EAlexander

Hard to troubleshoot this over the forum, and it seems obvious, but make sure to simplify each model as much as possible. Is there interior geometry that isn't needed/seen? Is there undercarriage stuff that can go? Dashboard controls? While Cinema can handle a ton of polygons, I've found it to struggle with lots and lots of objects, so the more you can combine and simplify the individual models, the better. Definitely optimize your texture maps too. Are you using Multi-instance on the cloner?

The AI image here is dark and theatrically lit. Your render is presented more schematically with a neutral background and 2D people. I always provide my customers with both, so yes - texturing and lighting are always the make it or break it thing in a rendering - especially lighting. I present lit concepts to show the mood and vibe of the final product, but do the clay renders or stylized ones like you're showing so all the details and items can be properly seen and discussed in reviews and design development. Your texturing here looks pretty good - some quality 3d scanned people, dark background and more theatrical lighting would really make this pop and not take too much more time (though yes, one day is always tight turnaround for anything). I do my best work when I can make renders and then put them away for a day or two and come back to it with fresh eyes, take notes, and re-render. We don't always have the luxury of that time though. One other though on this render - you've got your camera angled with probably a wide lens, so you're getting this tapered effect for the whole set which takes away from it's presence and power. Try zeroing out the P(itch) of your camera and Use Film Y offset if you needed to make sure you are keeping your vertical corners vertical. This can really make a big difference in how the set feels and presents. Also - I don't always go for photorealism - I quite like stylized renders and I do think there is a tipping point on renders that I reach for where the client isn't thinking about the rendering and only focuses on the design. I'm not anti AI, quite the opposite, but the time spent getting things the exact way you want them and thing clean and in the right places are usually better spent and easier in 3D from the get go. At least for things like this. My $.02.

Here is an incredibly hack-y way to achieve this if you're desperate 🙂 Lots of little problems, but maybe this will help lead to a solution. Probably better with a Cone driven by the light rotation instead of a cylinder for the Boole. -evan 07_31_24_Light_Material_hack_v01.c4d

I have to do this a lot as my clients tentbti give me Sketchup to rework amd render. No great magic to it, but here are some tips (perhaps you know these already). I group objects I want together and then hit S while hovering over the object manager to find the new null. Copy and paste will bring this to the top of the stack and then I rename it and hide visibility. I repeat this until I have everything organized. I always do this in a separate file and only once it's all organized do I bring it into my master working file. Hope that helps some.

Also feels like the back of the jawline (between the ear and chin) is to wide.

This is a tricky one. I'm so used to her with long blonde hair, maybe throw that in to get the face right, then transform her into Furiosa? Just a thought. The black forehead makeup will make a difference too. Maybe mock that up.

@Hrvoje Thank you so much - this is doing exactly what I want. I have some questions as to how you built it, but I haven't done a proper deep dive into it to see if I can figure it out myself. I appreciate you putting this together. It raises two more questions from me though: 1. Is there a way to share a file or Character object with other users where they can use the file or object without having to save/load the template? Not baking, but something like that where they can just copy the object into the scene and go. Curious how I could share my final product with other users in the best way. 2. Every time I add a new segment, it also adds a new (duplicate) material to my material browser. Is there any way to avoid this, assuming the base template components are textured. Thanks again! e.

Open Hrvoje's file and save the Character template. Now Load Character Template and choose the file you just saved. Make a new Character and in the Template dropdown, the VP_Roadtest will appear.

I believe it's included so their plug ins that auto load the materials don't spit out an error on missing maps.

Thank you so much! I will look this over and come back with any questions. Really appreciate your time!

Hello! I'm trying to make something similar to a fencing tool inside of Cinema. The idea is the user could add segments by pushing a button and they would be added, connected to the previous item. So, for example, they might hit the "straight segment" button 5 times to add 5 different 8 foot long pieces of straight fence and they would build off each other. Then you might add "90 degree corner right" segment and then more straight segments, etc. I want it to be more then just a kit of parts, but for the user to be able to add segments from a menu of buttons. I've seen similar plugins for pipes and HVAC systems in Cinema using the Character tools, but I am unable to find any kind of tutorial on creating this kind of system. Cinemas documentation says the tool can be used in this way, but I find no guidance. Anybody have a thought on where I should look or even know what I'm talking about 😂 Thank you in advance! -Evan

I'm guessing you want to do this "in house" but if you're interested - MotionLab has new Wispy smoke VDBs like this. https://motionlab.net/assets/#! e.

I have just released the ML Light Kit. Rendering and Animation for Moving lights made easy. The ML Light Kit for Cinema 4D and Redshift are tools designed to render and animate moving lights easier, faster and more realistically. Built for illustrators and concept artists, these tools are great for developing visuals for concerts, events, theater or any project requiring precise visual lighting. The ML Lights are non-brand specific instruments that look great at any viewing angle, and keep the polygon count low. Custom user controls make focusing, coloring and adding gobos right at your fingertips. The system is designed with simplicity in mind to speed up your workflow. Not a plugin, but a series of Xpresso driven lights to add to your scenes. Been working on this for a few weeks - these are more refined versions of the tools I made to do my client work. Available for purchase here: https://www.evanalexander.com/ml-lightkit Overview video here: https://youtu.be/_Cp-g5Kefi0

For anyone in the live entertainment field: I have just released the ML Light Kit. Been working on this for a few weeks - these are more refined versions of the tools I made to do my client work: https://www.evanalexander.com/ml-lightkit The ML Light Kit for Cinema 4D and Redshift are tools designed to render and animate moving lights easier, faster and more realistically. Built for illustrators and concept artists, these tools are great for developing visuals for concerts, events, theater or any project requiring precise visual lighting. The ML Lights are non-brand specific instruments that look great at any viewing angle, and keep the polygon count low. Custom user controls make focusing, coloring and adding gobos right at your fingertips. The system is designed with simplicity in mind to speed up your workflow. Not a plugin, but a series of Xpresso driven lights to add to your scenes. Overview video here: https://youtu.be/_Cp-g5Kefi0

These look amazing! Nice work. Will definitely pick these up for my next interior project. Thanks for porting to Corona!

On to a new light rigging question 🙂 I've got a RS area light as part of a larger assembly inside a Null with User data on it. I'd like to add the include/exclude options in the user data as well, but I can't make it work. To be fair, I just need Exclude. I tried adding in/exclusion object bucket to my User Data and I tried set driver/driven to the Objects bucket in the light. When I do this and drag an object in, it shows up in the object bucket in the light, but doesn't actually exclude the object from the light. Make sense? I feel I'm missing something simple. Any ideas? Attaching a simplified scene so you can see my blind fumbling through Xpresso 🙂 Thanks in advance? in_ex_sample_01.c4d

But isn't RS kinda the new unofficial default renderer? So when it used to make standard materials for us, now it does RS. This doesn't seem like surprising behavior to me. 🤷‍♂️

Yes - this is the idea. Thank you so much for taking the time to play with this! I really appreciate it. I had come up with this solution before and, you're right, it is annoying 🙂 I was hoping for a more elegant solution where I could clone the single assembly and get the same affect, thereby keeping my cloner work single and easy to manage and update. Now I wonder if I can make a system like this and use set driver/Driven to keep the cloner values the same for each one with a single input interface. More experimenting to be done! Thanks again!

I'm aware of this and use it a lot for other applications where the model is one object. I can't use target effector because I'm trying to clone a mechanical assembly that has different moving parts. The constraints with up vectors let me do this for one. I'm trying to get an instance or a cloner to point to the same target as the original. I just made an instance quickly to screen grab what I'm trying to do, but I want it to work with either ideally.

Hmm - that just makes the instance go all squirrelly and spin to obscure angles. I need it all to be inside of one assembly so end users can toss it into a cloner and get expended behaviors. Perhaps it's not possible, but I'm not giving up hope yet! Thanks for your thoughts on this.

I should have mentioned that this is part of an assembly that has multiple parts that need to work together, so I can't just use a target tag. The Head and Yoke must work in tandem while they base stays fixed.

Be gentle - I am not a rigger and trying to figure this out as I go 🙂 I have a Stage light that I've rigged using the Constraint tag so it moves and follows a Target null. This is working very well! When I make an instance of the Stage light - it mimics the angle of the original, which makes sense, but I'd like it to ALSO point towards the target. See attachment - I'd like the instance to point to target as illustrated by the green line. Is this possible? Ideally I could do this with a row of cloners as well so I might have 10 lights in a (cloned) row, but they all point to the same target. Hope this makes sense and thanks in advance for any guidance. e.

I'm keeping my eye on Chaos Vantage for exactly what you're talking about. It's currently only serving up VRAY, but Corona is supposed to get support and accessibility in it's next release. So I'm hoping this is somewhere between Cinema and Unreal for client walkthroughs and quick animations. I know about Twinmotion, but the appeal of Vantage is not having to do any alterations to your normal Cinema scene in regards to lighting, materials and Cameras. Just waiting for that. I love Unreal, but it's a haul to get full scenes or interiors going properly.

Check that the label and the glass aren't overlapping. If you pull the label forward some tiny amount does it clear up?

Haven't done anything like that yet, but why not build it in Cinema and carry it over?