C4D 9.5: Real-World 3D Animation Production

Cinema 4D 9.5: Real-World 3D Animation Production teaches how to produce commercial-quality 3D animation using Maxon's, powerful and affordable, Cinema 4D. Written for 3D animation professionals, hobbyists, and students, this practical, hands-on book uses real-world projects to teach the entire production process. Beginning with a review of how to model photorealistic objects, the book progresses through creating custom materials, cloth simulation, and character animation, to video game and simulation techniques. The book takes a software-integrated approach to 3D animation production with a focus on Cinema 4D and how to use it in concert with several other applications. This Cinema 4D-centric approach shows how real-world 3D animation production challenges can be met, not only with a great tool, but with a great tool box. Throughout the book, you'll learn a highly efficient workflow for creating 3D character animation with C4D. You'll learn various ways of producing motion graphics by integrating Adobe? Photoshop, and After Effects?, with C4D. You'll explore projects that use BodyPaint to extend your ability to create fantasy and control the realism of how image maps relate to their objects. And you'll use Right Hemisphere Deep Creator 2 and Code Gardener's XPort 1.3 to explore methods for animating video games and simulations. Some experience with 3D animation is assumed, but all levels of users will be challenged to expand their skills.

This guide presents simplified methods for using Cinema 4D 9.1 and 9.5 software to model objects, apply texturing to them, light them in a scene, animate the scene and characters, and render the final product for use in broadcast applications and video games. Topics of the 30 tutorials include UV polygons in BodyPaint, placing a table cloth on a table, a bowling dynamics simulation, and walking characters. The DVD-ROM contains video tutorials, image textures, 3D models, project files, and demonstration software. Annotation © 2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

LARRY MITCHELL (Ocoee, FL) has been working as a digital media artist and producer for the past 20 years creating graphics and software for TV shows, arenas, video games, and commercials. He has taught and lectured on computer animation at international conferences and various colleges and high schools, including Orlando College, Valencia Community College, Lyman High School, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and KEIO University. He has also used his animation expertise at Top Gun Entertainment, Panasonic (Osaka Japan), as CEO of Liquid Digital Dream Studios, Inc., and is now the CEO of Liquid Digital Entertainment (http://ld-e.com/ent).