored, Width to 91%, Height to 49%, Falloff to 3%, and Inner Width to 25%.

Step 39

For Specular Color, set the Brightness to 350%, and the Mix Mode to Multiply. Use Lumas (Effects > Lumas) as the Texture, and under the Lumas settings uncheck Active at Shader. For Specular 1, 2, & 3 change only the Color to light grey. For Anisotropy check Active, and set Projection to Planar.

Step 40

Assign this material to the three Sweep NURBS in the back.

Step 41

Create a Danel shader (in the Material Manager click File > Shader > Danel). Under Diffuse change the Color to grey.

Step 42

For Specular 2, change the Color to light grey.

Step 43

For Specular 3, change the Color to blue (67, 130, 169), the Intensity to 60%, the Size to 60%, the Glare to 90%, and the Fallof to 39%.

Step 44

For Reflection, change the Intensity to 15%, and the Edge Intensity to 45%.

Step 45

Check Anisotropy, set the Projection to Shrink Wrap, and check Specular 3.

Step 46

Assign this material to both of the SweepNURBS at the front.

Step 47

Duplicate the Danel shader material, and for Diffuse change the Color to bright orange (219, 116, 0).

Step 48

For Specular 2, change the Color to light orange, and for Specular 3, change the Color to orange. Select all other parameters by clicking on them while holding Shift, then right-click and choose Reset to Default.

Step 49

For Anisotropy change the Projection to Planar, and uncheck Specular 3.

Step 50

Assign this material to the Sphere.

Step 51

Add compositing tags to all of the objects except the lights, the Sky object, the Camera Object, and the Cube that already has a compositing tag assigned to it. Enable Object Buffer for all of the Compositing tags. Note: Make sure you set a unique buffer number for each object (1 for plane, 2 for first Sweep NURBS and so on). This will help you get rid of errors in the render if they occur.

Step 52

Open the Render Settings (Render > Render Settings…). Under Output, set the Width and Height to your requirements (I used 2400 x 1800 at 300 DPI). Under Save check Save in Multi-Pass Image. For Multi-Pass include Diffuse, Reflection, Global Illumination, Atmosphere, Depth, Illumination, and all Object Buffers. Also, change Separate Lights to All, and change Anti-Aliasing to Best.

Step 53

Add a Global Illumination effect. Under General, set the GI Mode to IR + QMC (Still Image), and change the Diffuse Depth to 2. Under Irradiance Cache, change the Cache Refinement to Medium, the Oversampling to Medium, and check Distance Map. Render.

Step 54

Open the rendered file in Photoshop.

Step 55

In both light groups duplicate the Specular layer.

Step 56

Duplicate the Atmosphere layer three times and merge the copies. Use the Smudge tool, Blur tool, and Surface Blur (Filter > Blur > Surface Blur) to blend the colors of visible light.

Step 57

Duplicate the Illumination layer and drop it above all of the other layers. Change the Blend mode to Soft Light, and the Opacity to 50%.

Step 58

Isolate the Sky from the Diffuse layer by going to the Channels palette and selecting all of the object buffers, then inverting the selection. Copy it to a new layer on top, and change the Blend Mode to Multiply, and the Opacity to 30%.

Step 59

Make sure that all desired layers are visible and press ctrl+shift+alt+E to create a new merged layer. To add a glare effect, apply a Gaussian Blur filter ( Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) and erase or mask certain areas. Change the Blend Mode to Screen.

Step 60

Press ctrl+shift+alt+E again, then apply a Lens Blur ( Filter > Blur > Lens Blur). In the Lens Blur window, change the Source to Depth and choose appropriate Blur Focal Distance and Iris settings. Congratulations, you’re done! Hope you learned something new!!

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The four basic light types (omni, area, infinite, and spot) and the three basic shadow types (shadow maps, raytraced, and area), and all of their correlated options will covered in detail. You will also learn about some of the lesser used lighting types, lens effects, volumetric lighting, render times, and some technical details about making light look good.

Before you begin I recommend installing the Drop To Floor plugin, available here: http://www.kuroyumes-developmentzone.com/products_cinema_4d.html.

Final Effect Preview

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

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Final Effect Preview

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

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Final Effect Preview

You can download the project files here: Project Files.

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