Just received Cinema 4D 2012

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Hello Pauland

The original post has to do with bringing Xara into Cinema4D (3DMax, Blender, etc.)...

I think the photos are topical. Perhaps initially overwhelming, but no one said 3D would be EASY.

Additionally, I have been at the 3D thing with Blender for only a couple of months, perhaps three. The images are also to show that WITH SOME APPLICATION OF TIME/ENERGY, anyone else can make pretty much whatever they apply themselves to... perhaps a slight inspiration that even noobs can make "something" without being eaten alive by the interface.

The import abilities of most 3D programs make it so that objects (or at least the beginnings of more complex objects) can be brought in without too much muss and fuss... [The grenade could be made from a shape that was first drafted in Xara. Once in Blender (etc.) through control loops or other methods it could be spun and shaped. The handle and top could also be fashioned in Xara and then just extruded. Using Xara in this way, cuts out a LOT of the beginners' difficulties with creating shapes wholly in 3D to begin with.]

Yes, this doesn't look just like a grenade, but I think it's close enough that most viewing the image would THINK grenade...



Peace

James

[Hwy101]

Very Nice James! You give me Hope (now if I can find Time to do all my Project)<sigh> -Tom aka Hwy101

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Thanks Tom,

As you can tell, Blender is highly recommended.

Blender has quite the interface (necessary with so many functions), so I would recommend the ole divide and conquer method.

Strange as it sounds, I see a certain kinship between the Blender interface and the Designer Pro 6 interface. (not just the dark coloring)

If you get into it and run into problems, I am glad to help if I can!

I make "dummy projects" (not just because I'm a dummy) in order to learn various functions/features and to force myself beyond what I have already learned. Here is the last image that I made while figuring out the ins and outs of importing (well, I guess importing is just "in's", no "out's" LOL) SVG files from Xara...



The software here decreases the resolution of the picture, making for some artifacts. (The "Spiderman Ball" looks crappy in this version, much better at original resolution) You can see a better version HERE

Peace

James

[wizard509]

I think if I were picking up Cinema for the first time and was totally new to 3D, I might feel a little overwhelmed by skilled practitioners showing off their skills with stuff that looks nothing like a grenade.

Maybe overwhelmed but I hope that person would be inspired and determined to master the program.

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Hello Larry,

I totally agree.

It was through seeing (3D) things done on the Amiga back in the late 80's that gave me an interest in 3D graphics. Many of the things that were being shown were beyond my skill level, but it definitely was INSPIRATION. I used, at the time, Sculpt 4D and Silver (later, Imagine) and they were very cool tools. It feels very cool NOW, to be back "playing" with 3D software. The tools are much more powerful now, produce consistently better and more colorful images, much more easily integrate with various file formats and other software, and are much more affordable....like Blender, FREE.

All the images that I am sharing are aimed at making others take an interest in Blender (in particular) and 3D graphics (in general).

Very often, I have both Designer Pro 6 and Blender open. When, in Blender, I need some particular shape or image to map, it is short work to run off and make it and import it. In other words, Blender doesn't in any way negate or replace Xara software, it SUPPLEMENTS it.

Peace

James

[Soquili]

This is simply to show how I would begin modeling a MK-2 "pineapple" grenade in Cinema 4D version 8. Hopefully this will be similar enough to C4D version 12 to be of some help to the OP.

Started with a cylinder and gave it 5 Height Segments and 8 Rotation Segments.
Played with Edge selections to give it the familiar shape.
Beveled the Edges then selected the polygons (faces of the segments) and extruded them then scaled them (down sized).
Selected the top edges and moved them to create the 'neck' of the grenade.
Applied some textures to see how it looks before continueing to model.

[pawan123]

3d guys makes hillarious ....

[Gare]

Hi Raw Habitz and to get back to your original question: paths themselves can be copied to Cinema 4D, but you need to export them to Illustrator file format, and everything on the page goes to AI so if you have a bitmap in a margin of a page, that will go, too. So make certain you only have vector paths on the page before exporting.

Sadly, no, Xara and C4D are different types of art media, so paths can be used to build shapes in C4D, but you can't export a finished drawing and hope to make 3D art out of it. At least, not good 3D art .

A lot of members have chimed in with good tips here, and most of them have to do with the "sculpting" as opposed to "building" method of making objects in C4D, which supports both methods. Sculpting involves taking a primitive off the Objects>Primitive menu, simplifying it so it's no longer a dynamic shape (press C with the object selected), and then using the selection tools in combination with the point, vertex and path tools to move areas around. Plus there are a lot of nice and easy modifiers in the Structure and Functions menus.
But if you want some of your Xara skills to remain within C4D, building 3D objects can be done by projecting a 2D path in a direction to declare a third dimension.

There are at least four operations you can use in Cinema 4D (any version I can think of, I began with v8) to project a path you've created in Xara along a third axis to create a mesh.

Extruding you probably already know form Xara; you project a closed path through space to create the third dimension. Also in C4D is sweeping, which runs a path along a second path and if you check the Attributes for the Sweep NURBs parent object, you can change the end scale and other things. Additionally, you can control the size of the swept path by using a rail, a third path that figures into the Sweep recipe.

Lofting involves several paths and the can be different shapes but you'd best stick to identical numbers of control points. Anf then there's the Potter's Wheel Lofting NURB, all of these are accessed under Objects>NURBs.

C4D does have its own pen tools, but I've never seen drawing tools in any modeling program that equal Xara's for intuitiveness and ease of use.

Congratulations on your purchase, by the way. I understand that the latest version of cinema 4D has physically-based lighting tools!



My Best,

Gary

[wizard509]

I agree with Paul. I am amazed at the fantastic examples posted so far and am still struggling with Blender, haven't given up though. As I have said before I would hope that instead of being overwhelmed these would inspire a determination to learn the program and create some great 3D works. Not that anything could ever replace Xara for me. But I would like that additional ability.

[Gare]

I think as you grow, you grow. It's interesting that so many Xara users decide to make a leap of faith (or just a logical extension) to their existing toolkit. My personal use of digital tools has followed a strange, yet productive, migratory pattern in the past 20 years. CorelDRAW to Photoshop, to trueSpace, then Xara, then a fluctuation between other paint, drawing, and modeling programs.

It's been a learning experience and actually a lot of my modeling work has helped me see stuff in Xara illustrations a lot better, call it cross-pollination if you will.

It's just good to know a wide range of tools, especially if you come up with a wide range of creative ideas in the course of a day.

But I have to say that if I were to map out my toolkit as a hub, Xara would be at the center. I can't think of a day when I'm in Photoshop or After Effects when I reach for Xara to get an element done more quickly than with a different app's native tools.

Just my 5¢, marked down to 2¢ to reflect the world's current economic condition.
And I'm being optimistic.



—Gare