20+ Talks on Cinema 4D

Phil Roberts outlines three projects he created while working for London-based marketing firm Taylor James. In the Heart Island project, Phil made use of C4D’s Polygon Reduction generator to simplify a complex sculpt and added foliage via the Scatter feature of Octane. Phil needed to create a scanline laser effect in a project for Superdry Shoe, and demonstrates two different techniques for achieving the effect within Octane. Finally, Phil shows a project for Bombay Sapphire and explains the role Index of Refraction plays in photorealistic rendering.

Dan Pierse: C4D in a Broadcast Environment: Sci-Fi and Thriller Promo Production

In this NAB 2018 Rewind, Dan Pierse demonstrates several techniques he uses while creating promos as Motion Graphics Design Director for Fox Broadcasting. Especially for NAB 2018, Dan created four stylized promos for the fictional channel Flux. In this presentation, you’ll see several techniques he used in the creation of the Sci-Fi and Thriller promos.

In the Sci-Fi promo, Dan quickly models interesting wall and floor designs using Cinema 4D’s Knife tools. With improvements added in Cinema 4D R18, it’s easy to cut various loops and also cut spline shapes into geometry. Dan quickly models an articulated arm and shows how to animate it via Inverse Kinematics (IK). He also creates hanging wires using Cinema 4D’s Spline Dynamics.

For the Thriller promo, Dan creates a procedural landscape by layering noises and gradients within a Displace Deformer. Dan uses MoGraph’s Cloner object to populate the landscape with trees and applies MoGraph Selections and the Hide Selected command to art-direct the location of the trees. He also uses the Spline Defomer to add a roadway, and animates a car along the road via the Align to Spline tag.

Finally, Dan discusses how Cinema 4D’s Take System and After Effects integration are invaluable when creating multiple versions of similar promos.

Make sure to check out Dan’s first presentation from NAB 2018, where he demonstrates techniques used in creating Action and Comedy promos.

EJ Hassenfratz: Painless Character Rigging using Deformers and Splines

In this C4D Live presentation from NAB 2018, motion designer and character animator EJ Hassenfratz shares how he took control of his career by getting back to the basics and creating personal projects that were exciting to him. This allowed him to transition from creating flying logos to incredibly charming and cute character animations. In this video, he shows that you don’t have to be a technical director to create a character rig that deforms well and animates easily. Hassenfratz starts by rigging a Penguin using only simple Bend, Twist, and Squash and Stretch deformers. Then he creates a simple rig for a sock with just a few joints and an Inverse Kinematics (IK) tag. He then shows how he created a delightfully squishy bear using the Spline Wrap deformer. He closes out his presentation with some great tips from how to reuse a rig across characters or automate your lip sync with the Sound Effector. This is a must watch for anyone looking to take their first steps into character animation with Cinema 4D.