CINEMA 4D | PHOTOSHOP | REDSHIFT
Bring extra life to your scenes as Editor Rob Redman shows you how to create realistic visuals for objects in Cinema 4D
There are many times when a simple material on an object in your scene will suffice, but equally as many when you need detail. This could be some graffiti on a wall, branding for a product shot or anything in between. There are a number of ways to do this inside Cinema 4D, but here we’ll take a look at the simplest: stacked materials.
The idea here is to take a base material, in our case a sheet of cut brass, and then to add the stickers/decals on top using an alpha to let the brass show through. While there are other methods for accomplishing this, they all tend to be a little more complex. That said, they are better for mixing the materials themselves, like adding dust into recesses or scratches and burns to surfaces, often procedurally.
For this project you’ll need your geometry, a base material (in this case brass), and a sticker. You can make this anything you’d like, but for me, I’m choosing to do a floral pattern in black to suit the designs of the synthesiser modules I’m creating. Mine will be a single colour, where the pattern allows the brass to show through, but the technique works for solid stickers in full colour too.
I’d also suggest setting up Redshift as your render engine from the start and enabling the IPR, so you can see results as you make changes. Let’s dive in!
AUTHOR
Rob Redman Rob is Editor of 3D World and also works as a creative director, producing 3D animations and VFX. When not at his desk, he can usually be found painting miniatures. robredman.co.uk
01 START WITH A LITTLE FORWARD THINKING
Unless you’re working from a blueprint you might need to do a bit of prep to make sure your stickers line up. This isn’t important if you’re placing random stickers on a model at intentionally random places, but if you’re looking for a dedicated decal to serve a purpose like I am, then it’s a good idea to make the proportions and placements right from the get-go.
In a front orthographic view, hit ‘S’ with your model selected to fill the screen with it, and then take a screen grab. The resolution isn’t important as you can change that in Photoshop, but this really helps to make sure your stickers are in the right place.
02 CONSIDER GEOMETRY
The actual geometry of the object is less important for the focus of this tutorial, but it’s at this point you want to consider if you’ll be UV unwrapping the model. I’m choosing not to, as I’m doing a pretty basic long, thin box with a couple of holes in it. Plus, using the technique I’m showing here it’s pretty straightforward to place and scale any
