Table of Contents

April 2006

Page 3-4 Editors Notes

Page 6-11 Interview with Carlos Agell Sogbe

Page 12 The Quiz - Win the new “Hair DVD”

Page 13-17 Modeling a Penguin by Mark Gmehling

Page 19-21 Cloth Explosion Tutorial by Chris Schmidt

Page 23-27 Projector and Proximal Usage Tutorial by Bram van Gerwen

Page 28-34 Interview with Will Frazier by Tavy Ann Pasieka

Page 35-41 Editor Speeder Upper Tutorial by Rui Batista

Page 42-44 Importing/Exporting Geometry Tutorial by Jamie

Page 45-46 Spotlight on Deschamps Thibaut

Page 47-51 The Gallery - Best of CINEMA 4D

Page 52 Contact Page

 Editor Notes!
Please Read
Hi Attackers!
Boy. have we been busy this past month! So
much to do and so little time. Considering it's
Spring, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by this.
As we all know, Spring brings newness of life, so
it's only right that it would bring new things to 3D
Attack.
Last month we announced that we have been
appointed re-sellers for all Vital Disclosure training
products. Well, now we can add UNITY and
Dosch Design to the list. That's right, now 3D At-
tack are carrying the UNITY game engine and
Dosch Design products in the 3D Attack Shop.
Feel free to visit:
http://www.3dattack.net/shop/index.php
to check out the great stuff available through 3D
Attack.
Also, be sure to register for the 3D Attack New
Letter. By filling out a simple for we can keep you
updated on what's happening with 3D Attack. You
can find this form in the upper right corner of the
3D Attack Shop page
http://www.3dattack.net/shop/index.php.
We love to hear feedback from our readers. If you
would like to leave us some feedback concerning
the magazine, feel free to drop us an e-mail at
3dattack@3dattack.net.
The 3D Attack Team
BETA TESTERS NEEDED
Vue 5 xStream, E-on software's solution for
streamlining Vue integration in production pipe-
lines , is currently in beta tests for LightWave and
Cinema 4D. If you think you can help e-on soft-
ware in the xStream development, join their Ad-
vanced Development program by presenting
yourself and your work to:
beta@e-onsoftware.com
3
GOODIES
All of your goodies for this and previous
issues of 3D Attack - The CINEMA
4D Magazine can be found
here: www.3dattack.net/goodies/
ADVERTISING WITH 3D ATTACK
If you would like to advertise with 3D Attack send
us an e-mail requesting our media kit and rate
card. 3dattack@3dattack.net
REVIEWS
If you would like 3D Attack to evaluate and review
your product, or if you are a member of the press
and would like to evaluate and review the 3D At-
tack line of plug-ins for CINEMA 4D, feel free to
contact Thomas Pasieka at:
3dattack@3dattack.net
Contact Information
3D Attack
158 S. Saginaw St.
Chesaning, Michigan 48616 - USA
E-mail: 3dattack@3dattack.net
TUTORIALS
If you have any questions or comments regarding
the tutorials within the magazine, please feel free
to express them on or CINEMA 4D discussion
forum at www.3dattack.net
CALLING ALL WRITERS
If you have a knack for writing and would be in-
terested in writing tutorials and/or articles for 3D
Attack, feel free to drop us an e-mail at 3dat-
tack@ 3dattack.net net for more information.
DON’T BE A PIRATE! STEALING THIS MAGAZINE LEADS
TO HIGHER PRICES OR IN THE WORST CASE TO DEATH
OF THIS MAGAZINE! THIS MAGAZINE AND ALL IT’S CON-
TENT IS COPYRIGHT PROTECTED. “3D ATTACK” IS A
REGISTERED TRADEMARK.
 Editor Notes!
Please Read

This month we asked the question: 77 People voted this time:

“Do you make a living out of CINEMA 4D”? Professional: 25

Freelancer: 33
Hobbyist: 27

Visit our forum to see the results:

http://www.3dattack.net/forum/showthread.php?t=5179

Professional Freelancer Hobbyist

35.00

26.25

17.50

8.75

Professional 0
Freelancer
Hobbyist

Visit http://www.3dattack.net/forum/showthread.php?t=5360 to vote in this months poll. Question:

What CINEMA 4D Modules do you use?

* To vote you must be a registered forum member of 3D Attack.

4
 Interview with Carlos Agell Sogbe
By Tavy Ann Pasieka

Tavy: Carlos, it’s

a true pleasure to
speak with you
today and bring to
our readers your
beautiful work.
Why don’t we
start with you tell-
ing us a little
about where you
grew up, now live,
and what you do
and so on?

Carlos Agell Sogbe

Carlos: Thank you very much Tavy, for inviting

me. It is an honor to appear in such respected
magazine.

I was born in Caracas, Venezuela at the north of

South America, I graduated as an Architect at the
Universidad Simon Bolivar of Caracas in 1999,
since then I work with my father in our own Archi-
tectural office called “Agell Taller de Arquitectura”,
besides that, I’ve been involved, since a very
young age, in design for theater doing both stage
and graphic design for one of the most known
young theater groups in Caracas called “Skena”.
Much of my 3D works are made to help to visual-
ize projects for my firm, stages and illustration
images for the theater.
Tavy: You’re a highly respected artist Carlos.
Your resume is both extensive and impressive.
How long have you been working as a profes-
sional in the CG/3D Industry and who are some of
your clients?
Carlos: I have been in contact with CG related
applications since I was quite young in the middle
90’s. I started to learn VectorWorks (in the old
days of Minicad+ ) when I was about 17 years old,
and then when I entered the Architecture faculty I
tested a local developed modeling software for
architects called “ArchiDOT”, that then became
“DenebaCAD”. Working on my projects I discov-
ered FormZ, which is a great and very complete
modeler, but with a very complex interface. The
need for better and realistic renderings took me to
CINEMA 4D, which I first started to use to render
my FormZ projects and then became my main
application for 3D creation. At the beginning, CG
was just a tool to support my work in other areas,
but since I started using CINEMA 4D, I started to
produce images just for the need to express per-
sonal ideas and emotions.
Besides my renderings for our architectural office
and for Skena, I work as a freelancer. I run now a
3D Creation studio called Curare 3D Workshop
doing stage design and illustration for other
Groups in Caracas such as National Philharmonic
Orchestra of Venezuela, Rajatabla theater group,
Teatro Infantil Nacional (National Child Theater)
and for TV for important local channels as
Televen, Radio Caracas Televisión and Sony En-
tertainment Television, with production houses like
Alter Producciones, Hermanaxos producciones
and Cinema Concept.

6
 Interview with Carlos Agell Sogbe
By Tavy Ann Pasieka

Tavy: Your image “The Thinker – Retrongutan”

recently donned the cover of the new C4DES
Magazine. I LOVE IT, a robot as The Thinker!
Can you tell us a little about this image? What
was the inspiration behind it? How long did it take
you to complete from start to finish?

Carlos: The Retrongutan is a project I made for

the monthly challenges at the Spanish C4D portal
C4Des.com. In the discussions on the theme for a
challenge, we were choosing between “robots” or
“animals”. Someone suggested that we should
make a hybrid “robot-animal” character, but at the
end “robots” became the people’s choice. But the
idea kept going in my head, so I decided to create
an Orangutan inspired robot; also I decided to
give it a Retro futuristic appearance, which since
then has been an aesthetic constant in most of
my works.

This first robot was made in three weeks and won

the challenge at the portal. Months later, the first
Meeting of Spanish users of C4D were organized
and as a part of the event there was a contest of
the best images created by the members of
C4Des. I had the idea of modifying the original
robot and posing it as the Rodin’s Thinker and this
was the perfect occasion to do it. It took me about
two more weeks since the original model wasn’t
made to be poseable and I wanted to improve the contrast between the Machine (and a monkey) in
materials and the lighting setup. The idea of the such human attitude (and such a stereotypical

7
 Interview with Carlos Agell Sogbe
By Tavy Ann Pasieka

image) seduces me a lot. I also decided to put it

in a Photo Studio-like setup to increase the con-
trast. The image won again the prize for the Best
Miscellaneous theme at the reunion in Madrid.

Tavy: C4DES Magazine….I recently took the

time to give this new magazine a look through.
Although my Spanish is quite rough, I was very
impressed with the design, layout, content etc.
Are you personally involved with this project? Will
we see future issues?

Carlos: C4Des Magazine is a project that has

been cooking at the portal for a long time. Thanks
to people such as Ismael Faro, the main force
behind C4Des, Albert Alajarin (AlberAB) as an
Tavy: Carlos, your portfolio is fabulous! It’s obvi-
enthusiastic moderator of C4Des and Fran Pérez
ous to the trained and untrained eye alike that you
Frutos (DigiFran) as the man behind all the
take much care in all of your work. If you could
graphic work for the publication, and a growing
pick one image you’ve created as your favorite,
group of collaborators at the portal, the dream
which would it be and why?
became a reality.
Carlos: That’s a hard one for me. It’s like asking
I have been involved in the project as a collabora-
a child, “Who do you love more, your mom or your
tor. I do the “Critic” section of the publication, and
dad?” Very difficult to answer. Each project has
I hope to write some tutorials on procedural shad-
been great in its respective time and brings good
ers, which is one of my favorite subjects in C4D,
memories on its process. I could choose the Ret-
for the next issues. The magazine is planned to
rongutan since it was a kind of inflexion in my ca-
be a seasonal publication (4 issues per year). The
reer. It helped me to define an aesthetic quest on
first one was the Spring Issue, and we are work-
my personal work, reflects a mature level in my
ing now on the Summer Issue. We hope it’s going
modeling skills of industrial objects and control of
to be even better and bigger than the first one.
lighting. It is also one of my most known images
We are very happy for how well it has been re-
in the C4D community
ceived by the C4D community.
Tavy: With all of the available 3D Applications on
the market, why have you chosen to work with
CINEMA 4D?

Carlos: I remember the days when I was looking

for a more robust rendering engine for my pro-
jects. I saw some images made by Carles Piles
and I found out that he created it in CINEMA 4D. I
also discovered that Carles and his friend Ismael
run a Spanish forum and answer the beginners
questions themselves. So I decided to give it a go
and I discovered a 3D software with a highly intui-
tive interface, which is actually fun to use, but also
being extremely professional; the ability the pro-
duce awesome renderings in no time still amazes
me. One of the strong points and my favorite sub-

8
 Interview with Carlos Agell Sogbe
By Tavy Ann Pasieka
ject in CINEMA is its material creation interface.
It’s simple, well organized and powerful. The idea
that you can produce almost any material with
procedural mathematical calculations with no
need of bitmaps it’s amazing.
Tavy: What are your thoughts on the new Mo-
Graph Module? Is this something that you will be
adding to your arsenal of weapons?
Carlos: Although I would like to expand my skills
on animation in the near future, my work is most
related to static images (architecture, stage de-
sign, and illustration), so MoGraph is not one of
my immediate priorities at the moment. However, I
love Jenna and the power it gives, and after I’ve
been seen lots of tests of MoGraph and see that it
has like ten times the possibilities and control of
Jenna, it is certainly a tool that I will try in the not
so distant future.
9
Tavy: You are living in South America, Venezuela
to be exact. Is CINEMA 4D a prominent 3D Ap-
plication in the lower half of the Americas? Do
you see it growing in professional use in your part
of the world?
Carlos: Although Venezuelan people are known
for being very technologically oriented, in the CG
Field we are quite old fashioned. Most people
uses 3DSMax since it’s the standard for CG Crea-
tion as AutoCad is for cadd drawing. But in the
last years CINEMA 4D has grown strongly among
the new generation of artists, particularly in the
architecture field.
I have close contact with the Cadd Lab of Archi-
tecture Faculty at the Universidad Central de
Venezuela (the oldest and most important Archi-
tecture School in our country) and CINEMA has
became more and more the software of choice of
the students that start to produce CG images for
its projects. Probably for the easy learning curve
and its professional looking render.
Tavy: If you could pick one thing that MAXON
could implement in CINEMA 4D that would help to
enhance your work flow, what would it be and
why?
Carlos: I would love it if MAXON would develop
a set of tools specifically for Architecture model-
ing. Including procedural elements such Stairs,
 Interview with Carlos Agell Sogbe
By Tavy Ann Pasieka
Windows, Doors, roof structures, roof tiles, etc.
Also, a visual snap interface similar to Cadd
packages as VectorWorks would be great. Much
of these functions are possible through third party
plug-ins, but I would like to see a single complete
solution by MAXON well integrated into the CIN-
EMA 4D interface.
Tavy: Are you currently working on any projects
you tell us a bit about?
Carlos: I’m now working on a stage design for a
new television show for Sony Entertainment Tele-
vision, where CINEMA 4D has played a decisive
role in the way I show my work to the production
10
staff. The ability to generate convincing images in
a short time with materials and lighting has im-
proved the workflow a lot.
I am also working on a project to develop a set of
procedural shaders based on all the knowledge
I’ve acquired in all these years oriented towards
architecture, interior and industrial design users. I
am planning to finish it for the third quarter of this
year.
Tavy: Thanks so much for taking some time for
3D Attack and our readers. It’s always entertain-
ing and informative to get to know the Artists
working in the CINEMA 4D Community. We are
 Interview with Carlos Agell Sogbe
By Tavy Ann Pasieka

looking forward to seeing more of you and your

great work. Do you have any last words for our
readers?

Carlos: It’s been a pleasure to share some of

my passion with you and all the readers of 3D
Attack. I like to finish the interview with a reflec-
tion: The most advanced rendering engine is still
your eye and your brain. A great rendering al-
ways starts by a different look tat the world
around us.

I would like to thank all of the 3D Attack for giving

me this opportunity and for all the support of the
C4D community around the globe.

Cheers,

Carlos

You can find more works on my website:

http://homepage.mac.com/agell

Or in my CGTalk portfolio:
http://curaremac.cgsociety.org/gallery

11
 Penguin With Rubber Glove Hat Tutorial
By Mark Gmehling
Hi there Attackers. In this tutorial I'd like to show
you some beginners modeling and texturing stuff.
Next to that we'll have a look at some more ad-
vanced Mocca soft IK features in the second part
of this tutorial in the next magazine.
Last month Thomas Pasieka asked me to do a
penguin-modeling tutorial. While surfing the web,
to have a look at reference images, I remembered
the penguin from Wallace & Gromits "The Wrong
Trouser"- A simple but very charming character.
I'm assuming you know the last work of Aardman
Animation Studios- the Oscar winning "Curse of
the Were-Rabbit" If you don't know the older Wal-
lace & Gromit shorts, I recommend you watch
them- you'll surely like it. A scene I liked very
much in their "The Wrong Trouser" movie was
when the penguin was disguised as a chicken by
dropping a rubber glove on his head. In this issue
I'll show the modeling and texturing part and a
little scene setup and in the next issue we will
have a look on a simple rigging setup using
mocca soft IK to make the rubber glove fingers
jiggle around when the penguin moves his head.
So here is a short brief of what I will be covering:
I. Modeling: (Block-) Modeling a penguin dis-
guised as a chicken out of primitives.
II. Texturing: Setting up some shaders.
III. Lighting: Setting up a simple environment-
scene.
Next magazine/issue:
IV.Rigging: The penguin’s head and especially his
rubber hat get some bones.
V.Animation: Setting some key frames to check
the soft IK behavior and make his eyes blink.
I.Modeling:
The penguin’s body is built out of a hexahedron
sphere set to 12 segments. I make it editable(C)
and drop a FFD Lattice deformer in it to adjust the
shape to my liking by tweaking the lattice points
with the rectangle selection tool (make sure you
disabled "select visible only in its attributes). No-
tice that you have to switch to point mode and the
lattice deformer needs to be selected in the object
13
manager. This way I'm able to get an even egg
shape very fast- I right click on the sphere-mesh
and choose "current state to object" from the pop-
up menu. A copy of the sphere is created and I
can get rid of the origin sphere with the lattice de-
former by selecting it and pressing backspace or
delete. PIC_01
Now I switch to top view (F2) and adjust the top
row of points to a more circular flow because I
01
want to extrude the penguin's neck out of these
polys. For this I use the "glide tool"(M~O) instead
of just moving (E) it, because it moves the points
following the meshes surface and this way I don't
destroy the even mesh topology. If you don't own
Rel.9 you won't find the glide tool in your structure
menu. Just move (E) the points in place. It's not
that important in this case.
Now I switch to polymode and live-select the four
top polys and extrude (D) them slightly. In the co-
ordinates manager I set the y-size to 0 to align the
selected polys and do a second extrusion (D) that
defines the neck-length. With the knife (K) in loop
mode I subdivide the neck further to define the
areas I need to extrude the bill and to model the
rubber glove. Take a look to PIC_02 to see where
I cut the mesh.
To model the bill I change to front-view (F4)- live
select the two polys shown in PIC_03 and extrude
(D) these- by using the scale-tool (T). I shrink
them to define the bills tip and set the z-size of
the two extruded polys to 0 in the coordinates
manager's size field. To sharpen the edge from
head to bill I use the knife tool (K) in loop mode
and insert a loop at the bills origin (Notice that you
 Penguin With Rubber Glove Hat Tutorial
By Mark Gmehling
02
have to be in point mode to do this without having
the area selected where you want to do a cut!). In
side-view (F3) I move (E) the bills-origin-points to
my liking. To check the rounded geometry I alt-
click a hypernurbs object (Alt-clicking makes the
actually selected object child of the object you alt-
click). PIC_03
03
To add the glove to the head I first move the top
of the mesh higher by selecting the top points and
move (E) them up. After that I add two cuts with
the knife tool (K) in loop mode. After I added the
first loop-cut I select the row of inserted points
and set their y-size to 0 in the coordinates man-
agers y-size field to get a perfect horizontal loop.
The second cut I add is quite horizontal. In poly-
mode I loop-select the inserted row of polys and
extrude (D) the fold of the rubber glove with two
extrusions to evoke a sharp fold. PIC_04
Now I add a loop above the gloves fold by using
the knife tool (K) in loop mode. To model the rub-
ber glove fingers I live select the two polys you
see in PIC_05 and extrude them inner (I) slightly,
move (E) the new created polys forward a little bit
14
04
and extrude (D) them to define the length of the
first rubber finger (I need to scale (T) the tip
smaller). To tweak the main shape I mainly work
in side view (F3)- using the rectangle selection
and the knife-tool (K) to subdivide the four ex-
truded shapes. To fine-tune the finger I use the
move tool (E) to tweak the points. I use the same
procedure to create the other three fingers- Check
PIC_05 to see what I've done. (You may notice
05
that I only tweak the right half of the mesh. That's
because I delete the left half later and use a
symmetry object to bring back perfect symmetry)
When I have finished all the modeling that has to
be done around the character's middle axis I de-
lete half of the sphere-mesh and drop it in a
symmetry object by alt-clicking on the symmetry
object. This brings back perfect symmetry that I
missed in some parts where I tweaked the points
by hand.
In perspective view (F1) I live-select the polys
shown in PIC_06 and extrude them inner (I).
Again I use the glide tool to tweak the rectangular
shape of the points into a more circular one.
Then I extrude (D) the polys three times to define
 Penguin With Rubber Glove Hat Tutorial
By Mark Gmehling

the leg area. After the first extrusion I set the

polys y-size to 0. The feet are extruded (D) by
selecting the three polys facing in direction +z- 08
axis and extruding them two times. After the first
slight extrusion I set the z-size of the selected
polys in the coordinates manager to 0. The sec-
ond extrusion is a bigger one to define the feet
length. Then I tweak the points by moving them in
place to get a triangular foot-shape. In side view
(F3) I add a loop to sharpen the sole of the foot
using the knife tool in loop mode. Furthermore, I
add one more loop at the feet ankle area to define
Before the body-modeling process can be called
a sharper transition from leg to foot. PIC_06/
finished, I insert some loops to optimize the mesh
PIC_07
for bone-deformation. The knee and elbow area
need three loops, the origin of arms and legs
need three loops, and the rubber glove-fingers
need more loops to ensure a smooth deformation-
06 Take a look at PIC_09 to check where I added
additional loops.

09

07

The eyes are just added by placing a

hexahedron-sphere with 9 segments in the right
place. After creation I scale (T) it smaller and de-
crease the z-size via the coordinate manager or
usage of the scale tool.

II.Texturing:

The last part that needs to be modeled are the
wings or let's say arms. It's quite the same proc-
ess I did with the feet. I select the polys shown in
PIC_06 and extrude them inner (I) to define the
arm origin. Then I extrude them (D) to define the
arm length and finally I use the knife tool in loop
mode to subdivide the shape in order to have
some points I can tweak to get an arm shape that
I like. PIC_08
Before I setup the materials and the poly selec-
tions I need to assign different materials to one
mesh so I make the symmetry object editable.
Now I setup some materials for the penguin. Be-
cause the penguin mainly is one mesh, except of
the eyes, I set up polygon-selections for the bill,
feet, torso-area and rubber-glove-head to assign
different shaders later:

15
 Penguin With Rubber Glove Hat Tutorial
By Mark Gmehling

To do this efficiently I use the loop selection (if you

don't own Rel.9 just live select the polys shown)
and select the bottom poly-row of the rubber 12
gloves shape and then go to Selection-Fill selec-
tion and click above in the rubber glove area. Now
I choose Selection- Set selection- and name the
selection tag-"rubber glove"-PIC_10. I add three
more poly selections using the same procedure.
One for the feet, one for the torso material and
one for the bill. Take a look at PIC_11.

10

13

11 the bill I create a new material using color, envi-

ronment, bump and specular channel. You'll find
the environment jpg I use to evoke reflections in
this tutorial's tex folder. Check PIC_13 and
PIC_14 for the settings.

Notice that you've got to assign it two times to be

able to drag the selection tag into each or you
have to create one selection tag for feet and bill

Now I create a new material- name it: "PENGUIN"

and assign it to the mesh by dragging it onto the
14
geometry in editor view or onto the object in the
object manager. I only use the color and bump
channel- take a look at PIC_12 for the settings.
This is the main penguin material. Next I create
the torso material by ctrl-dragging the first one
inside the material window to create a copy-
name it "BAUCH" and just change the color chan-
nel. Take a look at PIC_13 for the color settings. I
drag this material onto the penguin object too-
select the selection tag and in its attributes I drag together. For the rubber glove I assign a quite
the TORSO selection tag in the selection field of similar material: In the color channel a Fresnel
the material. When you render you'll see both ma- shader with a gradient from light rose to a me-
terials assigned to the penguin. For the feet and dium red. In the environment channel I place the

16
 Penguin With Rubber Glove Hat Tutorial
By Mark Gmehling
testlow jpg you'll find in this tuts tex folder (good-
ies) set to 20% mixed strength - finally the specu-
lar channel with width:50%, height:72%,
falloff:-22% and inner width:28%.
To the eyes I assign the black penguin material. I
ctrl-drag a copy of it and disable the bump chan-
nel. This material acts as "closed eye"-state. For
the open eyes I create another copy - name it
openeyes and use the environment channel and
the specular channel. In the second part of this
tutorial, in the next issue, I'll use these two eye
materials to animate blinking eyes.
III.Lighting:
For setting up a scene I create a disc object act-
ing as floor to catch some shadows and a back-
ground object with a gradient material assigned to
act as a sky. The lighting setup consists of a light
dome -faking radiosity and a target light only re-
sponsible for shadows.
To build the light dome I use the Lumen plug-in
here, but for the simple effect needed in this case
the free Lumen Lite plug-in
http://www.3dattack.net/shop/index.php?plugin=2,
or the free Place on Points plug will do a perfect
job too. Take a look at PIC_15 to check the scene
setup:
15
I created a background object, a target light and a
disc object. To the background object I assigned a
new material name it "HINTERGRUND" and place
a gradient in the color channel. Just use two col-
ors you like acting as sky. To the disc I assign a
17
new material too- call it "SNOW" and use 100%
white in the color channel, place the ambient oc-
clusion shader in the diffusion channel, set the
reflection channel to 50%, add a naki-noise with
1000% global size in the bump channel and finally
add a 2D circular gradient in the alpha channel to
get a nice transition between floor and back-
ground object. Just check the
PENGUIN_PART_1.c4d file found in the goodies
folder for this tutorial if my explanation about the
materials were too short here.
For the lighting I create a 24 segments icosahe-
dron sphere- make it child of a Lumen object
(found in the plugins under 3d Attack- if you don't
have it just download Lumen Lite here:
http://www.3dattack.net/shop/index.php?plugin=2
from the 3D Attack shop site) and create a omni
light set too 2% intensity. The omni needs to be
child of the Lumen object too and voila! The
scene is lightened well when you render. For
shadows I place the target spotlight I created be-
fore to my liking and enable shadow catcher in
the details tab of this light's attributes. I hope my
explanations were understandable for beginners
and you had fun following the tut. Check the
penguin_blink.avi in the goodies folder to see
what I want to show in the next issue. If you have
questions, don't hesitate to ask via the 3D Attack
forum or private message.
CU on board and Keep Attacking - Mark
 Cloth Explosion
By Chris Schmidt aka Kico

Explode, shatter, and break. Destroy and Polygo-

nal objects with physics and collision detection
using only the built-in tools of C4D 9.5 and
MOCCA! 01

Ever since I started doing 3D, I've wanted to ex-

plode the things I've created, because of the low
quality of my models, and because, well it's awful
fun to see something explode. One of the favorite
tools of my students is always the explosion de-
former. It's sometimes hard to get them to stop
playing with it once they have started. Over the
years my models have improved a lot, but my
ability to break them hasn't changed all that much.
Anything with a flare took forever to set up and
usually needed a lot of key framing and particles.

That is until one late night when I stumbled across

a quick way to destroy any object with gravity,
wind, collision detection and all manner physics.
In this tutorial I am going to explode a sphere (but
any polygonal object will do). After it explodes and
falls to the ground, I'll have a strong wind blow the
pieces away.
To start things off, I'm going to create Platonic
primitive. In the Attributes manager I'm going to
change the Platonic ‘Type’ to 'Bucky' because it's
a shape I rarely get a chance to use. In order to
get a more random looking explosion, I'm going to
make the Platonic editable and use the knife tool
to slice it up into interesting looking bits. Because
I want it to look random, I can slice it quickly mak-
ing sure I hit the Platonic from all angles. (Pic001)
After slicing up the Platonic I create an 'Explosion
FX' from the deformers menu. I place the Explo-
sion FX as a child of the Platonic. Also, at this
time, I am going to make a 'HyperNURBS Object'
and make the Platonic a child of it.
This is so we can see where the breaks are hap-
pening. As you may know the Explosion FX de-
former makes an object break rather nicely, but
there are no physics built into it. I am using the
Explosion FX as a way of quickly breaking up the
object into pieces, and at the same time giving the
piece thickness. I have to be careful during this
step. Here there is specific parameters set that I
am not going to be able to undo once I'm done.
There are a lot of parameters to change. My goal
is to break apart the object, but have all the
pieces stay in exactly the same spot so that it
doesn't look broken up. As I change the parame-
ters I can see how and where my pieces are
thanks to the HyperHURB object rounding out
individual bits. (It will be helpful at times to turn on
and off the HyperNURB object to see how the
Platonic is being affected.)
Now to the parameters; In the Attributes Manager
for the Explosion FX (first tab), all I need to worry
about is the 'Explosion' tab. I set 'Strength' and
'Blast Time' both to .001, the smallest number
C4D allows. 'Blast Speed' should be set to 0. Next
is 'Blast Range', this parameter is important be-
cause it needs to be large enough to encompass
the entire object we are exploding. It is repre-
sented in the view port as the red sphere of the
Explosion FX. So whatever size fits my object is
what I will go with. Leaving it at 200 works for the
Platonic.
Next up is the 'Cluster' tab. Here I will set the
'Thickness' to whatever thickness I want the bits
of my explosion to have. Again, whatever works
for the object I am working with. Glass might be
very thin. A rock would be a lot thicker. I set my
'Thickness' here to 20. 'Density' I set to 0. The
more important parameters are 'Min Polys' and
'Max Polys'. Here is the place where our Hy-

19
 Cloth Explosion
By Chris Schmidt aka Kico
perNURB comes in handy, the Min and Max will
determine the size of the pieces of my exploding
Platonic. I set 'Min Polys' to 2 and 'Max Polys' to
12 so there is a decent range in the size of the
bits.
Then comes the 'Gravity', 'Rotation', and “Special'
tabs. Here I set every parameter to 0 that isn't
already. Any parameter that doesn't help me, I set
to 0 so there is less chance of oddities showing
up later. * Pic002 (tall one on the left), for this
whole past part*
Okay Dokie, now that I've got
the Explosion FX figured out.
I pull out the Platonic from
the HyperNURBS. The Hy-
perNURBS can be deleted.
Now the Platonic doesn't
look broken, but I know it is.
*Pic003*
I right-click on 'Platonic' in
the Object Manager and do a
'Current State to Object'. In
the Object Manager I see a
second Platonic appear. At
this point I like to 'hide' the
old Platonic, so if I decide I
want to go back to that step I
can without having to redo all
the work I did already.
Excellent! I now have my
Platonic all ready to blow up.
But I still need a floor for it to
collide with, and maybe an-
other object in the scene to
show a little extra collision
detection. I move my Platonic
a bit higher, maybe around
150 on the Y Axis.
Then I create a 'Plane' object. Only parameters I
change on the Plane is the 'Width' and 'Height'
both from 400 to 4000 so there is enough room to
catch the bits. Then I create a 'Cube' and move it
up 100 on the Y Axis and -250 on the Z Axis so it's
above the Plane and not intersecting with the Pla-
tonic.
20
03
Alrighty... now that all the objects are in place, we
can start to set up the simulation. I make both the
'Cube' and the 'Plane' objects editable. Next, from
the 'Clothilde Tag' drop down I put a 'Collider' tag
on both the Plane and the Cube, default settings
work for now. Then on the 'Platonic' object I put
from the 'Clothilde Tag' drop down a 'Cloth' tag.
There are a lot of different parameters in the Cloth
tag, and depending on what type of object I am
exploding changes the parameters I'd use. To
keep it simple, the only parameter I'm going to
change in the 'Tag' tab is the 'Stiffness'. In theory
I'd max this parameter out, but anything above a
few hundred really starts to get choppy. For now
I'm going to set it 300%. Later I could increase it if
needed.
Here we go... what really drives the explosion.
Under the 'Object' menu in the particle drop down,
I create an 'Attractor'. In the Attribute Manager
under the 'Object' tab I change the 'Strength' to
-6000 to really give it a bit of oomphf. Under the
'Shape' tab, I change 'Shape' from 'Cube' to
'Sphere'. Next I take the Attractor and Move it up
150 on the Y-axis, to the same place the Platonic
is. Select the Cloth tag, and under the 'Expert'
Tag, drag and drop the Attractor into the 'Include'
parameter.
This is really the meat of this tutorial. Everything
else is really just playing with same engine and
making it a bit fancier. I can at this point hit play,
and see the Platonic fly apart. Parts will strike the
Cube and all the bits will fall to the Plane thanks
 Cloth Explosion
By Chris Schmidt aka Kico

to the built in gravity in the Cloth Tag. (Pic004)
Now let's blow the bits with some wind. First thing,
we need more time to work with on the timeline,
so I hit Ctrl-D to open up 'Project Settings' and
increase the 'Maximum' to 300. There are two
ways I could make wind.
One would be to make a 'Wind' object from the
Emitter drop down menu in a very similar fashion
to the attractor I used. The way I will do it now will
be to use the built-in wind of the Cloth Tag. The
setting for the wind will be set under the 'Forces'
tab.
After having made similar explosions a few times,
I find it's very quick to set up. There is a lot of
room for variation and new ideas, so the key is to
play around with it.
A useful trick is to use 'Calculate Cache' so your
explosion will play back close to real time.
Hope you all find this tutorial helpful and fun, it's
been both for me!
Chris Schmidt (Kico)

I change the 'Wind Direction .Z' to (-1) so that it

blows toward the box. Then at about the time the
bits settle, frame 79 for me, I record a key frame
on 'Wind Strength' at 0. This is so that my gust of
wind hasn't started yet.

Then on the next frame (frame 80) I record an-

other key frame at 2. At the frame of 80 my wind
will begin blowing all the fragmented bits across
the Plane, a few even bump the cube.

For a bit more flavor, I increase the 'Wind Turbu-

lence Strength' to 1 and the 'Wind Turbulence
Speed' to 2.

21
 Projector & Proximal Usage
By Bram van Gerwen
This tutorial will show you how to use the Projec-
tor and Proximal effect in a simple scene. The
goal is to learn how these effects can be used in
an actual scene. So we'll take it a bit further than
the manual explanation.
Using the Projector Effect
The Projector effect purpose is to be able to use
different forms of texture projection within one
material. Let's see how we can put that to use in a
scene. Open the 'VaseStart.c4d' file to begin.
I've created a vase on which we are going to put
different textures with the Projector effect. Click
the Vase material and load a Projector into the
texture field. Click on the projector name or the
preview to enter its properties. Again we see an
empty texture field, load a Tiles shader into the
projector here. Set the Projection of this projector
to Spherical. You'll notice that all these properties
are exactly the same as in a normal texture tag
23
except for the added position controls to compen-
sate for the lacking visual.
That means that a problem with the Projector ef-
fect is that you can't see a visual representation of
the projection like you would with any other tex-
ture. To keep track of your projections you need to
make some notes of the dimensions of our object.
This way we won't need to see a preview as you
can just enter these numbers into the projection
dimensions.
You can get the number of your object by select-
ing the parent object, in this case the Hy-
perNURBS object of the vase and setting the
Scale/Size field in the coordinates manager to
'Size +'. This is just general advice when using
the Projector, at the moment we won't be applying
a projection that needs any of these numbers.
To determine where the middle point of our pro-
jections are we'll use a simple plane. Create a
Plane object and rename it to something like
 Projector & Proximal Usage
By Bram van Gerwen

'Height Gauge'. Now when we need to know Projector into the texture field, name it 'Reflection
where the centre point of a projection needs to be Projector'. We're going to use another Tiles
simply move the plane to the desired height and shader to get our reflective properties. Now is
copy its Y value to the projection properties. when the projector begins to show its use.

Back to the Tiles shader, go into its properties and We could have done the previous circles by just
set the Pattern to 'Circles 1', we want the round creating a tiles material and dropping that on our
lower part of the vase to display circles. Set the vase and giving the texture tag spherical projec-
colors 1,2 and 3 to some nice variation of orange tion. But then any reflection pattern we put in the
and yellow and enable 'Randomize Color'. reflection channel would also be wrapped around
this sphere projection, which is not what we want.
We set the projector for this tiles shader to Name the projector in the reflection channel 'Re-
Spherical earlier, which would be logical as the flection Projector'. We want our tiles pattern to be
underside is a near sphere. Now we need to know equally distributed along the length of the vase,
the middle point of that so set the Projection to
near sphere to let our Cylindrical. Now enter
spherical projection fall the tiles shader you just
as much into place as loaded and set its Pat-
possible, move the tern to 'Waves 2', set its
gauge plane to ap- 1,2 and 3 colors to
proximately the middle white and light greys
of the round part. The and enable 'Randomize
middle is somewhere Color'. Of course in the
around -88 in my case, reflection channel black
it doesn't have to be means non-reflective
precise. and white means fully-
reflective.
If you make a quick
render now you'll no- So now we'll get vari-
tice the circles con- able reflective waves
verging at the neck. separated by non-
Which means that the reflective lines, to make
our spherical projection the lines a bit thicker
is nicely set at the 0 change the Bevel Width
location. We just de- to 48 percent. When we
termined the middle of make a quick render
the round part is -88, so we need to set the Y po- now we can see the effect mapping correctly
sition of the projector to -88. So get back to the along the vase with cylindrical projection, but it
projector properties end set the second Position looks a bit vague and scaled-up.
field to -88, this field represents the Y-axis. If you
render now you'll notice the circles falling correctly To make our reflection waves a bit smaller and
around the round part, but they are still a bit too crisp change the middle Size field in the reflection
stretched. We can fix this easily by setting the projector settings to 50 percent. This will squash
Tiles X to 3 and the Tiles Y to 2. The circles look the texture creating more lines.
much better now. Lastly go into the Basic tab of
the projector and name it 'Circles Projector'. Let's finish off the Projector chapter by giving it a
nice bump map, applied withy Cubic projection.
Now let's create some nice reflective properties. You guessed it right, load a Projector into the
Enable the Reflection channel in the basic proper- Bump channel but this time put a Noise shader
ties of the material. In the Reflection tab load a into the projector, name the projector 'Bump Pro-

24
 Projector & Proximal Usage
By Bram van Gerwen
jector'. Try to make a habit of giving shaders and
textures specific names, it will make you life a lot
easier in complex scenes or when animating the
shaders.
Set the noise type to Cell Noise and set its Global
Scale to 200 percent. That's enough for the noise,
now go back to the bump Projector settings and
set its Projection to Cubic if you haven't already
done so. Now lastly in the Bump tab set its
strength to 100 percent to make it well visible.
When you render now you can see our square
bumps being neatly distributed over the entire
mode, disregarding the other projections. Of
course this vase is just a quick example of the
projector usage, its up to you to make something
good using this technique. For reference check
out the 'VaseFinished.c4d' file.
Using the Proximal Effect.
The proximal effect is of importance when we
want to influence a color or transparency depend-
ent on the distance from another object. For in-
stance we can have a material change color right
at the place where an object passes through it
while maintaining the original color on the rest of
the texture. Or you can use a spline on a texture
to give it a transparent band exactly where the
spline is. Or use the spline to limit a bump map on
the texture.
I sometimes see questions on forums on how to
apply the proximal effect so I decided to show you
two easy ways to use it, one with objects and one
with a spline.
Let's start with applying it using an object. Open
the 'ProximalStart.c4d' file to begin. I've created a
simple scene with a plane and three cubes mov-
ing through the plane. We're going to add a
Proximal effect to the material on the plane so it
reacts in different ways to the objects passing
through it.
The first thing we want to happen is that when the
Color object passes through the plane the mate-
rial should change color with it. Click the 'Proximal
25
Plane' material, go to the Color channel and load
a Layer shader into the Texture field. We need a
layer shader to put a color under the proximal ef-
fect first, else we'll only see black.
So add a Color shader as the first layer, make the
color green. Then add a Proximal effect above the
color shader.
Set the blend mode of the Proximal effect to Dif-
ference, that way when the object interacts with
the plane the green will be inverted and match the
purple on the cube. Now click on the small pre-
view picture of the proximal layer to enter its
properties.
You can see that the objects field is still empty
and so the color proximal effect will react to noth-
ing. Drag the Color Cube object from the objects
manager into this field and enable the Use Edges
option.
The proximal effect will now use the objects
edges to calculate the distance from the proximal
to the object. Then set the Blend Mode to Lighten,
this will make sure that the fade from green to
purple will be soft instead of hard.
Make a render around frame 120 and you can
see the proximal effect change the color. It might
seem vague at to how this fade is achieved by the
proximal effect. It does this by using the blotch
you see in the proximal preview. This vague circle
is placed multiple times along the edges/surfaces
of the interacting object and according to how it is
set up will calculate the blending effect.
For instance if you change the End Distance the
circle will become smaller, thus making the blend
effect seem very thin, or if you lower the Intensity
the effect will become less obvious and will be
completely gone at 0 percent.
Now that we know how to make the proximal ef-
fect react to objects we can easily apply it to other
channels within this material. Go to the Transpar-
ency channel of the Proximal Plane material and
load a Proximal effect into the Texture field there.
We won't need a layer shader here as we want to
effect the transparency directly.
 Projector & Proximal Usage
By Bram van Gerwen

Click on the proximal preview to enter its proper- applied almost the same as a normal object with a
ties. Drag the Transparency Cube object from the small difference to take into account. To show you
objects manager to the Objects field, enable Use the spline method we're going to remove some of
Edges, set the Blend mode to Lighten to get a the bump map on this plane with the provided
smooth fade and set the Intensity to 70 percent. spline. You can draw your own spline if you want
The intensity is set to 70 percent to make the ma- but its not necessary.
terial not completely transparent when the object
passes through it. Click on the 'ProxBump' material, go to the Bump
channel. I already put up a Layer shader with a
If you want to check out what it looks like ani- Noise layer in there. Just like with the color we did
mated and don't want to bother waiting 2 hours for earlier we now need a layer of bump to make the
the animation to render just check out the proximal react to. Now add a Proximal effect
'ProximalObjects.mov' movie I pre-rendered for above the noise layer, set its blend mode to add.
you.
The enter its proper-
Now that we under- ties, drag the Bump
stand how this effect Limit spline into the
works nothing stops objects field, enable
us from applying it to 'Use Vertices', set its
the reflection channel. blend mode to
Go to the reflection Screen. Also de-
channel and load a crease the End Dis-
Proximal shader into tance to 50 percent
the Texture field. In and the Intensity to 50
the proximal proper- percent to get a sub-
ties drag the Reflec- tle fade. The plane
tion Cube to the Ob- will look like Picture 2
jets field. Enable Use when rendered now.
Edges, Set the Blend
Mode to Lighten and If you render now you
leave the rest at de- can see the effect but
fault. If you are curi- there is something
ous you can experi- wrong. As I explained
ment with the Blend earlier the splotch in
modes and how they the proximal preview
affect the render but is used to calculate
usually Lighten is the the fading and placed
best way to go. along the object in
question. But with the spline we run into the prob-
As you can see in the animation the proximal lem of it only putting a splotch on every point on
blends the reflection nicely showing the clouds the spline.
sky object I put in the scene. See picture 1 for a
still of the three effects. Of course this is just one That includes intermediate points. At the moment
material, try creating a scene with multiple objects the Intermediate points of the spline are set to
reacting to each other. Its very good for special Adaptive, which generally puts a lot of extra
effects, points on the corners and not much on the
straight parts. Simply set the Intermediate points
Now I will show you how to use the proximal ef- of the spline (in its properties) to Uniform to
fect with splines. Open the evenly distribute the intermediate points along the
'ProximalSplineStart.c4d' to begin. The effect is spline.

26
 Projector & Proximal Usage
By Bram van Gerwen

we can do with it. As with most shaders in CIN-

EMA, this one requires some experimentation to
get the hang of it, but believe me once you do,
you'll use it all the time.

If you have any more questions about these

shaders please go to the 3D Attack forum and ask
them.

Have fun experimenting, Bram

Now like the intermediate points the splotches will

be evenly spaced creating a nice fade along the
spline without any irregularities. See Picture 3 for
result. Now you might notice a little purple in this
picture that is not in your render.

This is just to show you how easy it is to imple-

ment this spline proximal just the same as it was
on the with the object on the Color Cube we did
earlier. It's just a layer with a color under the
proximal effect. Only this time I've set the proxi-
mal End Distance to 150 percent to make the
color overlap the bump a little. For reference
check out the 'ProximalSplineFinish.c4d' file.

The proximal shader has almost an eternal usage

and we've only scratched the surface here of what

27
 Interview with Will Frazier aka GruvDone
By Tavy Ann Pasieka

questions about the usage of our recording prod-

Will Frazier
Tavy: Hello Will. Thanks so much for taking the
time to speak with 3D Attack and share a bit
about you with our readers. Why don’t we start
with you telling us a bit about yourself…where did
you grown up, now live, are you married, children
etc?
Will: Hey Tavy, everyone out there in Attack-land.
Well, my name is Willie Frazier, and I was born in
Ft.Worth, TX on June 13 1976. I spent most of
my life in Texas, relocating to the Los Angeles
area in 2000 after being offered a promotion with
the company I worked for at the time. Back then I
was in Musical Instrument Retail. Presently I work
for Roland Corporation US. I currently live in
beautiful Long Beach, CA about 2 blocks from the
ocean, with my Wife, Andreina. No kids as yet,
but we do have an adorable little cat, Lizzie.
ucts. I had been using CINEMA at the time for
about 6 months and in between phone calls, I
would make little logo animations and models of
some of our products. These captured some at-
tention for me, and some of the works were used
in product videos and on the website. I even
worked with the Marketing department a few
times, and created art that was used in a couple
of full-page magazine ads. Thanks in part to a
forward-thinking boss and to a couple of peers
who had become expert in Flash and Final Cut
Pro, late last year, we formed an in-house Media-
Team, and I was promoted into the Team’s Video
Group.
Most of what I do now is still centered on various
logo elements and graphic treatments, and the
creation of the occasional product model for web-
site demos. My new position also requires me to
work in Final Cut Pro, Motion, and After Effects,
and I have enjoyed broadening my knowledge of
these tools. It is my hope that I can eventually
train the other guys in the Video Group in C4D so
that no matter what the project needs we will all
have the tools to knock it out.
Probably the most fun I have doing 3D stuff here
is in the couple of months leading to our big

Tavy: As a professional, using CINEMA 4D on

the job everyday, can you tell us a little about your
work?

Will: Sure. It’s kind of interesting really. Before

me, there was never an in-house 3D artist here at
Roland. There was (and still is) an in-house mar-
keting team, but their focus is largely in Print.
When there was Motion Graphics or Animation
work to be done, it was typically outsourced to a
variety of studios. When I joined Roland in early
2003, I was hired as a Product Specialist, sup-
porting our end-users over the phone that had

28
 Interview with Will Frazier aka GruvDone
By Tavy Ann Pasieka
tradeshow N.A.M.M. (the National Association of
Music Merchants), when I get to put together a
long animated sequence that plays as the intro to
performances and demos in our big New Product
Theatre. This year, I made a 90-second movie-
trailer style animation. And with the Media Team
newly in place, we were able to Score, Master
and Composite all in house. The end result was
pretty good, and was met with a very positive re-
sponse by all who saw it. Our future endeavors
will no doubt only get better.
Tavy: When did you first discover your knack for
3D? What was the deciding factor that led you to
choose CINEMA 4D as your preferred 3D applica-
tion?
Will: About a year before getting hired at Roland,
I was in a rather dark place in my life. The com-
pany that had brought me out here had vanished
in the wake of diminished retail strength following
9/11. Additionally, I was recovering from an acci-
dent in which I was struck by a car while riding my
bicycle. The resulting injuries left me unable to
walk for the better part of a year. A friend of mine
who has worked for Roland for about 15 years,
whom I met while working in retail and befriended,
29
was letting me stay with him while I figured out my
next step. He had a G3 iMac with a copy of Bryce
installed on it, and it was there I got my first taste
of 3D. I basically made weird abstract stuff…
stills that would take days to render. It was cool,
but I was quickly reaching my limits with it. It was
then that this same friend bought a G4 iMac off of
eBay, and when it came, a license for CINEMA 4D
XL 7 came with it.
I started doing any tutorial I could find, and quickly
fell in love with the power and speed of CINEMA.
Toward the end of that year (2002) I made my first
little animation. It was a short little piece de-
signed around Roland’s Tag Line at the time “The
Shape of Music”.
I did not work for Roland at this point, but made
this animation at the behest of my friend. Roland
actually liked it and bought from me. The money I
got was enough to buy my first Mac, and my own
copy of C4D R8. The animation got me noticed
and no doubt aided in my eventual hiring a few
months later.
Tavy: Do you have any formal education or train-
ing in the arts?
 Interview with Will Frazier aka GruvDone
By Tavy Ann Pasieka
Will: Regrettably no. I feel that many areas I
have struggled with would have been much easier
if I hadn’t had to be entirely self-taught. In some
ways it has been nice to be able to discover
things without the hindrances of the ‘rules’ that
some people tend to get buried under when pur-
suing a formal education, but I would like to have
obtained some traditional art skills and design
basics. I think doing so would have given me
fewer growing pains in my first couple of years.
Tavy: Often, on various CG Internet forums, I
read posts where members ask, “How do I get my
foot in the door in the CG Industry?” What would
be your advice to these aspiring artists?
Will: Well, my situation in this regard is rather
unique. If I could take anything away from it to
30
pass on as advice, it would be to just force people
to stand up and take notice. You really have to
carve your own niche. I mean, look at what the
guys at Vital Distraction did.
They sit in one of the most competitive CG areas
in the world, where almost everyone swears that
Maya is some kind of Holy Grail. Yet, they carved
themselves a niche in a previously ignored area
and showed the industry what a powerful tool
C4D is. For me, I had to take a company that had
never had a reason for someone like me to be on
their payroll and show them what a tremendous
asset it can be. It required a great deal of perse-
verance, and it was rather like being on a 3-year
audition at times but in the end, it totally paid off.
Nothing happens overnight, but if you are persis-
tent and patient, you will be rewarded.
Tavy: Other than CINEMA 4D and various other
3D applications, what other software applications
should one become skilled in to enhance their
possible career in this industry?
Will: I have used Cinema almost exclusively.
However, as I mentioned above, in the past year I
have really been making a push to be more self-
contained, and have taken up Final Cut Pro, Mo-
tion and After Effects.
Really, it comes down to what area of 3D you
want to work in. It is always good to be at least
familiar with the tools other people in the pipeline
are using, so you know how to best cater to that
software(s) strengths. So, if you were working
with a web designer, it would be good to learn
some basic Flash, for example.
 Interview with Will Frazier aka GruvDone
By Tavy Ann Pasieka
Typically being in a pipeline enables one to grow
as strong as possible in one particular area, while
freelance work definitely requires a much broader
set of skills. Just figure out what direction you
want to go, and learn at least basic proficiency in
the main tools required for that area.
Tavy: As a professional I’m sure you work with
deadlines all the time and, from personal experi-
ence, I know the client quite often gives you very
little time to accomplish what they need done. Do
you work well under pressure?
Will: Pressure is never comfortable, but you have
to learn to deal with it in this business. The key to
meeting deadlines really lays in organization, time
management, and communication. If you have
these attributes, deadlines are a lot less stressful.
But, when the pressure from above comes, the
trick is to turn that stress into focus. Take all that
anxious energy and channel it into your productiv-
ity. Don’t even think about the deadline. Doing so
makes it that much harder to meet. One of my
favorite expressions applicable to this comes from
31
Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, “The traveler with one
eye fixed on his destination, only has one eye left
with which to find his way”. In other words, just
pay attention to where you are, do what you have
to do, and the rest will fall into place.
Tavy: We are all inspired by the work of others
and the world around us. Who are some of your
favorite CG Artists and what is your main source
of inspiration?
Will: Wow, that’s actually a tougher question to
answer than I first thought…. I see so much qual-
ity work, and often, sadly, I have no way of know-
ing who’s it is. I mean, in films, you get a long list
of animators on the team, but I have no way of
knowing which one of those people did that thing
that just truly blew my mind. I see amazing stuff
in television commercials all the time, but alas, no
credits roll for the commercials. And I am reluc-
tant to point out some of my favorites from around
the forums, as I don’t want to exclude anyone.
My favorite works are those that have a rather
dark edge to them, that push the boundaries of
 Interview with Will Frazier aka GruvDone
By Tavy Ann Pasieka
the senses and leave you immersed in a world
you have only just caught a glimpse of. Suffice it
say that I often feel like a plankton in the sea of
CG artists out there whose talents vastly eclipse
my own, and my inspiration partly comes from the
drive to one day feel like I can truly sit at the same
table with them.
Tavy: I’ve had the pleasure of viewing much of
your work over the past couple of years and your
lighting always amazes me. Do you adapt your
lighting for each rendering to drive a specific
32
mood? When it comes to “realism” do you think
lighting can make or break an image? Do you
have any lighting tips for our readers?
Will: Wow, that’s an amazing thing to say, as I
often feel lighting and rendering to be 2 of my
weak areas. 2 Areas, I might add that are crucial
when photorealism is your goal.
Typically, on a given project, to achieve a certain
mood the approach I take to lighting will vary. In
early work, I would use multiple 3-point lighting
set-ups. By rotating and positioning each one
differently, I could force lighting into areas that
need the most attention.
The ability to exclude selected objects from cer-
tain lights was a big help in those days. Lately I
have been trying unconventional things. Like the
movie trailer animation I did a couple of months
ago. I used no ambient lighting at all... there were
a couple of volumetric lights for effect, but they
were not casting light on anything.
Rather, I used reflection contrasts to generate
visibility. I must say, it resulted in a pretty slick
look. I feel that I still have a lot to learn with re-
spect to GI, but it is an area I am beginning to
focus on as recent software and hardware im-
provements have made rendering experiments
not as prohibitively lengthy. Right now, I am hav-
ing a something of a love affair with Ambient Oc-
clusion.
 Interview with Will Frazier aka GruvDone
By Tavy Ann Pasieka
Tavy: What enhancements would you like to
MAXON implement in future releases of CINEMA
4D?
Will: I would love to see an overhaul to the Dy-
namics module. In the past year or so Maxon has
given us Clothilde and Hair, 2 Solutions that rely
heavily on things like collision detection, gravity,
and wind. The implementation of these things is
really intuitive and easy. The Dynamics Module,
on the other hand is bulky and difficult. It has
changed little since it was first introduced, and is
certainly due for a revision.
I hope that the power of Cloth and Hair portend to
the future physics simulation capabilities of CIN-
EMA. Some of the minor things I wanted to see
actually came to fruition with the announcement
of the 9.6 upgrade; the animated texture support
in the editor, and the start and end growth pa-
rameters of Sweeps being among them. There is
one other small enhancement I would like though,
and that is the ability to name your object buffers,
thus making post work of scenes with numerous
buffers easier to manage.
33
Tavy: When you’re not busy working, what do
you do for relaxation and enjoyment?
Will: Work really does eat up much of my time,
but since I am blessed with a job doing something
I enjoy, it really isn’t too bad.
When I can get away I really enjoy spending time
with my Wife, and/or friends; but when alone, my
attention turns to music.
Actually, for me, the biggest catharsis comes from
singing. When I am driving alone, I am always
listening to a CD, and just belting it out (yes, I am
one of those people).
I don’t pick up the guitar as much as I used to, but
when I do, I find it an effective escape as well.
Pushing all that energy through me in the per-
formance of a song just cleanses me emotionally.
Tavy: Thanks again Will. This was a real pleas-
ure for 3D Attack and our readers. I’ll give you
the last word.
 Interview with Will Frazier aka GruvDone
By Tavy Ann Pasieka

Will: It has truly been an honor to spend this time

with you. Resources like this magazine are in-
valuable to those who rely on this Software to
bring their visions to life. I am proud to have been
asked to be a part of this issue.

When I think back on the last 5 years… having

gone from laying in a hospital bed, wondering
what was to become of my life, to having a career
that I wouldn’t have even imagined at that time…
well, it is just beyond words. I had barely even
used a computer at all before I sat down at the
helm of my first venture into 3D.

Now, here I sit, feeling like I am only at the begin-

ning of a whole world of possibilities. If any of
you can take anything away from this, may it be
that if you have a goal, no matter what it is, you
can reach it, if you are willing to commit to it to-

Only Roland gives you high-velocity sales in every department.

Roland raises the bar in 2004 with dynamic new products that
are sure to blow the doors off. Our new line of
V-Drums® - like the top of the line V-Pro Series TD-20S - rein-
vent electronic drumming with amazing new pads and
COSM® modeling. The new Fantom-X workstations feature an
all-new synth engine for incredible sounds like none you've
ever heard. And don't forget about the versatile
VS-2000CD Digital Recorder with software plug-in capability.
Stop by the Roland booth this year and see how we can
get your sales to the top floor.

B o oth 2 6 4 0

tally. I know it sounds like and old cliché, but it is

certainly true. Many thanks to all of you out there
who have helped me out… either by helping to
solve an issue I had, by authoring a tutorial that
awarded me new insight, or even by asking a
question that forced me to think to find the an-
swer, thus leaving us both enlightened.

Cheers all, and as a wise man once said “Keep

on Attacking”.

34
 Editor Speeder Upper
By Rui Batista
Everyone loves speed. In this sped up world, it
seems, fast is never fast enough. And we, the
ones that deal with computers on a daily basis,
know how true that is. But we are never satisfied.
Oh, no siree! If we get a computer twice as fast as
the previous one we owned, we manage to force
it with a work load that is, at least, three times as
demanding as before. So, we keep on complain-
ing on how slow the computer is.
And here I am, writing all this philosophical
mumbo-jumbo when I'm one of the head-
complainers ;)
I don't even have much to complain about as I
have a pretty fast machine. My computer has four
processors, and that is excellent for rendering.
But, unfortunately, multi-processing has no influ-
ence when we are in the editor building our
scene.
To get some speedup in the editor we must give
back on some things (display accuracy, texture
display, faster display modes, etc), or do some
clever trickery. And that is what this article is all
about: clever trickery!
Some time ago I had to create a scene with, liter-
ally, thousands of objects. After the first few hun-
dred, I started to notice a slight lagging. Not com-
pletely crippling, but annoying. We, humans, are
hard to please beasts, aren't we?
Each bunch of those thousands of objects could
be placed inside a Null and I could turn off the
editor display of the Null, but that was of no help.
Why? Well, since all my objects were Instances,
what I really wanted was to turn them off tempo-
rarily, not just hide them.
Also, while laying them down on the scene, I had
to do so, taking into account the placement of any
previous objects already there. So, turning the
whole bunch off was no option and manually turn-
ing off some while leaving others on, and keep
managing this, was a tremendous chore. Aren't
computers supposed to be great at repetitive, te-
dious work? Couldn't I devise a way to automate
the process? Mmmmmmmm, this looked like a job
for... COFFEE!!
35
No, not the black liquid one, in cups. Actually, it
may have been a job for that type of coffee if I
hadn't come up with a solution with the other type
of C.O.F.F.E.E. ;)
So, I created a C.O.F.F.E.E. expression that
could "idle" a selected percentage of objects in-
side a hierarchy. And I say "idle", because it
would hide polygonal objects and turn off proce-
dural objects, depending on what they are. This
would give me the biggest possible speedup. Op-
tionally, I would also like to turn off render of po-
lygonal objects as they were hidden in the editor
(procedural objects, if turned off, will not render
anyway).
Then, being a smart-ass guy, I thought...
Mmmmmm, this expression may have to deal with
LOTS of objects inside a hierarchy. If it has to do
all the calculations each time I change something
in the scene, I may not be gaining all the possible
speed. So, after it has done its dirty work, I should
be able to turn it off. And, so I added another op-
tion. Yes!! If I were working in a juice shop, I
would be the guy that squeezes the very last drop
of liquid out from the fruit!
My expression also rotated the objects in a ran-
dom way (it was required) but, after finishing the
project I streamlined the expression to turn it into
a general purpose tool. So, off we go, to create
our SpeederUpper expression thingy!
The actual code you will be typing is this one (See
picture on the next page).
I present it here for you to follow along with the
forthcoming explanation. Don't worry, I will explain
to you all the lines of code in excruciating detail.
Now, to type the C.O.F.F.E.E. code, you need to
have an object.
Create a Null. Name it something you feel is clear
enough for your purpose. It's inside this Null that
you will place all the objects that usually hog your
editor.
To this Null you must add four UserData parame-
ters. I assume here that you know how to add
UserData parameters to any object. After all, you
are following a tutorial that aims to teach much
 Editor Speeder Upper
By Rui Batista
more advanced stuff. The first UserData pa-
rameter is a Boolean and it should be named
ON. I use uppercase letters to make it stand out
from the others.
Now add a Float parameter. Keep all the default
values except for the Interface that you should
set to Float Slider and the Name that you should
change to Hide % Start.
Add another Float parameter. It should be exactly
like the previous one, except for the name. This
one will be called Hide % End.
36
Finally, add another Boolean and name it Hide in
Render too (See Picture below)
Now, add a C.O.F.F.E.E. tag to this Null. You are
presented with an editor window where CINEMA
4D, very politely, already typed some code for
you. For now, its just:
main(doc,op)
{
As its name implies, this is the main routine that
gets executed whenever you do anything in your
document (and you have the Turn On/Off expres-
sion switch turned on). Our code will go between
the { and the }. These symbols define a block of
code so everything between them is a block of
code.
This main routine already provides you with two
variables, pointing to the current document (vari-
able doc) and to the object that contains the
C.O.F.F.E.E. expression tag (variable op). For the
ones not used to programming jargon, a variable
is like a named box that can contain a value in-
side it. It can be any value and that value can also
change and that is why it is called a variable. So,
we start up with two variables, named doc and
op, that CINEMA 4D creates for us.
But we can also define our own variables. Actu-
ally, we really need to because they are the main
(no pun intended with the name of the main rou-
tine) way to store values. And they must be de-
clared at the start, before we start using them, so
that CINEMA 4D knows what a variable is when it
finds one. To declare that a specific name is a
variable, we use the keyword var. After typing
 Editor Speeder Upper
By Rui Batista
var, we can declare as many variables as we
want but, to keep things clean and tidy, we should
try to declare just a few at a time and also joining
them by purpose or similar function. Also, their
name should be clear enough about what they will
be used for.
There is nothing stopping us from calling sit-
ting_bull to a variable that will serve to hold a
texture, but that would be plain silly. When you get
back to your script, a few months later, looking at
sitting_bull, inside your code, will mean nothing
to you.
Even worse, someone else could be using your
script and looking at variables named sit-
ting_bull, monkey_wrench, lollypop, and so on,
would only prove how much you need profes-
sional counseling. Also, try to keep variable
names as short as possible. Why?
Well, you are going to work with variables inside
your script and having to type something like
my_beloved_variable_that_will_store_my_ma
gnificent_texture each time you need it, lets face
it, it is a pain in the... well, you know where. Vari-
able names must start with a letter or underscore
and can contain letters, numbers and the under-
score symbol. So, after the first { we type:
var obj,type,coffee_tag;
var on,count,current;
var percent1,percent2,temp,hide,render;
The variable obj will store objects. It will point to
objects inside your scene. The variable type will
hold a value that will tell us what type of object
another variable is pointing. The variable cof-
fee_tag will point to the C.O.F.F.E.E. tag that
holds the script that is running (we will see why
we need that, later).
The variable on will hold the value of the ON Us-
erData parameter.
The variable count will be used as a counter
(DAH!!!).
The variable current, just like the variable obj will
hold objects.
37
The variables percent1 and percent2 will store
the percentages of hidden objects that are set by
the UserData sliders.
The variable temp will be used as temporary
storage. Very useful, as you will see.
The variable hide will contain the "decision" of
wether we should hide and object or not.
Finally, the variable render will determine if a hid-
den object (in the editor) will be hidden in the ren-
der too.
Now that we have declared all the variable we will
need, let's start the actual actions.
First we need to know how many objects are in-
side the Null. To do so, we initiate the count vari-
able with the value of 0 (zero). Now, we load the
first object inside the Null into the obj variable.
This is done with the command GetDown().
But, GetDown from what? From op!! Remember
what op was? It's one of the variables that CIN-
EMA 4D already provides for us and it's the one
that points to the object that contains the
C.O.F.F.E.E. expression tag (in our case, the
Null). So, op->GetDown() means "from the ob-
ject pointed by op, get the first object inside
(down) it".
This value is stored inside the obj variable. What
if the Null contains no objects inside it? Well,
then, the op->GetDown() will return a value of
Nil. No, Nil is not a special kind of Null :) Well,
come to think of it, it is! Nil, is a programming
term for NOTHING WHATSOEVER! Its kind of a
virtual Null.
Now we must go through all the objects inside the
Null, adding one to the counter as long as we
find objects.
So, we prepare a cycle. This special type of cycle
is called a while cycle and it runs as long as a
specific expression is true. As soon as the ex-
pression becomes false, the execution jumps out
of the cycle and goes on with the code after it.
So, our while cycle is the following:
 Editor Speeder Upper
By Rui Batista
while(obj)
{ false, and the cycle ends. So, after leaving the
count++;
obj=obj->GetNext();
} And that is exactly what we will check now, with:
This states that "while there is an obj" (meaning
that obj is not Nil), the code inside the { and the }
is executed. Remember I told you that the { and }
symbols define a block of code? Well, our block of
code simply increases the count variable and
gets the next object. How come we increase
count with such a weird expression?:
count++
Well, programming languages have all kinds of
expressions that serve the purpose of simplifying
code. With some of them, is very discussible if
they ready do simplify coding, but let's assume
they do. So, variable_name++ will increase the
variable value by one. The same way, vari-
able_name-- will decrease the variable by one.
There are more of these "simplification" but I don't
want to give you more reasons to hate program-
ming ;)
After increasing the variable count (our counter)
we change the variable obj so that it points to the
next object in the hierarchy. That is done with the
obj=obj->GetNext();
Oh, by the way, why are we finishing stuff with a
semicolon? Well, in C.O.F.F.E.E. (and many other
programming languages, like java, C++, javas-
cript, etc), each command must be explicitly ter-
minated with some kind of symbol.
This way you can make long commands go over
a single line and, as long as the "termination
character" is not reached, everything is treated as
a single command. Some stuff doesn't require a
"termination character", like main(doc,op) or
while(obj) because those are not really com-
mands.
Ok, what happens if obj->GetNext(); goes over
the last object of the list? In that case, obj-
>GetNext(); will return a value of Nil and we all
know what happens when obj is equal to Nil,
38
don't we? The while(obj) expression becomes
cycle, the variable count has the number of ob-
jects inside the Null, if any.
if(!count) return;
The ! symbol is another one of those "shortcuts"
used in programming. It means "NOT". So, if NOT
COUNT, meaning, if count is equal to zero (no
objects inside the Null), we simply return because
there is nothing to do.
And, we return to where? Well, return, here simply
means, return from the code or, in a simpler way,
get out of the code.
Now that we know how many objects we are deal-
ing with, we must get the values that are provided
through the UserData parameters. The UserData
parameters are inside the C.O.F.F.E.E. tag, re-
member? So, we must find a way to get to the
C.O.F.F.E.E. tag.
Since any object - our Null object included - can
have many different tags associated, we must go
through all its tags until we reach the C.O.F.F.E.E.
tag (we assume that the one we need is the first
C.O.F.F.E.E. tag found attached to the object). So,
we get the first tag of the Null with:
coffee_tag=op->GetFirstTag();
Now, the variable coffee_tag points to the first
tag of the Null (the Null is referenced by the op
variable, remember?)
We must, now, run through all the tags and check
for a C.O.F.F.E.E. tag. What better than our friend,
the while cycle? So, here is the code:
while(!instanceof(coffee_tag, CoffeeExpres-
sionTag))
{
coffee_tag = coffee_tag->GetNext();
if(!coffee_tag)return;
}
 Editor Speeder Upper
By Rui Batista
The only new thing here is the instanceof func-
tion. It simply checks if the coffee_tag variable is
referencing a CoffeeExpressionTag. So, the
code translates roughly into:
While the variable coffee_tag is NOT referencing
a C.O.F.F.E.E. tag, run the code between the {
and the }. If it is, run the code after the }
{ bigger than the last value (percent2). If it is (IT
get the next tag.
if the next tag doesn't exist (Nil) we reached the
end of the tags of this object, so we can return
because there is nothing we can do.
} Ok, we now have all the data we need. Let us
If the code reached this point, the variable cof-
fee_tag is already pointing to the C.O.F.F.E.E. tag
so we can start getting values out of it.
The first one we get is the ON parameter. We
feed the on variable with the value of the first Us-
erData parameter with the expression:
on=coffee_tag#ID_USERDATA:1;
Now we check its value.
if (!on) return;
This means that, if NOT on, we can return be-
cause the expression is turned off.
But if the on variable is true, we get all the other
values into their correspondent variables:
percent1=coffee_tag#ID_USERDATA:2;
percent2=coffee_tag#ID_USERDATA:3;
render=coffee_tag#ID_USERDATA:4;
I know that many of you are stubborn/distracted/
rebellious enough to set the lower value of per-
centage bigger than the higher value of percent-
age.
Come on, don't try to deny it. I know you guys!! ;)
So, to allow for the code to work perfectly, even if
some of you devious minds try to misbehave, I
included the following code:
39
if(percent1>percent2)
{
temp=percent1;
percent1=percent2;
percent2=temp;
}
This simply checks of the first value (percent1) is
SHOULDN'T!!), the variables get swapped. Since
there is no native command to swap variables, a
temporary variable is used to perform the swap.
start doing the actual work. First, we get the first
object inside the Null and initialize a counter:
obj=op->GetDown();
current=0;
Now we start a cycle, using our old friend, the
while.
while(obj)
{
We now need to get the current percentage, as-
sociated with the current object. Meaning that the
first object inside the Null will be equivalent to 0%
and the last one will be equivalent to 100%. Actu-
ally, we will be using values between 0 and 1, with
the 1 being equivalent to 100%.
We get that value by dividing the current object
number (initiated at zero) by the total number of
objects inside the Null, that we have, safely,
stored inside the count variable.
temp=(float(current)/float(count));
We store that value in the temp variable since it is
no longer needed for anything else. But wait! Why
the float before the variables current and count?
Well, the current and count variables are storing
integer values.
An integer value is a number without a decimal
point. Something like 2,10, 34 or -5, as opposed
with something like 2.13, 10.01, 34.009 or -5.97. If
we simply performed a division between two inte-
 Editor Speeder Upper
By Rui Batista
ger values, the resulting value would also be an
integer. In our case, we would only get 0 for all
objects before the last one and 1 for the last ob-
ject. That is DEFINITELY, not what we want. So,
we force the calculation to be performed as a
float. Floats are numbers with decimal points
and, placing the word float before a variable
forces it to be interpreted as a float.
Now we perform a logical calculation. Not that
everything before was not logical, but this particu-
lar expression is considered to be logical because
it involves comparisons and a logical operator:
hide=temp>=percent1 & temp<=percent2;
So, the left side of the logical expression is
temp>=percent1 and it stands for "is it true that
the value of temp is larger or equal to the value of
percent1?". This will return a value of true or
false.
The right side of the logical expression is
temp<=percent2 and it stands for "is it true that
the value of temp is less than or equal to the
value of percent2?". This also returns a value of
true or false. We combine both with an & opera-
tor.
This is a logical operator that means AND. The
resulting value of an AND operation is only true if
both sides of the expression are true. So, if the
value of temp is between the value of percent1
and percent2, the hide variable will get a value of
TRUE. If not, the hide variable will get a value of
FALSE.
Now we get the actual type of object we are deal-
ing with so that we can decide what to do.
type=getclass(obj);
This stores the type of object (its class) into the
type variable. Why do we need to know what type
of object we are dealing with?
Because, for primitive objects we only need to
turn them off but, for polygonal and light objects,
we must hide them (and, optionally, turn their ren-
40
dering off too) because there is no way to turn
those off. For primitive objects, as soon as they
get turned off, they will not render too. Now we
decide what to do, with:
if(type==PolygonObject|type==LightObject)
We now used another type of logical operator.
This one, instead of calculating something AND
something_else, calculates something OR
something_else.
The OR operand is the inconspicuous | sign. Yes,
the little vertical bar. And, with the OR operator, its
enough that one of the values - on the left or on
the right - is true for the whole expression to be
true.
So, if the type of object is a Polygon object or a
Light object, the following code, between the {
and the } is executed. Oh, by the way, we need to
use == to check for equality because a single =
stands for assigning a value. So, a==b stands for
checking if a is equal to b, but a=b stands for as-
signing to a the value of b.
{
o b j # I D _ B A S E O B J E C T _ V I S I B I L I T Y _ E D I-
TOR=hide+1;
obj#ID_BASEOBJECT_VISIBILITY_RENDER=2-
(render*!hide);
}
So, if the type of object is a Polygon object or a
Light object we set the objects editor visibility pa-
rameter to a value of hide+1.
Remember that hide was zero if the object should
not be hidden and 1 if it were to be hidden? So,
the editor visibility will either be 1 (0+1) or 2 (1+2).
Why? Well, the editor visibility parameter can
have three values:
0 - Force Visibility
1 - Force Invisibility
2 - Unchanged
Need I say more? ;)
 Editor Speeder Upper
By Rui Batista

The render visibility parameter is calculated using

a more complex expression: 2-(render*!hide)
WOW!!! Geeky!! Let's not waste much time with it.
Just be sure it calculates the correct render visibil-
ity according to the parameters we set.

What if the object is not a polygonal object or a

light? That is what the else does. It defines what
code is executed in the case of the evaluated ex-
pression not being true.

else
o b j # I D _ B A S E O B J E C T _ G E N E R A-
TOR_FLAG=hide;

In this case, we simply set the generator flag,

turning on and off the object altogether.
Now we must increase the counter of the current
object, with:

current++;

And, finally, advance to the next object, with:

obj=obj->GetNext();

Now, we must close the block of code defined by

the while cycle with a:

and, finally, close the main code altogether, with

another:

And that's it. Well, I must confess it doesn't look

very simple, at first, but scripting is not that com-
plex once you start messing with it. I hope that
this code brings you two good things: a useful tool
for your complex projects and a good stepping
stone into the world of C.O.F.F.E.E. scripting.
As usual, should you have have doubts or sug-
gestions, feel free to contact me at
rui_mac@ruimac.com
Until next month, Keep On Attacking!

Rui Batista

41
 Importing and Exporting Geometry from CINEMA 4D
By Jamie
The real trick question when exporting geometry
from CINEMA 4D is; “what will it look like on the
other side?”, “what properties of my file will I
lose?” These are the main questions at hand and
for some of the more common conversions and
formats, I will answer the questions for you right
here in this article. First off we will have a list of
some of the export formats and a brief description
of what is so special about each one. Certain for-
mats are not going to be included in this list e.g.
Allplan, as I can’t test them out.
Let’s say that you have just completed a model for
a client and they need it for 3D Printing or use in
Maya or 3D Studio Max… Maybe Lightwave 3D is
the software they will be using it in or perhaps it is
some other 3D application. There are a series of
factors that you need to consider before exporting
the model for them. Especially if it has been UV
textured.
Now for a brief description of the export formats;
Export Formats
CINEMA 4D .xml
This format seems to be an attempt at backwards
compatibility with CINEMA 4D Version 6. The
manual does not say much about it, and I have
found it to be a bit buggy in my experience. The
manual mentions that it may be useful to plug-in
developers. It seems to preserve most CINEMA
4D properties including editable primitives and
SweepNURBS objects etc… your UV coordinates
and Phong tags will also be preserved. On a
standard model with a UV texture, you will not
lose any of the important data.
.DXF
This format is the format that I consider to be the
‘most’ of the formats. The file size is the largest,
the hierarchy & color support is the best and you
lose the most data from your CINEMA 4D objects
when exporting. It is one of the oldest universal
formats.
I usually use it as a last resort. The DXF format
does not support UVW coordinates and it does
not preserve any special Phong Shading. It does
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move the center of each object to the bounding
box center. This is useful for selecting and textur-
ing objects in CINEMA 4D and makes it a good
choice for Architecture in CINEMA 4D.
.3DS
This format has some serious issues and most
people think that it’s the best format to exchange
data between 3DS Max and other programs. This
is not so at all. When exporting models with cer-
tain characteristics, the format just does not play
by the rules. On Okino’s Polytrans webpage, they
mention that it is very outdated and mangles your
mesh in certain ways; your mesh is triangulated,
Phong Shading is lost and wherever your UVW
mesh ends, the actual mesh will be split. This
forces you to optimize the mesh once it is im-
ported into 3D Studio Max and that can cause
some undesirable results depending on the com-
plexity of the model. The good news is that your
pivot points (object axis) will be preserved once
the model is imported into 3D Studio Max.
.STL
Stereo Lithography… This format was basically
intended for 3D printing. If you use a Z-Corp 3D
Printer, you will be able to export directly from
CINEMA 4D to the Z-Print software and view or
print your model. This format does not save
Phong Shading or UVW coordinates.
.WRL (VRML)
This format is by far my favorite format. I believe
that it was originally intended for creating virtual
worlds on the internet. It does what all the other
formats won’t when it comes to preserving hierar-
chy. The .WRL file format preserves UVW coordi-
nates, Phong Shading, object hierarchy, and Ob-
ject axis location and orientation! (pivot points)
.OBJ (wavefront)
The Alias / Wavefront OBJ format is another one
of my favorites. It preserves all the important stuff
and is by far the most reliable format out there! I
have never had problems with an OBJ file. The
only downside is that the object axis location and
orientation is not preserved.
 Importing and Exporting Geometry from CINEMA 4D
By Jamie
.FBX (Filmbox)
Another Alias Format and it is very good. This
format preserves animation, bones, UVs, Hierar-
chy, and Object Axis Position and Orientation.
Import Formats
CINEMA 4D can import all of the aforementioned
formats as well as many others.
.LWO (Lightwave 3D)
This is the Lightwave Object format. CINEMA 4D
has excellent integration with Lightwave 3D and
there are usually no problems exchanging models
between Lightwave and CINEMA 4D.
There are other formats, but as I mentioned be-
fore, I can’t really get too deep into the explana-
tion of them.
Special note for Direct 3D (.x) Export
This is the Direct-X format and thus far in my re-
search, it seems to be a game export format.
Softimage XSI can import this format and to my
knowledge, it preserves object axis orientation
and position, UV coordinates and proper smooth-
ing of normals / phong shading.
CINEMA 4D can’t import this format after export-
ing it (at least not out of the box) and it seems to
be a very good format. If anyone has any in depth
knowledge on this format, please post it up on the
3D Attack Forums as I would like to know more…
Possible Scenarios
Here is one scenario; you have just modeled a
character and you need to export it to your col-
league for use in Maya. If your character is a ro-
bot and it has lots of pivot points, your format of
choice should be the .FBX format. The reason
behind this choice is that the .FBX format pre-
serves all of the object axis points. It preserves
position and orientation.
All of the pivots for the arms and other limbs will
be exactly where they are supposed to be. It
should even import your textures! If your charac-
ter is a single mesh and is already UV textured
using BodyPaint 3D, you will be better off using
43
the .OBJ format as this format is very good at
preserving the UV coordinates of your mesh, and
I find it to be generally more reliable. The OBJ
format does not preserve the object axis location
or orientation! They are all reset to the World
0,0,0. on export. This is one of the many trade-
offs between the formats. Another common work-
flow is CINEMA 4D to 3D Studio Max. In this case
the most logical format to use is the .3ds format.
The .3ds format may work very well for you, but
3D Studio Max can also import other formats.
I have found the .OBJ format to work very well. If
you need pivot points to remain where they were
in CINEMA 4D, you will likely be better off using
the .WRL (VRML) format, or the .FBX Format.
As far as I can tell, the .wrl format exports UVW
coordinates correctly from CINEMA 4D, but they
don’t always import into other programs correctly.
The .FBX format seems to handle UVs and all
other aspects very well.
Let’s say that you are receiving a model from a
colleague who creates architectural models using
Form-Z or Archicad. Your best format choice will
be the .DXF format. Of course if you own the Ar-
chicad – Exchange plug-in for CINEMA 4D it will
be even better!
The nice thing about .DXF is that your colleague
can export layers and colors. You can also weld
the objects into one mesh using the layers or col-
ors in the import options for .DXF. This will help
you to organize your file much more easily.
If someone needs a model for 3D Printing, then
the choice is really easy. Just use the .STL file
format. If the client is using the Color version of
the Z-Printer, and your model is UVW mapped
then you must use the .WRL format as this format
will preserve the UVW mapping information.
Hierachy
The hierarchy your model has when exporting is
also important when exporting. The easiest way
for me to explain this is using CINEMA 4D to
Maya. In the following image I have a motorcycle
that I have modeled in CINEMA 4D and I have
exported it to Maya via the .OBJ format. Notice
 Importing and Exporting Geometry from CINEMA 4D
By Jamie
how differently the model imports when the hier-
archy is changed.
Phong Shading
3D Studio Max calls them ‘Smoothing Groups’
and Maya calls it ‘Normal Softness.’ In CINEMA
4D this data is stored as a Phong Tag on each
object. The next image shows the difference that
Phong Shading can make.
It is very rare that your Phong shading will be per-
fect when importing a model created in another
program. It is very easy to adjust in most pro-
grams, so there is good news. I have found that
.WRL preserves the Phong Shading very well. I
usually don’t have to make any adjustment when
exchanging models between different packages
using .WRL
Animation
The Lightwave format supports animation very
well, and it will also import lights, cameras and
44
some scene elements from Lightwave. Remem-
ber that CINEMA 4D can only import the Light-
wave format. If you need to get animation into
Maya or 3DS Max from CINEMA 4D, then the
.FBX format will do just fine.
Conclusion
Exchanging data between our 3D programs today
is not a simple task and even though you can ac-
complish a great deal with the built in formats that
many 3D programs ship with, it is always good to
have an alternative import / export solution. I have
found a very useful little shareware program that
does a great job at exchanging 3D file formats. It
will even save some proprietary formats such as
Maya, Truespace, Lightwave and Softimage XSI.
The software is called Accutrans3D, it has a 30
day free trial and is available from this website
http://www.micromouse.ca/
Now for a little more on Accutrans3D; in the fol-
lowing image you can see a knot that I have
modeled in CINEMA 4D and then exported as a
.WRL file: The UVW coordinates have been pre-
served by the .wrl export and the model can now
be exported to a number of different formats. I
highly recommend this great program.
If you have any input, or comments about this
article. Please don’t hesitate to open a thread for
discussion on the 3D Attack Forums.
Jamie Hamel-Smith
 Spotlight on Deschamps Thibaut
Featured Artist of the month
Name: Deschamps
Thibaut
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Location: Belgium,
Europe
Software: CINEMA 4D
Website:
http://tibs.killanet.net
Favorite Resources:
3D Attack, C4D Café, CGtalk, Cinema4d.be,
Cinema4d.nl
Hello there fellow 3D Attack fans, it might be
good if I introduce myself first.
My name is Deschamps Thibaut and I live in
Belgium, Europe. I am 21 years old and am
currently studying for my masters degree in
Elektromechanics. This is actually how I came
in contact with 3D, as we often use technical
drawing programs such as Autocad, Iventor or
Solid Edge. These programs only gave me the
possibility to make accurate 3D pieces, but
didn’t really let me present them in a realistic
way.
I remember when I was surfing the web look-
ing for software that would allow me to render
and, maybe even, animate the things I made
in 3D. At that time I had no clue it was called
“modeling”. After looking in google for a free
program I discovered “Blender”. I instantly
downloaded the program and started messing
around in it. Sometimes I followed a tutorial,
but mostly just trying out the different tools.
Not satisfied, I was still looking on the web for
a more advanced program. I started download-
ing some trials/demo’s of various programs
such as 3D Studio Max, Lightwave and of
course CINEMA 4D. It didn’t take long before
my dad noticed what I was doing on the com-
puter and he became interested.
So after a while I became frustrated I couldn’t
save my progress in the C4D demo and went
to ask my dad the big question, “ Can I have
45
CINEMA 4D? “. My dad wasn’t really surprised
by the question and probably saw it coming,
so he had already given it some thought. The
final answer was “Yes”, but there where some
strings attached. I didn’t mind, I finally had the
program !
Now I could really begin modeling in the C4D
base package. I tried modeling certain things
and came aware that this program had loads
of possibilities. It didn’t take long before I
started to look on the web for help when I got
stuck. This is how I noticed 3D Attack, I intro-
duced myself and was amazed by the people
that really enjoyed helping me with my prob-
lems. Because of that I really started to de-
velop my modeling skills. Now even I can help
some people once in a while with their prob-
lems. I am also a staff member of the “ Kil-
lagraphix “ community on the web and I have
written some tutorials around CINEMA 4D and
Blender. You can find the tutorials on the Kil-
lagraphix forum and on my personal website.
Here are some of the sites I visit the most:
- www.killanet.net
- www.3dattack.net
- www.c4dcafe.com
- www.cgtalk.com
- www.cinema4d.be and www.cinema4d.nl
Well I hope you enjoyed reading a little about
me, and if you have any questions you can
always contact me on the 3D Attack forum.
- Deschamps
Spotlight on Deschamps Thibaut
Featured Artist of the month

46
Best of CINEMA 4D - Gallery
Selected Art by 3D ATTACK

Artist Name: Matt Roussel

Image Name: Come back
Country: France
Date Created: March 2006
Software: CINEMA 4D and Photoshop
Website: www.mattroussel.com
Best of CINEMA 4D - Gallery
Selected Art by 3D ATTACK

Artist Name: Arnim Pommeranz

Image Name: Flight Patrol
Date Created: 04-18-2006
Country: Germany
Software: CINEMA 4D and Photoshop
Website: www.varilux2k.de
Best of CINEMA 4D - Gallery
Selected Art by 3D ATTACK

Artist Name: Matt Roussel

Image Name: Pursuit
Country: France
Date Created: April 2006
Software Used: CINEMA 4D and Photoshop
Website: www.mattroussel.com
Best of CINEMA 4D - Gallery
Selected Art by 3D ATTACK

Artist Name: Benjamin Schröder

Image Name: Watchtower
Country: Germany
Software: CINEMA 4D R8.5, Adobe Photoshop 6.0
Date Created: 04/24/.2006
Best of CINEMA 4D - Gallery
Selected Art by 3D ATTACK

Artist Name: Cameron Slayden

Image Name: Lab Scene
Country: USA
Software: CINEMA 4D, Photoshop
Date Created: 4/26/06
Website: www.cosmocyte.com
 The 3D ATTACK Team
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