Cinema 4D

[Andrew Davies]

Hello all

 

I've decided to take the plunge and have bought a copy of C4D visualise. Keen to learn new stuff and build my skill set. I'm happy with the renders I get from VWX - just want to see how much better I can get them. 

 

I will do all modelling / drawing work in VWX - just use C4D for rendering. 

 

Anyone got any hot tips for getting going?  I've watched a few videos covering exporting from VWX into C4D but any other tips as I start down this path appreciated. 

 

Best

Andrew 

[zoomer]

Here are already a lot of Threads about C4D Exchange.

But have to admit not very sorted, odered and helpful if I do a search.

 

31 minutes ago, Andrew Davies said:

I will do all modelling / drawing work in VWX - just use C4D for rendering. 

 

That is a good idea to start and makes things a lot easier.

Maybe copy Lights, Cameras and Entourage Objects out of the VW Exchange Folder

to do your settings and optimizations in C4D only.

 

It is pretty easy to start as your C4D will look 100% like in VW after import.

Then you can start playing.

 

[EAlexander]

https://greyscalegorilla.com/intro-to-cinema-4d/

[grant_PD]

GSG is a good way to go, even if it's more geared towards motion graphics.  

Zoomer is right, you will get exactly what you saw in VW when you first transfer. The key is work the advantages of lighting and texturing that C4d offers.  

Right off the bat you are going to want to get comfortable with the object manager and how to find the myriad of things in your scenes quickly and efficiently.  

Take a look at the take manager as it is a fantastic tool for setting up looks.

Cineversity has some good resources as well for these sorts of things.  

 

As more people move over to C4d for rendering VW should really set up a forum for it.  I find that what we do is very specific and the C4D forums (like C4dcafe) are much more geared to gamers, animators, etc.  

 

 

 

[fabrica]

good source for Materials = https://www.poliigon.com/home , also I really would recommend substance https://www.allegorithmic.com/products/substance-source , these can be plugged directly into C4D.

 

quick tips = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CyUjCQAWw8&list=PLg8gGXlcb1Dq0xiJz9tfG49XwgKKpJZ-v

 

 

 

there are a number of 3rd party render plugins for C4D - for arch viz I recommend Corona - currently a free beta - really easy to use  , https://corona-renderer.com , 

 

 

[PVA - Admin]

53 minutes ago, EAlexander said:

https://greyscalegorilla.com/intro-to-cinema-4d/

I came here to make sure greyscalegorilla was mentioned, thank you!

[zoomer]

13 minutes ago, grant_PD said:

Take a look at the take manager as it is a fantastic tool for setting up looks.

 

That for sure is the highlight.

Couldn't live without these with my versioning.

Even if I had only 2 Cameras I would use it.

 

It is a bit like VW Saved Views and Publish together but far more.

[Chris Gentry]

Cineversity is a good resource whether or not you've purchased the service agreement.

C4Dlive has years of archives of presentations from NAB and SIGGRAPH shows.

 

For paid tutorials: the motionworks MLG series is good

 

c4dcafe forums

 

Regarding greyscalegorilla, make sure and check out their youtube channel as it has a lot of good stuff not on their website.

[EAlexander]

Keep this in mind, Andrew:  Naming your objects and groups in VW can really help set you up for success in Cinema.  If you build out an elaborate model, but don't name anything, it will come into cinema as "Extrude, Solid Subtract, Extrude, Extrude, Null>Solid Subtraction" etc.  While naming your objects or groups can add another step to your work in VW, it makes a huge difference in what you get in return in C4ds object manager.  I find that I am now naming individual objects less and less, but putting things into groups with logical names.

 

Groups come through as Nulls in Cinema.  Null is just a fancy name for a group folder (parent) with the objects inside of it (children).  You can, of course, use empty nulls for other things in Cinema (light targets, animation markers, etc) - but as far as organization goes - its just a folder structure.

 

To name an object or group in Vw, select your object and switch the OIP over to the DATA tab.  There is a field for name near the bottom.

 

e.

[Andrew Davies]

Thanks for all this everyone.  Much appreciated.

 

Naming things sounds sensible - that makes sense.

 

Being a tad lazy I know, but how does C4D handle symbols?

[zoomer]

If you activate to keep them for exports and VW order,

like in VW Resource Browser, they reside in a Null Object with visibility off.

All located at file origin.

Only their Instances sit at their locations in the model and are visible by default.

Edited September 15, 2017 by zoomer

[Chris Gentry]

20 minutes ago, Andrew Davies said:

Being a tad lazy I know, but how does C4D handle symbols?

 

During export from VW, you'll have the option to create instances of symbols.

 

Also, seeing as you're in the events field, this may be of interest to you: stage

[Andy Broomell]

53 minutes ago, EAlexander said:

To name an object or group in Vw, select your object and switch the OIP over to the DATA tab.  There is a field for name near the bottom.

 

As of 2017 that Name field appears at the bottom of the OIP regardless of which pane you're in. It used to only be at the top of the Data pane, but they made it more accessible

[EAlexander]

4 minutes ago, Andy Broomell said:

 

As of 2017 that Name field appears at the bottom of the OIP regardless of which pane you're in. It used to only be at the top of the Data pane, but they made it more accessible

Excellent!  Now if they could just make it so the Enter key drops focus on that entry field, I would stop importing objects named X on every show

[Andy Broomell]

19 minutes ago, EAlexander said:

Excellent!  Now if they could just make it so the Enter key drops focus on that entry field, I would stop importing objects named X on every show

 

Oh I know! Bugs me to no end.... I always end up with light objects named "x".

 

This is one of those cases where someone was like "Hey, it'd be a great idea for this one field to work differently than all the other fields in the program!" 

[barkest]

+1 for C4DCafe and they have links to lots of tutorials which I would highly recommend. In fact I believe that is your best starting point.

 

One invaluable plugin (I can't live without it) is Seamilar. Body Paint is overly complex and frankly out-of-date even with the awful recent update. A few bucks for Seamilar to UV Map your mesh (after converting to quads).

 

 

[Andrew Davies]

Hi

 

Thanks again for all these suggestions.  

 

Been working through stuff today.

 

Just realised though, that I am not getting the option to "Merge into current scene" when I am re-exporting from Vectorworks to C4D.  I am sure I got that when I was on the demo.

 

So at the moment, any texturing I do in C4D is lost when I re-export the file.

What am I missing?

[zoomer]

You need to use the "Sent to C4D"

 

> C4D with the File already open

> "Sent to C4D"

> Select C4D App

> Go to C4D

 

=> there should be a Window asking for Update of existing or new scene

[Andrew Davies]

Thanks Zoomer - 

 

That's exactly what I did.  It didn't ask me to select the C4D app - it just opened the file in C4d and over wrote any changes I made....

[zoomer]

Ahmmm, which changes did you do in C4D ?

Just Materials ?

Edited September 16, 2017 by zoomer

[Andrew Davies]

So - set up a simple test file.

 

1. New file in VWX, 2 spheres.  Saved it
2. Send to C4D.
3. Selected location of C4D and the various options
4. File opened ok in C4D
5. Made a material in C4d and dragged it onto one of the spheres.
6. Saved the file in c4d.
7. Went back to VWX, added another sphere and "Send to C4d"
8. Selected the options (C4D was still open so didn't have to choose it's location)
9. File opened.  Materials were still there, but were no longer applied to the sphere I had applied them to.

I wasn't asked if I want to merge the file.

 

Also tried it and deselected exporting materials - made no difference.

 

Haven't seen the "Merge or new file" dialogue since I installed a full version I don't think. (not demo)

 

Thanks for this Zoomer - appreciate it.

Andrew

 

 

 

 

[zoomer]

VW asks after every restart again for C4D App, although it knows the path !?

 

For every new element comes the material in again, even if you deactivated

material import in C4D.

You can drag your newer C4D material, holding the ALT key, over the VW

material that came in. So the C4D Material gets the new elements assignment.

 

If you don't see the import dialog with options, or exchange overwrites your

edited Material completely, i can't imagine anything else than an issue with the

C4D Demo.

[Guest Selin]

On 9/16/2017 at 6:25 PM, Andrew Davies said:

 

Haven't seen the "Merge or new file" dialogue since I installed a full version I don't think. (not demo)

 

The merge dialog should show up on Cinema 4D's side every time you do a 'Send to Cinema'. We don't show a merge dialog in Vectorworks for a couple of years now. 

Are you on Windows? Which version of C4D are you using? 


For beginning tips: Grayscale gorilla's youtube tutorials are great. Also, Cinema's own help documentation has really helped me. If you already installed the help, right clicking on any control will take you to the corresponding place in the documentation. Most of the help has demo pictures so it was especially useful for me to understand the reflectance channel and materials in general.

 

 

 

[Andrew Davies]

Thanks Selin. 

 

I'm on Mac OS X, VWX 2018 and R19

[Andrew Davies]

Hi all

 

Anyone else had this issue?  (No merge dialogue box in C4D).

 

I got it on the demo.  I have tried VWX 2017 and same behaviour - but I am wondering whether it is a compatibility issue with C4D R19 which I am using?

Andrew

 

PS - note this image is from the help file - I just added it for reference - it's the box I am missing!

Edited September 25, 2017 by Andrew Davies