Cinema 4D: An Introduction to Xpresso

Cinema 4D: An Introduction to Xpresso

on Sep 1st 2010 with 22 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Software: Maxon Cinema 4D
  • Difficulty: Beginner
  • Estimated Completion Time: 1 Hour
This entry is part 3 of 6 in the Aleksey Voznesenski Session
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In today’s tutorial, rigging artist Aleksey Voznesenski takes us through the basics of Cinema 4D’s Xpresso scripting system. If utilised correctly, Xpresso can be an incredibly powerful system allowing you an amazing level of control over your rigs, animations – even the UI itself. If you want to speed up your workflow in C4d and you’re not using Xpresso, this tutorial is for you!

Aleksey previously recorded our ‘Cinema 4D 101′ tutorial, which can be found here : A Quick-Start Guide to Cinema 4D

Video 1

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

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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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  • Mojo Jojo

    excellent!! thanks for this, just what i need!

  • http://3dessentials.com 3dEssentials.com

    Wow, didn’t realize this was available in C4D. It’s really powerful and simple to pick up! I was quite impressed with the Mograph stuff I’ve seen but this tops them off. I guess I need to start playing with it now :D

    • http://ace5studios.com Aleksey
      Author

      Glad you dig it.

      don’t forget you can drag mograph cloners into xpresso and connect all the stuff as well.

  • stef

    Really nice tutorial. I’ve seen lots of xpresso tutorials that just where way to complicated. This one was really comprehensive and opened my eyes.

    Time to start playing !

    thanks a lot !

  • Thomas

    Nice tut but I think you can do better. Make a schedule of what you want to talk about and use more specific examples of how to use it.

    If you want to extend your knowledge of XPresso I recommend base80.com.

    • http://ace5studios.com Aleksey
      Author

      Thanks, well I tried to keep it relaxed and slow moving, because as you may notice from the other comments, that’s what people appreciate in beginner tutorials, and beginners are the ones who really need tutorials in the end of the day. the more skilled you get the more sense the help file makes =)

      I notice when I have a script I and many other authors go to fast and loose their audience.

  • lsslss

    hi Aleksey,

    Great tut, didn’t know it was that easy… ;) thought there would be more scripting to do in Xpresso, but you make it look easy!

    I was wandering how you can get the inputs from Xpresso, to the viewport, I’ve seen that in several tutorials, so that you have a controller on screen, instead of linking objects to one another for control.

    thx!

    • http://ace5studios.com Aleksey
      Author

      Hi,

      Glad to hear :)

      to get the sliders on screen, just drag and drop them onto the screen. in the help its called HUD.

      cheers,
      Aleksey

      • http://www.lsslss.nl lsslss

        thanks!
        I’m gonna fiddle with that then!

        marcel

  • vic

    this is going to be good. thanx in advance!

    peace

  • http://www.blackbluebrown.com geoff brown

    wicked tut!
    i’ve been putting off learning xPresso for too long. thanks for the insightful tutorial. plenty of good tidbits in this one, including some useful shortcuts.

    thanks very much, and keep up the great work.

  • http://lostringsattached.com/ Lo

    Great tutorial. This was exactly what I need to get started in understanding xPresso.

  • illd

    Hi Aleksey

    Thank you, this is an excellent introduction to Xpresso. Unfortunally you didn´t show more of that Project at the end with the seats – would have been Interesting how set that all up..

  • Jaime Carrión

    Thank you Aleksey!

    This is really a great intro and a potentially time saver. I just started with C4D last year and I always was a little bit confused about what to do with Xpresso.My first project was this: http://portales.educared.net/wikiEducared/index.php?title=Imagen:Membrana_con_elementos.jpg and I would definitely have saved a lot of time if I knew how to use Xpresso back then.

    After watching this I definitely feel more open to play with it :)

    Thanks again!
    Jaime

  • http://yudo.tv Yury

    Thanks ! )

  • Paul

    Thanks. I’ve been looking for an Xpresso Basics tut for a while.

    I must walk before I can run.

  • Jase

    Many thanks for the time you spent dong this… as a relative newbie to c4d it has been one of the most useful I have seen. Very much appreciated.
    J

  • 3Deemon

    That has to be the best beginners xpresso tut I have ever seen. You’ve explained it so well and now sparks are flying. Thank you.

  • Niels

    Thank you, Aleksey! Seems like Xpresso makes the workflow a lot faster.

  • Annasognosia

    it is the best xpresso tutorial of the dozen or so I’ve seen. How the Cinema4D features translate into problem solving is eye opening. Often I’ll learn this stuff and then don’t have the imagination to know how to use it.

  • kay

    I starting to think that maybe cinema 4d was made by GOD. It is just limitless. I can’t imagine how much time went into this program.

  • knd

    why are none of the videos ever working on cg.tutsplus? christ …