In this tutorial, I will go though the steps in texturing objects in Cinema 4D. I also play with using textures to actually light the scene. I get this specific tutorial request a lot and I decided to just jump in and go though the process without too much set up or goal in mind. With that in mind, let me know what you think.
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these tutorials are just amazing!
It’s strange to see that there is so little amount of good constructive cinema 4d tutorials like this one.
Keep it up nick !
Thanks for this tuto nick. I learned a lot about those shader stuff, Displacement is in my fave-five now! But there is still a big question to me: How to do goodlooking glass in C4D? I tried a lot and everything looked like crap…
Any suggestions?
LOL @ the end I thought you wanna sale some gum…
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Scott, I tried to email you, but it didn’t go through. Here is the answer to your “What screen capture do you use” question…
I use Screenflow to record the tutorials. It does all the capture, editing and export.
After export, i go directly to upload to vimeo.
I will be doing a tut about this soon I swear.
You have inspired me to try out Screen flow. I am using my digital video camera hooked up with fire wire, works great!
Just wondering if there is a microphone you would suggest I use?
I have a lapel mic but screen flow doesn’t pick it up that well.
Cheers!
Thanks for the answer. I didn’t recognize it. I use captavate and some camtasia. Want to get the new camtasia for MAC but must save the pennnies.
again. great tutorial.
gonna mess me up some crap and make more cool crap.
hard drive- check
gum – check
thanks again.
Orbit is the shit, my fav passtime when I’m working is chewin some gum.
Great tutorial too! Thanks GSG!
~Anna
Clicking on HD is taking me to a video not found page on Vimeo. I have checked three other videos on your site and it is doing the same thing on them as well.
Hi,
thank u for another great tutorial. I played around in cinema an used your light setting to play around. finally i came to the point where i was moving things through space.. now my question is: if i animate my stuff, how do i set the light up to get thouse good looking car model materials? Do i need to place seperate lights or is there a simple way to handle that problem?
bye
bastian
Good tips. It’s a good basic overview of the thing ! I personnally would really like to know more in-depth stuff relative to the textures/lighting set ups used in the pro world since it seems to be a BIG part of a good 3D creation.
I love the “workflow way” of showing your stuff ! Nice !
The script you are referring to around 14:30 is imageplane. Theres actually 2 scripts, one that loads into the Color channel and one that loads into the Luminance channel. They’re both awesome and I use them all the time. Another great tip via mograph!
http://mograph.net/board/index.php?showtopic=11634
Use the most recent versions located here:
http://www.kaufeldt3d.com/plugs/
Dude! That is it. Thanks for finding that. I’ll have to install that and use it again. Thanks!
Thanks Nick.
Great stuff!!!
Also in R11 you can raise the gamma of the scene right in the GI settings.
Awesome stuff
Nick, what kind of computer do you record your tuts on? iMac, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro?
I can see you have a lot of HD’s. How much ram does your computer have?
Who cuts your hair?
What’s Chicago like?
What do you want to do when you grow up?
So many questions….
J
I use a Mac Pro 8 core for my tuts.
I have 10GB or ram
Snap Hair cuts my hair. It’s across the street.
Chicago is great when it’s not too hot or cold.
I want to solve problems when I grow up.
hehe
loved it. thanks a bunch. i’m new to c4d and learning a ton from your site.
@illd- try looking into the presets in the content manager. thats a good place to start. they have a whole scene setup.
so there was a recap followed by a critique of the recap followed by a recap of the critique of the recap… well done sir..
great tutorial, learned a lot…
thanks
A couple of quickies for transparency in C4D:
1. Always use refractions. Use 1.33 for water, 2.4 for diamond, 1.4-1.6 for glass.
2. Use fresnel – both in the check box and in the texture, where you should reverse the black-white gradient. Make sure the material is not getting 100% transparent at any point (hardly any material ever will in reality)
3. Try playing with the fresnel mix values.
4. Try tinting with a touch of colour.
5. If you don’t mind much longer render times try playing with dispersion. It will scatter the transparency and add some blur.
Good luck…
Thanks! I´ll give it a try!
Ex-ac-tly what I wanted to see!!! WOW!
Really love the C4D tuts! I’m learning a lot.
Thanks Nick!
Hey,
First a small hint. with the specialized shader, you could open the content manager and it has a bunch of examples for each shader.
Rugged hard drive? did someone buy you?
Orbit…. mmm…. i miss orbit, all we got here is this stupid Extra.
Nice tut. Knew most of the stuff, but might be using the enviroment channel in some complex animations, see what happens.
cheers
Great tutorial, again.
Little idea: give us a little project that has to do with the tutorial (maybe not this one) and then pick out a few and give a few pointers? Like “maybe use less fresnel” or “you should have positioned your camera more like this”.
Could sound like homework – teacher. Dunno.
As always great tutorial,
it’s pleasant to see good tut’s.
What’s interesting in your tut’s is that they are targetting people wants to create thing not become an ingener.
I’ve bought a french dvd to learn C4D and there’s just 3 or 4 things i’ve learned, the rest is not creativ, it’s just basics.
Nothing about MoGraph, nothing about dynamics, nothing about keyframes, render, camera, etc… it’s not good at all.
In few mounths here i’ve learned much more.
So thanks a lot, keep continue your blog,
m-_g
I just wanted to thank you Nick or Gorilla whatever, your tips are very useful. You’re a great tutman. Long life to the Gorilla !
Man if there were videos like this everywhere I wouldn’t have gone to school. Thanks a ton, you’ve made the transition to Cinema4D from Maya really, really easy.
Thanks a lot for these tutorials, I remember you asked for suggestions, could you do like a tutorial on modeling a room with objects. Especially covering texturing?
this was exactly what i wanted to learn. thanks nick!
To adjust the size of the brick pattern, you need to select the material icon from the Objects Manager, and then play with the Tiles X and Tiles Y settings at the attribute manager.
Ahhhh yes. Thanks Petar. I think i learn more in the comments than i do with books.
Thanks again!
best. c4d tut. evar.
thanks! keep them coming!
much thanks man, this is great! much appreciated as i’m a complete novice with c4d.
one issue i’ve got- when rendering the floor light, my entire scene is lit instead of just the area of the floor light/”soft box”(photo: http://i28.tinypic.com/1id9iu.png) – is there a setting i’ve mistakenly checked? any help would be awesome.
Make sure you have your Default Light turned off.
Great tut. Probably a stupid question: how would one make the light planes not appear in the final render but still light the objects?
Try using a “Compositing Tag” and uncheck “Seen By Camera” That should do it. You gave me a good idea for a tutorial. Thanks!
Thank you/’re welcome!
Nice tut NIck. One question though….I mapped an image onto a plane. Followed your alpha directions. All is great. But, how do I get rid of the black color of the plane? I just want my logo that I applied to my plane to show. Not the plane too. Thanks!
Update…I have found that when the logo is standing up I can see through it. The odd part is that it needs to be part of the floor. So I do a -90 so it is laying on the floor. The floor has reflection on it. When I look at the scene rendered I can see the black plain because it is interfering with the reflections. I do not get it.
Nice blog Nick. I like places like this where you can find really useful stuff. Please post something about uv mapping with Cinema 4D or how to animate textures.
Good job man
Hey Nick, thank you for your brilliant tutorials. I laugh my ass off most of the time! I love your natural approach! Those kind of tutorials are the best! You truly are a joy to watch. I’m so glad I found your site. Keep up the good work!
Cheers from Iceland!
Amigo! no sabes cuanto estoy aprendiendo de esto.. recien estoy empezando con cinema (antes usaba maya) y gracias a ti las cosas son mucho mas faciles! un abrazo desde argentina! y de nuevo.. mil gracias!
Can you tell me how to make a “hole” or a “cave” in a solid object in C4d? As if part of a cube had been carved away.
Any tips would be much appreciated! Your tutorials are lifesaving.
A job calls for something that absolutely has to be 3d and I’m totally scrambling trying to learn C4d overnight!
Try using a Boole object or learn how to do basic modeling. Select a polygon and push it back into your object to create a hole.
Thanks a bunch!
Hi Nick.
I am right owning a graphic designing studio for print media. Want to open a Motion graphic department.
Could you guide me in choosing the right tool for MG. I hear lot of stuff about c4d , but I am a max and after effect user from past 4 years and I want to open a motion graphic studio, would want to know, what if I switch to c4d for good after spending 4years with 3ds max.
After seeing lot of MG related stuff done in C4D I am getting tempted to switch but I fear I won’t be able to start my studio with confidence with the new package, it would take a lot of time in learning tool in one hand and using it in a professional manner is a different thing.
I am confused, please advice.
Thks
Awesome tutorial, big ups! One thing, though, as with some video tutorials, try not to make too much slopping sound when talking
hehe. Thanks!
Hey great tut,
ok i just want to add a tip.
you can hide from camera does panels, with a cinema tag that that its named: Compositing Tag. I know its a beginner!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLt-a-lRuC8
Very nice David. I just played with this to see how far away I could make them and still light the objects, it did not work, they need to be close to light things up. But this composite tags works like a charm. And the video reply is great.
is there a maya tutorial on how to do this
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I was able to texture and light the sphere, box, and pill objects fine, but when I tried to use text the reflectivity wouldn’t work with the planes (only with actual C4D lights.
Anyone have any ideas? Is there a difference between textured polygons and the shape objects C4D creates?
your so cool mr. gorilla!!
this was the first tut i saw, thanks for not taking showers, too much coffee, a house full of smoke, cats that are starving and a baby that suddenly needs to sleep a lot… i’m hooked.
Remco
Hi Nick~
Just came across this awesome tutorial and I’m having a helluva time with Material and Render settings in r10. When I turn Reflection off and turn on Environment to load an HDRI or use a gradient as the reflection, I’m still getting the reflection of the planes on my sphere; any idea why this may be happening?
~Michael
Hmmm that is weird. Try posting your scene file to Mograph.net. They may be able to pick it apart.
lmao great recaping, I love it. nice gum and stuff.
great tutorial. I learnt a lot, BAM!
stay in there Nick!
Great tutorial.
Btw, you can drag the imported texture from one option (like Color…) to another (just wait so that it opens the other option)
Great tutorial! But I can’t find the global illumination settings on my render settings! It’s not in the effects either. What seems to be the problem? Thank you!
You have to have the Advanced Render Module.
might be the version you’re using. I’m using R10 and the GI settings aren’t the same. in fact, in the tut when he begins the GI explanation and renders, the light is solely from above. when i use it, i still get light from the camera. haven’t figured out why yet. still working.
maybe i should pay more attention to detail. turning the “auto light” off in ‘options’ of GI works like a charm.
Is there a way to get the same effect without the Advanced Render Module? I’m brand new to C4D, but could you use spot lights and the white planes as virtual bounce cards?
It wont be the same identical look. But you can get close with Area Lights and C4D Lights. My new Lighting Kit will make this REALLY easy as well.
dude.
you are my hero.
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Thanks Nick, this tutorial has really helped me to get started in cinema 4d and understand the program much better.
I have to say thank you, your tutorial saved me from an emergency, i don’t use cinema 4d often and this tutorial was just what i needed, i have a question for you if it is possible: i did the material with reflection that u advice here and it works very good but only on surfaces like spheres or rounded objects, i tried it on an extruded text and it does not work on the plain surface, that is the one i needed to be shiny, do you know if there is some sort of trick to make it working on surfaces like that too?.
Again thank you.
yes it’s working even on extruded text but you have to make that object editable before, shortcut “c”. look at if that’s what you are asking for.
ciao!
http://yfrog.com/0gtextureonextrudedtxtedij
(for nick: always good to recap thing! lol great tutorial)
@kaos: i tried and the result is visible here: http://img362.yfrog.com/i/noreflections.jpg/, as u can see there is no reflection on the front surfaces, i used the same material of the ball that evidently gets riflections on it, the only difference is the color, what can be wrong?
ok i made it, the material has to be on the right object, it was only on the extrusion, that’s why. thx for the tip, i learned something more today!!!
yes right, “make the object editable” or add a null to parent the extrusion with and texture that null.
Yeeeep! it works, thank you very much, the plain surface takes very less riflections of a mere sphere but it is nice to have the solution.
loved the tutorial but the problem comes when I want to animate the scene, how can I make the panels transparet but giving the same ilumination???
thanx
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thankts a lot for ur teaching! In india its very deficult to study c4d. bt im totaly interested for c4d . u r more very helpful to me. u r good teacher.
I’m going to repeat myself over and over, but really: Thanks a lot Nick!
hehe. Thanks for watching, Thomas!
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hey nick, thanx for this very useful tutorial.
i used some tips for a small clip i made using cinema 4d and sony vegas pro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsglZUcG_0Y
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Well, this should be printed and trown from airplanes over major cities.
Just started learning yesterday . This video was a great help. Appreciate the help..
Hey Nick… thanks for this really entertaining tutorial, I can’t open a book ever again to learn c4D. You rock. Your hair is more 3d on your last tutorial compare to in your first. Maybe you could do a tutorial about it. -))
Amazing stuff for all levels, g-thanks
Great tutorial for beginner C4D users like me. Keep ‘em coming Nick!
Orbit.. love it too ^_^
Great weblog here! Also your website rather a lot up very fast! What host are you using? Can I am getting your affiliate link for your host? I want my web site loaded up as quickly as yours lol.
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