The very heart of Cinema 4D Studio is modelling. This is where you create the objects that make up all or part of your scene or animation. The key to understanding modelling is the use of primitives (parametric objects) and HyperNURBS – and no, someone new to 3D is NOT a nurbie!

A parametric is a simple geometric object such as a sphere, cube, cone or pyramid. When you are modelling using a parametric as a starting point, it can only be modified as a whole object, not by individual faces. This is somewhat limiting, so the parametric has to be converted to a polygonal object where all faces are “broken” into polygon shapes, but still connected. Each of the line segments making yup a polygon is called a “splines”, but note, these are just lines, there is no surface at this stage.

Splines are the most basic modelling unit in Cinema 4D; they can form the basis of an object at one end of the scale, or can they can be used to form the path of a camera at the other. To add a surface over a set of splines, Cinema 4D uses HyperNURBS.

Once a HyperNURB is added to a spline’s mesh (the mesh is the combination of all the lines making up a shape), it then has a surface with a much, much finer mesh now making that up. Better, for modelling purposes, if you select a single point on the mesh and drag it, all the other points will follow. Using other tools in Cinema 4D allows you to push, pull and otherwise deform this HyperNURBS mesh into the final shape of the model ()s)you want by selecting individual, combinations or whole faces of points.

To also assist in this, Cinema has a number of ‘viewports’ that let you examine  the model from all sorts of angles and even rotate, tilt, tip or otherwise move the model along and around the X, Y or Z axes.

Rather than attempt to start with a single parametric – the cube is the most used – to build one object, it is far better to break the object into much smaller pieces and then build each of these, adding them together just like building blocks. With the tools that Cinema 4D supplies, there is literally no limit to what can be achieved as some of the images blow show.

Materials

Once an object is created – or more often than not, during its creation – a material is added to it. This might be to mimic metal, wood, cloth and so on, and this, combined with lighting, is probably the key to fully understanding Cinema 4D and its power.

A material (and oodles are supplied or you could make your own as they are a simple bitmap) has a number of attributes available to add realism. These attributes are:

• Colour
• Diffusion
• Luminance
• Transparency
• Reflection
• Environment
• Fog
• Bump
• Normal
• Alpha
• Specular
• Glow
• Displacement

Using these attributes, I would defy anyone to come up with a material that cannot be mimicked from nature. And anyway if you really get stuck, there is a way out. I remember some years back in a Cinema Forum I frequented at the time someone asking for tips on making a material that resembled rusted out galvanised roofing tin – you know the ‘wavy’ type.

Creating the object was a snap, but all attempts at the material to ‘cover’ it had eluded him. Someone then gently reminded the picture was a simple bitmap, so why not find a piece of the rusted out roof and photograph it, then use a portion of the photo to make the bitmap.

While I find lighting and animation the most satisfying part of using Cinema 4D Studio, modelling is without question the most fun.

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com