How To Model and Extrude Dog Tags In Cinema 4D

In this tutorial, I show you how to build realistic Dog Tags in Cinema 4D. First we will model them by using Extrude and Sweep Nurbs. Then, we use Sub-Polygon Displacement to form the lettering on the tags. I will show you how to setup the dynamics using soft and ridged body tags and how to bake the solution for faster playback. Finally, we light and texture the tags to prepare them for render.

Still Example

Animated Example

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237 people have commented on this post. You should too!

  1. Sina says:

    a somewhat* haha now i feel stupid

  2. yoki22 says:

    AWESOME!!
    Thank for your tutorials! Love them. Always.

    Here is mine: http://cs11186.vkontakte.ru/u18082259/138514507/x_b657dbe5.jpg

  3. Magic says:

    Here is mine, http://flic.kr/p/a1oeQt
    I tried to make ww2 style dogtags.

  4. Nemesis says:

    Awesome Tutorial.

  5. Spenser says:

    Very sick, cant wait to try this one. keep up the good work!

  6. Nemesis says:

    hey guys in the dog tag tutorial do you know what color code he is using on the extrude nerb.im using white currently coz i dont know the color code he is using and im not getting the best results [but satisfying ones]

  7. Blago says:

    Thanks for the great tutorial !
    I have only one problem.When i render in picture viewer the chain not appear.
    Can you help me to solve the problem.
    Thank you !

  8. Brandon says:

    This is killing me, the ‘moving mesh’ selection on my softbody control for the taurus isn’t preventing it from tweaking out and splitting from the dog tag. I tried some other stuff and it seems like every time a soft and rigid body interact they won’t stay connected. Does anyone know why this is happening?

  9. Nemesis says:

    this has been bothering me,im at the part where you do all the cloner and stuff and put the chain,when its playing at first its fine,the chain is in the hole of the tag but when it falls on the plane,the chain just goes out of the dog tag..i dont know whats going on?somebody help me please!!!

  10. Steve says:

    Gave it a try myself and wandered from there to find me stuck with the following issue: When I use a shader deformer to deform the surface this gets triangulated with visible faceting, as soon as I uncheck the displacement channel in the material everything is smooth, but without the text displacement off course. I pulled in hypernurbs tec. but to no avail. What is the trick here? Any suggestions?

  11. Bran says:

    Other than the fact that 50% grey is 128 (255 is max). I like to keep as much as I can editable/non-destructive, so in Photoshop I just simply create an outerglow of white (with Normal blending at 100%). You can change the curve to get different style embosses.

    Now the question is here, is doing displacement maps any better than making the actual geometry yourself? Either way you have a dense mesh, just one is actual geometry and one is created during in the renderer.

    Nice tutorial Nick!

  12. Ivan Kander says:

    Thanks, Nick!

    I used the displacement map technique to build this bumper for an upcoming web series.

    http://www.vimeo.com/26271952

  13. Steve says:

    Gave it a try in a still. http://www.flickr.com/photos/58904425@N04/5928260271/in/photostream getting hypernurbs to work with displacement was a “#@#!!^´%@|#!”

  14. victor says:

    quick tip, so you don’t have to redo the dodge and burn effects.
    Make a new layer, fill it with 50% grey (shift F5 by the way) and set it to multiply. you can now do all your dodging and burning on this layer and keep them independent from the original image.

  15. Roc Wieler says:

    DUDE. Thank you. This was my personal request.

  16. Ric Castro says:

    Hello gray scale i am really enjoying your tutorial in cinema 4d, kindly please help me with my problem, i always encountering not enough memory error every time i render, i have 4 gig memory and quadcore processor..

  17. Mumblz says:

    I have been working on this and have it all done but I have one problem, I worked all under the grid so when I render it only shows part, and when I try to move all of the objects at once they move weird and dont stay together. Any ideas on what to do?

  18. Pingback: Study Link. 16 | oinon is CINEMA 4D Technician.

  19. Elmar says:

    Dude ur just amezing i love your tutorials now im gonna try this to bad its video text is easier to follow

  20. Phill says:

    128 isn’t actually 50% grey is it, as that would be 127.5 but you cant add that value in photo shop. Better to convert the image to greyscale and just fill your base layer with 50% Black. That way you don’t have to worry about any bump edges showing.

    Cheers for the tutorials Nick, even seemingly simple things like this I pick up so much stuff I didn’t already know (like the Regular Grid thing on extruded caps, I’d have made it editable and subdivided it. Not as good)

  21. Phill says:

    I’m wondering why you use a torus for the chain, couldn’t you just start off with a circle spline shape, sweep nurb a small circle on it and clone small spheres along it?

    • The Gorilla says:

      Give it a shot, Phill. Let me know if it works. I’m sure there is an easier way to do that chain.

      • Phill says:

        It did work Nick and it looked the business, looked like a proper bathplug chain as I sweep nurbed a little circle along the spline. Animation previewed fine, dynamics worked well. Final movie render all the cloned spheres and the sweep nurb part company. Everytime I save and reopen the dynamics are messed up. But can re-do them exactly the same and they work again. No idea why.

  22. Adam Nix says:

    You don’t have to use Photoshop for this.

    If you use Texture>Effects>Spline, you can do the typography right in C4D. There’s even an option to dynamically smooth out the edges of your type. Obviously you lose the ability to fix kerning and a lot of type layout abilities, but it keeps it in the house.

    • Adam Nix says:

      Also, using “Intensity” instead of “Intensity (Centered)” avoids having to use middle gray as the mid point in your displacement map. “Intensity (Centered)” pulls black in a negative direction and white in a positive, whereas “Intensity” leaves black alone and only pushes out white (or pulls it in if you use a negative height value.)

  23. Jordan Coates says:

    Great tutorial Nick…trying to really get into C4D right now. Taking a C4D bootcamp next month being taught by Chris Schmidt so I want to learn as much as possible before that. here’s my result from this one:

    http://vimeo.com/26912663

    Learned a ton about how motion dynamics works doing this.

  24. Rombout says:

    Dude, i sometimes watch your tuts cause i like watching them. Dont really use c4d cause havent had the time to learn it yet. Do like how you setup lighting etc etc… this time i learned something again… that app default folder x, WAUW f@#kn great app bro thanks

  25. Nesha says:

    http://www.vimeo.com/27293625
    This is what I came up with. Thanks Nick, you are inspiration to all of us out there.
    Rgds,
    Nesha

  26. Mitchell says:

    Thanks for the tut(s)! I’m trying to displace text on another object ( a gold bar) but I’m having trouble with it repeating on other sides. Anyone know a work-around?

  27. CnApTaK says:

    http://i18.fastpic.ru/big/2011/0807/5e/39872c85308d172a39caf71ec858a65e.jpg have a problem. why the chain not rendering? in picture viewer same result. only way i can see it when i make “Render Active window”. any ideas what is wrong with chain or renderer?

  28. federico says:

    my torus kept going through the ground and dont know how to fix that even after what nick said

  29. federico says:

    and also i couldnt get the torus the right settings so that i falls like a chain and get that dramatic effect please help

  30. makosx says:

    Not only of tutorial you will learn, (unless they are those of GSG). You will never forget the ways to select edges!

  31. Joël says:

    hi GSG mine is not working if i add displacment mapping :S

  32. Bryan says:

    Great tutorial! One thing that should be noted is that a realistic vignette is always oval. Just light realistic lighting it’s important to understand why things happen and how to set them up.

    Vignetting happens from your camera’s sensor (whether still or video) catching the edge of the lens optics or hood. It’s out of focus so it looks blurry but it’s nothing more than a picture of the lens itself. Therefore, a vignette is always oval shaped unless your lens is crooked.

  33. Langley says:

    Hi Nick. Love this tutorial and your problem finding the loop tool, very funny.

    I’ve followed this trough but am still getting the issue of the spheres falling through the floor. I’ve tried changing the settings to the rigid tag on the plane and have also messed around with the tag settings on the soft one also. Have you got any suggestions?

  34. Great tut bro , but i got some issues with the chain …. when i do a preview it appears , but when i go to render the chain PUFFF !!! its gone , what did i miss?? anyway all the other stuff worked great :D greetings from México city.

  35. Justus says:

    “Great tut bro , but i got some issues with the chain …. when i do a preview it appears , but when i go to render the chain PUFFF !!! its gone , what did i miss?? anyway all the other stuff worked great :D greetings from México city.”
    I have the exact same problem!
    What am i doing wrong!?

    Greetings from Germany!

  36. Justus says:

    SRY for the 2x Post
    But when i turn off the Camera i can see the chain when rendering, if i use the camera the chain will disappear… But why?

  37. Justus says:

    Omg sry for 3xPost
    I found the Problem.
    You have to have the exact SAME order as Nick has. That means


    DogTag1.1
    DogTag1
    Torus
    Cloner
    Hope i could help!

  38. Maxine says:

    I know it is not the best but this was my first got at cinema 4d, http://i44.tinypic.com/53mzco.png

  39. Barry Watson says:

    Thanks for this tut. Heres a still of my go at it. Its the time of the year that I start thinking about my dad. RIP pops.
    https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ut_UvhSgwEkmIsuX8NTy_NMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

  40. Mike says:

    Great one Nick, thanks a lot! :)

    Usually I want to download your tuts so I can keep them for reference and watch them where and when I need. I’m unable to locate a download button however or an easy way to watch the video on Vimeo so I can choose the download button there (I now copy the tittle, goto vimeo, paste and download) – am I missing something?

    Cheers,
    Mike.

  41. José Alexandre Santana Simoes says:

    Hello i am deaf. good greyscalegorilla 100%

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