Volume 02 Issue 03

March 2005 | $3.99

HIGHLIGHTS IN THIS ISSUE:

MAXON GERMANY CEO

Interview with MAXON Germany CEO,

Harald Egel, on Page 4.

INTERVIEW

Read the interview with the popular

and talented CINEMA 4D artist,
Bernardo Barbi, on Page 15.

CHARACTER MODELING

“THE PRIZE FIGHT”

Round 2 is complete! Page 47
Part 2 of Mark Gmehling’s Character
Modeling Tutorial on Page 26.

© Mark Gmehling 2005

3D ATTACK QUICK INDEX

PAGE 4-6 Interview with Harald Egel by Tavy Ann

PAGE 8-9 3D Fluff Volume 2 Review by Mark Gmehling

PAGE 10-13 Simple IK and Reverse Foot Rig by Sebastien Florand

PAGE 15-18 Interview with Bernardo Barbi by Tavy Ann

PAGE 19-20 Plugin Review - Structure - by Gary Zullo

PAGE 21-25 Basic Modeling - Lookout Tower P2 by Bram van Gerwen

PAGE 26-30 Character Modeling Part 2 by Mark Gmehling

PAGE 31-35 Landscape Tutorial Part 2 by Georg Niedermeier

PAGE 36-40 Emorpher: Power of PLA Morphing by Sebastien Florand

PAGE 41-44 Clothilde Drapes by Jamie Hamel-Smith

PAGE 45-46 Fireworks with Thinking Particles by Bjoern Marl “Srek”

PAGE 47-49 “THE PRIZE FIGHT” Round 2 by Tavy Ann

PAGE 50-54 Best of CINEMA 4D Gallery

PAGE 55 Editors Notes

PAGE 56 ATTACK TOONS by Sir Gong

PAGE 57 The 3D Attack Team

 Interview with Harald Egel - CEO Maxon Germany
By Tavy Ann
Mr. Harald Egel, MAXON Germany -
CEO, recently took the time to
answer a few questions and bring a
little insight for 3D Attack and our
readers, to MAXON's beginnings
and the development of CINEMA
Interview
4D. We hope you will enjoy getting
to know a little more about MAXON
and the German Headquarters
CEO.
Tavy: Mr. Egel, thank you so much
for taking time from your busy
schedule to speak with 3D Attack
and share a little about yourself,
CINEMA 4D, and MAXON with our
readers. Why don't we begin with
you introducing yourself to our read-
ers.
Harald Egel: I'm one of the three
CEOs and founders of MAXON and
mainly responsible for the interna-
tional sales and marketing in the
company. In this position I'm travel-
ling a lot to promote our products
and meet many people. Different
cultures and foreign languages were
always one of my interests, so I
would like to say my job fits perfectly
to me.
Tavy: In the CG industry, CINEMA
4D is one of, if not, the most
innovative and cutting edge 3D
design applications. Would you
mind sharing with our readers a little
insight on MAXON's beginnings and
the development of CINEMA 4D?
Harald Egel: Originally we started
as students with a book project for
Atari ST computers in 1985. But
very soon we convinced our publish-
er that there is a market for a
monthly magazine. So in January
1986 the first issue of our Atari ST
Computer magazine was launched.
Later magazines for Commodore
Amiga and Apple Macintosh were
added. For eleven years, magazines
were one of MAXON's main pillars.
As our magazines were partly
focussed in programming and opti-
mizing the computer hardware, we
had good contacts to many pro-
grammers at an early stage. So in
1987 MAXON entered the software
business and over the years got one
of the leading software companies
for Atari ST and Commodore Amiga
in the German-speaking countries.
We published more than 50 soft-
ware titles for these computer plat-
forms. One of them was a program
called Fastray, which later in a
newer version was renamed to CIN-
EMA 4D. So here the story began.
The first version of CINEMA 4D was
developed by two brothers, Christian
and Philip Losch, who are still part
of the core development team today.
In the mid-nineties the Atari and
Amiga markets were declining more
and more, so we decided to take the
next step and bring CINEMA 4D
(this time as version 4) to the
Windows and Macintosh platforms.
We used the chance to start from
the scratch and ported only the
algorithms in order to reorganize the
program structure. More program-
mers, who worked on other
4
MAXON products before, joined the
team and in 1996 MAXON present-
ed version 4 for these two new plat-
forms in English and German. At
this time we started to target the
international markets and two years
later we founded MAXON Computer
Inc. near Los Angeles. More and
more localizations were added and
CINEMA 4D's reputation as a rock-
solid, fast and easy-to-learn pro-
gram started to grow worldwide.
Nowadays you can find our products
in almost every country in the world.
In 2000, after the release of CINE-
MA 4D R6, we added BodyPaint 3D
as the ideal painting and texturing
tool for CINEMA 4D. MAXON
opened offices in the UK and Japan
and joined the Nemetschek Group.
With Release 8 we established CIN-
EMA 4D's modular concept in order
to let the customer choose what fea-
tures he needs and what not. It is
well accepted and now we can offer
just the base package or different
bundles tailored to special markets.
BodyPaint 3D exchange plugins for
most of all other bigger 3D applica-
tions were added.
Tavy: With more than 100 new fea-
tures, CINEMA 4D Release 9 is of
the most impressive upgrades in
MAXON history. Where does
MAXON go from here? What can
CINEMA 4D users look forward to in
future upgrades and releases?
Harald Egel: The next release will
be R9.1, which is available as a
free download from our website.
CINEMA 4D and BodyPaint 3D are
under permanent development. Of
course I will not reveal any feature
lists of upcoming releases here, but
I can say it is our philosophy to
make our programs as easy to use
 Interview with Harald Egel - CEO Maxon Germany
By Tavy Ann

as possible, and so our key devel-

opment will always be improving the
workflow. A good example is
Clothilde, our Cloth tool in R9.
With just some clicks you can easily
animate cloth and fabrics. You do
not need hours to set up the scene
to create waving flags, clothes,
curtains etc.

Besides that, connectivity is very

important these days. We will defi-
nitely add more import/export filters
or exchange plugins. I.e. R9.1 con-
tains an interface for multipass ren-
dering to Apple's Motion. Maybe I
should mention, at this point, that
the feedback and comments from
our users and clients is very impor-
tant to us. We are collecting these
informations, and what finally gets
Interview

into the next releases depends to

some extent on them.
Tavy: Let's talk a little about CINE-
MA 4D's render engine. We know
that it's "kind of" open, but what
about the possibility of opening it
even further? In the near future do
you see the reality of using
Renderman, for example, with CIN-
EMA 4D?
Harald Egel: With Release 9 we
added some functions to our
Software Development Kit which
makes it possible to other software
companies linking their render
engines to CINEMA 4D. So i.e.
Maxwell announced already a CINE-
MA 4D support. We are open to
everybody and other manufacturers
are in contact with us but, I cannot
tell here if and when these solutions
will be released.
Tavy: More and more we are see-
ing CINEMA 4D and BodyPaint 3D
used in television and film. MAXON
surely has their foot in the door in
this industry, but not quite as far as
some of your competitors. Why do
you think the industry is holding
back and not using CINEMA 4D as
a "full blown" 3D application? If they
are, could you give us some exam-
ples?
Harald Egel: One of the possible
reasons MAXON products are
maybe used less than some com-
petitors is that we entered the 3D
market internationally much later
than them. Another reason could be
that in the first instance the trust in a
local product is probably stronger
than in a foreign one. For example
in our home markets, the German
speaking countries, we are well
established for many years.
Also in this industry everybody
knows each other over the years,
which helps a lot when you plan to
establish a new product I guess. It
took quite a while to prove that
MAXON's products are playing in
the same league as the
competition and now we are on the
right track, with both BodyPaint 3D
and CINEMA 4D. Good examples
are studios like Sony Pictures
Imageworks, Cinesite or
Framestore, but there are many
more now.
Tavy: With MAXON offices in
Germany, The United States, Japan
and the United Kingdom, can you
give us a quick breakdown of your
target markets? Who's using CINE-
MA 4D? Hobbyists, architects,
designers, professionals, etc...?
Harald Egel: Products like CINEMA
4D are used in many markets and
these again differ from country to
country , so it's hard to give a global
answer. In the States we target
especially film and broadcast,
games and visualization. In Europe
we are additionally very strong in
the architectural and print publishing
markets, but less in the game mar-

5
 Interview with Harald Egel - CEO Maxon Germany
By Tavy Ann

ket. Asia is a mix out of all these Harald Egel: Thank you for giving www.maxon.net/pages/support/sug-
markets, but of course we have a me the chance to share some gestions_e.html
very good stronghold in the hobby thoughts with you. And as a last
market as well. This is historical as word to the readers: Please give us which we are constantly evaluating.
our entry level versions were always your feedback. It is very important to Please use it. I promise in return
at a good price point and easy to us. We at MAXON cannot develop you will see many great new fea-
learn. our software to your needs without tures in the future versions.
it. We have a suggestion form on
Tavy: CINEMA 4D users are some our website:
of the most dedicated 3D application
users on the globe. And MAXON is,
by far, one of the most supportive
3D application manufacturers there
is. Whether it be customer service,
tutorials, technical support or
MAXON employee's jumping in to
lend a helping hand on the many
CINEMA 4D forums on the web,
MAXON is always there. Would you
please share with our readers the
philosophy behind MAXON's fantas-
Interview

tic customer service.

Harald Egel: It is our company phi-

losophy to treat each customer as if
it was our only customer. In this
regard we are hiring our employees.
At MAXON we are having very dedi-
cated and enthusiastic people and
many of them just turned their
hobby into a job.

They are even busy after hours as

they simply like 3D and communica-
tion with the users. Additionally, I
dare to say our employees like to
work for MAXON as we are offering
a very friendly working environment.
That reflects in the customer service
as well.

Tavy: Once again, thank you for

taking time to share with 3D Attack
and our readers. We are looking
forward to the great things MAXON
has to bring in the future.

Please feel free to leave our readers

with any last thoughts or comments
you may have.

6
 3D Fluff Volume 2 - Radiosity Interiors
Review by Mark Gmehling aka Macling

3D FLUFF TRAINING FOR CINE-

MA 4D - VOLUME 2 RADIOSITY
INTERIORS

In volume two Janine Pauke is

focusing on one of the most difficult
to handle topics in any 3d applica-
tion: achieving realistic lighting using
radiosity.

The Dvd comes along with about

160 minutes of video tutorials, the
required codecs for mac and pc, all
project files that are explained dur-
ing the video tutorials and a goodies
folder that contains seven high-res
HDRI Images and some other interi-
or scenes you can play with after
you gained your radiosity experi-
ences during the video tutorials.
DVD Review

The video tutorials are divided into

eleven parts that guide through the
whole process of material tweaking,
lighting and rendering in order to
achieve acceptable render times
while using the advanced renderer
modules radiosity settings:

1. The main radiosity setup

2. Basic theory of radiosity and glob-
al illumination
3. Setting up and adjusting direct
lighting
4. Setting up materials and adjusting
their illumination settings
5. Adjusting shadows
6. Setting up and adjusting indirect
diffuse lighting
7. Scene setup
8. Render setup
9. Adjusting antialiasing settings
10. Final photoshop improvements
of the multipass rendered layers
11. Final photoshop improvements
of the flattened image
All explanations in the video tutorials
are understandable for the interme-
diate 3D Artists and also bear lots of
interesting informations for the
advanced CINEMA user. (By the
way: the not native english speaker
will have no problem following
Janine’s english explanations.)
But the most important point is:
Janine’s explanations teach a global
technical understanding of the
radiosity settings and their relations
to the main scene setup which
makes you able to improve the
radiosity rendertimes of your own
scenes enormously.
We all know the joke: "How many
3d artists are needed to render a
great radiosity image?"
(Ten.- one who sets up the render
and nine who kill the artifacts in pho-
8
toshop.) The funny answer contains
some truth as we all know, because
in production we all have to deal
with deadlines and a straight work-
flow is the most important thing.
3d Fluff Dvd Volume 2 concentrates
on teaching a straight workflow:
Keeping the rendertimes low at the
beginning and only increasing spe-
cial settings when its needed during
process. This means, not only the
radiosity menu. The detailed setup
of a whole scene and the materials
to fasten the rendering is explained
too.
One of the chapters teaches and
technically explains the different
 3D Fluff Volume 2 - Radiosity Interiors
Review by Mark Gmehling aka Macling
DVD Review

antialiasing and GI accuracy set-

tings of each scene object via com-
positing tags for example, is part of
Janine’s workflow.

Finally , there is some photoshop-

artifact-removing needed, but that's
the result of an easy bill:

Compare the rendering time of lower

radiosity settings + photoshop
retouch with an exponential lower
radiosity rendering speed that ren-
ders no artifacts.

The photoshop tweaks (video ten

and eleven): Janine’s demonstra-
tions are worth watching even for
the advanced photoshop user and
may convince one to invest some
money into a Wacom Tablet, if you
haven't already.
ent radiosity settings, and will fasten Website: www.3DFluff.com
your radiosity workflow for sure.
I'm looking forward to following the Price: $79.95 USD
third volume of 3D Fluff Training for
CINEMA 4D and hope Janine is Rating: 5 out of 5
already working on it.

All in all ,an interesting Dvd even for Without a doubt, five of five attack
the advanced C4D User, which points!
teaches a technical understanding
of the relations between the differ- Mark Gmehling

9
 Simple IK and Reverse Foot Rig
By Sebastien Florand aka “Fluffy”
Hello guys,
1 - In this exercise, we'll learn how
to setup a simple IK leg chain using
Mocca2. I will be using "Mr Burp"
here, ready to leave for his
Hawaiian vacations, as reference
[Image01].
Tutorial
Image 01
You'll notice that I have quite a lot of
different parts for that fellow in my
hierarchy. For ease of use, I put
everything inside a Null object that I
put inside a Hypernurb.
This will allow me to activate/deacti-
vate the Hypernurb in one spot,
hence switching between Low-res
and Hi-res easily, and will also allow
me to use the bones to deform
everything that is contained in that
Null at once, even though they are
separate parts [Image02].
>> First of all, start creating a bone,
from the"objects>deformation>bone"
command menu. This bone is the
pelvis bone, that will support the
whole hierarchy, so it will be at the
top of every other bones, at the
same level than the meshes - inside
the Null object. Place it at the waist
level and keep it oriented as it is
generated [Image03].
Image 04
Image 02 Image 05
create a new bone, so just adjust it
to whatever length and orientation is
needed [Image06].
Image 03
>> Next, duplicate that bone
(Ctrl+click and drag bone in hierar-
chy - make it a child of the Pelvis
bone), and make it a Null bone, by Image 06
checking on the "Null" box in the
"object" tab of the attribute manager, >> Repeat the process to create a
when selecting that bone. The bone foot bone and toe bone [Image07]
should turn a green sphere object, [Image08].
that's a Null bone. Drag that bone
on top of your first leg (here I start
with the left leg), as that's where the
leg should be placed [Image04].
>> Duplicate that bone, uncheck the
Null box, make it a child of the first
Null bone and rotate the bone so it Image 07
fits the leg of your character. Scale
the bone using the Model tool until it
reaches the knee area [Image05].
>> Using the Move Tool ("E" short-
cut by default), and pressing "Ctrl"
key at the same time, select and
drag the tip of the bone. This will Image 08
10
 Simple IK and Reverse Foot Rig
By Sebastien Florand aka “Fluffy”
>> Don't forget to name your bones
properly, it's easier if you can identi-
fy things right away. The bone hier-
archy we just set up was for the left
leg, so add a capitalized "L" after
each bone name, we'll see later that
it is a useful way of naming and
renaming as we do a symmetry.
>> Select the Null bone at the top of
the hierarchy and apply the "Setup
IK Chain" function from the Mocca
toolbar - this will place an IK tag on
each bone, set the Null bone tag as
Null, and create a Tip Effector
object, as well as a control for that
Effector [Image09] [Image10].
Image 09
Tutorial
Image 10
>> Erase both Null objects Effectors,
as we will setup everything manually.
>> You can hide the mesh if you
prefer, for better viewing of the bone
chain. Select the chin bone and add
a Root Goal from the Mocca toolbar.
A "chin Root Goal" null is created,
and placed as target in the IK tag of
the chin bone (you can see the IK
tag display a small blue link thingy).
Take that "chin Root Goal" Null out
of the hierarchy, as it should not be
affected by IK or the hierarchy when
I move my pelvis bone. Rename it
"KneeL".
Select the chin bone tag and check
the "use as Pole" parameter, it will
tell Mocca how is oriented the plane
of rotation for that IK. It will display a
blue plane between the waist and
ankle [Image11].
Image 12
Root Goal and Tip Goal using the
same button in the Mocca toolbar.
Take the "toes Root Goal" out of the
hierarchy, and leave the Effector
created at the end of the bone chain
where it is, it will maintain the tip of
the bone oriented based on the
position of the "toes Tip Goal" Null
position [Image13].
Image 11
>> Select the foot bone and assign
a Root Goal. Take it out of the hier-
archy [Image12].
>> Select the toe bone and assign a Image 13
11
 Simple IK and Reverse Foot Rig
By Sebastien Florand aka “Fluffy”
>> Still with the toes bone selected,
apply this time an up vector to the
toe bone, and move that "toesL Up"
Null object created out of the hierar-
chy [Image14].
Tutorial
Image 14
>> Select the "footL" bone tag, and
drag the Up vector "toesL Up" that
we just created in the Up Vector box
[Image15].
>> Finally, drag the "kneeL" Null
object a bit in front of the knee area,
as it is still placed on the bone. This
Null will guide the orientation of the
knee.
Ok, so now our IK is roughly setup,
it seems long and difficult, but it's
really not that hard once you are
used to it.
Image 15
Here is what looks like my bones
chain in the viewport, and where it is
located in the object manager.
[Image16]
Image 16
2 - Tweaks before we are done:
Here, I made some minor adjust-
ments for that specific rig, as my
character didn't have straight legs
but angled outward, so I had to relo-
cate the Up vector on top of the
foot, and closer to it (as it spawned
at nearly head level). I also reset the
rotations to 0 on every rotation axis,
compared to the World axis, that
way I have a nice straight Null to
control my Up Vector.
For those of you who don't have a
clue on what is an Up vector, it is
simply a Null target that will orient
the bone on its Z axis, thus prevent-
ing it from twisting when moving the
IK chain (will prevent the foot from
12
twisting when we slide the foot side-
ways, for example). I also reset all
my other Null Goal rotation values,
so they are all aligned with the world
axis, a lot better for animation, and
cleaner.
Everything else now is mostly up to
the way you setup your Null Goals
hierarchy. It will drive the reverse
foot control, as well as the normal
foot IK.
But first, let's create a Null object
that we will use as center of rotation
for the foot. We could use the "footL
Root Goal", but it is not located
properly for my character, and if I
rotate the foot, it will send it through
the ground. Name that Null object
"FootL Control". This Null object can
also be replaced by a polygon
shape or a spline, if you like to have
visual reference in the viewport. It
doesn't really matters, just make
sure nothing appears at render time,
and that the axis is properly posi-
tioned.
>> Move the "Foot Control" object at
the calf level, roughly where the foot
should rotate [Image17].
Image 17
>> For reverse foot, you should
have the "toesL Root Goal" as the
center of rotation, and it should drag
the back of the feet with it, which is
 Simple IK and Reverse Foot Rig
By Sebastien Florand aka “Fluffy”
controlled by the "footL root Goal"
Null object, so put the "footL Root
Goal" as a child of "toes Root Goal"
and put everything as a child of the
"Foot control" object, so all the foot
goals will move in normal foot IK
when you rotate that object. Have a
look at my hierarchy if you find it
confusing. You can rename the
"toes Root Goal" Null to "Reverse
footL control" if you want to have a
clear reference when animating, or
whatever is more obvious to you.
[Image18]
Tutorial
Image 18
>> The last thing to do now is to
select all IK tags and increase the
Goal strength and Up Vector
strength to 100%, that way the
bones will stick better to the bones.
3 - Mirroring things:
We are done for that foot, you can
now start to paint weight maps using
Claude Bonnet. I won't explain that
part of rigging and will show you
how to use the symmetry to mirror
bones hierarchy and Claude Bonnet
maps without hassle.
>> Select your bone hierarchy to
mirror, starting from the "NullL"
object, and click on the "Bone mir-
ror" command from the Mocca tool-
bar [Image19].
>> Check everything except "Clone
animation" which won't be of much
use since we didn't animate any-
thing yet, and make your mirror
Image 19
based on the World axis (provided
your character is placed as the cen-
ter of the world, and symmetrical).
The "Match search" parameter
should be increased if your weight
maps don't mirror properly (it hap-
pens sometimes when using several
objects), it will increase the toler-
ance of the tool, and expand the
search for similar vertexes.
You may remember that we earlier Image 21
named our objects using a capital-
ized "L" after each of them, that's For animation, you can now focus
where the "replace" box comes in on the Pelvis, Foot controls, reverse
handy. foot controls and knee controls
movements, that's it ;)
Set "Replace" from "L" to "R". It will
rename your mirrored objects and Next time, we'll see how to assem-
replace every capitalized "L" by a ble the spine and arms. I hope you'll
capitalized "R" (stands for "Right" for enjoy your future IK setups, and
those who didn't follow) - quite use- don't hesitate to contact me on the
ful [Image20]. 3D attack forum if you run into any
problems.
Cheers,
Fluffy
Image 20
>> As you can see, everything has
been mirrored properly and
renamed. The only object that was-
n't mirrored was my "FootL control",
that I created apart from the IK
chain. It is simple enough to fix, just
take all the "R" named goals out and
duplicate that Null on the other side,
putting all the "R" named goals
inside it, as shown [Image21].
And you are done!
13
This month MAXON is sponsoring our C4D Quiz with some great prizes. By answering a
simple question and sending an e-mail with C4D Quiz in the subject line and your answer to
3d attack@3d attack.net you could win the following:

3D Guru Vol 2 and a MAXON Polo Shirt

Explore the depths of CINEMA 4D R9's new and improved modeling toolset in the second
volume of The 3D Guru series. Learn techniques that will aid in the character modeling
process, including topics such as n-gons, HyperNURBs, Soft-selections, edgeloops and
more. Over 4 hours of CINEMA 4D R9 character modeling training in our popular video format.

Question: CINEMA 4D is used in many industries. Which are mentioned in the

Solutions area of the MAXON website?

MAXON will be giving 5 gift packages containing one 3D Guru Vol 2 and one MAXON Polo
Shirt. That means 5 entrants will win! All entries must be received no later than March 31,
2005. We will announce our 5 winners on our forum at www.3d attack.net on April 1, 2005
and via e-mail. Enter at 3d attack@3dattack.net today and KEEP ON ATTACKING!
 Interview with Bernardo Barbi
By Tavy Ann

Bernado Barbi

Tavy: Bernardo, thanks so much

for taking time to share more about
you and your work with our readers.
I know you have an extremely busy
schedule and time is valuable, once
again, thank you. Why don't we start
with you telling us a bit about your-
self.

Bernardo: My name is Bernardo

Interview

Barbi. I am Brazilian, 27 years old,

born on an island called
Florianópolis on the southern coast
of Brazil where I began to work in
advertising as a designer. I worked
for some years as an advertising art
director until I became acquainted
with the 3D universe where I began
my study of CINEMA 4D. I fell in
love with the software and it is my
principal work tool today. I am an
enthusiastic lover of this beautiful
software and I am following its
development with enormous pleas-
ure. I am one of the few profession-
als that use this software in Brazil,
but I am sure that it will become
very popular here. At present, I am
working at the Platinum studio, in
Rio de Janeiro. about Platinum's work when I was tool. Platinum is one of the major
www.bernardobarbi.cjb.net invited to work with this excellent prize winning studios in Brazil, with
team of professionals. When I joined prizes won in Cannes, the New York
Tavy: Would you mine sharing with them, Platinum was using other 3D Festival, EPICA, among others.
us a little about Platinum Studio? software. I introduced CINEMA 4D www.platinumfmd.com.br
and bet on its capacity. Within a few
Bernardo: Platinum is an image months, CINEMA 4D became our Tavy: What is your educational
creating studio that works for adver- principal tool for image creation. I background? Do you have any for-
tising agencies in Brazil and am proud of having contributed to mal training in 3D/CG?
throughout the world. I already knew the studio with my work and this

15
 Interview with Bernardo Barbi
By Tavy Ann
Bernardo: My professional develop-
ment originates in advertising work.
As a designer and CG artist I am
self-taught, as I believe is the case
with the majority of Brazilian CG
artists. We have to study hard to
compete with the large international
centers. I believe that is the reason
we have excellent CG artists in
Brazil.
Tavy: Can you give us a quick
overview of your professional
career?
Bernardo: My career has been
fully given to design, always working
with advertising agencies as the art
director, up to the time when I dis-
covered 3D.I am devoted to photog-
raphy and design. 3D was a means
Interview
to bring together the two passions.
Nowadays, I work only with 3D.
Tavy: Octopus! What a fabulous
project. Can you tell our readers a
little about this great project?
Bernardo: Octopus! I loved being a
part of this work. It was widely
acclaimed and represented a chal-
lenge. The work was commissioned
by an advertising agency in Brazil
and is a good example of the kind of
work Platinum does in image cre-
ation.
When I began to work with Platinum
this project was on standby. I took
over the 3D part and was able to
work with Cinema 4D up to the end.
I cannot forget that this is a work
that brought together a number of
professionals.Technical data and
Making of:
http://www.cgnetworks.com/story_cu
stom.php?story_id=2585&page=
16
Tavy: When starting a new project
where do you find your inspiration?
Bernardo: My inspiration issues
from the possibilities and the capaci-
ty offered by 3D in creating all kinds
of images. I take in consideration
that photography, the form, and the
fact that creating images is limitless.
My time is shared by commercial
and personal works. Individually, I
do a lot of studies and have less
time available than I would like.
Professionally, I apply my personal
expertise and am moved by daily
challenges and the excellent team I
work with.
Tavy: Can you share with us some
production tips, your work flow?
How do you start a project and
where do you end it?
 Interview with Bernardo Barbi
By Tavy Ann
Bernardo: All my work begins with
research and planning. Photography
research, form and light, are funda-
mental. I love composing 3D ele-
ments with images.
Tavy: Of all your works what are
Interview
you the most proud of?
Bernardo: My last job is always the
favorite, for technical reasons and
evolution, I believe, but Octopus! is
surely the one I am most proud of.
Tavy: Who are some of your
favorite 2D and 3D artists?
Bernardo: I love Mark Ryden paint-
ings; he is one of my 20 preferred
2D artists. Among 3D artists, I have
not one I like most; I simply like
good works and follow the evolution
of artists that use Cinema 4D, like
Pupi, Cartesius, Gianlucca Mattia,
Janine, Carles Piles, ThirdEye,
Mostyle, Rui Batista, among others.
Tavy: When not busy working on
personal or professional projects,
what do you like to do?
Bernardo: Music. I adore music! I
do parallel work in music producing,
working with some bands and writ-
ing my musical compositions. Some
of these that I produced are on my
web site, should anyone be curious
about them. If I were not working
with 3D I would certainly be doing
professional work as a music pro-
ducer.
Tavy: What version of CINEMA 4D
are you currently using? What other
software apps?
Bernardo: I use version 9 of
Cinema 4D. I believe the evolution
of Cinema 4D has been fantastic.
Another software that is part of my
work is Zbrush. I like very much the
way Zbrush sculpts, and I think the
working together of these two tools
is fantastic.
Tavy: Are you currently working on
any new projects, or maybe a future
project you can tell us a bit about?
17
Bernardo: Individually, I am doing
a lot of character studies, working
with Cinema 4D and Zbrush togeth-
er. Professionally, we have a new
job similar to ET, which Platinum
developed for an agency in
Portugal. It is for the same client.
Tavy: Thanks again for sharing with
us Bernardo. Your a wonderful artist
and I'm honored that you took time
from your day to talk with us. Do
you have any advice or words of
wisdom for the thousands of aspir-
ing 3D artists across the globe?
Bernardo: I thank 3D Attack maga-
zine for sharing this space with me.
As already mentioned, I am an
enthusiastic lover of this wonderful
software called Cinema 4D and of
the work 3D Attack is developing
and which is working out as much
 Interview with Bernardo Barbi
By Tavy Ann

as Cinema 4D. A word of advice to

the artists spread throughout the
world is to publish their work, inde-
pendently of the software they are
using. Technique and the study of
classical theories like photography,
light and form are fundamental.

Thanks to all!

Bernardo Barbi
Interview

18
 Plugin review: Structure
By Gary Zullo aka MrPixar
Hey there fellow attackers! Have
you ever wondered how people cre-
ate all those great greebles and
nurnies on their models without
spending infinite amounts of time
modeling them all by hand? I know I
have. What's a greeble or a nurnie
you ask? Well, simply put a "gree-
ble" or "nurnie" is a non-specific
gadget added to an object in order
to increase detail, like little gizmos
you would place on a spaceship, or
a cityscape. Don't want to do it by
hand? Me either, enter Structure…
This plug-in will save you an almost-
unbelievable amount of time and is
surprisingly easy to use. Once
installed (as with all standard C4D
Plug-ins, you just need to drag the
Plugin Review
plug-in into C4D's plug-in folder) you
will notice a new item in the plug-ins
menu ("Structure R1.3": See Image
1). Upon selecting the plug-in a new
object will appear in the Object
Manger (more about that in a
minute).
Structure 1.3 is a plug-in for R8+
that allows you to randomly create
greebles and nurnies to your heart's
content quickly and easily. This
plug-in is actually an object modifi-
er/generator that lets you easily cre-
ate some complex structure on any
polygonal surface and it works by
creating a "Structure" object then
you drop any polygonal object as a
child of it and the greebles are cre-
ated. You can apply the Structure
modifier to a polygon selection of to
the entire polygon mesh. As with all
the options of Structure… the choice
is yours.
The control panel for Structure is
quite complex in what it allows you
to do, but is presented in a logical
manner to minimize confusion and
maximize your potential and output.
It can be accessed by double-click-
ing the icon of the Structure object
in the Object Manager. Once you
access the power of the plug-in you
can see that it is well-laid out and
each part pretty much explains itself.
The settings cover you from which
components are generated to how
they will look (e.g. Height, Width,
and Bevel etc. etc.) and until you
make the object editable you can
modify anything you need to and
"update"
The different types of shapes
Structure can generate:
1) Cube-Shapes
2) L-Shapes
19
3) T-Shapes
4) C-Shapes
5) Bar-Shapes
You can decide which shapes are
used in the generation process by
clicking each "shape" to enable or
disable them
Here are some examples of just
what types of things are possible
with the Structure plug-in. Each
example took me 30 minutes or less
to generate, render and composite if
needed. To me, that is pretty
impressive since it used to take me
30 minutes just to figure out which
shapes I wanted to greeble, then fig-
ure out how I wanted to actually do
it …
Example of using structure in a
space-tech scenario: The entire
scene took 30 minutes to render at
a rate of 3, two renders (upper left
and lower right) as well as composit-
ing time.
Example of using structure in a
cityscape type scenario: This entire
scene took approximately 15 min-
utes to build (including about 10
 Plugin review: Structure
By Gary Zullo aka MrPixar
minutes to tweak S&T) and render.
Imagine how long this would have
taken if I had to model the "build-
ings" by hand
Things I liked:
1) The intelligent way Structure
grouped polygon objects once made
editable. Based on the way you tell
Structure to generate the shapes it
will group them as follows: "Base",
"Base Top", "SuperStructure" and
"Superstructure Top". This makes it
a breeze when it comes time to tex-
ture all that geometry!
Plugin Review
2) The relative ease-of-use to power
ratio. Even though the plug-in is a
single-area utility it is quite good at
what it does. It's specialized, and it
does what it does happily and
repeatedly.
3) Since Structure is an object modi-
fier/generator is can work in much
the same way that any other gener-
ator or deformer works … it can be
enabled and disabled as needed.
Great touch!
Things I'd like to see improved on:
Not much actually, but …
1)I would like to see a speed
improvement of structure generation
on polygon sets larger than 100 or
so. Currently, when applying the
structures to polygon sets (either by
selection or entire meshes) it does
take a progressively longer time to
process the structures with larger
sets. While it should be considered
normal and acceptable that it takes
time to generate the structures
(since it is actually creating new
geometry), I think there is some
room for improvement.
2) Another area I would like to see
improved is with the control panel.
Currently, once a set of structures
are generated you cannot randomly
re-generate them without turning the
modifier off then back on. I'd like to
see a "random" button added to the
panel so that when pressed it ran-
domly generates structures based
on the parameters specified EACH
TIME. Given those two relatively
minor points I have to say that this
plug-in is actually one of those must
haves if you need to created details
on technology pieces or cityscapes
quickly and with amazing results. It's
certainly a very nifty and handy tool
to have in one's toolbox :
Summary:
Price: $55 USD
URL:
http://homepage.sunrise.ch/mysun-
rise/jane_meyer/KeemanPlugs.htm
ORDER URL:
http://order.kagi.com/cgi-
bin/store.cgi?storeID=72K
Email: miaow@dplanet.ch
Platform: PC/MAC Compatible
Rating: 4/5
20
 Basic Modeling - Lookout Tower Part 2
By Bram van Gerwen
This tutorial is the continuation of
Part 1 in the February issue. You
can use your scene you created
then, but I advise using the included
TowerPt2Start.c4d file to avoid
inconsistencies. And a finished part
2 file is also included for reference.
We continue our modeling on the
tower by creating the spiral staircase
inside, this will be done simply with
some splines, instances and the
arrange function. Select the Cylinder
and rename it to 'Central Pillar' and
copy it. Now create a new empty
scene and paste the central cylinder
into it without moving it, we want the
cylinder to remain in the exact same
place so we can simply copy/paste
the stairs we are going to create
back into the Tower Start scene
without having to place it in the right
Tutorial
spot.
The first element we create is the
step. Create a Cube and set the
sizes to X 110, Y 27 and Z 30. Also
enable the Fillet and set its Radius
to 2 for a nice rounded edge. The
next step is to make the paths along
which we want the steps to be
arranged.
For this we will use two Helix
splines, one for arranging the steps
and one as a rail spline to aim the
steps toward the central pillar.
Create a Helix spline (Objects ->
Spline Primitives -> Helix) and set
its Plane field to XZ to align it cor-
rectly with the pillar, as you see its
base is in the middle of the pillar so
set its position to Y -260 in the coor-
dinates manager to move it to the
bottom of the pillar.
The height of the helix can now be
set to 490, a little lower than the
height of the pillar so the steps won't
exceed the pillar height. We want
the steps to make only one full rota-
tion round the pillar counter-clock-
wise so set its Start Angle to 360¼
and its End Angle to 0¼ like in pic-
ture 1/A.
The arrange helix is now finished
and for clarity rename it to 'Arrange
Helix'. Duplicate this helix and
rename the duplicate to 'Rail Helix'.
Set the Start and End Radius of the
rail spline to 50, this is the radius of
the pillar and thus the rail will wind
perfectly along the pillar while main-
taining the same rotation angle and
thus allow the steps to target it with-
out tilting the wrong way, see picture
1/B for reference.
Our current step has a length of 110
and the radius of the pillar is 50, the
steps will be arranged according to
their object axis which is in the
exact center of the object. This
means that if we want the steps to
touch the pillar when we arrange
them we need to set the Start and
End Radius of the Arrange helix to
100. This is the sum of 50 from the
cylinder and little less than half of
the step length. If we leave the
radius values at 200 the steps will
float clear of the pillar which is not
realistic.
Having done that we need to make
instances of the one step we have
so far. Select the Cube, rename it to
'Step' and use the Duplicate function
(Function -> Duplicate), set it to 19
duplicates and enable create
instances option and hit Apply. The
instance object is a sort of alias to
21
your original object, it will represent
the original object it is linked to with-
out actually duplicating the geome-
try, this way when you make a
change to your original object it will
be immediately be visible in all the
linked instances. The duplicate func-
tion has created a group of
instances in the object manager,
drop the Step object into it to have
all steps in one group.
We are ready to arrange the steps
now so call the Arrange function
(Functions -> Arrange). This will give
you some options in the attributes
window. Set the Mode to 'Along
Spline'. The along spline parameter
fields will now become visible. Drag
the Arrange Helix to the Spline field
(under position), then enable the
rotation field and drag the Rail
spline into it, in the rotation part set
the Align parameter to +X, this will
keep the steps horizontal when
arranging, see picture 2.
Now select all 20 steps, make sure
you don't have the null object of the
group selected, and hit Apply in the
arrange options and you can see
them being neatly arranged across
the Arrange spline while targeting
the Rail helix and remaining hori-
zontal like in picture 2. But we can
easily see that the steps are not
deep enough to create connected
steps, this is where the usefulness
of the instance comes into play.
Select the Step object and change
 Basic Modeling - Lookout Tower Part 2
By Bram van Gerwen
its Z value to 50 and hit enter,
immediately you will see all the
steps gaining in length and the gaps
between them are closed.
The spiral stairs are finished,
rename the group to 'Spiral Stairs'.
Copy the group and paste it into the
Tower Start scene, you can switch
open projects in the Window menu.
Set the H rotation of the spiral steps
group to 95¼ in the coordinates
manager, this will make the stairs
reach the hole in the ceiling perfect-
ly. We are finished with the staircase
now.
Next we will create a row of orna-
mental supports for the battlement.
This will be done by means of mod-
eling one support object and placing
it in an Array object that can make
Tutorial
automatic instances along a certain
radius, very handy to make circles
of objects while using only one
object.
Create a new empty scene and cre-
ate a cube and rename it to 'Support
Ornament'. Set its properties to the
following values: X 17, Y 51, Z 7
and its Y segments should be set to
3. This will make a very small object
so zoom in on it. Make the orna-
ment editable an select 2 upper
polygons on a wide side like in pic-
ture 3/A. Select the Extrude tool
(Structure -> Extrude) and set its off-
set to 7, the same as the Z length of
the object, disable the realtime
update and hit Apply. Ctrl click the
lower selected polygon to deselect it
and hit the New Transform button in
the extrude options which should
still be active if done right. We now
have the basis of the object, and
can add some details.
Go into a side view and zoom in on
the object, then select the live selec-
tion tool, disable 'Only select visible
elements' in its options and drag
over the side of the object to select
all side polygons, check picture 3/B
for reference. Then select the Inner
Extrude tool (Structure -> Extrude
Inner), set its offset to 2 and then
Apply. Inner Extrude extrudes along
the same plane of the selected poly-
gon instead of extruding in height
along the normal of the selected
polygon. With the extruded selection
still active on both sides select the
Extrude tool and set it to -2 and
apply, this will extrude the selections
inward creating a nice raised edge.
Create a hyperNURBS object
(Objects -> NURBS ->
hyperNURBS) and drop the orna-
ment into it. We can see it being
smoothed nicely, all we need to do
now is add a couple of knife cuts to
sharpen some of the roundings.
Deselect All polygons (Selection ->
Deselect All), select the knife tool
and set its mode to Loop. Cut two
loops near the edges of the object
along the width like in picture 3/C.
Now switch to a side view, set the
knife mode to Plane and set the
plane field to X-Y and make two
cuts like in picture 3/D. Then set the
mode to X-Z and make the third cut
near the bottom of the object, also
in pic 3/D. The ornament is now fin-
ished so copy the ornament
hyperNURBS object and paste it
into the Tower Start scene.
Create an Array object (Objects -
>Modeling -> Array), rename it to
'Ornament Array' and drop the orna-
ment NURBS object in there. You
22
will immediately see a couple of
duplicates being arranged around
the tower. Depending on which side
you started to model the ornament it
might be turned toward the tower
instead of away from it which is
what we want. If the flat side is not
oriented toward the tower select the
ornament object inside of the
hyperNURBS and set its H rotation
value to 180 and hit enter, you can
immediately see all the array dupli-
cates rotate 180¼, see picture 4/A.
Switch to front view and set the Y
position of the array object to 226.
This will align the ornaments nicely
with the start of the battlement, but
they are still not touching the tower,
so set the radius of the array object
to 223 to move the objects closer to
the tower. Now that the ornaments
are fitting nicely to the tower we can
increase the duplicates, set the
Copies in the array object to 36, cre-
ating a nice circle of supports, see
picture 4/B.
Now that the array is in place we
can make it invisible for now by
clicking the dot twice and do a little
tweak on the windows, the straight
top of the windows doesn't look that
well so close to the ornaments.
While holding shift select the poly-
gons adjacent to the tops of the win-
dows like in picture 5/A, then select
the move tool and move the poly-
gons down over the Y-axis until the
tops are nicely rounded, see picture
5/B, make sure you don't drag them
too far so they start overlapping the
 Basic Modeling - Lookout Tower Part 2
By Bram van Gerwen
polygons below them. After this
Tutorial
change select the loop selection tool
(Selection -> Loop Selection) and
select the front polygon loop in all
three windows like in picture 5/C,
select the extrude tool and set the
offset to 3 and subdivisions to 1 and
apply. The windows look much more
defined after this action. Only the
undersides are a bit to rounded still,
select the knife tool (Structure ->
Knife), disable restrict to selection,
set the mode to Plane and the plane
field to X-Z, then make a cut near
the bottom of the windows, picture
5/D.
While we're at it, make 2 cuts along
the tilted surface under the battle-
ments near the top and bottom like
in picture 6/A. We'll continue on with
an addition to the battlements.
Select the Rectangle Selection tool
(Selection -> Rectangle Selection),
disable 'only select visible elements',
and in a side view drag a square
over the top polygons like in picture
6/A. If you drag too far and select
the row below it as well you can use
Selection -> Shrink Selection to
remove them from the selection.
When the polygons on top of the
battlements are selected use the
Extrude tool, set it to 4 offset and
apply, make sure subdivisions is set
to 0, we want to make slanted tops
on the murlons so we need the
extrusion to make sharper corners.
Make another extrusion of 30
meters with the new transform but-
ton, result in picture 7/A. Now we
need to make the top parts smaller,
this can be done for all the tops in
one go by using the Normal Scale
tool. Every group that is in the
selection sort of has its own central
point by which each group will be
scaled when using the normal scale
tool.
Select the Normal Scale tool
(Structure - Normal Scale) and set
the scale field to 0% and hit apply
once and new transform twice to
scale the groups down, try to make
a habit out of disabling the 'realtime
update' option. If you look at the
coordinates manager you will see
the size of the current selection, we
want the tops to be placed a little
more inward so change the X and Z
sizes to 420 each and apply, you will
notice that with this standard scale
method the entire group was scaled
as a whole instead of by their own
centers, result in picture 7/B. We
now need to extrude the entire 'cap'
of the murlons so we need to
expand our selection, grow the
23
selection 2 times so the entire mur-
lon tops are selected. Then select
the extrude tool and extrude with 4
offset. Almost done on the battle-
ment addition, select the knife and
set it to plane, set the plane field to
X-Z and make 2 cuts at the top and
bottom of the slanted sides of the
murlons to sharpen the edges, see
picture 7/C.
It's time to make the door and make
the frame of the doorway a bit nicer.
We will make the door frame and
the door by extracting a spline from
the geometry of the current frame.
select the polygons around the door
like in picture 8/A and use the
Select Outline tool (Selection ->
Outline Selection), with the tool
active click on the polygon selection
and its outline edges will be select-
ed. Now that the edges are selected
use the Edge to Spline tool
(Structure -> Edit Spline -> Edge to
Spline), this will create a spline of
the selection as a child of the tower
body in the object manager. Select it
and drag it out of the tower body.
Make the tower body invisible for
now, then select the Point Tool
(Tools -> Points) and with live selec-
 Basic Modeling - Lookout Tower Part 2
By Bram van Gerwen
tion select the outer spline and
delete it, we won't need that part,
result in picture 8/B. Because the
spline was extracted from straight
polygons it is still linear and has no
roundings, set its typ to B-Spline
and the Intermediate points to
Adaptive, this will give the corners
automatic roundings without the
need to use tangents, also enable
Close Spline so there are no gaps in
the spline.
Tutorial
Rename the spline to 'door spline'
and select the Object Axis tool
(Tools -> Object Axis), with this tool
you can move the axis without the
object moving. Switch to 4 views
and you will see that the spline has
taken its axis point from the geome-
try of the tower, which was simply at
world 0, not a disaster, but we need
to move the axis if we are to scale
the spline properly.
So with the axis tool active set the Y
position to -105 and the Z position
to -215. This spline will function as
an arrange spline first for a group of
bricks which will be the door frame
and second we will use it to create
the door.
The axis now has a correct position
to scale the spline, first switch back
to the Model Tool (Tools -> Model)
and set the Z position of the spline
to -206, this will move the spline a
bit back into the door frame and this
way the bricks won't stick out when
arranged. In the coordinates manag-
er set the Size field to Scale, set the
Y-scale to 0.98 and the X scale to
0.92 and hit Apply, this is very subtle
because we want the frame bricks
to touch the inner door frame.
Switch to the Model Tool and create
a Cube, rename it to 'Doorframe
Brick', set its size to X 14, Y 6 and Z
14 and enable a fillet with a radius
of 1, a nice flat brick. Just as with
the spiral staircase we must create
instances of the doorframe brick,
this time duplicate the instance 35
times.
Select all 36 objects (not the null)
and call the Arrange function, set it
to Along spline and drag the door
spline to the spline field, enable
rotation and set it to +X and hit
Apply. There, the bricks have been
nicely arranged inside the door
frame along the door spline, see pic-
ture 9. Now it's time to make the
door.
Making backups of your arrange
splines is usually a good idea if you
are going to use them for other
things, but not necessary here.
Switch to front view, select the door
spline and in the coordinates man-
ager set the size field to scale
again, set the Y scale to 0.90 and
the X scale also to 0.90 and hit
Apply. The more we downscale the
less perfect the spline will fit, so we
need to make a couple of point
24
adjustments. Select the rectangle
selection tool and go into Point
Mode, drag across the lower half of
the spline to select those points, you
can grab the Y handle on the axis to
move the points down without hav-
ing to go into the Move Tool (Tools -
> Move), see picture 10/A. Now
select the upper thinner part of the
spline and move them a bit up, also
go into scale mode with this bit and
scale them a bit thinner across the
X axis only so they are clear of the
bricks, see picture 10/B, in the
Scale Tool it's also possible to grab
the axis handles and drag to scale,
very handy.
The door spline is ready to be used
to create the door, create an
Extrude NURBS object (Objects ->
NURBS -> Extrude NURBS) and
drop the spline into it. The basis for
our door is created, but we notice a
lot of artifacts on it because the
spline we extracted still has the cur-
vature from the tower geometry, we
need to flatten it, we are going to
use a cube to flatten the spline
against.
Create a cube and place it directly
behind the spline, see picture 11,
from the front view the spline must
fit into the cube. Select both the
Cube and the door spline and select
the 'Project Spline across Surface'
tool (Structure -> Edit Spline ->
Project...). You will get a window
where you can select a projection
 Basic Modeling - Lookout Tower Part 2
By Bram van Gerwen

field, select XY plane and hit OK. If

done correct the spline will be flat-
tened against the surface of the
cube, the cube is no longer needed
and can be deleted. With no more
artifacts on the door we can give it
some nice caps.
Select the Extrude NURBS object
and in the caps tab set the Start and
Tutorial
move the Extrude NURBS object a
bit forward into the doorframe so
that it fits snugly, you can select the
rotate tool now and grab the green
rotation handle to open the door or
change the H value by hand to open
it, I opened mine 78¼.

End field to Fillet Cap, change the
radius of both caps to 1. Now select
the Object Axis tool and set its posi-
tion values to X 42, Y -116 and Z -
202, this will place the Extrude
Nurbs object axis to the right of the
door and will be able to function as
a door hinge when we rotate that
object, but depending on how far
your cube was from your spline you
might want to grab the Z axis and
move it to corner of the door.
Switch back to the Model Tool and
You'll notice the door is a bit thick, in
the extrude NURBS object options
change the last 20 value to 8 for a
nice firm door.
That was it for part 2, you should
now have a tower that looks like pic-
ture 12. More next month.
Have fun modeling, Bram

25
 Character Modeling - Part 2
By Mark Gmehling aka Macling
Hey there Attackers! In this second
part of my Newbie poly-by-poly
Character Modeling tutorial- I'll focus
on finishing the characters head by
adding an ear and neck to the head
and close the rest of the heads sur-
face.
As always I try to make all steps
easy to follow even for newbies or
users/switchers of/from other 3D
applications. I'm using C4D Rel.9,
but you'll be able to follow even if
you use an earlier version.
If you just want to follow this part
and didn't follow part one, notice
that I'm using the free easy-clone
plugin- available here:
http://www.spot4d.co.uk/plugins_eas
yclone.html. Just download it and
place it in your C4d plugin folder…A
useful tool.
Tutorial
OK- lets go! I open the head I left in
the past issue and switch to side-
view(F3) to define the chin profile
and neck by adding ten points with
the add new points tool- make sure
you selected the head object in the
object manager/you're in point mode
and you're holding the ctrl key while
clicking to add points- PIC01. Then I
rectangle select the new created
points and easy-clone them two
times (Remember I always disable
"only visible" in the rectangle selec-
tion tool attributes and use the live
selection for selecting only visible
areas) to move(E) them along the x-
axis lining up with the vertical mouth
poly flow- PIC02. Then I use the
Bridge Tool(B) to connect the point points to polys PIC06/07. After that I
rows to polys PIC03/04- Switch your lift up the outer pointrows and lower
Hypernurbs on and off to get a
clearer view.
the pointrows at the symmetry axis
to define the rounded shape of the
Remember that you can realign the neck- look at PIC08/09.
polygon direction by the Align
Polygons Command in the
Functions menu if you get black
lines on the new poly surfaces (in
earlier Cinema versions you find this
command in the structure menu).
These lines are caused by wrong
polygon normal direction which is
caused by bridging in a contraclock-
wise direction. I don't really care Now I go on to close the side of the
about the clockwise direction while head: I select the points shown in
bridging or creating new polygons- I PIC10 and easy-clone them and
use to realign the polys via the func- move them along the z-axis lining
tions menus align normals or
reverse normals command.
Ok- now I tweak the points by mov-
ing(E) the outer polyrow a little bit
back and tweak single points to
define a rounded chin shape and a
little fold below the mouth -PIC05.
Now I easy-clone the outer point
row two times again and move the up with the polyflow. Then I
cloned point rows along the x-axis bridge(B) them to polys PIC11.Now I
and back to the z-axis lining up with repeat the same procedure with the
the mouth polyflow and bridge the points shown. Then I roughly
26
 Character Modeling - Part 2
By Mark Gmehling aka Macling
tweaked the polys as always-
PIC12/13 and focus on adding an
ear:
Tutorial
BLOCKING OUT THE EAR:
A realistic ear is one of the most dif-
ficult tasks in organic modeling- I’ll
show you a way here to block it out
of an existing head mesh on the
base of only a few polygons. I'm
going to prepare an area consisting
of eight polygons in the next steps
which will be the base of the ear.
I want to model it quite detailed, but
not photorealistic: Switched to side-
view(F3) I easy-clone the points
shown three times- each time mov-
ing them back in z-direction-
PIC14/15- and as always paying
attention to line them up with the
other vertical polygon flow. Then
bridge them together. After that I
tweaked the points to prepare the
base of the ear -PIC16/17. Before I
go further I tweak the new vertical
polyrows to ensure a round head-
delete the two polys shown here-
PIC22 and create them again but
with another edge direction-(I used
the Create new Polygons Tool in
Point mode- PIC22/23) to define the
shape from top view(F2) which ear "helix".
means I'm moving(E) the new ver-
tices slightly outward along the x-
axis- PIC18.
Now I live-select the eight polys
shown in PIC24 and extrude them-
PIC25. Once again I change the
Now I select the polys shown and
extrude them inner(I) one time and
shape the ear form basically out of
these new points- PIC19/20. After
that I extrude the tweaked polys (D)
and then rotate(R ) them slightly in
polyflow by deleting the two polys
shown in PIC26 and create them
with a flipped direction again(again
z-direction towards the front and
move(E) it slightly back in z-direc-
tion-PIC21.
Next step is extrude inner(I) one
more time, and now its going to be a
little bit tricky: I need to change the switched to point mode with the cre-
polyflow- to do that, so I have to ate polygon tool)- PIC27/28.
27
 Character Modeling - Part 2
By Mark Gmehling aka Macling
Back in polygon Mode I select the
seven polys shown in PIC28 and
extrude(D) them PIC29- after that I
tweak the new points slightly to cre-
Tutorial
ate points to define the inner ear
helix or so called "Antihelix"- look at
PIC30/31.
And I change the polyflow a third
time-delete these polys-PIC32 and
create them with a flipped direction
again- PIC33. Now I select these
eight polys shown in PIC34 and
extrude(D) them inward and
scale(T) them in a little bit. Then I inner(I) -move(E) them inward (scale
tweak the bottom points to smooth in x-direction a little bit to flatten
the result out a bit. them slightly) and adjust the points
in Point mode to smooth out the
To define the so called triangular result of the extrusion- PIC41/42.
fossa I change the polyflow of the The last step to finalize the ear is
polys shown in PIC35 with the
known procedure- deleting in poly
mode and creating again with the
create poly tool in point mode-
PIC36.
the earhole/ the so called "meatus":
I select the poly shown -PIC43 and
extrude inner (I) them slightly and
move them inward and extrude(D)
I tweak the points and extrude
inner(I) these polys-PIC37-move
them slightly inward and scale(T)
them smaller in y-direction and after
that in x-direction to flatten them-
PIC38. Now I move(e) the points
again- PIC44. Look at PIC45 to see
the extrude shape. OK- that should
(Pointmode) to smooth the "tri-
fossa" shape -PIC39.
Now I add the so called "concha"
like this: selecting the six polys as be enough detail I think.
seen in PIC40 and again extrude You will notice: the most time con-
28
 Character Modeling - Part 2
By Mark Gmehling aka Macling
suming part is the point-tweaking. I
recommend you “google” a useful
"human ear" pic that will guide you
while point-tweaking. Before I go
further I select all ear polys with the
rectangle selection (with only visible
disabled in sideview(F3)) Be sure to
deselect (CTRL-select) the mouth
cavity polys you might have select-
ed too! I scale(T) move(E) and
rotate(R) the ear into right size and
place- Look at PIC46/47.
Tutorial
CLOSING THE HEAD-SHAPE:
Moving on I close the head shape
by easy-cloning pointrows several
times and bridge them to polys. I
start in sideview(F3) and select
these three points -PIC48- easy-
clone them five times- orienting at
the horizontal polyflow to close the
cheek area with the Bridge Tool(B)-
look at PIC49.
Then I select the two points shown -
PIC50 and weld them- PIC51
(Functions-Weld) together. (In earlier
Cinema Versions you find this com-
mand for example by clicking the v-
key: a menu appears containing the
weld command.) Now the points
have to be tweaked to get a nicely
rounded shape.
After that I select the twelve points
shown in PIC52 and easy-clone
them one time, move them slightly
back in z-direction and scale the y-
axis smaller to bridge(B) them
together - PIC53. I use these points
to define the fold the jaw creates, so
I move(E) the still selected points
slightly inward in x-direction- PIC54.
To go further in closing the head I
select the points 15 shown in PIC55
and easy-clone them- move them
back to line up with the horizontal
polyflow (…just scale(T), rotate(R)
and move(E) the cloned pointrow to
fit in the desired area) and bridge
the new points to polys. You'll notice
that I tweaked the points in a weird
manner- PIC55- I did this because I
want to reduce the number of polys
29
in the back head area- I bridge(B)
new polys as seen in PIC56- a quite
dirty solution, but I'll fix that later.
Now I switch to sideview(F3) choose
the create new Points tool and ctrl-
click five new points.
I easy-clone these points- PIC57
four times and move them along the
x-axis, paying attention to line up
with the vertical polyflow- PIC58- I
bridge the points and the back head
is closed. It’s point tweaking time
again.
Now I focus on the neck area.I
select the two points shown in
PIC59 and weld (Functions-weld)
them- PIC60. Then I bridge(B) the
two faces shown in PIC61 to fill the
gap- after that I select the points
shown in PIC62 and weld them as
before- the neck is closed too and
 Character Modeling - Part 2
By Mark Gmehling aka Macling

looks nice after some point-tweak-

ing.Take a look at PIC63/64 to see
Tutorial

where I did the last tweaks.

OK that's enough for this issue-
Next time I'll make some major

tweaks with the global head shape

(and the mouth )- I refine the mesh
a little bit and I'll add teeth and
begin the modeling of the torso
area. If you have questions, don't
hesitate to contact me via pm at 3d
attack.net. CU on board/ Keep on
ATTACKING!

30
 Landscape Tutorial Part 2
By Georg Niedermeier aka Sad
As promised, in the first part of our
landscape tutorial, we will now focus
on some details which we need in
order to gain a realistic landscape:
Fields, Buildings and other stuff.
We won't focus on a super realistic
environment, but on a realistic over-
all appearance.
First of all let's create some mini-
malistic trees: create a cylinder that
makes up our trunk and a simple
sphere to simulate foliage.
Don't make it too big because it has
Tutorial
to fit our landscape. The sphere of
our tree has a radius of about 31
and 9 segments which makes it
slightly lowpoly, but as I have said
earlier, we don't aim for a super
realistic tree. The trunk of the tree is
made of the cylinder and has a
radius of 3 and a height of 40 units.
Because we will be using quite a
high number of trees in our scene,
we can save memory by giving it
only 1 Height Segment and approxi-
mately 10 Rotation Segments.
Sphere to the top of your trunk.
Make the tree to look like this one:
Picture 27
Picture 27
After you have done this select the
sphere and the cylinder in your
Object Manager and group it by
clicking Objects -> Group. Double-
click the newly created Null-Object
and type the word Tree. Now you
have given a name to the new
object.
Let’s head over to creating some
fields.
Our two landscape objects are
polygonal which allows us to select
polygons and to use some very
interesting modeling tools like
extrude, bevel and others. These Picture 29
tools come in very handy for our You might think that it could be
project because any landscape will avoided by rotating the landscape
look much better if it isn't just a along the y-axis, but this is not an
green plane, but a patchwork of dif- appropriate solution, because if we
ferent colors and heights. do that we will lose the nice land-
scape that we have created
Select the landscape object that sits Picture 30.
next to our camera and switch to
polygon mode. Zoom the selected
landscape so it fits our top viewport
Picture 28.
Picture 30
Chapter 7
Picture 28 There exists a little trick (actually it
Switch to Rectangle Selection. is one of the standard tools) that we
Picture 29 can use in order to get diagonal
polygons:
Paint a rectangle somewhere in your
top view. You will see some visual Deselect any polygons and chose
feedback within the 3-D viewport the Knife tool. If you are working
that doesn't look very good because with another version other than
it gives a straight line for our selec- Cinema 4d R9 you can use the tool
tion. This would ruin the natural as is. Users of C4D R9 need to
look that we are keen to create. make a setting to the tool before
31
 Landscape Tutorial Part 2
By Georg Niedermeier aka Sad
using it: Uncheck the Create N-gons
option. Picture 31
Picture 31
Now it is time to make some free,
but rather diagonal cuts. The knife
tool creates new edges to those
polygons it touches. It is normal
that this method produces triangles,
but it will not disturb us.
Once you're finished with the cuts,
Tutorial
choose the Polygonal Selection
Tool, activate the option Tolerant
Selection and make a selection of
the newly created area. Activating
Tolerant Selection helps to select
polygons, because normally poly-
gons are only selected if they are
entirely surrounded by the rectangu-
lar or polygonal selector.
It is necessary that you make the
selection very carefully because we
don't want to produce a selection
that appears too edgy. Remember
that you can add polygons to your
selection by pressing the shift key.
If you want to deselect certain poly-
gons just hit the Ctrl key while
selecting them. Don't worry if the
selection has some edges.
It doesn't matter too much.
A polygonal selection will either be
finished by clicking the starting point
again or by pressing the right mouse
button after you have made at least
two left clicks. Your top viewport
should look something like this now:
Picture 32
Picture 32
And that's what's your 3-D viewport
might look like: Picture 33
Picture 33
Please notice that both cuts can be
seen.
That the first selection from which
we are going to create a field.
Click the Extrude Tool or select it
from the Structure menu. Click the
mouse button and move the mouse
very, very little. Actually we don't
want a normal extrusion because
every polygon would be moved
along its polygon-normal which
would create some very flower
power fields. You can try if you like,
but please make sure to undo it
after you have seen what would
happen.
What we want is to have a field that
grows straight up. So after you have
made your very little extrusion click
the green arrow in the center of the
selection and move it up. Picture 34
32
Picture 34
In order to be able to texture the
field, grow the selection via
Selection -> Grow Selection and
save it by clicking Set Selection in
the Selection menu. The triangle on
the right side of your landscape
object in the object manager indi-
cates that your selection has been
saved.
Now you can see if you have under-
stood what I have shown you:
Repeat that with the second land-
scape object starting from the very
beginning of Chapter 7. Activate the
second landscape object by clicking
it in the Object Manager. Use the
knife tool and make 2 parallel cuts
so it appears like a street. Try to
make sure that the selection can be
seen in the 3-D viewport Picture 35.
Invert the selection Picture 36.
Picture 35
Make a very little extrusion and
move it by clicking the green arrow.
Grow the selection 1 time and save
 Landscape Tutorial Part 2
By Georg Niedermeier aka Sad
Picture 36
it again. Now we have created some
space for a street crossing the field.
Picture 37
Tutorial
Picture 37
Chapter 7
Adding More Details
Let's create a fence that separates
the field from the street.
Switch to top view and move it so
that the first landscape that we have
created appears. Now select some
polygons that will make the poles of
our future fence. Try to make the
selection as uniform as possible.
Picture 38
Make an inner extrusion. Make it as
far as it is needed to look like a real-
istic pole. Not too thick and not too
thin, that is. Orientate on the size of
your tree Picture 39.
As we have done earlier with our
fields, make a tiny extrusion and
name like pole Picture 40. In order
to finish the fence we need a bunch
of wooden planks. The easiest way
Picture 38
Picture 40
to create it is to use a cube and to
give it the shape we need. In top
view you can adjust the length,
while you have to use the left, right,
frontal or back view in order to
manipulate the height of the planks
Picture 41.
Picture 39
after that move it up along the y-
axis. Once you're satisfied with the
poles, grow and save the selection
because we want to be able to tex-
ture the poles differently. Before you
save the new selection, make sure
that the first selection isn't activated.
If it was it would be overwritten.
Make a single click at the new
selection tag and assign a new Picture 41
33
 Landscape Tutorial Part 2
By Georg Niedermeier aka Sad
If you switch back to Perspective
View you will see how you have to
rotate the planks and how you have
to use them in order to model a nice
fence. If you need more planks just
copy the cube.
Because we don't want to create an
animation, it will be sufficient to only
model the fence where it will be
seen by the camera.
Once you're finished, it should look
something like this Picture 42.
If you're wondering whether the tree
that we have made earlier is too big
Tutorial
Picture 42
compared to the fence, then you're
right. The tree needs to be scaled
down a bit. Select the null-object
that contains the models of which
the tree is built and double-click its
name. Rename it to Tree. Scale the
tree down to your likes and create
several instances of it.
The function is to be found in
Functions > Duplicate.
Picture 42a
Picture 42a Picture 42c
The Attributes Manager shows three
subfunctions of the duplicate tool.
Activate all three of them via click
dragging Picture 42b.
Picture 43
function of Cinema4d. Switch to the
Edge Tool and select the edges as
shown below Picture 44.
Picture 42b
Enter a number of your choice and
activate the Create Instances option.
Instances are copies of an object
that take over the settings of the
base object automatically. The base
object is the object that has been
active while executing the duplicate
function. The instances can be
found in the newly created
Tree_copies Null-Object. Picture 44
Spread the trees over the entire Now you need to activate the Stitch
scene Picture 42c. and Sew function found in the
Structure Menu Picture 45.
You will have been noticing that the Now click at a and drag it to b.
edges of our fields are not straight Picture 46. The result will look like
and that they look as if they were this: Picture 47. Another example of
built of blocks Picture 43. In order blocky structure can look similar to
to correct that you will have to fiddle this one: Picture 48.
around with the Stitch and Sew You can change that by stitching
34
 Landscape Tutorial Part 2
By Georg Niedermeier aka Sad

That's how it should look like after

you have used the Stitch and Sew

Picture 48
Tutorial

Picture 45

Picture 49
function Picture 50. Don't relay too
much on my example pictures
because most of the time it won't
look exactly the same.

Picture 46

Picture 50

Play around with Stitch and Sew

Picture 47
two edges together as you have
already done earlier Picture 49.
until you are getting used to this
functionality of Cinema 4d. In our
next part we will create the sky,
some grass, and an agricultural
building.

35
 Emorpher: The Power of PLA Morphing
By Sebastien Florand aka Fluffy
Emorpher, developed by Santiago
Ramirez (aka Eaggo), is a wonderful
morphing tool whose sole purpose
is to deform a mesh.
http://www.eggington.net/~eago/
The big advantage of it compared to
other plugins and Posemixer, is that
it doesn't need a copy of the mesh
for each morph, it smartly uses a
PLA (Point Level Animation) animat-
ed track that will define the different
states, and morph these tracks
together using sliders. No more
heavy meshes to duplicate. No
more keeping track of tens of
copies. The only thing that
Emorpher can't do, is to morph bone
hierarchy, but Posemixer does this
really well, so no problem.
First, we'll need a model to work
Tutorial
with. As it happens, MrBurp here
has not left for his Hawaiian vaca-
tions yet, so I'll keep using him for
this tutorial [pic1].
The basic mesh is a simple, low res-
olution object dropped into a
Hypernurb. In this tutorial, I will be
using Cinema4D R9, so some of the
features will have changed or not be
available in previous versions.
1 - Emorpher : How it works
>> First of all, you'll need to tell
Emorpher which mesh to deform.
To do this, it needs a Null object that
you will drop as a child of that mesh.
So track down your object, and drop
a Null on it, as a child. Name that
Null Object, with a unique name
(here, I name it "Emorpher" - and
use numbers after it if I have several
characters).
[pic2]
Picture 2
>> Right-click on the Null object,
and you should have the Emorpher
function listed at the main level.
Select it and it will create an
Emorpher tag on the Null object.
By doing this, the plugin automati-
cally sets up the default state of
your morphing, by creating a
keyframe in the PLA track of the
object (we'll go check that later on in
the tutorial), and pops up a window
directly in "edit" mode (notice the
checked "Edit" radio box). The Edit
mode allows you to modify the mesh
and record your changes [pic3].
Picture 3
>> Next, you need to create a
morph state. Click on the "Add tar-
get" button. This creates a second
36
PLA keyframe that will define a state
in the animation track, and as a
result, a morphing. In the popup,
you'll notice that a tab has been
added, with a blank box and several
buttons. In the blank text box, input
a name for the morphing you want
to create (here, I will name it "mouth
closed"), and click on the left arrow.
This creates a Null object in the
object manager, that will be used as
a slider to drive that specific morph-
ing. That Null object is named exact-
ly as defined in the blank text box.
[pic4]
Picture 4
>> You can now start to edit your
mesh and create your morphs.
As I named my morph "mouth
closed", then I will close the mouth,
using point mode or polygone mode.
I won't cover that part in detail, but
here is the shape I will use as
morph state. Once happy with your
modeling, click the "refresh" button
on the Emorpher popup.
This will refresh the state of that
specific morph, based on how look
your current mesh. The "refresh"
button will help you redefine the
state of the morph whenever you
want make changes. It will refresh
that specific state with whatever cur-
rent deformation you have applied
to the mesh at the moment you hit
the button. [pic5]
 Emorpher: The Power of PLA Morphing
By Sebastien Florand aka Fluffy
Picture 5
>> Next, we'll create another pose.
Click the "Reset" button to reset
your mesh at the default shape (the
way it was when you applied the
Emorpher tag on the Null object),
and click the "Add target" button to
create another morph state.
Tutorial
Name that morph, and click the left
arrow to create a Null object that will
be used as slider.
In my example, I will create a "sur-
prised" state (which consist of a sim-
ple raised brow) to show you the
use of mirroring poses. Once satis-
fied with the morphing, click the
"refresh" button to make sure it is
applied to that morph [pic6].
Picture 6
>> Now, we will mirror our
"surpriseL" pose by clicking the
"Mirror" button next to that state.
This action will create a new mir-
rored morph on the character. Make
sur the character is symmetrical
before doing this, or at least has the
same number of points on the other
side. If not, you'll have to set your
mirror poses independently. To
make sure that the pose is correctly
mirrored, a neat function is avail-
able, which is the "Test" button. This
function allows you to check the
morph directly in edit mode, and see
what's inside a morph. [pic7]
Picture 7
>> In addition to the "Mirror" func-
tion, you will find the "Form object"
function, which allows you to make
a copy of the current state to start
your morphs from that position if you
wish.
>> Create as many poses as you
need and uncheck the "Edit" button
once you are ready to use the slider
system. Note that you can come
back anytime on "Edit" mode by
simply double-clicking the Emorpher
tag to open the Emorpher popup
and checking the "Edit" radio box
once again. Click the "Test" button
to come back to a specific state,
tweak your morph and hit the
"Refresh" button to save the
changes on a specific state.
You can also create new ones at
will, whenever you want.
We are done with the creation of
morph targets. We will now see how
to actually use these morphs.
2 - Sliders system
Emorpher's morphings are driven by
Null objects, whose movements are
automatically restricted to the X
37
axis, on a value between 0 and 100
(of whatever unit you are using).
These Null objects are nice, but not
really straightforward to use during
the animation stage, so we will
setup a simple system via Xpresso
to link them to sliders that will
appear in the viewport, for easier
use. If you move the Null objects,
you'll notice that they act as sliders.
>> create a Null object, name it
"morphings" and drop all your morph
Nulls as a child of it [pic8].
Picture 8
>> Next, we will create our own slid-
ers system by creating User Data
entries. Select the "Morphings" Null
object, and in the attributes manag-
er, go into the menu "User Data >
Add User Data". In the User Data
window, name the entry as your first
morph (here "mouth closed"), set
the interface type to "float slider",
Unit to "real" and changed the maxi-
mum value to 100. This will map the
User Data entry to the Null slider
movements [pic9].
>> Repeat the process for your
other morphing states. You should
now have 3 User Data sliders that
 Emorpher: The Power of PLA Morphing
By Sebastien Florand aka Fluffy
Tutorial
Picture 9
appear in the attribute manager
when you click on the Null object
"morphings" (if you make a mistake
while creating the User Data entry,
you can edit them anytime by right-
clicking on the name of the entry
and choose "Edit Entry" from the
drop-down menu) [pic10].
Picture 10
>> Now, we will link these User Data
entries to our different Null objects
using Xpresso. Apply an Xpresso
tag to the "morphings" Null object by
right-clicking on it and selecting "cin-
ema4D tags > Xpresso".
>> In the Xpresso editor, drop the
"Morphings" Null and all you morph
Null objects [pic11].
Picture 11
>> In the Xpresso editor, click on
the red square at the top right cor-
ner of the "Morphings" node, and
select all the morphs in the "object
properties" menu [pic12].
Picture 12
>> Next, click on the top left blue
square of the Morphs Null nodes
and select the "Position X" value in
38
the "coordinates > position" menu.
[pic13]
Picture 13
>> Link each User Data entry to the
matching Null morph node (it is fairly
important to name things properly if
you want to identify them better).
[pic14]
Picture 14
>> You can now close the Xpresso
editor window and check if the User
Data sliders work properly by drag-
ging some of them. You'll notice that
the value of the User Data is used
to input the value of the X position
for each Null, thus moving them
properly from 0 to 100 (as we set
them up earlier) on the X position
and allowing them in turn to drive
our different morphs.
Finally, our system is in place and
working, allowing us not to go inside
and lose ourselves the hierarchy by
placing everything together at the
same spot. This little time we spent
setting that up will save us a lot of
time when animating. But we can
make the system better yet by put-
ting all these controls directly in the
viewports, so as to not go into the
object manager at all. Let's check it
out.
 Emorpher: The Power of PLA Morphing
By Sebastien Florand aka Fluffy
>> select the "Morphings" Null
objects, and select all your morphs
entries (adding to the selection
using the Shift key).
>> Right-click on one of the entries,
and select "Add to the HUD" func-
tion [pic15].
Picture 15
>> Notice that all the entries we
selected now appear in the view-
Tutorial
port. Maintain the "Ctrl" key and
drag the HUD element on the top
left side of the viewport, as to not
have it in the way.
>> Finally, select the "Morphings"
Null object and make it display a
selectable shape by going into the
Attribute manager and changing its
display shape to "diamond" in the
"Object" tab. Increase the radius as
needed to be conformable. You can
also change the color of the dis-
played diamond if it is easier to
identify for you [pic16].
Picture 16
>> Move the Null Object wherever
you will be able to select it easily in
the viewport (it doesn't matter if you
move the Null morph controls with it,
but if you don't want to, press the
"Ctrl" key and drag the "Morphings"
Null to affect only that object and not
its children [pic17].
Picture 17
You have now a Null object that you
can select in the viewport and that
will display the morphs controls
directly into the HUD, allowing you
to have every needed controls at
hand, without losing time by opening
the hierarchy and looking for your
morphs states.
3 - Protecting your painstaking
work
Last thing, we will make sure that
we won't erase by mistake any of
the hard work we've done by creat-
ing these morph states.
As I explained at the beginning,
Emorpher uses PLA tracks to create
the morphings. These tracks contain
keyframes that can be selected and
erased if you don't pay attention to
it. Our last step will then be to lock
these keyframes in place and make
sure we don't do something foolish.
>> open the timeline and select "fil-
ter > show animated objects" to dis-
play all animated tracks in the time-
line. Here, you should only have one
39
track, since you shouldn't have
begun animating yet. In my exam-
ple, I have two more tracks animat-
ed [pic18].
Picture 18
>> Select the "emorpher" track by
clicking on its name, then send it to
another layer using the "layer >
Color selection > layer 7" menu.
Your track keyframes should turn
the color of the layer you send them
on (green in my example).
Then, lock the layer by clicking on
the little lock icon under that layer's
color box.
Every keyframe is now locked into
that specific green layer and I won't
be able to either select them or
erase them by mistake. I also can
mask the layer and hide the "emor-
pher" track if I wish to really keep
that track out of my mind.
[pic19][pic20]
Picture 19
This step is really worth the little
extra time, when you face what
 Emorpher: The Power of PLA Morphing
By Sebastien Florand aka Fluffy

would happen if you messed up :

I hope you'll enjoy that plugin as
much as I do, and I hope you
enjoyed this tutorial. As usual, if
you encounter any problem, don't
hesitate to contact me on the 3D
Attack forum, I will gladly help you.

Cheers,

Fluffy

Picture 20
Tutorial

That's it, we are finished, you can

now animate freely without worrying
about anything except your art.

At ChristianDesigns.org we provide a multitude of design services

dedicated to your web design and web hosting needs. We focus
in creating an atmosphere where quality and honesty share a
friendship in Christian web design or Christian website hosting.
Our services will enable you to compete within your market. We
specialize in serving individuals, organizations, churches, corpo-
rations, and mission groups.

Whether you are a designer looking to obtain website hosting or

your needs require our custom services, we can fill that void.

Sincerely,
John Mark Napuunoa
ChristianDesigns.org

40
 Clothilde Drapes!
By Jamie Hamel-Smith
Ever wanted to have the curtains in
your architectural animation billow in
the wind? Or have some nicely tied
drapes to compliment your interior
layout? This month I am going to
show you how to make the process
simple and painless.
We are going to start with some bil-
lowing curtains. Firstly, we need
something to hang the curtains from.
Create a Cylinder Primitive, oriented
on the X-Axis, with the following set-
tings; (Image 01).
Tutorial
Image 01
Position it in your file as the pole
that the curtain will hang from. Also,
rename the object and call it "pole"
The next step is to create the actual
piece of cloth that will hang from the
pole. One of the things to remember
about using cloth in a 3D program is
that the cloth will look better if it has
more subdivisions (width and height
segments).
However, it will also take longer to
calculate the simulation. We will try
to strike a nice balance between the
two. Start by creating a Plane
Primitive and setting the orientation
to the Z-Axis. We will use 35 Width
Segments, and 15 Height Segments.
We do not need as many height
segments as width segments for this
exercise. Rename the plane and call
it "curtain." Its width should be about
500, and its height should be about
600. Don't worry that the curtain is
longer than the pole, we will fix that
later. (Image 02) Position it as you
Image 02
like, so that it looks like it is hanging
from the "Pole" object. (Image 03)
Image 03
41
Now it's time to set up the Cloth,
Select your "Pole" and "Curtain"
objects, and choose "Make Editable"
from the "Functions" menu, or use
the default keyboard shortcut "c".
Clothlide will only work with polygon
objects, so we have to make them
editable before we can start working
with the Cloth Tags. Right Click
(cmd Click on Macintosh) the
Curtain object and select Clothlide
Tags > Cloth A "Cloth Tag" icon will
appear next to the object, and this is
where we will adjust all of our set-
tings for the behavior of the cloth
object.
Now, if we create a cloth object and
just hit play, the cloth would fall into
the endless abyss of Cinema 4D.
We have to fix certain points of the
cloth so that it hangs from these
"Fixed" points. With the "Curtain"
object selected, choose the points
tool (Image 04) and select some
Image 04
points at the top of the curtain
object. Try to select every 3rd point;
this will give the look of the curtain
being fixed to the pole at certain
points along its length. (Image 05)
With those points selected, select
the Cloth Tag and go to the
"Dresser" page. Click the "Set" but-
ton next to "Fix Points" (Image 06).
The points that were selected
should turn bright pink. They are
now "Fixed." Go to the "Animation"
menu and select Frame Rate > All
frames, if it is not already selected.
 Clothilde Drapes!
By Jamie Hamel-Smith
Image 05
Tutorial
Image 06
Click the play button and you should
see the cloth relax a bit. Stop the
playback, and save your file, call it
"Curtain Set Up." Then go to the File
menu and choose "Save As", we are
going to work in a new file from this
point on, because we want to come
back to this step later on. Save the
new file as "Cloth Blowing." In the
Title Bar of Cinema 4D it should
now say the name of your new file,
and your Curtain Setup file should
now be saved safely on your hard
drive.
Select the Model Tool, and then
select the Scale Tool, scale the cloth
object on the X-Axis, resizing it so
that it fits the length of the Pole.
(Image 07) Hit the play button
Image 07
again, the cloth should whip and
bounce a bit as it readjusts to its
new fixed points positions. Hit the
stop button, go to the Cloth Tag and
select the Dresser Page, next to the
"Relax" button, enter 90 in the steps
field.
Hit the Relax button, and watch the
cloth as it relaxes into its new state.
If the cloth still seems like it needs
to relax a bit more and come to rest,
simply hit the relax button again.
Now we have folds in our drapes.
You may notice some sharp creases
in the curtain near the top; these are
a result of the Phong Tag's angle
limit.
To remedy this, simply select the
Phong Tag for the Curtain, and des-
elect the "Angle Limit" check box.
This would be a good time to go
back to the cloth tag, and under the
dresser page, click the Set button to
the right of "Init State". This will set
the relaxed curtain, with folds and
all, as the initial state of the cloth
object.
Now we are going to play around
with the "Forces" page of the cloth
tag. Simply set the wind strength to
1, and hit play. (For this part of the
42
testing, you may want to go to your
project settings and change the
duration to something over 10 sec-
onds or 300 frames) Tweaking the
settings in this tab will yield some
interesting results, especially the
"Wind Turbulence" value. Another
great tip to increase the realism of
the wind blowing is to animate the
wind strength.
Making your Curtain Object a child
of a "Cloth Nurbs" object can also
give you some more options to play
with, such as the Subdivision option,
which works similarly to the
HyperNURBS object and there is
also the thickness option. You can
find this object under Plugins >
Clothlide > Cloth Nurbs. Save and
close your "Curtain Blowing" file.
(Image 08)
Image 08
Now we can open the "Curtain
Setup" file that we saved earlier and
do something a little different with
the Curtain Setup.
When you open the file, if you set
the time slider all the way back to
zero, the curtain object should still
look like the plane that it started out
as. We are now going to explore
another part of the Cloth Tag's set-
tings, the "Belt" option. Belting
allows you to attach parts of the
cloth to other objects. We will start
 Clothilde Drapes!
By Jamie Hamel-Smith

by creating a cube, with the follow-
ing dimensions, X=600, Y=20, Z=10.
After adjusting the dimensions, set
the Segments X to 20. Position the
cube so that it is about ¾ ways
down the curtain. Your scene should
now look like the one in the follow-
ing image; (Image 09)
onto the Tie object. To do this we stable and relaxed state. Your file
must select the Curtain's Cloth tag should now look like this; (Image
and select the Dresser Page once 12)
again, and drag the Tie object from
the Object Manager into the space
that says "Belt on:" The next step is
to select the points on the Curtain
object that are the closest to the Tie
object (Image 11)

Image 12
Image 11
The next step is to animate the
We can now click the "Set" button parameters of the Wrap Object so
next to "Belt Points" and you should that it "Curls Up" and takes the cur-
Tutorial

Image 09
Make the cube editable, ("c" Key)
and rename it "Tie" Create a "Wrap
Deformer" Use the "Transfer
Function" to send the wrap deformer
to the same coordinates as the
"Tie." Enter the following values into
the Wrap Deformer and make the
wrap deformer a child of the Tie
object.(Image 10)
see some yellow lines going from
the points to the nearest polygons to
them. This shows which points are
belted to which polygons.
Now would be a nice time to go to
File > Save As and save the file as
"Curtain Tied"
Next step is to hit the play button
and see the effects of the belting.
You should see the cloth relax much
like in the first part of the tutorial,
except that the "belted points"
should stay put.
tain along for the ride. Turn on
Automatic Keyframinig and activate
the Parameter Icon (Image 13) then
Image 13
set the time slider to 4 seconds, and
adjust the Tension and Width
Parameters of the Wrap deformer as
shown; (Image 14) Return the time
slider to zero and turn off Automatic

Similarly to the first part of the tutori-

Image 10
Everything is now set up. We can
now "Belt" the points of the curtain
al, you should press play, then stop,
followed by scaling the object (with
the Model tool) on the X-Axis until
the top of the curtain fits the length
of the pole. After the Scaling, press
play again, and see it jump and
whip around as it readjusts to its
new "Fixed Positions." Press stop
and use the Relax button in the
Cloth Tag on the Dresser Page to
allow the curtain to return to a more Image 14

43
 Clothilde Drapes!
By Jamie Hamel-Smith

Keyframing. When you playback the

animation, the wrap deformer should
curl the cloth up into a bunch at the
center of the "Tie" object. And give
you something similar to this;
(Image 15) you can now make the
Tutorial

Image 15

"Tie" object a child of a

HyperNURBS object to smooth it
and also make the "Curtain" object a
child of a Cloth Nurbs object and it
will look much smoother. You should
also delete the Cloth Tag if you are
pleased with the result and would
like to keep the cloth still. (Image
16) Image 16

44
 Fireworks with Thinking Particles!
By Bjoern Marl aka “Srek”
In this tutorial I will show you how to
create a Thinking Particles setup to
generate a firework with several
rockets and different explosions.
The main thing behind a firework
with particles is spawning. Spawning
is the process of new particles being
created based on an older particle.
In this tutorial it is used for two
things. The smoke or fire trail of the
rocket. The sparks created by the
explosives
Both are pretty different. The trail is
created continuously throughout the
flight of the rocket while the sparks
are only created at one point in
time, when the rocket explodes.
Also, the trail particles will move in
the opposite direction as the rocket
while becoming slower, whereas the
sparks can move in any direction
Tutorial
you want.
In this example we will create all
elements of the firework as particles:
rockets, trails and sparks.
Additionally, to the main text of this
tutorial you will find a good number
of remarks within the Xpresso setup.
The scene itself is rather simple and
only consists of the visible lights
which are used as particle shapes,
the particle geometry object to make
them visible and some Nullobjects to
control things like gravity direction
and to host the main Xpresso
expression that does all the work.
<Image01>
To differentiate between the rockets,
the trail and the sparks different par-
ticle groups are used.
<Image02>
All particles are subject to gravity
influence. By using the parent group
"All" for Ppass you can address all
particles in all groups at the same
time <Image03>.
The rocket emitter is based on
Image 01
Image 02
Image 03
PStorm and a Nullobject (Launcher)
for positioning and alignment. The
only thing special on this emitter
setup is the inversion of the rocket
velocity that is used to create a
45
matrix which in turn is used to align
the trail particle emitter. This way
the trail particles move in the oppo-
site direction then the rocket. This
has to be done throughout the life-
time of the rocket, so it is not suffi-
dent to do this on emission. PPass
set to the rocket particle group does
the trick here. <Image04>
Image 04
Since in reality the trail consists of
very lightweight particles they are
strongly influenced by air friction.
You can use PFriction for this and
limit it to the trail by using the Trail
particle group for PPass <Image05>
Image 05
The sparks, as well as the trail, are
made of visible lights with no illumi-
nation. Lens effects can be used
too.
The sparks are created at the
moment the rocket particle dies.
This can be determined by the PAge
node. It allows to detect a number of
events related on the particles age
or a change of group.
With Type set to Die the node will
give us a boolean True value on the
frame the particle dies. This triggers
a PStorm node set to Shot which
produces the stars. By using the
rockets position for the PStorm node
the sparks are generated at the
position of the rocket.
<Image06>
Since a real firework usually has
several types of rockets it's only log-
ical to build a setup that can create
 Fireworks with Thinking Particles!
By Bjoern Marl aka “Srek”

Image 06

more than one type. By using a ran- should be created <Image07>

dom value this setup creates two <Image08>
types of sparks. The random node is
fed the Random Seed value that
comes with every particle. This
ensures that the generation of ran-
dom numbers is repeatable. In the
example the nodes related to
Tutorial

boolean operations are minimized to

save screen realestate. The logic
behind this is rather simple. The
random node creates either a true
or false value. A true value should
create a spark of the Spark1 type Image 07
while a false value should create a
Turbulent Spark. It goes like this:
IF Rocket dies AND Random is
TRUE THEN create Spark1.
IF Rocket dies AND Random is NOT
TRUE THEN create Turbulent
Spark.

You can vary the way the sparks are

emitted with the parameters of the
PStorm nodes. In this example the
Spark1 sparks are emitted spherical- Image 08
ly while the Turbulent Sparks are
emitted in the direction of flight. This If you have questions or problems
is done by aligning the spark emitter regarding this tutorial then please
to a matrix calculated from the rock- feel free to post on our forum at:
ets velocity.
http://www.3d attack.net
If you want to create more then two
types of sparks the Condition node See you
and a random integer value are a
good option to select which shape Bjoern Marl aka “Srek”

46
 Prize Fight Round 2 Winners!
By Tavy Ann

On November 17, 2004 MAXON

and 3D Attack presented Round 2 of
"THE PRIZE FIGHT". The "PRIZE
FIGHT" is a 3 Round competition
where our entrants battle it out in
drawing, modeling and animating an
Olympic character of their choice.
In December we brought you the
results from Round 1 and our 5 win-
ning entries. This month it's time to
take a look at our winners from
Round 2, the modeling Round.

Each entrant had to model, in CINE-

MA 4D, the Olympic Character they
drew in Round 1. The two top mod-
PRIZE FIGHT ROUND 2

els were to win the CINEMA 4D R9

XL Bundle, but because the models
were so well done, MAXON and 3D
Attack had a very difficult time pick-
ing just two and closed Round 2
with 10 winning entries. All of the
winning models were created in
MAXON's CINEMA 4D.

All 10 of or our winning entries from

Round 2 will be advancing to Round
3, the animating Round. They will
fully rig and animate their Olympic
Character from Round 2 using the
tools in CINEMA 4D's MOCCA mod-
ule for a chance to win the CINEMA
4D R9 Studio Bundle and a trip to
SIGGRAPH 2005, in Los Angeles -
California.

Be sure to keep following our

entrants in Round 3 on our forum at
www.3d attack.net. Not only will
this be an exciting Round, but an
educational one as well.

Our Round 2 winners are:

Oliver Wuensch, Floris Drupsteen,
Rogerio Lima, Mac Andre,
Alexander D. Remizov, Sergio
Garces, Juergen Jaekel, Mark
Gmehling, Antoine Aurety and
Sebastien Florand.

3
 Prize Fight Round 2 Winners!
By Tavy Ann
PRIZE FIGHT ROUND 2

Sebastien Florand (Fluffy)

3
 Prize Fight Round 2 Winners!
By Tavy Ann
PRIZE FIGHT ROUND 2

3
Best of CINEMA 4D
Some of the best artists around the world using CINEMA 4D
Image: Just Do It, Nike Sneaker
Artist: Sven Kallinich (nutriman)
Country: Germany
Website: www.realiez.de
Date created: January 21, 2005
Software: CINEMA 4D R8
3
Artist Comments: What can I say, luv Nike, luv computer
graphics... here's the result ;-). People have been asking
me if I did the seams by texturing. Nope, they're modeled
by having splines projected on to the shoe and a lot of low
poly instances of one hole and a piece of thread which are
aligned to these splines.Next challenge would be a pic of
these kicks the way they look now....worn out, dirty - say
hi to the bodypaint manual :-)
The Nike Logo is Trademark of Nike, Inc
Image: Ferrari 250 GTOl Artist Comments: The hardest part was the shader work.
Artist: Zoltan Sostai
Country: Hungary
Website: http://supremacy.zenesznet.com
Date created: December 2004
Software: CINEMA 4D R9, Paint Shop Pro 7

3
Image: "Junk"
Artist: Jacob Saariaho (Cpt.Jack)
Country: USA
Website: www.cptjack.net
Date created: October 20, 2004
Software: CINEMA 4D
Artist Comments: I started this little guy a while back, but
I got bored and moved on. Months later, I was cleaning up
my hard drive when I opened his file and saw this unfin-
ished head and torso looking out at me. It was hilarious,
he looked so pathetic and forgotten. I knew I had to finish
him.

3
Image: Milan Condominium Artist Comments: Interior view of the living and dining
Artist: J.Carlos Pérez Ponce spaces of a condominium located in Milan street,
Country: México Monterrey México.
Website: www.infograficagdl.com
Date created: September 04
Software: CINEMA 4D

3
Image: Pussy Gatto Artist Comments: I found a great use for lights....don't use
Artist: Ben Jerrems them! This image was created by using the Luminance
Country: Australia channel on all the textures. Giving it that flat 2d "toon
Website: look". Image inspired by the late "great" Eyvind Earl, an
http://www.renderosity.com/gallery.ez?ByArtist=Y&Artist amazing Disney artist.
=Beanzvision
Date created: September 2004
Software: CINEMA 4D XL7

3
Editor’s Notes
Hello there Readers and
Attackers!
We just wanted to take the time to
thank all of our forum members and
readers for all of your wonderful
support. With out your participation
on the forum and the feedback you
give on the magazine, we wouldn’t
be able to bring you every thing we
do each month.
Once again, thanks for the support
and dedication.
Best Regards,
The 3D Attack Team
RSS Feed on the Forum
Our new forum also has a nice new
feature: RSS - Really Simple
Syndication. This actually means
that you can get the latest posts
without even visiting our forum. You
can simply get it via mail or a RSS
news reader, so you will always be
up to date on things. RSS is actually
still pretty new on the web, but it’s
growing rapidly and more and more
sites are using it. We wanted to
jump on the train and bring you this
great feature. To find out how to
enable RSS check here:
http://3d
attack.net/forum/showthread.php?t=
1326
THE MAGAZINE ON CD
Be sure to visit the 3D Attack shop
and check out our new Magazine
Collection on CD. 8 complete
issues and extra Goodies on one
CD! http://www.3d attack.net/shop/
Tutorial and Article Submissions
If you would like to submit a tutorial
or article, or have your software or Friends of 3D Attack™
plug-in reviewed by 3D Attack,
please click on the following link for www.doschdesign.com
instructions: http://3d attack.net/3d www.maxon.net
Attack/viewtopic.php?t=1405 www.3duser.com.tw
www.3dtotal.com
All submissions must be e-mailed to www.cgtalk.com
Attention: Tank at www.c4dcafe.com
3d attack@3d attack.net www.cinema4duser.com
www.cactus3d.com
CINEMA 4D R9 For Sale www.3dfluff.com
www.spot4d.co.uk
If you are interested in purchasing a www.3darena.de
never used, unopened copy of CIN- www.frenchcinema4d.com
EMA 4D R9 Studio Bundle for a very www.sadbatu.de
reasonable price, contact Georg www.C4dHotline.it
Niedermeier at sad@3d attack.net. www.peXel.de
Only serious inquiries need apply. www.cgchannel.com
www.c4dmodelshop.com
Advertising with 3D Attack www.black-graphics.de
www.tarabella.it/C4d/
If you would like to advertise with www.sharbor.com
3D Attack send us an e-mail www.planit3d.com
requesting our media kit and rate www.cartesiuscreations.com
card. 3d attack@3d attack.net www.c4d.allplanforum.com
www.renderosity.com
Attack of the HORRIFIC BLOB www.designerinaction.de
Be looking for the Attack of the www.3dweave.com
HORRIFIC BLOB Part 2 in the April www.scifi-meshes.com
issue of 3D Attack - The CINEMA www.ambientlight.co.uk
4D Magazine. www.bubbles4d.com
www.mediaworks.fr
Dosch Design www.3dlinks.com
www.cgchina.com
Be sure to visit our friends at Dosch www.c4dzone.com
Design www.doschdesign.com. www.c4d-pl.org
Check out their wide selection of
innovative and easy to use comput- *3D Attack the CINEMA4D Magazine and all
er graphics products. material contained therein are copyright protect-
ed. You may not disassemble or distribute any
Tutorials part of this publication without prior written con-
sent from 3D Attack directly. Any attempts to do
If you have questions concerning a so will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
specific tutorial or want to show us a law as it applies in Michigan, USA. This applies
tutorial you have completed, feel for both 3D Attack material as well as any
free to post your questions and work named artist contained in its publications.
on our C4D discussion forums at Although we read through all the tutorials and
www.3d attack.net. proof-read them for errors we cannot guarantee
that they are 100% error-free and therefore can-
not issue refunds based on those errors.
55
Keep on attacking...
By Sir Gong

56
57