A Beginner’s Guide to 3D Simulation in Cinema 4D

In this series of lessons we will cover the fundamentals of 3D Simulation to help you gain a basic understanding of the tools and techniques used in the industry.

Part 01: Introduction to 3D Simulation Techniques

• Overview of the Mograph cloners, random effector, rigid body tag, collider body tag, friction and bounce settings
• Experimentation with parametric primitives and various geometry for different dynamic effects
• Splines, lathe nurbs, rigid body tag, collider body tag, friction and bounce settings
• Create a vase being filled with spheres
• Using an emitter with a rigid body sphere to start a simulation
• Work with the initial linear velocity
• Overview of the random, formula, push apart and step effectors
• Use of spherical, cylindrical, cone, linear, radial fields and falloff settings

Part 02: Domino’s Project

• Model the domino’s with splines and extrude nurbs
• Use domino images from the asset browser to texture the model
• Use the selection field to apply materials to the front, back and side of dominos
• Use of the MoGraph Cloner in object mode in conjunction with a spline to duplicate the dominos along a path
• Adjust the cloner’s distribution settings for evenly spaced dominos
• Use rigid body and collider body tags to set-up the simulation
• Use and emitter to create the initial impact by setting the initial linear velocity for domino’s to fall
• Refine bounce, friction and rigid body settings
• Define final output render settings to complete the animation

Part 03: Maze Project

• Model the 3D environment and add a collider body tag
• Create a sphere inside a cloner and assign a rigid body tag to start the simulation
• Model the maze geometry using parametric primitives
• Create shelves, front and add collider body tags
• Adjust the maze geometry to control the simulation
• Duplicate the sphere cloner to add additional animation to the scene
• Create sides to the maze to prevent spheres from falling outside of it’s borders
• Use the display tag to hide geometry in the perspective view
• Apply procedural Cinema 4D materials to the maze and spheres
• Use gradients on the spheres and refine their parameters for added visual interest
• Create a camera animation to follow the simulated sphere movement
• Define render settings for final output