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