Maxon Computer Cinema 4D - 9.5 Getting Started Guide
CINEMA 4D Release 9
Quickstart Manual
ICINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart
Programming Christian Losch, Philip Losch, Richard Kurz, Tilo Kühn, Thomas Kunert, David O’Reilly,
Plugin programming Sven Behne, Wilfried Behne, Michael Breitzke, Kiril Dinev, Per-Anders Edwards, David
Produc t Manager Marco Tillmann.
Writers Glenn Frey, Sven Hauth, Dirk Beichert.
Layout Oliver Becker.
Translation Scot Wardlaw, OneLabel.com
Copyright © 2004 by MAXON Computer GmbH All rights reserved.
This manual and the accompanying software are copyright protected. No part of this document may be translated, reproduced,
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Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the program and this manual, MAXON Computer assumes
no responsibilit y for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the program
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This manual, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may be used or copied only in accordance
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notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by MAXON Computer. MA XON Computer assumes no responsibility
or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this book.
MAXON Computer, the MAXON logo, Sketch and Toon, CINEMA 4D, Hyper NURBS, C .O.F.F.E.E. are trademarks of MAXON
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Cathle en Poppe
Farmer, Jamie Halmick, Reinhard Hintzenstern, Jan Eric Hoffmann, Eduardo Olivares,
Nina Ivanova, Markus Jakubietz, Eric Sommerlade, Hendrik Steffen, Jens Uhlig, Michael
Welter, Thomas Zeier
II CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart
IIICINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart
MAXON Computer End User License Agreement
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IIICINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart
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IV CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart
VCINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart
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VCINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart
VI CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart
VIICINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart
Contents
MAXON Computer End User License Agreement .................................................................. II
Welcome to CINEMA 4D ..................................................................... 1
1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1
2. General Information/Interface ................................................................................................... 1
3. Sample Images ........................................................................................................................ 12
4. Quick Tutorial – Arranging Objects
5. Quick Tutorial – Modeling
6. Quick Tutorial – Materials
7. Quick Tutorial – Light
8. Quick Tutorial – Animation
9. Quick Tutorial – Rendering
10. Quick Tutorial – Multipass Rendering
11. Quick Tutorial – XPresso
12. Tips & Tricks
.......................................................................................................................... 67
....................................................................................................... 21
........................................................................................................ 29
.............................................................................................................. 37
...................................................................................................... 41
...................................................................................................... 48
....................................................................................................... 63
Welcome to Advanced Render ......................................................... 70
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 70
2. General Information/Interface ................................................................................................. 70
3. Sample Images ........................................................................................................................ 72
4. Quick Tutorial – Radiosity
5. Quick Tutorial – Caustics
6. Quick Tutorial – Depth of Field
7. Tips & Tricks ............................................................................................................................ 82
........................................................................................................ 74
.......................................................................................................... 77
Welcome to Sketch and Toon ........................................................... 83
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 83
2. General Information/Interface ................................................................................................. 83
3. Sample Images ........................................................................................................................ 86
4. Quick Tutorial – Outlines
5. Quick Tutorial – Shaders and Tags ........................................................................................... 91
6. Tips & Tricks ............................................................................................................................ 95
......................................................................................................... 87
Welcome to PyroCluster ................................................................... 96
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 96
2. General Information/Interface ................................................................................................. 97
3. Sample Images ........................................................................................................................ 98
4. Quick Tutorial – 10 steps to glory
5. Quick Tutorial – optimize and animate .................................................................................. 102
6. Tips & Tricks .......................................................................................................................... 104
7. In closing ............................................................................................................................... 104
.......................................................................................... 14
.................................................................................... 55
................................................................................................ 80
............................................................................................ 98
VIICINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart
Welcome to NET Render ................................................................. 106
1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 106
2. General Information/Interface ............................................................................................... 106
3. Sample Images ...................................................................................................................... 107
4. Quick Tutorial – Installation/Interface
5. Quick Tutorial – Jobs and Administration
6. Tips & Tricks
.......................................................................................................................... 110
.................................................................................... 108
.............................................................................. 109
Welcome to Dynamics .................................................................... 111
1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 111
2. General Information/Interface ............................................................................................... 111
3. Sample Images ...................................................................................................................... 112
4. Quick Tutorial – Rigid Bodies
5. Quick Tutorial – Soft Bodies
6. Tips & Tricks
.......................................................................................................................... 118
................................................................................................. 113
................................................................................................... 116
Welcome to BodyPaint 3D .............................................................. 120
1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 120
2. General Information/Interface ............................................................................................... 120
3. Sample Images ..................................................................................................................... 122
4. Quick Tutorial – the Wizard
5. Quick Tutorial – First Painting Lesson
6. Tips & Tricks
.......................................................................................................................... 130
................................................................................................... 123
..................................................................................... 126
Welcome to MOCCA ....................................................................... 133
1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 133
2. General Information/Interface ............................................................................................... 134
3. Kinematics ............................................................................................................................. 138
4. Quick Tutorial – PoseMixer
5. Quick Tutorial – Motion Blending .......................................................................................... 144
6. Quick Tutorial – FBX import ................................................................................................... 149
7. Quick Tutorial – Dressing
..................................................................................................... 141
....................................................................................................... 151
Welcome to Thinking Particles ....................................................... 155
1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 155
2. General Information/Interface ............................................................................................... 156
3. Quick Tutorial – Particle Snow
4. Quick Tutorial – Objects as Particles ....................................................................................... 161
5. Tips & Tricks .......................................................................................................................... 166
6. In Closing .............................................................................................................................. 166
............................................................................................... 158
VIII CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart 1CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
Welcome to CINEMA 4D
This is the CINEMA 4D Quickstart Tutorial. We want to help you enter the 3D world with this
short and easy to understand tutorial. After you have worked through this tutorial you will have a
good basic user knowledge which you can apply to future projects.
1. Introduction
Unfortunately books haven’t yet reached the point where they can play an opening melody as
soon as you ip them open. Just use your imagination this time as we “congratulate you to the
testing of the demo version of CINEMA 4D or the purchase of CINEMA 4D!“ No matter if you’re
just checking CINEMA 4D out or if you already own your own copy of CINEMA 4D or one of its
complete XL or Studio Bundle packages, you already know about the incredible things
CINEMA 4D can do. We have been working very closely with our customers for several years now
in order to satisfy their needs and wishes. This has lead to the creation and introduction of new
functionality, according to their needs. These ideas and concepts are then creatively implemented
to satisfy the needs of our customers and those of the 3D markets. No matter if you work in
the eld of print, advertising, design, visualization or lm, CINEMA 4D gives you all the tools
you need to make your ideas reality. The intuitive interface and the ease with which CINEMA 4D
can be learned makes entering the versatile world for 3D a snap. Whether you need character
animation (MOCCA module) or a cartoony look of your renderings (Sketch and Toon module)
– CINEMA 4D’s modular setup lets you customize it to suit your needs. CINEMA 4D places a
link between your job or hobby, and your creativity in the palm of your hand. You can create
what your fantasy demands. CINEMA 4D will be your dependable partner. In order to give you
an impression of what to expect from the interface we’ll go straight to Part 2 of the Quickstart
Tutorial – the interface.
2. General Information/Interface
Let’s start with the most important step – starting CINEMA 4D. After starting CINEMA 4D you will
see an image similar to the following screenshot.
2 CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
3CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
CINEMA 4D is divided into different working areas as follows: (starting at the top left clockwise)
The Editor Window shows all objects contained in the scene, for example polygon objects,
cameras, lights and bones and other deformers. You can render any view at any time to check
your work.
3CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
A Group Icon contains several attributes for one group which can be accessed by clicking with
the left mouse button on the main icon. The group icon differs from normal icons in that you will
see a small arrow in the lower-right corner.
A Tab indicates different windows or managers which are layered over each other. In each
window or manager you will nd different settings or attributes.
4 CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
5CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
The Object Manager contains all of the scene’s objects. You use the Object Manager to set up a
hierarchy, assemble objects, set tags for objects (small icons to the right of the Object Manager
let you assign an object certain attributes), or to name objects. Included are polygon objects,
lights, cameras, bones, deformers, splines and null objects (objects without geometry).
The Attributes Manager manages the attributes of each object or tool. This is where you can
change the strength of the HyperNURBS subdivision (more about that later) or an object’s
visibility in the editor window. The object’s coordinates can be found here as well as the tool
setting such as the radius of the live selection and the “Only Select Visible Elements“ option.
The Coordinates Manager lets you place, rotate or scale your objects. Enter the values in the
given elds and conrm your entry with the “apply“ button or simply press the return key.
The Material Manager contains all of your materials, including shaders, textures and other
properties. Just click on the material to see its properties in the Attributes Manager. Double-click
the material to open the material editor to make changes to its individual material channels.
Illumination strength, type of specular, strength of bump and more can be adjusted here as well.
We’ll cover this in detail in a later chapter.
5CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
You can open up to 4 Editor Views simultaneously, giving you an overview of your scene from
different perspectives. You can view your scene in different modes ranging from gourard shading
(includes any lights you have placed into the scene) to quick shading (displays your scene using
only a default light, not lights you have placed into the scene), wire frame and more. This lets you
adapt your editor window layout to your needs or your computer’s processor speed.
The Icon Palettes stretch down the left side and across the top of the editor window. The
horizontal palette contains the tools you will be using most often, depending on which module
you are using at the moment. If you are using the MOCCA layout, for example, tools needed to
work with bones and soft IK will be displayed. You can use one of the standard layouts or create
your own Icon Palette. CINEMA 4D lets you choose which layout you want to work with.
6 CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
7CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
Now we will concentrate more on CINEMA 4D’s icon palettes to get you a little more familiar
with them. The following explanation will refer to the colored icons on the next screenshot.
The image shows the left icon palette. At the very top you can see the previously mentioned
predened layouts. Below that we have the (green) “Make Object Editable” button. This function
lets a primitive be transformed using points, polygon or edges. The editability of a primitives is
limited until it is transformed! You can determine size and number of segments but you cannot
make any polygonal transformations. Next we have the “Use Model Tool” and “Use Object Axis
Tool” (red icons). You can move, scale or rotate a selected object or rotate it around its own axis.
The next three (blue) icons represent the “Use Point Tool”, “Use Edge Tool” and “Use Polygon
Tool”. In each of these modes you can either move, scale or rotate an object’s points, edges or
polygons or edit the object with CINEMA 4D’s integrated tools. The next (purple) icon lets you
choose between point, edge or polygon selection.
You select your points, edges or polygons in “Default Mode” by simply activating the
corresponding points, edges or polygons. In the “Auto Switch Mode“ CINEMA 4D recognizes
whether your cursor is over a point, edge or polygon. A click of the left mouse button selects the
correct mode automatically. The “Tweak Mode“ lets you do the same with an active move, scale
or rotate tool. Now you know the most important functions of the icon palette.
Now we will turn our attention to the most used icons on the top palette.
On the left you will nd the “Undo/Redo“ arrows (orange). This lets you reverse or repeat each
step. You can determine how many steps CINEMA 4D lets you undo by changing the presets in
the main menu (edit/preferences/document).
Next to the Undo/Redo icons you will see the (pink) “Live Selection“ tool. This lets you select
your points, edges or polygons for editing. The next three (turquoise) icons are pretty much selfexplanatory. Use these to move, scale or rotate your object or your object’s selected points, edges
or polygons. When rotating, please note that the center of the rotation will always be that of the
active object (or camera).
The following three (red) icons let you lock/unlock the X, Y or Z Axis. These settings let you
determine the direction in which your object will be edited. If only one of these icons has been
activated it will only be possible to move the object in that particular direction, unless you are
using the object axis arrows, which are always independent of the locked/unlocked X, Y or Z
directions.
The next (purple) function lets you switch between the “Use World/Object Coordinate
System“. Let’s assume the object axis of your wonderfully modeled head is slanted (whereas the
term “wonderfully modeled“ is open to interpretation in this case ;o). If you lock the X and Y axis,
make the head active and move it, you will notice that your model is moving in the X-direction of
the object axis.
7CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
8 CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
9CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
Now select the world-coordinates instead and see how the object moves on the X axis parallel to
the world coordinate system.
This function can be very useful in modeling or animating your scene.
Now to the next group of three, the (red) Render Icons. The rst function (Render Active View),
with a vase as a symbol, renders the image in the editor view. The rendering will be made using
the settings you have specied, with exception of image size and several post effects. Icon
number 2 renders the image in the “picture viewer” using the settings you have specied in icon
number 3’s “Render Settings”. You can also render animations in the picture viewer since the
function “Render Active View” (as the name states) is only meant for checking the scene in the
active view.
The next symbol is the (blue) group window “Add Cube Object“. It contains all of CINEMA 4D’s
available predened parametric objects.
9CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
One click and the world’s most used object is created – the cube. Click and hold to see all
available parametric objects. This is where you choose the initial shape you will need. And don’t
forget! “Only parametric objects that have been converted to polygon objects can be edited at a
polygon, point or edges level!“
The yellow icon represents spline objects.
The term “spline“ has its origin in ship building. The wooden slats which were elastic enough to
conform to the shape of the ships hull were called splines. In the 3D world splines can be dened
as “point based curves“. A spline “follows” several previously dened points while still retaining
a curved form. This group window offers several tools for drawing splines, as well as predened
shapes from which to choose. A spline can act as a path for a camera to move along. Just draw a
spline and let the camera move along its path. Splines can also be used to model. To put it simply,
splines are placed in a row as a wire frame over which a skin is stretched using “Loft NURBS“, for
example.
The next (dark orange) group icon hosts probably the most important CINEMA 4D object, the
“HyperNURBS object“.
If a polygon object is a sub-object of a HyperNURBS object its polygon wire frame (mesh) will be
subdivided to a higher degree. Visually it will be comprised of many more smaller polygons than
before the subdivision (the object automatically looks softer/rounder) without losing the original
mesh. As you can see in the next screen shot: The outer mesh (turquoise) shows the polygon
cube’s actual subdivision. The ner inner mesh (white) shows the subdivision of the HyperNURBS
object.
10 CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
11CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
The advantages, especially in modeling, are obvious. Since the object contains few points (edges/
polygons) that can be edited it remains very managable. You can drag just one point of the
original wire frame and the HyperNURBS mesh, with its ner subdivision, will follow the point
being dragged (see next screenshot).
If the polygon object were made up of such ne subdivision modeling, it would be much
more complicated. You would pull one point and only one point would be moved. All other
surrounding points would retain their position. You would have to move each one by hand in
order to achieve the desired shape. Haven’t quite understood? No problem, in part 2 of our
Quick Tutorial you will try modeling like this yourself so you can learn the functions rst-hand. Of
course this group window contains several NURBS objects, of which you have already gotten to
know the loft and HyperNURBS.
Let’s take a look at the objects behind the (green) “Function Objects“.
11CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
Here you will nd, for example, the null object (object without geometry), the boolean object
for boolean operations (parametric and polygon objects can cut/slice each other), as well as the
symmetry object, which can be unbelievably helpful in character modeling. You simply model one
half of the gure and use the symmetry object function to mirror it to create the other half of
the gure.
The second-to-last icon contains at least one object without which the best model would appear
inconspicuous and at: the light (black & white).
The proper lighting of a scene is at least as important as the scene itself. You can make a better
impression with simple models and great lighting than you can with a fantastic model lit by a
default light. We’ll go more into detail about that later. Here you will nd camera objects, the sun
object and the environment object among others (adds a general color and / or fog to the scene).
The “Deformers“ can be applied with the objects of the last icon (light blue).
Use these to bend, deform or squash objects for modeling or animation. There are several helpful
tools in this group window. After you have worked your way through this tutorial you can try
some of these yourself. You can deduce what most of them do by their names (which appear at
the lower left of your monitor when you place the cursor over each icon).
12 CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
13CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
3. Sample Images
This is where we could use a little fanfare. Think about it and let these images inspire you a little
before we move on to the hands-on part of this tutorial.
13CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Interface
14 CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Arranging
15CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Arranging
4. Quick Tutorial – Arranging Objects
In order to give you a feeling of how CINEMA 4D works we will begin with the simple creation of
a couple of basic objects.
Create 13 cubes and one sphere using the main menu (objects/primitive/cube/sphere) or the
group icon “Add Cube Object“.
“13 cubes“ may give you the impression that we are preparing to create a mammoth project
but don’t worry, we are going to arrange the cubes into a little gure. When you’ve created the
cubes you can see their alignment in the Object Manager at the right.
For better reference, give each cube a unique name (double click the current object name in the
Object Manager to open the context window for renaming the object). You can simply refer to
the next screenshot.
15CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Arranging
As you can see in the editor window, only one cube is visible. That’s because all cubes are located
at the same coordinates and are the same size with the sphere in the center. Of course we will
want to change this state now. But rst a quick introduction to navigating the editor window.
How do I rotate and move my point of view? Simple. Take a glance at the top right corner of the
editor window. Here you will nd four small symbols with which you can change your point of
view (of course we mean the point of view of the editor window, not your personal point of view.
We can have little inuence on the latter.)
The rst symbol (click – hold – move mouse) moves the view. The second symbol (triangle) lets
you zoom in and out and the third (circle) lets you rotate the scene. Selecting the little rectangle
to the right will divide the entire viewport into four views, giving you a better overall view of
the scene. Each of the four views has its own little rectangle which, when clicked, enlarges the
respective window. Zoom out a little and select the object “Head“ in the Object Manager. The
head‘s axis will be visible in the editor window. Drag the head‘s green object axis to a point over
the cubes.
16 CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Arranging
17CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Arranging
Each of the axis‘ arrows can be selected and dragged in its respective direction. This prevents the
object from being dragged in the wrong direction in the editor view (as opposed to clicking on
the object itself and dragging it). It is often impossible to see in which direction an object is being
dragged in a 3D view. A similar method of moving an object in a single direction is the previously
mentioned locking of a specic axis in the command palette. This prevents an object from being
moved in the direction of an axis that has been locked unless you click and drag one of the
object’s own axis arrows. If no axis are locked, click on the “Scale“ tool on the icon palette at the
top.
The ends of the axis‘ arrows have changed form arrows to boxes. Dragging these boxes will scale
the object along that particular axis. Parametric objects (not converted polygon objects) will
display little orange handles.
17CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Arranging
They make it possible to stretch and squash the parametric object on the respective axis
Now we’ll get to the nitty gritty part of this project. You now have enough basic knowledge to be
able to arrange the objects according to the following screenshots.
If you prefer, you can switch to a four viewport mode (click the little rectangle at the top right of
the editor window). If the objects are displayed as wire frame objects you can switch to “Quick
Shading“ or “Gouraud Shading“ under “View“ in the editor’s menu. Now let’s get to work. Here’s
a screenshot of the gure from the front for reference.
18 CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Arranging
19CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Arranging
After you have arranged the cubes it still looks nothing like a “human character“. We have to
rotate and stretch the gure a little. Click on “Figure“ in the Object Manager and select the
orange handle on the (green) Y axis. Drag this handle until the top edge of the cube lies even
with the arms.
Using the orange handles, select the cubes that make up the arms and adjust their size and
position as shown in the next screenshots.
19CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Arranging
If you want to scale all cubes of the arms at once you can do this as follows: with the shift button
pressed, select the objects “Lowerarm_L“, Upperarm_R“, Lowerarm_R“ and “Upperarm_R“ and
press “C“ on you keyboard to proceed with the “Scale“ function in the Y and X axis. As you can
see, the orange handles are not visible. Squash and move the gures arms and legs until it looks
like the following image.
This should be no problem with the knowledge you have gained up to this point. To squash the
legs, for example, you can squash several objects at once instead of each one individually (as was
the case with the arms).
20 CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Modeling
21CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Modeling
When you’re nished select the objects “Upperleg_R“, “Lowerleg_R“ and “Foot_R“. Once they
are highlighted in red in the Object Manager press the “G“ key on your keyboard. This groups all
makes all selected objects children of a Null object. If you look at the Object Manager you will see
the newly created Null object. Clicking on the “+“ symbol will open the hierarchy and the objects
we just selected will be shown. When the Null object is selected, the axis of this Null object serves
as the axis for all three leg objects. If this axis is rotated all children of this Null object will be
rotated. Move and rotate the Null object a little and you can make the gure stick its leg out.
After you have selected the “Rotate“ function you can select the axis rings of the rotation sphere
and rotate the object into position. Try changing the gure’s position by using these different
“moving“ functions. If necessary, group objects into a Null object or select several objects at once
in order to bring them into position.
5. Quick Tutorial – Modeling
This is the most important part of this tutorial: How is a model built?
There have been several new tools added to CINEMA 4D’s release 9 that will make modeling
easier and improve your workow quite a bit. For example the knife tool has received a general
overhaul and now offers as one of its new knife tool functions the “Loop“ which makes it
possible to make a circular cut around the object. The new “Close Polygon Hole“ function is also
very helpful. It recognizes a hole in a mesh automatically and lls it without assigning points. An
additional new feature for quick navigation is the “General Popup“ which you can activate by
pressing “V“ on your keyboard.
21CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Modeling
A circular menu lets you choose from several menus in which sub-menus appear when the cursor
is placed over them. Play with the menu a little and nd out how it can improve your workow.
In order to show you the basic functions and the most common way to work with the modeler
we will create an eye for a comic character.
Let’s start with the creation of a cube, which happens to be the most-used primitive for modeling
(Objects/Primitive/Cube). Press the “C“ key on your keyboard. By doing this you have just
converted the parametric to a polygon object. Most commands can be reached via so-called “hot
keys“ which, when used heavily, can speed up your work in CINEMA 4D quite a bit.
Switch to the “Use Polygon Tool“ mode (on the command palette on the left) and select the
“Live Selection“ tool (upper command palette). Make sure that “Only Select Visible Elements“
is active in the Attributes Manager. Mark the cube’s top polygon which will turn yellow when
you place the cursor over it and turn red when you have selected it. Click on this polygon with
the right mouse button. Choose “Extrude Inner“ from the menu that appears (hot key “I“). Click
with the left mouse button on the top red polygon, hold the left mouse button pressed and drag
22 CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Modeling
23CINEMA 4D R9 Quickstart – Modeling
the mouse a little to the left. A second square should have been created, as seen on the next
screenshot.
Repeat this procedure to create another square on the top of the cube.
Create a HyperNURBS object using the top command palette
and make the cube a sub-object of the HyperNURBS object. This will serve to subdivide our
polygon object without us having to subdivide the original mesh. (Select the cube in the Object
Manager and drag it onto the HyperNURBS object and let go when the little arrow points down.)
Your cube will now look like this:
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