Cerbera

R18 will continue to be a powerful piece of software no matter what comes after it, and you don't have to have the latest version of something to be producing quality work. I stopped updating Photoshop when they started their monthly rental scam scheme, and nothing I have needed to do since has not been possible in the older version of the software. You'll be good for a few years yet I would have thought... CBR

Very cool :) Genius animation, and awesome sound design. CBR

First of all it's a very nice render, beautifully textured and lit, so definitely winning there. But the modelling isn't going quite so well, as @VECTOR mentioned. You're actually getting small shading errors if you look closely at the ports areas, and you could do with another edge loop between the top of them and the ridge above so that the ports don't disrupt the edge flow of the circular rim. However it is probably not so severe that you couldn't sort it out by increasing the phong angle a bit. You also have some complex poles that don't need to be there. The booles are horrible - look what they've done to your topology ! And there was no need for them - you had easily enough segmentation there to model the holes properly. But don't be discouraged - your excellent work in the texturing, lighting and rendering, combined with no SDS has largely mitigated any dodgy modelling to all but the most critical eye. CBR

Yep, just keep doing it, and keep caring that you are doing it well, and you'll get there :) In a year you'll look back at your initial meshes and laugh your ass off :)

Yep, 'pretty good' might be slightly optimistic; what I meant by that is that it's not too bad for someone in the early stages of learning modelling, and that it's probably good enough to animate OK :) That isn't to say the mesh is ideal - you have some weird edge flow going on in places, and complex poles (6 or more points convening) in a few more places (mainly hands), but most of the less-than-ideal edge flow isn't where you will be deforming when animating, so you'll probably get away with most of it ;) CBR

SSS working nicely there :) I assume you are showing us the subdivided wireframe ? If so that's Ok, and your basic loops look pretty good. But if that's the base besh isoparms, without subdivision, then I'd say it's too high poly in places to be animating easily. CBR

I like the general feel of this, but it's not passing any 'spot the noise' tests for me at the moment :) Especially on the floor, but elsewhere too the dirt looks like sort of low res smudges with not enough detail or variation in them. The window frames at the end are suffering worst from this. So whereas you may be using one noise type of quite low octaves, try a layer shader with at least 4 different types at different scales, and with lots of octave detail and attention to delta to make sure you are getting nice detailed roughwork. And you may want to consider a displacement based texture for the mossy walls - we can tell too easily on the right hand side that this is totally flat. Oh, has the greenhouse glass got any physical thickness to it ? I'm not sure I'm expecting the wall bricks to warp like that when viewed through it... Other than that, looking good so far ! :)

They do eventually. But it adds value to have them on Cineversity first I guess...

I suspect they are, but don't know where myself, sorry :) I haven't checked, but do the GSG links go to the CV versions, or are they kept somewhere else ? As much as I love the guy (and he really is one of my all-time favourites), this session wasn't as advertised, and was a little disappointing for me as I'd seen it all before. Instead of doing what the title suggested, he spent the whole time basically showing the same musical mushroom rig he's been demoing in the last 3 Ask GSG videos ! No new info at all, which is very rare for him ! :) On the plus side, you could go to twitch and watch his almost identical session there !

Yes that's damn annoying isn't it, specially when you're trying to get to sleep to a Siggraph presentation, and it just stops 3 mins after you've got into bed :) I too have noticed problems with CV playback, which for me at least, seem to be worse when there are a lot of people watching, like in the week after Siggraph videos first go up :) Your 16MB connection is totally fine for even 4K video, so the problem is not likely to be your end. Unfortunately, there is also not likely to be anything you can do about it either, other than find the videos elsewhere, and/or notifying Cineversity that you're having problems, and seeing if there is anything they can do their end. CBR

When we haven't got time to do it properly ;) Or in very specific modelling circumstances where we need edge flow to be a certain way and also need sharp corners in a way that would adversely affect that edge flow were we to try and accommodate them with additional topology. Another legitimate use for it is when you are doing high detail panel modelling on a lower res mesh, and need to split a section away from the main for additional subdivision, so that would require that you would use edge weighting to keep the corners perfectly meeting their counterparts on the main model, for a seamless surface, despite separate objects, SDS and non-uniform subdivision. If your model isn't ever going to be shared, or end up in another system, you can probably get away with edge weighting like you are using it - you don't need compatibility with other programs. But you asked for a critique, so my point is only to let you know that it should be the last solution you turn to for modelling - it is almost always superior to control your curvature with geometry and use no edge weighting at all.

All the cloners or all the clones ? Terminology very important here :) We need a lot more information really. What are you trying to make, will it be moving, and if so how, what are the things you are trying to clone, what aspects of the cloner do you need to maintain, are the cloned objects dynamic - that sort of thing... CBR

Aha ! Thomas, it IS you ! I knew your name was familiar, but couldn't quite think where or when :) Of course I'd be delighted to look it over when it's ready... J

I am working on a long term film project at the moment in which I have never met anyone else connected with the production, but it seems to work really well, and as long as communication happens properly I think it's perfectly feasible to recruit and manage modellers / freelancers like that. In fact the sort of job you are offering is exactly the kind of job I would like, and if the opportunity to work remotely was a possibility I would be the first CV in your in-tray. What I can't do is relocate to the States :) But there may be many people like me who would happily adjust their working hours so they were up and working when the client was even if they are over the other side of the world... CBR

I've had a look at your file. You seem to have used SDS edge weighting instead of proper geometry for some reason ? So whilst it looks 'OK', the topology isn't very good, because in most cases you only have edges flowing in one direction (wings / tail fins etc), and are relying on weighting alone to make it hold the shapes under SDS, which (in most circumstances) is not considered good technique. The main body particularly is suffering from very uneven polygon distribution, and there are complex poles / triangles on curves elsewhere that will cause shading problems under subdivision (prop nose cone and wheel axle ends for example). You should eliminate the triangles completely - there is no need for anything except 100% quads in this model. The phong tag is also set incorrectly for various surfaces, wing stands showing the problem most severely. This has probably happened because of options you left on during bevel commands (break phong rounding), and you should turn off 'use edge breaks' in the tag to fix the problem. We should also consider at this point the wisdom of combining all the objects into one model - really you need to get the phong tags correct on all the components before you do this (or consider just leaving the parts separate), as now they are affected only by a single tag, which makes altering phong on a per-piece basis much more difficult, and may even result in you having to redefine edge breaks over the whole model. The UV mapping, on the other hand, is done much better, with only the prop blades needing some additional work to get distortion-free UV's. Oh, and the main body has the UV's mapped in reverse, so you need to flip those bits of mesh in UV edit. Hope that helps CBR

Nice one Dan - you really nailed the 'permanently worried' look of the character. Great job all round... CBR

Yeah, nobody said this was quick or easy ;) There's a lot in C4D ; it takes decades to master it all... the main thing is to be having fun while you're doing it, whatever level you are... CBR

Ha - yes, good spot :) I fixed it now.

There haven't been many tutorials on advanced C4D lighting since this classic at Critical Mass by Chris Morris. But now there's this one, by Konstantin Magnus, which thoroughly and helpfully breaks down the complex lighting setup in his Atrium scene, which I thought was very useful, so am linking here for anyone that hasn't seen it... CBR

No, you won't get any particle action cheaper than XP. Wait til they have one of their 50% off days. CBR

Thanks, Kitefly. I use a few different techniques to lose complex poles. You can spin edges, which sometimes helps, you can cut in more geometry so that less connections happen in one place, or you can bevel the pole point, and resolve its new geometry to quads. Sometimes I can instantly see how to solve them, but more often have to try several different ways to find the best one. CBR

Yep, screen caps, and display tags so I can see some Isoparms, and some bits wireframe. No progress this week - been away from it doing client stuff. Work resumes soon hopefully ! CBR

No need, just ask your friendly admin @Igor to move it for you. Except I've just done it, so no need to do anything ! :)

Welcome to the cafe. This is posted in the wrong place really, unless you are offering payment for C4D work. There are a lot of musicians and composers in this community already, me included, but someone might want to collaborate, and if they do, this should be posted in the The Lounge. Also, we only need the one post, not the 2 you have already made ! :) CBR

I'm with @VECTOR - just model it - looks like a very rewarding little SDS project. CBR