Follow this tutorial step-by-step to create a 3D Alarm Clock model that you can use in video games, graphic design and illustration projects whilst learning Cinema 4D quickly and easily.
Some of the skills you'll learn in this tutorial include creating basic 3D modelling, adding lighting to the scene and basic rendering techniques.
In the first part of the two-part tutorial, I showed you how to:
- How to Import Reference Images
- How to Prepare for Modelling
- How to Model the Alarm Clock
In this, the second part of the the tutorial series, I'll show you how to:
- How to Create Colored Materials
- How to Add Lighting to the Scene
- How to Render the Alarm Clock
9. How to Create a New Material
Step 1
Located near the bottom of the screen there should be a material selection window. Click on Create > New Material to create a new material to use that you can edit.
Materials are used to colour in the various objects and areas of the Alarm Clock. Such as the clock face, the hands and the bells.
Step 2
Double click on the new material icon (displayed as a sphere). This brings up the Material Editor, where you adjust the various properties of the material such as the colour, transparency and reflectance.
For this particular style I'm only be interested in flat colour (Luminance).
Step 3
Tick the button for Luminance and untick the boxes for Color and Reflectance. This gives the cel shaded look for our final image of the Alarm Clock.
Step 4
Colour the Alarm Clock by adding the material to your object. Drag and drop the material to the object using the mouse.
You may drag and drop the material onto the object listed on the right of the screen.
This process will be repeated for the other parts of the Alarm Clock. The base colour of the Alarm Clock are as follows:
- R: 248
- G: 62
- B: 81
Step 5
Apply this colour to the two bells and the ringer as well.
10. How to Use Sketch and Toon
Step 1
In the Material Editor, click on the arrow button next to Texture and select Sketch and Toon > Cel from the menu.
Step 2
Click on the new Cel button that appears next to Texture to bring up a new menu.
Step 3
In this new menu, adjust the settings as follows:
- Change the Diffuse to match the image at below. It should be grey scale with the colour getting light from left to right
- Un-tick Camera
- Tick Lights
- Tick Shadows
- Select Multiply from the drop down menu
Step 4
Select a colour by double-clicking on the Color option box .
The Material Editor gives many different options for choosing and picking a colour. These include RGB, HSV etc.
Choose whichever option you're most familiar with as a flat colour. Because of the Multiply shading mode, the different colour shades will also appear in the material.
If the material has already been applied to the model, the colour of the model is automatically be adjusted to the new material colour. This is useful if you change your mind on a certain colour or a certain part of the Alarm Clock model.
Step 5
Because you've already applied the material to the model, the colour of the Alarm Clock will is adjusted to the new material colour. Click on the Render View button to preview the render.
11. How to Adjust the Shading
Step 1
To get a better idea of the shading and how the render will turn out as you work on it, click and hold on the Render Button and select Interactive Render Region from the menu.
Step 2
Use the mouse to adjust the window so that it fits around the Alarm Clock model.
Look for the very small arrow on the right hand side of the window and use the mouse to drag it to the top right corner of the box. This increases the resolution.
Decrease the resolution by moving the arrow down if you find that performance is suffering.
Step 3
Right-click on the small arrow and select Alpha Mode. This removes the black background.
Step 4
To change the way the light source is facing go to Options > Default Light.
Change the light source in the Default Light window. Click where you would like the light source to come from on the sphere and it will sync with the view port.
Experiment with different lighting positions to come up with a lighting situation that you like.
This can be adjusted at anytime so you can change the lighting again if you changed your mind.
12. Other Lighting Solutions
Step 1
To set up the basic lighting, go to the Floor button located in the top menu bar. Left Click-Hold and then select Physical Sky from the menu.
Step 2
Make sure that Physical Sky is selected in the menu on the right, a new menu will appear on the bottom right of the screen. Select the Time and Location tab and choose a time using the left and right arrow keys.
This changes the lighting of the scene, according to the time of the day. Choose a suitable time to light up the scene. You will be able to see how the lighting will affect the scene in the viewport.
Step 3
To add a light to the scene, select the Add Light button in the top menu bar at the top of the screen.
This will create a Light Object which you can move around the scene. Move the light object using the Move Tool to a suitable position.
Step 4
To customise the lighting further, experiment with the light object options in the bottom right of the screen. Here, adjust the Intensity, Light Type and even Color.
13. How to Colour the Clock Face
Step 1
To create a new material, duplicate the material by holding CTRL on the keyboard and then using the mouse to click and drag the material to the side.
Step 2
Double-click on the new material to open up the Material Editor and select Luminance. From there we can change the colour to the following:
- R: 247
- G: 244
- B: 225
Step 4
Use the selection tool to highlight the polygons on the face of the clock. This is the area that will be coloured using the new material.
Step 5
Apply the colour by click and dragging the new material directly on to the highlighted selection.
14. How to Color the Hands and Legs
Step 1
Create a new material. You can also duplicate a previous material in order to keep the settings from before.
Double click on the new material to open up the Material Editor and select Luminance. From there we can change the colour to the following:
- R: 70
- G: 69
- B: 65
Step 2
Apply the new material to the legs, bell stands and the clock hands by either clicking on the material and dragging it to the objects via the viewport or via the object list window.
15. How to Render the Alarm Clock
Step 1
On the top menu bar, click on the Render Settings button. This brings up the render settings window.
Step 2
In the render settings menu, change the options to what you need. First you'll need to tick the Save Settings to select a file location, file format and alpha channel.
Select Alpha Channel if you wish to keep the background see through. This could be useful if you wanted to add a background to the image in Adobe Photoshop.
Step 3
In the Output Settings choose the resolution, height and width of the image.
Step 4
To ensure that the Alarm Clock render is nice and sharp, go to the Anti-Aliasing settings. Select Cubic (Still Image) which is found under Filter.
Step 5
To create the final image of the Alarm Clock, click on the Render button. Remember to ensure you've selected the correct view in the viewport (front, right, left or perspective etc.) and that you're happy with the camera angle.
Choose a suitable angle in the viewport by navigating around the scene.
Step 6
If you want to have more control over how the final render looks, create a camera object to help. Find a suitable view using the viewport first and then click on the camera button.
This creates a camera using the current view in the viewport. Check out the camera settings to see how they affect the final render.
The End Result
Wait for the final render to finish. Once the render is complete, repeat the steps above and change the camera or the view port to create a new image from a different angle.
Throughout the course of the project you have successfully learnt:
- How to Import Reference Images
- How to Prepare for Modelling
- How to Model the Alarm Clock
- How to Create Coloured Materials
- How to Add Lighting to the Scene
- How to Render the Alarm Clock
Feel free to share your own creations below. You can also export your image into Adobe Photoshop to enhance it further or to use it as part of a larger image.
