Cerbera

No, a kite shaped poly is totally fine - it's still convex, by which I mean not concave, coplanar, it is not degenerated, and none of its internal angles exceed 180 degrees, so nothing wrong there. CBR

Yes. Just not a regular quad, which is square. You solve them to quads. I can't possibly teach that skill in a forum post I'm afraid but I can show you how to subdivide a triangle into 3 equal quads. That's done like this. The difficulty of course is preserving the surrounding topology if it doesn't allow you to cut the triangle like this. then you need to solve it a different way, but unfortunately, it's this sort of skill that takes years of doing it every day to develop. CBR

There are good quads and bad quads - unfortunately it is not true that any quad will do ;) You should also seek to avoid concave, coplanar, and degenerated quads. Good quads are convex at every corner, that is to say no internal angle is greater than 180 degrees. Here's a file I use with my modelling students to explain what these things are. Only the green one below is any good - all the others have problems. Polygon Errors.c4d CBR

I just print screen the viewport when I'm doing wireframes ! And have my Open GL AA set high on 16 for ultra silky smooth lines. Now we can see the wires, it's not a bad job, and leagues above what you did the first time, so full marks for doing it again, but there is still room for improvement. For example it is possible to build this entirely from quads, and as it's being used with subdivision there is a reasonable argument that you should. However, this is a good example of just how forgiving of triangles the SDS algorithm in Cinema is on flat surfaces; as long as you are aware that this is not the case on curved surfaces, that's the main thing :) CBR

I shouldn't whinge - there's a lot of good fixes in that, but of course every time there is an update I search the Details PDF for the phrase 'OpenSubdiv', which has not worked with UV mapped objects since its inception in R18, making it effectively useless in a professional workflow. Still no mention of that here. Are they EVER going to fix it ?! :) But on the plus side, after some initial tests, I can cautiously say that Cinema no longer crashes for me using Rectangle Selection, so I am certainly grateful for that if it remains the case ! And wow - the whole content library again !!! I wonder what prompted that !? CBR

Well, those are pretty bloody top notch, my friend :) 3rd shot particularly is exceptional. Initially I was going to say that I didn't think the far shot rock was looking correctly scaled and was very bright, but by god how things improve when we move in !!! Lovely work. You almost had me thinking that was a photo for a second there ! Can I see a seam in the sky in that last one though ? :) CBR

...although technically that doesn't matter on a flat surface unless you are us ;) CBR

...and here's another, even easier way to make more alien style greebly wotsits, in SDS panelling part 2... CBR

You're welcome. Go on then, here's another couple on panelling... Let's start with the basics of SDS panelwork, part 1... CBR

Oh dear ! That sounds very frustrating :/ Is there a floor object in your scene by any chance, and does the camera dip below it at any point ? If it's not that totally random guess, then we are going to need more information to be able to diagnose this. At the very minimum we need a screen grab showing the object manager and the scene. Preferably we need the whole c4d file and all the textures, or at least a simplified version of it that demonstrates the problem. you can upload that to dropbox or similar if it's too big to upload directly. CBR

This is a perfect example of cognitive dissonance. I'm suitably repulsed by the form, but the topology is sooo attractive it doesn't matter :) CBR

Hey Cafe OK - this one should be slower ! And only the 30 steps to get through :) Here's an interesting one. One of my favourite modellers in the world is Arrimus on YouTube. He does video requests over there, and recently showed how he'd make this Art Deco Spiral Staircase in 3DS Max. So props to him for inspiration ! Now, we don't have sexy Max tools like 'generate topology' that he used, so we have to go a different way. In R19, that's very easy now, and this alternative C4D method is 'almost' entirely procedural (and with a few changes would be 100% so !) so retains key advantages over the Max equivalent. So you will need R19 for this, but if you have that, let's get in there, and start with some splines... CBR PS I expect a bollocking from @VECTOR about this one, but trying to preserve quads on a Voronoi fracture is a fart in a hurricane, so that's my excuse ;)

Ah yes if displacement is in your plans, then absolute polygon regularity is god, so that second way would be rubbish for that :) CBR

There are other ways of course that are more precise. Stitch'n'Sew, center slice and weld is a more defined way to quad cap things. CBR

Yeah sorry @deck and @everfresh, they are a bit fast aren't they ? They seemed slower in the editor ! :) Will fix in later ones. Yep - as @MJohnny said, that is a feature of HB modelling bundle, which I do have, but I meant it more generally - 'quad cap by any means you like' I should have said really... and yes, your suggested method is exactly how I would do that if I didn't have the HBMB ! CBR

I'm on a roll tonight, so let's have a look at that timeless mystery classic, the SDS Helical Screw thread... 'n', in case you're wondering, can be any number you like. CBR

Time for another one I think. This time let's make a diamond-cut whiskey glass in just 23 easy steps :) CBR

Here's one of hopefully many. Thanks to @ABMotion who suggested this sort of thing might be worth doing... well now we're doing it :) This time we're looking at the oft-overlooked Spin Edge. Redirect your polyflow at will ! CBR

Hello, and welcome to the cafe He may not actually need a tutor - fortunately there are literally thousands of tutorial videos online for all aspects of the program, and if he's only 12 he's got time to work his way through them for the 3-5 years it will take to learn the software to a professional level. Unfortunately the demo will run out after 42 days, so you should contact MAXON directly about getting him the proper student version. But if you really think tuition is the way to go you should say if this is a paid position to avoid any confusion when people are replying. Typical tuition rates are around $70 per hour. If it is a paid position, I'll move this post to 'The Job Line' for you. I'm in the UK, but do 1 on 1 C4D workflow training via remote screen sharing anywhere in the world for a £50 (UK) per hour if you would consider that. If interested feel free to PM me to discuss further. CBR

No, I think you get an account created automatically when you buy the software. Details should be in the email you got with your serial numbers at time of purchase. CBR

There aren't many people here who have realflow - you'll get a faster answer if you ask this on the realflow forums. CBR

I have no great thoughts on doing that procedurally (though why does the word Houdini keep popping into my head ;) but just wanted to commend you for the effort involved in animating that many wasps by hand ! CBR

I'll do Yoda if he's wearing Kylo Ren's helmet :) CBR

Lookin' good :) Can we see the wires? CBR

Ah man, that raspberry sauce stuff looks like it tastes amazing - I'm hungry now :) Is the raspberry itself maybe a little too matte though ? CBR