Notes on the Basic Functions of C4D

The menu of C4D can be divided into nine parts:

(1) Menu (2) Toolbar (3) Control Mode Toolbar (4) View Operation Area (5) Timeline (6) Object Manager (7) Attribute Manager (8) Material Editor (9) Coordinate control of the whole scene.

Three-dimensional elements:

X axis, y axis, z axis, time axis

The viewing operation area of C4D is actually downward when it is pulled up by default, and upward when it is downward.

The reason for this effect is that the perspective view is based on the camera to control the direction, and the camera forward is equivalent to pulling up a little and looking down.

In order to improve the inconsistency of operating habits, it is necessary to make changes in the setting of parameters.

(Ctrl +E) parameter configuration-input device-reverse trajectory? Tick √? Graphic tablet? Put a tick on it.

User interface-bubble help (when hovering over the function key, a prompt will pop up to introduce what this function is. ) ? Put a tick on it.

View operation can be said to be the most frequent operation. We should observe any place where the model is created, and its operations mainly include: (1) move (middle mouse button) (2) zoom (right mouse button) (3) rotate (left mouse button).

Shortcut operation: ALT+ left mouse button, middle mouse button and right mouse button.

When there is no middle mouse button, you can use 1, 2, 3, key+left mouse button of the keyboard to directly correspond to the operation of moving, zooming and rotating.

Press 3+drag with the right mouse button-that is, the angular rotation of the whole camera.

3D software generally has four views: perspective view, top view, right view and front view.

The shortcut key for switching is the middle mouse button.

There is also a menu above the 3D view.

Edit-Undo View (Ctrl +shift +Z): Return to the previous view.

Frame active element (ALT key +S): quickly find the selected object.

Filter: indicates whether to display an object of a certain type.

Motion transformation of objects:

Put a cube with three yellow arrows in three directions (X, Y, Z), and click the moving tool (E) to do it, or use the coordinate interface to control the adjustment.

If you resize the object, you can use the zoom tool (T), and a small yellow square will appear on the cube.

Rotation (R): there is a big yellow circle (representing: random rotation with the mouse, resulting in inaccurate positioning) and three small red, green and blue circles (representing: rotation along a specific axis, red -X, green -Y and blue -Z). ?

Generally, with the tool of control mode toolbar, you can achieve overall scaling or local scaling.

Activate the three axes of X, Y and Z as required, and bind X, Y and Z in coordination with the world coordinate axis (object coordinate axis by default), so that when the object coordinate axis is inconsistent with the world coordinate axis, the object can move in the vertical direction.

Property Manager: which object is selected, its parameters will be displayed; Which tool is selected will display which tool quantity parameter.

There is a locking function in the property manager, that is, locking the current property panel, which is generally used in conjunction with the function of adding a property panel (opening an additional property panel to lock the parameters of an object) to facilitate the use of comparison parameters or when two parameters need to be adjusted at the same time.

Object manager:

Column 1: file name list

The second column: whether it is displayed or not, and whether it has an effect.

There are two points, the first point: whether objects are displayed in the scene; The second point: whether to display objects when rendering. There are three states: green (displayed), red (not displayed) and gray (displayed by default).

You can also make adjustments in the Basic Property Manager.

"√" checkmark: Controls whether its effect in the scene is displayed.

The big dot in front is about the layer, and the label of the object is behind it. You can add labels by right-clicking an object.

Search. After searching, you can cross it out and restore it, or you can restore it in the default bookmark of the bookmark.

Add an object manager.

Eyes, filter out what you want to show.

Parameterized objects cannot be dragged directly to control their size, but can only be adjusted in the object.

Copy a cube (hold down the CTRL key in the Object Manager, click the cube, and then drag it down).

Spline, the color of spline is a gradient color from white to blue, indicating from beginning to end.

Bezier curve (radian adjustable) Click and drag.

Draw a line in the perspective view, which is on a plane. If you want to set it up with splines, you should draw it in the front view.

For the operation at the end of spline drawing, you can press Enter or click other tools.

Bezier curve, when only one handle is adjusted, hold down the shift key, and release the two handles to adjust together.

If you want to restore the point, the right-click equal tangent direction (which becomes one after selection) is vertical and horizontal, but the length may be different, you can right-click equal tangent length.

If you think the length of the spline is not enough and want to continue drawing, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the diagram with the mouse.

B-Spline-It controls the curve not through the points on the line, but through the points around the line.

Linear spline-that is, draw a straight line.

Akima and cubic spline smooth curves are drawn, and the angles may be treated differently.

Use of Splines: Fixed shape splines in splines cannot be edited at the point level, which is similar to parameterized objects and controlled by parameters in the objects.

NURBS object extrusion

Just created a NURBS extrusion, which is blank and has no effect. To make it work, you need to create a spline or polygon and put it at its next level (similar to parent-child relationship)

Adjustable extrusion parameters:

Isoparametric subdivision: (it may not be effective after long adjustment) can be set.

(1) display-isoparametric line

(2) Display-Light and Shaded Color Lines

Isoparametric lines: used to observe and describe contours. It is the most important line component of an object (mainly on the display), and the number of subdivision controls the basic subdivision.

If you want to edit a ring (spline with fixed shape), you need to turn off the extrusion function (√)-(×), select the ring, fold it (C key) and turn it into an editable spline, and then you can edit its nodes.

The capping of extrusion function:

Normal extruded objects are very clear after rendering. Processing can use gland.

There are four options for closure: none, closure, fillet and fillet closure.

Adjustment of fillet: step-the more subdivision, the more round; Radius-Controls the size of the bend.

NURBS scanning

An object that rotates along a path.

(1) Draw a path with Bezier curve first.

(2) Draw another circle

(3) Click the scan function

Pull paths and loops into a subset of the scan. Note: the shape will be above the path, and whoever comes down will scan around it.

Scanning parameters:

Mesh subdivision-subdivide an equal line.

Endpoint scaling-(can be applied to the drawing of some tentacles, etc. )

End rotation-(make a twisted shape, which is more obvious in the case of low subdivision)

Start growing and end growing-remove the head and tail

Details: It also controls the shape of things and has two curves (one for scaling and the other for rotation).

The abscissa is the coordinate position from beginning to end, which can be controlled at will, and can be adjusted by adding points in the middle.

Sealing: (none, sealing, fillet, fillet sealing)

NURBS object scanning

Scanning can be carried out not only along one path, but also along two paths.

You can draw two straight lines with Bezier curve in the official map, then draw a circle, put the circle into the scanning operation, and then put spline 1, so you can get a thin cylinder. If you put Spline 2 in it, you will get a thicker cylinder. Click and drag the spline you want to select. You can see that the ring is lofting between two splines, which are the diameter of the bottom of the cylinder. Adjust the position of the splines to control the size of the bottom.

What is the difference between this and the thick cylinder scanned by spline and great circle? -The adjustable parameters are different.

You can edit splines at the point level, or you can select splines and select the object level to perform rotation operations.

You can also create more effects on the deformation control of scanning, such as zooming in details.

Set NURBS objects

Setting out the function key itself is very vivid (you can see that there are three curves). Connecting the three curves forms a polygon.

(1) lofting of non-closed spline curves

Draw a curve in the right view, return to the perspective view, press and hold the Ctrl key to drop down, copy three lines, use the moving tool to move the three lines for a certain distance, adjust the changes of nodes on the three lines, then create a lofting, and drag the three lines into its subset. The order of lofting is (bottom-up)

(2) Setting out the closed spline.

Create a circle-C key to adjust the position of the point, copy two, and also move out a distance in sequence, adjust the copied nodes, and pull them into the sampling set.

NURBS object rotation

The shape is obtained by rotating 360 degrees.

Case: wine glasses

In the front view, draw the cross-sectional outline of the wine glass with Bezier curve in NURBS (fine-tuned by points) and pull the lines into the rotated subset.

Angle of rotating object (0 ~ 360 degrees)

Subdivision number (control smoothness), display-observe in wireframe (default)

Mesh subdivision, display-and other parameters.

Move-move when rotating

Proportion-The bigger or smaller the turn.

When the rotate command is executed, holes may appear because the point is not on the y axis. Editable point—Returns the left side of the z axis to 0 in the construction. (It can also be adjusted in the coordinate control panel)

Polygon modeling:

Q-Put a cube in the view operation area-C key to become an editable object-Edit the shape through points, lines and surfaces.

Elements of a polygon: points; Line; Face; normality

To display normals, check the colored polygon normals in Edit-Configure View (shift +V) or Configure All (ALT+V).

The function of normal is related to the calculation of smoothness.

Every object will have a smooth label after modeling. (By calculating the normal included angle, it will be smoothed by default. If the normal included angle is adjusted to 0, smoothing will not be performed, and edges and angles will be displayed. )

Selection tool

Real-time selection: it is equivalent to having a circle like a brush. Hold it down, as long as it is inside the circle (the radius can be adjusted), it will be selected. (Check only visible elements and use them together)

Frame selection

Lasso selection

Polygon selection

Cycle selection-(one turn), hold down the shift key (add selection) and the Ctrl key (subtract selection).

Circular selection-It has the same effect as circular selection at the surface level; Instead, choose a line with a circle parallel to the line level; At the point level, you can select points at both ends of parallel circular lines.

Contour selection-(face to edge): First, select several faces with the implementation selection tool. If you want to select the edges of these faces, it is contour selection.

Fill Selection-(Edge to Face): As opposed to contour selection, select the face contained in the line.

Path Selection-The path drawn randomly at the line level can be added by shift or subtracted by Ctrl. Path selection is usually used in combination with fill selection.

Expand the constituency; Narrowing the selection is a circle of the current selection.

Selection set: grouping the selected things. (For example, select a circle and click Set Selection Set. At this point, the property panel changes. You can choose to hide or hide other places. The selection set can be named. )

To prevent the selection set from being overwritten, do the following: After setting the selection set and naming it, click the blank space in the Object Manager to prevent the current selection set from being always selected and overwritten when setting the next selection set. You can add multiple selection sets.

You can also add materials to different selection areas.

Example: Add three materials (red, blue and gray). Assign a red value to the sphere first, then assign a blue value to the sphere, and the sphere will turn blue, and then assign a gray value to the sphere to turn gray. If you want the sphere selection set 1 to be red, the selection set 2 is blue and the other parts are gray.

Exercise: Select the red material and drag the selection set 1 to the property panel of the red material, which will provide a displayed selection set for red, and the blue area will be dragged in the same way. Finally, drag the gray material ball to the front (because the latest material will cover the last one. )

Polygon modeling tools (drawing command set, tool tools)

First, create a cube-C key. At the level of point, line and surface, right-click is a command about polygon modeling.

Commonly used stretching commands:

(1) Lead Angle (2) Extrusion (3) Internal Extrusion (4) Matrix Extrusion (5) Offset

Select the selected surface to be extruded, click and drag the mouse horizontally in the blank to continuously extrude and the extrusion angle can be adjusted; The offset can be adjusted, that is, the extrusion amount; The number of subdivisions is adjustable.

Guide angle-gradually decreases after extrusion; Adjustable parameters: extrusion amount (extrusion amount); Internal offset (port size); Subdivision number; There are two types (oblique): linear and user-defined curve (adjusting the variation of path extrusion).

Internal extrusion (equivalent to insertion), not extrusion thickness, only inward extrusion. The usual operation is internal extrusion first.

Matrix extrusion (bending extrusion can be realized)

Offset: Select faces on two corners. After offset extrusion, the included angle in the middle after extrusion will be automatically filled.

The cutter (one circle and the only visible combination) is commonly used in the operation of looping and thread adding.

Tool mode:

Line: Its angle can be adjusted. Hold down the shift key to increase or decrease according to the set angle.

Perforation: hollow

Plane: You can choose the direction of the plane and add a circle line to it.

Loop: Add a circle line according to the model.

path

Polygon modeling tools (bridging; Closed polygonal hole)

Close the polygonal hole (equivalent to sealing). Click on the unsealed position to seal it.

Create two cubes, move one of them-both are collapsed-select two objects, and in the Object Manager-connect or link and delete them.

Polygon objects and parameterized objects cannot directly execute the command of connection, and must be converted into editable objects first.

Bridge Between Faces -Shift- Select two faces to be bridged, and right-click to select Bridge (note that points must be selected for points, otherwise the bridged parts will be twisted together).

Brush tool, magnet, you can edit a point on the cover.

Mirror image (screen, object. World coordinates)

Ironing (adjusting uneven surface to make it smoother)

Sewing (select a face to delete, then select both sides of the face just deleted, right-click to sew, click on both sides, and then pay attention to sewing to the clicked side)

Welding (welding points): Select all points to be welded, click the right mouse button to weld, and then click OK to weld to this point.

There are default lights when rendering C4D, and nothing can be seen when rendering without lights.

The default lighting is in the rendering settings.

The purpose of adding lights is to see the model when rendering. When we add lights ourselves, the default lights will be turned off.

There are three kinds of light sources: point light sources; Surface light source; spotlight

Light (point light source): it is created at the origin by default and can be dragged to the required position.

Properties of light: (1) color (2) intensity (0%~ 100%, the intensity value greater than 100% can be set manually) (3) type (4) projection: 1, shadow map (soft shadow).

spotlight

Area light: In C4D, by default, both sides can be illuminated, and the illumination situation is mainly adjusted by the change of distance, which is used in coordination with parameters.

The area light is a surface with four yellow spots on it, and the size of this illumination surface can be adjusted. Shadows are soft and can form stripe highlights.

In the details of the properties panel of the light, you can change the shape of the light.

High beam (spatial position does not affect): No matter where it is placed, the model will not change in light and shadow, but the light change can be adjusted by angle. Parameters such as intensity can also be controlled.

IES lamp: Indoor modeling is widely used.

Daylight: simulates the angle of the sun.

camera

Two kinds: camera; Target camera

Camera: When clicked, a green box will appear in the perspective view.

How to enter the camera's field of vision for observation? ? Observe in camera-scene camera-camera.

Quickly determine the position of the camera by moving, and then exit the view of the camera (camera-editor camera; There are also shortcut operations to control access to the camera view with the original box checked)

Target camera: There will be two more objects in the scene: (1) the target point of the object in the scene (2) the camera.

When rotating and zooming the camera, it always has a target point direction. You can adjust the camera direction by adjusting the target point of the camera.

How to create a material:

(1) file-new material

(2) shortcut key (Ctrl +N)

(3) Double-click directly in the blank space of the material panel.

Adjustment material:

(1) can be adjusted in the parameter panel.

(2) You can also double-click the material to open the material editor for editing.

Default Material-File-Load Material Preset for C4D

animation

(1) Record key frames (F9)

(2) Automatically record key frames (Ctrl +F9)

Click auto-record key frame at frame 0, and a red box will appear in the view operation area, which can automatically record all moving positions, adjust which frame to do which animation, and also realize the function of inserting frames.

Set key frame selection object: at the lower end of the timeline, drag with the right mouse button, and all frames in the frame will be selected and can be adjusted as a whole.

Record the quick closing of key frames (whether to activate zoom rotation to match the movement, if no switch is activated, it will not be recorded in the future).

Animation Curve Editor-Window-Timeline (shift +F3)

come on

Rendering; Regional rendering; Object rendering; Interactive rendering; Render to Picture Viewer (shift +R)

Interactive rendering: (A box will appear) The scene can be edited by moving, and the model in the area will be automatically rendered.

Render to Picture Viewer: Render settings can change the material-compare (set to A)- and then render another picture, and you get the changed material. If set to b, a line will appear, and dragging this line can quickly compare two pictures.

Image rendering can simply process the image: (1) history (2) information (3) layers (4) filters, etc.

Can be stored as a required format file. (e.g. Private Sector Division)