R12 Splash Screen

Well it’s that time of year again. The new release of Cinema4D has been announced. What an amazing release it is too. I have been fortunate enough to be part of the beta team and have been testing the new features for a while now. It is difficult to know where to start, but the most important update for me has to be the new dynamics module.

Restructured GUI - Dynamics Menu

Dynamics is incredible! The old dynamics module was slow, unreliable and quite honestly an unpleasant experience to work with. The new dynamics is an absolute joy to work with. In fact work can quite easily become play!

Those of you familiar with MoDynamics, introduced with r11, will be pleased to hear that the new dynamics is a huge extension beyond this. Maxon have taken Dynamics to a whole new level. Instead of being restricted to rigid bodies that only will work with MoGraph objects, we now have have the addition of Soft Bodies, Springs, Joints (hinges, etc) and Motors. They all work together, and even better they all work with or without the MoGraph module. If you want a stand alone dynamics simulation you can easily create this, but if you want to then duplicate it 500 times, drop it in a Cloner and away you go.

Rigid and Soft Bodies working together - click for movie

Dynamics will function as a fantastic feature in it’s own right, it will also work with MoGraph if you desire. For instance you can create a Soft Body, but you can also create a Soft Body of clones. Imagine virtual springs between all your cloned objects. You can link Soft and Rigid bodies together with the huge number of connector objects, these allow you to create hinges, cardon joints, ragdoll, sliders, the list goes on. Springs can be linear, radial or both, expect to see a lot of bouncing around in your scenes when you get hold of this.

Rigid Bodies, Soft Bodies and Hinges in action - click for movie

All you Xpresso heads will be pleased to hear that Dynamics comes with some new Xpresso nodes, so you can link Dynamics to other elements in your scene, such as Thinking Particles, allowing you to create particles upon collision and plenty more besides.

All in all Dynamics has finally received the upgrade we have all been waiting for. To be honest, I’ve just touched upon the features, you should really check out the Maxon webpage for full details of the new featureset.

Alongside Dynamics there are plenty of other improvements to be in awe of. We have now got a bundle of new deformers and a new morphing system. The new Pose Morph is a hybrid of Pose to Pose and Morph. So you can mix and match between position, scale, rotation and point level morphing. On top of the obvious morph parameters, Pose Morph supports UVs, Maps, Hierarchy, Parameters and User Data. Yes! I did say UVs, now you can morph your UV maps as well as geometry.  How awesome is that?

New Deformers

The Camera Deformer allows you to deform objects from the Camera viewpoint, some crazy stuff is going to come from this deformer alone. You set the grid resolution and then you can drag and keyframe points on the grid looking straight out onto your scene (and it has falloff built in too). If you link Pose Morph up to Camera Deformer with some Displacement and Cloth in between, then you can start to understand the power that can be harnessed.

Mesh Deformer is another new deformer. Take a low poly cage and use it control a high poly version. Something I know a lot of users have been asking for. You can even set your low poly mesh deformer work as a Dynamic Soft Body and as the low poly cage deforms, it then passes that deformation on to the high poly mesh.

I cannot finish this without mentioning Linear Workflow. Cinema4D now has the option to include Linear Workflow in your projects. Those of you who have been using DeGamma will be glad to see LWF as part of the core application. The new openGL (which is a fantastic improvement) supports Linear Workflow, so you see an accurate preview of your lighting and materials in the editor. We can use Colour Profiles for input and output now. This means we finally have the ability to work in Linear, and use Colour Management.

An alternative use for the new MoSpline L-System - click for movie

Well I really have only touched on the new features. I haven’t mentioned the new Render Queue, Smoothing Deformer, Correction Deformer, Surface Deformer, GUI enhancements, Freeze Transformations, IES lighting, Weight Manager, L-System (OMG!), Python…

I love this release, it is huge and I am sure you will all love it too. Check out the Maxon website for the full details and visit Cineversity for all the video highlights.

As for learning those new features. Watch this space, helloluxx will soon be updating our tutorials, to offer you an intensive and comprehensive collection of training that will cover many of the new features in depth. Something you definitely won’t want to miss out on.

Vortex.A

Take a look at this cool little app that has been developed by Peder Norby from Trapcode.  As well as the incredible plugins that Trapcode produce for After Effects, Peder has also written a few apps for the iPhone / iPad that are definitely worth checking out.

Vortex.A

In Peders words “Vortex.A – touch-interactive generative art. I am experimenting with fluid dynamics: how liquids and gases behave – a classically difficult problem in physics/maths. Most agree that fluid dynamics is described by the Navier-Stokes differential equations. There is no known all-case solution for the equations, but there are solutions for specific cases and approximative methods to find numerical solutions.” – For more info, you should check out the Trapcode -Blog.

You can buy the Vortex.A app here

For only 3 days, Motionworks and Greyscalegorilla are getting together to bring you a bundle designed to help you get the most out of Cinema 4D. Learn real-world Cinema 4D MoGraph techniques and workflows with MILG07 and light your scene with realistic lights and studios with the HDRI LightKitPro.

Get both of these products for only $129 which is over 20% off. This bundle will expire this Wednesday, April 28th. Watch your mograph skill set jump and your lighting shine with the Making It Look Great 7 and HDRI LightKitPro Bundle.

Buy The Bundle Now

Learn More about HDRI LightKitPro

Learn More about MILG7

The new Luxx website has finally gone online. There’s an eclectic mix of projects that I’ve been part of over the years, and a few more pieces in the pipeline right now that will be added when they go live.

Luxx Site

Those of you familiar with the work I’ve been involved with over the years will probably recognise some from the projects realised at HYPA. A huge thanks to Mark Allin for all the work that we created together over the years as HYPA.tv and best of luck to Mark with his new ventures at 2020x.

There are also a few projects that I worked on as part of the team at Umeric. Fantastic bunch of really talented people and an absolute pleasure to be invited to join them on that creative rollercoaster! Ash Bolland is an incredibly talented guy and if you are not familiar with the work he has directed then be sure to check out the Umeric website.

Thanks for all the support to everyone that visits helloluxx. I know I’ve been a little bit slack with the updates over the last month or so. Now the Luxx website has finally gone live, I’m sure I can rustle up some posts to keep helloluxx as active as I’d like it to be!

Recently released from Greyscale Gorilla.

Real Studio Lights for Cinema 4D
HDRI Light Kit Pro turns Cinema 4D into a professional lighting studio. Quickly light your scene with realistic lights directly in Cinema 4D.

What is it?
HDRI Light Kit Pro is a collection of lights, studios and objects that lets you quickly light your scene with realistic soft boxes, spotlights, ring lights and more.

What’s Included?
10 Light Types
including, soft boxes, ring-lights, spotlights, light tents, dome lights, window lights and more.

2 Hours of Video Training
including a bonus “How to Make your Global Illumination Renders Shine” tutorial.

10 Hi-Resolution HDR Images
to instantly light your scene with photo-real light.

6 Studios Pre-Lit
Just add your models and hit render for perfect, studio-lit renders.

6 Test Models
to use to help light your scenes.

Visit Greyscale Gorilla for all the details.

Here is the final teaser for Making It Look Great 7 – MoGraph Unleashed.

Making It Look Great 7 – Flourish from Tim Clapham on Vimeo.

Comprising six unique collections of tutorials on the Cinema4D MoGraph Module. In total almost 8hrs of professional training.

Follow helloluxx or Motionworks on Twitter to hear news of the availability. As soon as the download is online it will be tweeted to you all.

Here is a brief description of each series to whet your appetite.

Starting with the creation of a simple logo model, then breaking it apart polygon by polygon, a techni-coloured interior is revealed. Lit using Global Illumination and powered by dynamic forces, watch thousands of tiny letters, each an individual light source, falling, colliding and bouncing. After studying this collection, you will control the power of dynamics with your fingertips.

Subjects covered include:
Rigid Body Tag
Plain Effector
Random Effector
PolyFX
Global Illumination

Whether you wish to recreate a realistic print style halftone effect or build a giant stadium jumbotron structure, this set of classes explores the numerous options available when working with image based source material. Combining the power of the MoGraph Cloner in Grid Array mode, explore the potential the Shader Effector has to offer. Once integrated with the Color Shader, you will unleash unlimited possibilities for your own projects.

Subjects covered include:
Sort Clones
Shader Effector
Color Shader
Formula Effector

Based upon the popular theme of heraldry, this series of tutorials will provide you with a variety of strategies to assist develop your ideas into real world projects. Link Effectors to regular Cinema4D objects to harness the power of MoGraph within your established animation techniques. Deform objects along any path with the Spline Wrap deformer. Animate multiple objects in sequence by utilising the Time Offset feature. This class is jam packed with a huge combination of techniques you will use on a day to day basis.

Subjects covered include:
Spline Wrap
Time Offset
Random Effector
Delay Effector
Xpresso Sample Effector Node
Stacked Materials
Stick Texture Tag
Step Effector

Working with Motion Capture files such as the FBX format, this series of tutorials take you step by step through various techniques for creating animated elements from captured motion. Watch your motion design advance to new grounds with many possibilities to create natural flowing movement with your graphic components.

Subjects covered include:
Spline Effector
Random Effector
Tracer

Need swarms of bees? Shoals of fish? Maybe you simply want to move with the crowd? This collection will point you in the right direction. Streaming with an abundance of opportunities, control the crowds of parameters with ease as you guide them towards your goal.

Subjects covered include:
Spline Effector
Step Effector
Delay Effector
Random Effector
Target Effector

Attach visible lights onto multiple object vertices and watch as your clones move to the rhythm of the beat. Channel the power of the inheritance effector as your objects morph from one object to another, leaving a trail of ever decreasing light that flicker through the falloff. This workshop will guide you through the intricacies of some of the often misunderstood and rarely used MoGraph tools, such as the Matrix Object, Instance Object, Sound and Inheritance Effector.

Subjects covered include:
MoGraph Instance Object
Matrix Object
Inheritance Effector
Sound Effector
Beat Shader
Displace Deformer
Multi Shader
Sketch & Toon

]]> http://www.helloluxx.com/news/making-it-look-great-7-mograph-unleashed/feed/ 30 http://www.helloluxx.com/news/making-it-look-great-7-dynamics/ http://www.helloluxx.com/news/making-it-look-great-7-dynamics/#comments Sun, 10 Jan 2010 05:27:28 +0000 Tim http://www.helloluxx.com/?p=337 Making It Look Great 7 – Coming Soon.

Many thanks to Selcuk Can Guven for sound design.

Making It Look Great 7 – Dynamics from Tim Clapham on Vimeo.

The LANDSCAPE SHADING KIT is a collection of 3D procedural Cinema 4D materials. 170 materials patiently designed to offer a high level of realism and flexibility. The whole kit is the most powerful solution for landscape texturing within Cinema 4D. It offers almost the same level of realism as photo based maps, without the limitations and frustrations of 2D mapping.

Landscape Shader Kit Example 01

Created by Eric Smit, this looks to be an awesome collection and anyone who is working with Cinema4D to create landscapes should take a serious look at this collection.

Created with ease of use in mind, and for a very affordable price too.  Head on over to Eric’s website to read more about this stunning collection.

Landscape Shader Kit Example 02

I’m sure all of you out there are familiar with the fantastic work that Trish and Chris Meyer offer the After Effects community through their website, Pro Video Coalition, the AE List and of course their awesome Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects books series.

I studied Creating Motion Graphics Edition One years ago when it was first released and it is incredible the amount of information they pack into those pages. I still have a copy of CMG Edition 4 sitting here on my desk right now. It is most definitely the bible for any Motion Graphics artist who uses Adobe After Effects.

Trish has recently posted a review on Pro Video Coalition of Making It Look Great 6, the latest Cinema4D training that I have released as part of the Motionworks Making It Look Great Series.

So if you are interested in buying the training and are looking for a review then head on over to Pro Video Coalition for an in depth review that spans three long pages.

Many thanks to Trish for spending the time to go through Making It Look Great and writing such a glowing review.