CINEMA 4D Tutorials For Beginners Part 1 – Getting Started

Whether you’re new to CINEMA 4D or a seasoned user who wants a reminder of the basics, this short CINEMA 4D course for beginners will help you get up to speed with all the latest exciting CINEMA 4D features.

Maxon Trainers Elly Wade and Matt Umney will take you through the basics of CINEMA 4D from start to finish, including a whole bunch of tips, tricks and techniques.

These 6 CINEMA 4D tutorials will guide you through the process of 3D modeling, lighting and materials, animating, creating motion graphics with MoGraph and rendering.

It’s all you need to get up and running with CINEMA 4D, so let’s begin…

CINEMA 4D Course For Beginners Part 2 – 3D Modeling

Part 2 of this CINEMA 4D beginners tutorial series focuses on 3D modeling in CINEMA 4D, here’s what will be covered:-

* Know the different types of Modelling; Box, Spline, SDS
* Learn how to model using splines and the different generators;
* Extrude, Lathe, Sweep and Loft
* Learn how to bring in your own Adobe Illustrator files into Cinema 4D using the new Spline Importer
* Understand what Subdivision Surface (SDS) Modelling is
* Learn about Symmetry and Instancing and how to use it inside C4D
* Model your own Shelf scene using these tools

CINEMA 4D Beginners Tutorials Part 3 – Materials & Lighting

CINEMA 4D Materials and Lighting tutorial objectives:-

* Learn the different light types inside C4D: Area, Spot, Infinite
* Know how to setup your own 3 Point Lighting
* Understand what a HDRI is and when/why we use them
* Learn what Global Illumination (Gl) is and how it helps with lighting in your scenes
* Understand the main differences between Standard and Physical (PBR) Workflows
* Create some of your own materials; chrome, ceramic, gold, plastic
* Add dirt, scratches and smudges to your materials using textures from the Asset Browser
* Add some lights and materials to your Week 2 Shelf Scene

CINEMA 4D Tutorials For Beginners Part 4 – Animation & Dynamics

In Part 4 of this CINEMA 4D beginners tutorial series we look at how to animate and set up dynamics in CINEMA 4D:-

* Learn how to animate inside of Cinema 4D
* Know how to setup and keyframes (auto and manual)
* Understand F-Curves and how/where to adjust them
* Know what the Cinema 4D Timeline is
* Learn some simple camera animation techniques
* Understand Dynamics including ‘Rigid Body’ and ‘Collider Body’ tags
* Create your own ‘Inflating Balloon Text Scene’
* Dive into Cinema 4D’s Emitter

CINEMA 4D Beginners Tutorials Part 5 – MoGraph

In Part 5 of this beginners CINEMA 4D tutorial series we look at the powerful MoGraph workflow and how to setup the various generators, fields and effectors:-

* Understand how the MoGraph Workflow works (Object >Generator > Field > Effector)
* Learn how to use The Cloner and it’s multiple possibilities
* Learn what Effectors are and how to use them within your setups
* Develop an initial understanding of Fields within MoGraph
* Understand how to use the Voronoi Fracture tool
* Create a variety of your own MoGraph scenes

CINEMA 4D Beginners Tutorials Part 6 – Rendering

In the final part of the CINEMA 4D beginners tutorial series we get to grips with setting up renders in CINEMA 4D, with it’s array of rendering options:-

* Learn how to render inside of Cinema 4D using the Standard and Physical Renderer
* Understand what Ambient Occlusion and Global Illumination are, how to switch them on and how they effect your renders
* Know the differences for rendering for Stills vs Animation
* Take a look at some additional options; DoF, PostFX and Magic Bullet Looks
* Learn how to setup Multi-passes
* Dive into more color workflows e.g. MoGraph Colour and Vertex Map Colour and how to set it up for both C4D Standard and Redshift
* A quick look at Redshift