In this part of the Razorback series, we are wrapping up the modeling phase (for now). This video shows a little peek at how the tires were modeled, and then moves onto a little bit of material-making and texturing. If you’d like to see more on how the tires were modeled, then you should check out my motorcycle tire modeling tutorial. It’s long, but a good video I think. Grab a hot beverage and kick back while watching it.
Category: How-to
In this tip, we explore a few quick settings for creating a nice, evenly lit, Global Illumination based, lighting setup for your models in Cinema 4D. This isn’t a replacement for other full lighting rigs, or even a replacement for putting the proper time when lighting a scene, but it’s a quick start.
In this part of the Razorback series, we finally create brackets for the Infrared arrays that sit near the front of the machine. These have been floating in space since they were modeled, so it’s about time that they got official mounting hardware. The video is below, and I hope you enjoy it.
In this part of the Razorback series, we tackle the issue of our low-poly kickstand brackets. This continues along with the theme of making a low-poly or placeholder item look more polished before texturing and rendering. See the rest of the post for the video and related items.
Many of my Five Minute Tips come from a place of exploration; sometimes I find a tool (or remember a tool that I used once) and think to myself, “Wow, that would make a good Five Minute Tip video!”. The Project tool Five Minute Tip is just that kind of tip. I used to use this tool a lot when working at my last job where I would need to enhance architectural models with extra features… but I digress. This week’s tip focuses on this “Project” tool and how it can be used.
This installment of the Razorback Screencast looks at the little details on the kickstands. Our kickstands are automatic, hydraulic mechanisms that work in tandem to keep the bike upright when it slows or comes to a stop. From an engineering perspective; they will have a tough job and will likely be replaced regularly.
The robotic arms of the Razorback give it a lot of personality, while serving as its main focal point when regarding the high-tech sci-fi look of the machine. Read More
This tip focuses on the fact that simple rigid body dynamics can be used in the Broadcast Edition of Cinema 4D with some simple techniques. The Broadcast Edition of Cinema 4D includes rigid body dynamics tags but curiously, they don’t work with regular polygonal objects. So why are they there and what can we use them for?
Check out the rest of the post for more info, some still images and the short video tutorial.
As the overall modeling of the Razorback project nears maturity, we’re starting to focus on some of the more detailed and nuanced areas of the model. For instance, let’s consider the kickstands. We know that they will be Pneumatic/Hydraulic, and we know that actuated stuff in sci-fi renditions must have hoses leading from the mechanism into the depths of the robot… it’s just cooler that way.
Having said all that, we need a way for the hoses to move and flex with the machine, and Read More
This tip focuses on the placement of sesame seeds on a baked treat.
One of my readers commented on my Constraining Objects to a Surface tip and mentioned that he’d found it particularly useful. He also referenced placing sesame seeds on a burger bun and I immediately thought of achieving that effect using the MoGraph Cloner. Granted, there are many circumstances under which the subsequent tip won’t be ideal but I think it could be a real time-saver.
Check out the rest of the post for some still images and the short video tutorial.
In this part of the Razorback video series, we tackle the kickstands and the hardware/hoses that connect them to the machine’s central systems. The hoses provide a challenge to us that we’ve not seen since the steering mechanisms.
A quick tip that shows how to use a Vertex Weight Map to restrict the influence of a Cinema 4D deformer.
When applying a deformer in 3D software, the limitations of the deformer are considered in the decision to use it. For instance, if we wanted to bend an object we would obviously use a bend deformer. This gets more complicated as we look for ways to influence only part of an object (typically we want to bend the entire object). In Cinema 4D, we can use the Vertex Weight tag/a Vertex Map to define the area of influence that a deformer can affect.
The general idea of this tip is: We want to twist the lower half of David, while leaving the sword in his hand straight. The Vertex Weight Map and a restriction tag can help us in this case.
