Category Archives: Tutorials

Bend 2D Layers Along Paths Using After Effects & Cinema 4D

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The inspiration for this tutorial comes from the “bendy arms” in this beautifully done animation created by XYZ Studios:

Screen Shot 2013-05-10 at 11.08.32 AM

In this three part tutorial, I’ll show you three ways you can bend layers along paths in After Effects and Cinema 4D.  Starting with part 1, I’ll show you how you can use a free plug-in called Omino Snake to achieve this look in After Effects.  Next, in part 2, I’ll use the Puppet Tool in After Effects and show how I got the same type of effect.  Finally, in part 3, I’ll demonstrate how we can bend an object along a more complex path/spline using Cinema 4D and design it so it looks 2D.  By doing so, we will be able to seamlessly blend it inside our 2D design in After Effects.

Tutorial Part 1

Download free Omino Plug-in here.

Tutorial Part 2

Tutorial Part 3

MAXON NAB 2013 Rewind

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nab2013

NAB keeps getting better and better every year!  It was amazing to hang out with all of the people that make the tools that make our jobs pretty awesome along with having the honor of presenting with talented artists for MAXON again this year!  If you haven’t seen the presentations yet, all of the Cinema 4D NAB 2013 sessions are now up on Cineversity here:

MAXON NAB Rewind 2013

This years speakers included an all star line up of talented folks in the mograph biz including:

Nick Campbell, Colin Sebestyen, Barton Damer, Kevin Aguirre, Donovan Keith, Brian McCauley, Mike Szabo, Rob Hranitzky, John Lapore, and myself.

In my presentation, I demo a few different ways you can achieve amazing results using the very underused Inheritance Effector.  A Twitter followed called it an “Inheritance Effector workout”!  Well put, I’d say!

Cinema 4D Quick Tip 05: Using The Matte Object When Forgetting to Render an Object Buffer

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Matte Object

In this Cinema 4D quick tip, I’ll be going over the Matte Object.  This feature is crucial for when you realize you accidentally forgot to set an Object Buffer in your scene after you rendered everything.  We’ve all been there, right?  I’ll show you why using the Matte Object beats the other mainstream way of “faking” an object buffer with creating materials with black and white luminance channels and, of course, why it’s not smart at all resorting to re-rendering the entire animation just because you forgot to set an Object Buffer.

Tutorial:

UPDATE:

My buddy AJ Haines just released a nice plug-in that lets you do exactly what I go over in this tutorial with a single click of a button. Check it out along with his other Cinema 4D resources on his website!

Download AJ’s C4D Plug-in “Quick Matte”

Decoder Text Reveal Effect Using Cinema 4D Effectors

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In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to create the “Decoder Fade In” text reveal just like the text preset from After Effects inside of Cinema 4D using mograph effectors. There’s a couple ways to achieve this and both ways are quite simple. The hardest part is the initial tedious set up, but I’ve provided a Cinema 4D scene file that saves you the initial work!

Download C4D Project File

Check out my quick tip demonstrating how to fade on Motext with mograph effectors here.

Example:

Cinema 4D Quick Tip 04: Create a 2D Transparency Fade Effect on 3D Objects

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When changing objects transparency using a Display Tag or using an effector, you’ll most likely run into the undesirable effect of the seeing unwanted parts of the 3D geometry being revealed when that transparency is adjusted.  Most of the time, the only way you’d think to get around this would be by rendering everything out and compositing and adjusting opacity in After Effects.  In this Quick Tip, I show you how you can avoid that and make your 3D geometry fade like it was a 2D object without revealing the unwanted parts of the object geometry.

See my previous quick tip on using effectors to fade on Motext referenced in this quick tip.

Example:

fix_trans_issues

Cinema 4D Quick Tip 03: Using Effectors to Fade On Motext

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In this Cinema 4D quick tip, I will be going over how you can use Mograph Effectors to change the transparency of objects.  I’ll demonstrate how you can use effectors to fade on or off MoText objects letter by letter.  You can also use this technique to affect transparency of any object that you can apply an effector to, like placing them inside a Cloner Object or Fracture Object.  I’ve made the project file available to download, showing how you can get it to work using a Fracture Object to apply the effectors.

Download C4D Project File

Check out my other quick tip going over how to get a 2D transparency effect on this animation here.

Example:

Create Wood Block or Cast Metal Type In Cinema 4D

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You know I like me some text tutorials!  Here’s another one where I’ll teach you how to recreate a wood block or cast metal embossed type style and create it procedurally so it is easily edited and iterated without having to create a bump channel map for every letter or ever leaving Cinema 4D for Photoshop.  Using this workflow, it’s possible to perfect the look of one type block and use it as a template for the other type blocks you need for your scene by simply duplicating it and changing the shape of the block and the letter or font.

Download C4D Project File

Example:

Creating Dynamic Balloons With New Aerodynamics & Morph Camera in Cinema 4D R14

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The Cinema 4D R14 demo has been out for a few days now, so hopefully you’ve had a chance to check it out!   Coinciding with the demo being released, I’m releasing my first R14 related tutorial on one of my favorite new R14 features, Aerodynamics.  With the new Aerodynamics function, Rigid and Softbody objects can now interact according to their aerodynamic shape with all of the particle modifiers such as Wind, Turbulence, and Gravity.  So a balloons shape will be taken into account when floating about when a wind object is applied to it and not just float linearly.  In this tutorial, I’ll be going over all the settings to recreate a balloon being blown around realistically in a gust of wind and along the way show off some of the other R14 features such as the Morph Camera.

Aerodynamic Balloon Example:

Download balloon C4D R14 project file here

What’s your favorite new R14 feature?  Here’s a list of mine.

Watch my Spline Dynamics tutorial to recreate the balloon and string used in this tutorial.

Spinning Objects Along One Axis Using Dynamics in Cinema 4D

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In a response to a question I was asked on Vimeo about how to spin objects on a single axis using dynamics, I go over a couple ways you can achieve this effect so the dynamics rotation looks realistic and can interact with real world physics and gravity.  First, I’ll show you how to get a cube to spin on it’s edge and then show how to slow it down to a stop and topple over.  Then I’ll demonstrate how you can get your logo or text have a cool, dramatic, and energetic spin reveal using dynamics on a logo made with Text Edge FX.

Check out Text Edge FX here.

Example Render:

Controlling Light Object Intensity with Effectors in Cinema 4D

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In this tutorial, I’ll explain a very simple way that you can effect Light Objects intensity in Cinema 4D with an effector and how to get a “turn on/turn off” look as well as a gradual light fade on/fade off type of example.   I’ll go over another use for this method to create a noise meter animation where meter bars light up and glow, all controlled with an effector.  And to finish it off, I’ll throw a little Cappucino & Mograph Effector action to animate the noise meter to look like it’s reacting to crowd noise and sync it with a shaking camera as the intensity builds as the “crowd” gets louder!

If you haven’t learned about the many awesome uses of Cappucino, check out my Cappucino 101 tutorial here.

Example: