Negotiating, dilemma's and more fun stuff

So in my previous update I said my Cinema licence expired. This was because it was a student version, which I got for a longer time than my school had planned. Which brings me now to the point where I have to buy my own professional version from a Maxon store, the creators of Cinema 4D.

Buying a version of Cinema 4D is not really an easy task for someone who just graduated. Mainly because they do cost a lot. I'm in negotiations right now with a very friendly employee at one of the international Maxon stores, in order to pick the right version and hopefully get a discount on my licence. It's already certain I'll be boosted up to an R17 version for free because I believe they're in the middle of a change of software.

Picking a version for Cinema 4D sounds easier than it is. There are 6 different versions, mostly different. Maxon themselves made a very useful list of the differences, which is updated when a new version is released as well. It's a very useful guide to get what you need without getting things you don't need and saving on the price. The list can be found right Here. And in case the link does not work, let it be phone, web, tablet or whatever else, here's the full link. maxon.net/en/products/general-information/general-information/product-comparison.html

Most would recommend getting the Studio version, as it has everything you do need and will ever need. While this is true, they do not give the price tag. The employee did give me a pricetag of every version and what it'll cost to upgrade from that version to the latest. The version numbers are not yet correct, so R16 should be R17 and R15 should be R16. But the prices, while in Euros, will be unchanged.

As you can see, while Studio has the most features, it also has the highest price tag. Which is reasonable and normal for an all-inclusive package. And this price tag also shows that Cinema is more a company-product than for private use. Or you can buy it together with some friends, all pitch in and save on money that way. 

I've looked and thought it over several times now. For me the Visualise would be the better choice. It would mean I wouldn't be able to do tutorials about physics, which are great fun to play with. But I will be able to make multiple showcases and actually serve the model right by having a good rendering feature. Until I get a good screencapture software, I wouldn't be able to capture physics tutorials in a good way anyway, and that software can rack up a few hundreds or thousands as well. So there won't be a major loss there.

In the meantime, while negotiating, I've noticed that going back in my older Cinema files will be hard to do as well. I cannot save anything, so any changes will be futile. I can't even save a render, which doesn't make things better. So in other words, there won't be any tutorial for a while still. 

Again, sorry for any inconvenience and I hope this post at least informed future buyers of which version to pick. Of course, feel free to ask any questions. 

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Downgrade

This week, week 38, I'll have no tutorials uploaded. Hopefully next week once again, as I'm having some software problems now. And by that I mean, my licence expired and I'll have to downgrade for now. I don't have the €3.000,- to get a new licence right now.

However in my current version, which is now a very restricted demo, I can still import older files. Just not save or export anything. Which luckily means that even if it would be taking longer to get a downgrade or new licence, I can always make tutorials of things I made previously. They'll probably be on the shorter side though.

Either way, I'll be slowed down for a while. My apologies for any inconvenience.

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Tutorial: Textures - Strange Coins

In an earlier Showcase I made, I showed off a model of Strange Coins. A currency used in Bungies latest game, Destiny. While the model was created by a different person than myself, I did all textures on my own. And that's what I'm going to show this time.



 On the left side you can see the top and perspective viewpoints of both sides of the coin, as textured by me. An old, golden coin with a darker bronze on the inside and a green, glowing gem in the middle. On the right side you can see the original sides of the coin, without any textures in the same perspectives. As you can see, I didn't change anything about the model. Yet the feel of the coin is entirely different. This is what textures can do. What would a game be like if it was all a light-gray colour?

But let's start with how I textured it.



 Of course, we'll start with the plain, gray model. You'd only need one, but I use two as an example for now. We'll immediately start by making 3 Texture Materials. These materials will be as followed:




A browish colour, gold and green. The values don't have to be the exact same though. It's just what I thought to be the closest to the original colours.




In these pictures I focus mainly on the right coin, as I need to apply all 3 colours to it. I simply start with applying the gold colour to the entire coin. Next I'll select the inner circle only and apply the green colour on it. This already gives it a nice little shape. The last colour, the brown, will be the hardest. First off, select the lower ring, above the green like I did. This might take some zooming in and out and some manoeuvring of the camera to get everything selected. Remember to hold Shift when you let go of the mouse, this'll keep the selection going.





When rendered, the coin will look as above. True, I already put a light with some external effects on it like Ambient, which gives a slight reflection and brings the shadow out nicely. However for our next steps, we'll be doing some detail work with the textures. Starting up with the gemstone in the middle. Green.




First off, make sure the following boxes are marked: Colour, Luminance, Reflection, Bump, Specular and Glow. The colour stays the same as before though.




As for Luminance, quite easy. Simply set it to 25% brightness and make it green. Try to match the initial colour but go slightly darker. If the luminance is darker, it'll be less visible. And in this case, we do want a slight, but clear luminance.




Reflection is easily done as well. We'll add a simple Fresnel texture, put the Brightness to 25% and put the mixmode to Multiply. The latter is most important actually. If left on Normal, the reflection will be way off and much brighter.




Bump takes a bit more, even though you'll barely see it in action on the render. However all you'll do is select the Wavy Turbulence and change the settings slightly. You can make this as strong and clear as you want though, I'm planning to redo the bump to make the gem look cracked.




Specular will just need a little adjusting. Set it to Metal and change the numbers as I did. In the end, there will be no clear reflection, which is the point as it is a glowing material.




Finally it's the glow, which will brighten the entire colour slightly. Increase the Inner Strength and decrease the Outer Strength, using the Material Colour. Now we'll apply it.






It's a big difference as you can see. It already gives a better feel to the rest of the coin as well. But we're not there yet, still two other textures to complete.




Now for the bronze, it's a bit harder work. We'll select Colour, Diffusion, Reflection, Bump and Specular. Colour immediately starts off rougher, as we'll need a noise. The biggest thing here is to blow up the scale a lot. 1500% for me. You'll see the outcome of that in the end, when we're finished with the reflection and specular.



Next stop is the Diffusion, where we go in a layer. Putting a Distort and Noise on it first, we'll give the Distort an electric Noise with 20% strength. The regular Noise will be a Luka, nearly unchanged.




Now the reflection. The main colour is a brownish one. Not too light, not too dark. As texture we'll put in simple Fresnel, with the black part tuned to a lighter gray and the Mix Mode goes to Multiply. Blur is optional, I used it for the effect. See? We're already seeing some form in it!




Here comes the harder part. We'll put the Strength to 30% now and go into a Layer. Inside the Layer we'll create two Noises. One becomes an Overlay type, the other stays Normal. We'll start off with the Overlay, which I've marked with a blue 1 and is on the bottom right side. A Turbulence slightly boosted to 200%. The Normal Noise, which is marked with a red 2 and is on the bottom left side, is a Voronoi 1 with a high boost to 1500%. This'll give it the old, bumpy, rusty feel to it.




Finally the Specular. Nothing much luckily. We change the mode to Metal and change the width and length slightly, that's all.





I've placed the previous coin, where we did the green gem in the middle, on the left side. You can see some changes, but not much. This isn't a big deal as the yellow takes most attention. We'll work on the yellow next, which will change the entire coin.




We'll start off with selecting the Colour, Diffusion, Luminance, Reflection, Bump and Specular options. This'll be the longest and hardest of the three. For colour we'll immediately start off strong by putting in a Noise. This Noise will be boosted 1500% with am FBM texture to it.




The Diffuse uses a Layer first off. No changes to the original part. Inside the Layer it uses a Distort and Noise. Basically the same as the Bronze colour had. The Noise is a Luka with a slight bump to 200%.




Now Luminance is a weirder one. Start it off with colouring it slightly darker than the gold we used for the Colour. Make the Mix Mode and Multiply and add a Lumas texture. The Lumas Texture has several parts to it. Just change the ones I've done.




Reflection is easy. A simple Fresnel, colour change and Mix Mode Multiply. The blur again, is optional.




Bump will be like the Bronze as well. Overlay is on the right side, Noise is on the left side. Pretty much exactly the same settings as well.




Specular is easy as well. Mode to Metal and a few numeral changes. That's it for the textures! And this is how it should look:




The previous one on the left, the final one on the right. As you can see, the bronze does come out more now the gold is less bright. Of course, you can mess with the lighting, camera and reflection for yourself. If you want, you can try it for yourself with different textures! This is how I textured my coin, and I do like how it turned out. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! If there are any questions, feel free to comment.

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Health problems & Delayed tutorial

I haven't addressed this on my blog before and I wasn't planning to initially, as it's a tutorial-only blog. But getting a bit personal won't be a big deal I suppose.

Anyway the point is, my health isn't in great shape right now. I've got a chronic disease called Cystic Fibrosis. In the very basics, this causes the mucus in my entire body to be thicker than syrup. This alone brings a ton of health problems, like a bad liver and barely working intestines. The most damage is done in the lungs however, where mucus is produced constantly. In my case, at a faster and thicker rate. Obviously not fun at all. For more info This Link has most details accurately on it.

Now the last years my lungs have been deteriorating at a faster pace, mainly from the years of punishment it had from the coughing I do. This caused veins in my lungs to pop. In other words, me coughing up blood. It's obviously a very scary thought, let alone for a 13 year old kid. I'm in therapy for it with a psychologist to process it step by step, which is going pretty well after 9 psychologists tried. Basically I'm a big mess.

In the case of this week, I had another bleeding. A minor one mind you. It's just a hit on my mental and physical stability. That's why there has not been another tutorial this entire week. I've nearly finished one, but didn't have the capability to finish it yet. So my apologies for that. I'll be sure to post it up early next week if everything goes right. This'll most likely happen again in the future and I'll post an update on it at those times.

Of course, for any questions you can simply comment and I'll reply as soon as I can!

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