Dead Heads
Joren Kandel at Pixel Lab posted a link to a free 3d scanned skull model from the company Ten 24. Messed around a bit and ended up with this:
The 3D file is available as an .obj or zbrush format. You can get it from The Pixel Lab here:
http://www.thepixellab.net/free-c4d-model-detailed-skull
or go directly to Ten 24 Here:
http://www.3dscanstore.com/index.php/default/free-samples/free-male-skull-3d-scan.html
Invention USA promo
Finished a spot for a new show on History called Invention USA. Had a short window of time to come up with the concept and go to finish, which I do admit consists mainly of a bunch of things that Cinema 4D does well (and fast), namely stuff falling on a floor and bouncing around. A little lazy perhaps on the concept side, but it was one of those situations where I just needed to come up with something fast, in the midst of doing 12 other things, and see how it flies. Client liked the concept so I went with it.
I gotta say though, when I'm in a tight bind, C4D always comes through for me. Setting up the dynamics required minimal effort. It just works. And the rendering was fast as well. I started off meaning to use GI and also tested the scene with the new R13 physical renderer, but because time was an issue (needed to go straight to finish in a very short amount of time) I went with the standard renderer. The still above was rendered with the new physical renderer, however the final shot (not shown here) didn't really look much different in the end and rendered in a fraction of the time. Hope to eventually post the spot. Some style frames also included below.
Cinema 4D Quick Tip: Subscripts with MoText
It’s nice to have text tools built right into Cinema 4D, especially when considering that in some 3D apps you would need to create your text elsewhere and then import. Even so, there is definitely room for improvment of these tools.
One little tip I’d like to share here might be helpful to those of you wishing to create text that uses sub/superscripts. Unforuntately there are few controls beyond font style, height and vertical/horizontal spacing of type when using the MoText object, and only one style can be applied at a time, so there are limitations.
If you wish to create sub/superscripts natively in c4d, you might be able to get away with this faux-script solution I discovered:
• Add a MoText object to your scene (Mograph menu>MoText in R12).
• Make sure your text is aligned LEFT for this example.
• In the attributes manager, hit return where you wish your subscript to begin.
• Add enough character spaces prior to your subscript characters so the text is pushed to the right far enough not to have any characters on the line above it.
• For SUBSCRIPTS, enter a negative value of whatever the text height is in the “vertical spacing” box (may need to tweak the value by eye).
• For SUPERSCRIPTS, enter double the value of the text height into the vertical spacing box.
For true super/subscripts you would want the font size to be ~75% of the normal text, but unfortunaltely, as mentioned above, you cannot have multiple font sizes/styles applied to the same block of text. Maybe we can get some more precise tools (kerning, multiple styles) in a future upgrade of Cinema 4D.
Cinema 4D MoDynamics Test
Just a fun little test with modynamics. The ball bounce is keyframed by hand, the fat trails are sweep nurbs applied to the mograph tracer object. Its just the scattering balls at the end that utilize dynamics. Lots of flicker. Gotta see why that’s happening…
Monocyte scene: surface and lighting test
Here is the previous scene with textures and lighting applied. The lights on the surface of the blood vessel represent cell adhesion molecules, which is what proteins on the monocytes grab onto to as they traverse the surface of the endothelium.
Cinema 4D Virtual Set Project: Part 2
In a recent post I gave an outline of some 3D tracking/compositing work I was doing for a tradeshow using Cinema 4D and After Effects. See Cinema 4D Virtual Set Project: Part 1 for more information.
Here are some clips from the finished show.
Below is the 3D tracked greensreen footage focusing on just the camera move that was used in the opening shot of the show. It was rendered here via the OGL preview option in c4d. I’ve thrown in some poly shapes that were built from the point cloud the tracking software generated just for spatial reference.
And below is the composited shot with cg set. Theres a few compositing issues I will eventually get around to adjusting (light on face and some keying issues for example), but as it usually is with these things, we did the best we could in the time frame we had.
Another shot below in which the actor needed to appear to have entered a large futuristic laboratory. The footage drops out for a few frames but you get the idea. I think CineCat did a great job analyzing these shots.
And the finished shot with cg elements. (compositing disclaimer, as mentioned above is in effect here too!)
The client wanted a sillhouetted “ipod commercial” treatment of the nameless laboratory research characters, with just a hint of light hitting the edges of their clothing.
Welcome to my blog!
Halfway through 2009 and I’ve finally gotten around to getting something online. With a little luck and some extra time, I hope to share with you some of the projects I’m working on, as well as my thoughts and inspirations from around the web. Thanks for visiting and come back soon.
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