Model, Texture and Render an iMac in Cinema4D

Hi everyone!  First of all, thanks for reading this tutorial and I hope you can learn something, not only how to create 3D model like this, but also to understand how a 3D model works. During this tutorial I will explain some tips and tools that I think fit very well with any kind of modeling!
You will learn how to create a very similar iMac on Cinema 4D with many details and some basic modeling tools.

Create a new document on Cinema 4D and go to Objects > Spline Primitive > Rectangle to create a Rectangle Object. Or you can use the Spline Object shortcut like the following image:

Now, change the values on the Object Properties tab.

Duplicate the Rectangle Object (Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V) and move to the position -8cm (Z Axis) for the first one, and the second move to the position +8cm.

Create a Loft Nurbs Object (Objects > NURBS > Loft Nurbs) or use the shortcut. Select both rectangles and place them under the Loft Nurbs Object, so it will appear a Group Icon and the rectangles will be inside of it. And you will get something like this:

This Nurbs works with Splines Objects, you can put as you like, ranging in size, rotation and position of the splines. And it works in a hierarchical way: the first spline that you put will be the first mesh of the object and the others will be the depth of the mesh.

Create a Cube Object (Objects > Primitive > Cube) and change the values on the Object Properties tab and the values on the Position Coordinates. You will get something like this:

Create a Boole Object (Objects > Modeling > Boole) or use the shortcut. Select the Loft Nurbs and the Cube and place them under the Boole Object. Click on it and go to the Object tab. As you can see the Boolean Type is: A subtract B, so what is it? The Boole will recognize the Loft Nurbs (A) as the main mesh and the Cube (B) as the mesh that you want to remove.

Now, we will create the “black part” that sits between the screen and the base: duplicate only the Loft Nurbs Object and move it out of the Boole. Change the values on the Object Properties tab and on the Position tab for both rectangles, like the following image.

Select the Loft Nurbs and change the Z Position to -8.5cm. Select both Loft Nurbs (inside and outside the Boole) and go to Object Properties and change the value on Mesh Subdivision U to 50. So, the edges become smoother.

Now, we will create the screen: create another Cube Object and change the settings like the following image:

After that, we will create the aluminum support: change the Camera View to Right Side (press F3). Now, select the Linear Spline Object (Objects > Create Spline > Linear) and do some points like the following image:

On the Objects Properties tab, change the Type to Cubic and you will get something like this:

Create another Rectangle Object with the following settings:

Create a Sweep Nurbs Object (Objects > NURBS > Sweep Nurbs) or use the shortcut. Select the rectangle and the spline and place them under the Sweep Nurbs Object, so it will appear a Group Icon, like the Loft Nurbs.
This Nurbs works with two splines: the first one is the thickness of the mesh, the second one is the base mesh, in other words, the first spline will follow the second spline.

Here are some examples:

Select the Sweep Nurbs and change some values like the following image. On the Object tab, change the End Scale: 200%. So, the base will become larger relative to the beginning. On the Caps tab, change both Start and End to Filet Cap – Steps: 3 – Radius: 1. Then, the edges become smoother.

Now, create a Cylinder Object (Objects > Primitive > Cylinder) and change the settings:

After that, create a Boole Object and place the Sweep Nurbs and Cylinder under it. It works like the previous Boolean: the Sweep Nurbs (A) is the main mesh and the Cylinder (B) is the mesh that you want to remove.

Here is our finished mesh and the layer order:

Now, we will start the Texturing part. First of all create a new material (Ctrl + N on the materials tab), this will be our Support material. So, rename it to support and on the Color tab, change its color to a light grey (RGB: 183/183/183). On the Luminance tab, click on the texture arrow and choose: Effects > Lumas.

Click on the red image (preview) and on the Shader tab, change its color to a medium grey (RGB: 71/71/71).
Go to the Specular 2 and change its color to a light grey (RGB: 178/178/178).
Go to the Specular 3 and change its color to the same Shader medium grey (RGB: 71/71/71).
On the Anisotropy tab, check the Active property, Projection: Shrink Warp (default) and change the Amplitude and Scale values to 20%.
And finally, click on the Luminance name to go back and change the Brightness: 30%, Mix Mode: Multiply and Mix Strength: 35%.
This kind of luminance makes the edges brighter than the surface, like the preview image.

On the Reflection tab, change the Brightness: 15% and on the texture arrow choose Fresnel. Change the Mix Strength: 35% and Blurriness: 30%. The Fresnel texture makes the reflection looks more realistic, and adding a bit of blur will reflect more opaque.

Finally, on the Specular tab, change the Mode: Metal, Width: 100%, Height: 40% and Falloff: 20%.
So the material will look heavier and denser.

Select this material and drag into the object like the following image:

Copy the support material and paste it. Change its name to base mesh and do some changes: on the Color tab, change the color to a light grey (RGB: 213/213/213).
Go to the Reflection tab and just change the Brightness: 10%.
And again, select and drag it into the Base Mesh object.

Now, we will do the black material that fits around the screen. Create a new material and name it for black. On the Color tab, change the color to a dark grey, almost black (RGB: 16/16/16).
On the Reflection tab, change the Brightness: 15% and Blurriness: 20%. For this one we will not use the Fresnel texture.
And on the Specular tab, just change the Height value to 10%. So, select and drag it.

Create another new material. This one will be the screen material. Download a desktop screenshot (you can find many on Google).
On the Color tab, import this desktop image, and if this is not too much strong, click on the preview image and change the Exposure value, but just a bit. On the Blur Scale property, change the value to a negative value, something between -20% and -40%. It works like a sharpen effect.
After that, go to the Specular tab and change some values: Width: 60%, Height: 25% and Falloff: 10%. And again, select and drag it.

Here is what we have now:

And our final material: the Apple Logo. For this one, download a black Apple logo with a white background. So, create a new material and import it on the Color tab. Besides, go to the Alpha tab and import the same image. Check only the Image Alpha and change the Color to white and Delta to a medium grey (RGB: 82/82/82). This channel recognizes this white color as what you want to remove and the Delta as the smooth color.

To apply this material, create a Plane Object (Objects > Primitive > Plane) and change some values like the following image:

Now, some quick settings to do a cool render. First, add a Area Light Object on your scene (Objects > scene > Area Light). This kind of light does a better result than omni or spot lights.
After that, change the Intensity to 75%. Go to the Details tab and change the Area Shape to Sphere.

Add an Array Object (Objects > Modeling > Array). Change the Radius to 450m and the copies to 2. So, move it 250m on the Y axis.

Add a Floor Object (Objects > Scene > Floor).
Now, go to the Render Settings. Click on the Effect button and add the Global Illumination. On the Irradiance Cache, change the Stochastic Samples to Low, just to reduce the render time, but the result still cool. After that, go to the Anti-Aliasing tab (on the Render Settings window) and change it to Best.

Here are some quick renders:

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Create Explosive Typographic Effects in Cinema 4D Read more

Step 1: Creating 3d text

I created a new document in C4d and added some text with the built in text tool.

I typed the word COLLIDE in the Attributes manager.

I applied Extrude Nurbs by making it a parent of my text.

Parent/child relationship shown above in my Objects Manager.

There's a small problem at this point: The word "collide" is treated as one object and I want to manipulate the individual letters. In order to do that I need to Explode Segments from the Function menu.

Now each part of each letter is broken into individual splines and I can extrude them separately as well as manipulate them.

On a couple of the letters I need to Connect the inside spline and outside spline together. The "O" and the "D" need to be connected because they are 2 individual splines as a result of the Explode Segments function I applied. I selected the 2 splines and right clicked to pull up a menu. I chose Connect. Once I've connected them I am ready to extrude each individual letter and place them where I want in my composition.

I have applied an Extrude nurbs to each letter now. See my object window for clarity.

And now I've named each nurb so that I know what letter it is.

Next I will click on each letter's Extrude Nurbs and adjust the cap to be a Fillet Cap. I chose 3 Steps with a Radius of 3. This gives a nice looking edge to each letter.

Next I selected each letter and changed it's position and rotation into a random spot that I felt would work for this composition.
Step 2: Creating reflective material for my 3d text

I created a new material that I will plan to tweak a bit later to get better results. But for now I know I will want to add reflection, environment, and a color.

My reflection is set to 35% and I did the same for environment as well. These are just settings I am randomly choosing and require some tweaking as the project progresses.

I added a light and and a sky to my scene.

I created a material to apply to my sky. I used a picture of a sky. There is definitely a lot of experimenting that can be done with what you can place in the sky and how it will look in the reflections of the material on the text.

I applied the new material to my sky and experimented with the Projection method. Cubic ended up being what I chose based on the way it looked as it reacted with my text.

Here is the result of my sky being reflected on my text. You can load the same image of a sky into your reflection and environment materials but the results will look different than using a sky in c4d to be reflected. I've found that I have more control over the reflections this way. I can rotate the sky. I can change the projection method of the material on my sky. Ultimately, it allowed me to get the results I wanted with ease.

My text material wasn't quite colorful enough so I added a tint of blue to the original material.

Here is the result of adding the tint of blue. Much better for what I am looking to accomplish.
Step 3: Using a displacement map to create my collision effect

I copied several of my letter from the word "collide" and will apply a displacement map to those to create the collision.

I copied my reflective material that I created for the word "collide" and then I checked the "displacement" box and loaded a texture. Cinema 4d has built in textures you can experiment with for the displacement. Usually something black and white will work best but it is not completely necessary. I chose "brick" from the preset surfaces. I've also used black and white jpegs of stripes or other patterns that I've created in Illustrator.

Here you can see I set the Height to 500m and kept the strength at 100%. This is definitely a step that I could get lost in time experimenting with different heights, textures, and even projection methods for this material. Each tweak will give you amazing new results to choose from.

Here is the result of my current settings on the displacement material.
Step 4: Adding exploding bits and pieces to my collision

I added a pyramid to my scene that will be used as the object to explode. I increased the Segments to 5. The more segments you have, the more bits and pieces to explode.

For this step I added an Explosion FX. I will use the Explosion later. (notice the difference above)

In order for the Explosion FX to work, it must be a child of the parent (the object to be exploded being the parent). I adjusted the Thickness until I found a setting I liked.

Here is the what my exploding pyramid looks like after playing with the Time and Strength of the explosion.

Next I copied my pyramid twice. On one of them I left the settings but moved the position of the pyramid to quickly double the amount of exploding segments. Then on my 3rd copy of the pyramid I added an Explosion rather than Explosion FX. This gave me a bunch of tiny specs of metal flying through the air rather than the large chunks created from my other 2 pyramids.

You can see the addition of the tiny explosion particles in this render above.
Step 5: Adding the final effects in Photoshop

In my Render Settings, I made sure Alpha Channel is checked. Then I make my final render by choosing Render to Picture Viewer from the C4d Render menu.

When I open the rendered .tif in Photoshop it contains the alpha channel I included from C4d.

I selected the Alpha Channel, deleted the background and added a solid black background on a new layer below my collide artwork.

I wanted a feeling of air & space around my artwork rather than just solid black, so I added clouds from the Photoshop Filter menu.

Next I made a selection around a portion of the clouds and feathered the edge using the Refine Edge button.

I deleted the extra part of the clouds with my selection and adjusted the Levels of the layer.

I found a picture of smoke to really give this collision illustration some convincing touches. Almost like a car wreck and the engine is over heated.

Next I copied and pasted the image then inverted it (command, "I") and set it to Screen Mode.

I added a layer mask and revealed all. Then I went in with an airbrush on the layer mask and started erasing different areas of the smoke to make it look like it was interacting with the "collide" rather than just placed on top.

Here is what my smoke looks like after erasing bits of it. Next, I copied that layer and repeated the same steps to add some more smoke toward the bottom of my composition.

I felt the piece needed some more color to make it pop so I added a layer and airbrushed pink onto the layer with a large brush size. The layer was set to Soft Light and placed below my "collide" artwork so that it would effect the colors of my background but not my 3d collision.

I wanted to spice things up a bit and throw some lighting into my collision.

I copied and pasted the lighting into my composition, desaturated, and set the layer mode to screen.

Then I copied my layer of lighting and added a gaussian blur to the copied layer. I set both layers to Add and moved them below the layer I airbrushed with color earlier. This created some nice color through my lightning streaks.

The final result in Photoshop with all the layers displayed.



Read more: http://www.webdesign.org/3d-graphics/tutorials/how-to-create-explosive-typographic-effects-in-cinema-4d.16795.html#ixzz12OUDlNWo

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