Update: Chirs Smith himself sent in a few notes on how some of the more obtuse options work. Thanks Chris!
He says…
Target depth offset is if you are using DOF you can offset the target depth so it may focus on the hood of the car for example even though the car’s axis center is in the middle. So unless you are using DOF, that parameter won’t do anything. I added it when somebody was asking how they can focus on something closer or further than where the target axis was.
seed: The seed to me is actually the coolest part. All of the random functions derive from that seed value. So changing that seed just one number will completely change the performance of the camera. When I use action cam, I’ll loop my scene and “shop” through the different seeds until something really cool happens.
For example, I’ve been working on a spec car spot (and dragging my feet). Actually docucam and actioncam were made for this spot. You’ll see that in the action cam shots, the cam just misses some pylons and does cool moves. I didn’t really choreograph it, i just set the settings in the ballpark and went thru seeds until something really cool happened.
Scenes Rendered with Action Cam…
Here’s the OpenGL render of the offline cut
Download the CSTools Here
Watch all of the CS Tools Tutorials



13 Comments
So, I truly am a beginner to C4D, and I don’t have any plugins yet.
The Action Cam is one, no?
Where can I get it, and are there any others that you recommend?
Look forward to trying this.
Jonathan
Bah, I feel stupid. I looked at the other tutorial…
Derr.
http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/2009/04/10/cinema-4d-tutorial-cs-tools-part-1-3d-stroke/
Links at the bottom of this tutorial Jonathan.
A little off subject, but I just watched “Conform Non Conform” on the creamyorange site and I was blown away. Did you create that in C4D? Nice work however you went about it.
Thanks again for the great tutorials.
Thanks Vince! That was all done in After Effects. Before I learned any 3D.
Can I ask, was that just a matter of creating the thin elongated solids, positioning them in 3D space and then animating their masks?
Sorry to ask here, don’t know where else to post this question.
Thanks.
Vince
Yeah Vince, That was pretty much the technique. You nailed it. Here is the video we have been talking about for reference…
http://www.creamyorange.com/template.php?page=conform
That’s another great post. I’m looking forward to see other CSTools videos. Congrats for your blog and its increasing success. It’s absolutely well deserved. Thanks for spending time spreading some valuable knowledge.
Thx for the tutorial. It really is nice to share some of that great stuff with us.
Maybe some mocca tutorial after those one ?
I really think you should explain why cinema 4d is the best tool out there for motion designer. I did struggled a long time to find a 3d tool that match my needs and my profile.
cheers
Someone was mentioning these tutorials to me at NAB, and I have to say they are awesome. Great work Nick.
Thanks for all these excellent tutorials Nick, and a huge thanks to Chris Smith for these amazing tools as well! Maxon needs to hire him asap! I’d get on the horn to Paul, but Chris already looks like he has a rewarding career going. That Chris makes these available for free is all the more remarkable – cheers.
PS – I’m taking the expresso/TP course at CMIVFX which is dizzying, so I appreciate tools like this all the more now
?Until about three weeks ago I was almost exclusively a stay-at-home mom. ,
hey man, i’ve got two questions…
can you combine an ‘action cam’ with the ‘easycam2′ swapping between them with a ’stage’ object ??
and the other is,when you do an ‘align to spline’ expression to the action camera, can you still get the cam height deviation or..is this a silly question..?
im experimenting with the settings to get a nice walk-through.
by the way, great, great tutorials,..and amazing tools!!! crazy!!