Books, CINEMA 4D Books — April 6, 2019 at 2:55 pm

MAXON Cinema 4D R20: A Detailed Guide to Modeling, Texturing, Lighting, Rendering, and Animation [Book]

by

The MAXON Cinema 4D R20: A Detailed Guide to Modeling, Texturing, Lighting, Rendering, and Animation book aim to help you become the best Cinema 4D artist you can be. This book will help you get started with modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering, and animation in Cinema 4D and you will learn some important concepts as well as some of the popular techniques which you can utilize to create any scene in Cinema 4D.

MAXON Cinema 4D R20: A Detailed Guide to Modeling, Texturing, Lighting, Rendering, and Animation

Book Code: PDX014P, ISBN: 978-1092900355

Using a structured and pragmatic approach, this guide begins with the basics of modeling, then builds on this knowledge using practical examples to enhance your texturing, lighting, rendering, and animation skills. Each unit builds on the knowledge gained in the previous unit, showing you all the essentials of modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering, and animation with Cinema 4D. As you go from hands-on exercise to hands-on exercise, you’ll develop a strong arsenal of skills that combined will form a complete end to end process to creating high-quality projects using Cinema 4D.

This book shares tips, tricks, notes, and cautions throughout, which will help you become a better Cinema 4D rendering artist and you will be able to speed up your workflow. This book is aimed to be a solid teaching resource for learning rendering in Cinema 4D. It avoids any jargon and explains concepts and techniques in an easy-to-understand manner. The first page of every unit summarizes the topics that will be covered in the unit. Hands-on exercises in this book instruct users how things can be done in Cinema 4D step-by-step. By the time you’re done, you’ll be ready to illuminate and render any scene in Cinema 4D.

Practicing is one of the best ways to improve skills. This book contains practice activities which you are highly encouraged to complete and gain confidence for real-world projects. By completing these activities, you will be able to master the powerful capabilities of Cinema 4D. By the time you’re done, you’ll be ready to model, illuminate, and render any scene in Cinema 4D.

If you buy this book, you’ll also get access to all Cinema 4D files, texture files, and any other resource used in the book. You are free to use these resources in your own projects personal or commercial. These working files allow you to follow along with the author throughout the units.

What are the key features of the MAXON Cinema 4D R20: A Detailed Guide to Modeling, Texturing, Lighting, Rendering, and Animation book?

  • Covers Cinema 4D’s updated user interface, navigation, tools, functions, and commands.
  • Covers all the basics as well as advanced topics using easy to follow, hands-on exercises. Detailed coverage of tools and features.
  • Covers polygon, subdivision, spline, and volumetric modeling techniques.
  • Explains the Standard, Physical, Hardware OpenGL, and Software OpenGL renderers.
  • Explains global illumination, ambient occlusion, color mapping, and other post effects. Covers the process of rendering flicker-free animation.
  • Explains the depth-of-field and motion blur effects.
  • Covers Cinema 4D lights.
  • Covers product visualization and interior rendering techniques.
  • Covers UV mapping.
  • Explains the process of creating various materials.
  • Covers the Node Editor and nodes in detail.
  • Features 85 hands-on exercises – complete with before and after files.
  • Features 26 practice activities to test the knowledge gained.
  • Additional guidance is provided in the form of tips, notes, and cautions.
  • Important terms are in boldface so that you never miss them.
  • The content under “What just happened?” heading explains the working of the instructions.
  • The content under “What next?” heading tells you about the procedure you will follow after completing a step(s).
  • Includes an ePub file that contains the color images of the screenshots/illustrations used in the textbook. These color images will help you in the learning process. This ePub file is included with the resources.
  • Tech support from the author.
  • Access to each exercise’s initial and final states along with the resources used in hands-on exercises.
  • Quiz to assess knowledge.

Who this book is for?

  • Beginners and intermediate users of Cinema 4D
  • Digital artists
  • Motion graphics artists
  • Indie game developers
  • And anyone who wants to learn Cinema 4D

What are the prerequisites?

  • Before you start this book, you should have Cinema 4D Studio R20 installed on your system.
  • You should also have the basic knowledge of Cinema 4D.
  • You should have the desire to learn.
  • Willingness to be awesome.

What you will learn?

  • Polygon, subdivision, spline, and volumetric modeling techniques.
  • Use various renderers available in Cinema 4D.
  • Work with post effects such as global illumination, ambient occlusion, and so on.
  • Illuminate and render any scene in Cinema 4D.
  • Create the depth-of-field and motion blur effects.
  • Use the new node-based material system and various nodes.
  • Speed up your workflow.
  • Create cool looking renders.

How the MAXON Cinema 4D R20: A Detailed Guide to Modeling, Texturing, Lighting, Rendering, and Animation book is structured?

This book is divided into following units:

Unit CM1: Introduction to Cinema 4D R20, introduces you to Cinema 4D interface and primitive objects available in the Object command group. You will learn about the Cinema 4D unit system, coordinate system, interface elements, and how to customize the interface. You will also create models using primitives.

Unit CM2: Tools of the Trade, walks you through some of the important tools that you will use in the modeling process. These tools are used to create guides in the editor view, interactively placing lights and adjusting their attributes in the scene, measure angles and distances, arrange/duplicate/randomize objects, correct lens distortions, and create virtual walkthroughs.

Unit CM3: Spline Modeling, introduces you to the spline modeling tools, concepts, and techniques.

Unit CM4: Polygon Modeling, introduces you to the polygon modeling tools, concepts, and techniques. This unit talks about polygons components, selection tools, polygons structure tools, modeling objects, and deformers.

Unit CMP: Practice Activities [Modeling], contains practice activities which you are highly encouraged to complete.

Unit CV1: Volumes – I, covers the Volume Builder and Volume Mesher functions. You will learn how to quickly create 3D models with ease using boolean operations with voxels.

Unit CV2: Volumes – II, covers volume filters, volume group, and the Volume Loader object.

Unit CVP: Practice Activities [Volumes], contains practice activities which you are highly encouraged to complete.

Unit CR1: Standard Renderer, introduces you to Standard renderer and its settings. You will also learn about various post effects such as global illumination, ambient occlusion, and so on. In addition, you will learn how to create a dynamic depth-of-field effect.

Unit CR2: Other Renderers, introduces you to the Physical, Hardware OpenGL, and Software OpenGL renderers. You will also learn how to create depth-of-field and motion blur effects. Moreover, this unit covers the process of illuminating a scene using only polygon lights.

Unit CR3: Lighting, introduces you to Cinema 4D lights, you will learn various lighting techniques.

Unit CT1: Introduction to UV Mapping, introduces you to UVs, the UV Manager, and UV Projection techniques.

Unit CT2: Material Presets, introduces you to some of the material presets available in Cinema 4D. You will learn how to create these presets from scratch.

Unit CT3: Creating Materials, covers the material creation process. You will learn how to create various materials. In addition, you will learn about the reflectance model of Cinema 4D.

Unit CT4: Node-Based Materials, covers the new node-based system introduced in R20. You will learn about various nodes and how to use them to create node graphs.

Unit CNA: Understanding Animation and Keyframes, introduces you to the fundamentals of animation in Cinema 4D. You will learn how to record and edit animation in Cinema 4D. In addition, you will learn to use Cinema 4D’s Motion System.

Unit CMA: Appendix – Quiz Answers [Modeling], contains quiz answers.
Unit CVA: Appendix – Quiz Answers [Volumes], contains quiz answers.
Unit CRA: Appendix – Quiz Answers [Rendering], contains quiz answers.
Unit CTA: Appendix – Quiz Answers [Texturing], contains quiz answers.
Unit CAA: Appendix – Quiz Answers [Animation], contains quiz answers.

Is the book available in other languages?

Not yet, if you are interested in translating this book, contact us.

Is the MAXON Cinema 4D R20: A Detailed Guide to Modeling, Texturing, Lighting, Rendering, and Animation book is available in the digital format?

Yes, see “Purchase Options” at the end of this page.

Can I reuse the Cinema 4D files provided by you?

Absolutely, you are free to modify and use the files.

Still have questions?

No problem, contact us, we are more than ready to provide answers to your questions.

Resources

We sell our books using multiple platforms. Don’t you have access to the resources/electronic files? Click here and submit your request.

Purchase Options

9 Comments

  1. Hi! I’ve purchased your book, “MAXON CINEMA 4D R20: A detailed guide to modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering and animation” and I did not receive the files associated with the book. Can you send me a link to these? Thank you very much!

  2. Hi,

    I have the same issue as Malcolm. Could you please email me a link to the files?

    Thanks,
    Heather

  3. Hi Pradeep,

    I have also purchased this book and did not receive the associated files. Could you please send me a link to the resources?

    Thanks!
    Heather

  4. Purchased the book for the class but have no idea where to find the download for the assets

  5. hi there!
    I too have the same problem with the electronic source files, it doesn’t state on the preface of my copy.
    book looks great and about to get stuck in!
    best regards!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.