CG Award Winner ‘Fredi Voss’ Shows How to Make a Dead Tree Trunk in Cinema 4D

Jul 6th in 3D Art, Autodesk Maya, Maxon Cinema 4D by Fredi Voss

In this tutorial, "CG Choice" award winner, Fredi Voss, will teach you how to model and texture a detailed, dead tree trunk, which could be used as a foreground object in a landscape, or even as a stand alone portfolio piece.

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Author: Fredi Voss

Hello! My name is Fredi Voss (some might know me as "rollmops"), and I live in Germany, working as a freelance artist. I received my degree as a bachelor of fine arts, and had an education as a professional photo finisher. I came in contact with Cg about 10 years ago, during my sculptural work as a fine artist, and my main application of choice is C4D. If you are interested to see more of my work, just visit my website at:www.fredivoss.de.

This is an intermediate to advanced level tutorial, and not recommended for beginners. The techniques and concepts depicted within are designed to show you how to create the most detailed objects (which would be of a high enough quality to be used in the foreground of a still CG render), and also to demonstrate that several techniques can be combined together to achieve a specific result.

All screenshots were taken from Cinema 4D R11, but it should be possible to apply the hints given here to other releases as well.

Final Effect Preview


Step 1

Start by creating some splines, but leave some space between them (you will see why later on). You should use "Bezier Splines" here. The angle-limit is normally set to '5 °', but for this project, you need to keep it as long as possible while in the low-poly state.

Step 2

Now you can start to place the single points of your splines into the third dimension. Select them, and modify their positions. Make sure that the start point of each spline stays on the main spline level. After doing so, your construction should look like this:

Step 3

Use the splines, in combination with an "n-side" spline, in a "sweep nurb" operation (6 sides on your "n-side" spline should be perfect). The end scale of your "sweep nurb" should be set to around 10 %. You can decide what fits best for your taste, but if you are not sure, just take a look at the structure of tree branches in nature.

Step 4

You can adjust the individual parameters of the splines to get the form you want. You can also move points, or even add one more branch, but keep in mind that old ,dead, and rotting tree trunks do not have that many branches left. Note: You should also deactivate all of the bottom caps of the smaller branches, as you will not need them later on.

Once you have the general structure looking the way you would like, convert all "sweep nurbs".

Step 5

Connect all of the converted "sweep nurbs" into one single object. The selection tags created by the caps of each "sweep nurb" can be deleted.

Step 6

Use the knife tool. In order to be able to merge the single branch segments into one solid form, you need to try to create a good base in your mesh. Note: To make your life easier, you can deactivate the "Visible-Only" option.

Step 7

Delete the selected polygons as shown here:

Step 8

Now it's time for you to create polygons. Some of you might think that using the bridge tool would be easier, but the manual production of polys gives you more control over the result. Note: Try to get an organic connection between the trunk and the branches (like in nature). Don't be afraid to create triangles either. In this particular case, they will emphasize the realistic appearance. But remember, no matter what, always keep your mesh clean.

Step 9

After repeating this procedure at every junction point, you should have something that looks like this:

Step 10

To get a complete and solid mesh, without separating the polygons or unused points, go into the polygon or point mode, and use the "Select All" and "Optimize" functions. Now you can do a bit more work on the mesh at the bottom cap of the trunk. Note: try to get the impression of a broken piece of wood.

Step 11

Time for the mighty "hyper nurbs" tool;) A moderate '1-1' setting should do it. In my case this gave me 1877 polygons for the trunk. A '3-3' setting should deliver 24197 polygons, but either way, the result will still look the same.

Step 12

Use the knife tool again. Switch the "hyper nurbs" setting on or off to get the right interaction. Adding some extra knots will add more realism. Note: Trees in reality are not that smooth. They have a special kind of structure.

Step 13

Copy and paste the trunk. Now convert the new "nurb" object, and then triangulate it.

Step 14

Go into the polygon mode. Select and delete random polygons as shown (I switched the trunk underneath to "invisible", to demonstrate the structure more clearly).

Step 15

Select all of the polygons on the new object, and extrude them.

Step 16

At this point you should have a very good base for your final object, which is a good time to create a basic light-setup, in order to get a better impression of how your object might work in the final scene.

Step 17

Now you can start to create textures for your project. I prefer to use image-based textures (most of my image maps are photographs i took on my own for this purpose). You can download the texture files here:

Texture Files

download

Load the bark image into the color, diffusion ( 50 % strength), and the bump channel. For the sub polygon displacement, use a fusion map consisting of the photograph, and a noise at 500% global size. Note: You can also add a bit of luminance (about 5 %). This will break the ice, and reduce the typical cg-appearance of textures.

Step 18

Add the texture to the bark. Switch to "Cubic Mapping", and scale it as shown (it is relative to the size of your image map, therefore, i can not give you exact parameters).

Step 19

A first proof render should deliver something like this:

Step 20

Create the wood texture by using the map in the color, diffusion, and displacement channels. Similar to the bark, "Cubic Mapping" fits best for this purpose. If you were to use standard "UVW Mapping", it would give you some issues with areas of stretched or squeezed textures. Further more, "Cubic Mapping" gives you more control over the orientation and scale of the image map.

Step 21

Some more tweaking, and your proof render should look like this:

Step 22

Now select the bottom area polygons and use "Set Selection". You are going to create some extra texturing...

Step 23

As a base for the new texture, use the wood texture (that was used for the trunk), and copy and paste it. Now you need to change the displacement map. Use the "centered intensity" mode, for "sub polygon displacement", with a strength of 100%, by 5 meters maximum height. This parameter depends very much on the actual global scale of your mesh, so you might have to change it to a higher or lower setting, in order to get the right effect. Set the parameters of the "hama noise" as shown below.

Step 24

Now add the new texture to the selection you made before, and scale it as shown.

Step 25

Create a new render. The base of the trunk now looks less smooth and "polished" than before.

Step 26

Tweak the bark mesh a bit, by using the "magnet" tool, and working on the edges of the mesh. This will give the impression of the structures that are rotting and falling apart.

Step 27

Ok, so your little project is almost done:) But something is still missing...

Step 28

Sometimes, dead trees are covered with a fiber-like substance. I want you to add that here too. Not everybody owns the "Hair Module", so you are going to have to go the old-school way, and use an alpha plane. Use the alpha mask that was provided. Now deform the plane a bit, in order to simulate more volume.

Step 29

Attach the planes to the model, and scale, flip, and stretch to randomize them. But remember: less is more.

Step 30

To complete the effect, model some mushrooms, similar to the ones you might find living on rotting wood, and attach them to the dead tree.

Step 31

Your trunk should now look like this. Note: The whole dead tree scene is 14312 polygons, and the file size is 885 kb. You see, it is not allways necessary to beginn a polygon massacre when you want something detailed in your scene.

I hope you liked my little tutorial.

Cheers, Fredi :)

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User Comments

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  1. PG

    ju July 6th

    Wow sweet !

    fisrt!

    ( Reply )
  2. PG

    Mike July 6th

    Cheers for that – somethings in the tut were very clever indeed!

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    Willem July 6th

    love it! thanks

    ( Reply )
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    Gork July 6th

    great tut. Thanks a lot.

    ( Reply )
  5. PG

    xsid July 6th

    maya maya maya!!!

    ( Reply )
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    liam July 6th

    What happend to the Plus Tut of the poster with the 3D text done in C4D?

    ( Reply )
  7. PG

    mitko July 6th

    make vide tutorial
    please please please

    ( Reply )
  8. PG

    Rafael Guerra July 6th

    Awesome tut…finally a C4D one.

    ( Reply )
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    4q July 6th

    Thanks for this one, please more Cinema 4D tutorials, i think i found my dream tool with it. Much more intuitive and fast than Maya and 3d Max.

    ( Reply )
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    she July 6th

    this tut is very detailed,,you wnt reli miss a thing…thx 4 the very gud and detailed tut

    ( Reply )
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    FDL July 6th

    thanks man!!!

    ( Reply )
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    arlington cruz July 6th

    Awesome I can apply the concept on making this from another 3d package as well..

    ( Reply )
  13. PG

    Cesar July 6th

    pretty nice tutorial mate, very good planed and smartly executed :D

    ( Reply )
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    Hooper July 6th

    If you’re serious about creating VFX, you should be able to apply what you see here into the package that YOU use.
    If a company hires you and you only know how to use Maya for example, you’re limiting yourself.

    thanx for typing this tutorial, videos on here load to slow.

    and if you insist on being FIRST TO POST since you think it actually means something, at least spell FIRST correctly.

    ( Reply )
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      liam July 6th

      Good call!

      the average age here most be 15 if commenting first is a thrill. you wont lose your virginity online guys.. get out more! C4D/Max/May will still be here when you come back as men!

      ( Reply )
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        liam July 6th

        yeah and I just noticed the typos, so don’t bother pointing them out.

  15. PG

    AzteKpr1de July 6th

    Looks awesome; and easy to do, either that or this tutorial is very well explained.

    ( Reply )
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    John Doe July 7th

    Would be great to see a tutorial on modeling in Cinema. I was a little lost when connecting the branches. I got it done but I’m sure it could have come out better. There are virtually no tutorials on how to model in Cinema.

    ( Reply )
  17. PG

    Nikhil July 7th

    It is really looking real….

    ( Reply )
  18. PG

    Rodney July 7th

    Absolutely awesome, obviously a pro.

    ( Reply )
  19. PG

    Juan Carlos July 7th

    Great tutorial, keep them coming up! Screencasts would be phenomenal

    ( Reply )
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    jhaypzz July 8th

    nice tut!

    hey masters, can i have a request? because i am having a problem on lighting for studios, global illumination and using vray.. i want some tutorials on this.. thanks guys!!

    ( Reply )
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      John Doe July 8th

      Vray tuts would be sweet.
      Greyscalegorilla.com has some good global illumination tutorials for C4D

      ( Reply )
  21. PG

    Fredivoss July 8th

    Thanks:)

    There will be more and more tuts by the time…

    ( Reply )
  22. PG

    Diego SA July 8th

    That’s a different but a interesting object to study realistic 3D objects. Cool!

    ( Reply )
  23. PG

    RabiD July 8th

    Great tutorial for cinema 4D newbie.
    Thanks a lot.

    ( Reply )
  24. PG

    Irving July 9th

    This is brilliant. Not many people use Sweepnurbs for something like this. LoftNURBS would work as well (i think).

    great tutorial though.

    ( Reply )
  25. PG

    Cody F July 11th

    Like so many tutorials online the number of assumptions made about a users knowledge are very high. You don’t have to cover every tool or basic function, but when you say to use a particular function tell us what kind of function it is so one knows where to find it.

    I have yet to find more than a handful of tutorials which at least give clues as to the assumed knowledge. It’s okay to assume certain knowledge if you tell the reader what is assumed (not the details of it, just point to “this is what to go find out about”). But again in this tutorial the number of assumptions make it useless for someone who is not already familiar with all of the tools, and leave no way for someone to back track to find their bearings.

    ( Reply )
    1. PG

      Kaleb Aylsworth July 12th

      Yes you’re right. This is an advanced level tutorial (as mentioned in the forward), and it is assumed that you already have a somewhat thorough knowledge of Cinema 4D before you begin.

      ( Reply )
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      John Doe July 19th

      There are a ton of beginner tuts out there for Cinema 4d! Just google “Cinema 4D tutorials”

      ( Reply )
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    Niels July 15th

    I would really like to thank Fredi for this outstanding tutorial…! It helped me so much. Iv’e been using Cinema4D on and off, mostly for fun, for a couple of years now. But I never quite figured out that hands-on polygon manipulation, until today..!

    Thanks Fredi, outstanding tut :D

    ( Reply )
  27. PG

    Agli July 15th

    Niiiiiice!! Would have taken me days to create something like that if I hadn’t read the tutorial.

    Please more!!!

    ( Reply )
  28. PG

    John Doe July 19th

    s Cubic Mapping new to C4d 11? I’ve never seen that. I googled and still was unable to find any info.

    ( Reply )
  29. PG

    Fredivoss July 19th

    “Is Cubic Mapping new to C4d 11? I’ve never seen that. I googled and still was unable to find any info.”

    ( Reply )

    No,Cubic Mapping is implementated for lots of releases in C4D now.

    Cheers,Fredi :)

    ( Reply )
  30. PG

    anatayGrande July 20th

    holy crap!!!! thnx… ^^

    ( Reply )
  31. PG

    Ronyn July 23rd

    Thanhs, very nyce.

    Regards

    ( Reply )
  32. PG

    Ivanex July 23rd

    Gracias se ve muy bien……
    muchas gracias…….

    ( Reply )
  33. PG

    prashanth July 23rd

    its real good demo it

    ( Reply )
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    Sycren July 26th

    Just wondering but how possible would you think it to be in any application (blender, cinema 4d, max, maya) to make a script to do all this? and maybe do some randomising as well?

    ( Reply )
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    Fredivoss July 27th

    “Just wondering but how possible would you think it to be in any application (blender, cinema 4d, max, maya) to make a script to do all this? and maybe do some randomising as well?”

    Well,some applications do something similar ,actually. Xfrog for example.But as i mentioned in the beginning, they are not really capable to create this fine modeled connections between the trunks and the twigs in that special case. This is something you have to do by hand. Automated modelling is possible, but it does not look very convincing in most cases. You need to have that special individual touch in order to get a good result.When you want to use you model in the midground or background section of your scene, automated applications do a great job.

    Cheers Fredi.

    ( Reply )
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    illd July 28th

    Wow, what a great tutorial. If I find the time I am trying to rebuild it on my own. Thanks Fredi!!!

    ( Reply )
  37. PG

    Sergio July 31st

    Awesome!!

    ( Reply )
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    Pissi September 29th

    Hi,

    I am new to Cinema, how are step 6 asnd 7 ment, using the knife tool?

    ( Reply )
  39. PG

    Fredivoss September 30th

    Hi Pissi,

    yes,it´s the knife tool here.

    Cheers, Fredivoss.

    ( Reply )
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    Pissi October 2nd

    Thanks a lot Fredivoss! Made a mistake while converting the nubs.

    ( Reply )
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    Anders Hattne October 16th

    Hi and thanks!
    Good tutorial. I’ve done a wee bit of modelling before so I managed to find the tools alright. What I need more practice of is lighting and texturing – hence what’s the basic lighting you use?
    I could only see one light source – so I figured it was “daylight” BUT I’m not sure if it is “bad practise to use that.. Or did you use one spot light far away?

    Thanks again!

    ( Reply )
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    Fredivoss October 25th

    Hi,

    yes the light setup is very simple here.I used one infinite light and Gi for this.
    I would not recommend to use the sun-light-type here, because infinite lightsources are more flexible .But it might be a good idea to write a lighting-tut.I´ll keep that in mind.
    Cheers :)

    ( Reply )
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      Anders Hattne October 27th

      Hey! Thanks for your reply – I’m still on this tutorial stuck at point 19 cause Displacement really slows down renders and eventually crashes. I think it might be a r10 issue. Or is that the case in newer versions too?

      Secondly when creating the Bark surface – after deleting polygons I occasionally see a a random criss cross of lines when selecting the surface – like a spiderweb over the tree.. I figure it’s could be some glitch with left over points after deleting the polygons – but I don’t know how to get rid of them!!
      Now I notice that “untriangulate” leaves me with two lines, and triangulate with uncountable lines..

      ( Reply )
  43. PG

    Fredivoss October 31st

    Hoi.

    This tut was done in R11. Displacement is faster here.But i think you have to make shure, that your polycount is not to high. In case of triangulation you should ta care of the angle-settings for this tool.
    Concerning the points after deleting polygons: thats normal.to get rid of unused points, you have to use the “select all” funtion and then “optimize”.
    All points which are not needed will be deleted.

    :)

    ( Reply )
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    Moloko 04 November 2nd

    Great Tut I like too much, but.. I am lost in the connect objects option, I guess that I’m doing something wrong, cuz I connected the objects and when I’m going to delete the branches those disappear, Would you tell me please which option is the right one? for I can connect the branches weill…

    Thank You (:

    ( Reply )
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    Moloko 04 November 2nd

    by the way… I’m sorry for my bad English ):

    ( Reply )
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    Fredivoss November 3rd

    After you converted all sweepnurbs to get them out of the parametric state, you select all objects including theirl children and use the “connect” function. Then you swap into the polygonemode (make sure that your branches group is active) and select the polygons like shown in the tut and delete them where necessary.After you closed the holes by using the “create polygon” option you should have a solid object. To get now rid of the unused points, just use “select all” and then “optimize”.
    :)

    ( Reply )
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