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Main » 2010 » July » 25 » 3D Fluff Training for CINEMA 4D Volume 6 - Animation
1:49 PM 3D Fluff Training for CINEMA 4D Volume 6 - Animation |
3D Fluff Training for CINEMA 4D Volume 6 - Animation | 2 Gb
Introduction
3DFluff's
latest DVD, Vol 6 came out in August 2007. This DVD follows on from
3DFluff's previous Vol 5 DVD on the HAIR module which the Cafe has
reviewed here. I also own the excellent "Vol 4 Advanced Lighting and
rendering in 9.5"
Vol 6 sees the return of Matthew (Mash) O'Neill
for the first few modelling videos then Janine Pauke does the balance
of the video tutorials. On the last DVD Matthew only did the
introduction with the tutorials all presented by Janine. Both Matthew
and Janine have previously worked for MAXON and are very knowledgeable
with CINEMA 4D.
_http://www.cafedownloads.com/reviews/3dfluffvol6/
Getting Started
The
DVD is a data DVD i.e. must be played back on a computer. Inside the
case there's simple instructions that tell you to open the "Start
here.html file." Once you've done that you get a friendly screen with
options on where to find the video tutorials, how to get in touch with
3DFluff, where to find their web site and a FAQ section. The FAQ
section is very useful for those new to CINEMA 4D and answers questions
about running the videos and getting your computer to look the same
i.e. colours etc
The videos are in Quicktime format using the
H.264 codec. Resolution is 1024 x 768 and frame rate is 25 frames per
second. Video and audio quality is superb. Like previous 3DFluff DVD's
the audio appears to be recorded separately so you don't get any
keyboard sounds or other background noise although listening through
headphones on my laptop I did occasionally hear very faint background
noises. With speakers you wouldn't hear them. The videos will play from
the DVD if you've got a fast computer but it's best to copy the entire
DVD on to hard disk which the DVD tells you that you are allowed to do.
This will make playback better on slower computers plus the videos will
load quicker. I watched most of the videos on my laptop and had no
problems whatsoever. Make sure you're running the latest version of
Quicktime and you should be fine. Older versions often struggled
playing the H.264 format and stopping, starting and rewinding often
caused problems. The videos are all recorded using CINEMA 4D Release 10
on a PC. The new "Light" scheme is used throughout.
Video 1 - Flower Pot 9min
This
is an introduction by Matthew and begins with the final animation that
the tutorials produce. The DVD is all about producing a 30 second
cartoon type animation suitable for television. Matthew goes through
setting up CINEMA 4D so that a few things like the object bounding box
are disabled and some of the filter options are disabled. After that he
shows how to model the flower pot using a Spline and a LatheNurbs
object. The modelling is pretty simple stuff and Matthew shows how to
make corners rounded by using the spline chamfer tool.
Video 2 - Flower Modelling 18min
Matthew
begins by creating a 5 sided spline. This is then extruded with no
movement and made editable. The 5 edges are extruded and then the
polygon object is dropped under a hypernurbs object. Matthew refines
the shape by doing some point editing. To make things clearer for us to
see in this and in other videos the display mode is changed to a mode
appropriate for the current actions. Some depth is created by extruding
and the inner part of the flower is created by a number of extrudes.
Matthew discusses reversed normals and what to look out for. A few more
extrudes and moving polygons around and the flower is finished. It's a
cartoon flower so it's very simple and round. The leaves are created
from a cube primitive and Matthew shows how to use edge weighting to
get the sharp points. If you have a second monitor I reckon you could
almost follow along in real time and do the modelling as Matthew
explains things so well, that if you're familiar with modelling in C4D
you would have no trouble in keeping up. Best to watch the video all
the way through first and then go back and watch again while you do the
modelling.
Video 3 - Flower Texturing 20min
In this video
Matthew applies materials to the flower. For the flower he uses a
gradient and shows how to get the material correctly applied with the
texture tools. Matthew shows how to get the flat cartoon look and how
to get the yellow area for the face nicely blending into the reddish /
orange colour. A supplied face texture with alpha map is supplied and
applied to the flower. The flower pot gets a simple brown texture.
Here's 2 renders of where we're up to at the end of this video.
Flower after video 3 Flower after video 3
Up
until now the modelling had been pretty simple so I was pleased that
the texturing was a bit more advanced. While the texturing may look
very simple, to achieve these results requires a bit of tweaking and
the use of various channels. Matthew does a great job of explaining
things.
Video 4 - Honey 16min
The honey pot, lid and honey is
modelled in this video. A Spline and LatheNurbs object are used for the
honey pot and honey. The lid is made with a Star spline that's adjusted
and extruded with an ExtrudeNurbs object. We're shown how to use cap
fillets to round the cap. Matthew shows how to change the display
colour of the objects so that the honey inside the jar is easier to see
and work with. Again this is pretty simple modelling.
Video 5 - Bee Modelling 25min
Matthew
shows how to model and texture a simple cute looking cartoon bee. The
best part in this video is the texturing and how to make the gradient
texture cycle. The modelling again is quite simple. Here's what the bee
looks like at this end of this video.
Modelled Bee
Video 6 - Text 10min
This
video covers creating the text. The MoGraph module is used for this and
Matthew shows creating the text and how to use a random effector to
make the words and letters bobble around. At the start Matthew says
that the MoGraph module is not absolutely essential. I think what would
have been useful is for an alternative method to using MoGraph to be
shown as well as the MoGraph module version. Matthew explains the
differences between the letter and word mode when using MoGraph
effectors. As mentioned Matthew uses the random effector to make the
letters and words bobble around and shows how easy it is by using the
noise mode. Here's what the animated text looks like at the end of this
video (only 60 frames for this example). I've applied a black material
to make the letters easier to see. In a later video a plain white
material is applied.
Video 7 - Flower Rigging 34min
Janine
Pauke takes over for the rest of the DVD. For those who haven't heard
Janine speak before, she speaks very good English but with a delightful
German accent. Janine goes through and does a simple rig using bones
and point selections for the restriction tags. I'm baffled by this. One
of the big new features in Release 10 was joints and the tools etc that
go with them. This would have been a great opportunity to show using
joints. I actually think using joints and using auto weighting would
have been easier than using 8 selection tags and 8 restriction tags.
She could have then shown editing the weighting if required. Anyway,
after setting up the bones and the restriction tags she then shows how
to set up "Set driven keys" so that as one bone is rotated all of the
child bones rotate as well. This is good stuff and Janine shows that by
setting up the set driven keys that some XPresso has been automatically
created. She also fixes up the geometry on the flower so that the
flower stalk deforms correctly as the bones move.
Once the
rigging is done and Janine starts playing around with the bones she
shows a problem with the textures sliding. She shows how to fix this
using "Stick texture" tags. There's some useful information in this
video but I think a golden opportunity was lost by not using joints. To
test that joints in fact do work I rigged the flower with joints. By
using joints I was able to achieve virtually identical results to what
Janine did using bones. I found that auto weighting worked fine on the
flower but I had to manually adjust the weights for the 2 leaves.
Here's an example of the what the flower does as one bone or joint as
in my case is rotated. The set driven key set up is identical when
using joints. The flower is now set up for animating that takes place
in a later video.
Video 8 - Lighting 35min
Janine begins
by making a few adjustments to the flower. A background is added and a
supplied texture is added to the background object. For a floor a disc
object is used and Janine shows how to blend the background into the
floor but still have shadows on the floor. Janine sets up 4 lights and
a shadowcaster light to only cast shadows. I have to say that up until
now I'd found the DVD pretty light weight with the information at
pretty much newbie level. This video was reminiscent of Vol 4 where
Janine demonstrates her great understanding of lighting and goes into
excellent detail explaining and demonstrating a main light, fill
lights, back lighting with rim lighting and the use of a shadow caster
light. Shadow maps are explained and some good tips given. Lots of test
renders are done and perhaps we should have been shown the new
Interactive Render Region tool when doing so many test renders.
Enhanced OpenGL is not mentioned either on the DVD. Yet another new
Release 10 feature. However to be fair the flower looked terrible with
Enhanced OpenGL enabled because of the alpha channel for the face. This
video is one of the highlights of the DVD and good a introduction to 3
point lighting.
Video 9 - Honey Texturing 23 min
Janine
begins by merging the honey pot into the flower pot scene. She scales
it up as it's a bit small. A honey material is created and applied to
the honey object and a label is applied to the honey pot complete with
alpha channel. The black plastic material is created and applied to the
lid. This video is another highlight of the DVD as creating a
believable honey texture and glass material isn't as easy you may
think. Janine shows some excellent tips for getting the glass right as
the lighting can do funny things to the edges of the honey pot. So if
the modelling was fairly newbie level the texturing and lighting
certainly isn't and I think many people would learn something from this
video and the previous video. Here's a render of the final honey pot
with the lighting created in the previous video. Yummy!!
Finished honey pot and lighting
Video 10 - Previs 32min
In
this video Janine does a dummy animation using simplified objects to
represent the flower, bee and honey pot. This allows for much faster
viewport playback and for fast test renders and preview renders. Once
you're happy with a previs animation you can load it as an animated
material on to your background object and use it as a reference when
animating the higher detail real objects. Janine shows setting the
project settings to 25 frames per second to match European TV (Pal) but
no mention is made of the render resolution or video aspect ratio or in
the use of safe frames. These minor issues aside this video
demonstrates the basic steps to creating a simple previs animation.
Janine shows refining the previs animation in the timeline by adjusting
keyframe timing and by adjusting F curves.
Video 11 - Flower Animation 41min
Janine
starts by setting the project settings to 25fps and setting the
animation length with the start at frame 0 and the end at frame 750
(751 frames). Perhaps I'm being picky but this actually gives 30
seconds of animation plus 1 frame. For precisely 30 seconds of
animation the start frame should be frame 1 which then gives 750
frames. At the very least it could have been mentioned. The previs
animation image sequence is loaded as an animated texture on the
background object and Janine proceeds to animate the flower and the
honey pot to match the previs animation. For the bee she shows how to
make the wings flap using a vibrate expression. All throughout the
video she has the timeline visible and uses the timeline to adjust
keyframe timing. Things like overshoot are explained and resolved by
clamping keys. This is all pretty good stuff and fairly straight
forward. If you're looking for advanced tutorials on the various
timeline functions in Release 10 then this DVD won't provide it. The
DVD just shows you how to do a complete project from start to finish
and only shows the tools and options required to get this particular
project completed.
Video 12 - Bee Animation 40 minutes
This
video just carries on from where the last video finished and focuses on
animating the bee flying in and around the flower. A lot of work is
done on creating and editing the bees animation path. The video shows
doing preview renders and some final renders with what we have so far.
Towards the end of the video the flower is animated to try and look at
the bee. Here's a screen grab from this video. Click on the image for a
full resolution version.
Click on image for full size version
Click on the image for full size version. Video quality is excellent.
Video 13 - F Curves 28min
Again
this video carries on from the last one. In fact they all do. This
video is all about refining the animation created so far using F curves
(Function curves). As mentioned previously we're only shown things
needed to complete the project so there's no additional material on
other timeline functions. A few full test renders are done so that we
can see what our animation is looking like so far.
Video 14 - Composition 37min
The
animation is completed in the video by further refinement and the
addition of the MoGraph text object. The text is animated to follow the
bee into the camera view and stop. To add some interest the bee is
giving a MoGraph "Tracer" dashed tail. An alpha channel texture is used
to break it up into dashes. At the end of the video the project is now
complete with only the final render left to do. I think what have been
useful in this video would have been for an alternative method for
doing the tail was shown. Not everyone has the MoGraph module and an
acceptable result could have been achieved by using a SweepNurbs object
and animating the start and end parameters and by converting the bee
animation path to a spline.
Video 15 - Rendering 44min
The
final video on the DVD is all about rendering out the animation. Janine
does a little fine tuning of the animation. A camera is added and she
explains what the "Film offset" option does. To make things interesting
Janine adds some scene motion blur and explains the settings. The main
focus of the video however is on render settings and in particular
antialiasing, ray depth, reflection depth and shadow depth settings.
Janine shows objects like wine glasses and demonstrates what happens by
changing the settings. This content is superb and what I would describe
as classic 3DFluff. For me this was by far and away the best video on
the DVD and it's just a pity there wasn't more in depth content like
this. We're shown how to render out the animation as an image sequence
but not shown how to combine the image sequence and add sound in an
external program. Some programs are suggested for doing this but why
not show using them? There was an opportunity here to show off CINEMA
4D's audio tools. A speaker could have been attached to the bee and a
buzzing sound attached. Then with stereo microphones set up in the
scene, the buzzing sound could have been made to move around from left
to right audio channels as the bee flies around. Then we could have
been shown how to render out 3D sound. The video finishes by playing
the final animation that includes sound that was added in the external
program.
Here's 4 small renders from the final animation. The blurriness is caused by the use of scene motion blur.
Final animation Final animation
Additional Content
The
DVD comes with some additional content. There's the excellent 37 minute
3DFluff fur tutorial, May 2007 and June 2007 3DAttack magazines in pdf
format and some excellent HDR images (same ones as on the previous
DVD's). Naturally all of the required textures are supplied as are
scene files at various stages of completion and the final 30 second
animation.
Conclusion
I had high expectations for this DVD
after the disappointing Vol 5 HAIR styling DVD which was too short and
didn't cover many HAIR tools. Review by the Cafe here. At around 7
hours duration Vol 6 is certainly a lot longer than the last one. What
you get is a cute little cartoon TV commercial project from start to
finish. The techniques used to describe producing this project are
presented very clearly. One thing with 3DFluff DVD's is you're shown
correct techniques. A few training materials I've seen have some
questionable techniques shown. Okay, so can I recommend the DVD? Yes if
you want to produce a cartoon type TV commercial or if you're new to
CINEMA 4D and want a fun project to do. You'll have no problem
following and completing the tutorials to produce your own version but
if you were looking for a DVD that goes through the new features in
Release 10 then this isn't the DVD for you. As mentioned, I was baffled
why joints weren't used. Things like modelling layers, Enhanced OpenGL
and Interactive Render Region are not mentioned at all. There's moments
of classic 3DFluff excellence with things demonstrated and explained in
some depth but not enough for what many intermediate users would have
been hoping for.
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