Tutorial Details
- Software: Cinema 4D with Advanced Render and Mograph modules.
- Difficulty: Intermediate.
- Completion Time: 30 min - 1 hour.
- Additional Files/ Plugins: Scene Files.
Final Product What You'll Be Creating
In this tutorial you will discover how easy it can be to create compelling abstract CG images with Cinema 4D. Follow along as Konstantin Muromtsev demonstrates how he created his animated Disco Ball scene, using primitives, structure tools, the Mograph Cloner object, and random effectors. Adding post effects like Caustics and Glow, and rendering the scene with Advanced Render will also be discussed.
Step 1
Create sphere object with a Radius of around 180m (Objects > Primitive > Sphere), and make it editable (Functions > Make Editable or C on keyboard).
Step 2
Select all polygons (ctrl+A), and use Extrude Inner (I on keyboard) with an Offset of 0.75m and the Preserve Groups option unchecked.
Step 3
Extrude the selected polygons with offset of around 4m. Press Selection > Set Selection.
Step 4
Create a Cylinder object (Create > Primitive > Cylinder) with a Radius of 2m, and the height around 1000m. Move it above the sphere. Make the sphere a parent object to the cylinder (in the object manager, drag the cylinder object into the sphere).
Step 5
Create a plane object (Create > Primitive > Plane), with a Width and Height of 3800m, and +Y orientation. Move the Sphere object upward a bit.
Step 6
Duplicate the Sphere object, and scale it down until it has a 100m Radius.
Step 7
Create a very tall Cylinder object, with a Radius of around 1500m.
Step 8
Create a Spotlight object (Create > Scene > Spot Light), and under the “General” tab, change “Shadow” to “Shadow Maps (Soft)”, and “Visible Light” to “Volumetric”.
Step 9
Under “Details”, change the “Outer Angle” to 63 degrees.
Step 10
Under “Visibility”, change the “Outer Distance” to 2500m, the “Sample Distance” to 20m, and “Dust” to 40%.
Step 11
Under “Caustics”, check both “Surface Caustics”, and “Volume Caustics”. Change the “Photons” for “Surface Caustics” to 120,000, and to 30,000 for “Volume Caustics”. Change both “Energy” values to 180%.
Step 12
Place Light objects above both Spheres.
Step 13
Create a new Light object (Create > Scene > Light), make it Blue (79, 89, 255), and set the “Intensity” to 10%. Place it under the big Sphere.
Step 14
Create a new material by double clicking the material manager. Under “Color”, change the “Color” to light Blue (223, 235, 242), and “Brightness” to 5%.
Step 15
Under “Reflection”, change the “Color” to light Blue (203, 207, 235), the “Brightness” to 95%, and check the “Additive” option.
Step 16
Under “Specular”, change the “Width” to 58%, the “Height” to 80%, the “Falloff” to -19%, and the “Inner Width” to 18%.
Step 17
Under “Specular Color”, change the “Color” to (238, 240, 251).
Step 18
Duplicate this material, and change the “Color” and “Reflection” to an Orange hue.
Step 19
Create a new material. Under “Color”, change the “Color” to dark Blue (32, 32, 54), and un-check “Specular”.
Step 20
Create a new material. Under “Color”, change the “Color” to light Blue (215, 224, 255).
Step 21
Under “Alpha”, use a Gradient as the texture, set the “Gradient Type” to “2D Circular”, and uncheck “Specular”.
Step 22
Assign the dark Blue material to both Spheres and Cylinders. Assign the Orange, reflective material to the selection on the big Sphere, and the Blue, reflective material to the selection on the small Sphere. Assign the material with the alpha channel to the Plane.
Step 23
Create a Cloner object (Mograph > Cloner object), and under “Object”, set the “Mode” to “Grid Array”, “Clones” to “Random”, “Count” to (5,5,5), and “Size” to 900m in all dimensions. Add both Spheres (without the Cylinders) to the Cloner object, and scale them down.
Step 24
While the Cloner object is selected, add a Random Effector (Mograph > Random Effector). Under the “Transform” parameters, tweak the “Position” to match your needs (values around 100m), and set the “Scale” to “Uniform Scale” 0.5.
Step 25
Find a good camera angle, and add a Camera object (Create > Scene > Camera).
Step 26
Under “Project Settings” (Edit > Project Settings or ctrl+D) change the “Maximum Time” to 180 F.
Step 27
Select frame 0, then select the big Sphere, and go to the “Coord” tab. Right-click R. H, and go to (Animation > Add Keyframe). Under the “Keyframe Properties”, un-check “Auto Tangents”. *To open the keyframe properties, click on the keyframe in the timeline.
Step 28
Select frame 180, set R. H to 359, and press “Add Keyframe”. Under “Keyframe Properties”, un-check “Auto Tangents”.
Step 29
Select frame 0, then select the small Sphere and go to the “Coord” tab. Right-click on R. H, and got to (Animation > Add Keyframe). Under “Keyframe Properties”, un-check “Auto Tangents”.
Step 30
Select frame 180, set R. H to 718, and press “Add Keyframe”. Under the “Keyframe Properties”, un-check “Auto Tangents”.
Step 31
Select the “Random Effector”, then select frame 0, and under “Effector” add a keyframe to “Seed”. Under the “Keyframe Properties”, un-check “Auto Tangents”, and change the “Right Time” to 7 F. *The “Left Time” value will be changed to -7 F.
Step 32
Select frame 90, and change the “Seed” to +1 (ie. if your value was 12345 make it 12346). Add a keyframe. Under “Keyframe Properties”, un-check “Auto Tangents”, and change the “Right Time” to 30.50 F. *The “Left Time” will be changed to -30.50 F.
Step 33
Select frame 171, and change the “Seed” back to the first value. Under “Keyframe Properties”, un-check “Auto Tangents”, and change the “Right Time” to 11 F. *The “Left Time” value will be changed to -11 F.
Step 34
Add a “Compositing” tag to the Cloner object, Cylinder, Plane, and both Spheres, and set a unique “Object Buffer” number for every object.
Step 35
Open the “Render Settings” (ctrl+b or Render > Render Settings..). Under “Output”, change the settings to meet your needs (in my case its 1280×720, square pixel aspect, 29,97 fps), and change the “Frame Range” to “All Frames”.
Step 36
Under “Save”, select the appropriate format, and check “Save” under “Multi Pass Image”.
Step 37
Under “Multi-Pass”, add “Diffuse”, “Reflection”, “Caustics”, “Atmosphere”, “Atmosphere (Multiply)”, “Post Effects”, “Depth” and all used “Object Buffers”.
Step 38
Under “Anti-Aliasing”, change “Anti-Aliasing” to “Best”, and “Filter” to “Sinc”.
Step 39
Add “Glow” and “Caustics” effects.
Step 40
Under “Glow”, in “Glow Settings”, change the “Size” to 8%, the “Intensity” to 10%, and the “Balance” to 30%. Under “Distance”, check “Use”, and change the “Start Range” to 100m and the “End Range” to 900m.
Step 41
Under “Caustics”, check “Volume Caustics”, and change the “Step Size” to 1m, the “Sample Radius” to 5m, and the “Samples” to 256.
Render, and you’re done! Hope you learned something new!!
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By Konstantin Muromtsev
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This looks cool – Its a same the player is mega buged!
Nice scene.! The problem with a discoball is, that (in a real one) all squared mirrors have the same size. This means that you can not simply extrude the faces of a cgi-generated sphere, because this consists of trapezoids, that vary in size from the equator to the poles…
A real discobol has som irregularities that make it more charming than this cgi-look-a-like.
Brilliant tutorial. I just did a disco ball scene for a charity dance show. I ended up making everything in AE, but the final product of this tutorial looks much better.
nice tut, i really like the lighting
I see way to many “tutorials” here and other places that is press a button here add a value there.
There is no explanation why you should add whatever it is, take this caustic for example, why not explain why you should add it, tell us some more.
I know that people can make a render with and without and see the difference but this is a tutorial, right?
I dont know how much $ you guys get but you guys need to up the information a notch, any body (almost) can make something nice and then just give out the settings.
I just wanna point out that i do not complain about the quality of the end result, just the informaion on how to get there, this is not just pointed to you (Konstantin Muromtsev).
Agree with you. You can’t learn anything just repeating steps without explaination.
I agree that the “why” is both important and interesting. That way there is a learning of the underlying principles of how various functions and values effect the final outcome. I will search the web for an explanation of what adding an object to a buffer does, but it would be very nice to have even a brief description explaining what the various steps are accomplishing.I realize these tuts are FREE: this is just friendly user feedback. thanks for the tut, KM. (thx tuts plus too)
Thnx ! Very nice
Good tips on this tut, Thank you.:)
Very cool
very easy and cool effect .thanks
I thought we were doing previews in youtube now. Cool and useful tut though.
Why c4d user love abtract render, ?
This author love it. We don’t.
I don’t think that you can’t learn anything by “just repeating steps”. If you need an explanation about certain tools or effects you can instantly get it by reading help. But tutorial isn’t a complex help system, it’s some kind of mix of “how to?” and inspiration.
In my humble opinion, by repeating, step-by-step a tut you can only learn how somebody did something.
But not necessary why. In order to really understand a technique the more info …the better.
It´s about sharing knowledge, not procedures.
I enjoyed the tut, but it´s pretty spartan in that way.
bitte sendet mir dieses tutorial als .c4d datei ich will versuchen dieses nachzubauen.
Bin anfänger und sitzte schon seit tagen an diesen tutorial und bekomme dieses nicht so hin.
Bitte an den macher diese tutorial bitte sende mir die cinemar 4d datei
danke discokugel
please send me this tutorial as. c4d file, I will try to recreate it.
I’m beginner, and has been sitting since the tutorial on these days and not get out of this case.
Check with the maker this tutorial please send me the file Cinemar 4d
Thank discokugel
Thanks Konstantin Muromtsev
Simplemente práctico y buen look
Gracias por el aporte…..
saludos desde
BOLIVIA…
hey guys, trying to follow this tutorial, and cant get past step 2? i know this sounds ridiculous, but seriously, as soon as I hit i and the “extrude inner” pops ups in the attributes window its all greyed out and I cant select any of the options ) like preserve groups, maximum angle etc)? so i cant get past this point! any ideas?
lol this is driving me nuts!
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/8620/greyedout.jpg
You need to select “Use Polygon Tool” at the Tools menu (you can just press “Enter”, it’ll change tools)
That’s why you need some explanation over procedures.
This tuto is explained like focused on ppl that already knows how do it.
As example:
Step 1
You need to say something about the segments amount, etc.
Step 3
Press Selection > Set Selection. Then say it why…
Francoe, this tutorial was focused on intermediate users, who are familiar with common techniques in C4D.
Hey guyz.. how can i make the images appear in each step.? nothing really shows. i hv reloaded several times the browser. and checked the settings. nothing is really wrong. i wanna learn this tutorial, but images dont load up..
help pls..
Same, no images are showing for me.
Guys… No images are showing in this tutorial, as well as it is not possible to download the files, I just get an error… When searching the premium library, nothing comes up….? :(
Would it be possible to fix soon? *hoping* :)
Hey Claire,
Sorry about that! and thanks for letting us know. It looks like it was caused by a strange glitch with the image paths (which happens occasionally.) But it should be displaying correctly now.
Hope you enjoy the tutorial :)
Cheers!
Chris
Hi, how i can do for have a far draw distance in edit mode, because for now i only see at 500m maybe less or more, but i don’t see the cylinder in edit mode.