Cinema 4D Tutorial 2 - Basic Compositing - Part 2

[just4commentsDOT]

Great Video, Id love to understand how this software works fully, just being able to know that creating this means i have to do z, y x etc.. I laughed how casually you mention your 8 core machine xD @6:21

[DesignerLukeFX]

Thanks dude for this wonderful tutorial :)

[rhodytugboat]

Great video, But I need to know how to put a video on the background or do I have to do that in afterfx

[tisfatman]

tut for minecraft animating?

[aa14giants]

1. awesome tutorial! really helps. 2. And this might be a stupid question since I guess I'm still pretty new but if for example there was a car parked in one of the spaces in the original photo, would the object just go on top of that or could you actually put one of them behind or in front of the car and make it look like they belong in the scene?

[d74g0n]

No Thank YOU For Making! My Blender Just Crapped Out And Im Frantically Looking For Alternatives... See What I Blend Sometime :P

[elewint]

It said Part 1 at the beginning. Nice tutorial.

[GeoScandy]

well done

[escapeartist10]

Thanks for the tutorial. You explain with clear details that makes it easy to understand.

[RandyJez]

Thank-you. Much appreciated.

[slimChedeh]

is it just me or is 720p worse than 360p on thhis vid

[RedEyeLobine]

Thanks for the amazing tutorial. I have one problem though. When I apply the background photo, it get's squared and I don't know how to fill the gaps on the side to maintain the widescreen. I can only mirror it but i can't seem to stretch the photo back to it's original resolution. Help? :(

[ShepperdOneill]

@RedEyeLobine Your resolution in the render settings should be the same as the image resolution. Any gaps at the sides or top and bottom will not be rendered when you render the final image to the picture viewer.

[RedEyeLobine]

@ShepperdOneill Thanks for the swift reply. However, the image is at 1280x720 and so are my render settings in C4D but when I apply the photo to the material and apply it to the sky and floor it still remains squared out. :S

[ShepperdOneill]

@RedEyeLobine You dont apply it to a sky. You only apply it to a background object, and a plane for the ground.

[TemplexWavez]

@RedEyeLobine

where it says squared, set it to spatial on the material, click the material and look for a setting that says spatial

[RizzoAstronama]

That was amazing....but i still dont get it

[shitseeker2007]

Great tutorial, thanks so much!

[BookNilvong]

Thanks a lot



[TheCAheadquarters]

ur pro, except I still dont understand what a huge cube would be doing at a parking lot :l

[Lagscopes]

what do you export it as??? i just got this please someone help

[Youlookgreat83]

Wow. Most helpful tutorial I've seen so far! Please make more.

[thedrummerkid21]

When I try to render the Global Illumination, nothing really happens :/

[thedrummerkid21]

@thedrummerkid21 NEVER MIND FIXED IT

[MaloEdu]

I would like to say thank you very much :)

[RuteNL]

it sais part 1 at the beginning

[fedus303]

you are the best! Thanks a lot

[vuurwerkownz]

@PhoenicianC4D same here

[dibby95]

did he say 8 core machine?

[AbsenceCOD]

@dibby95 Yes. I myself have an i7 950 processor. which is also an 8 core :P

[dibby95]

@AbsenceCOD oh right i diddnt realize we had advanced ourselfs into 8 core capabilities.

[blueswithesoul]

hi, i try to use the gradient but it doesn't appear in the scene. Second question: which kind of light is better for an architectural render?

[ShepperdOneill]

@blueswithesoul The gradient should not appear in the scene. Your background image should. The gradient is only there to provide color sampling.

Second, exterior sunlight would be a infinite light with area shadows.

[blueswithesoul]

@ShepperdOneill i don't need to use a background image, i just want a grey sky with gradient, that looks natural but grey

[ShepperdOneill]

@blueswithesoul Try using the luminance channel instead of the color channel.

[blueswithesoul]

@ShepperdOneill ok but i want the gradient cause gives the natural light (horizon darker, sky lighter)

[ShepperdOneill]

@blueswithesoul Then we'll use a different technique. Create 2 sky objects around your scene. Name the first one GI, then name the second one Grey. Apply your grey color to the "grey" sky, and apply the gradient grey to the "GI" sky.

Give both skies a compositing tag, and for the "GI" sky, disable "seen by camera". For the "grey" sky, disable seen by GI.

[blueswithesoul]

@ShepperdOneill do i need to create a new material to put on Gi or Grey object in order to give to one of them a gradient, or i can put it from the Gi or Grey object?

[ShepperdOneill]

@blueswithesoul Yes. The "GI" sky will have the gradient material, and the "Grey" sky will have the plain grey color.

[blueswithesoul]

@ShepperdOneill it still gives me a plain grey in the whole scene

[ShepperdOneill]

@blueswithesoul isnt that what you wanted? Overall grey lighting?

[blueswithesoul]

@ShepperdOneill yes but i can't see any gradient yet...

[blueswithesoul]

@blueswithesoul I have a ledge that is illuminated but it doesn't give any shade so i can't see it in the scene, how can i make the edge of the ledge well defined

[ShepperdOneill]

@blueswithesoul Without seeing a scene file, im not sure if I can help any further. Its difficult to understand what you're trying to do.

[blueswithesoul]

@ShepperdOneill so I need a background image anyway? Cause I just want a sky (grey) with no clouds or anything

[ShepperdOneill]

@blueswithesoul Background image was only there for the compositing. If you want just a grey sky, then just use a sky object with a grey color in the luminance channel. The sky object will show up as a grey background.

[Yespionage]

If I want to take this to a compositing program, how do I prep and render this scene out with just the objects and the shadows only?

[ShepperdOneill]

@Yespionage Use the multipass feature to render out multiple passes.. shadow pass, object buffer pass, color, AO, etc....

[ThePopMuzik]

i dont have global illumination :(

[Infrardec]

hi, this maybe a silly question, but how come you did not use ambient oclussion?:)

[ShepperdOneill]

@Infrardec No need for AO, because the sky sampler GI provided all the shadowing I needed. Using AO would have made things darker. AO is not needed when using GI, unless the GI is not properly providing shadowing.

[Infrardec]

@ShepperdOneill tnx for the quick reply, i was playing with some setting after i saw this and i see what you mean, in most cases i fooled around with the shadows were black.

[23SLAVO23]

i like the title : "BASIC" :D

[lokiashi68]

i made a fun looking abstract image, but when i attach a model to it, when i render only some parts of the figure have the model. Any suggestion?

[mrconcept]

Best tut online for c4d, im subbing and hopefully can learn more from you. Thanks.

[cibdiddy]

thank you!

[flicebaby]

Man... I have to tell you that I really enjoyed your tut. Using this video was the first time ever I opened C4D and you made it seem so easy :) Although simple effect, I'm happy with my own result... keep up the good work!

[koder89]

u should activate ambient occlusion

[SavageRabbit89]

how did u get so many box's when u rendered?

[ShepperdOneill]

@SavageRabbit89 Because I have a 8-core machine.

[kefje88]

hello,

i like your tutorials, this one and the wan with the depth of field.

now i'm trying to put them to getter. but when i render the scene it wil take the DOF but not the plane.

do you know how i can solve that?

thnx

[ShepperdOneill]

@kefje88 I dont recall making a DOF tutorial. Perhaps that was someone else.

[ShepperdOneill]

Hmmm 6 people disliked this tutorial??

[LolleN11]

This can be done with text too right? :) Just instead of Cubes you put a text. :)

[ShepperdOneill]

@LolleN11 Yes, it can be done with text... or any object you want.

[xFrozish]

i just got Cinema 4d, and this really helped me to learn some basics :) *subscribed*

[gothmaniow]

nice tut my friend .. :) i have version r10 and i would like to know if there is any way that i can do this type of effect into video ???

thank you

[ShepperdOneill]

@gothmaniow Yes, you can, but you'll need to track the footage first. That requires matchmoving software.

[QiiXzHD]

excellent tutorial thanks!

[DesertFoxKG]

Very nice. Thanks!

[PhoenicianC4D]

Best Compositing tutorial i've seen

Thanks

[sQmusicss]

best !!

[mordamoja]

great tut clean and realy helpfull. thanks

[sarahDido1]

at 1:30  how can i make those changes in a 10 R version ????

[ShepperdOneill]

@sarahDido1 Which changes re you referring too? Dragging the material to the object? Or changing the projection?

[ShepperdOneill]

@salbulge It shouldnt make a difference. As long as "receive shadows" is enabled, there should be shadows on the plane cast by lights.

[ShepperdOneill]

@salbulge Should be as simple as making sure the "receive shadow" box in checked in the compositing tag.

[miaaan]

Great Work...Keep em coming.

[ShepperdOneill]

@FreeAgent205674 So because you suck, that makes me retarded?? LOL You obviously dont know anything about 3D. All you said was "nothing worked".

If you want to continue to be retarded, ill just block you. I dont have time to play games with kids.

[TF2Pyrosux]

theres still a darker line where the plane is for me

[ShepperdOneill]

@TF2Pyrosux There shouldnt be a darker line as long as you followed what I did.

[TF2Pyrosux]

@ShepperdOneill i did follow, but i closed the project anyway... this tutorial was very easy to follow anyway since i remember the steps already

[TF2Pyrosux]

@ShepperdOneill nevermind, it somehow fixed itself :c

[SoulReaperXll]

where do i go to give it a shiny look. not so gritty.

[ShepperdOneill]

@SoulReaperXll Shiny can be done by changing the specular settings, and if you want, you can turn on the reflection channel and adjust those settings as well.

[SoulReaperXll]

is it possible to load the finished product into something like Sony Vegas ?

[ShepperdOneill]

@SoulReaperXll Ive never Vegas before, so you'll have to find out what formats Vegas will import, then choose that setting in the C4D save window.

Cinema 4D can render final outputs in just about any format you can think of.

[17950LASSEN]

hey man, good job but you forgot ambient occlusion.

[ShepperdOneill]

@17950LASSEN AO wasnt really needed for this... unless you wanted it. :)

[HANGER187]

@17950LASSEN Thats easy to do, just go to your render settings and under multi pass tab, select ambient occlusion. From here you can select which light to do a pass render for multi AO passes with your multi light setup.Dont forget if you have multiple objects and u want to alter them in ur composite app, use object buffers.Dont forget to use MULTIPLY in ur blending modes(After Effects) to adjust AO passes.There is a lot covered here and a lot not covered.Still good tut. Hope this helps.

[ariez2000]

Hi, Ive watched your tutorial and Im glad that you were able to post a good yet simple tutorial for this,, I have this one problem, I followed every step but when I render, there is no shadow in my 3d objects,, pls help

[ShepperdOneill]

@ariez2000 First of all, what version of C4D are you using? Second, what type of shadow is not showing up? the GI shadow, or the light shadow?

[Acrimonator]

Strangely when i enable Compositing Background for the plane, it doesn't change its color and keeps its blueish tint... : /

Any idea ?

P.S.: I'm on C4D 10

[ShepperdOneill]

@Acrimonator Are you using GI? GI doesnt work well with "compositing background" in R10. You'll need to use traditional lighting.

[Acrimonator]

@ShepperdOneill after multiple tries it worked, but i don't exactly know why... I checked and uncheked the box Compositing Background and it finally worked... Don't know if i changed something in between, but now i've a working file that i'll use as basis for other composition. Thanks again for your tutorials and answer...

[ShepperdOneill]

@Acrimonator Glad you got it working... although that is rather odd.

[Astrocrade]

The render settings things confuse me,wats the difference between da multi-pass button and the effect button, they seems to hhave the same things on their dropdown menu

[ShepperdOneill]

The effects button list all of the effects that will be used. By choosing them, you are turning them on.

The multipass button list the effects that you want to be rendered as separate passes, (multipass) for any post work.

[Astrocrade]

so if you for example don't turn on GI in the effects tab, theres no reason to enable it in multipass right?

[ShepperdOneill]

Exactly.

[apkazeeshan]

sir.

i wan to create a beautifull commercial for my academy. I will tell you the name.

will you create it plz for me.

[snakeyboizz]

i really want your computer i tried rendering water in a scene like this ( watched this tutorial as the way iwas doing it didnt give a good enough result) with my core 2 duo it took over 1 hour to make a preview of 90 frames in a resolution of 1440x980, what pc are you using might have to buy one with 8 cores

[ShepperdOneill]

Im using a 8 core BOXX workstation.

[steadiworkz]

Anybody know a good c4d video compositing tutorial ?

[Que70]

uhh, I just saw another tutorial on global illumination and the guy didn't have to change the GI render settings to "sky sampler" to enable his sky to serve as the GI source, he just left it as IR, if IR can work with the sky, than what is "sky sampler" used for?

[ShepperdOneill]

Yes, IR can work with a sky object... however sky sampler cannot work without a sky object.

In previous versions of C4D, there was a GI mode called "stochastic". It produced a grainy look that sampled color and illumination from a sphere or sky object.

Since then, MAXON has renamed the stochastic mode to "sky sampler".

[Que70]

than why do you need sky sampler when IR can handle skys too?

[ShepperdOneill]

Sky Sampler is a special GI mode that samples an HDRI mapped image placed on a Sky Object. This mode can render an HDRI scene very quickly with nice detail, but is unfortunately limited to just one diffuse depth which means you will not be able to get any bounce light from it.

But as you can see, it can be used with a regular shader.

[Que70]

that makes sense. So if you're using a sky for global illumination, than you should choose sky sampler, otherwise, choose IR?

[ShepperdOneill]

Sky sampler is really intended if you're going to use a HDRI to light the scene with no additional lights. It samples the color of the material on the sky and provides illumination and color from it.

Regular IR does the same thing, just not as strong.

[Que70]

got it thanks, and thanks for answering all my questions :), with thought too. see I'm new to cinema 4d and there are so many things I want to know about it.

[ShepperdOneill]

No problem. You're welcome. There is a lot to learn with it. It has many features, functions, and is getting better with every new release.

[Que70]

when do you think the next version will come out?

[ShepperdOneill]

I dont know. MAXON doesnt tell anyone. Its always a surprise.

R11.5 is still rather new, so it might be a while before R12 comes out.

[sahirdonsocomeon]

Hey man what computer specs do you have?

Thnx

[ShepperdOneill]

I have a BOXX workstation.

8 Cores, 4.0Ghz, 4GB RAM, Quadro FX 1700.

[Mattblasto]

nice, but if cinema 4d can do compositing as good as this, than what is after effects used for?

[ShepperdOneill]

You can have greater control over each pass in After Effects. C4D does not have the ability to color correct and work with each multipass layer to apply effects to them.

And in the event that you give something the wrong color, you can change it in AE... otherwise you will have to render it out all over again in C4D.

[Que70]

since you used an infinate light to give light and shadows to the objects, than what is the global illumination for

[ShepperdOneill]

Without global illumination, the shadows would be 100% black, and the opposite side of the objects that were not being directly hit by the light would be black as well.

Global illumination causes the light to bounce adding to the realism. It mimics real light.

[bongobl]

thanks

but how do you do the simple animation of just making an object disappear?

for example, from frame 0-6, the object is there in the scene. But after frame 6, the object is gone (not just unseen by camera) but completely gone, all tags, gone, "vanished"?

[ShepperdOneill]

I dont think there is anyway to keyframe the deletion of an object..... however you can give it a "display" tag, and then keyframe the visibility setting.

[bongobl]

oh, that's not what I wan't. Because lets say if the objects has a rigid body tag and there is a 2nd object sitting ontop of it. I wan't to make the lower object "dissapear" letting the object ontop fall down

[ShepperdOneill]

A quick way to do that would be to keyframe the position of the object.

For example... on frame 6 make a keyfame for the object, then move to frame 7 and move the object off to the side (off camera) so it cannot be seen and make another keyframe.

The object will move off camera within 1 frame giving the appearance that it suddenly disappeared.

[bongobl]

@ShepperdOneill

if an object gives off illumination, and you uncheck seen by camera, the object will look gone but it's illumination will still be seen on other objects.

does this display tag you speak of actually make the object's visibility disappear as well as it's illumination?

[ShepperdOneill]

Yes, the visibility and illumination will be gone if you use the display tag.

[oOADROo]

Nice Tutorial 5/5

[ShepperdOneill]

Thanks!

[zak9456]

Completely off topic, and i don't know why i even thought of it, but what monitor are you using?

Sorry, curiosity.

[ShepperdOneill]

Im using a very old 19" widescreen LCD. I used camtasia studio to record to screen, but in order to see the text clearer, I resized C4D to fit in a 1280x720 window..... if thats what you were referring too.

Ive got to upgrade soon. I need more room.

[zak9456]

Personally, when it comes to displays, i color correct EVERYTHING on a CRT. They have awesome color.

As for a upgrade - a 24 inch from Dell is the way to go - 400-500 bucks, if you want OVERALL good performance. If you just want something BIG but not THE best quality, go for a Hanns-G 28 inch. You can get one for like 300 bucks.

=]