Jay's Cinema 4D Lesson 2

Within this process and production lesson we will be introduced to dynamics and particle systems purposed for randomised design. Our final outcome from this will be a series of design experiments using the programme Cinema 4D. Within this lesson we will be looking at the:

1. Set Up Work folders

2. Create Modifiers for design purposes 

3. Create Materials and Environments

4. Create Particle Systems

5. Create Dynamics Systems 

6. Render Artwork from experiments

These workshops will eventually allow us to produce:

1. Rendered Sample Artwork from Cinema 4D

2. Experiments exploring Dynamics in Cinema 4D

3. Prototyping in Cinema 4D.

Inspiration 

http://www.gmunk.com/

http://www.tomato.co.uk/

http://helloluxx.com/

We firstly looked at the artist Bridget Riley and the company known as G Monk, which is heavily introduced into the likes of film and cinema.  

We firstly made the new folder that we would put or assets into. Within the industry we will be expected to have great organisation and creating folders will help this. We then opened cinema 4D and left it is the standard settings.

We need to then create a square object using the square option tool at the top of the programme screen, after we had done this we then had to add an extrude option to the square, so that it would become a 3D shape. However, we wanted to make the 3D square slightly longer to do this I had to change the value of the Z axis to 5000cm. As this was a solid object, I wanted to make the object into a long but hollow tube which you would be able to see through. To do this I had to select the caps option and select the none option so that you would be able to see the object as a tube. We then moved onto look at the twist tool which is in the bend menu, I found that this part would be very interesting as it something new, that I have learnt before. This is because I only know the basics about Cinema 4D, we then had to change the angle to 20 degree so that the tube had slight bend added to it. After this we then wanted to see this as a polygon, however to do this I had to follow the process of Display > Gouard with Lines. I then had to select the extrude option in the right-hand menu at the top and select the object option > and the subdivision to 500. I then had to look at the coordinates for the twist tool. Where I had to change the R. Pitch from 90 degrees to 0. I then had to go back to the object menu and change the angle to 10 degrees and change the mode from limited to unlimited.

We then moved onto create a material but to do this I had to double click in the bottom left hand menu which then created a material. I then selected the material which expanded open the materials option, within the basics menu I had to untick the colour option and tick the luminance and untick the reflectance. I then moved onto the Luminance menu where I wanted to create a texture for the material, I did this by Texture > Surface > Checkboard. We then looked at the U and V frequency which is how many boxes there are displayed on the tube. I decided to keep the U frequency the same at 0, however I decided to change the V from 0 to 10, once I had done this I was then able to drag the material onto the extrude option. Although I wasn’t happy with how the design looked so I chose the material and the checks again and change the V frequency to 40. I felt that after I had done this it allowed the design to look a lot better and stand out more. 

I then opened the render settings and chose the Anti-Aliasing option to make sure that the Geometry setting was changed to Best. I then selected the rectangle > Object > Intermediate point from Adaptive to subdivided. 

We then moved on to create a sphere, however I needed to then change the object radius to 50cm. I then looked at the coordinates of the sphere and change the P:Z to 500cm, R:P to 30 degrees and the R:B to 40 degrees. I then need to select the sphere to change the material colour that I had duplicated, I decided to change the colour of the checkboard colour to a red and orange. I was then able to add this material to the sphere, however U had to once again change the U and V frequency, the V frequency from 10 to 40. I was then able to add a function to the sphere using a reflection, to do this I had to go to the basics option > reflectance > add > reflection legacy. Once I had done this I was then able to add a Fresnel to the sphere by following the process of Layers colour > texture > Fresnel.

After we had done this we then created a camera to lock the design in place when rendering out the document. Once we had created the camera, I then again had to look at the coordinates option and make sure that all the values were at 0 for every value. To switch on the camera, I had select the black dot at the side of the camera modifier in the top right hand menu. I then went back to the render settings and looked at the window option where I had to save my design. To do this I went file > Lesson 2 Tunnel, I had to make sure that the format was set to jpeg. I then moved onto look at the effect option and the Ambient Occlusion and render out the design again under a different file name. I then went back into render settings to un tick the Ambient Occlusion. I then dragged out the rectangle to add a star under the pen tool, we then had to place the star under the extrude which change the tube into a star shape that still had a twist. To change the amount of points in the star I had to select the object option and change the points from 5 to 7, after I had done this I then went back into the render settings to switch the Ambient Occlusion back on and render out the file under a different name. 

I then wanted to make the sphere smaller, but to do this I had to change the radius from 50cm to 20cm. Furthermore, into this I wanted to add an emitter to the design, to do this I had to follow the process simulate > particle > emitter and change the particle emitters coordinates from P:Z to 70cm. However, I had to make sure that the particle stop emission was changed from 150F to 200F, I also had to make sure that the timeline frames were changed from 90F to 200F, the speed was 200cm and the rotation was 360 degrees, and show object > instances. I had to make sure that the emitter angles were 60 degrees and the sphere was then added to emitter in the modifier menu in the top right hand side menu in the Cinema 4D programme. I was then able to press play on the timeline. 

However, I then noticed that the ball sphere kept going through the tunnel so we needed to add dynamics to this to stop this from happening. We then looked at the extrude tags > simulation tags > collider body, where I had to make sure that the sphere tags > sim > was then set to a rigid body. I had to set the dynamics tag to collision and shape to a static mesh. 

To expand on this I had to follow the process of mode > project > dynamics and change the gravity values from 1000 to 10. I needed to make sure that in the render settings the key frame every option was turned off and the output selected all frames. However, I was also told not to render out the animation with the Ambient Occlusion on because it takes the animation a long time to render out, I was then able to save this a close the option but if I wanted to render this design out again I would have to change the file name so it wouldn’t render on top of any previous work. 

We then moved onto create a new animation in the programme where I had to select and hold down the cube option, so that I would be able to change this to plane. I wanted to change the size of this so I made sure that the W was 1000cm and the WS was 50 cm. The height was also 1000cm and the HS was 50cm. I then selected the bend option and the displacer, I then dragged this option over the top of the plane and selected the displacers shading to add a shader to the design to do this I selected the Noise option. I then moved onto the object menu to change the height to 50cm, once I had done this I then went back to the shading menu. Once I had opened the shading menu I had to make sure that the Global scale was 400%, the contrast was 75% and the Animation speed was at 1. I then had to make a new material as I did before using the checkboard options however I need to make sure that the V frequency was set to 20 and that the texture fills the whole page on the screen. I then selected the subdivision and placed the plane into this. 

I then opened the render settings and made sure that the Anti-Aliasing was turned on. We were then told to select the subdivision surface editor and change the value to 4 because anymore and the programme would crash. We then followed the process Displacer > Object > changed the height from 50cm to 20cm but as this didn’t look right I changed it back to 50cm. I then selected the texture tag on the material and change the projection option to spatial which made a nice pattern to the design. I then copied this material, before I created a new one as this material would be used as gradient by the using the texture option. After I had done this I then clicked on the gradient swatch to change the Interpolation to None from the Smooth Knot. I also had to make sure that the type was changed from 2D-U to 2D-V. 

For the final part in the process and production lesson with Jay, I then created a new animation once again using the Emitter and MoText tool. I firstly had to again create a plane object by selecting and hovering over the cube option, I then had to command drag the plane modifier in the top right hand menu to create two new layer. This then allowed us to have three to work with, I then selected the object option and changed the width value to 200cm and changed the height to 2cm. For another one of the plane objects I had to change the values of the width to 70cm and the height to 70cm, for the final plane object I had to change the width to 4cm and the height to 200cm. 

I then had to create a material as the same as I had before in the previous two animations and duplicate them so that I would create 8 x luminance materials that I would be able to apply to each plane object that I had to duplicate to get 8 x plane objects. I then selected the emitter and followed the process of simulate > particles > emitter, I was then able to change the R:P to 90 and the emitter angle to 60 degrees. I also had to make sure that the particle birth rate editor was set to 20 and the render was also set to 20. 

To find out whether the animation work I had to go to show objects > spits out objects and select all the planes and choose the object option and set the WS and HS to 1. I was then able to add moText to the design by writing Post Modernism.

I found that this process and production lesson was fun and very interesting, as I got to learn lots of new things. I think that in my spare time whilst at University I may try to develop these skills further to help me expand on my knowledge of Cinema 4D.  

Outdoor Culture Creativity and Affect - Spencer's Lecture

Within this lecture we started to talk about the subject topic of Outdoor Culture Creativity and Affect. The first part that we looked at within this lecture was a video known as the dream of the 90’s is alive in Portland which is about the Portlandia spirit of the 90's. It started off in the Los Angeles area about a guy who had recently come back from a trip in Portland, where he started to talk to woman about his experiences and how the 90's era still exists which is located in Portland. I found that this video was interesting but slightly weird as well.

Reference - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZt-pOc3moc

We then moved onto to watch the same video, however it was about the same story but the place in Portland had a special place that lived in an era in the 1890's. I found the video very strange and interesting.

              

Reference - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_HGqPGp9iY

There is a recent (re)turn to concern with nature in Graphic Design. There is a point of historical contact, but there is something that keeps pushing against.We firstly looked at NeuBau First 

(Gandl, 2014) - which is a catalogue where we looked at different layouts of the publication that showed us the different art forms of trees. from photography to Illustrations and Vector Illustrations (graphic). It is intended to be produce to authentic designs, within the catalogue design. Where in which you find the trees are more in the urban areas. High contrast texture photographs such as Bark, simulated surfaces. Trying to show wildlife through digital work. The NeuBau First Catalogue is a collection of detailed silhouettes of trees in urban areas and photography, and separate tree sculptures. 

Within the publication there are four different categories of imagery which are:

- Naturalistic Objective photography

- Vectorised and digitalised imagery

- Urban scenes with naturalistic elements (trees/bushes in pots on pavements)

- Textual details of natural forms (barks, etc.).

Some of the inspiration that was used to address the lack of architectural modelling - attention to naturalistic components and materials which provide architects a better catalogue to work with, by doing this Neubau has made the publication in a downloadable media.

The next one that we looked at was a publication and outcome called the Outsiders by Bowman, Ehmann and Klanten. Where we firstly looked at the front cover of the publication that displayed is someone that is standing on a cliff top that is wrapped in either a blanket or a duvet that has red hair. This makes sense of the publisher’s claim to an: occasional romantic or ironic work, it is a quotation of a image called Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich, that is displayed and portrays a romantic setting, that has a story behind the painting and image, that is very interesting. We have a connection between this image and the publication which has been intended as a joke. The artificial hair is something that is very intense, and that stands out to the outdoors. We want to see life size version of the outdoors, that is pre-industrial. 

We then moved on to look at what is presented inside the book, which is more about camping technology and about different ranges of camping expeditions. It is all heavy conditioned as there is a guide involved. it is the functionality of camping and camping equipment design, more interesting about travel and people that like to camp. The book has been stylised, I found that this book was quite interesting as I may look into this book even further. 

We then moved onto looked at the publishers blurb and the design focuses of this book:

- Products 

- Brands

- Workshops 

- Organisations

Reference -

 http://cdn.gestalten.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/t/h/the_outsiders_side.gif

Reference - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Caspar_David_Friedrich_-_Wanderer_above_the_sea_of_fog.jpg

How these publications play the tension between the natural and the designed world. we started to look at a pastoral landscape which is a slightly different to romantic concerns. The pastoral is calm and so beauty but has a similar lifestyle, similar types of nature. It includes rural communities, it is a very ordered landscape. Where we were shown an example of a painting that has a rustic world that is about communities coming together and managed vision of nature which was Alvan Ficher in 1854. The outsider book has a new pastoral movement. It is a more conservative form of artwork. We then looked at a review about some of the pictures that we were shown about the ‘Picturesque’ that was fostered by William Gilpin at the end of the 18th century. He urged everyone not just artists to go out into the nature such as the cotswolds and the lake country to look at different scenes that reminded people about the examples of paintings like Claude Lorraine. The interest in the sublime begins to grow out of people’s accounts of the pass. 

We then looked again at the Caspar David Friedrich piece that has a reaction to the neo-classical reason/rationality and has a supernatural account of vision. It is a very expressive, spontaneous and not controlled piece of design work. We some times get photographer that are interested in urban cities and the urban landscapes, like the European countries that the nature is kept in a unkept way. The opposite to east European countries is that they are more romantic and let go. We then looked at arts and craft movement, which was between 1880 to 1914. Where we looked at the artist William Morris and Ruskin where they talked about the quality of life and we then talked about the IKEA advert and chucking out the chintz, IKEA advert in 1990’s. Its all about female liberation. The store IKEA has reformed the british culture and homes over the years. There all natural materials.

Chuck Out Your Chintz from Pentagram on Vimeo.

I found that this session was very interesting and i'm looking forward to the next lesson to look into this topic even more. Within next session we will briefly look at the language and affect. 

Sara Process and Production Lesson 5

Within this process and production lesson with Sara we were told that we were going to be creating animated piece like an infographic. I found that this animation would be very creative but also very challenge, as I am still a beginner when it comes to after effects. For the first part of the lesson we had to create a map of our choice, to do this we had to quickly create this in the programme Adobe Illustrator. However we needed to make sure that the map had a reason like it was going to follow a journey. I decided to choose the journey that I take when I'm going home to work on the weekends.

The next part that I had to do was to import the map into After Effects using the process of production lesson I was then able to place this in the timeline so that I would be able to work with the Illustrated map that I had created. I then wanted to create a line that would trace over and follow the line that I had already drawn on the map whilst I was using the programme Adobe Illustrator. To do this I had to use the pen tool to create a line in After Effects that would trace over the existing line. Once I had done this I was then able to add a stroke effect so that the line that I had created in After Effects would light up and would stand out and highlight the path that I have to take when I go to work from home. I do feel that the map that I have created for this project and animation is slightly complex.

To create the stroke effect I had to follow the process of Effect > Generate > Stroke. This then brought up an option menu that I would be able to work with in on order for the design to work. I then needed to make sure that the path option had mask 1 selected, I was then able choose the colour that I wanted to use for the line. I decided to use the colour red, so that it would stand out on the purple line that I had already created. In order for the stroke effect to work I had to make sure that the timeline play header was at Zero, I then clicked on the stopwatch for the end option and changed the percentage from 100% to 0%. After I had done this I then moved the play header forward to about 2 seconds and again changed the percentage from 0% to 100% for the design and line to work, this then automatically added a key frame onto the timeline.

In addition to this we then looked at creating a tilt shift, to do this I had to create a new composition and change the name to tilt shift composition. We were told to create a tilt shift comp so that when the line was being drawn on to the map. The map would then zoom into the final destination that the line would following to, I felt that this process was one of the hardest parts of the lesson.

To create a tilt shift I had to use the position, scale tool and the three axises which were X, Y and Z. I firstly moved the playback header to the start of the timeline to expand open the options menu I had to make sure that I had selected the 3D layer tool which was a cube shape that was located to the left of the timeline. I firstly started by looking at the positioning by changing the values to 924.0, 532.0, 0.0, I then moved onto the scale and changed the values to 117.1, 119.5, 100.0. After this I looked at the axises and changed the Z axis to 0x+2.0.

Once I had done this I then moved the timeline header to around 2 seconds 16, where I then had to change the values of the positioning, scale and axises again in order for it work. I firstly started with the position where I changed the values from 924.0, 532.0, 0.0 to 1752.0, 1020.0, 0.0. I then looked at the scale and changed this from 117.1, 119.5, 100.0 to 223.1, 223.1, 100.0 The final part that I looked at for this part was the axises, I had to make sure that the Z axis was still 0x+2.0. I then checked to make sure that the design worked properly and looked correct.

After this I then moved onto the arrows that would appear across the screen after the map had zoomed in on the final destination. To create the arrows I had to use the programme Adobe Illustrator and the pen tool, once I had done this I was then able to import them into After Effects. Before placing them onto the timeline, I had to create a new composition so that I would be able to work with this rather than confusing myself with just one composition. To make the arrows appear across the screen I had to make sure that the timeline playback header was at the beginning of the timeline, so that I was then able to move the position of the arrows off the screen to the left hand side. I clicked the stop watch so that the positioning of the arrows was locked for that key frame. I then moved the timeline playback header to around 1 second 13 and made the arrows so that they were fully visible on the screen. I noticed that this had created a key frame automatically, I finally then moved the timeline playback header to 3 seconds and change the positioning of the arrows so that the were off the screen to the right hand side of the screen. I then played the timeline to make sure that the design worked and looked correct and professional.

The final part that we did in this process and production lesson was to create a graph that would represent something about you, so I chose to create a graph about the number of days that I work through 5 specific months. I wanted the graph to fit in with the theme of the map which was work. To start off with I had to make the graph using separate layers in the programme Adobe Illustrator, to do this I used the rectangle tool. I then imported these into the After Effects, for the graph to work and appear individually I had to work with the scale tool and the positioning option. Before doing this I again had to create a new composition, using the option composition > new composition. I then placed the graph into the timeline, and selected the scale option for each bar, I had to make sure that the link for the scale for unlink and the timeline playback header was at the beginning of the timeline and change the value from 100.0 to 0, I then moved the timeline playback header half a key frame forward and changed the value of the scale from 0 to 100 so that it would appear. However I noticed that it was appear from the middle so I need to change the positioning so that it would appear from the bottom. I continued to do this for every bar that I had, once I had done this I was then able to add text to the design. The final part that I did in this process and production lesson was to create a final composition to place in all my assets into, after I had done this i was then able to render out the final composition.

Maps, stats and Info-graphics from Rebecca Thorp on Vimeo.

I was quite happy with how the design turned out in the end however I feel that I could improve on this, but to this I going to create a new one using the same tools that I learnt in this lesson to make a new animation that looks a lot better. Below is another animation that I created in my own time, I am quite happy with how this design turned out in the end because I think that this design looks a lot better than the previous one that I created in the lesson, I feel that it looks more professional.

Maps, stats and Info-graphics Statistics from Rebecca Thorp on Vimeo.

Process and Production Nick - Lesson 4 Stencils

Within this fourth process and production lesson with Nick, we were given the task of creating a stencil of the topic that we chose at random. I found that this lesson was one of my favourite process and production lessons that I have had with Nick because it was very interesting, fun and very productive. Before starting the project we had to choose a topic at random out of a box the topic and subject that I chose at random was a Policeman I thought that this topic was very interesting as I had lots of idea that I could do with this. The first was to create a policeman's hat, however I then thought about how I wanted the design to be quite personal to me and connect so I thought about creating the South Yorkshire Police Badge with out the text, but just the outline of the badge. However before drawing the design onto the main piece of paper that I was going to use I decided to draw the badge out on a smaller piece of paper so that I knew it would work at a larger scale.

Once I was happy with how the design looked at a smaller scale, I then moved to create the design at a larger scale, to do this I used a pencil and a ruler to make sure that the design was equal and didn't look off. Once I had drawn the design out with the pencil and ruler, I was then able to cut out the stencil to create a finalised piece, so that I would be able to paint over the stencil in order to create a design. To cut out the stencil design I used a craft knife which I found was quite difficult at first because its been a while since I have used a craft knife, however once I had started I eventually got the hang of it. i was quite pleased with how the design looked once I had started to cut out the segments in the stencil, I chose the South Yorkshire Police Badge because its from my hometown, and where I live when not at University. To make sure that I cut out the right segments on the stencil, I drew a squiggle so that this wouldn't become confusing about which parts needed to be cut out and which didn't. After I had cut out all the segments I was quite happy and very pleased of how the stencil turned out because it took me a bit longer than everyone else to cut out the design, however I wanted to make sure that it was perfect and looked right.

Once the stencil had been cut out it was then ready to be used for my design, we were given the choice of three colours of paint that we could use to create a final design piece. These were blue, Red and Yellow. I decided to go with the blue paint because I felt that this would connect well with the subject and theme of a Policeman as the sirens on a car are blue. I also chose the colour blue for the badge design because it would be bold and stand out very well. To create the final design piece I had to go to the painting station where I found another sheet of plain A3 paper to print my stencil design on to. Before printing onto the blank A3 paper I had to make sure that the alignment of the design was correct and perfect and how I wanted it. I found this part of the lesson quite interesting and fun because I was very interested to see how the design looked once I had used the stencil to create the design piece. Below are two photographs that I took to show how my design looked after I had painted onto the stencil, to create the final piece on the piece of A3 plain paper. Overall I was quite happy with how it looked, although I do feel that one of the segments at the bottom of the badge could have slightly cut better because it doesn't really match up properly, however this could be something that I could work on if I wanted to. 

After I had created the design I then had to choose a piece of text at random to showcase on the design piece that I had created. The piece of text that I chose at random was "Drown me in you sweet submission", I felt that this piece of text worked very well with my design that I had created. However I now had to think about were to write the text and present this on the design so that it looked nice and professional. I had to also think about which typographic font style I wanted to use for the design, as I wanted it to match the text and the fit within the style that I was going for. I have to admit that I am not the best at typography so I had to try and work with the font styles that I am most comfortable with, but the font styles that work. To add text to my drawing I had to use a piece of paper, pencil and a ruler for it to work, however before I started to draw out the design at a larger scale I decided to draw it small so that I was happy with it. Once I had done this I was then able to draw it out larger, I had to make sure that the type was perfect and fit the page that I was working with. I was then able to cut out the type to create the stencil that I needed to work with for the design. 

After I had finish cutting out the text stencil with a craft knife I was then able to place the text over the previous design that I had created which was the South Yorkshire Police Badge. Again I had to choose between the three paint colours to use, as I had already used Blue it was between Yellow and Red. I felt that the colour red would work the best for this design, as I wanted the text to stand out and be bold and seen easily, also cause no problems when reading the design. I then had to line up the text on the badge for it to look right, I decided to place the text straight over the top of the police badge. However once the text had been printed I felt that it could have been put in a different place that would be easier to see and read. However overall I was pleased with how the design turned out in the end. 

To improve on this design further I decided to experiment with the colours of the police badge and the text, so see how the design would look. The first thing I did was to reprint the badge by using the paint colour Yellow, so that it was very different to the last design. Once this and the stencil for the text had dried I then had to choose a colour to use for the text, as I had used the red colour before I then decided to use the blue colour because I felt that this colour would work on the design and would be bold and stand out well. After this had been printed I was very happy with how they both looked, however on the last design I decided to change the angle of the text slightly so the design ended with a stripe up the side which didn't need to be there. If I was to improve on this I would take a little more care with the design so that it would be more perfect.

Overall I found that this process and production lessons was one of my favourites, as I am looking forward to the next lesson with Nick. I think that to improve on this lesson I might create some of my own stencil designs using patterns or lyrics and objects from my favourite songs.