C4D modeling - Architecture

[Soquili]

I've been following a series of tutorials on Renderosity to refresh my memory on the use of Cinema 4D. Modeling Architecture in C4D http://www.renderosity.com/mod/tutorial/index.php

The author of the tutorials uses version 10 and I have version 8.5, There are some functions he uses that are not available in the older version.

The most challenging part for me was to create a clean mesh in part 1. The video shows quadrangles when the author makes the ExtrudeNURB editable. In version 8.5 the mesh consists of triangles from the Window opening splines to the right most corners of the Wall spline. See first attachment.

Is there a setting that I may have missed in C4D version 8.5 to turn off create triangles and have quadrangles created?

I managed to eventually get a clean mesh but it was all trial and error. I cannot seem to duplicate the non-errors that produced a clean mesh.
Fortunately I saved the clean mesh to a file before continuing the tutorials.

The second and 3rd attachments are test renders using some simple textures to distinquish the various objects.

[Soquili]

There does not appear to be any way to configure C4D version 8.5 to not create triangles.

So, I went back to basics and used the tools available within 8.5 to create a clean mesh without starting with 8 splines.

If anyone is interested:

Start with one spline the size the wall will be when complete. For the tutorial on Renderosity that would be 2600 meters wide by 320 meters high.
Make the spline editable.
Drop the spline into an extrudeNURB and make the extrudeNURB editable.
Open the Structure menu and click on untriangulate.
Switch to line mode and select the left and right lines of the rectangle polygon. Edge Cut to make 2 subdivisions.
Select the 4 horizontal lines and Edge Cut to make 14 subdivisions.
Switch to the rectangular selection tool and select lines (vertical or horizontal) to make the polygons for the window opens 200 meters wide and 160 meters high. The polygons between the windows are 150 meters wide. The polygons above the windows are 80 meters high.

When you have completed the line moves you will have a very clean mesh. You also will not need to use the Knife tool as shown in the tutorial and you will not need to switch to point mode and edit the points created by the Knife tool.

You can finish the tutorial with only some minor differences from the version 10 steps. For one thing you will not need to remove polygons from the back of your extruded polygons for the pillars.

The attached image shows the clean mesh created in C4D version 8.5.

[Soquili]

Update with added objects and materials.

[Mike Bailey]

Nice to see your modeling Bill. I haven't used C4d in such a long time, I forgot how to use it.

[gidgit]

Hey... that's my excuse

but yea, seriously, I agree with Mike... been a while, and damn it's nice to see you doing 3d agin Bill

I just got a new machine so will see how things go as to how long it will take to participate here...

light that scene up and grunge it out some...

[Soquili]

Thanks Mike and Gidgit. I do enjoy modeling. Making time to do anything takes effort and anything to help reduce stress is well worth the effort.

These uncertain financial times and poor health can cause a lot of stress. Fortunately it doesn't take expensive upgrades to take my mind off other things.

[Soquili]

Some changes in the lighting and materials. Slight modification of the geometry of some of the elements so the edges are not as sharp.

[Soquili]

Playing around with C4D while waiting for the next installments of the tutorial.

I've added a sidewalk made with worn cut stones (at least that is what I hope it looks like).

[emel]

Looks good to me although I prefer to mesh out of C4D and than import into.
Wings and Sketchup produce nice *.3ds and *.obj files to C4D.
Also sometimes simple extruded splines are much better for this kind of pieces instead of meshes.
But it really looks good and whatever way you do it the final result counts more.

Emanuel

[Soquili]

Thanks Emanuel.