3D-Pangel

I just wanted to share with everyone a free resource I found on the web on creating volumetric effects in C4D using shaders and volumetric lights. Based on the 2018 date of the tutorial, it is centered around R19 (definitely pre R20 as there is no nodal shader system mentioned) but still the techniques and background information provided still make it relevant and worthwhile. The instructor, Marc Potocnik, also explains things in a very straightforward and clear manner. Marc also solves a long standing problem I have faced and that is the realistic creation of volumetric clouds in C4D without the need for plugins, particles, Xpresso and/or fluid simulation. This will be very handy for those who want to create hyper realistic shots of the earth from space where the clouds actually have some volume to them and are self-shadowing. I also found the rendering times to be quite acceptable. My first attempt following his techniques are shown below: The tutorials can be found here: Surprising Volumetric Effects in Cinema 4D Part 1: The Magic of Visible Lights Surprising Volumetric Effects in Cinema 4D Part 2: Erupting Plasma and Sliced Clouds

I had no idea you were in Croatia as well otherwise I would have expressed concern for both you and Hrvoje. In fact, I checked your profile and the location said Germany before posting as I thought you had some ties to Croatia. I know...horrible when the earthquakes or hurricanes hit. We even have earthquakes in New Hampshire (which is very rare - I guess that is why we are known as the Granite State) but the worst we had was a 3.0 and that put a crack in our wall and ceiling. But we have lived through all manner of storms, ice storms, blizzards, hurricanes and new events such as cyclonic bombs and "winter-canes" (a blizzard with hurricane force winds). Nothing like trying to sleep through the night when you can hear trees cracking and hitting the ground from all the snow at least once or twice an hour. A really good exercise for your core is dragging a fallen tree or huge branch through about 2 feet of snow so you can get out of your front door. After spending 6 hours clearing out the yard, a tree branch came crashing down right next to me. Just a year prior to that "winter-cane", a cracked tree branch was stuck in a tree after a storm and then fell the next day to hit and paralyze a women in our town.....so I was freaked. On top of all that we had no power. Loosing power in the winter is pretty awful....just watching the sun set and knowing that the house will be getting dark and cold. We did get a generator about 6 years ago and amazingly haven't lost power since. That is one purchase I do NOT mind not getting my money's worth from. Again, I hope all your families are safe both now through the new year. Dave

Happy New Year to all Cafe members! I was thinking of unleashing the destructive power of X-Particles on a "2020" banner but by the time I am done with it, it would by February. Nevertheless, my deepest gratitude to all the Cafe moderators for your dedication through-out the year and our esteemed Community Leaders: Igor and Hrvoje. I also hope Hrvoje is doing well given the earthquakes in Croatia. Having experienced a 4.5 earthquake that scared the daylights out of me (no fun watching a building wobble), I can only imagine the 6.3 one that hit Croatia (a 100 times stronger). Hopefully the epicenter was no where near him....but if not, I wish him and his family the best. 2020 is ending soon....you will get through this. Take care everyone and Happy New Year. Please stay safe and healthy. Dave

I have a confession to make: I have never played a console game in my life. I am highly prone to motion sickness and when the games first came out, the motions were just so choppy I found myself getting both eye-strain, headaches and nausea. Then the graphics started to become so good, that I stayed away in fear of becoming discouraged. The bar is set very high by these games - so high and in real time, that in order for your work to stand out you need to be at the professional 3D level. As an un-trained hobbyist, I am quite content to not compete in that area....there is enough inspiration from the talented artists on this forum that I don't need it created for me in real time with all the ease of turning on the PC. Personally, I think that abundance of outstanding CGI out there in all forms of media really warps the public perception of just how much work, training, and time it takes. Little do they realize that when you open the program all you get is a plane in a 50% gray world...and then you start from there one polygon at a time. They also don't realize how technical it is and that it requires people who are both right brain and left brain adept. Because it is everywhere, it must be easy to produce? Right? I mean if you can spend 8 hours in a fully realized 3D world playing a game then it has to be no harder than cutting and pasting with PowerPoint art. True? Yeah....who needs to be reminded of all that when you are looking for down time. Dave

Admittedly I have not used C4D's hair system that much, but some of what you describe sounds similar to what is in C4D. Where would you say V2 really outshines C4D's system to warrant the cost (which is rather stiff IMHO: $50/month or $600 for a perpetual license). You don't have to answer in this thread but please make that a point to discuss in your video tutorial Dave

Is your profile out of date? I am confused as you said you downloaded them into R23 but your profile says you are using R19. I think the biggest issue with C4D Depot is that they, like most other developers, are impacted by the recent changes made to the file structure with the release of R20 and beyond as MAXON continues to roll out more of the new core with every release. If there were compatibility issues, they would have been increasing their release numbers but they haven't changed for quite some time....so I am not sure. I do find it strange that something you downloaded would can no longer be found on your hard drive once it could not be activated. Have you checked your trash bin and/or download file history? One major gap they have as a company is that there is no customer account portal on their web-site where you are provided permanent download links to all your products. They just send you a download link which expires in a few days. I always back things up once downloaded so I have never run into the issues that you are encountering. They are a legit company as I have purchased from them before but nothing since 2018 and everything worked when I got it. I have received promotional emails from them as late as last July -- so they are still active but I will admit that they have slowed down considerably with product development, providing free stuff (via their background) and general promotional emails. I have always found them to be responsive to email, so please keep trying to contact them. In the strange pandemic world that is 2020 they could be dealing with issues beyond their control so give them the benefit of the doubt that there is no maliciousness in their failing to get back to you. But...with all that said, I would not recommend anyone purchase from them as they do show all the signs of a struggling company. Sorry to say it as they did make good stuff. Dave

Interesting article. One area of lighting that I think is largely overlooked is thinking about how the lighting informs us about the atmosphere. Every CG scene, including the quick demo scenes of cities and barns in that article, proceed under the assumption that the air is dry and perfectly clear. When was the last time you were in a city or on a farm and the air was crystal clean? The air is always filled with something: moisture, fog, pollution, etc. Air always creates diffusion and saturation on objects at varying levels depending on their distance into the background. Where this is most noticeable is when the artist leaves it up to the background image to impart that sense of atmosphere but then the black levels don't match between the foreground objects and the background image. Or if there are lights in the scene, those lights are crystal clear rather than having some sense of volume to them. Also, don't think you ONLY need to worry about background saturation in large outdoor scenes --- they are just as crucial to making a great still life as seen here . Look at the contact shadows on the objects in the background compared to those in the foreground. DOF will blur the background shadow more than lighten them so this is NOT just the effects of DOF. Honestly, crystal clear renderings are a bit passé (IMHO) -- a hold over from the days when computer lighting could only do so much. Dave P.S. My own lighting exercise to really push my lighting skills - no GI or HDRI used...all done with manually placed lights (old school)

Just noticed that some of the Pixel Lab products are sold at the HelloLuxx site for 40% off while Pixel Lab is only offering 30%. Now not all Pixel Lab products are sold by HelloLuxx but it may be worth looking into if you are interested in their products. Dave

They just had a 30% off perpetual license deal in June. So they could offer it again 6 months later...or they could not. I am hoping - in honor of MAXON Corporation being 30 years old - that MAXON offers 30% off all perpetual license upgrades. I would jump on that in a heart beep. Probably not, but as they say Christmas is the time for miracles so I remain hopeful. Dave

Do you need a magazine or would a video tutorial work just as well? Everyone learns differently so I would imagine that for some, printed page works better than a video. But with that said, some on-line tutorials on YouTube do come with text annotation as well .... unfortunately, I remember seeing it and thinking it was cool but I can't remember where. If you do have trouble following video tutorials, then do what I do: slow the playback speed to about 75% percent. Sometimes I struggle with a video tutorial if the instructor is moving too quickly through the screen commands or mentions a hot key amidst a flurry of words which (if missed) really throws me off. Therefore slowing down the playback slightly helps me absorb everything. So if you are looking for good tutorials, there are a ton of resources should you decide on the video format rather than the printed page. Two good places to start are Cineversity and right here at the Cafe. Hrvoje's course which are offered here can't be beat --- he explains everything in a very logical way. Similar to Hrvoje is Noseman (Athanasios Pozantzis) from Cineversity which is also very, very good. I also love Rocket Lasso's tutorials (Chris Schmidt) and EJ Hassenfratz from School of Motion. And of course, should you ever venture into the wonderful world of X-Particles, Bob Walmsley is outstanding. Dave

A glowing article in "Computer Arts" is what got me interested in C4D back in 2005. I was a trueSpace user at the time and just growing completely frustrated with the programs lack of development, instability and broken tools. My litmus test is again to open up the demo program and see how far I can get with it without reading a manual and the C4D UI was just so well done that it was a no-brainer. What clinched the deal was discovering the Cafe and all of it C4D tutorials. What a gold mine! Also finding out that 3D-Kiwi and 3D-Crew (anyone remember him?) were running the site was a big plus because I knew them from before as they were also ex-trueSpace. 3D-Kiwi's little blue airplane tutorial really paved the way for me to get into the program. Wow! 30 years! That is about as old as you can get in this industry! Okay....how many Cafe members were not born yet in 1990? Actually....on second thought....I really don't want to know. Dave

Yes...that would be very hard to pass up...even though right now I am good until 12/2021.

Up to 50% off announced at Kitbash 3D --- more details when the sale is launched on Monday (11/16). Also Insydium announced a Black Friday 50% off sale on everything BUT maintenance plans and merchandise (which I take it mean the new line of very expensive T-Shirts they are now offering and other such SWAG such as notebooks and skate boards with various Insydium logos. Personally, I think $41 USD for a T-shirt is a bit high....but then again, I only want new clothes on my birthday and Christmas...so judge for yourself). To hear about the discount when it is announced you need to be on the Insydium news letter. Also, if anyone has access to the "Perks at Work" programs through your employer, insurance company, auto groups, etc. then Lenovo is having "up to" 70% off sale on PC's and 9X points (which means about 9% of the purchase price back to you on a future purchase through that program). As I love to torment myself by configuring high-end workstations that I won't be buying, I configured a Ryzen Threadripper 3.9 GHz 16 core, 128Gb Ram, 2 x Quadro RTX 4000 GPUs and 2 x 2Tb M.2 SSD's (Raid 1) for around $5600 USD. Having fallen in love with Redshift, you can see where I am going with this dream. Personally, I am waiting for the Pixel Lab discounts - so if anyone has news on that, please post here. Dave

What keeps me in love with C4D is the object manager and ALL its functions (tags, parenting, etc.). If Blender is inspired by C4D in its future UX improvements, then that starts to lower a big barrier keeping people away from using Blender....though I would imagine that C4D's stability is still keeping people in their licenses. Look, C4D's UI has a ton of stuff going for it which we all just took for granted until we actually started to use other programs. Honestly, I don't know why Blender's parametric objects ONLY stay parametric at activation. Such a simple thing but it kills my work flow. Opps...double pumped the mouse key and now I have to delete the editable cube and start all over again. And Blender has a ton of issues like that...simple stuff that just makes the software feel "klunky". I find myself scratching my head in bewilderment and saying "Why did they do it that way?". Have you ever said that about C4D? As I read this thread, I am amazed that it sounds like C4D is the ONLY program out there with a UI that just makes sense pretty much through-out the program (there were some subtle inconsistencies across the board to be sure, but they are knocking those down). Honestly, they make it look easy --- so easy that we completely take it for granted. And now with Neutron (or Neutrino as I like to call it --- but only to annoy "Neutrino Man" 😆) some of our biggest gripes over viewport performance go away as it seems that scenes with massive amounts of objects are going to be possible. Large object counts not only present amazing opportunities by also HUGE challenges for the Object Manager and the overall UI as well. I believe that MAXON is up to that challenge...and when they do, we won't be taking the UI for granted any longer. Dave

I have had the opportunity to talk to a few industry VFX artists about life as a VFX artist. I have come to the conclusion that I am glad ILM was done hiring back in 1983 and that opportunity passed me by. The rejection letter (with the ILM logo on the letterhead) made it all worth it though. I do agree 100% with Mike A. There is a great deal more in the world of 3D than VFX. Not sure how many jobs are out their though in comparison to what the multi-billion dollar games and entertainment industry produces....but they are an option. Regardless of the industry, the worst case scenario is to find yourself the freelance 3D specialist bouncing from one assignment to another -- and usually one country to another or one state to another -- in the pursuit of keeping yourself employed. They face all sorts of tax issues - and most importantly - health insurance issues. Usually the jobs do not come with health insurance or they promise health insurance ONLY after being on-role for 6 months. So the best case scenario is to hold off on any medical or dental expenses for 6 months at a time as you shift between jobs. But that has risk....especially if you do have health issues. And let's not even talk about what impact that nomadic lifestyle has on a persons family relationships. I have heard horror stories about how freelance artists were treated as they faced the birth of a child during those transition periods. Hopefully, as more powerful communication networks are implemented with tighter security encryptions across their VPN framework, COVID-19 has convinced studios that it is okay for artists to do their work remotely without fear of losing their IP. Of course, that does kill collaboration but again maybe Zoom or Web-Ex conferences can overcome those barriers. Should VFX artists working from home become the new normal, then maybe that puts an end to their nomadic existence....but you still have to contend with time zone issues....and the lack of health insurance. The best case scenario is a full time job with a top shelf studio....but I understand that those "core" jobs are rare as most studios like to keep their permanent headcount as low as possible and only scale freelance help on an as needed basis. Sounds daunting...doesn't it? But probably no different than many other industries. The days of the 9 to 5 job that offered life time employment ending in a nice pension ended 40 to 50 years ago. There are no guarantees. So if there is risk, then take that risk in something you are passionate about. But you've got to want it...and want it bad because the path to success in this industry is probably no different than any other industry: You need a hunger to succeed, the discipline to keep working hard and giving it everything you've got, a desire to keep learning and improving yourself, a passion to partner with and help others, and the humility to always be critical of yourself ONLY (keep asking "is there a better way" or "how can I make this better"). Dave

The last version I have is Vue 2016 and Plant Factory 2016. This was before they were sold to Bentley, had their site hacked and everything went completely off the rails in terms of development. When they came back from all that they were offering a subscription model and I had moved on to Forestor (with high hopes for a soon to be released Rock Engine....but that does not seem to be happening). Are you looking for something more recent? Dave

I recommend this book for anyone thinking about a career in the VFX industry: Admittedly (as you can tell by the cover)...it is not a happy tale and the villain's of the book are producers squeezing the VFX company to the point of bankruptcy and anyone you report to with less talent than you but a bigger ego. If you read this and are still enthused about the work, then you have faced the worst case scenario's and are going into it with eyes wide open. Of course, all VFX experiences are different and mileage will vary. But this did strike a chord with me based on my own experience.....and remember, I am a hobbyist who has never even been to a VFX studio. It happened at Siggraph 2009 held in Boston, MA. Roger Guyette (ILM VFX Supervisor) was presenting on Mission Impossible 3. He said at the beginning that we could ask questions. So I did...just to get clarification. Usually the questions started with "well wait, you had to transition at some point back from the live action camera to the 3D camera" or "well wait, HDRI doesn't work that way". With the first two questions his polite response was "Yes. You are right...I have left out steps to simplify the presentation". And then I raised my hands for the 3rd question (okay....as I write this, I realize that I was annoying but didn't mean to be as I do have a passion for this stuff)...and that is when Mr Guyette lost it. He screamed "WHO ARE YOU!!!". Every head in the audience turned to look at me....but it felt like every head in all of Siggraph was looking at me. I slowly lowered my hand and muttered "No one really". After his presentation ended, I walked up to him to apologize. Mr Guyette actually apologized to me first before I could say anything. I asked why he yelled at me for asking questions when he said we could ask questions, and his response amazed me and gave me some insight to what life is like in the VFX industry - even for top-shelf companies like ILM. He said, "I thought you were sent by a rival VFX company to discredit me". I said, "Really...no I am worse than that. I am a VFX enthusiast sitting in the movie theater picking everything apart". He laughed. I then mentioned that magazines like Cinefex always paint VFX studios working and collaborating together all for the "advancement of the art". He laughed again. "No, we are not a loyal brotherhood like the magazines portray. We are very competitive companies just like in any other industry". Fair point. He then took the time to sit down with me at the ILM booth for a good long time (I think 45 minutes) to talk about the industry, where it was going, making the change from mechanical/photo-chemical processes to CGI and fluid simulations. He is really great guy (IMHO). Kim Libreri showed up (now CTO for Epic Games), he sat down with us for a short bit. John Knoll was also there, but he did not join us (though I did get a picture with him). Best day ever. In 1983 I graduated from an engineering school in New England (on the US east coast about as far away from California as you can get) with a degree in mechanical engineer and applied to ILM. They were all staffed for Return of the Jedi and no longer hiring but I still have the rejection letter. In 1993, Pete Travers graduates from the exact same school with the exact same degree in mechanical engineering. He is now a VFX supervisor working on movies like Midway (2019), Terminator-Dark Fate, etc. Life is funny. Dave

Congratulations on the side jobs! I think it is therefore time for you to upgrade your hardware with a 5th machine. In the US, there is a program amongst big companies that buy and sell goods to other big companies to get discounts on all sorts of things for their employees. They go under the banner name of "{your company name} Perks at Work". Some auto clubs (like AAA in the US), credit card or insurance companies also offer similar benefits to their customers as well. Also, with each purchase through these programs you get points for each dollar spent (each point is worth about $0.01 discount on a future purchase) or about 1% back. So Lenovo is now offering some pretty significant discounts through the Perks at Work program (like 48%) . As I love to dream about big hardware that I can't afford, I configured this beauty (won't buy it but dreams are cheap so I dream big): Also comes with a 5 year in-home service extended warranty plus 12 points for each dollar spent or $694.78 to a future purchase (that should cover the cost of a new monitor)!! I would love to see how Redshift performs on two 8Gb Quadro RTX 4000 cards humming along with a 3.9 GHz processor. Go check out if your insurance company, auto company, credit card company, etc offer a "perks" program as well! Dave

Three machines with a fourth just for rendering! Wow! Are you really a hobbyist? If so you are my type of hobbyist! 🙂 I wish there was a option to make "close and free license" the default. I do have two machines -- an every day computer and my graphics workstation and sometimes I forget to free the license on the graphics workstation when I exit. There are times (like right now) when I am on the every day computer, reading the Cafe or tuning into a tutorial and want to run C4D and forget that I forgot to free the license on the other machine. Small nit but annoying nonetheless....unless there is an option to log onto the MAXON site and free the license remotely. I looked for that option once but could not find it. Dave

Wow....really great work. Not sure how long it took to render but I find myself wanting to see it at twice the size just so I can feast on the modeling and lighting. What has NOT been talked about but needs to be highlighted is the color pallet and the placement of the complimentary colors. It all just works. Why is my eye drawn to the astronaut? Tiny little thing tucked away in the dark but yet he is the first thing I see. I think it has a lot to do with the balance in color between him and the similarly shaded windows on the left and right and at the same level. He is framed by it as they are the only three non blue/pink or darkly shaded objects at that level. Trust me, if that astronaut was glowing pink, he would not stand out. I mean we all get hung up on modeling reality and detail but it is really composition and color that makes great art (plus lighting! 🙂). This piece has all that!!!! But with that said, I would increase the luminance on the astronaut just a bit as what was done on the first rendered WIP you provided was perfect.....sorry....small nit.....I know. Dave

I love it. Really creates a unique take on many existing genres: cyber punk, dystopian futures, etc. I love the lighting. As soon as I saw the astronaut with the glow I thought of Daft Punk....not sure why but it has that vibe. Kind of like a Blade Runner inspired slum in the land of Tron. I would love to know what inspired you for this. If the final piece is going to be that dark then some of my comments don't apply as it is adding details that quite frankly won't be seen and more importantly don't need to be seen. I can't wait to see more. Dave

Very good. I love this type of work and the modeling seems to be well executed. I agree with the comment on the high polygon count on the smaller objects: the vent holes in the A/C units look to be modeled, the tubes in the neon sign look to be modeled. Not sure if textures would work just as well as I am not sure what the overall plans are the for the model in a finished render and/or animation. If it is a still image as shown, then textures would has worked just as well. Overall though, I love where you are going with this. But as you mentioned that it is a WIP and more needs to be done, then the following are some suggestions to help increase the overall level of verisimilitude that I think you are trying to achieve. Some of these I am sure you already know about, but here goes: I hope you will be adding supports for the huge pipe in the middle of the scene. You need to place the pipe into some truss which is then supported from the ground or anchor it to the wall. The vertical pipe to the left of the roll-up door also needs to be anchored as well. Also, not sure again what the final plan is for the scene, but if this is the final camera angle, that vertical pipe just goes straight up to nowhere. Probably need to show it as having some purpose and have it go into a wall at some point. You also have a cable tray on the right (found in most factories for routing power and data to the production cells) that needs to have cables or pipes placed in it - otherwise, why is it there? Also looks like you have a sliding glass door on the second floor above the roll-up door. Not sure what it is but a door would not make sense nor would a window that goes down to the floor make sense in a very industrial setting. Finally, it looks like you have 7 A/C units of two different types: individual room types for office spaces and, judging by the huge fans, industrial grade units used for refrigeration - or what are known as industrial chillers. Normally, these chillers go on the roof (with the fans pointing up) but they can go on the side of the building. Wherever you place them, you probably need some exterior plumbing to properly remove condensation. Finally, the cables on the side of the building. Having been to a lot of industrial zones in all parts of the world (still waiting for a business trip to visit a factory in Hawaii...hasn't happened yet!), they tend to not have any rules regarding powerline management...in short, most industrial wiring looks like a rats nest. Here is a photo from my last trip to Thailand: Same thing can be found, to a lesser degree, in Penang and parts of China as well...but you get the point. As this WIP looks to be from that part of the world then hopefully this photo gives you an idea of what type of look you might want to achieve. Dave

Personally, for the money, I would get Real Traffic over Drive. Real Traffic comes with a basic car rig helper to get the vehicles ready for traffic simulation. As an industrial engineer who actually has programmed simulations of products queuing in a factory production system, the ability to accurately simulate cars queuing in traffic is NOT a trivial exercise. Plus there are all these other little hooks built into the program like tail lights and turning signals along with traffic lights. Honestly, simple animation of a car going down a street could easily be done by hand and a little bit of expresso to get the wheels spinning at the right speed. Now try to animate 100's of cars going down the highway at different speeds, changing lands, queuing up, etc. A bit harder task. Plus they just added a banking system for large trucks on off ramps. I listened to the tutorials and the basic set-up seemed pretty straight forward. Unless you are going to simulate off road driving or want to skid out at high speeds, I think you will get more mileage (pun intended) out of Real Traffic than Drive for the extra 20 euro's that Real Traffic costs over Drive. Drive gives you one car doing 1000 abnormal things on the road....Real Traffic gives you 1000 cars doing normal things on the road. Dave

C4D's UI is very addictive. You do get hooked on it because it is so well logically thought out. It just flows --- best way I can describe it. There is a lot we take for granted with how the UI is designed until you try to use another program. Honestly, my first experience with modo was "why did they make the OM this way? What is the point of all objects being under one "mesh"? Why not just do it like C4D?". Or viewports in Vue. I have to move the damn camera to change the viewport? Are they insane? When I shop for a new program, I always download a demo and see how far I can get with it without reading a manual. That is a good test of its UI design. C4D won hands down for me 10 years ago and still wins today (or maybe that is the addiction kicking in --- like McDonalds French fries). Blender 2.8 was a far distant second --- and it was clunky. Listen to this little exchange from Corridor Digital. They wanted to create the light cycle race scene from the 80's Tron in one day using today's software but to make it a challenge they were going to use a software program they never used before. In this case, they chose Blender. So they had to learn Blender and make the scene all at the same time: Yep....the all have a serious case of C4D addiction to me. Dave

LOL. Hmmm...so was Turbosquid ahead of the curve with all their models of stadiums with the stands completely empty of people because they have been selling those models for years now. Also....as I am a data driven person who lives by graphs, this applies just as well: