In this tutorial, I show you how to recreate the Discovery Channel Cube Effect that is the main part of a recent Discovery Channel Rebrand made by Royale. I have been trying to figure this out for a while now and I always had trouble controlling the boxes in such an organic, yet specific way. It wasn’t until I started playing with the shader effector that it dawned on me that this was the solution. Anyway, check out the tutorial where I also use a Cloner Object, the Plain Effector, Object Buffers, Ambient Occlusion and Specular Highlights to get this animation ready for composite.
Want to learn more about this technique? Check out this Mograph.NET Discussion about how to achieve this effect. It was while reading this when I finally decided to figure this thing out once and for all. Finally, many of you have mentioned this Russian Tutorial about the same subject. The final render looks good and he has a slightly different solution to the same problem. Which reminds me. There is no right way with motion design. Remember, if it looks right for the final render, then you did it the “right way”. Keep experimenting!
Final Render
Another awesome tut Nick! The possibilities this opens up are amazing. I didn’t know anything about effectors before this. Thanks!
Sir Nick, why I can’t export the *aec file that I’ve made in C4D?
It always says “Unsupported Filetype or Extension”?
need help please..
Sir Nick, why I can’t export the *aec file that I’ve made in C4D?
It always says “Unsupported Filetype or Extension”?
need help please..
Sounds like your Cinema Connect AE plugin is not installed or out of date.
Thanks Nick..
Now I’ve found out what to do..
You’re right, the plugin for exporting *aec file is not installed in my After Effects..
This is awesome, just found this site after being out of the AE thing for a few years, inspires me to get right back into it.
Thanks!
Im still having problems with this .aec file thing. Why did it look like Nick had an .aep file to just click and open up?
i did all the settings right and even tried twice. I only get an .aec, I went to the maxon site but didn’t see any C4D R12 to CS4 so just got the 11.5 to cs3/4. Obviously that has to be my issue right?
I tried going to project open and its greyed out so I cant even select the .aec file and tried file import and it does nothing after clicking the file. Anyone can further help?
C4D R12 & AECS4
BTW, I first went to my C4D R12 exchangeplugins folder and dragged that one, that didn’t work… then I went online to find another one. Just to make sure that part is clear too!
I figured out my problem was that I think I had 2 copies of the C4D plugin, one was in format and one was in the root of plugins. Took the one out the root and blame… it imported. And I made this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-9tw9O3Rq4
I haven’t finished watching the tutorial yet so you or somebody may have already mentioned this but You can apply a sphere falloff to the shader effector, duplicate the effector, and animate the scale and such to have the start of the cube rotation spread out like in the Disney versions.
Hey, when I apply the noise material to the shader, it only manipulates the scale of the cubes, does rotate them… Followed it to a T – although I’m guessing I must have missed something… any help?
- doesn’t rotate them! -
Hi dear Nick.firstly thanks for the nice tutorial…but I have a problem about render output settings…
when I start the render,I can’t see ”Background Layer” in the layer mode.I’ll check my output settings again again…but nothing changed
can you help me please?
greaaaaaaatttttttt..!!! like this!
:D:D
Hey Nick!
First of all thank you for all your tips and tricks for C4D….
Just a question about this tutorial:what about if i need to get the plain effector follow a path imported from illustrator??
I tried to set the shape of the PLAINEFFECTOR falloof in “source”, dragged my AI path into the “source link” but nothing happened : / !!!
I’m sure u have the answer to my problem !!!! please help me !!
Matt from Italy !!!
Nick.. You are my biggest inspiration when it comes to motion graphics. Because of you I’m gonna go back to school and study motion graphics. To get it on paper and hopefully work with it in a couple of years. Thank you so much for teaching me everything, lots of love from Sweden
I always thank you for your tutorial with kind explanation. Good luck with everything you do.
Thanks for the great tutorial! For some spec work i did recently, i found a different way to create the transition effect entirely in cinema 4D. This way, you get real perspective distortions on the textures:
I created the cubes by setting up 6 different clone objects, each with a plane inside. Every clone object makes up one side of the cube – this way, you can map the textures on each side directly in cinema 4d.
http://vimeo.com/23901196
Gorilla, You’re very pro, I made this tutorial step by step following your teachings, and it really seemed like a tutorial with a lot of data, I would say broudcast level.
I have one question and how to solve the
movement of the buckets in the slower rotating, especially at the end, and happened to me
I also saw in your final render example. Discovery seeing there is no such difficulty.
Will have to adjust more precisely the tension between curves? Thanks anyway is a great tutorial.
I appreciate everything you do. Abrazo!
I know my English is very bad!
well here is my try for the whole rebrand stuff its not up to date but i hope someone gives a comment on this one
btw nick i like all you stuff youre doing a great job for us
love and regards
5essenz
Thanks for the teaching moment GSG
http://vimeo.com/27405976
hi nick,my c4d can’t save the file into after effects.pls any advice,cos i can’t finish the part 2 of this tutorial.please.
I have a problem, my cubes seem to be rotating in pairs instead of individually, does anyone know why this is? I’m new to this sort of thing. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/546/rectangle.png/ Thanks
Never mind, I’ve sorted it out.
Hello I would like to ask if you want the video showing the different sizes of boxes which need to C4D how in the production of ideas.
thanks you
Okay, correct me where I’m going wrong, but can’t this be pulled off just with After Effects and a custom card wipe transition? I need to try it out there now instead of trying out Cinema for this.
Great tut Nick. One other option is to have separate cloner objects with varying heights/widths of the cubes so you can get the same kind of randomization as in the reference. Also, I ended up assigning RGB luminance textures to selection sets and rendering out a multimatte pass in order to work non-destructively. Then in AE I just chose the channel I wanted and used that as the alpha matte. Thanks for getting the ball rolling!
When you talked about disconnecting the parts of the cube at 17:30, there actually is an easier way to do it.
While the cube is still parametric, check the “Separate Surfaces” Button. When you make the cube editable, it will come as seperate planes under a null object.
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http://vimeo.com/29437956
my job
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Hi, somebody know why in Cinema 4D R13 Plain Effector not work – i konnot get it to work properly
make sure you place it on the cloner effector
It´s not working with me. Can you help me, please?
OK, I’m really dumb, but I can’t figure this thing out –> whenever I render, the render preview or file always defaults to the view I have of the object–but I want the full size 16:9 view! I’m getting the rectangle at an angle with the black BG. How did you get C4D to render just the cloned cubes you made in its entirety without picking up the space around it?
It seemed like you just resized till the viewer captured the entire thing, and shift-R finished the job, but I’m getting these borders which is the empty space surrounding the object. Help, please! Thanks.
Hi Nick,
Great tutorial, thanks for sharing with the world
I’ve this problem with the Plain Effector, wich is not affecting the shader as it should. Can you help me with that? My version is R13.
Once again thanks a lot.
Anyone know why you can’t “explode segments” in R13…GRRRRRRRRRR
DAMN YOU MAXON!!!! hahahaha
I have the same question bro..
Did you find a reason about explode segments ?
Resolved!
in Mesh-conversation, “polygon the groups to objects”
Not “explode segments”
you’re a genius) thank you!
I can not get the Plain Effector to do anything…. I put it to -90 for the Logo and it will not adjust anything, So I can not get the “orange side” .. Any help appreciated on this lovely thing. Otherwise I will keep truckin on with the tut.
Is there any place i can go to download Ambient Occlusion ? i found a .cof file but no idea where to put it. (if it makes any difference i’m using a mac)
Sounds like you will need to upgrade your C4D.
how can i explode the segments in cinema R13?
please help!!!!
Hi there… I assume that something changed in R13 because the plain effector is not working, doesnt matter where I place it… Any clue on how to fix this?
Cheers
hey Nick… awesome tutorial.. am trying to utilise the technique for a static poster. I am using R13 and I’m stuck at the point of Exploding Segments to create separate faces. R13 doesn’t seem to have that function.. any help would be really appreciated. .. Many thanks
I love this website, so inspirational. I was trying to watch this one and couldn’t because I got the idea to turn this effect into a sound effector, and I got it working. Turned the wall of blocks into an equalizer where they turn and change color in bars to the music. C4D is so cool.