Create a photorealistic interior 3D render.

Getting Started in 3D

Launch Cinema 4D
If you don't already have Cinema 4D installed, go to http://maxon.net and sign up for a 45 day demo.

Note: A Lite version also comes bundled with Adobe Creative Cloud.
Set up your stylus or mouse for 3 button functionality.
Go to your System Preferences and adjust the button functions of your mouse or stylus:

Magic Mouse:

Go to: http://magicprefs.com and install the plug in

In your System Preferences, locate
and turn on "One Finger Middle Axis Click"

Stylus:

Go to System Preferences, and find your corresponding tablet preferences.

Map the Left Mouse, Right Mouse, and Middle Mouse Buttons.

This is how I have mine set:
Practice Manipulating an Object
Click on the
. Practice moving, rotating, or scaling it using the different manipulation tools
.

Shortcuts:

E = Move Tool

R = Rotate Tool

T = Scale Tool

* Most shortcuts in Cinema 4D don't need to be combined with Cmd, Ctrl or Opt as in other programs.
Make your cube editable.
Make your cube editable by clicking on
. (Cube must be selected for this button to be enabled)

Basics of Polygon Modeling

Open a New File
In Cinema 4D create a new file by either:

Going to: File > New

or

Pressing: Cmd + N
Get a cylinder
Go to the Create Object menu
along the top, and select a Cylinder.
Modify your Cylinder
In the Attributes Panel set the following:
Make it Editable
While the Cylinder is selected, click on the "Make Editable" button, or press the letter C on your keyboard.
Optimize, Oprimize, Optimize
Whenever you make an object editable, be sure to select all of the points then right click in the viewport, and go down to "Optimize".
1. Switch to the Point Mode by clicking on the
  button.
2. Select all of the points with any of the Selection Tools, or select at least one and then press Cmd + A.
3. Rigtht click in the Viewport, and go down to "Optimize".
Inner Extrude
1. Switch to the Polygon Mode
  and select all of the polys on top of the Cylinder
2. Press the letter "I", or go to Mesh > Create Tools > Extrude Inner
3. Now in the Attributes Panel, under the Options Tab set the Offset to 2.5 cm
4. On the Tool Tab, click the "Apply" button
Note: You could also use the Extrude Inner tool by clicking and dragging in the Viewport while your polys are selected, just be careful not to accidentally select the Move arrows.
Now we Extrude
We're now going to use the Extrude tool to hollow out our Cylinder.
1. Go to Mesh > Create Tools > Extrude, or press the letter D on your keyboard
2. Now in the Attribute Panel under the Options Tab type in -59 cm in the Offset, and click "Apply" in the Tool Tab
Note: Like the Extrude Inner tool, you could also Left Mouse click and drag to the left or right, just make sure not to seleft those Move arrows.
Beveling
We now need to add some Beveling to catch some light along the edges. You'll need to select the two edges along the top, and the one along the bottom.
1. Use the Loop Selection
  tool under the Select Menu, or press the letters U~L in quick succession
2. Add Shift as you click along the Edges to add to your selection (see pic below)
3. Now select the Bevel Tool
  under Mesh > Create Tools > Bevel, or press the letters M~S in quick succession
4. Now in the Attributes Panel enter the following
  and click the "Apply" button.
Repeat Steps 6 & 7
Using the methods from Project Steps 6 & 7, use Extrude Inner and Extrude to offset the bottom of the Cylinder. This time, however, only setting the Extrude Offset number to something between 0.4 cm - 0.8 cm.

We're basically trying to avoid going through the top set of polys with this Extrude.
Let's top it off
1. Bring another Cylinder into the scene, and set the following in the Attributes Panel:
2. Now bring the bring the new Cylinder above the first one - make sure you can still see and select the bottom polys of the new Cylinder.
Repeat Steps 4 & 5
Now we'll follow steps 4 & 5 to make our new Cylinder Editable and Optimize it.
Always Bevel
Now we'll follow Step 8 to select and Bevel the edges of our new Cylinder.
1. Use the Loop Selection (U~L) and select the top and bottom rings, remember to add Shift as you click to select multiple loops.
2. Use Bevel (M~S) with the following settings in the Attributes Panel, then press "Apply".
Note: They're the same settings as the previous Bevel we performed in step 8.
Extrude the bottom of the lid
This nex step isn't entirely needed since we won't actually see the bottom of the lid as it's resting on top of the bow, however, I like to include little details so that I have more flexibility when setting up the final scene.

Follow Step 6, and use Extrude Inner for the bottom of the second Cylinder. This time setting the Offset to 2.25 cm.

Now, follow Step 7 and Extrude the polys with an offset of 1cm. Your Cylinder should look like this:
Let's make a handle
Repeat Step 13 for the polys on top, this time set the offset for the Inner Extrude to 40 cm, and the Extrude Offset to 2 cm.

Now, switch to the Scale tool by clicking on the
button, or pressing the letter "T" on your keyboard. Scale the selected polys from the last Extrude to 130% by left mouse clicking and dragging to the right. Finally, Extrude (D) the same polys with an offset of 1 cm. You should end up with something that looks like this:
One last Bevel, for ol' times sake
Following the method from Step 8, let select the top ring of edges using the Loop Selection Tool (U~L), and then Bevel (M~S) with an offset of 0.5 cm.

Most tools in Cinema 4D, such as the Bevel, Extrude, and Extrude Inner will remember the last setting you had, so you could just click the "Apply".

Switch to Model Mode
, and use the Move tool (E) to move the lid right on top of the box.

Press Cmd + R to see a quick Render of your finished product, it should look somethign like this:
Save your file
You can now Save your file by going to File > Save (As) naming it, and selecting a destination.

Congratulations!! You finished your first modeling project!!

Now, see if you can apply what you've learned and create something to an object in your house or a catalogue.

Basics of NURBS Modeling

Let's start in Illustrator
If you have Illustrator, go ahead and fire it up, and open a new document, the default size settings should be fine.

Don't worry if you don't have Illustrator, I've included a copy of the file we'll be creating in this unit just in case.
Setting up a guide in Illustrator
Let's get an image into our Illustrator document to use as a guide while we trace with the Pen tool.

Click on this link to open the image of the vase that I used.

Once open, right click on the image to and "Copy Image".

Now paste into Illustrator, size it to fit the artboard, hold Opt + Shift to constrain proportions and keep it centered.

Finally, add a vertical guide going down the middle of the vase, and lock both the image and the guide. You can use Layers panel or Cmd + 2 to lock them in place.
Let's trace!
Get the Pen Tool
, and select a color that's easy to see over the image. (the color won't have an affect in Cinema, it's just so we can see it better)

We're going to start at the base, and work our way up along the outside profile of the vase.

When you reach the top, go in towards the middle slightly, and work your way down, following the same profile as before. You're basically trying to give it some thickness, see the attached image:
Saving the Illustrator file
Unlock and delete your guide, press Cmd + Shift + 2 on your keyboard (this will unlock anything that's locked on the artboard). Now select the guide and the image, and delete them.

Now we need to save the file in a legacy format, Illustrator 8. Go to File > Save as, or press Cmd + Shift + S on your keyboard. Keep the Format as Adobe Illustrator (.ai), and choose a destination. In the following dialogue change the "Version" to Illustrator 8, it's the only version that works well with Cinema 4D.

You'll get an error, saying that you might lose some features, click "Ok".

You can now exit Illustrator.
Importing an Illustrator file to Cinema 4D
Open a new Cinema file. Go to File > New, or press Cmd + N.

To import our Illustrator file, we have 3 options:
1. Go to File > Merge and select your file
2. In the Object Panel go to File > Merge Objects... and select your file
3. Press Cmd + Shift + O (the letter O not a zero) and select your file
When the Adobe Illustrator window open up just hi "Ok", the default setting are fine for this exercise.
Lining up your spline
Switch to the front mode and line up your imported spline with the X and Y axes as shown in the image:
Introductio to NURBS
Go up to the NURBS menu
, and select a Lathe NURBS
.

In the Obects panel, click and drag on the Spline and make it a child of the Lathe NURBS, you should see this
before letting go of the mouse.

You should be left with this in the Objects panel
.

Switch back to the Perspective Mode, by middle mouse clicking in the Viewport, and then middle mouse click on the Viewport on the top left. You should now see this in your Viewport:

In Attributes panel, for the Lathe NURBS, change the Subdivision to 72.
Make the NURBS object editable
With the spline still in the Lathe NURBS, select the NURBS object in the Objects panel, and press C on your keyboard to make it editable.

Remeber that once we make an obect Editable we must Optimize the points.

Switch to Point Mode
, select all the points Cmd + A, then right click and go down to Optimize.
Beveling the top edges
Switch to Edge mode
, get the Loop Selection tool
go to Select > Loop Selection, or press (U~L) in quick succession.

Select the top two edges on the lip of the vase:

Now go to Mesh > Create Tools > Bevel, or press (M~S) in quick succession. In the Attributes panel put these values in (if they're not already there).
Save your file
Now let's save the file:

Go to Menu > Save, or

Press Cmd + S on your keyboard

Name it vase, and select the same destination as your box. It's probably a good idea to create a folder (if you haven't done so already) and keep them in the same file.

Congrats, you've now modeled with a NURBS object! I encourage that you experiment with some of the other types of NURBS objects, we'll be using at least 2 more in the videos to come.

Texture basics

External resources
Go to http://cgtextures.com and sign up for a free account. You'll find them to be an invaluable resource when it comes to texturing in 3D.
Navigating between multiple open files
We want to get both of our models into the same scene so we can texture both and see them side by side.

Open a new scene/file in CInema 4D by pressing Cmd + N

Open each of the other two files we've created to so far, the vase and the box.

Go up to Window, now click and hold your left mouse button. At the bottom, You'll see your "box.c4d", "vase.c4d", and the newly created "Untitled.c4d". (note that ".c4d" is the file extention for a Cinema 4D file)
Grouping objects
Grouping objects can prove to be quite powerful in C4D Switch over to your box.c4d file, in the Objects panel double click on each Cylinder and give each a name (i.e. - top/lid and bottom/box).

Select both and press Alt + G, this will create a Null object and place both of them inside:

Now name the Null, whatever you'd like, I chose "box" again for the Null.

You can now select the Null, and manipulate both cylinders as one. Go to Edit > Copy, or press Cmd + C to Copy your box.

Switch to the Untitled.c4d file through the Window menu, and paste it by either going to Edit > Paste, or Cmd + V
Copying the vase
Now let's switch to the vase.c4d file via the Window menu item.

Select it in the Objects panel

Copy it, Cmd + C

Switch to the Untitled.c4d file, and paste it Cmd + V
Add a temporary floor
Go to the Polygon menu
, and select a Plane object

Adjust the scale if necessary with the Scale tool
(T)

Move each of the objects so that they're resting on top of the plane.
Your first texture/material
Let's start by giving our plane object a texture or material (texture and material are gereally used interchangeably in 3D lingo).

In your Material Manager, the panel on the bottom left of the layout. Create a new material by either going to Create > New Material, or double clicking in the empty space bellow.

Now double click on the newly created material, this will open the Material Editor.

The list on the left are what are known as "channels", click on the "Color" chanel and adjust the RGB sliders (color sliders) to any color you'd like. I went with an off white. You can now close the Material Editor.

Apply the material to the plane by clicking on it in the Material Manager, and dragging it onto the Plane - either in the Viewport or in the Objects Panel.
Create the wooden texture
Go to http://cgtextures.com, and search for PlywoodOld0014, click on the image and download the 700 x 700 version which is free for non-premium members.

Now, back in Cinema 4D, create a new material by double clicking in the Material Manager, or going to Create > New Material.

In the Color channel, we're going to add the plywood texture, by clicking on the Texture dropdown, and selecting "Load Image...", and pointing to it on your computer.

Click "Ok" once you've selected it.

In the Specular channel, I also lowered the height to 6% in order to dull it our a bit.
Applying the wood texture to the box
In 3D applications textures can be "mapped" around an oject in different ways each one being a slightly better option than the others depending on the geaometry. Because of this we need to apply the texture to the top and bottom of the box seperately.

Twirl open the Null object which contains the parts of the box by cliking on the "+" to the left of the Null's name.

Start by adding the wood texture to the top of the box in the Objects panel.

Select the wood texture from the Material Manager
and apply it to the top of the box. Click on the Texture Tag in the Objects panel and change the projection to cubic the Attributes panel:

Now in the Objects panel, click and drag on the wood Texture Tag while holding Cmd or Ctrl, and drop it on the box

Finally in the Attributes panel for the box's Texture tag, change the projection to Cylindrical, and the Tiles U to 2
Create the glass texture
For the glass texture, start by creating a new Material either by Create > New Material, or double clicking in the Material Manager.

Double click on the new material, and in the channels column, turn off "Color" and turn on "Transparency" & "Reflection".

Starting with the Transparency channel, change the Refraction to 1.55, and under the Texture dropdown menu select Gradient

Click on the newly created gradient
and makje the following adjustments:

Now, in the Reflection channel, change the Brightness to 44%

That's it! You can now close the Material Editor.
Adding the glass texture to the vase
Click and drag the glass texture to the vase in either the Viewport or the Obects panel.

Now click on the glass Texture Tag in the Objects panel

And, in the Attributes panel change the projection to Cubic, the Offset V to -40%, and the Length V to 163%.
Quick render and save
Great job!! You should now have something that looks like the following image. We've still got a ways to go in terms of adjusting our render settings and lights, but we're getting there!

Make an Eames inspired 1x1 table

Finding our source image
We'll be modeling a table inspired by Mid-century designers Ray and Charles Eames, the Eames 1x1 Storage Unit. I'm using this image as my guide, but feel free to use any other.
Legs Pt. 1
For this model, we'll start by creating the legs of the unit. These are the approximate dimaensions of the unit, (I took some liberties to round off to the nearest even number):

H 52cm W 62 cm D 40 cm

Start with a cube by clicking on the
button. In the Attributes panel adjust the size properties under the object tab to the following: 3cm on X, 52cm on Y, and 3 on Z. Also change Segments in Y to 10.

Now Cmd + click and drag on the cube in the Object panel to duplicate it.

Select the new cube, and in the Attribues panel under the Object tab, change the Size Y to 54cm.

Add a Boole object to the scene by going up to the Modeling object menu
, and selecting a Boole
. Now drag both cubes into the Boole, making them children of the Boole. Make sure Cube comes before Cube.1, Cube.1 being the longer of the two.

Under the Coordinate tab, change the P.X to 0.2cm, and the P.Z to 0.2cm. You should be left with a "hollowed" out cube that looks like this:

* For this excercise we were able to use the Boole with its default settings, open a new file and test out some of the other Boolean Types in the Attributes panel. Try it with different shapes also.
Adding the holes to the leg Pt. 2
We'll now make the holes in the legs.

// Note: it's very important that we don't move any of our obejects from the center of the scene, with the exception of Cube.1 in the Boole. //

Add a Cylinder to the scene, and set the following properties in the Attributes panel.

Now, go up to MoGraph > Cloner, and make the cyllinder a child of the Cloner.

In the Cloner setting, under the Object Tab, change the Count to 10, and the P.Y to 6cm.

Go back up to the Modeling Objects button
, and from the dropdown select Boole
. Now place your existing Boole into the new one, and add the cloner as well making sure it comes second on the list.

I also changed the Rotation Segments to 12 in the Attribute Panel of the cylinder to lessen the geometry load.

In your Object Panel, Cmd + LM click and drag on the Cloner to make a copy.

Rotate this copy 90 degrees on X, so that they're perpendicular to the original cylinders.

Go back to the Modeling Objects button/menu and get a Connect Object
.

Place both, cloners into the connect object (so that they're treated as one), and now make the Connect objec the second item in the Boole.
More legs
Since we can't have a table with only one leg, we need a to add a few more.

Go to MoGraph > Cloner Object, and place the Boole with all of the leg parts in it into the new Cloner.

In the Attributes Panel change the Mode to Grid Array, and the Count to 2 / 1 / 2, we'll come back to adjust the size shortly.
Adding the shelves
Now let's add the bottom shelf and the top surface area of our table.

Create a new cube by clicking on the
button.

Now adjust its properties in the Attributes panel match the following:

Let's adjust the legs a bit to match the size of the. Select the Cloner in the Objects panel, and in the Attributes panel under the Object tab change the size to approx 36cm in X and 57cm in Z.

Make the Cloner editable, by hitting the letter C or clicking on the Make Editable button
, now using the move and rotate tools align each leg to the shelf so that they're right outside the corners.

Align the shelf to the top of the legs using the side or front views. You can access them by middle clicking in the Viewport or using the Switch Active View button:

Cmd click and drag the shelf in Y to make a copy and position it towards the bottom of the table.

You should have something that looks like this:
It's all in the details...
We could stop here, but then it wouldn't really be an Eames. One of the often overlooked aspects in 3D modeling can be in the details, in the case of this unit adding a couple of screws and the back and side supports can really make a difference in the final render.

Go to the Object menu under the
button, and select an Oil Tank, adjust the values in the Attribues panel under the Object tab:

Now, add a cube from the same menu as the Oil Tank. and change it's attributes to approximately:
you can be off by a hundreth and it shouldn't matter too much.

Next, move the cube in Y so that it intersects with the Oil Tank like so:

Add a Boole to the Scene from the Modeling Objects menu:

Place, both the Oil Tank and Cube into the Boole by dragging them into it in the Objects panel.

.

Name the Boole bolt/screw, make copies and place 4 on each corner of the shelves.
Lastly...
Taking what you've learned so far, add the last couple of details to the table. Start by placing a very thin cube on one side of the table tht fits between the two shelves and legs on the left.

Next, add the first set of intersecting cylinders. Hint they're very thin, and make an "X" shape. One set for the back, and another for the right side opposite the thin cube you just added. Refer to this unit's project file if you need any help.

Creating 3D Text in C4D

Making the outlines
We'll use a Text Spline object to create the basic outline of our text.

Go to the Spline menu and select a Text object

In the Attributes panel, type in whatever text you'd like, and adjust the height you'd like, I kept mine at 200.
Extruding the text
Go up to the NURBS menu, and add an Extrude NURBS.

Make the Text Spline a child of the Extrude NURBS object by dragging and dropping it on top of.

Now, let's select the Extrude NURBS in the Objects panel, and in the Attributes panel, under Caps change the following settings:

This adds a half circle rim along the edges of your text.
Making some textures
Let's start adding some textures to our text.

In the Materials manager, start by creating two textures, go to Create > New Material (x2).

Double click on each one and give them different colors, under the Color Channel in the Material Editor. I chose blue and white.

I applied the blue texture to the Extrude NURBS first, and then the white. Select the Texture Tag, in the objects panel and in the Attributes panel type R1:

This will add the white texture to the front rim of the text. See what happens if you change it to C1. The front cap is now colored white.
Add a background
Go up to the Object menu, and add a Plane. Rotate and place it right behind the text:

Make another material in the Material manager, and this time under the Color Channel, go to Texture and under the dropdown add a Gradient:

Let's adjust it to so that it's is a circular gradient.

Now, add the texture to the Plane.
Add a light
Go up to the Light Menu
, and add a regular Light. In the Attributes panel, change the color to light yellow, drop the oppacity to about 75, and turn Sadow to Shadow Maps (Soft):

Now, duplicate the light by clicking and dragging on it in the Objects panel.

Position each on eaither side using the Move tool, adding a little variety to the height.
Add reflections
Now that we've added some faux bounce cards, let's make sure that our materials are set to reflect them.

Double click on each of the textures you used for the text in the Materials Manager and turn on the Reflection Channel in each. Also, in the Texture dropdown, add a Fresnel and adjust the Brightness and Mix Strength.
Faux bounce cards
I added a couple of planes with a luminance channel texture to give the text something to reflect. And positioned them on opposing side with varying angles.

To make the Luminance texture, make a new material and double click on it to edit its attributes.

Uncheck, the Color and Specular channels, and check the Luminance channel. Select Luminance, and change the brightness to 250%:

Add the new texture to your faux bounce cards.

Do a Quick Render by pressing Cmd + R to see how it's looking so far. Adjust your camera if necessary.
Brief Camera Intro
This part is optional, since we'll be exploring the Camera and some of it's functions in the last unit.

I added a camera by clicking on the Camera menu button

I then made it active by turning on the Make Active Camera switch in the Objects panel

This doesn't change much in our render, but I thought it'd be a good chance to touch on the camera.

Setting up our final scene

Let's make a seat Pt. 1
Create a new File, by going to File > New.

Start by adding two cubes to the scene, by clicking on the Object menu button
twice.

In the Attributes panel, turn on Fillet, change the Radius to 15cm, and set the Fillet Subdivision 5.

Select one of the Cubes in the Object panel, and change the Size.Y to 120 cm.

Select the other Cube in the Object panel, and change the Size.X to 120 cm.

Take the second, taller Cube, and move up about half way up the other Cube, and forward a bit. The position of mine was 75 cm in Y, and -30 cm in Z, but yours could be a little different.

It should look a little bit like this:
Let's make a seat Pt. 2
Go to the Modeling objects menu and add a Boole to the scene, then place both Cubes into the Boole.

Adjust the order of the Cubes if you don't have somehting that looks like a seat:

Adjust the size of the cubes if you want a slightly different shape. Make sure to keep the chair symmetrical along one plane so it's even on both sides.

Now select the Boole in the Objects panel, and in the Attributes panel check off Create single objects and Hide new edges.

Now hit the letter C to make the Boole Editable, we need to select the inner ring of the seat as shown:

Now type (M~S) bring up the Bevel tool, or go to Mesh > Create Tools > Bevel.

In the Attributes panel, change the Inner Offset, Subdivision, and Type:
Let's make a seat Pt. 3
Let's add a couple of pillows. Open a new file.

Make a cube, and in the Attributes panel, enter the following:

Make it Editable by typing the letter C, or pressing the Make Editable button

Switch to Polygon mode by pressing the
button.

Select all of the Polygons that make up the sides of the cube:

In the Objects panel, right click on the cube go down to SImulation Tags > Cloth.

In the Attributes panel for the Cloth tag, click on the Set button next to Seam Polys first, and then click ont he Dress-O-Matic button:

Voila, a pillow! Click on the Nurbs button
to add a HyperNURBS to the scene.

Now drag the Cube into the HyperNURBS:

You can delete the Cloth tag from the Cube now to lock the transformation.

Copy the pillow and paste it into the file with the chair.
Let's make a seat Pt. 4
Making sure that your in Object mode
size the pillow to fit in the seat of your chair.

Now make a copy, and rotate it for the back rest.
Let's make a seat Pt. 5
Adding the leg is pretty simple.

Add a cone to the scene by going under the Object menu, and adding a Cone.

In the Attributes panel make the following changes to the properties:

Add a Cloner, by going to MoGraph > Cloner, and placing the cone in the cloner.

In the Object tab change the Cloner type to Grid Array, and the Count to 2 // 1 // 2

Under the Transform tab, change R.H to 45 degrees so that the legs line up with the chair.

Finally size and place the cloner with the legs right under the chair. You should end up with somthing like this:
Adding some textures
Make a new material in the Material Manager, and double click on it to open the Material Editor.

Of the Channels on the left only have Color and Bump checked of, and start changing the Attributes as follows:

And in the Bump channel, add Noise. Next click on the newly created Noise channel to set the following:

To go back click on the Left arrow on the top right of the Material Editor

Now change the Bump strength to 6%:

Apply this to the Chair and the two pillows.
Reusing some textures
Open the file with the textured wooden box and vase, copy them and switch over to the chair file by going to Window > "your_file_name.c4d"

Paste the two objects into the scene, and Adjust the size if need be to match the proportions of the chair. Make sure you're in Object mode
, then select the Scale tool
to adjust the sizes uniformly.

Use the wooden texture that should've copied over with the box, and apply it to the cloner with the chair legs. Drag it from the Material Manager onto the Cloner in the Objects panel.
Bring in the table
Now let's repeat the process from the last project step, and copy the 1x1 Eames table into the scene.

Make a new material in the Material Manager, double click on it to open the Material Editor.

Select the Specular channel, and lower the Height to 10%.

In the Color channel select a blue (this was the color in our sample image, any primary or natural color would match the original table):

Make another material, set the same 10% height in the Bump channel, except this time make the Color a dark gray.

Lastly, make one more texture, this time only leaving Color, Reflection, and Specular turned on.

In the Color channel, choose a color that's almost black, and in the Reflection channel make the following changes:
Texturing the table
Twirl open the Null for the 1x1 table, and begin applying the textures, the glossy/reflective black is for the top of the shelves, the blue is for the side panel, and the dark gray is for all of the metal hardware. (Note: the original table has more of a brushed metal, but I chose to go with a gunmetal.)

Using the Polygon mode
, select the tops of each of the shelves, and then go to Select > Set Selection. This will add an orange triangle (Selection Tag) to each of the shelves.

Now, add the glossy material you made onto each shelf, select the Texture Tag, and drag the corresponding Selection Tag to the Selection field:

Repeat the process for the second shelf.

Add the wooden texture to both shelves, and make sure the order of the tags are as follows:

This ensures that the Glossy texture is only applied to the top of the shelves.
Building the shot
We need to add a floor, and a back wall to give our scene some sense of space.

Add a Plane and a Cube (or another plane, we'll only see the front of it). Set one up as the floor, and the other as a back wall behind the chair and table.
Texturing the Floor
We need to make two more textures for our room. Start by going to back to http://cgtextures.com and search for a wooden floor texture, I used "WoodPlanksFloors0010_5_S.jpg".

Make a new material in the Material Manager.

In the Color channel, load the new wooden planks texture.

Turn on the Reflection channel, set a Fresnel, and adjust the intensity:

Apply the wooden texture to the floor, select the Texture Tag in the Objects panel, and in the Attributes panel increase the Tiles U & V to fit the size of your floor. I used 10.
Texturing the wall
Make a new material in the Material Manager, make sure the Color, Bump, and Specular channels are on.

I set a deep red for the color:

In the Bump channel, add Noise under the Texture dropdown, and click on the Noise thumbnail to make the following changes:

Click on the Left arrow on the topr right to go back one level in the Bump channel, and lower the Strength to 5%:

In the Specular channel, change the Height to 5% also:

Apply new texture to the wall

We're almost there!
Last minute details
Let's add a base board to our room. Download the "baseBoard.ai" file attached to this step.

Merge the "baseBoard.ai" file to the scene by pressing Cmd + Shift + O and locating it on your local drive.

Go to the NURBS menu, and add an Extrude NURBS

Add the Spline you just merged to the scene into the Extrude NURBS. Now extend the movement in Z to match the length of your wall.

Note: You can also use a Sweep NURBS combined with a straight line to get the same effect.

Line up the baseboard to where the floor meets the wall, making sure that the flat side is against the wall.

Copy the red texture in the Material Manager, and change the color from red to white.

Apply the white texture to the base board.
Making a frame
We're going to add a frame to the scene, pick an image and gets it's dimensions in pixels either by using the "Get Info" window in the Finder or opening it in Photoshop and checking the image size (Cmd + Opt + I). We'll use that to roughly size our frame.

Back in Cinema 4D, add a Cube that uses X as the width of your image and Y as the height, set Z to about 5 cm. (If the dimensions are too big for your scene, scale down the cube, we only need to maintain the X : Y ratio the same.)

Next, make the Cube Editable by pressing the letter C on the keyboard while it's selected.

With Polygon mode
active, select the forward facing side of the cube.

Press I to bring up the Extrude Inner Tool
, or go to Mesh > Create Tools > Extrude Inner.

While hovering anywhere in the view port, except over the selected polygon, click and drag to the right and set the desired wifth of the frame. I used an offset of about 10 cm.

Now press D on your keyboard to bring up the Extrude tool, or go to Mesh > Create Tools > Extrude.

Again, click and drag to the left to extrude the face inwards. Careful not to move the polygon.

Next, go to Select > Set Selection. We'll use this Selection Tag to apply our image in a bit.
Texturing the frame
I used the same dark gray material that I applied to the metal of the 1x1 table for the frame, but you can create a new one if you'd prefer.

Drag the dark gray texture to the frame, and place it to the right of the Selection Tag in the Objects panel.

Now, make a new material, and in the Color channel, under Texture, load the image that you based your frame size on.

Drag this new material to your frame and make sure it's to the right of the gray texture.

Select the image Texture Tag, and in the Attributes panel drag the Selection Tag to the Selection field.

You should now have something that looks like this:
Lights, Camera, Render!
We're now close to seeing all of our hard work come together, we'll add a camera, some lights, and tweak our render settings to get our final shot. A lot of this is subject to taste, so feel free to make any adjustments you'd like.

Add a couple of lights (just like in our Text Unit) one slightly yellow, another slightly blue, and position them in your scene. Be sure to turn Shadow to Shadow Maps (Soft).

Click on the Render Settings button
, and in the dialogue that opens up, add Ambient Occlusion, Global Illumination, and Depth of Field via the Effect button on the left.

There are a lot of settings that could be tweaked here, but for our purposes the defaults work, just having them on will make a difference.

Add a Camera by clicking on the Camera buton
, and in the Attributes panel under the Details tab turn on DOF Map Front & Rear. This adds some control points to your camera that you can adjust to set the depth of field.

Click on the Active View switch to set up your shot through the camera

I added a sphere to my scene with the glass texture from the vase, and placed it on the floor so that I could have something close to the camera lens while the rest of my furniture was in the background slightly blurred.

To adjust the DOF, switch to a top view, and use the slider controls to set up the start and end points of the blur.

Note: Uncheck Global Illumination, I like to add it in case I use a Sky object from the Environments menu. Same with Depth of Field if you choose not to use it in the Camera settings, this will speed up your render times.

Outro

Saving the Render
Go to the Render menu, and select Render to Picture Viewer.

When it finishes, click on the Save button
in the upper left corner of the Picture Viewer window, and select a destination on your local drive.
That's a wrap!
Great job! You've just created your first 3D scene!

You should be very proud of everything you learned throughout this course, the tools and techniques we discussed are the same used by industry professionals across a number of fields. However, it doesn't end here, we barely scratched the surface of the potential of this awesome program, and whether you stick with C4D or move on to another program I encourage that you practive as much as possible as often as possible.

If you have any questions, or comments please don't hesitate to ask, I'm only a Tweet or a message away!

Cheers!

Additional Resources

Eames 1x1 Project File

Stephen Suratos

Artist / Visual Designer

59

139

Company

Community

Teaching

Mobile

Company

Community

Teaching