Monster Box - toy box process photos

We inherited an old worn out toy box from my wife's grandmother and I decided to refinish it for my son's first birthday. After finding some holes and cracks within the box, I was inspired to not just refinish the exterior but to give it some character. So I created a place for my son to store all of the monster's he will catch throughout his childhood.

Here is his Monster Box:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Process Photos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Use a Default Project to Maximize Your Workflow

When you first load up Cinema 4D it has what I would call an unoptimal project setting. 30 frames per second, 800x600 current frame with no AA?! What is this? 1996?

Luckily you can set up a default project file so you aren't always setting up new projects every time you open a new project.

I prefer to have a "Final 1080p24 render", a "Final 720p30 (for the sports clients), a Final Still frame for testing and a hardware preview for animation testing. So I create multiple render settings.

I changed the Project FPS to 24. You can find this Setting by hitting Cmd(Ctrl)+D.

Once you have the project set up the way you want, the next step is very simple. Just save it as "new.c4d" into your default Cinema4D directory.

Now, when you create a new untitled project, it will contain all of your settings that you saved into new.c4d. This works for anything a project can contain. If you always have to have a cube in your projects, you can create a new.c4d that contains the cube. Or lights, cameras, shaders, etc. It's up to you!

Just case you are feeling lazy, I've included my own new.c4d file to use. You can download it here. Note: this project was made in R15 and may not work in earlier projects. But the above information is not exclusive to R15. It works for all versions.

How to Use Render Settings to Maximize Your Workflow

It has occured to me how little people know about how to use Render Settings efficiently.

Did you know that you can make multiple Render settings?



It's true! All of my default projects contain a "final HD all frames" setting, a "final render still frame test" that does not save out a file and a "hardware preview" that I use for animation testing that contains no bells nor whistles.

You can hit Render Setting>New to make a new one or duplicate an existing one with Ctrl-Drag.

But wait! There's one more thing!

If you use the Render Queue, you can render out the same project with different render settings. Just add your project and then Ctrl Drag to duplicate it. Then, change the Render Setting to whatever other setting you want to use. You can even change your camera!

A real world example of this is on my last short film, I rendered out sequences of shots and I had different cameras for different cuts in the sequence. But I didn't want to have all of it in one shot, I wanted different files for each cut. So I made different settings that had different frame ranges for each cut and then added the project to the Render Queue. I then duplicated the Project and chose different render settings.

Cinema 4d Animated Texture Reveal

This past week, Adobe and Maxon revealed their new path in integration. Pretty cool stuff.

In the presentation, there was a clip that had an animated rust revealing texture made with Cinema 4D. Want to know how to make that texture reveal?

Check out this file!

It uses an animated gradient in the Alpha Channel. Pretty simple once you see how it works!

Set Building Process Photos from Children of Perdition My New Short Film

I just completed principal photography on my new scifi short, Children of Perdition. I was incredibly lucky to find two wonderful production designers, Lauren Cocca and Janai President. They took a photo reference and a blank corner and turned it into an amazing set. Check it out!