Cerbera

We all know about Alt-D to hide the axis, but but perhaps even more useful is F12, which we can hold down to select directly through the axis, without hiding it. Very quick and helpful. Just wanted that on its own in a searchable post somewhere so that next time I forget, or noobs ask I don't have to bother @3DKiwi from whom this top tip originally came. As I asked both MAXON and Cineversity, who didn't know (!!) I thought it was in danger of becoming 'lost knowledge', but not any more ! ;) CBR

It would make sense to save the motherload of goodness for a nice round number I guess ;) CBR

Only you can answer that. Leave C4D only if it annoys you sufficiently to do so or if you have tried another app that feels more intuitive to you (good luck with that ! :) If you know one bit of 3D software you have a vast advantage learning another one over someone who is new to everything. Although all the major apps have their unique ways of doing things (Blender and Modo most obviously), your knowledge of 3D language and terms will usually transfer straight over. Z-brush is the one exception I can think of to that; its interface is just a peculiar mystery, no matter how good you are with 3D elsewhere !! C4D is principally used for Motion Design, and as such is in not much danger of being displaced by anything except Houdini, which is hardcore difficult to learn. Of course the 2 apps play very nicely together as well so they aren't just in competition. And Maya have just added motion toolset that is vastly superior to what they had before. But I would speculate the very opposite might happen, and that people like me, who hate Autodesk's monthly bollocks may move to C4D who, for the time being at least, continue to offer a permanent license. It is mainly MoGraph that used to be the separator, but others have caught up recently, so the gaps are smaller. In general, I would say that the advantage C4D has over everything else is that it only takes a few years to comprehensively learn - not 10 like Max or Maya ! :) Yes. I came from Max. And fan as I will always be of 'the stack', I am totally pleased I moved to C4D. Max's interface (like Maya's!) is still a total state compared to the sleek organisational excellence and intuitiveness of C4D, and there is simply nothing more reliable, certainly not 3DS Max ! So that's my 10ps worth, but of course everyone will give you different but equally valid answers to all these questions. Predictably, most of us here are somewhat biased ;) CBR

Hey Cafe Ever wished cubic mapping did soft transitions on the edges ? Do it anyway, with 3 masked projector shaders like in this excellent new tutorial from C4D avenger Pingo van der Brinkloev. Could well do away with most of your UV mapping tasks, so if that's you, it's a biggie ! As the guy says, would be quite nice if this could be more native and less hacky, but it sure is a nice little workaround / UV unwrap avoidance tool to have up your sleeve, so something of an essential share I reckon... CBR

Have you got any idea where you saw it at all ? Generally, I mean, like YouTube or Vimeo or something ? The only good Lindenmeyer System tutorial I've seen is this one, but it's certainly not the one you mentioned, and don't know if it helps you do what you're trying to do... CBR

WooHoo !!! Got my links over the weekend - thanks Holger. Make Quads and Clip Symmetry are awesome !! Really like both BlueNight and Modo colour schemes as well. CBR

Hey Cafe It seems that MAXON, whose Quick Tips videos used to be about the limit of what they did tutorial-wise (apart from Cineversity of course) have upped their game recently, and have just dropped the first 2 parts of what will be a massive 16 hour multi-part tutorial on building a space colony environment by Adam Benton. It's very thorough, and covers everything from initial sketches and planning through to render settings and post work. This will be most helpful for beginners and intermediate users to show them a complete project process I'd imagine, but also worth the more advanced of us giving it a look as it's quite an interesting project aside from any skills development. So just linking that for whoever hasn't seen it yet. Here's the first part - the 2nd part links on from that. Hopefully they'll be some more of these - and thanks MAXON for doing this one ! CBR

Yes that's right.

I had a kick-ass Atari ST for music production, which I expensively upgraded to 2MB RAM. Devastating firepower, hey ? ;) And the processor in my doorbell runs faster than what got man to the moon the first time round ! CBR

Yep, that's pretty immense :) Some lovely moments in that, putting the gun away being my favourite. First class sound design as well. CBR

Might be able to save you a wait there, @3D-Pangel we both put our wire frames up in the original thread... Don't know if the Vectorizer has done any improvements since then, but it was pretty damn good the first time :) CBR

Superb. Lovely textures and lighting... CBR

I think he was vaporized ! Or went to bed. One of those...

I've always assumed that language and abuse are the main things that system is for, but personally I have never seen anyone get any warning points, so I've always guessed it's just part of the new forum software and don't know whether Admins are using it or not... I suppose @Igor is the man to ask ! CBR

Good one, Al - the world needs more good UV tuts, and now it needs them a lot less ! :)

Yeah, if they went nodal shader network for R19, that would be my £540 justified right there on its own :) Dare we hope ?!

He already does ! See MerkVilson youtube channel. CBR

Yeah it's another winner :) Looking forward to seeing how you're gonna tackle the feathers ! CBR

Thanks Spiral for your comprehensive insights there - I am learning a lot from you lately :) I will improve the cloth, lose the eyes, and move limbs in so they are part of the main body I think - it's all good points. Also thanks to @DanLSK, @VECTOR, @bobc4d, @ninjad who have convinced me no eyes is better :) CBR

Wasn't looking imposing enough with some test textures on, so have increased evilness by another 30% !! Still no sculpting yet, but I have done some UV's, so just checking those out to see what we've got... But help me out cafe - I can't decide - eyes or no eyes ??? Oh, and added a small skull hill for him to stand on (he'll be in an alcove later, but he's out in the open for lighting tests)... PS: I am stoically not listening to any comments from @spiralstair whose words will invariably (and correctly!) include the phrases 'too thin for the weight', and 'can't possibly support itself' ;) Actually, I am listening, and will make the staff and blade a lot thicker, and cement it to his head and shoulder. CBR

If you can model properly, you don't usually need or want to use Booles, but even I must accept that something like Max's ProBoolean would be a damn sight more useful than what we have now. But I'll eat my hat, and the box the software came in if that's in R19 !! :) CBR

Yes. Can confirm Photomatch does work with R18. It is listed on Toolfarm's compatible plugins page. CBR

This week working on robes, cowl and scythe base meshes and just getting things into general position before I add some carved skeletal hands. Leaving most of the folds and robe detail to sculpting, and haven't got the silhouette / proportions quite right yet, but it's on its way... Can't decide if his scythe handle should be straight or contoured like real ones are. Making life unnecessarily difficult for myself, I've decided he should probably be standing on a mound of broken skulls as well, so there's that to do too, but it's all good solid 3D fun... CBR

Cheers dude. Yeah always good to show your flow. Talking of which, I've retopo'd the back bit now for a much improved flow in that area. Will upload that here when I've finished his robes and scythe and stuff. Surprisingly, the biggest challenge I am facing with the gargoyles is that I'm going to have to find a way to make them solid concrete complete with fascia / blanking panels and no hanging out bits where the concrete couldnt' support its own weight. Whilst it's easy to do that with robes and sleeves and folds, it's considerably harder with a skull in a hood and a massive scythe ! I might end up collisioning the skull model with a suitably shaped plane so that it looks like that's all one solid piece of geometry that can be first sculpted up in detail, then sculpt damaged back down again... all this just to make it look like it's one solid chunk of rock that's been there properly ages. CBR

I think he's constantly mentioning C4D because the video series is for Maya users coming from C4D so he is probably primed to try and convince those people they've done the right thing. Fortunately, people are free to call out the erroneous C4D-bashing in the comments, and a few already have...