Cinema 4D: A Quick-Start Guide
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Cinema 4D: A Quick-Start Guide

on Jul 28th 2010 with 55 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Software: Maxon Cinema 4D
  • Difficulty: Beginner
  • Estimated Completion Time: 1 Hour

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

This entry is part 4 of 6 in the Aleksey Voznesenski Session
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In the first of several tutorials looking at the different aspects of Cinema 4D, Aleksey Voznesenski begins by giving a fast-paced, quick-start overview of the interface, basic primitive objects and lighting/HDR maps. If you’ve always wanted to try C4D, or even if you’ve got a good amount of experience using it, this tutorial will help get everyone up to speed for the amazing Xpresso and Rigging tutorials we have coming up!

Video 1

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

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By

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

Aleksey Voznesenski is a 3D specialist experienced in many areas of the 3D world. Mainly focused on animation, he has experience in motion graphics, modeling, rigging, render setup, lighting, camera work and art direction. Working as a contractor for many companies, Aleksey provides his expertise to get projects done on time and to spec. His main package of choice is Cinema4D, but Aleksey has experience in all of the industry standard packages like 3ds Max, Maya and XSI. His contact details can be found at ace5studios.com. Also be sure to visit ace5education.com for even more tutorials from Aleksey!  

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  • masin

    im waiting dor rigging tuts !!!!

  • http://www.5thbattalion.co.uk/ Scott

    Thanks for this great tutorial some of the tips and stuff he did i had no clue about so it was a great help !!!

    • http://www.badgrenola.com Matt Brealey

      Glad to hear it Scott!

      Matt

  • Bobby

    groan….

    • http://www.badgrenola.com Matt Brealey

      Hi Bobby,

      I take it that that’s a groan at this being a 101 tutorial? Looking back, we’ve never featured an intro to Cinema 4D at all, and my aim here is for this specific tutorial set to stand as THE go to beginners guide on the site. Plus, with the beginners topics covered all of our users will be able to take advantage of the more advanced content!

      If there’s anything specific you’d like to see us cover, just let me know.

      Cheers!

      Matt

      • Shinfo

        And thank you for doing so. I’ve been searching all over the net for good C4D tutorials that appealed to me.

        Might I request realflow/c4d combi tuts?

  • Hyde Zhong

    thanks post

  • Steve

    Good tutorial if your a beginner.

    But I think what this site is lacking and, possibly why a lot of people seem a bit fed up, is that new quality ‘unique’ content is very slow to appear. People want quality AND quantity.

    Take me. I’m into Modo and C4D. Modo tutorials have seemed to stop and C4D tutorials have only been very Basic. When I see a new C4D tutorial appear I get my hopes up only to discover its a Beginners Tut. We need something to really get our teeth into. After all, we are not all beginners.

    Again no offense to this Tutorial and well done with it Aleksey. But Matt come on Dude amaze us. Provide us with the ‘more advanced content’.

    Cheers, Steve.

    P.S Will there be more to come on your Camera Tutorial matt?

    • http://www.badgrenola.com Matt Brealey

      Hi Steve,

      First of all thanks for taking the time to comment as you have, it’s appreciated. I personally couldn’t agree more that unique, advanced content is a very big part of what Cgtuts+ should offer going forwards. I’ve been talking to a lot of artists about meeting this aim, and I’ll continue to contact others as well in the coming weeks.

      You’ll be happy to hear we have an excellent new Modo series beginning next month (and I should have time to sit down to record the Canon A1 texturing section in the next few weeks as well,) and we also have some great C4D content. I’ve also got some new artists on board who between them have published many articles for big name 3D magazines, recorded authorised training for other tutorial sites, and even written a book or two! We’ll also have our first big interview coming up within the next two weeks.

      Things are definitely moving onwards and upwards at Cgtuts+, and I really think you’ll love what we have coming up :)

      In the meantime, do you have any specific requests for C4D tutorials?

      Cheers!

      Matt

      • Steve

        Mograph 2 :)

    • Jaffe

      The tutorial description says. Difficulty – Beginner. So maybe you could have just said. Good Tutorial.

  • Jay

    Brilliant :) I particularly enjoyed your animated presentation style – sometimes it’s difficult not to fall asleep when listening to a dull monotone, which you are certainly not. Very useful content in there too.

    You wanted ideas for new tutorials ? Well a few that would help me would include: ultra-realistic waterfalls, a GI masterclass, Human figure modelling, general modelling 101, animated sea, layered textures, rendering wireframes, modelling an electric guitar, complex camera animation, an underwater scene with caustics, photorealistic terrain / landscape scene, arcing electricity, and a lovely detailed / rigged great white shark please :)

    Cheers again.

    • http://www.badgrenola.com Matt Brealey

      Thanks for the suggestions Jay! Noted :)

      Matt

  • http://ahk-tips.blogspot.com Shahrez Rafiq

    Something similar for 3d Studio Max. Puhleeeezzz!

  • http://studio-of-2.de Flogag

    Thank you that was very helpful :)
    Go on like this.
    I like to lern something about Modeling by Points and Polys.

  • Daveyboy

    Great tutorial. I thought I knew the basics but learnt a couple of very useful things!

    You asked for suggestions on future tutorials. I’d love some on basic to intermediate modelling skills using the useful toolset that’s inside C4D. Taking basic shapes or using splines/paths and making say a house or a basic car. Something that covers the joining, splitting, carving objects etc. and the best way to achieve stuff. I think I always subdivide too far and then end up with huge render times. I’m sure some of the stuff I model is over complicated and could have been done using a much easier method if only I knew how a certain tool should be applied etc.

    Keep up the great work.

    • http://www.badgrenola.com Matt Brealey

      Thanks Daveyboy! It seems that a thorough basic C4D modelling tutorial is something a lot of people want to see…

      Cheers,

      Matt

  • Emin

    Thx for the tutorial.

    The kind of tutorials I want is Expresso, Dynamics, MoGraph and a very good intro for Vray!! Vray for sure.

    • http://ace5studios.com Aleksey
      Author

      Hi,

      for vray tutorials, check out their website, they cover pretty much everything you would want to know. There really isn’t anything worth covering as far as i know. Maybe when i get more experience with it, but it’s pretty straight forward.
      vrayc4d.com

      Xpresso is coming up. Dynamics won’t be covered until there is a new dynamics module, because it is very poor right now. And i’ll see what i can do about some mograph tutorials.

      glad you enjoyed my tut =)

  • http://www.kontrast360.com Mikey

    Hi Aleksey,

    For Me , one of the best tutorial in tutplus site.Waiting for more begginer stuff.
    And please, do something with your microphone ;)
    cheers from poland

    • http://ace5studios.com Aleksey
      Author

      Cheers,

      What is wrong with my microphone?

  • jose

    this is great thanks a lot!! i´m looking forward for the comming videos

  • jamie

    WOW so not worth 32 minutes!! i could of explained all of that… IN MORE DETAIL in less than 10 minutes

    • http://ace5studios.com Aleksey
      Author

      In my last tutorial people complained that I go to fast, so i went slow this time. ( go read the comments)

      Can’t please everyone I guess..

  • http://ulvido.com/ leblebi

    Excellent. Cant wait for the rigging tutorial. thank you very much.

  • David

    Thank you! I’ve been wanting a beginner tutorial for C4D. Good times!

  • Felix

    What’s up dudes…that’s one nice tutorial there…I have like the speed you are goign through your video….I kinda get more into the flow than with slower narrators…

    But one question to the technical makers of this site…why don’t you add a function to play the videos larger but not fullscreen…? see the problem I have is that I am using two monitors (I wish I had 3+)…on the one screen I show the video and on the other screen I try to imitate the narrator in my very own live project…I can see all the details with the fullscreen-view ok (btw. thanks for HD-like videos!) but as soon as I have it on fullscreen and click only once into the cinema 4d window the video reduces to in-browser size…the screen the videos is shown on is 1280×1024 so why implement a default in-browser view of the video of 600x400px only!? Sorry dudes, but that’s kinda 90s style…who has a 800×600 screen these days? just because youtube does it? why not add an extra button to resize it (flexible) to another resolution other than full screen, I mean you are having your “own” flv-player and I guess you should be able to add such a functionality…

    However, I like this site…have just found it but already watched some very interesting and comprehensible videos! Thanks!

    Felix

    • http://ace5studios.com Aleksey
      Author

      Thanks man, glad its helpful.

      You can download the videos and play them in a video player at any size you want =)

      • Lize

        I would LOVE to view this tutorial but I can’t seem to play it vi QT… I even tried QT Pro. Does anyone have any suggestions? I downloaded the video as well but I can’t play it (also tried using flash…) Any help would be greatly appreciated.
        Thanks!

  • Android

    Thanks!! This is VERY helpful. And a rigging tutorial would be a great Idea. There aren’t many C4D rigging tuts on the net. :D :D :D xD

  • James

    Great tut – thnx!

    What about UVW mapping in C4D and BodyPaint? I have tried a lot of tuts on this and still can’t grasp the idea of UVW mapping on non-primitive objects…that would be a great help.

  • cekirdek

    very nice, if only the mouse went a little slower, it kinda got me dizzy

  • http://themhouse.in Milen

    Wow man this tutorials is amazing, thanks a lot…
    I can not wait to the next tutorial
    *_* Bravo

  • malte

    Excellent tutorial! :D

    Made this pic using your tut: http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/6293/playingwithballs.jpg

  • billabonga

    can anybody please tell me who published Cinema 4D please?

  • Lh

    Very Helpful! Just started with cinema4D and got very enthusiastic by your tutorial.

  • Matheus

    Thank you for this tutorial!! Helped me a lot!

  • Shortee

    Can you please do a rig tut for beginners on the wood man or a how to create a animated character? Theres NO tuts out like that for new users. I have looked everywhere. Nice tut A+++++

  • mekael

    A simple Comment……..Thank You !!

  • http://r Richard

    Thankyou very much
    Good tutorial

  • alex

    Great tutorial, i have one question though: how can i get all the basic materials that You used here? I was forced to use some other textures from the visualize folder in the content browser. Thanks :)

  • Tim

    Today is my first day with c4d. This tut helped a lot!!! Hope to see more of your tuts arround

  • Rhino

    I actually learned a lot from this tutorial. Much more than several of the other videos I’ve watched.

  • Sloan Sparger

    wow your awesome! i didnt know 3d programs were so easy! you can do so much by doing so little!

  • Ashley

    Hey man,

    I’m a Graphic Design student and we’ve needed to create a scene in C4D for a project. It’s probably the only time we’ll need to use it; so I’d like to say thank you for this tutorial, it taught me a fair bit (which I don’t appear to be learning at Uni. Cue sarcastic surprise.)

    Kudos, amigo!

  • Paul

    Amazing tutorial! Taught me a lot of stuff! Great job. :)

  • http://ace5education.com Aleksey
    Author

    Hey guys, just wanted to say thanks for all the comments. Im glad im teaching you guys something :D

  • Bunderson

    I must say that this has been one of the hardest tutorials to follow I have ever seen. You are going through this way too fast for its intended audience. You missed out crucial pieces of basic information (like how to change the viewpoint) which I actually had to leave the tutorial to find out then come back to only see you decide to tell this near the end. Also your explanation of moving the figurine was far too rushed, your mouse movements far too quick to see and the explanations of important parts were missing. That saying, I did learn something especially the parts on textures and lighting which were just right. If you recorded this basics video again at half the speed it would be perfect.

    • Niclas L

      Speed isn’t really a problem, as this is a video – i paused, tried it out, played and repeat the process. You can also rewind.

      I would say that i rather see someone make a ‘fast’ tutorial in 5mins that shows you 10 things, rather than a 10 min tutorial showing you 5 things.

      Such as changing viewport – a google-search and you have hit. I mean, “Quick Start” can’t cover everything in the ‘basics’, and sure – changing viewport is one big part of the basics, but if he doesn’t have it in the tutorial – it’s easy to google ;)

  • http://www.timelinemedia.com.au Alex

    Thanks for your tutorial, not many places have such comprehensive beginner tutorials like this one. And if you do manage to find one, they are either done by a twelve year old, or someone with a voice that puts me to sleep. Thanks!

  • rushingdragon

    Just THANK YOU
    I never leave comment but this time I will I mean its short and straight to the point, not one second to waste (well it might have been slightly fast but I can just reward anyways)
    keep the gd work and thx again

  • Niclas L

    Alright, i feel i need to make some sort of review on this.

    First, i have to say that it’s really good!
    This is my 2nd day working with cinema 4d (i have played with Maya, 3ds and Blender before) and i already know a lot of the basics – such as rotation, shortcuts and stuff. However – i still learned MORE about the functions i already knew, so this is quite positive for me.

    Also, i don’t know if you planned on being repetative, but you where, and thats great! Saying the same thing twice or even three times in the movie, like moving your ‘boxes’ – that also shows how to acctually use some techniques in practise.

    And, last but not least – funny dude! I acctually laughed a few times, especially when you said “Retarded Rotation” – hilarious!

    Good Job, and a shitload of thanks to you!
    Much appreciated!

  • Jay

    Hi great tut thanks a lot. Can you create tut for isometrics with cinema 4d :)

  • Ricmel Acevedo

    Thank you.