Cinema 4D Crash Course - Creating a Six Pack
Get up and running in Cinema 4D by creating a glass bottle six pack.
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Execute on your Imagination
Whether you need something 3D printed, want to make an AR or VR experience or want to sell an idea to a client, it all starts with understanding a 3D modeling program.
This course gives you that understanding.
I'm sharing this course with you because I think it provides an introduction to all the major aspects of one of the most powerful 3D applications available today - Cinema 4D.
It's filled with my personal tips and tricks that I've developed over the last 10+ years of working professionally with this program.
What this course covers:
- Spline Modeling: Splines are lines in 3D space. I'll use them to create the glass bottle and the bottle cap and show you how easy and powerful this type of modeling is.
- Polygon Modeling: Polygon modeling is the other powerful way to model objects - I'll use it to make the six-pack case. There are hundreds of tools available across three different editing modes. I'll walk you through where to find the tools and my personal favorites I use all the time for polygon modeling.
- UV Mapping: I demystify the process of laying out polygon objects on a flat (2D) surface in order to map images onto them in Photoshop. This is one of the most powerful ways to achieve photo-real presentations.
- Materials: How much reflection does a bottlecap have? What is the Index of Refraction on clear glass? How shiny is cardboard? I'll show you how materials work in Cinema and how to integrate your UV map with different channels in a material to create real-world materials.
- Lighting: The default light settings in Cinema leave much to be desired and can make lighting a scene needlessly complicated. I show you my favorite default light settings and how they add to photo-realism.
- Rendering: There are countless settings and buttons for rendering. I only use about 9. I'll take you through my render settings and process to get you comfortable with the way Cinema 4D renders images.
- Global Illumination + 360 HDR Imagery: I'll walk you through how this powerful render setting works with 360 High-Dynamic-Range (HDR) imagery to realistically light a scene with very little tweaking.
Get over the Intimidation Hump
You don't have to know what all the buttons do - you just have to know how Cinema 4D is built and to not be scared of breaking it. This course will provide you with enough working knowledge to get over the initial steep learning curve - then you can start to execute on your imagination.
This course is designed for beginners - but has a lot of shortcuts I've personally developed that would likely help intermediate or advanced users of Cinema 4D. It will consist of screencast tutorials - short videos of my screen as I talk about what I'm doing for each section.
Your Instructor
I'm an adjunct professor at the VCU Brandcenter teaching Experience Design students how to use Cinema 4D to help design their own products, create assets for VR and AR applications and to 3D print objects they create. I wanted to share my teaching curriculum with you to get you over the Intimidation Hump of Cinema 4D and empower you to design your own products and present them photo-realistically.
I've been working with Cinema 4D and After Effects for 10+ years and I'm professionally experienced with modeling, lighting, rendering, character animation and motion design. Here's my most recent Reel.