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