Halloween is months away, but I'm getting a head start this year, mostly because I began a few projects in 2016 that didn't make the October 31st cut-off. This image was modeled using the sculpt tools in Cinema 4D. The folks at ZBrush won't be losing any sleep, but the sculpt tools in C4D are more than capable of getting the job done, as evidenced by this piece, which I started last summer (the head) and finished a few days ago.
It was rendered with Solid Angle's Arnold, a terrific--albeit somewhat pricey--rendering engine option, mostly used for photorealism. Arnold is node-based, much like Blackmagic's Fusion, and is tinkered with inside Cinema 4D's xpresso tool. It's surprisingly easy to use once you get the hang of it. I rigged the mouth and hands, so maybe I'll post an animation as Halloween gets closer. And doesn't stuff look uber-cool in black and white?
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To produce this video I used a variety of techniques and software, including Cinema 4D for animation, Fusion for compositing, Final Cut X for editing and sound work, and Photoshop for everything in between. A special shout-out to the always entertaining "Noseman" Pozantzis, who explained one of the x-ray effects during a seminar at Siggraph 2016. The process combines hard shadows and the cel shader in C4D to make things awesome from the inside out.
Doodling fun with extrusions, inner extrudes and beveling. It's modeled from a single cube divided into ten sections. A clean mesh coupled with a bevel deformer created the soft edges. I used the plexiglas setting in the reflectance channel to make the surface resemble plastic. It looks like something a robot might cough up in a Transformers movie.
After a ten-year hiatus, eggtion's nifty Roll-It plug-in for Cinema 4D is back. The plug-in makes it easier to roll objects and drop them to a floor, even if the floor shape is deformed. It works with Cinema 4D Release 16 and above, and is free for private and commercial projects. Check it out (it's fun to play with even if it's not part of your current workflow):
During my first years in college I was fortunate enough to take an animation class at USC taught by Bernie Gruver, who had a long career as a draftsman and worked on the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas special that's aired on CBS and ABC since the mid-1960s.
One evening Bernie took our class on a field trip to Bill Melendez Productions, the company responsible for producing many of the Peanuts animated specials and motion pictures. Bill was a character: with his enormous handlebar mustache he looked like a caricature come to life. We were surprised to learn that he provided the "voice" for Snoopy whenever he spoke (really just a bunch of gibberish played at high-speed). That trip was my first exposure to the world of professional animation. Years later, I read that Bill Melendez was one of the most active participants in the Disney strike of 1941, which led to the formation of animation unions, and protections for artists who painstakingly created drawings of characters that live on to this day. Bernie Gruver passed away a few years after I attended his class, but his work, and the work of Bill Melendez, director, producer, writer and tireless champion of the labor movement, have not been forgotten. Points to Circle is a kewl Cinema 4D script that makes life a lot easier when you're trying to a) create a circle on a polygon object and b) not pull out your hair. It's primarily meant for flat objects but I've had success using it on a sphere. Remember, it's a script, not a plug-in, so look for it under the Script tab once it's downloaded into Cinema 4D. It was written by David Wickenden; a shout-out to 3DKiwi at C4D Cafe for posting it.
You can download it for free here: http://www.c4dcafe.com/ipb/files/file/1110-points-to-circle/ |
Robert BorowskiMostly, he writes for a living. Archives
March 2023
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