Quick Tip : Modelling and Rendering a Pillow in C4D

In this quick-tip tutorial we’ll be taking a look at the techniques required to model a basic pillow/cushion object in Cinema 4D. After applying a simple material, we’ll then investigate using Maxon’s “Advanced Render” system to add a depth of field (DOF) effect to our final render. For anyone doing arch-vis interiors in C4D this tutorial is a must see!

• Scene Files

Step 1

Create a cube with 760cm x 280cm x 760cm sizes and 50 x 1 x 50 segments.

Step 2

After making your object editable (shortcut “C”) select the “loop selection” tool.

Step 3

Select all of the side faces on the cube object by clicking one of the side polygons.

Step 4

Add the “Cloth” tag to our cube by right-clicking it’s name in the “Objects” tab, and selecting the option shown.

Step 5

After selecting the “Cloth” tag, switch to the “Dresser” Tab and turn on “Dress Mode”. With that done, change the “Relax” and the “Dress-O-matic” step values to 35 and set the “Width” to 5 cm. Then press the “Set” button in the “Seam Polys” row.

Step 6

Now click the “Dress-O-matic” button to have C4D automatically create our basic pillow shape.

Step 7

We now need to go in and delete the “Cloth” tag that we previously added to our object, so select the “Cloth” tag itself and hit backspace on your keyboard.

Step 8

With our pillow selected, go to “Character > Cloth NURBS”. Drag the pillow object onto the “Cloth NURBS” object to create a parent-child relationship.

Step 9

Now create a new material, by going to “File > New Material” in the Materials tab.

Step 10

Click on the color swatch and select a color for your pillow. Click “Ok” to confirm.

Step 11

From the basic options, turn on the “Bump” channel checkbox.

Step 12

With the “Bump” channel options visible, click the “Texture” dropdown arrow, and go to “Surfaces > Simple Noise”.

Step 13

Click on the “Simple Noise” text to access the shader properties.

Step 14

Set the U and V Frequency values to “40″.

Step 15

Click the back button at the top of the material editor to return to our noise settings.

Step 16

Change the “Blur offset” to 1 %.

Step 17

Now drag and drop the new material from the material tab on to the pillow object in the viewport, which will add the tag shown.

Step 18

We now need to create an environment for our pillow, so first create a “Floor” object.

Step 19

Now create a “Sky” object.

Step 20

Open the “Render Settings” window.

Step 21

Click the “Effect” button and add “Global illumination” from the dropdown. Repeat this process to add “Depth of Field”.

Step 22

In the “Depth of Field” settings tab, change the “Blur Strength” to 15%. You can now close the “Render Settings” window.

Step 23

Now’s the time to create a slightly more interesting scene! So create several copies of the “Cloth NURBS” object and arrange them roughly like I have in the image below. You can also create different copies of the pillow material, allowing you to add different colors to each pillow object.

Step 24

Create a “Camera” object.

Step 25

Select the camera, and under the “Depth” tab enable “Front Blur” and “Rear Blur”.

Step 26

Switch to “Right view” (Press F3). We now need to set the focus point. This is done using the square in the centre of the camera cone. Click and drag the middle of the 3 centre points to set your focus point. You can also click and drag the other points to control the blurry areas in your final render.

Step 27

We now need to set our camera as the main scene camera, so go to “Cameras > Scene Cameras > Camera”.

Step 28

Now click the render button to see the final result.

Step 29

After rendering, I apply a basic S-curve to the final image using the curves tool in Photoshop.

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