Contents
Introduction xiii
Who This Book Is for and How It's Different xiii
The 3D Environment and Workflow xiv
The Animation Pipeline xiv
Thinking Holistically xv
Acknowledgements xv
Using This Book xv
Version 8.5 xvi
Setting Up Your Work Space xvi
Mac or PC: Ode to a Three-Button Mouse xvi
A Note about Tools xvii
Symbols xviii
Guide to the DVD xviii
Chapter Folders xviii
The Goodies Folder xix
Credits and Contributions xxi
1 The Starting Gate 1
A Dynamic Dozen 1
The Galaxy Ball 3
Assembling the Model 3
Choosing Materials 6
Spin the Galaxy! 9
The Barometer Cone 11
Making the Model 11
Materials for the Cone 12
Color Drops 12
Creating the Model 12
Placing the Materials 13
Animating the Color Drops 13
The Bubbling Teardrop 14
Composing the Model 14
Assigning a Material 15
Import Some Bubbles 16
The DNA Spinner 17
Making the Model 17
Making the Material 18
Spin the DNA 19
The Starlight Lantern 19
Making the Model 19
Materials with Punch 20
Twirl the Lantern 20
The Cosmic Receiver 21
Creating the Model 21
Add Some Materials and a Light 22
Animate the Rings 22
Pandora's Box 24
Making the Model 24
Create a Decorative Lock 24
Choosing Materials 25
Easy and Breezy 25
Choosing the Models 25
Time for Materials 26
A Touch of Animation 27
The Gyro 28
Constructing the Gyro 28
The Well Dressed Gyro 29
The Firefly Lantern 29
Building the Lantern Frame 29
Add Materials and Lights 30
Animate the Fireflies Using F-Curves 31
The Color Barrel 32
Constructing the Model 32
Placing Materials 34
Animate Some Random Twists 35
A Line and a Pole 35
Making the Model 35
Adding the Pole to a Model 36
Material Matters 36
2 Under The Hood 37
Mechanics 101 37
A Petunia 38
Creating A Center 40
Material Matters 42
Using Selection Sets 46
Repositioning an Object Axis 46
Creating and Repairing Polygonal Surfaces 48
Stitching Meshes Together 48
Using the Knife Tool 51
The Push and Pull Trick 52
The Magnet Tool and Point Level Animation 53
P Is for Pipe 54
Finishing Touches for the Pipe 57
Splines, Your Invisible Friend 58
A Cloud-shaped Spline 59
A Lightbulb Spline 61
Adding Points to a Spline: Lightbulb 2 62
Spline Primitives 62
Creating Complex Splines with Create Outline 62
Importing Splines 64
3 NURBS Modeling Tools 65
The Peephole Box: Extrude NURBS 65
Box Top Decoration: Loft Nurbs 68
Curly Glass Tubes: The Sweep NURBS 71
Time for a Sideshow: Animating Sweep NURBS 73
Antique Lightbulbs: Lathe NURBS 73
The Stage Curtain: The Bezier NURBS 76
Putting It All Together: The Peephole Box 77
The Amphibber: The Power of Hyper NURBS 78
Forming a Cartoon Car Body 78
Finishing the Front End 84
Bringing Up the Rear 87
All in the Details 89
4 Deformers and
Other Modeling Helpers 95
Lively Props: Bend and Twist Deformers 95
A Lump in the Pipe: Bulge Deformer 96
Boom! Explosion Deformation 98
Broken Galss: the Shatter Deformer 99
Flag on the Play: Wind and Shear Deformers 100
Roll The Dice! Boolean Operations 101
A String Of Dice: The Arrange Function 106
Great Green Gobs: The Metaball Object 107
5 Materials in Depth 111
A Texture Totem: Exploring Materials 114
A Dark and Grungy Wood 114
Light Wood and a Decal 114
Net Worth 116
Fake Façades 118
Decorative Glass 118
Photo Face 119
Glitter and Sequin Star 119
Embossed Gold 121
Punched Paper 122
Multicolor Magic 123
Editing Volume Shaders: BhodiNUT Charm 123
Using a Movie as a Material 124
Animating Materials 125
6 Better Under Lights 129
The Virtual Studio: Three Point Lighting 129
Changing The Type Of Light 132
Turn Up the Volume 134
Throwing Shadows with Gobos 136
Blinking Puffs of Light 137
Editing Multiple Lights 138
Animating Light Position 139
Painting with Light 141
7 Animation ABCs 143
A is for Airplane Hat: Working Out Timing 144
Working with Custom Tangents 146
Animating the Propeller 148
Anticipatory Hops 149
Squash and Stretch 150
B is for Batty Box: Combining Time Curves
and PLA 152
Bend the Spring 154
Adding Sound 154
C Is for Crown 156
8 Head Shots 159
The Symmetry Method 159
The Basic Head Shape 159
Creating a Nose 160
The Eye Shape 162
Making An Ear 165
Shaping The Head 166
Making the Mouth and Chin 169
Forming a Neck 171
Eye Targets 172
Teeth 172
Animating Facial Expressions 173
Animating with PLA 173
Animating with Posemixer 174
9 A Character and Her Bones 177
Building a Character 177
Modeling a Character Designed for Movement 178
Forward Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics 179
Creating Bones 180
Influencing the Mesh with Bones 181
Introducing Mocca 183
Making Bones in MOCCA 183
Claude Bonet 184
MOCCA Tools For Soft IK 185
Mirroring Bones 188
Setting Up A Posemixer Hand 189
Character Shortcuts 190
Multiple Versions and States of Characters 190
Doing Your Character Homework 190
10 Animating a Character 195
Animating the Skeleton 195
Animating FK 196
Animating Soft IK 199
Using Set Driven Key to Bulge a Muscle 201
Animating with Posemixer 203
Using F-Curves with Character Motion 203
Planning Motion 203
1 Cameras in Control 205
Looking through a Camera 205
Create the Camera Object 206
Set Up the View through the Camera 207
An Easier Way: Target Cameras 209
Animating a Camera on a Spline Path 210
A More Complex Camera Movement 210
Focal Length 212
Animating a Camera on a Helix Spline Path 212
Animating a Camera to Follow a Moving
Object 213
Placing a Camera Inside a Null Object 213
Using Depth of Field 214
Virtual Lens and Filter Effects 215
Switching Cameras in CINEMA 4D 215
A Critical Distinction 215
Looking through Other Objects 216
12 The Art Of Rendering 217
Investigating Render Settings 218
The General Tab 218
The Output Tab 219
The Save Tab 220
Artistic Rendering Effects 221
The Effects Tab 221
Rendering a QuickTime VR Movie 223
13 Plug-ins 225
Commercial Plug-ins 226
Mesh Surgery 226
Jenna 227
Loco 229
Sniper Pro and Surface Painter 230
Shave and a Haircut 230
Sketch and Toon 231
DiTOOLS 1.1 231
SpeeDisplay and Find and Replace 232
Multiple Spline Attach and HELIX 232
OnyxTREE 232
Ozone 233
Xfrog 233
Add-the-Sea 234
Character Animation Helpers 234
MAXON'S Modules 234
Shareware and Freeware 234
DiTOOLS 234
Hair Department 235
Fizz 235
Stitch & Sew 235
Time Frequency 236
14 A Jolt of Xpresso 237
What Is Xpresso? 237
Xpresso: Basic Anatomy 238
The Sticking Place 241
Stop Right There! 242
What Else Can Be Done with Xpresso? 244
15 Environment, Mood,
and Magic 245
The Interior Environment 246
Building the Basic Structure 246
Adding on or Remodeling 247
Fun with Architectural Detail 248
Mixing Lights in an Interior Space 250
The World Outside: Skies, Backgrounds,
and Cycloramas 250
Using Backgrounds and Foregrounds 252
Backdrops, False Façades, and Cycloramas 253
The Outdoor Environment 254
Nature: Realistic or Stylized 254
Here Comes the Glitz 258
A Little Light Magic 258
Pixie Dust 260
Smoke and Fire 260
The Importance of Music and Sound 261
16 BodyPaint, the Artist's
Connection 263
Getting to Know BodyPaint 263
Painting a Simple Model 263
Setting up with the BodyPaint Set-up Wizard 264
The Basic Tools 264
Making a Weathered Sign 268
Painting the Sign Surface 268
Creating a Mask 269
Making the Sign Letters 269
Painting a Head with BodyPaint 270
Preparing the Head for Painting 270
Putting a Variety of Brushes to Work 272
Pasting on a Tattoo 273
17 CINEMA 4D and Friends 275
Adobe Photoshop 275
Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand 276
Illustrator 276
Freehand 279
Pixologic Zbrush 279
Synthetik Studio Artist and Corel Painter 280
Sources and Software for Splines 281
Sound Solutions 281
GarageBand 281
Soundtrack 282
To the Web with You, C4D! 282
QuickTime 282
Using the FlashEx Plug-in 283
CINEMA 4D into Adobe ImageReady 283
CINEMA 4D and Apple Final Cut Pro 284
Organizing Libraries 284
The Browser 286
View Media Pro 286
Hardware Friends 286
18 Tips on Type 287
The Basics of Text Splines 287
I Have No Words 289
Making Text Behave in CINEMA 4D 289
Deformable Type 289
And Now, Some Creative Text Messaging 290
Sleek and Sophisticated 290
Text on Illustrator Paths 291
Using Text Splines in Other Ways 292
Type Forms: Finishing Touches and
Creative Play 294
Animated Type Effects 299
Happy Trails to "U" 299
19 Creating Elements for
Motion Graphics 301
The Rich 3D Space 303
Clockworks 303
Rendering a Single Layer for After Effects 304
Creating the Centroid 304
An Opposing Motion 306
Add More Depth 306
Wrap Some Text 306
The After Effects Plug-in 307
Setting Up A Multi-Pass Rendering 307
09
Finding Your Voice as an Artist 309
The World Outside the Realism Box 310
Walk Away from Your Computer 312
Physics Doesn't Live Here Anymore 312
Challenge Reality and Play with Space 312
Objective or Subjective? 313
Put Your E-Toys to Work 313
Make Some Grunge 314
Become a Scrap Rat 315
Create Libraries of Digital Details 316
The Holistic Artist 316
Optimize Your Creative Time 317
Become An Art Historian 317
Cultivate Efficient Work Habits 317
Storyboards, Thought Charts, Animatics 317
3D as a Day Job 318