Cinema 4D Intermediate

10 Day Course
Date: Anytime
Times: 10.00am to 5.00pm
Price: £150.00
Instructor: Self-Learning

Course Setup
This course consists of 10 video-based lessons. Each lesson is approximately 30 minutes in duration and most include supplementary files and footage.
This course can be taken at any time - for instance every day for 10 days, or once a week for 10 weeks.

This course is the logical follow up for those that have already completed the Cinema 4D Introduction course. The main focus of this course will be using Cinema4D to create motion graphics, from taking concepts t0 developing animations, outputting various render passes and final compositing inside After Effects. General workflow and project management issues will also be covered in detail, including organising scenes in the object manager, use of layers, and managing layouts.

The course will also provide an in-depth exploration and practical use for many of Cinema 4D features, including MoGraph, Thinking Particles, Hair, Dynamics, Cloth, Mocca and Sketch and Toon. This will also involve practical use of Xpresso, material and shader exploration, lighting and rendering techniques.

Course Outline

Lesson 1: Using Mograph and Particles to build a logotype animation in Cinema4D . Using the MoGraph Fracture object to animate splines using various MoGraph Effectors. Animate the camera and make some f-curve adjustments to fine tune the animation. Organising layouts and object management using layers.

Lesson 2: Using Particles in combination with MoGraph Cloner and Tracer, working with Plain, Random and Time Effectors. Create some materials and link the shader properties through user data.

Lesson 3: A workshop exploring the use of MoGraph and Particles. A look at using the Matrix object to generate Thinking Particles and some of the possibilities and limitations of doing this. Using the Matrix object to create particles on an object then blending between MoGraph control and Thinking Particles Xpresso control. Using Particle systems as Falloff on MoGraph Effectors, combining this with the Cloner Sort mode.

Lesson 4: Part 1 of a 2 part project. Model a logo from illustrator artwork. Create a joint chain with dynamics. Intro to mirror tool. Intro to skinning and using mesh deformer to transfer deformation to parametric objects. Using the Connect object.

Lesson 5: Part 2 of a 2 part project. Create simple shaders for logo. Add sketch and toon for depth based stroke. Set up multipass renders using colour management and linear workflow. Configure AE project to work with linear colour.

Lesson 6: Breaking objects apart. Exploration of using ExplosionFX Deformer, Fracture Object, Thinking Particles PBlurp and PFragment and Dynamics. A look at third party plugin solutions.

Lesson 7: Some alternative uses for Cloth and Hair. Fixing Cloth, Belting Cloth and Cloning onto Cloth objects. Creating a bouncy hairy cloth object. Cloning polygon objects with Hair.

Lesson 8: Part 1 of a 3 part project. Taking a concept and developing it into a completed animation. In the first part we look at simple storyboards and artwork. Take the artwork and use it to construct the initial logos in Cinema4D. We will use XRefs to combine the scenes ready for the animation. Build a camera rig using User Data and Xpresso, then block out the first stage of the animation.

Lesson 9: In the second part we expand upon the previous session. Cloner to animate clones along a spline and randomise clones. Animated offset with texture tags. Using Shader Effector for controlled rotation values. Updating XRefs.

Lesson 10: In the final project we fine tune the camera move. Work with Sort option and Modify Clone parameter on effectors. Export 3D Data and Object Buffers. Import the AEC to examine the result and possibilities available in After Effects.