The only thing that annoys me about cinema 4D is that there are limited free tutorials and “how to’s” on the internet and that if you really want to get into the programs more advanced features you have to either spend hours searching the net or go out and buy an expensive book. Like most people I don’t have the money to be spent on expensive books, nor the free time to spend searching the net for hard to find how-to’s which have been relegated to page 550 of googles search results because the pay for sites are much better at SEO.
So without much further ado I bring you the first in my series of Cinema 4D tutorials, you might find the titles or subjects quite odd but then again they are subjects which I have searched google for and come up with nothing so I thought I would share how I went about doing what I had hoped to be shown how to do.
First things first, open up Cinema 4D and press F5. This brings up the following four viewpoints in the main screen (in Clockwise order) Perspective, Top, Right and Front. This is most useful for getting things aligned right and knowing how they will look along all three axis. If you then press the middle mouse button on any of these views then it will enlarge to take up the entire view upon which pressing the middle mouse button again returns to the four view, view.
Next select a new cube and select its attributes, as you can see (above) I have made it 100m tall and a width and breadth of 250m. I also changed its vertical position to 50m so that it is flush to where the X and Y planes meet. This cube will be the outside walls of our room therefore rename it to “outside” by double clicking on its name within the objects browser. The next step is to produce the shell of the room and the inside wall, we shall be using a Boole element for this.
Duplicate the outside wall and then create a Boole element. You can duplicate an object simply by selecting it and then pressing Ctrl + C followed by Ctrl + V, well it’s the only way I know of. Rename this duplicate outside cube, inside. Then change its size so that you have a 10m thick wall and that its height is 10m taller (that is X=240, Y=110 & Z=240 if your too lazy to think). Next place both cubes within the Boole using the objects browser the outside wall being on top of the inside wall as shown above, when quickly rendered you should result in something looking like the image below.
Now you have the basic walls of your model, you need to give it a floor. For this you could simply raise up the inside cube by 10 meters and then later on paint a texture on the floor face for the carpet, wood veneer, etc. Or if your lazy just produce another cube resize it to the dimensions of the inside wall and have it so its height is 10m and place it on the floor. I choose the first option for this tutorial as it allows me to fit in showing how to do selective texturing as well as being the most efficient so far as render times go.
Now the room has a floor and four walls, it needs a door and some windows to finish it off before we texture it. These can be done much in the same way as the room was created. Therefore rename the Boole element “Walls” and place it within another Boole element, then create another cube and resize it to the dimensions you want your window to be at and place it on top of the walls Boole in this new Boole. Sounds complex but it really isn’t the above image shows you what mine looks like and the below image is the rendered result.
Now I’m sure you are able to make some more windows and a door without my guidance, so I shall leave you to that and continue with the tutorial. To texture our room we need to first make it editable, so the first thing to do is select the inside and outside objects and press C to make them editable (as shown in the below image).
Next select the button marked number 2 in the above image so you can begin to select the faces of your model to be textured. You might have to spin the perspective view to underside the room to be able to select the boxes floor rather than its top – or at least I had to. Now you should have the bottom face of the inside cube selected the perimeter of which will be shown as red. Now from the Selection drop down choose set selection (see #1 in image below).
Now you have the floor selected within your object browser double click upon it and rename it to floor. Now create or load a texture and drag it onto the inside object within the object browser and double click on its icon once it appears there. Then within the selection text space enter “floor” or what ever you named the face selection. Now when rendered you should get something similar to what you see in the below image, just the floor texture being rendered.
You can use the above technique to texture the rest of the room, having different textures for different walls, etc. A rug can also be placed in a similar fashion, but I shall cover that in a separate tutorial i’m going to write tomorrow.
As a bonus I shall now continue with some radiosity rendering to make the scene look ultra cool. First off you need a floor and sky element in the3D world. Now as this is a mock up you don’t need to use any form of detailed sky texture for the sky, as they take ages to render and when your just mocking up anything longer than 60 seconds is an age so save all the detailed texturing until you have finished the room and filled it with what ever you think of filling it with. Create a new material and give it the same settings as shown in the image above, the brightness is set to 170% because it provides the final image with a lot more dynamic range, for more information see this tutorial here. Next go to render settings and select Radiosity, the following settings are best chosen to give the highest quality render with the largest dynamic range and least amount of incorrect visible artefacts.
Just incase you cant make out the settings shown in the above image they are as follows: Strength:100%, Accuracy: 90%, Prepass Size: 1/1, Diffuse Depth: 1, Stochastic Samples: 300, Min. Resolution: 20 and Max. Resolution: 150. You will also need to go into the Options within the render settings (four down from the Radiosity in the above image) and turn off Auto Light. Now your ready to render, this will take a while and Radiosity has to make a lot of calculations but the end result it worth it. My version took 4 minutes to render, that is with just one texture and at 640×480 but the quality of the render is ultra high and well worth the wait. The time to render will increase the more object you include into the scene and the more complex the textures you use, but overall the wait is really worth it in the end. Below you can see my final render and the end of this tutorial.
I hope this has helped someone, if you have followed this tutorial then please leave a comment. Also if you have any questions or ideas for tutorials that you cant find anywhere then please leave them below in the comments section and I shall have a go 
Holy crap! Thank you sooo much for doing this tutorial! Literally in a matter of the 5 minutes it took me to read through this tutorial, I have transformed my current project from “meh” to “SWEET!” Thank you again! I look forward to more tutorials from you. (especially in the realm of architecture.
I agree with your point at the beginning, it is so damn hard to find, not only good tutorials, but tutorials period online. (Without of coarse paying $99 for a DVD.) Even Creative Cow let me down for C4D! Thank you again and I will be checking virually daily for new tutorials!
Is there a mailing list I can get set up on to recieve updates as to when new tutorials are posted?
THANK YOU!!
:good: :good:
Is there any way that you know of to take some of the noise out of the shading? I have the render settings set identical to yours.
http://www.renderedhero.com/5_small.tif
Thanks!
arrrrgh so irritating.
first of all, your tutorial is very good, but also
very irritating. i have some other version that what you have, and its annoying the hell out of me when you just say like press “this” button. where the hell is that button?!
and could you now just say ‘create a boolean object’ ? that took me ages to figure out how to do. granted, its an easy tutorial, but could you at least keep it to beginner levels? Thanks mate.
PS: i still havent figured out how to friggin select
the bottom part of the floor!!!
could you *not, i meant ‘not’ , not ‘now’
Goddamn!
))
Very nice tutorial, now i’m a large bit better in modeling.
Thx dude, keep up!
PS: i still havent figured out how to friggin select
the bottom part of the floor!!!
Did you remember to make the object editable? (hotkey “C”) if you did, remember to set the selection type to Polygons, and not points, edges, or object (top icons, on the left toolbar)
Nice tutorial and all, but there is a simpler way to use the booles. Make all the windows, select them all and group them (right click and “Group Objects”). After that, put them under the boole like one object. It’s a lot simpler to keep track of things if you fo it that way, atleast I think so…
Very nice tutorial.
The only thing i dont get done, is to get the first window on top of the walls boole. It jumps everytime inside the walls boole or just outside the boole root. (So just like it is a new cube placed on the bottom in the object list) btw i am using Cinema 4D version 10. Maybe that helps. I am working with Cinema 4D for about 1 year now, but i dont get this one done. Thanks.
Nevermind. Just got it done.
Thanks anyways.
You fool.
You spend between 1000.- and 3000.- USD for Cinema4D but you don’t have any money to buy a 50 bucks book?
That is unless you pirated C4D and then your an even bigger fool.
And there are plenty! of free Cinema4D related sites with TONS of tutorials, Cgtalk, C4DCafe, C4dnexus etc. etc.
Magpie I feel that it is you who is the fool to so quickly judge someone and try and fit them into one of those stereotypes you seem to hold so much contempt for.
Who’s to say I’m not actually a university student who is working from a version on the universities computers, if you took one minute to investigate you would find this to be true of my situation. Thus also indicating why I don’t have the money spare to spend on textbooks relating to a subject which is ultimately only a hobby for me.
I did however state and I’m sure it is a simple misunderstanding on your part that there are limited free tutorials. To break it down for you, yes there are plenty of free Cinema4D related sites but I have yet to find any which show how to such things as model rooms, and some of the more complex modeling techniques. I my self have had to ask help from students who are studying 3D design and from my understanding of their teachings I have passed on the information learnt in the form of these tutorials in the hope that they help other people who have encountered similar problems to myself.
I do thank you for the comment and sharing your view, which is I admit, appreciated.
:no: don’t listen to that magpie clown. people are so quick to judge, w/o thinking of things such as “maybe the exact reason someone can’t afford expensive books is because they just spent all of their money buying C4D”. or in your case, you’re a student working in a lab. either way, his post judging you was completely pointless and asinine.
anyway, wicked tutorials. well done. cheers mate :good:
1 need more of your tutorials.it great learning from some that has knowledge.infact i want you to be my friend.i am teeyboi from west africa.very few people know about cinema 4D.i currently making my profile for my clients.if possible i would like to work together.just like you i have my own way of creating objects.this is my e-mail teeyboi_taiwo@yahoo.com send me yours with your reply.
thanks.
oh god mr carbon twelve just owned magpie. lawls. Yo im looking @ step 3 how do i create a bool or w/e im very new to cinema 4D first day. I might not check this but maybe it emails me.
Here i am again!
Well im not so nooby now, and i know my way around things and can model up pretty much anything i imaging. most of the time im too lazy though!
I won this comp with my arachnobuddy entry, check it out!
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=109517&b=3
Anyway, i just wanted to say that i find this tutorial useful even now, as it shows how to make a sucessfull boolean object, which im finding increasingly necessary as i create models for my game.
Very nice tutorial.
You can also group your window and door cubes together and use that group object in the boolean object. That way you have only two booleans.
Wow! Excelent tutorial! It was just what I needed (I just knew some 3D Studio MAX). Thanks a lot!
Can you please tell me how do you use the gradient material… you describe how do you make but you dont describe how do you place it on the room floor!!!
Please tell us how.
thanks
PS: if you are using cinema4d version 10.0 or newer radiosity is renamed to Global Illumination.
very good ..! im using 3dmax and maya for desiging rooms its my job now im learning how to use this program and this tutorial been much help thanx… but could you plz complete it…?? !
Hi,
The bit where the windows/doors need adding, rather then creating a tree of boole objects it would be easier to create one boole then a null object containing all the windows and and doors etc.
Hope it helps.
Can anybody explain me how to do this “boole”?
“The next step is to produce the shell of the room and the inside wall, we shall be using a Boole element for this.”
P.S Please step by step
Regards
havin a bit of trouble here iv bee working on cd4 4 about a week i know my way around, but when i try to put the window inside the boole it just makes the intire thing a solid again walls and all and it just turns 2 a cube again… help?!
dw iv sorted it kinda umm iv had 2 make 2 windows and put tem linked 1 to outside and 1 to the inside walls…
Awesome, keep em coming
that was cool, this was my first cinema 4d venture, so i got a lot from that. thanks!
I UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE SAYING ABOUT THE TUTORIAL PART.
MOST PEOPLE DONT THINK ABOUT WHAT THERE SAYING OR DOING FROM A DUMMIES POINT OF VIEW.TO MAKE A TUTORIAL THAT HELPS PEOPLE YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND ITS JUST WHAT IT SAYS IT IS.A TUTORIAL.
ITS NOT FOR PEOPLE WHO HALFWAY UNDERSTAND,ITS FOR PEOPLE THAT DONT KNOW CRAP.
TAKE YOUR TIME AND AND EXPLAIN WHY YOUR DOING SOMETHING,AND WHAT IT DOES,AND WHY YOU DID IT THAT AWAY,AND THE EFFECT OF DOING IT THAT AWAY.THAT IS WHAT A TURTAL IS ALL ABOUT.
PEACE OUT.
couldnt make door or other windows just one
Excelent tutorial! ! !
I was wondering how to do those great interior renders, i love the house rendering, all the lights, windows, etc… i was wondering if are you going to put another tutorial like this, maybe how to finish the room with windows, doors, furniture, light tables at sides of furniture, maybe a paint in a wall, texture, lamps, etc..
if so, i would like to thank you again for this…
best regards
giovanni
Yes, great tutorial although I’m a bit flumoxed as to how you get the floorboards so reflective before you apply radiosity in the final render. And the gradient too – sorry for being a bit daft, but do I make a ‘floor’ from ‘scene’ and then apply the grad? Thanking you in advance
warm regards
Matt
Come on, there’s all of the info on C4D available for free on the net, just like the program itself. There should be no problem for a 120+ IQ person to model absolutely anything in C4D, if he(her) became familiar with all of the simple modeling tools.
Incredible tutorial, the final render is awesome!! XD
Thanks!
ok dude really lol ? you lost me at rendering something, ok i have no clue what do, i finally found the boole thing, took me forever to find lol and now i gotta render something, where do i render lol ?
I’d like to member
Awesome tutorial, this is the first time I used any sort of 3d program, yes, I am a complete beginner, and yet I had no trouble finishing it.
Keep up the good tutorials!
Thank you! I’m new to C4D and this was helpfull.
gracias! es de gran ayuda
Thank you man, this is great! I’m new in C4D and this was helpfull.
Best regards!
Grettings from Hungary!
for a beginner like me, this is very helpful. Thanks.
Hey, don’t forget to set the mix mode to multiply in the sky materials luminance gradient. and try to use as few booles as possible, group the cutaway objects in a null as mentioned in above comments. nice job dude
Great tutorial!
Hi, first of all thank you for the tutorial. I’m also new to cinema4D.
I’ve created the inside and outside wall, in a bolean.
But when I try to add the windows and put them into the bolean, the walls dissapear for some reason. And my windows look likes its divided in 2.
What am I doing wrong then?
Cinema 4D R10
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It was great help actually. Thanks