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Create a Realistic Subway Station Scene using Cinema 4D and After Effects

on Dec 5th 2009 with 33 comments
Tutorial Details

This 2 part tutorial takes us underground to examine how to build a 3D model of a subway train and make it zip past a real subway platform. First, we’ll use Cinema 4D to craft a subway car using a few basic primitive shapes, while adding detail with Sweep, Extrude, and Loft NURBS elements. Then, we’ll texture and light our car to create a realistic look, and allow our CG car to blend in with our real subway environment. Finally, the MoGraph module will help us clone our car and make a long train to animate into our scene, and then we’ll do some quick adjustments in After Effects to put the finishing touches on our subway station composite.

Final Effect Preview

The project files can be found at the following link: http://d2d04grx5ahzvh.cloudfront.net/092_C4D_Subway/subwayfiles.zip .

Video 1

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

Video 2

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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.

Michael Szabo is a 24 year old motion designer and editor from Florida. He strives to learn something new about design every day. Check out www.bigmikedesign.com to see his work.  

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  • bob

    Awesome TUT! Keep it up!

  • And

    hey it’s really cool

  • http://www.mechanicalwhispers.com Mechanical Whispers

    Wow, that’s a tiny train. And it doesn’t stop at the station?

    On the “not-so-picky” side, I’d say it’s a nice try, but it has a ways to go to being a “realistic” looking subway train that blends in with the photo. The coloring/lighting is off and looks way too cut out. Seems like you could have created this effect VERY quickly and ultra realistic using a still photo of the train. I would have liked to see something not so flat to justify building this in 3D.

  • DanteV

    Excellent, Thank you for all this training.

  • Harry Mitchell

    Thanks for the tutorial I learnt a lot appreciate it.

  • Sebastian Vettel

    Awesome. It is great to watch such tutorials witch integration in AE. It’s smth u see in films. Thenks m8!

  • immjg

    poooor tut !!!Sorry!!

  • http://www.behance.net/Modisana Modisana

    i also dont think its as realistic and awesome looking as it could have been… sorry

  • ozkr

    That´s realistic?

  • http://twitter.com/xrommelx xRommelx

    doing…!!!

  • Max

    You could save yourself a shit load of time and just do the entire thing in AE because apart from zooming out slightly, there’s no noticeable 3D in this.

  • James Deng

    First off all, the size of the train, relative to the scene is totally off!! The blacks dont match, and there’s no reflection from the train on either the ceiling or the floor. You know, i think its getting to the point that people are just putting really bad tutorials just to make money. Compositing is about the detail, not what software or what buttons to push. Is about thinking what you are doing and paying attention,anybdy can push buttons. What a dissapointment.

    • Anton

      Don’T cry!

    • lpt

      Agreed. Seems like the whole ‘tuts’ family is scraping the bottom of the barrel for content.

  • Balls

    that was terrible and could have been done in after effects.

  • Fleshgakker

    Great. Thanks.

  • blipp

    This is an awesome tut to get good insight of C4D’s capabilities. Thanks!

  • http://www.ingusdesign.com Ingus Smith

    thanks for the tut, I learned some new tricks to try out…

  • Zed

    As your first tutorial you have made a great job !!

  • ivanex

    Michael…
    Gracias por el excelente aporte :D
    como siempre
    lo mejor C4D y AE
    muy bueno

  • ivanex

    digan lo que digan……seagradece por el aporte

  • Neves

    Great Job!

    Thanks

    Keep up the good work

  • Jaime Colon

    I’m new to C4D and your tutorial is very interesting and very well done. I really like it. Thanks.

  • 3dbomb

    The first thing I have to say is I really enjoyed the tutorial. The whiners complaining the final result isn’t photo realistic should put up URL’s to their photo realistic version.

    What I enjoyed most was during the building of the train, the way you used snapping to really control a lot of detail. That’s something I never do and now am going to try and get in bed with the shift key.

    Really anyone not sure whether to watch this or not, don’t be put off by bad comments. There is a heck of a lot of great stuff in here. And really if you follow this tutorial step by step doing exactly what is demonstrated, you’ve really missed the point. The techniques are explained well enough for you to take off on your own and come up something you’re happy with.

    If I were to attempt this tutorial (I’m not sure yet I will, I feel I’ve learned from the techniques and can use them in my own pieces) I’d probably want to put a lot of light inside the train and have volumetric spotlights on the front of the train so you get a cool hazy light effect before the train hits the screen. I’d also vary the ads. I think that stood out the most, the ads repeating. But again, none of these things detract from the tutorial at all. The fact is the groundwork is laid out for you to make something great here.

    Finally, just because I’m a very evil person. I’d probably want a 3D character falling or slipping onto the tracks a second before the train arrives. A nice splat thump sound and brakes screeching, get that particle engine going with sparks hehe. For another tutorial perhaps? :)

  • eyebag

    very nice but you have forgotten that when the train passes by it will cast reflection on the ceiling of the station..get my point..thanks for this i’ve learned very much from by simply analyzing what is happening in the scene

  • vic

    thank u!! perfect for vid i’m working on now!! keep up the good work!

    peace

  • http://www.e11world.com e11world

    I actually would much rather just take a picture of the subway and another of the train and animate it with aftereffects or even flash but this does give some good ways of using the program. Nice!

  • MilitiaGFX

    thanks dude, I’ve learned a lot from your tutorial!!! But I have only one – probably very stupid – question, When I render something out in c4d and import it in after effects there will be black around it, just like you quickrender it in c4d itself, how do I get this to go away?
    I’m hoping for a quick respond, anyways thanks for your help!!

    Keep up the good work!

  • Mark

    Wow so much negativity; how about some of you folks you put up your work for comparison???? Sure there are parts that I think might be done differently, and yes it definitely could be done in AE, IF and only if you wanted 2.5D instead of 3D; point being IF I decided to pan behind the train – we know what we’d get.

    For those complaining about free tutorials – where are yours?

  • Rob

    Hey my friend– learned a few good things here, but i think you could have made this train MUCH faster using the instance object. It would have involved MUCH LESS copying and pasting, and eliminate the need to keep a backup of your splines.

  • Lacc

    Hey guys

    I like the tutorial but i need help. How to render the train to tga without background?
    I turn on alpha and change to targa but if i import into ae it has got a black background.

  • aabood

    Great tutorial i really learned a lot thank you : )

  • MAQ

    That was pretty good
    but I didn’t understand something : How can I render a video like quick time with transparent background
    I turned on alpha channel and render a png format and it had transparent background but when I render in quick time ( mov ) it has a black background
    can u help me pls ?