Cerbera

If such a time ever comes when I leave Cinema (which isn't looking immediately likely) then this is definitely a viable option. Making stuff in Maya might be a bit like painting a hallway through a letterbox, but nobody can deny it has ALL the tools, specially in the modelling and rigging departments, though it is strong pretty much everywhere TBH... I have traditionally massively disliked Autodesk and the things they do, but this sort of exceptionally reasonable pricing definitely makes me dislike them a bit less. But only a bit because I bet they only did it because they felt they had to 🙂 CBR

Agreed - definite improvement. But that stuff outside the window still very overblown and lacking contrast for some reason... CBR

Oh, and are those stools a bit too tall for that island ? Imagine a human sitting on one, and think 'do the legs fit under it ?' !! CBR

It's not a bad effort by a long shot, but would probably agree there is a way to go yet... Things I like about it, and are probably fine as they are include: The nice soft, even diffuse lighting, and the pools of light that accumulate on various areas of the ceiling... The chrome surfaces Things immediately jumping out at me include: Brick wall - has unfeasibly sharp edges around the window frames. Texture there also looks quite 'flat' and I can see obvious repeats in it. There is something unconvincing about that floor, though not sure what it is yet. Perhaps we could benefit from some very subtle depth of field ? Is it contrast-y enough, overall ? I imagine the darker bits not under the skylight should be a little darker still ? Over-perfection: I don't think there is a single sign of wear and tear on any object in this scene ? Difficult to know where that should go in a brand new kitchen in such a wide shot, but I think you have to find somewhere to add some subtle variation into surfaces. Over-exposure: I get that stuff outside does look overexposed in the real world in photos, but wonder if it is too much so here - a bit distractingly bright in places, which is taking away what could be some nice detail and image-enhancing sky, and making that light hanging down over the island look like it is almost untextured / fully luminant ! Other than that, it's kinda difficult to pin down what is wrong here, so definitely appreciate your dilemma ! CBR

Welcome to the cafe 🙂 S22 is the most recent version of cinema, so is arguably best. Our own cafe channel, and the various videos there are a good place to start - (see links on home page). Also get used to searching for 'c4d + whatever tool you are interested in' on youtube - there are literally hundreds of videos out there covering nearly all aspects of the program. With S22 you also get Cineversity which is a massive resource in itself. CBR

Don't worry about it - normally I leave a note to say it has been moved, but didn't this time, so probably my fault... You don't need to stress about project scale in this respect; real world scale is important in Reflectance based lighting workflow but I don't think you are doing that, so it doesn't matter. Those settings are for changing the scene scale en masse rather than establishing it in the first place - the size of your models does that. CBR

It's not a case of one or the other, because it is possible to have a scene lit with regular lighting (or Light Kit lights) and still wnat the reflections from the HDRI in your surfaces. But you don't have to use the HDRI to light your scene with GI if you are using regular lights, whereas if there are no lights in the scene then you would require GI in order to get lighting out of the HDRI setup. CBR

No, I moved it to plugins, which is where it should be, and that's where it is going back to ! CBR

Looks like a potentially VERY helpful plugin. https://rocketlasso.com/recallinfo/ CBR

Don't know how important such things are to you, but if it was me, I'd think a bit more about sound design and get a bit more subtlety in there. For example, if a skeleton character is aprox 10 ft away from you (the camera) in a scene then any bone creaking foley effects should sound like they are also at that distance, rather than sounding like they are happening an inch from your ear in an an-echoic chamber ! Also music track is trying to be 'seriously' horror-style, and your animation is very much about the humour, so I wonder if that isn't sending some mixed messages to the viewer about what this is trying to be. You wanna try and find one of those Hanna-Barbera style tracks, which are much more 'comically spooky'. You know the sort of thing - where maybe pizzicato strings track the footsteps of a skeleton. But hey, it is possible to over-think these things, so feel free to ignore my ramblings if it's not something you are focused on 🙂 CBR

That, my friend, is very cool. Quick, get it in our gallery and we'll feature it ! My only criticism (and even then it is very small) is that the strawberries, and particularly the inside of them / that one on the top right don't look very 'wet-look' and could do with a fair bit more reflection or a different fresnel there. Ice cream absolutely superb though ! CBR

Excellent news - PM sent... CBR

I would very much like to do this job, but unfortunately am booked on another project until Monday next week - However after that I could do all of them very quickly. Is that too late, or is it still worth me sending you rates and timescales ? Many thanks CBR

Ooh yeah 🙂 Liking those ! CBR

Nope, it's not a misremembered Discworld novel, it's a very cool video I saw this morning on Chris Schmidt's twitter feed, which I thought could do with an outing here as well for anyone who hasn't seen it, because it's nice to get a well-informed and explained reminder of the basics. So please sit back and enjoy this fascinating video on basic colour theory by Captain Disillusion over on YouTube. Also some particularly nice explainer graphics of the sort that us 4D types should find quite rewarding... CBR

I can help with this. Please do PM me any further details, source material or models you are working with and happy to discuss further and estimate for either completion of, or training you in how to do it... Many thanks CBR