Monthly Archives: April 2012

Fantastic MoGraph Resource

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Via EJ Hassenfratz and Mograph Love, I just discovered this incredible Mograph resource from C4D Cafe. Basically it’s a rundown and explanation of everything within Cinema 4D’s Mograph module. Not sure what the Inheritance Effector can do? Don’t know how to use the Shader Effector in conjunction with a Random Effector? This resource explains all of it, in a little more detail than the standard Maxon Help docs (which are another great reference). Check out the site and I’ve already added it to the Resource links on the right side of the page. Enjoy!

Layer Browser Overview Part 2

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This is the second part of the four part series taking a look a the Layer Browser. In part two we look at using the Lock and Animation features. Be sure to check out the first tutorial in the four part series and download the rigged model so you can follow along!

Layer Browser Overview Part 1

Download “The Box”
Creative Commons License
“The Box” by Biscuits and Davey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

U = Modeling Magic

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If you press U anywhere within Cinema 4D, you will get this pop-up menu of 22 functions and selection options. All of these are incredibly handy when you’re modeling. Even if you only use a few of the functions on a regular basis, using these two keystroke shortcuts can really speed up your workflow. No more clicking around in the menu bar trying to find the Subdivide function (U~S), or right clicking and scrolling around to Invert Selection (U~I). I have gone ahead and typed out all of the options below so you can copy them onto a cheat sheet, or you can just download the image to the right. Remember, it’s a two keystroke shortcut, so press U followed by the next letter in the menu to achieve the shortcut!

A … Align Normals
B … Ring Selection
C … Collapse
D … Disconnect
E … Remove N-gons
F … Fill Selection
G … Retriangulate N-gons
I … Invert
K … Shrink Selection
L … Loop Selection
M … Path Selection
N … Phong Break Selection
P … Split
Q … Outline Selection
R … Reverse Normals
S … Subdivide…
T … N-gon Triangulation
U … Untriangulate…
W … Select Connected
X … Convert Selection
Y … Grow Selection
Z … Melt

Learn it, use it, work faster and make it better. Enjoy!

Keyboard Zooming

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Use the Plus and Minus keys on your numerical pad to quickly zoom in and out of scenes. The equals/+ key next to your delete or backspace key will not work in this case, only the plus key on the numerical pad. This may not be relevant if you use your mouse to zoom in and out, but you never know when you will need to use a shortcut!

Layer Browser Overview Part 1

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Here is part one of a four part series giving you the rundown on how the Layer Browser works and how you can use it to help your workflow. In part one I will cover the View, Render, and Manager columns.

NOTE: I made a little mistake when talking about adding an object to a layer. You can actually just left click on the gray circle and add it to a layer or add it to a new layer. That way only those two options show up instead of the entire drop down menu! Also ignore the Command + Click comment, I know it’s Control + Click, just one of those humbling moments.

You can download the model and rig I use in the first two tutorials so you can get a feel for using the Layer Browser.
Download “The Box”
Creative Commons License
“The Box” by Biscuits and Davey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Typografreaks

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Need some inspiration? Go check out Typografreaks, the latest project from Dillon Sherman. This airy and clean tumblr blog has tons of type inspiration for those of you who have a passion for great typography. Consisting mostly of early to mid-century examples, it’s a great site to get you going on your next project.

http://typografreaks.com/

Don’t forget, it’s a typeface, not a font.

 

Shift + G: Go to Start

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Press Shift + G to go to the start of your timeline. Whenever working in Dynamics and Thinking Particles you have to go to frame 0 in order to restart the calculation for what ever is going on in your scene. This lets you keep the mouse where you need it to make adjustments without having to go click on the timeline controls.