VFX Daily | Visual Effects & Motion Graphics Tutorials

Spline Dynamics, Cloth and Particles (R&D)

Josh — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:55:39 +0000

After seeing Simon Fiedler’s cool Droplelts breakdown I had to make the dynamic spiderweb he showed. I think it’s pretty close to what he did. I used spline dynamics, hair and constraints. It’s very fast and responsive in the viewport which is really great. It also led me to some cool R&D with combining spline dynamics, thinking particles and Cloth.

The Can Crush – Cinema 4D

Josh — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:11:42 +0000

Here’s a test I made using Projection Man to aid in camera mapping, pose morph, dynamics and the new Physical Renderer including DOF and Motion Blur.

Featured in MAXON’s 2011 Demo Reel & Article on My Work.

Josh — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 04:55:16 +0000

Just wanted to share the cool news. Some of my work can bee seen on MAXON’s brand new 2011 Demo Reel. The reel is chock-full of amazing work. I highly recommend checking it out! Also, Renderosity posted an article about me and a spot I worked on. You can find the article here.

Tutorial 05: C4D Multi-Pass Rendering/Compositing and Shadow Catching.

Josh — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 06:17:03 +0000

Hey everyone, here’s a tutorial I made that explains my multi-pass workflow in Cinema 4D to After Effects. Namely, my focus was to show how to set up your C4D scene to catch shadows properly on live action footage or a photograph in one render. I’ve had a lot of questions how to do this so I hope this is helpful for some.

Often you will here C4D users ask if there is something similar to 3DS MAX’s “Shadow Matte” material. The answer is yes and you don’t need a plug-in like “Shadowcatcher” to achieve this. You can do this natively in Cinema 4D. Not only do I show you how to set the material up I made a content browser preset ready for download. Cleverly named “Shadow Matte”.

Download it here. Install it in Cinema 4D > library > browser.

Just wanted to point out there are other ways to do this. A common method is to make two renders. One of those being a shadow pass but I show you how to do it all in one render with mulit-pass control. Something I’ve seen a lot of people struggle with.

FYI, this method doesn’t work with the Physical Renderer in R13 but in my opinion it should as it uses built-in tools and no post effects. I contacted MAXON about this is so hopefully it gets fixed in the near future. In case you were wondering the shadowcatcher plug-in doesn’t work with the Physical Renderer either.

“99frames” – The Social Animation Project

Josh — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 04:07:46 +0000

This is a really cool project David Drayton is putting together.

“The 99frames project is designed to encourage people to try out the new CINEMA 4D R13 features. Since CINEMA 4D R13 is such a huge upgrade in terms of rendering, character animation and workflow, it’s almost a must in my opinion to get this…” Check out the full article on David’s blog: link

Tutorial 04: Turbulence FD and Particles

Josh — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 19:33:10 +0000

With the final release of TFD nearing I updated and expanded on a TFD tutorial I made about a year ago. I show how you to use TFD with the built-in particles and Thinking Particles.

C4D: Turbulence FD Cloud Render & File

Josh — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 03:20:11 +0000

Sorry for the lack of updates I’ve been crazy busy at work. I’ve been working a lot with TFD for a client which brought me to this render and file to share. My second attempt at making a cloud in C4D with Turbulence FD. It’s getting there but still needs work. It’s a pretty simple setup. Hope to have some new tutorials soon .

Here’s the project file to learn from: clouds02zip You will of course have to re-cache the sim.

SynthEyes Quick Tip: Manual Scene Orientation

Josh — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 22:28:53 +0000

Just a quick demonstration for a member over at c4dcafe. How to manually adjust your Coordinate Systems after you solved with the 3 point system.

Link to old SynthEyes axis tutorial.

3D World Magazine – Future Publishing

Josh — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:42:40 +0000

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up. The new issue of 3D World Magazine (issue 146) will feature an article I wrote accompanied by over 150 minutes of tutorial video. It will be on sale in UK newsagents July 26th and on sale in US newstands from August 19th. Hope you enjoy it. Link to 3D World site announcement.

Turbulence FD R&D

Josh — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:10:06 +0000

Just wanted to share some of my R&D testing of Turbulence FD. It’s a gaseous fluids plug-in for Cinema 4D. Similar to the 3DS Max plug-in, Fumefx. It’s a lot of fun and quite powerful. Site to buy Turbulence FD.

Few tests. First up is a matchmoving test where I added fire and smoke using Turbulence FD (TFD) and the second is a camera mapped photo using Projection Man inside of Cinema 4D then of course using TFD to create the explosion.