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Final Effect Preview

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Step 1

Open the “interior1.c4d” file (or continue from part one). Select all of the cups in the Object panel and group them (Alt + G). Name the Null Object “cups”.

Step 2

Do the same thing with everything that has multiples in Object panel (files, chairs, hooks etc.).

Step 3

Go to the render settings (Ctrl + B).

Step 4

Go to the Effects tab, and select Vray Bridge from the list.

Step 5

Go to the Antialiasing tab and change the “Type” to “Adaptive DMC”. Check “Filter” on and set the type to “Mitchell-Netravali”. Set the “Filter radius” to 2, “Blur” to 0, and “Ringing” to 0.33.

Step 6

Go to the “DMC Sampler” tab. Set the “Adaptive amount” to 0.75, “Noise threshold” to 0.005, and “Minimum samples” to 12.

Step 7

Go to the “Indirect illumination (GI)” tab and check “GI on”. Change the “Preset” to “High Quality”.

Step 8

Go to the “Color Mapping” tab and change the “Type” to “Exponential”. Check “Subpixel mapping” on and “Clamp output” off. Close the Render Settings panel.

Step 9

Go to “Objects > Scene> Camera”.

Step 10

Right click on it in the Object panel and select “VrayPhysicalCamera” under “VrayBridge Tags”.

Step 11

Right click on the Camera in Object panel and select “Protection” under “Cinema 4D Tags”. This will help you avoid moving the camera accidentally.

Step 12

Select the VrayPhysicalCamera Tag and go to Attributes panel. Change the “Shutter speed” to 50 and “Film ISO” to 150.

Step 13

Go to “Objects > Scene > Infinite Light”. Place the light at the coordinates: -2500 cm, 1500 cm, and -1500 cm.

Step 14

Right click on the Light in the Object panel and select “Target” under “Cinema 4D Tags”.

Step 15

Select the “Target” tag in the Object panel, then go to the Attributes panel. Now drag the carpet object from Object panel into “Target” Object.

Step 16

Right click on the Light in the Object panel, and select VrayLight under “VrayBridge Tags”.

Step 17

Select the VrayLight Tag and go to the Attributes panel. In the “Sun light” tab check on everything. Change the “Intensity multiplier” to 1, and the “Photon emit radius” to 130.

Step 18

Go to the “Common” tab, and check on “Enable shadows”. Set the “Shadow bias” to 0.05 cm.

Step 19

Now we have to prevent any pervasion of light rays into the scene from the top. Create new Plane for the ceiling, and change the coordinates to: -50 cm, 250 cm, 0 cm.

Step 20

Hide the Light in the editor.

Step 21

Go to the Materials panel, and create new VrayMaterial by going to “File > VrayMaterial”. Name it “walls”.

Step 22

Double click on the new material, and change the “Diffuse Color” to 80, 120, and 5, and the “Brightness” to 90%.

Step 23

Assign the “walls” material to the walls objects in the Object panel. To do this, just drag the material from Materials panel onto the walls object in the Object panel.

Step 24

Create a new Vray material and name it “tiles”. Double click on it and set the “Texture Map” under the “Diffuse Layer 1″ tab to “Tiles”.

Step 25

Click on “Tiles” now and set the colors according to picture below. Set the “Bevel Width” to 10%. You can play with the “Pattern” also, but I left it with “Squares”.

Step 26

Click on “Diffuse Layer 1″ and copy the channel we have just made.

Step 27

Check on the “Bump”channel and paste it into the “Texture Map”. Change the “Bump amount” to 0.3 cm, and assign the material to the blocks object. Select the material tag, in Object panel, and change the “Projection” to “Cubic”. Change count of tiles in both directions to 5.

Step 28

Create a new Vray Material and name it “wood”. Load the woodTiles.jpg file into the “Diffuse Layer 1″. Do the same in the “Bump Layer”. Set the “Bump amount” to 0.3, and check “Bump Shadows” and “Specular Layer 1″ on. Apply the material to the walls object.

Step 29

Select the walls object in the Object panel, and go to Polygon Mode. Select the floor polygons, and go to “Selection > Set Selection”.

Step 30

Select the wood tag in Attributes panel, and drag the selection tag from Object panel (orange triangle) into the Selection item in Attributes panel.

Step 31

Change the “Projection” to “Cubic”, and count of tiles in both directions to 2.

32

Create a new Vray Material and name it “cupboard”. Load the woodCupboard.jpg file into the “Diffuse Layer 1″. Do the same for the “Bump Layer”, set the “Bump amount” to 0.3, and check “Bump Shadows” on. Check on “Specular Layer 1″, and set the amount to 95%. Go back to the “Diffuse Layer”, click on the “Texture Map” arrow again, and select “Layer”.

33

Click on the Layer, select “Brightness / Contrast / Gamma” from the “Effects” tab, and set the “Gamma” to 1.6.

Step 34

Assign the “cupboard” material to the “doors” group in the Object panel. Change the “Projection” to “Cubic”, and set the count of tiles in both directions to 2.5.

Step 35

Duplicate the cupboard material, name it “cupboardDark”, and change the “Gamma” value to 1.1.

Step 36

Assign this material to the objects shown below. Change the “Projection” on everything to “Cubic” with 3 tiles in both directions.

Step 37

Create a new Vray Material and name it “lustrous”. Check on the “Specular Layer 1″ and the “Reflection Layer”. Change the “Diffuse color” to black. Assign the material to the lamp, the little holders, the hooks, the holders, the oven, the sink unit, the sink, and all of the door handles.

Step 38

Create a new Vray Material and name it “carpet”. Select the Checkerboard surface as the “Texture Map”. Go to the Checkerboard settings and change the “U Frequency” to 5 and the “V Frequency” to 0. Change the black color to green (80, 100, 0), check on “Bump”, set the “Bump amount” to 3 cm, and enable “Shadows”. Select the “Noise” shader as a “Texture Map”. Go to the “Noise” settings and change the “Global Scale” to 5%. Assign the material to the “carpet” object, and change the “Projection” to “cubic” with 2.5 tiles.

Step 39

Duplicate the walls material and name it “chairsGreen”, then check “Specular Layer 1″ on. Duplicate the “chairsGreen” material, name it “chairsOrange”, and set the color to orange (255, 128, 0). Assign the materials to chairs.

Step 40

Make three copies of the chairs material and name them “dishes1″, “dishes2″, and “dishes3″. Change the colors to orange, brown and white. Assign those materials to the various cups and bowls. Assign the dishes3 material to the oven door and the top part.

Step 41

Create a new Vray Material and name it “cooker”. Load the cooker.jpg file into the “Diffuse Layer 1″ as a “Texture Map”. Assign the material to cooker object. Set the “Projection” to “Cubic” with 4 tiles in both directions.

Step 42

Create a new Vray Material and name it “painting”. Load your favorite image or photo to the “Texture Map” and assign the material to the painting object. I used skinnyGirls.jpg for mine. Play with the X and Y Length in Attributes panel to fit the picture properly, and change the “Projection” to “Cubic”.

Step 43

Duplicate the walls material and name it “files”. Change the “Diffuse color” to orange (240, 80, 0). Assign the material to files in the Object panel.

Step 44

Open a new Cinema 4D file and create a plane. Set the proportions to 15 cm x 30 cm, and the segments to 10 and 20. Make it editable (C). Go to the Polygon Mode. Go to the right view (F3). Pick the Brush Tool (MC), set the “Radius” to 20 cm, and imitate the leaf profile.

Step 45

Switch to the top view (F2) and do the same with Brush, but imitate the leaf shape this time.

Step 46

Duplicate the leaves, and distribute them into the circle. You can rotate them and move them to give them natural look.

Step 47

Group the leafs and name it “leafs”. Paste it into the main scene and change the coordinates to -125 cm, 98 cm, -90 cm.

Step 48

Create a new Vray Material and name it “leaf”. Go to the “Material Weight” tab and load the leafAlpha.jpg file as a “Texture Map”. Go to the “Diffuse Layer 1″ and load the leafDiffuse.jpg file as a “Texture Map”. Load the same file into the “Bump” tab, and change the “Bump amount” to 0.2 cm. Assign this material to every leaf in the leafs group.

Step 49

Now distribute the flowers about the scene to give it better look. You can copy some of objects and place them into the empty spaces.

Step 50

Assign the cupboard material to the last unit object, and set the “Projection” to “cubic” with 2 tiles in both directions.

Step 51

Select the “kitchen_unit” object.

Step 52

Switch to the right view (F3), and go to Point Mode. Pick the Rectangle Selection Tool and check off Only Select Visible Elements in the Attributes Panel. Select the points of the top of the table surface.

Step 53

Go to the perspective view (F1), hold down the Ctrl key, and click on the Polygon Mode icon. The selection is now converted from point to polygons. Go to “Selection > Set Selection”.

Step 54

Create a new Vray Material and name it “marble”. Set the “Noise” shader as the “Texture Map”. Go to the noise settings, change the “Noise” to “Fire”, an set the “High Clip” to 45%, and the “Contrast” to 90%. Check on “Specular Layer 1″ and “Reflection Layer”. Set the “Reflection Amount” to 85%.

Step 55

Assign the material to the “kitchen_unit” object. Select the Material tag and drag the selection you made before into the “Selection” field in the Attributes panel. Change the “Projection” to “Cubic”.

Step 56

Open the Render Settings (Ctrl + B) and disable “Render As Editor”.

Step 57

Go to the “Output” tab and set the “Resolution” to 1000px x 600px.

Step 58

Go to the “Save” tab and type “kitchenRender” in the “Path”. Close the Render Settings, make sure you are on the camera, and render the image (Shift + R).

Step 59

When the image is done rendering, open it in Photoshop. Add new “Brightness/Contrast” adjustment layer, and set the values to 30 and 35. Go to the mask of the “Brightness/Contrast” layer and pick a soft round brush with a 500 px diameter. Set the foreground color to black, and start painting onthe mask over the light spaces of the image.

Step 60

End of tutorial! Hope you enjoyed it!!

This tutorial is Day 2 in a series – Go to Day 1

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In this first day we’ll focus on the tools available to manipulate the particles so they look like we want them to.

The head we will use is part of a human base mesh by Sean J. MacIsaac, and can be found in here:
http://www.seanjmacisaac.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18&Itemid=17

Final Effect Preview

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Final Effect Preview

Step 1

First things first. Since you are going to be using a wide array of applications, you need your file structure to stay clean and concise. Open Realflow and create and new project calling it CG Tuts or any other name you would like.

Step 2

Open Finder, and navigate to your ‘CG Tuts’ realflow folder. Create four new folders, rename them to ‘ae’, ‘ai’, ‘c4d’, and ‘tga’.

Step 3

Open Illustrator and type out the name of your logo. Once you have typeset your logo and you are happy with its layout, select your text object and expand it by choosing ‘Object’, ‘Expand’

Step 4

Click and drag your artboard’s co-ordinates box to center your artboard so that when you import your Illustrator logo’s splines into Cinema 4D they will also be centered.

Step 5

Save your file as an Illustrator 8 formatted file inside the ‘ai’ folder you made earlier.

Step 6

Select ‘File’, ‘Merge’ and select your Illustrator file. Click ‘Open’. Save your file inside of the ‘c4d’ folder you made earlier.

Step 7

With your logo object selected, hold ‘Option’ (’Alt’ on a PC), and create an ‘Extrude Nurbs’ object. (Holding the ‘Option’ key with an object selected before you create anything inside of Cinema will make it the ‘parent’ of that selected object)

Step 8

Select the Extrude Nurbs ‘Object’ tab and check the ‘Hierarchical’ option box.

Step 9

Select the ‘Caps’ tab and change both the ‘Start’ and ‘End’ options to ‘Fillet Cap’ with 3 ‘Steps’ and 1 for the ‘Radius’. Make sure ‘Constrain’ is checked as well.

Step 10

Hit ‘C’ on your keyboard to make the Extrude Nurbs object editable. Select the ‘+’ sign to the left of your Extrude Nurbs object until you can see the individual Extrude Nurbs objects created for each individual letter.

Step 11

Select all your ‘Paths’ and hit the ‘C’ key again. This will not complete the process of making all out text editable.

Step 12

Right click on your Extrude Nurbs object and select the ‘Unfold All’ option.

Step 13

Select all the objects inside the ‘Object Manager’, right click on one of them, and select ‘Connect’. This will create a single piece of geometry.

Step 14

Delete all the ‘Set Selections’ (the orange triangles) and the old Extrude Nurbs under our newly ‘Connected’ one.

Step 15

Rename your Extrude Nurbs object to ‘cg_tuts’ or the name of your logo. Add a -90 degree rotation on the ‘Pitch’ option of your objects co-ordinates. Scale the text 20 times in all three axis.

Step 16

Change your ‘Timelines’ default length from ‘90 frames’ to ‘200 frames’.

Step 17

Time to export to Realflow. With your text selected, click on ‘Plugins’, ‘Next Limit’, ‘[NL] Realflow SD Export’.

Step 18

Click on ‘Save All’. Then click on ‘Outfile’ which will bring up a window asking where to save your exported ‘SD’ file and what you would like to name it. Navigate to your ‘objects’ folder and click on ‘Save’.

Step 19

Back to Realflow. Select ‘File’, ‘Import’, ‘Import Object’. Select the ‘.sd’ file you just output through Cinema 4D and click ‘Open’. Set your scenes scale ‘0.01′.

Step 20

Lets add some key important ‘Daemons’ to the scene. Click on the triple arrow symbol which contains all the ‘Daemons’. Add a ‘Gravity’ and a ‘k Volume’ daemon to your scene.

Step 21

Select your ‘k_Volume’ node and click on ‘Fit To Scene’. This will prevent any stray particles from creating an unstable simulation.

Step 22

Click on the "three blue dots" to the left of the ‘Daemons’ which is where you will find all your ‘emitters’. Add a ‘circle’ emitter.

Step 23

In the ‘Nodes Params’ pallete, under the ‘Particles’ tab, change the defaul settings to, ‘Resolution 4.0′, ‘Density 1200.0′, ‘Internal Pressure 6.0′, ‘External Pressure 1.0′, Viscosity 4.0′, Surface Tension 10.0′, and finally ‘Max Particles 25000′. The Max Particles setting sets your emitters maximum amout of particles that can be emitted per emitter, and since you will be using about ‘20′ emitters, the ‘Max Particles’ value is going to change from each set of emitters because each letter only needs a cetain amount of particles together to reach the same height as the other letters, keeping a consistant looking depth.

Step 24

Click on the ‘Circle’ tab and change the ‘Speed’ to 6.0. Righ click on the word ‘Speed’ and add a keyframe at Frame ‘0′. Repeat this step for frames ‘10′ and ‘20′.

Step 25

Right click on ‘Speed’ one more time and click on ‘Open Curve’.

Step 26

Select ‘Fit H’ and ‘Fit V’ to fit your curve both horizontally and vertically. Select the last keyframe which is at frame ‘20′, and change its node from ‘Tcb Node’ to ‘Bezier Node’.

Step 27

Change the ‘Incoming’ curve value from ‘9.000′ to ‘0.000′. Repeat steps 26 and 27 for the keyframe on frame ‘0′ changing the ‘Outcoming’ curve value from ‘-9.000′ to ‘0.000′. Repeat step 26 for the final keyframe on frame ‘10′.

Step 28

Select the keyframe at frame ‘20′ and change the ‘Post-Behavior’ from ‘Zero’ to ‘Loop’. This will make your curve loop through its keyframes infinitely.

Step 29

Select your emitter and postition it inside the first letter of your logo, making sure that the emitter is placed near the bottom of the logo, and rotated around a -45 to a -50 degree angle.

Step 30

Duplicate your emitter and repeat steps 24 – 29. Make sure to rotate your new emitter to the opposite of value of your first one. Position it away from the first one so they are not intersecting one another too much.

Step 31

Now you are ready for some simulations. Hit the ‘Simulate’ button and let it rip.

Step 32

Your liquids should look like something similar to the image below on the final frame.

Step 33

Select both your emitters and change their ‘Simulation’ node from ‘Acitve’ to ‘Cache’. This will help you visualize how many particles have been emitted inside of the previous letters and help you with matching the depth so you have an even logo.

Step 34

Repeat steps 30 -33. Your results should look like something to the image below.

Step 35

Select ‘Export’, ‘Export Central’.

Step 36

Uncheck all of the emitters that are not a part of your first letter of your logo. Select ‘Update Time Line Cache’. Hit ‘Done’.

Step 37

With both of your emitters seleted, change their ‘Simulation’ nodes and change them from ‘Cache’ to ‘Active’.

Step 38

Select the ‘Add Mesh’ icon to add a mesh to your scene.

Step 39

Rename your ‘Mesh’ to something appropriate like the letter ‘c’ or whatever the name is of the first letter in your logo. Right click on your ‘c’ mesh and select ‘Insert Fluids’.

Step 40

Select both your emitters and click on ‘Ok’.

Step 41

Select the ‘Filters’ tab and change the ‘Filter Method’ from ‘No’ to ‘Yes’. Change the ‘Relaxation’ from ‘0.1′ to ‘0.05′.

Step 42

Right click on your mesh and select ‘Build’.

Step 43

With you mesh node selected, click on the ‘Build Meshes’ script which will build a mesh for every single frame in your timeline.

Step 44

Change your meshes ‘Build’ node from ‘Yes’ to ‘No’. Go back to ‘Export Central’.

Step 45

Turn off your mesh, and both of your emitters. Turn on the next set of emitters which pertain to the next letter in your logo. Select ‘Update Time Line Cache’ and hit ‘Ok’.

Step 46

Repeat steps 37 – 45. Open a new document inside of Cinema 4D. Click on ‘Plugins’, ‘NextLimit’, ‘[NL] RealFlow Mesh Loader’.

Step 47

Rename the mesh loader object to the name of the first letter of your logo. Select the ‘Sequence’ tab and click on the ‘…’ icon.

Step 48

Navigate to your ‘CG Tuts’ folder and click on your ‘meshes’ folder. Select your ‘c00000.bin’ mesh and click ‘Open’.

Step 49

Repeat Steps 46 – 48 for the remaining letters of your logo. Change your ‘Timelines’ default length from ‘90 frames’ to ‘200 frames’. Your workspace should look something similar to the image below.

Step 50

The following steps derived from free downloadable files over at HYPA.TV. You can either download the lighting presets and scale the ‘Classic’ preset so that it fits your scene accordingly, or you can follow these steps to achieve the same result. Add two ‘Area Lights’.

Step 51

Rename the first one to ‘Main Light’. Click on the ‘General’ tab and change your settings to match the settings in the photo below.

Step 52

Click on the ‘Details’ tab and modify your settings to match the settings of the image below.

Step 53

Click on the ‘Visibility’ tab and modify your settings to those that you see in the picture below.

Step 54

Click on the ‘Shadow’ tab and modify your settings to those that you see in the picture below.

Step 55

Position and rotate your ‘Main Light’ accordingly.

Step 56

Select your second ‘Area Light’ and rename it to ‘Fill Light’. Click on the ‘General’ tab and change your settings to match the settings in the photo below.

Step 57

Click on the ‘Details’ tab and modify your settings to match the settings of the image below.

Step 58

Click on the ‘Visibility’ tab and modify your settings to those that you see in the picture below.

Step 59

Position and rotate your ‘Fill Light’ accordingly.

Step 60

Add a ‘Floor’ object. Create a new ‘material’ and call it ‘white’. Change its color properties to R 255, G 255, B 255, and its Brightness to ‘90%’.

Step 61

Change its ‘Specular’ to the setting below. Add your ‘white’ material to your ‘Floor’ object.

Step 62

Add a ‘Sky Object’ to your scene.

Step 63

Create a new ‘material’ and name it ’sky’. Turn off both the ‘color’ and the ’specular’ channels and turn on the ‘Luminance’ channel.

Step 64

In the ‘Texture’ node click on the arrow to the right of it and select ‘Gradient’. Click on the ‘Gradient’ node.

Step 65

Change the ‘Type’ of Gradient from ‘2D – U’ to ‘2D – V’. Modify your swatch colors to begin with pure white and end with a light blue. Change your ‘RGB’ values to match those in the image below. Click ‘OK’.

Step 66

Add your ’sky’ material to the ‘Sky’ object you created. With your ‘Sky’ object selected, right click on it and add a ‘Cinema 4D Compositing’ tag.

Step 67

Click on ‘Tag’ tab and match your settings to the ones below.

Step 68

Add your ’sky’ material to the ‘Sky’ object you created. With your ‘Sky’ object selected, right click on it and add a ‘Cinema 4D Compositing’ tag.

Step 69

Move your ‘Camera’ to a position where your animation is centered and you can see some depth on the letters of your logo. These are my settings below.

Step 70

Open up the ‘Render Settings’ menu. Click on the ‘Output’ option and change the default setting to match the ones in the image below.

Step 71

Select the ‘Save’ option. Navigate inside your main ‘cg_tuts’ folder and click on the ‘tga’ folder. Name your file appropriately and hit ‘Save’.

Step 72

Change the ‘Format’ option to ‘TARGA’. Add a check mark to the ‘Alpha Channel’ option.

Step 73

Click on the ‘Anti-Aliasing’ option and change it from ‘Geometry’ to ‘Best’.

Step 74

Click on the ‘Option’ option, and change the ‘Ray Depth’, ‘Reflection Depth’, and the ‘Shadow Depth’ to the appropriate values below.

Step 75

Click on the ‘Effect’ button and add a ‘Global Illumination’ effect. You are now ready to render. Hit ‘Shift + R’ or select the ‘Render to Picture Viewer’ icon to start your render. Depending on how fast your machine is this can take several hours even days. Mine took around 12 hours.

Step 76

Fire up After Effects. Import your ‘TARGA’ sequence that you rendered out from Cinema 4D. Make sure that ‘Targa Sequence’ is checked.

Step 77

Drag you imported TGA Sequence onto the ‘Create a new Composition’ icon.

Step 78

Select ‘Layer’, ‘New’, ‘Adjustment Layer’.

Step 79

Rename your ‘Adjustment Layer 1′ to ‘Effects’. Navigate to ‘Effect’, ‘BCC6 Effects’, ‘BCC Film Damage’.

Step 80

Change your settings to match those of the image below.

Step 81

Create another ‘Adjustment Layer’ and rename it to ‘Glow’. Change its ‘Threshold’ to ‘50.0%’ and its ‘Radius’ to ‘30.0′. Change its ‘Blending Mode’ from ‘Normal’ to Multiply’. You can play with these settings as you like to get the look you are going for.

Step 82

Finally, add a new ‘Black Solid’. Rename it ‘Vignette’ and change its ‘Blending Mode’ from ‘Normal’ to ‘Overlay’.

Step 83

Change the default ‘Masking Tool’ from a ‘Rectangle’ to an ‘Elipse’. Double click on the icon to add a proportionately scaled mask to your ‘Vignette’ layer.

Step 84

Change your mask settings to those of the image below.

Step 85

Add your composition to the ‘Render Queue’.

Step 86

Click on the ‘Output To’ option and save your file wherever you would like it to be rendered to. Click on ‘Render’ and your done! Thanks for reading.

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This tutorial is Day 2 in a series – Go to Day 1

Final Effect Preview

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Contents

About the Author

“Jeremy Birn is a Lighting Technical Director at Pixar Animation Studios, where he worked on Cars and the Academy Award-winning The Incredibles. Prior to joining Pixar in 2002, Jeremy did lighting and rendering at such companies as Palomar Pictures, Wild Brain, CBS Television, and Tippett Studio, where he worked on effects for the feature film Evolution. Jeremy has taught courses at the California Institute of the Arts in Southern California and the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. More of Jeremy’s work and more about his writing is on his website, www.3dRender.com“(amazon.com).

Contest Rules

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Final Effect Preview

Step 1

Open AfterEffects and create a new composition. Set the “Width” and the “Height” to ‘400′. Change the “Pixel Aspect Ratio” to “Square Pixels”, the “Frame Rate” to ‘30′, and set the “Duration” to 20 seconds.

Step 2

Download the project files, and import them in AE.

Step 3

Drag “Metric_Bass.wav” into the composition’s timeline. Right click on it, go to “Keyframe Assistant” > “Convert Audio to Keyframes”. This process converts the audio waveform into keyframes, and stores them in a new layer called “Audio Amplitude”.

Step 4

Change the new “Audio Amplitude” layer’s name to “Bass Amplitude”. Delete the “Metric_Bass.wav” layer, because the new layer contains all the audio data you will need. To expand or collapse a property group, click the triangle to the left of the layer name or property group name. Expand “Bass Amplitude” > “Effects” > “Both Channels”.

Step 5

Drag “Bass_map.png” in the composition’s timeline. Expand “Bass_map” > “Transform”.

Step 6

Next, you will connect the “Bass_map” layer’s “Opacity” value to the “Bass Amplitude” layer’s audio data. Press the “Alt” key and click the on the Bass_map’s “Opacity” stopwatch icon, to add an expression to this property.

Step 7

Click the “Expressions Pick Whip” icon, and drag a wire to the Both Channel’s “Slider”. This action will connect the “Opacity” value to the audio data.

Step 8

Do the same for the “Normal” and “Treble” files.

Step 9

Render the animation as a .jpeg sequence.

Step 10

Open 3ds Max and set the “Animation Length” to ‘600′ frames (20 seconds) in the “Time Configuration” dialog.

Step 11

Create a plane, and change the name to “Emitter Plane”. Set the plane’s length and width to ‘140′, and move it to the coordinates: x = 0, y = 0, and z = 0.

Step 12

Add a “UVW Map” modifier to the plane and disable “Real-World Map Size”.

Step 13

Go to the “Command panel > Create > Particle Systems > Thinking” menu, and place a “ThinkingParticles 3″ icon in the Viewport.

Step 14

Go to the “Modify” panel, and click “Properties” in the “Thinking” rollout (you can also use ‘Alt + Shift + P’ to open, and ‘Alt + Shift + C’ to close the “ThinkingParticles 3″ user interface). In the “DynamicSet Tree” view, select “Master Dynamic”. Disable “Edit on the fly” to see the changes in real time and enable “Show Mesh” to see the particle shape.

Step 15

In the “Particle Group Tree” view, click the “Create” button, under “Master System”. Name the group “Box Particles”, by clicking on the name “Group” twice (slowly).

Step 16

To dictate what the particles do, you need to create a “Dynamic Set”. In the “DynamicSet Tree” view, click the “Create” button, under “Master Dynamic”, and name the new Dynamic Set “Generate”.

Step 17

Highlight the “Generate” DynamicSet, and then go to the right-hand side of the dialog, where you will see a new set of “Create” rollouts.

Step 18

Click the “Operators” icon, and then choose “Generator” from the drop down list. Select the “MatterWaves” node to highlight it, then click in the schematic portion of the “Wire Setup” view, and add this node to your “DynamicSet”.

Step 19

In the “MatterWaves” rollout, on the right portion that appears, click the “Pick Object Based Emitter” button, and select the “Emitter Plane” in the viewport. Select “Box Particles” as your “Group” (from the drop down menu). Change the particles creation type to “Pistol Shot”, and set the particle amount to ‘3000′. Change the “Life Span” value to ‘300′, the “Speed” value to ‘0′, and the “Size” value to ‘2′.

Step 20

In the “Emitter” rollout, set the “U/V Emitter” to ‘50′.

Step 21

In the “Write to Channel” rollout, set the second spinner of the “UVW” parameter to ‘0′. This spinner defines the Data Channel number that should be written (-1 means no Data Channel is written).

Step 22

In the “Particle Group Tree” view, highlight the “Box Particles” group. In the “Box Particles” group rollout, on the right portion that appears, you need to create a “Data Channel”. In the editbox, write ‘UVW Data’, then select “Point3″ from the drop down list. Press the “Add” button. Now the “UVW Coordinate” data from “MatterWaves” is written to “Data Channel 0″.

Step 23

Create a new “DynamicSet” and change the the name to “Effect”. In the “Create” panel, click the “Groups” icon. Add the “Box Particles” group to your Dynamic Set.

Step 24

In the “Create” panel, click the “Helpers” icon and add a “TexmapColor” helper. This helper is used to get the current surface color of a map.

Step 25

Select the “Box Particles” group and move your cursor over the light green box in the upper right corner of the operator. It will display a tooltip that says “Outputs”. Click on the “Outputs” box which will reveal a complete list of output data streams for the “Box Particles” group.

Step 26

Choose “*Position” and “*CH: UVW Data”. Now these outputs are visible on the “Box Particles” group.

Step 27

Connect the “*CH: UVW Data” output of the “Box Particles” group to the “UVW” input of the “TexmapColor” helper. From “*CH: UVW Data” the “TexmapColor” helper gets the UVW coordinates information.

Step 28

In the “TexmapColor” helper rollout, add the image sequence created in AE.

Step 29

Now, you need to change the particles position on the ‘z’ axis, based on the map. In the “Create” panel, select “Standard” from the drop down list. Add a “Position” operator, and connect the “Particle” input to the “Particle” output, of the “Box Particles” group.

Step 30

Because the ‘x’, ‘y’ and ‘z’ position is set to ‘0′, all the particles will be moved to the same position. You need to get the original particle position on the ‘x’ and ‘y’ axis, and to leave them unchanged. Click the “Helpers” icon and add two “Point3″ helpers.

Step 31

Connect the “Position” output of the group to the “Vector” input of the first “Point3″ helper. Now this helper gets the original particle position. Connect the “X-Value” and “Y-Value” outputs of the first “Point3″ helper to the “X-Value” and “Y-Value” inputs of the second “Point3″ helper, then connect the “Vector” output of the second “Point3″ helper to the “Position” input of the “Position” operator.

Step 32

As you can see, the particles go back thier original positions on the ‘x’ and ‘y’ axis. Next, you need to define the position on the ‘z’ axis. Add an “Add&Multiply” helper and change the operation type to “A*B”.

Step 33

Add a “Random” helper, and change “Value 1″ to ‘55′ and “Value 2″ to ‘60′.

Step 34

Connect the “Value A” input of the “Add&Multiply” helper to the “Value” output of the “Random” helper, and “Value B” input to the “Color” output of the “TexmapColor” helper. Now, connect the “Value” output of the “Add&Multiply” helper to the “Z-Value” input of the second “Point3″ helper.

Step 35

The “Color” output of the “TexmapColor” helper sends out a value between ‘0′ and ‘1′ (’0′ for black and ‘1′ for white). The “Add&Multiply” helper multiplies the value from the “Color” output with a random number between ‘55′ and ‘60′, then sends out the result to the “Z-Value” input of the second “Point3″ helper, which in turn affects the ‘z’ position of the particles. As you can see, the particles are now moving on the ‘z’ axis based on the information from the animated map.

Step 36

Next, you will assign a cube shape to these particles. Go to the “Create” panel, and from the drop down list select “Shape”. Add a “Std Shape” operator. Select “Cube” from the drop down list, then connect the operator to the “Box Particles” group.

Step 37

To apply a modifier to a group, select “Master Dynamic”, in the TP3 user interface, and enable “Groups as Objects”. Now you can select the group, as an object in the viewport.

Step 38

Create a “Standard” material and add a “Gradient Ramp” map in the “Diffuse” slot. Open the “Gradient Ramp” map and disable “Use Real-World Scale”, then set the “Tiling” to ‘1′.

Step 39

Create a gradient (as shown), then assign this material to the “Box Particles” in the viewport.

Step 40

Select the “Box Particles” and add a “UVW Map” modifier. Disable “Real-World Map Size”.

Step 41

Click on the “UVW Map” modifier, then rotate the modifier’s “Gizmo” by ‘90′ degrees on the ‘y’ axis.

Step 42

Scale down the “Gizmo” on the “z” axis and move it up (as shown). Now render the animation.

Final Effect

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Below you can see my final results.

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How To Make A Liquid Levitate & Dance



Learn how to make a liquid levitate and dance in this extensive tutorial, by Christian Zuppinger, using RealFlow 4, Cinema 4D R10.1, and the Advanced Render module. This links to a downloadable .doc file, that you can open up in Word, or if you don’t have that, send it to yourself by email and view it as HTML. The file has reference movies as well as project files.

Make a Splash



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Create an Anemone with RealFlow



Recreate an underwater environment of elegant and subtle motion. This tutorial is hosted over at RealFlow.com, and employs a clever use of fibers and meshing to create an anemone. Download PDF File Download Video Example

Mud with RealFlow



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Whisky On the Rocks



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Billiard – Rigid Body Dynamics



Another from Mark Stasiuk, this one deals with setting up a real world billiards game shot where all the motions are driven by physics within RealFlow. These are downloadable from RealFlow.com: Download Part 1 Download Part 2

Liquid Text



Marco Schweitzer has a few tutorials online. This one teaches you how you can make a liquid type of text in RealFlow 3 and Lightwave 8. Sample movies and projects are available with this tutorial. English Version Deutsch Version

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Importing .bin Files



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Basics: Emmiters (Geyser)



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Basics: Daemons (Water Drop)



In the second video of the series, you will learn to create an animation of a dynamically correct water drop using emitters and daemons in RealFlow 3. Project files are included.

Intermediate: Play Catch – Daemons, Objects and Expressions



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Basics: Chase – Intro to Object Dynamics



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Guided Scene – Parking Flood



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Making Elastics Particle Based Objects



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Suface Tension/Daemons



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RealWave: Standard Sea Setup



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Match your 3d Animation to Live Action Footage



Using RealFlow, AE, C4D, and Syntheyes, Chris Martin shows you how to match your 3d animations and simulations to your live action footage plates.

If you enjoyed this post, please give it a vote on Digg or a stumble to say thanks!

First we will track some live action footage in Syntheyes, and then export it for use in Cinema 4D. Then, in Cinema 4D, we will create some 3d text, and also create the desk geometry that will receive the shadows and reflections. We will then export the whole scene to Realflow, where we will design a simulation using a rigid body, and export it back to C4D to apply compositing tags, and export using multipass rendering. Finally, we will bring it all into After Effects, where we will isolate the text, and apply a few finishing post effects.

Final Effect Preview

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

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Final Effect Preview

Step 1

Go to “Create > Polygon Primitives > Plane”.

Step 2

Create a plane that matches the size of a flag and rotate it by ‘90′ degrees.

Step 3

Open the Attributes Editor for the plane, name it, and increase the “Subdivisions Width” to ‘30′, and the “Subdivisions Height” to ‘50′.

Step 4

Your plane should now look like this:

Step 5

Go to “Create > Polygon Primitives > Cylinder”

Step 6

Position the cylinder, and scale it to match the size of a flag pole.

Step 7

Select all the top faces of the pole.

Step 8

With the faces still selected, got to “Polygons > Edit Mesh > Extrude”.

Step 9

Extrude those faces until you get a nice pole shape.

Step 10

Select the top vertex of the pole.

Step 11

Use the move tool to position the vertex.

Step 12

Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade”.

Step 13

With “Create mental ray Nodes” active, create a new “mia_material_x”.

Step 14

Open the Attributes Editor of the material you just created, name it, select the preset called “Copper”, and adjust the “Diffuse” and “Reflection” colors accordingly.

Step 15

Apply the material to the pole.

Step 16

Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade” again.

Step 17

With “Create mental ray Nodes active”, create a new “mia_material_x”.

Step 18

Go to the Attributes Editor of the material, name it, and decrease the “Reflectivity” value to ‘0′.

Step 19

Click on the checkerboard button, to the right of the “Diffuse” color value, to open the “File” browser window.

Step 20

The Attributes Editor should now change. Select the image you want to use to texture the flag.

Step 21

Apply the material to the flag, and with the flag selected go to “Create UV´s > Planar Mapping”.

Step 22

Select the option highlighted below so you can see if the texture looks good.

Step 23

If your texture looks bad like mine, go to “Create UV´s > Planar Mapping (settings)”.

Step 24

This will open a new window where you can change the projection axis to whatever works for your scene, and then click “Project”.

Step 25

Your flag should now display the texture correctly.

Step 26

Select the flag, and in the “nDynamics” menu, go to “nMesh > Create nCloth”.

Step 27

Increase the number of frames of the animation.

Step 28

If you play the animation now, you will see that the flag just falls down. This is because the flag is not attached to the pole.

Step 29

Rewind the animation.

Step 30

Select the flag, and in the “Window” menu, go to “Show > Isolate Select > View Selected”.

Step 31

You should now only see the flag, which will make it easier to work with.

Step 32

Select all of the vertexes that you want to be attached to the pole.

Step 33

In the “nDynamics” menu, go to “nConstraint > Transform”.

Step 34

Select the flag, and in the “Window” menu go to “Show > Isolate Select > View Selected” this will make everything visible again.

Step 35

Select the pole.

Step 36

In the “nDynamics” menu, go to “nMesh > Create Passive Collider”.

Step 37

If you play the animation, you should now see the flag hanging from the pole. This is realistic, but an unmoving flag is not very dynamic, so let’s add some wind.

Step 38

Go to the Attributes Editor of the flag´s “nucleus1”, and in the “Gravity and Wind” section, change the following values:

Step 39

If you play the animation now, it should look pretty good. All you need to do is smooth the polygons by pressing ‘3′ on the keyboard (with the flag selected).

Step 40

Perfect! We are done with the first section of this tutorial, just don´t forget to save your scene!

Step 41

Create a new scene, and go to “Create > Polygon Primitives > Plane”.

Step 42

Create a square plane.

Step 43

Go to the Attributes Editor of the plane, name it, and change the “Subdivisions Width” to ‘50′, and the “Subdivisions Height” to ‘50′

Step 44

Go to “Create > Polygon Primitives > Sphere”.

Step 45

Create a sphere and position it very high above the plane.

Step 46

Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade”.

Step 47

Make sure you have “Create mental ray Nodes” active, and create a new “mia_material_x”.

Step 48

Go to the Attributes Editor of the material, name it, and change the following options:

Step 49

Apply the material to the ball.

Step 50

Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade”.

Step 51

With “Create mental ray Nodes” active, create a new “mia_material_x”.

Step 52

Go to the Attributes Editor of the material, name it, and decrease the “Reflectivity” value to ‘0′.

Step 53

Hit the checkerboard button to the right of the “Diffuse” Color value. This will open the file browser window where you can select the image that you want to use to texture the plane.

Step 54

Apply the material to the plane.

Step 55

Select the plane, and in the “Polygons” menu, go to “Create UV´s > Planar Mapping”.

Step 56

Select the plane again, and in the “nDynamics” menu, go to “nMesh > Create nCloth”.

Step 57

Select one vertex from each corner of the plane.

Step 58

With the vertexes still selected, go to the “nDynamics” menu, and choose “nConstraint > Transform”.

Step 59

Select the ball, and in the “nDynamics” menu, go to “nMesh > Create Passive Collider”.

Step 60

With the ball still selected, go to “Fields > Gravity”.

Step 61

Increase the number of frames of the animation.

Step 62

Position your camera.

Step 63

Play the animation.

Step 64

The plane should just stretch instead of tearing.

Step 65

Rewind the animation.

Step 66

Select the faces of the plane that you want to tear.

Step 67

In the “nDynamics” menu, go to “nConstraint > Tearable Surface”.

Step 68

You should see some dots covering the faces you selected.

Step 69

If you play the animation now, your plane should tear naturally. End of tutorial! Hope you liked it!!

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Final Effect Preview

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

Don’t miss more exciting tutorials and articles published daily! Subscribe to Cgtuts+ by RSS.