Written Tutorial

Christopher
Gruber
Visual
Effects
Artist
Lightning
Rod
Studios
Http://www.lightningrodstudios.com
This
tutorial
assumes
that
the
reader
has
a
basic
working
knowledge
of
Cinema
4D,
and
navigation
in
a
3D
environment.
The
construction
of
the
room,
employment
of
lights,
materials,
and
camera
are
quite
similar
in
C4D
(and
most
other
3D
programs).
You
should
be
able
to
follow
Andrew’s
tutorial
for
the
construction
of
the
scene
fairly
easily.
In
order
to
create
the
vines
in
C4D
you
will
be
using
the
following:
‐Splines
‐Sweep
NURBS
We
will
begin
by
creating
the
basic
shape
of
our
vines.
You
can
either
use
free
form
splines,
or
cycloid
splines.
Both
can
be
selected
from
the
spline
menu
on
the
top
of
the
screen
(noted
by
a
blue
squiggle
with
a
plus
sign
attached.)
You
can
also
get
some
pretty
nifty
looking
vines
by
playing
with
the
flower
spline
preset,
etc....But
let’s
keep
it
simple.
I
would
recommend
using
free
form
splines
as
the
appearance
of
your
vine
is
much
more
customizable.
So.
Begin
by
creating
a
curvy
and
somewhat
twisted
looking
free
form
spline.
You
may
want
to
drag
the
points
along
the
spline
around
on
the
X,
Y,
and
Z
in
order
to
get
the
look
you
are
going
for.
Next
you
are
going
to
place
a
circle
spline
on
the
grid
somewhere
near
the
free
form
spline
we
just
created.
Now,
you
will
use
Sweep
NURBS
in
order
to
create
the
basic
vine.
Do
this
by
selecting
Sweep
NURBS
from
the
nurbs
menu.
(green
cube)
You
will
notice
that
nothing
happened.
In
the
objects
list,
parent
both
of
the
splines
that
were
created
to
the
Sweep
NURBS.
If
you
get
something
goofy
looking
like
this:
Don’t
worry
you
just
have
the
splines
parented
in
the
wrong
order.
The
circle
spline
must
be
positioned
above
the
free
form
spline.
This
is
because
the
circle
provides
the
shape
for
the
vine
and
the
Free
form
spline
is
the
path
that
it
will
follow.
Done
correctly,
you
should
have
something
looking
like
this:
Now,
creating
multiple
vines
is
rather
easy.
All
you
need
to
do
is
clone
the
vine
and
offset
the
new
ones
in
3D
space
a
bit.
(On
the
X,
Y,
and
Z)
You
can
adjust
the
thickness
of
the
vines
by
scaling
each
of
the
circle
splines
(now
found
within
the
Sweep
NURBS
since
they
have
been
parented.)
5‐7
vines
of
varying
thickness
will
do
the
trick:
You
can
now
individually
move,
scale,
and
rotate
the
vines
so
that
they
vary
in
appearance.
I
would
also
suggest
going
back
and
moving
around
some
of
the
points
on
the
original
free
form
splines
to
help
make
them
look
a
little
bit
different.
You
will
have
to
play
around
with
moving
the
points,
and
rotating
the
splines
to
get
your
desired
effect:
Heres
the
fun
part….animating
the
vines.
Select
one
of
the
Sweep
NURBS
from
within
the
null
object.
In
the
attributes
menu
(under
object
properties)
you
will
see:
Start
Growth
and
End
Growth.
Lower
the
End
Growth
Rate
to
0%
Place
a
key
frame
at
1.
(control
click
the
little
circle
to
the
left
of
End
Growth)
Move
ahead
in
the
time
line.
Change
the
End
Growth
Back
to
100%
Place
another
Key
Frame.
Play
the
animation,
and
you
now
have
your
first
animated
vine.
Next
you
will
want
to
copy
the
key
frames
from
this
Sweep
NURB
and
paste
them
to
the
others.
You
can
also
try
offsetting
the
key
frames
a
bit
for
each
of
the
vines
to
make
them
grow
at
different
rates.
....And
there
you
have
it.
Animated
vines
in
C4D.
Here
is
a
test
render
that
I
did
using
a
basic
aluminum
shader.
(Found
in
the
Content
Browser.)