Cinema 4d bodypaint 3d Manual

496
Reference Manual

description

Cinema 4d bodypaint 3d Manual

Transcript of Cinema 4d bodypaint 3d Manual

Page 1: Cinema 4d bodypaint 3d Manual

Reference Manual

Page 2: Cinema 4d bodypaint 3d Manual

Reference Manual

Program Tilo Kühn, Richard Kurz, Christian Losch, Philip LoschFilters Sven Behne, Wilfried BehneManual Oliver Becker, Dirk Beichert, Michael Giebel, Jörn Gollob, Janine Pauke,

Onur Pekdemir, Harald SchneiderEnglish translation Luke Stacy, David Link, Matthew O'Neill, Harald EgelLayout David Link, Jeff Walker, Harald Egel, Michael GiebelCover/box design Onur Pekdemir

Copyright © 1989–2000 byMAXON Computer GmbH, Max-Planck-Str, 20, 61381 Friedrichsdorf, Germany

All rights reserved. This manual and the accompanying software are copyright protected. No part of thisdocument may be translated, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic ormechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of MAXON Computer GmbH.

Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the program and this manual,MAXON Computer assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumedfor damages resulting from the use of the program or from the information contained in this manual.

Copyrights and Trademarks

MAXON and CINEMA 4D are registered trademarks of MAXON Computer GmbH.BodyPaint 3D, CINEMA 4D, C.O.F.F.E.E., HyperNURBS and RayBrush are registered trademarks ofMAXON Computer GmbH or MAXON Computer Inc.Macintosh, Mac OS, Apple and QuickTime are registered trademarks of Apple Computer.Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT and Microsoft are registered trademarks of MicrosoftCorporation.

UNIX is a registered trademark only licensed to X/Open Company Ltd.Adobe Illustrator, Acrobat and Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.All other brand and product names mentioned in this manual are trademarks or registeredtrademarks of their respective companies, and are hereby acknowledged.

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MAXON Computer License Agreementfor CINEMA 4D / BodyPaint 3D

NOTICE TO USER

WITH THE INSTALLATION OF CINEMA 4D / BODYPAINT 3D A CONTRACT IS CONCLUDEDBETWEEN YOU AND MAXON COMPUTER GMBH, IN THE FOLLOWING CALLED THE“LICENSOR”, A COMPANY UNDER GERMAN LAW WITH RESIDENCE IN FRIEDRICHSDORF,GERMANY. “YOU“ AND THE “USER“ REFERS TO THE LICENSEE.

WHEREAS BY INDICATING YOUR ACCEPTANCE BELOW, YOU ACCEPT ALL THE TERMS ANDCONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IN THE CASE OF NON-ACCEPTANCE OF THIS LICENSE YOUARE NOT PERMITTED TO INSTALL THE SOFTWARE.

IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THIS LICENSE PLEASE SEND THE SOFTWARE TOGETHER WITH THEDOCUMENTATION TO MAXON COMPUTER OR TO THE SUPPLIER WHERE YOU BOUGHT THESOFTWARE.

1. General

Under this contract the licensor grants to you a non-exclusive license to use CINEMA 4D /BodyPaint 3D, which is software and documentation, in the following called the ”software“. Thesoftware itself as well as the copy of the software or any other copy you are authorized to makeunder this contract remain the property of the licensor.

2. Use of the Software

(1) The user of this license is authorized to copy the software as far as the copy is necessary to usethe software. Necessary copies are the installation of the program from the original disk to the massstorage medium of your hardware as well as the loading of the program into RAM.

(2) Furthermore the user is entitled to make a backup copy. However only one backup copy may bemade and kept in store. This backup copy must be identified as a backup copy of the licensedsoftware. (3) Further copies ARE NOT ALLOWED; this also covers the making of a hard copy of theprogram code on a printer as well as copies, in any form, of the documentation.

3. Multiple use and network operation

(1) The user may use the software on any hardware available to him. However, should the userchange the hardware he is obliged to delete the software from the mass storage medium of thehardware used up to then. A simultaneous installation or use on more than one hardware IS NOTALLOWED.

(2) The use of the licensed software for network operation or other client server systems isprohibited if this opens the possibility of simultaneous multiple use of the software. In the case thatthe user intends to use the software in network operation or other client server system he has to

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take care that a multiple use is not possible by employing the necessary access security or otherwisethe user has to pay to the licensor a special network license fee, the amount of which is determinedby the number of users admitted to the network.

(3) The license fee for networks will be communicated to the licensee by the licensor immediatelyafter the user has indicated the number of admitted users in writing. The correct address of thelicensor is given in the manual and also at the end of this contract. The network use may start onlyafter the pertaining license fee is completely paid.

4. Transfer

(1) You may not rent, lease, sublicense or lend the software or documentation. You may, however,transfer all your rights to use the software to another person or legal entity provided that youtransfer this agreement, the software, including all copies, updates or prior versions as well as allcopies of the font software converted to other formats and all documentation to such person orentity and that you retain no copies, including copies stored on a computer and that the otherperson agrees that the terms of this agreement remain valid and that his acceptance iscommunicated to the licensor.

(2) The user is obliged to carefully store the terms of the agreement. Prior to the transfer of thesoftware the user has to inform the new user of these terms. In case the user does not have theterms at hand at the time of the transfer of the software, he is obliged to request a second copyfrom the licensor, the cost of which is born by the licensee.

(3) In case of transfer the license of the former user expires.

5. Recompilation and changes of the software

(1) The recompilation of the provided program code in other code forms as well as all other types ofreverse engineering of the different phases of software production including any alterations of thesoftware are not allowed.

(2) The removal of the security against copy or similar safety systems is only permitted if a faultlessperformance of the software is impaired or hindered by such security. The burden of proof for thefact that the performance of the program is impaired or hindered by the security device rests withthe user.

(3) Copyright notices, serial numbers or other identifications of the software may not be removed orchanged. The software is owned by the licensor and its structure, organization and code are thevaluable trade secrets of the licensor. It is also protected by United States Copyright andInternational Treaty provisions. Except as stated above, this agreement does not grant you anyintellectual property rights on the software.

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6. Limited warranty

(1) The parties hereto agree, that at present it is not possible to develop and produce software insuch a way that it is fit for any conditions of use without problems. The licensor warrants that thesoftware will perform substantially in accordance with the documentation. The licensor does notwarrant that the software and the documentation comply with certain requirements and purposes ofthe user or works together with other software used by the licensee. The user is obliged to check thesoftware and the documentation carefully immediately upon receipt and has to inform the licensor inwriting of apparent defects 14 days after receipt. Latent defects have to be communicated in thesame manner immediately after their discovery. Otherwise the software and documentation areconsidered to be faultless. The defects, in particular the symptoms that occurred, are to be describedin detail in as much as the user is able to do so. The warranty is granted for a period of 6 monthsfrom delivery of the software (for the date of which the date of the purchase according to theinvoice is decisive, respectively in case of shipment by the licensor the date of the invoice). Thelicensor is free to cure the defects by free repair or provision of a faultless update.

The licensor and its suppliers do not and cannot warrant the performance and the results you mayobtain by using the software or documentation. The foregoing states the sole and exclusive remediesfor the licensor’s or its suppliers’ breach of warranty, except for the foregoing limited warranty. Thelicensor and its suppliers make no warranties, express or implied, as to noninfringement of thirdparty rights, merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. In no event will the licensor or itssuppliers be liable for any consequential, incidental or special damages, including any lost profits orlost savings, even if a representative of licensor has been advised of the possibility of such damagesor for any claim by any third party.

If the licensor is unable to repair or replace the program in such way that it fulfils this agreement, theuser is entitled to withdraw from the agreement or is entitled to a reduction in the license fee. If thecreation of a program in the sense of this agreement is not possible with reasonable effort and withina reasonable time, the licensor is entitled to withdraw from the agreement.

(2) In the case of enforcement of guarantee by the user, the user is obliged to return the programand manuals together with proof of purchase. The cost of the return is to be borne by the licensor.

(3) The licensor accepts no liability should the software infringe third-party rights unless theinfringement was caused by gross negligence or is shown to be culpable. In this case only, thelicensor will excuse the user from any possible costs for the judicial defence of the enforcement ofcopyrights and damages by the third party.

Some states or jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental, consequential orspecial damages, or the exclusion of implied warranties or limitations on how long an impliedwarranty may last, so the above limitations may not apply to you. In this case a special limitedwarranty is attached as exhibit to this agreement, which becomes part of this agreement. To theextent permissible, any implied warranties are limited to 6 months. This warranty gives you specificlegal rights. You may have other rights which vary from state to state or jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Inthe case that no special warranty is attached to your contract please contact the licensor for furtherwarranty information.

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7. Damage in transit

The user is obliged to immediately inform the transport agent in writing of any eventual damages intransit and has to provide the licensor with a copy of said correspondence, since all transportation isinsured by the licensor if shipment was procured by him.

8. Secrecy

The user is obliged to take careful measures to protect the programs and their documentation, inparticular the serial number, from access by third parties. The user is not permitted to duplicate orpass on the programs or documentation. These obligations apply equally to the user’s employees orother persons engaged by the user to operate the programs. The user will pass on these obligationsto such persons. The user is liable for damages in all instances where these obligations have not beenmet.

9. Information

In case of transfer of the software the user is obliged to inform the licensor of the name and fulladdress of the transferee in writing. The address of the licensor is stated in the manual and at theend of this contract.

10. Data Protection

For the purpose of customer registration and control of proper use of the programs licensor will storepersonal data of the users in accordance with the German law on Data Protection(Bundesdatenschutzgesetz). This data may only be used for the above-mentioned purposes and willnot be accessible to third parties. Upon request of the user the licensor will at any time inform theuser of the data stored with regard to him.

11. Other

(1) This contract includes all rights and obligations of the parties. There are no other agreements.Any changes or alterations of this agreement have to be performed in writing with reference to thisagreement and have to be signed by both contracting parties. This also applies to the agreement onabolition of the written form.

(2) This agreement is governed by German law. Place of jurisdiction is the competent court inFrankfurt am Main. This agreement will not be governed by the United Nations Convention onContracts for the International Sale of Goods, the application of which is expressly excluded.

(3) If any part of this agreement is found void and unenforceable, it will not affect the validity of thebalance of the agreement which shall remain valid and enforceable according to its terms.

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12. Termination

This agreement shall automatically terminate upon failure by you to comply with its terms despitebeing given an additional period to do so. In case of termination due to the aforementioned reason,user is obliged to return the program and all documentation to licensor. Furthermore, upon requestof licensor user has to submit written declaration that he is not in possession of any copy of theprogram on data storage devices or on the computer itself.

13. Information and Notices

Should you have any questions concerning this agreement or if you desire to contact MAXONCOMPUTER for any reason and for all notifications to be performed under this agreement, pleasewrite to:

MAXON ComputerGmbH Max-Planck-Str. 20D-61381FriedrichsdorfGermany

or for North and South America to:

MAXON Computer Inc.566 St. Charles Drive, Suite 2Thousand Oaks, CA 91360USA

We also shall be glad to provide you with the address of your nearest supplier.

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ContentsPreface 1

1 Getting to Know BodyPaint 3D 5Launching ......................................................................................................................................................... 5

Quitting ............................................................................................................................................................ 5

Mouse Techniques ............................................................................................................................................ 5

Graphics Tablet ................................................................................................................................................. 5

Hotkeys 1 to 7 .................................................................................................................................................. 6

The GUI ............................................................................................................................................................ 6

2 View Menu 13View Panels .................................................................................................................................................... 13

View Icons ...................................................................................................................................................... 13

Edit ................................................................................................................................................................. 13

Undo View/Redo View.............................................................................................................................. 13

Frame ........................................................................................................................................................ 13

Use as Render View................................................................................................................................... 14

Redraw ...................................................................................................................................................... 14

Configure .................................................................................................................................................. 14

Cameras ......................................................................................................................................................... 15

Scene Cameras .......................................................................................................................................... 15

Link Active Object ..................................................................................................................................... 15

Editor Camera ........................................................................................................................................... 15

Projection ....................................................................................................................................................... 16

Perspective ................................................................................................................................................ 16

Parallel ....................................................................................................................................................... 16

Left ............................................................................................................................................................ 16

Right ......................................................................................................................................................... 17

Front .......................................................................................................................................................... 17

Back ........................................................................................................................................................... 17

Top ............................................................................................................................................................ 17

Bottom ...................................................................................................................................................... 18

Military ...................................................................................................................................................... 18

Frog ........................................................................................................................................................... 18

Bird ............................................................................................................................................................ 19

Gentleman ................................................................................................................................................. 19

Isometric .................................................................................................................................................... 19

Dimetric ..................................................................................................................................................... 19

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Display ............................................................................................................................................................ 20

Level Of Detail .......................................................................................................................................... 20

Gouraud Shading ...................................................................................................................................... 20

Quick Shading ........................................................................................................................................... 20

Wireframe ................................................................................................................................................. 20

Isoparms .................................................................................................................................................... 21

Shaded Box ............................................................................................................................................... 21

Box ............................................................................................................................................................ 21

Skeleton .................................................................................................................................................... 21

Use Shading Property ................................................................................................................................ 22

Backface Culling ........................................................................................................................................ 22

Textures ..................................................................................................................................................... 23

X-Ray ........................................................................................................................................................ 23

View ............................................................................................................................................................... 24

View arrangement ..................................................................................................................................... 24

Toggle Active View .................................................................................................................................... 24

View 1 - View 4/All Views ........................................................................................................................ 24

3 Configuration 27Overview ........................................................................................................................................................ 27

The Configuration Dialogs ........................................................................................................................ 27

The Configuration Managers .................................................................................................................... 28

Other Settings ........................................................................................................................................... 28

Graphical User Interface ................................................................................................................................. 28

The Main Window .................................................................................................................................... 28

Tabs ........................................................................................................................................................... 31

Command Palettes .................................................................................................................................... 32

The Command Manager ........................................................................................................................... 36

The Menu Manager .................................................................................................................................. 38

The Pin Menu ............................................................................................................................................ 39

General Settings ............................................................................................................................................. 40

General ...................................................................................................................................................... 40

Views ......................................................................................................................................................... 45

Interface .................................................................................................................................................... 49

Texture Paths ............................................................................................................................................. 51

BodyPaint .................................................................................................................................................. 51

Macintosh ................................................................................................................................................. 52

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4 Workflow 55Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 55

Here To Help .................................................................................................................................................. 55

Working With Layouts ................................................................................................................................... 55

Load Layout .............................................................................................................................................. 56

Reset Layout ............................................................................................................................................. 56

Save As Default Layout ............................................................................................................................. 57

Save Layout As .......................................................................................................................................... 57

Further Menu Items .................................................................................................................................. 57

The Browser ................................................................................................................................................... 57

Working with the Browser ......................................................................................................................... 57

The Drawing Pin ........................................................................................................................................ 60

File Menu .................................................................................................................................................. 60

Edit Menu .................................................................................................................................................. 63

Function Menu .......................................................................................................................................... 64

Initialisation Files ............................................................................................................................................ 66

5 BodyPaint 3D Basics 69

6 Color Manager 75The Color Settings .......................................................................................................................................... 75

General ...................................................................................................................................................... 75

The Multi Channel Palette ......................................................................................................................... 81

The Color Manager ........................................................................................................................................ 83

7 Brush Manager 89Brush Settings ................................................................................................................................................. 89

General ...................................................................................................................................................... 89

The Brush Manager ........................................................................................................................................ 98

File Menu .................................................................................................................................................. 98

Edit Menu .................................................................................................................................................. 99

Group Menu .............................................................................................................................................. 99

View menu ................................................................................................................................................ 99

Brush Groups ........................................................................................................................................... 100

Creating your own MultiBrush ................................................................................................................ 102

8 Layer Manager 107About Layers ........................................................................................................................................... 107

Managing Layers .......................................................................................................................................... 107

Top Area .................................................................................................................................................. 107

View Menu .............................................................................................................................................. 112

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Channels Menu ....................................................................................................................................... 112

Functions Menu ...................................................................................................................................... 113

Bitmap Info ................................................................................................................................................... 115

The Info Area .......................................................................................................................................... 115

The Parameters Area ............................................................................................................................... 116

Working with Layers .................................................................................................................................... 117

9 Texture View 127General ......................................................................................................................................................... 127

File Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 129

New Texture ............................................................................................................................................ 129

Open Texture .......................................................................................................................................... 130

Revert to Saved ....................................................................................................................................... 130

Close Texture ........................................................................................................................................... 130

Close All Textures .................................................................................................................................... 130

Save Texture ............................................................................................................................................ 131

Save Texture as ....................................................................................................................................... 131

Save Texture as Copy .............................................................................................................................. 131

Save All Textures ..................................................................................................................................... 131

Close ....................................................................................................................................................... 132

Edit Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 132

Undo ....................................................................................................................................................... 132

Redo ........................................................................................................................................................ 132

Cut .......................................................................................................................................................... 133

Copy ........................................................................................................................................................ 133

Copy Merged .......................................................................................................................................... 133

Paste ....................................................................................................................................................... 133

Paste into Selection ................................................................................................................................. 133

Delete ...................................................................................................................................................... 133

Fill Layer .................................................................................................................................................. 133

Select All .................................................................................................................................................. 134

Deselect All ............................................................................................................................................. 134

Invert Selection ........................................................................................................................................ 134

Tools Menu ................................................................................................................................................... 134

The UV Editor - Introduction ................................................................................................................... 134

Show UV Mesh ....................................................................................................................................... 136

Edit Points ............................................................................................................................................... 136

Edit Polygons ........................................................................................................................................... 137

Selecting UV Points or UV Polygons ....................................................................................................... 137

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Live Selection .......................................................................................................................................... 137

Rectangle Selection ................................................................................................................................. 138

Polygon Selection .................................................................................................................................... 138

Free Selection .......................................................................................................................................... 139

Editing UV Polygons ................................................................................................................................ 139

Other UV Tools ....................................................................................................................................... 141

Move ....................................................................................................................................................... 141

Uniform Scale .......................................................................................................................................... 143

Non-Uniform Scale .................................................................................................................................. 143

Rotate ..................................................................................................................................................... 143

Shear U, Shear V ..................................................................................................................................... 144

Magnet ................................................................................................................................................... 144

Functions Menu............................................................................................................................................ 146

Bake UV .................................................................................................................................................. 146

Restore UV .............................................................................................................................................. 146

Remap ..................................................................................................................................................... 146

Optimal Mapping .................................................................................................................................... 147

Fit Canvas To UV ..................................................................................................................................... 149

Clear UV .................................................................................................................................................. 149

Mirror U .................................................................................................................................................. 149

Mirror V .................................................................................................................................................. 149

Transform ................................................................................................................................................ 149

Start Interactive Mapping ........................................................................................................................ 150

Stop Interactive Mapping ........................................................................................................................ 150

Bitmap Filter Menu ....................................................................................................................................... 151

Filter Settings ........................................................................................................................................... 152

Filter Examples ............................................................................................................................................. 152

View Menu ................................................................................................................................................... 159

Fit to Screen ............................................................................................................................................ 159

Zoom 100% ............................................................................................................................................ 159

Zoom In ................................................................................................................................................... 159

Zoom Out ............................................................................................................................................... 159

Set Zoom ................................................................................................................................................. 159

Textures Menu .............................................................................................................................................. 159

10 Painter Menu 163Bitmap Selection ........................................................................................................................................... 163

Select Circle ............................................................................................................................................. 163

Select Rectangle ...................................................................................................................................... 164

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Select Polylines ........................................................................................................................................ 165

Select Freehand ....................................................................................................................................... 165

Magic Wand ............................................................................................................................................ 167

Select Color Range .................................................................................................................................. 167

Select All .................................................................................................................................................. 168

Deselect All ............................................................................................................................................. 168

Invert All .................................................................................................................................................. 168

Feather .................................................................................................................................................... 168

Grow Selection ........................................................................................................................................ 169

Shrink Selection ....................................................................................................................................... 169

Edit Selection Mask ................................................................................................................................. 169

Tools ............................................................................................................................................................. 170

Move Layer ............................................................................................................................................. 170

Magnify ................................................................................................................................................... 170

Eyedropper .............................................................................................................................................. 170

Brush ....................................................................................................................................................... 171

Clone ....................................................................................................................................................... 171

Eraser ...................................................................................................................................................... 172

Fill Bitmap ............................................................................................................................................... 172

Transform Bitmap .................................................................................................................................... 172

Draw Line ................................................................................................................................................ 174

Draw Text ................................................................................................................................................ 174

Draw Polygon Shape ............................................................................................................................... 175

Functions ...................................................................................................................................................... 178

Texture Size ............................................................................................................................................. 178

Canvas Size ............................................................................................................................................. 179

Rotate Texture ......................................................................................................................................... 180

Flip Texture Horizontal/Vertical ............................................................................................................... 181

Fill Layer .................................................................................................................................................. 181

Fill Polygons ............................................................................................................................................ 181

Outline Polygons ..................................................................................................................................... 181

Create Mask from Selection .................................................................................................................... 181

Bitmap Filter ................................................................................................................................................. 182

RayBrush Mode ............................................................................................................................................ 182

RayBrush Render View ............................................................................................................................ 183

RayBrush Render Active Object .............................................................................................................. 183

RayBrush Render Region ......................................................................................................................... 183

High Quality Shading ................................................................................................................................... 183

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Display Selected Channel ............................................................................................................................. 183

Tile U / V ...................................................................................................................................................... 183

11 Object Manager 187File Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 189

New Tag .................................................................................................................................................. 189

Restore Selection ..................................................................................................................................... 196

Load Object ............................................................................................................................................ 196

Save Object As... ..................................................................................................................................... 196

Display Tags ............................................................................................................................................ 196

Close ....................................................................................................................................................... 196

Edit Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 197

Undo ....................................................................................................................................................... 197

Redo ........................................................................................................................................................ 197

Cut .......................................................................................................................................................... 197

Copy ........................................................................................................................................................ 197

Paste ....................................................................................................................................................... 197

Delete ...................................................................................................................................................... 197

Select All .................................................................................................................................................. 197

Deselect All ............................................................................................................................................. 197

Objects Menu ............................................................................................................................................... 198

Object Display ......................................................................................................................................... 198

Object Activation .................................................................................................................................... 198

Edit Object .............................................................................................................................................. 199

Rename Object ....................................................................................................................................... 199

Group Objects ......................................................................................................................................... 199

Expand Object Group .............................................................................................................................. 199

Information (Object) ............................................................................................................................... 199

Information (Scene) ................................................................................................................................. 200

Search Active Object ............................................................................................................................... 200

Fold All .................................................................................................................................................... 200

Unfold All ................................................................................................................................................ 200

Tags Menu .................................................................................................................................................... 201

Edit Tag ................................................................................................................................................... 201

Copy Tag to Children .............................................................................................................................. 201

Delete Tag from Children ........................................................................................................................ 201

Texture Menu ............................................................................................................................................... 201

Generate UVW coordinates .................................................................................................................... 201

Assign UVW coordinates ......................................................................................................................... 202

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Fit to Object ............................................................................................................................................ 202

Fit to Image ............................................................................................................................................. 203

Fit to Region ............................................................................................................................................ 203

Adapt to Object Axis ............................................................................................................................... 203

Adapt to World Axes ............................................................................................................................... 203

Adapt to View ......................................................................................................................................... 203

Mirror Horizontally .................................................................................................................................. 204

Mirror Vertically ....................................................................................................................................... 204

12 Material Manager 207File Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 208

New Material .......................................................................................................................................... 208

New 3D Shader ....................................................................................................................................... 208

Load Materials ......................................................................................................................................... 209

Save Material As ...................................................................................................................................... 209

Save All Materials As ............................................................................................................................... 209

Close ....................................................................................................................................................... 209

Edit Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 209

Undo ....................................................................................................................................................... 209

Redo ........................................................................................................................................................ 209

Cut .......................................................................................................................................................... 209

Copy ........................................................................................................................................................ 210

Paste ....................................................................................................................................................... 210

Delete ...................................................................................................................................................... 210

Small, Medium, Large Icons .................................................................................................................... 210

Function Menu ............................................................................................................................................. 210

Render Material ....................................................................................................................................... 210

Render All Materials ................................................................................................................................ 210

Sort Materials .......................................................................................................................................... 211

Edit .......................................................................................................................................................... 211

Apply ....................................................................................................................................................... 211

Rename ................................................................................................................................................... 212

Remove Unused Materials ...................................................................................................................... 212

Remove Duplicate Materials .................................................................................................................... 212

The Material Editor ....................................................................................................................................... 212

The Color Pane ........................................................................................................................................ 213

The Texture Pane .................................................................................................................................... 214

The Mix Pane .......................................................................................................................................... 219

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The Material Editor Pages ............................................................................................................................. 220

Color ....................................................................................................................................................... 220

Diffusion .................................................................................................................................................. 220

Luminance ............................................................................................................................................... 221

Transparency ........................................................................................................................................... 222

Reflection ................................................................................................................................................ 225

Environment ............................................................................................................................................ 227

Fog .......................................................................................................................................................... 228

Bump ....................................................................................................................................................... 229

Alpha ....................................................................................................................................................... 231

Specular ................................................................................................................................................... 234

Specular Color ......................................................................................................................................... 235

Glow ........................................................................................................................................................ 236

Displacement ........................................................................................................................................... 237

The Shaders .................................................................................................................................................. 238

2D Channel Shaders ................................................................................................................................ 238

3D Volume Shaders ................................................................................................................................. 249

Texture Mapping .......................................................................................................................................... 255

Texture geometry .................................................................................................................................... 255

Tiled Textures .......................................................................................................................................... 265

Texture Layers .............................................................................................................................................. 267

Restrict to Selection ................................................................................................................................. 269

13 Picture Manager 273File Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 273

Open ....................................................................................................................................................... 273

Export ...................................................................................................................................................... 273

Stop Rendering ........................................................................................................................................ 273

Close ....................................................................................................................................................... 273

Edit Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 274

Copy ........................................................................................................................................................ 274

View Menu ................................................................................................................................................... 274

Fit to Size ................................................................................................................................................ 274

Zoom Factors .......................................................................................................................................... 274

Zoom In, Zoom Out ................................................................................................................................ 274

Red, Green, Blue ..................................................................................................................................... 274

Alpha ....................................................................................................................................................... 274

Grayscale ................................................................................................................................................. 274

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14 Structure Manager 277Navigation ............................................................................................................................................... 277

File Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 278

New Line ................................................................................................................................................. 278

Import ASCII Data ................................................................................................................................... 278

Export ASCII Data ................................................................................................................................... 279

Close ....................................................................................................................................................... 279

Edit Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 279

Undo ....................................................................................................................................................... 279

Redo ........................................................................................................................................................ 279

Cut .......................................................................................................................................................... 279

Copy ........................................................................................................................................................ 279

Paste ....................................................................................................................................................... 279

Delete ...................................................................................................................................................... 279

Select All .................................................................................................................................................. 279

Deselect All ............................................................................................................................................. 280

Invert All .................................................................................................................................................. 280

Select Area .............................................................................................................................................. 280

View Menu ................................................................................................................................................... 280

Jump Last Selection ................................................................................................................................. 280

Jump Next Selection ................................................................................................................................ 280

Jump Page Up ......................................................................................................................................... 280

Jump Page Down .................................................................................................................................... 280

Jump Home ............................................................................................................................................. 280

Jump End ................................................................................................................................................. 280

Mode Menu ................................................................................................................................................. 281

Points (default) ........................................................................................................................................ 281

Polygons .................................................................................................................................................. 281

UVW ....................................................................................................................................................... 281

15 Coordinate Manager 285

16 File Menu 289Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 289

The File ‘New.c4d’ ................................................................................................................................... 289

The File ‘Template.c4d’ ........................................................................................................................... 289

New ......................................................................................................................................................... 289

Open ....................................................................................................................................................... 289

Import ..................................................................................................................................................... 290

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Revert to Saved ....................................................................................................................................... 290

Close ....................................................................................................................................................... 290

Close All .................................................................................................................................................. 290

Close All Textures .................................................................................................................................... 290

Save ......................................................................................................................................................... 290

Save As .................................................................................................................................................... 291

Save All ................................................................................................................................................... 291

Save All Textures ..................................................................................................................................... 291

Save Project ............................................................................................................................................. 291

Export ...................................................................................................................................................... 291

Import / Export Settings .......................................................................................................................... 292

Recent Files ............................................................................................................................................. 298

Recent Files ............................................................................................................................................. 299

Quit ......................................................................................................................................................... 299

17 Edit Menu 303Undo/Redo .................................................................................................................................................. 303

Undo (Undo View) .................................................................................................................................. 304

Redo (Redo View) ................................................................................................................................... 304

Undo (Texture) ........................................................................................................................................ 304

The Clipboard ............................................................................................................................................... 305

Cut .......................................................................................................................................................... 305

Copy ........................................................................................................................................................ 305

Paste ....................................................................................................................................................... 305

Delete ...................................................................................................................................................... 306

Selection ....................................................................................................................................................... 306

Select All .................................................................................................................................................. 306

Deselect All ............................................................................................................................................. 306

Screen Refresh .............................................................................................................................................. 306

Use Generators ........................................................................................................................................ 306

Use Deformers ........................................................................................................................................ 306

Customisation ............................................................................................................................................... 306

General Settings ...................................................................................................................................... 306

18 Objects Menu 309Null Object ................................................................................................................................................... 309

NURBS > Hyper NURBS ............................................................................................................................... 310

Scene > Camera ........................................................................................................................................... 311

Interactive control of the camera and its parameters .............................................................................. 313

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Cameras Menu ............................................................................................................................................. 314

Scene Cameras ........................................................................................................................................ 314

Link Active Object ................................................................................................................................... 314

Editor Camera ......................................................................................................................................... 314

Scene > Target Camera ................................................................................................................................. 315

Scene > Light ................................................................................................................................................ 315

Light Settings ................................................................................................................................................ 316

General .................................................................................................................................................... 316

Details ..................................................................................................................................................... 327

Shadow ................................................................................................................................................... 333

Visible Light ............................................................................................................................................. 338

Noise Tab ................................................................................................................................................ 343

Lens Effects ............................................................................................................................................. 345

Glow Editor ............................................................................................................................................. 347

Lens Editor .............................................................................................................................................. 349

Making Gels ............................................................................................................................................ 352

Three Point Lighting ................................................................................................................................ 352

Target Light .................................................................................................................................................. 354

Floor ............................................................................................................................................................. 354

Sky ............................................................................................................................................................... 355

Environment ................................................................................................................................................. 356

Background .................................................................................................................................................. 357

19 Tools Menu 361Move ............................................................................................................................................................ 361

Scale ............................................................................................................................................................. 362

Rotation ........................................................................................................................................................ 363

Magnify ........................................................................................................................................................ 364

Using the Keyboard ................................................................................................................................. 364

Camera ......................................................................................................................................................... 364

Move ....................................................................................................................................................... 364

Scale ........................................................................................................................................................ 365

Rotation .................................................................................................................................................. 365

Object .......................................................................................................................................................... 366

Points ........................................................................................................................................................... 366

Polygons ....................................................................................................................................................... 366

Object Axis ................................................................................................................................................... 367

Model ........................................................................................................................................................... 367

The difference between the Object and the Model tool ......................................................................... 367

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Texture ......................................................................................................................................................... 369

Texture Axis .................................................................................................................................................. 369

3D Painting Mode ........................................................................................................................................ 370

The Axes ....................................................................................................................................................... 370

World System ............................................................................................................................................... 370

20 Selection Menu 373Fundamentals ............................................................................................................................................... 373

Selection Menu ............................................................................................................................................. 374

Rectangle Selection ................................................................................................................................. 375

Freehand Selection .................................................................................................................................. 376

Polygon Selection .................................................................................................................................... 377

Live Selection .......................................................................................................................................... 378

Select All .................................................................................................................................................. 379

Deselect All ............................................................................................................................................. 379

Invert ....................................................................................................................................................... 379

Select Connected..................................................................................................................................... 379

Grow Selection ........................................................................................................................................ 380

Shrink Selection ....................................................................................................................................... 380

Polygon Selection From Points ................................................................................................................ 381

Point Selection From Polygons ................................................................................................................ 381

Select Adjacent Polygons ........................................................................................................................ 381

Hide Selected .......................................................................................................................................... 381

Hide Unselected ...................................................................................................................................... 381

Unhide All ............................................................................................................................................... 381

Invert Visibility ......................................................................................................................................... 381

Set Selection ............................................................................................................................................ 382

Frozen Selections in the Object Manager ..................................................................................................... 382

21 Structure Menu 387Edit Surface .................................................................................................................................................. 387

Disconnect ............................................................................................................................................... 387

Explode Segments ................................................................................................................................... 387

Split ......................................................................................................................................................... 387

Make Editable ............................................................................................................................................... 388

Align Normals ............................................................................................................................................... 388

Reverse Normals ........................................................................................................................................... 389

22 Functions Menu 393Connect ........................................................................................................................................................ 393

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23 Plug-ins Menu 397Execute Last Plug-in ..................................................................................................................................... 397

Compile File … ............................................................................................................................................. 397

Sub-folders ................................................................................................................................................... 397

24 Render Menu 401Render View ............................................................................................................................................ 401

Render Active Object .............................................................................................................................. 401

Render Region ......................................................................................................................................... 402

Render to Picture Viewer ......................................................................................................................... 402

Render Settings ....................................................................................................................................... 402

New Render Settings ............................................................................................................................... 403

Delete Render Settings ............................................................................................................................ 403

Render Settings Dialog ................................................................................................................................. 404

General Tab ............................................................................................................................................. 404

Output Tab .............................................................................................................................................. 410

Save Tab .................................................................................................................................................. 412

Effects Tab ............................................................................................................................................... 415

Options Tab ............................................................................................................................................. 416

25 Window Menu 425Layout ..................................................................................................................................................... 425

Painter ..................................................................................................................................................... 426

New View ................................................................................................................................................ 426

Object Manager ...................................................................................................................................... 427

Material Manager .................................................................................................................................... 427

Picture Viewer ......................................................................................................................................... 427

Coordinate Manager ............................................................................................................................... 427

Structure Manager .................................................................................................................................. 427

Browser ................................................................................................................................................... 427

Global Status Bar ..................................................................................................................................... 428

Active Tool Manager ............................................................................................................................... 428

Console ................................................................................................................................................... 428

Command Manager ................................................................................................................................ 428

Menu Manager ....................................................................................................................................... 428

Other Entries ........................................................................................................................................... 428

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26 Help Menu 431Help (CINEMA 4D) .................................................................................................................................. 431

Help (BodyPaint 3D) ............................................................................................................................... 431

MAXON Online ...................................................................................................................................... 431

Personalize .............................................................................................................................................. 431

Info .......................................................................................................................................................... 431

Appendices 435Appendix 1 Formulas .................................................................................................................................... 435

Units ........................................................................................................................................................ 435

Operators ................................................................................................................................................ 435

Constants ................................................................................................................................................ 436

Appendix 2 Programming Plug-ins ............................................................................................................... 437

The C.O.F.F.E.E. Programming Language ................................................................................................ 437

The API ................................................................................................................................................... 437

C.O.F.F.E.E. Support ................................................................................................................................ 438

Appendix 3 File Formats ............................................................................................................................... 439

Image Formats ........................................................................................................................................ 439

3D Formats .............................................................................................................................................. 440

Appendix 4 Support ..................................................................................................................................... 443

Appendix 5 Glossary ..................................................................................................................................... 445

Index 451

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Hall of HonorProgramming

Tilo Kühn Richard Kurz Christian Losch Philip LoschSven Behne Wilfried Behne

ManualsPaul Babb Rick Barrett Oliver Becker Dirk Beichert

Chris Broeska Michael Giebel Jason Goldsmith Jörn GollobDavid Link Aaron Matthew Janine Pauke Harald Schneider

Luke Stacy Jeff Walker

Graphics and IconsJanine Pauke Jörn Gollob Onur Pekdemir

LayoutOliver Becker Harald Egel Michael Giebel David Link Jeff Walker

Beta TestingKevin Aguirre (US), Peder Åkesson (S), Michael Auerbach (D), Lonnie Bailey (US),

Luke Stacy (GB), Stefan Bauer (D), Jens Bosse (D), Chris Broeska (CAN),Andreas Calmbach (D), Wen-Kai Chen (AUS/Taiwan), Frank Cords (US), David P. Farmer (US),

Bill Fleming (US), Rob Garrott (US), Sebastian Geiger (D), Peter J. Gould (US),Gerald Grote (D), Jamie Halmick (US), Jori Helminen (S), Josiah Hultgren (US),

Nicholas Jainschigg (US), Klaus Karlhuber (A), András Kavalecz (D), Donovan Keith (US),Kenn Kilgore (US), Carey Klein (US), Arndt von Königsmarck (D), Ulrich Kopka (D),Jens-Ulrich Kriebeler (CH), Jutta Lachfeld (D), Arno Löwecke (CH), Lothar Mai (D),

Alessandro Maniscalco (I), Stephen Marriott (GB), Chris Meyer (US), Christopher Mills (US),Peter Morlock (D), Brian Myers (US), NAAM (NL), Ulf Ohnesorge (D), Matthew O’Neill (GB),

David O’Reilly (GB), Gerald Rice (US), Axel Rösgen (D), Dough Salin (US),Richard Schrand (US), Robert Schmid (CH), Peter Schula (D), Bernd Seeger (D),

Paul Sherstobitoff (US), Hayashi Shigeki (JP), Mikael Sterner (S), Alec Syme (US),Imamura Takuya (JP), Paul Taylor (GB), Kay Tennemann (D), Chuck Thomas (US), thorn (US),

Fuji Toshio (JP), Chris Villa (US), Adam Watkins (US), Michael Welter (D),Albrecht-M. Wendlandt (D), Simon Wicker (GB), Kevin Willis (US), Manabe Yoshihiro (JP),

Akita Yuichi (JP), Frank Zeyer (D)

TherapyConny Herbst Ulrike Kurz Beate Losch

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PREFACE • 1

PrefaceWith BodyPaint 3D, you can paint directly ontoyour 3D models in real-time, even if they numbermillions of polygons. Just load a model, grab abrush and a texture, then start painting. You caneven paint to several material channels at the sametime, using a MultiBrush.

One feature in particular makes BodyPaint 3Dunique; its RayBrush technology enables you topaint to a rendered image in three dimensions— a world first! Not only can you paint color tothe rendered image, you can also paint bump,transparency, reflection and other propertiesbesides. For example, you might render a shipthen paint welding with reflection and bump ina single brush stroke.

We have endeavoured to make BodyPaint 3Dpractical to use. For example, you can work withlayers. In addition, BodyPaint 3D includes mostpopular image-editing and selection tools.

The powerful UV Editor is a highlight, an absolutestar, of BodyPaint 3D. The UV Editor enables youto edit a texture's geometry without changing theobject. You can move the UV coordinates freely sothat your textures fit the object optimally. Aboveall, it is easy to place textures (or even parts oftextures) with absolute pixel-point accuracy.

Your fingers are probably itching even more now,but before you go, please be aware that we will bedelighted to receive your comments andimprovement suggestions for BodyPaint 3D. Tothis end, please use the suggestion form in theSupport area of our website (www.maxon.net).Only your comments and suggestions will enableBodyPaint 3D to remain your software.

We wish you every success in using BodyPaint 3D.

Team MAXON.

Traditionally, a preface in a computer program'sdocumentation is all about thanking the customerfor her or his wise choice of purchase. Certainly,we are truly grateful for your purchase and weoffer you our warmest thanks. But let's be honest,your fingers are already itching to turn the page tosee what wonderful features await you. You wantto know how BodyPaint 3D is going torevolutionize the way you work, and to this wenow turn our attention.

Firstly, BodyPaint 3D is based on the highly-optimized, multi-award-winning program code ofCINEMA 4D XL. This means that BodyPaint 3Dshares the legendary speed and proverbial stabilityof its sister package. If you have used CINEMA 4DXL, you will feel at home right away, because youcan integrate BodyPaint 3D with CINEMA 4D XLseamlessly - the new tools simply appear as extramanagers in your usual layout.

Secondly, and just as importantly, BodyPaint 3D isfor users of almost all 3D applications. This is madepossible by BodyPaint 3D's numerous import andexport filters. Also, BodyPaint 3D has a fullyconfigurable GUI so that you can feel at homewhatever your main 3D application.

The problem that BodyPaint 3D aims to address iseasily defined. Imagine that you have spent manyhours creating the most detailed of 3D objects.The modeling is done and all you need now isgood texturing. However, try as you might, mostof the textures show seams and distortions whenmapped to the model. Only rarely can you get atexture to fit snugly onto its model. Or perhapsyou are fed up of guessing where you should paintin your 2D paint package. All these difficulties andmore come about because you cannot paintdirectly onto the 3D object.

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2 • PREFACE

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CHAPTER 1 • GETTING TO KNOW BODYPAINT 3D • 3

1. Getting to Know   

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4 • GETTING TO KNOW BODYPAINT 3D • CHAPTER 1

1 Getting to Know BodyPaint 3D 5Launching ......................................................................................................................................................... 5

Quitting ............................................................................................................................................................ 5

Mouse Techniques ............................................................................................................................................ 5

Graphics Tablet ................................................................................................................................................. 5

Hotkeys 1 to 7 .................................................................................................................................................. 6

The GUI ............................................................................................................................................................ 6

A Quick Tour ............................................................................................................................................... 7

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CHAPTER 1 • GETTING TO KNOW BODYPAINT 3D • 5

1 Getting to Know BodyPaint 3D

Mouse TechniquesBodyPaint 3D offers enhanced mousefunctionality. The features that go beyondconventional mouse control are:

- You can simulate the right mouse button onthe Macintosh by clicking with the Ctrl keyheld down. Alternatively, use a two-buttonmouse with the appropriate driver.

- If you wish to drag an object on to a windowdisplayed as a tab but the window isconcealed, drag and hold the object over thewindow's tab. After a short delay, the windowwill be activated and you can drop the objecton the target.

- If you are using a wheel mouse, you can usethe wheel to scroll sliders (such as a material'scolor and brightness sliders). You can also usethe wheel to increment/decrement numbers innumerical text boxes.

- Vertical window slider. Use this, for example,to scroll quickly in the Object manager.

- Increment arrows alongside some input boxes.

Graphics TabletBodyPaint 3D supports all graphics tablets thatconform to the WinTab standard, such as theWacom range. The pen pressure, pen tilt, pendirection and pen finger wheel are all supported.For details on how to link these input methodsto your brush settings, please see Chapter 7,Brush Settings.

LaunchingThere are several ways to start BodyPaint 3D:

- Double-click on the program icon.

- Double-click on a scene file.

- Use the Start menu (Windows).

Alternatively, you can drag-and-drop one ormore BodyPaint 3D files from Explorer(Windows) or Finder (Macintosh) on to theBodyPaint 3D application icon or directly intothe program.

Template.c4d

If the BodyPaint 3D root folder contains a scenenamed ‘Template.c4d’, this is loaded duringstartup and all the settings defined therebecome effective.

QuittingFile > Quit quits the program. If any unsavedchanges are detected, a dialog asks you if youwish to save these before quitting.

Clicking on Cancel in this dialog returns you tothe program.

Note

The layout can be saved automatically each timeyou quit the program - activate Save Layout atProgram End on the General page of theGeneral Settings.

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6 • GETTING TO KNOW BODYPAINT 3D • CHAPTER 1

Hotkeys 1 to 7You can use the following hotkeys in the viewpanel:

1 move camera

2 zoom camera

3 rotate camera

4 move object

5 scale object

6 rotate object

7 scale model

The GUIThe BodyPaint 3D GUI offers features far inadvance of the standard Windows/MacintoshGUI. For example, you may dock all windowsinto the main window.

When a docked window is moved, thesurrounding windows adapt so that nooverlapping occurs. Each window has its ownmenu bar. Windows can also be displayed astabs and grouped together to conserve displayspace.

Command palettes

Commandgroups

Window menu bars

Material manager Color presets Brush presets Layer manager

Tabs

Perspective View Texture View

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CHAPTER 1 • GETTING TO KNOW BODYPAINT 3D • 7

The GUI is freely configurable. You can createyour own icon palettes (including folded icons)and you can even edit the menus.

You can define various layouts and switchbetween them at will.

Alternative layout with a large Perspective View

Alternative layout with the managers to one side

A Quick TourIn this section we take a look at the individualprogram elements that appear on the screen thefirst time you launch BodyPaint 3D. This ismerely a quick tour - the detailed descriptionscome later in the corresponding chapters.

Managers

Managers are the main program elements inBodyPaint 3D. Each manager has its ownwindow and runs parallel to the other managers.This means that each manager can operateindependently (so that it is multithreaded) -something of a rarity for application software.For example, if you paint an object in thePerspective View, the bitmap in the TextureView is changed at the same time.

Although the managers operate independently,each manager reacts immediately to changesmade in other managers that affect it. Forexample, if you move an object in the editor, thecorresponding values in the Coordinate managerchange.

Windows

Each manager has its own window. A windowcan be placed freely or it can be docked intoBodyPaint 3D's main window.

In the default layout, almost all the managersare docked. If you change the size of a dockedwindow, the surrounding windows are adjustedautomatically to avoid an overlap.

If you wish to undock a window from thegroup, click on its pin icon and select Undock.To re-dock the window, drag-and-drop its pinicon onto the main window. A black line willindicate the insertion position.

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8 • GETTING TO KNOW BODYPAINT 3D • CHAPTER 1

To change a window’s size, first move themouse pointer to its border. The pointer willchange into a double arrow to indicate thedirection (either vertical or horizontal) in whichyou can drag the border. Drag the window asrequired. The other windows in the group willadapt to the change.

Menu Bars

Each manager has its own menu bar.

Menu bars have the following features:

- Submenus.

- Commands that cannot be selected are grayedout.

- Activated options are indicated with a tick.

- All shortcuts, including those you haveallocated yourself, are displayed.

If there is insufficient space to display the entiremenu bar, a black triangle appears. If you clickon the triangle, the other menu entries appearon a popup menu.

Command Palettes

There are two command palettes (aka iconpalettes) in the default layout to house the mostfrequently used commands.

Some of the icons have a small black triangle totheir lower right. This indicates a folded group.If you click and hold down the left mousebutton on the icon, hidden icons appear. Foldedgroups take up minimal space and are aconvenient way to group similar commands. Thevisible icon is usually the last command that youused. For more information on commandpalettes see Command Palettes, page 32.

Tabs

You can display windows and command palettesas tabs. For example, the Object manager andStructure manager are displayed as tabs in thedefault layout. This saves display space andallows you to reach a manager or commandpalette quickly.

If there is insufficient display space for all thetabs, one of the tabs will be torn. You can usethe small arrow icons to the top right of thewindow to scroll through the tabs.

For more information on tabs see Tabs, page 31.For details on the individual program managers,please see the corresponding chapters.

Context Menus

BodyPaint 3D supports context menus. Toactivate a context menu, press the right mousebutton (or Command-click for the Macintosh).

Input Boxes

Input boxes with two small arrows (one pointingup, the other pointing down) offer the followingfeatures:

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CHAPTER 1 • GETTING TO KNOW BODYPAINT 3D • 9

- Click on an arrow to increment or decrementthe value by one.

- If you click on an arrow and move the mouseup/down, the value increases or decreasesrapidly.

- The wheel mouse is supported - position themouse pointer in a box with a numerical value,then move the wheel to increase/decrease thevalue.

BodyPaint 3D has a built-in expression evaluatorwhich enables you to include mathematicaloperators in numerical boxes. See Appendix 1.

Perspective View

Here, you cab paint and render the object inthree dimensions.

Texture View

This window is used for viewing and editingbitmaps in two dimensions. In addition, you canview and edit UV mesh.

Material Manager

The Material manager contains all the materialsused in the scene. A double-click on a materialopens its dialog so that it can be edited. You canapply a material by dropping it on to an object.

Color Manager

This manager contains ready-to-use colorpresets. You can add your own presets if youwish.

Brush Manager

Here, you can choose a predefined brush tool.You can also add your own brushes to themanager.

Layer Manager

This is where all two-dimensional bitmap layersare created and managed.

Active Tool Manager

This manager shows the settings for the activetool - the settings vary according to the tool. Fora detailed description of the options, see therelevant tools chapter.

Object Manager

The Objects manager contains all the sceneelements (objects). Objects can be groupedhierarchically. For example, a leaf will be thechild of a branch, which in turn is the child ofthe trunk while the tree is the main (root)object.

An object can be selected by clicking on itsname in the Objects manager. This activates theobject in the view panel, from where it can bemoved and so on. You can use tags to allocatecertain properties to objects in the Objectsmanager. For example, you can use a texturetag to apply a texture

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10 • GETTING TO KNOW BODYPAINT 3D • CHAPTER 1

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CHAPTER 2 • VIEW MENU • 11

2. View Menu     

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12 • VIEW MENU • CHAPTER 2

2 View Menu 13View Panels .................................................................................................................................................... 13

View Icons ...................................................................................................................................................... 13

Edit ................................................................................................................................................................. 13

Cameras ......................................................................................................................................................... 15

Projection ....................................................................................................................................................... 16

Display ............................................................................................................................................................ 20

View ............................................................................................................................................................... 24

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CHAPTER 2 • VIEW MENU • 13

2 View Menu

Edit

Undo View/Redo View

Each view has its own Undo View/Redo Viewfunctions (the Undo/Redo functions of the mainwindow do not affect editor cameras).

Note

The shortcut for Undo View is Ctrl+Shift+Z. ForRedo View, use Ctrl+Shift+Y.

Frame

Frame Selected Elements

The camera will move so that the selectedelements (e.g. objects, polygons) fill the viewand are centred.

Frame Active Object

The camera will move so that the active objectfills the view and is centred.

Frame Scene Without Camera/Light

The camera will move so that all objects (barlights and cameras) fill the active view and arecentred.

Frame Scene

The camera will move so that all objects,including lights and cameras, fill the active viewand are centred.

View PanelsYou can open as many view panels as you like.Each view panel has its own display settings.

A view panel can show up to four viewssimultaneously. Each of these views has its owndisplay settings.

View IconsThere are four icons at the top right of eachview. The right-most icon toggles the activeview (see Toggle Active View, page 24). Theremaining icons move, zoom and rotate thecamera (click-drag on the icon you require tosee the effect).

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14 • VIEW MENU • CHAPTER 2

Frame Default

This function resets the view to its defaultvalues.

Use as Render ViewIf this option is activated, the active camera ofthe active view is used for the rendering in thePicture Viewer.

RedrawThis function redraws the scene. This is usefulwhen BodyPaint 3D has been unable tocomplete the Perspective View pictureautomatically. This may happen, for example,when you call functions in quick succession.

ConfigureIf you select Configure, the view’s configurationdialog will open.

Active Object

Display

Display sets the display mode (e.g. Gouraudshading, wireframe) for the active object,although see Use Shading Property below.

Use Shading Property

If this option is activated, the active object willuse the display mode defined in its display taginstead of the setting defined in this dialog.

Show Normals

If you enable this option, surface normals will beshown when you select polygons. The normalsappear as small auxiliary lines which areperpendicular to their surface. By convention,the direction of a normal represents thedirection of its surface. For example, backfaceculling checks the direction of each normal todetermine whether its surface should be drawn -if the normal points away from the camera, thesurface is not drawn (the surface is assumed topoint away from the camera, just like itsnormal).

X-Ray Effect

To activate the X-ray mode, select this function.If the active object is a polygon object, it willbecome semi-transparent so that you can see itsconcealed points and edges.

Show Animation Path

If this option is selected, the active object’sanimation path will appear in the editor in theform of a yellow curve. If you want to edit theanimation path, drag the curve’s points to newpositions and edit the tangents.

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CHAPTER 2 • VIEW MENU • 15

Inactive Object

Display

Display sets the display mode (e.g. Gouraudshading, wireframe) for the inactive objects inthe scene.

Use Shading Property

If this option is activated, the inactive objectswill use the display mode defined in their displaytags instead of the setting defined in this dialog.

View Settings

Projection

You can use this setting to change the projectiontype (e.g. to Perspective, Bird, Dimetric).

Disable Textures

Select this option if you wish to switch offrealtime texture mapping.

Disable Backface Culling

You can select this option to switch off backfaceculling.

Note

Backface culling merely hides an object’sconcealed points and edges. For example, if youare using the wireframe display mode, you canstill see an object when it is behind anotherobject.

Show Safe Frames

This activates the safe frames (Render Safe,Action Safe, Title Safe), although they must beactivated in the General Settings as well in orderfor them to be displayed.

Show Picture

If you wish to place a background picture in aplanar view (e.g. front, top, right), click on thePath box and use the dialog that opens to locatethe picture. Next, activate the Show Pictureoption. You can use the horizontal and verticaloffset and size boxes to move and scale thebackground picture freely. This backgroundpicture is a modeling aid - it is not intended forrendering. You can place a different picture ineach planar view.

CamerasEach view has its own camera. The editorcamera is used by default, but you may createand use your own cameras via the Objectmanager.

Scene CamerasYou may activate your own camera (seepage 314) by selecting it from this list.

Link Active ObjectIf you select this function, you will view thescene from the origin of the active object. Thiscan be any type of object, even a light source.However, if the object has surfaces, the viewmay be obscured!

Editor CameraThis function activates the editor camera.

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16 • VIEW MENU • CHAPTER 2

ProjectionYou can choose from over a dozen projectionmodes. A detailed technical explanation for eachprojection type is beyond the scope of thismanual. However, the pictures highlight the keydifferences visually.

Warning!

The camera position may alter when you changethe projection mode. You can avoid this byselecting the view (e.g. View 3) from the Viewmenu.

PerspectiveThis is the default projection mode for the viewpanel. It operates in a similar fashion to a realcamera.

ParallelWith parallel projection, the vanishing point isinfinitely distant. As a result, the picture appearsto have no vanishing point and all lines areparallel.

LeftThis function selects the YZ (left) view.

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CHAPTER 2 • VIEW MENU • 17

RightThis function selects the ZY (right) view.

FrontThis function selects the XY (front) view.

BackThis function selects the YX (back) view.

TopThis function selects the XZ (top) view.

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18 • VIEW MENU • CHAPTER 2

BottomThis function selects the ZX (bottom) view.

The following projection types all use parallelprojection. They differ in the format and/orviewing angle.

Military, Frog and Bird projection share the sameviewing angle but use different formats...

Military

X:Y:Z = 1:1:1

Frog

X:Y:Z = 1:2:1

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CHAPTER 2 • VIEW MENU • 19

Bird

X:Y:Z = 1:0,5:1

GentlemanThis is a popular choice for architecture.

X:Y:Z = 1:1:0,5

IsometricThis is a popular choice for technical subjects(e.g. machinery). The X:Y:Z format is 1:1:1.

DimetricThis is similar to Isometric, but with an X:Y:Zformat of 1:1:0.5.

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20 • VIEW MENU • CHAPTER 2

DisplayThis sub-menu lists display options such as theshading mode. You can, in addition, activaterealtime antialiasing from the Views tab of theGeneral Settings - provided that you are usingan OpenGL card which supports this feature.

Level Of DetailChoose from Low, Medium or High. The settingaffects the display detail of parametric objects;the lower the detail, the faster the display. Thissetting has no effect on polygon objects.

Gouraud Shading

Gouraud shading offers the highest qualitydisplay mode in the Perspective View. All objectsare shaded with smoothing and light sources areevaluated for the shading.

The redraw rate is affected most by theprocessor speed and graphics card speed. If thedisplay becomes too slow, try reducing the viewsize.

Quick Shading

Quick shading is almost identical to Gouraudshading (see above). The only difference is thatthe auto light (see page 416) is used to calculatethe shading values - all lights in the scene itselfare ignored. This can lead to a faster redrawrate, since only a single light source (the autolight) is evaluated.

Wireframe

If this mode is selected, objects are displayed aslines. This can be particularly effective for anoverview of complex scenes, especially whenused with backface culling (see page 22). Thismode is drawn very quickly.

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CHAPTER 2 • VIEW MENU • 21

Isoparms

This mode displays isoparm lines for thoseobjects which make use of them (e.g.HyperNURBS objects). Other objects, such aspolygon objects, will be displayed in wireframe.

The isoparm display mode is very fast and isparticularly suited to complex scenes.

Shaded Box

This mode displays each object as a shaded box.Each box has the same dimensions as the objectit represents. This mode is drawn very quickly,even with complex scenes. It can be useful forcharacters or for navigation in large scenes.

Box

This mode displays each object as a wireframebox. Each wireframe box has the samedimensions as the object it represents. Thismode is exceptionally fast, making it suitable forthe most demanding scenes.

Skeleton

This is the fastest display mode of all, but it isonly suited to hierarchical structures. Each objectorigin is shown as a small dot and these dots areconnected with lines according to the hierarchy.This mode is particularly useful for characters,not only for its speed, but also because itremoves all non-critical lines to expose the all-important skeleton.

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Use Shading PropertyIf this option is activated, objects will use thedisplay mode defined in their display tagsinstead of the general display setting. Objectsthat do not have a display tag will continue touse the general setting.

Backface CullingIf you activate backface culling, backfaces arenot drawn in the editor. This can speed up thedisplay as well as hide concealed surfaces.

A backface is a surface which points away fromthe camera. BodyPaint 3D can tell in whichdirection a surface points by examining itssurface normal.

If the surface normal points towards the camera,the surface is a frontface. If the surface normalpoints away from the camera, the surface is abackface and is not drawn if this option isactivated. The following picture demonstratesthe backface principle:

By convention, the normals should pointoutwards from their surfaces. If your object hasnormals that point inwards on the object,display errors may arise. In this case, reverse thenormals (see Structure Manager, page 389).

The following picture shows how backfaceculling hides concealed surfaces (backfaces). Theobject on the left does not use backface culling,the object on the right does.

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TexturesBodyPaint 3D’s realtime texture mapping(RTTM) enables you to see textures in thePerspective View in realtime - even without anOpenGL card! To activate RTTM mode for aparticular view, select the Textures option fromits Display menu. The textures will only bevisible with Gouraud shading or quick shading.

RTTM can display the following materialproperties:

- Color textures- Highlights- Bump map- Alpha channel- Transparency

You can use a display tag in the Object managerto activate or deactivate RTTM for each object(File > New Tag > Display Tag).

Activating and deactivating RTTM

RTTM is an approximation of the renderedresult. RTTM may, under circumstances, differsubstantially from the final result, especially forlarge surfaces which extend towards thehorizon.

X-RayTo activate the X-ray mode, select this function.If the active object is a polygon object, it willbecome semi-transparent so that you can see itsconcealed points and edges.

It enables you to see concealed surfaces in theGouraud shading and quick shading modes.

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ViewEach view panel can have up to four views. Eachof these views may have its own:

- camera- projection type- display mode

View arrangementYou can choose a single-view mode or all-viewsmode. The arrangements on offer are:

Single-View

2 Views Stacked

2 Views Side by Side

3 Views Top Split

3 Views Bottom Split

3 Views Left Split

3 Views Right Split

4 Views

4 Views Top Split

4 Views Bottom Split

4 Views Left Split

4 Views Right Split

4 Views Stacked

4 Views Side by Side

Each view may have its own camera, projectiontype and display mode.

Note

These settings are saved automatically when yousave the document.

Toggle Active ViewThis option toggles between the single-viewmode and the all-views mode. When togglingfrom all-views to single-view, select the optionfrom the target view (the view that you wish tosee next).

View 1 - View 4/All ViewsHere you can switch between the single-viewsand the all-view mode.

You can change each view’s projection type viaits Cameras menu. The default projections are:

View 1 F1 perspectiveView 2 F2 topView 3 F3 rightView 4 F4 frontAll Views F5 all views

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3. Configuration   

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3 Configuration 27Overview ........................................................................................................................................................ 27

The Configuration Dialogs ........................................................................................................................ 27

The Configuration Managers .................................................................................................................... 28

Other Settings ........................................................................................................................................... 28

Graphical User Interface ................................................................................................................................. 28

The Main Window .................................................................................................................................... 28

Tabs ........................................................................................................................................................... 31

Command Palettes .................................................................................................................................... 32

The Command Manager ........................................................................................................................... 36

The Menu Manager .................................................................................................................................. 38

The Pin Menu ............................................................................................................................................ 39

General Settings ............................................................................................................................................. 40

General ...................................................................................................................................................... 40

Views ......................................................................................................................................................... 45

Interface .................................................................................................................................................... 49

Texture Paths ............................................................................................................................................. 51

BodyPaint 3D searches for textures in the following locations: ................................................................. 51

BodyPaint .................................................................................................................................................. 51

Macintosh ................................................................................................................................................. 52

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3 ConfigurationThe general settings can be accessed from theEdit menu of the main window. They will besaved when you quit BodyPaint 3D.

The general settings are described in detail laterin this chapter. See page 40.

Viewport Settings

These are local settings that configure theviewport for the active scene. For example, youcan use these settings to determine the shadingmode for active objects and inactive objects.

The viewport settings can be accessed from theEdit menu of each viewport (select Configure).They are saved when you save the scene.

The viewport settings are described underConfigure.

Render Settings

These are local settings that affect the output ofthe active scene. For example, you can usethese settings to switch shadows on or off.

The render settings can be accessed from theRender menu of the main window. They aresaved when you save the scene.

These settings are described in detail in RenderSettings, page 404.

Import/Export Settings

These are global settings that affect theimporting and exporting of files. For example,you can use these settings to scale objects thatare imported in 3DS format.

The import/export settings can be accessedfrom the File menu of the main window. Theyare saved when you quit BodyPaint 3D.

We have taken great care during the entiredevelopment stage to ensure that BodyPaint 3Dis easy to use despite its wealth of features.

You may configure many aspects ofBodyPaint 3D. The downside of this flexibility isthat there are, consequently, many settings.However, the settings are not bundled togetherin a giant, unfathomable settings dialog.Instead, we have placed the options where theymost make sense. Not only does this hide theirsheer number from you, they are also easier tofind as a result.

This chapter provides you with an overview ofthe settings. There is also a detailed descriptionfor each setting or a reference to anotherchapter (some settings are best explained inother chapters, e.g. the render settings aredocumented in the Render Menu chapter).

Overview

The Configuration DialogsBodyPaint 3D’s configuration dialogs are listedbelow. In each case we tell you where you canfind the dialog and what, in general terms, thedialog controls.

General Settings

These are global settings that apply to theprogram as a whole. For example, you can usethese settings to change the colors used in thePerspective View. The settings apply to all opendocuments.

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The import/export settings are described indetail on page 292.

Browser Settings

These are global settings that relate to thedisplay of thumbnails in the Browser. Forexample, you can use these settings todetermine which file formats are shown.

The Browser settings can be accessed from theEdit menu of the Browser. They are saved whenyou save the scene. However, you can preventthe Browser from loading the settings bydeactivating the Load Manager Settings optionin the general settings.

The browser settings are described in detail onpage 57.

The Configuration Managers

Command Manager

You can use this manager to edit the existingpalettes, create your own palettes or define newshort-cuts.

You can access the Command manager from theWindow menu of the main window. Thesettings are saved when you quit BodyPaint 3D.

The Command manager is described in detaillater in this chapter. See page 36

Note

The short-cuts will be saved when you quitBodyPaint 3D.

Menu Manager

You can use this manager to create your ownmenu structure for each manager.

You can access the Menu manager from theWindow menu of the main window. Thesettings are saved when you click on the SaveAll Changes button in the Menu managerdialog. They are also saved when you quitBodyPaint 3D.

The Menu manager is described in detail later inthis chapter. See page 38.

Other SettingsThere are many settings in addition to thosementioned above. For example, you can changethe size of the preview in the Material manager.

These settings are always saved in the scene file.However, you can prevent them from beingloaded into the managers by deselecting theLoad Manager Settings option in the generalsettings.

Each setting is described in detail in the chapterfor the corresponding manager.

Graphical User Interface

The Main WindowThe main window in where the managers andcommand palettes meet each other. If the sizeof the main window or a docked window ischanged, all the other windows in the groupadapt to the change. The main window is simplya group of windows and palettes. You cancreate your own group to suit your needs (seeUndocking below).

Changing The Size Of Windows

To change the width or height of a window, firstmove the mouse to a window border. Themouse pointer will change into a double arrow

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This layout would be useful if you regularly need to findbrushes quickly.

With a layout like this you can view a wider selection of colorsat once.

to indicate the direction (either vertical orhorizontal) in which you can drag the border.Drag the window as required. The otherwindows in the group will adapt to the change.

Before moving the edge of the window

After moving the edge of the window

Changing The Window Order

To change the window order, drag the pin iconusing the mouse. A dark line will appear toindicate the point at which insertion will takeplace.

The following pictures illustrate just a few of thelayouts that are possible.

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Click on Undock

Undocked window

Note

You can insert a window or a command paletteinto an undocked window to create a newgroup. This is particularly useful if you are usingmore than one monitor.

Undocked windows are fully functional,although you do lose the advantage ofautomatic justification.

Docking

You can dock a new window (new windows areundocked by default) into a group at any time.To do this, click on the pin for the new windowand drag it to the required position in thedocking window. A dark line will indicate theinsertion position.

Try adding a second Perspective View forpractice: Select Window > New View Panel inthe main window. Drag the pin for the newwindow and drop it wherever you like, e.g.

A typical layout for using reference material, a scan of aphotograph for example, to recreate it in BodyPaint 3D.

Why not move icon palettes close to where they will be used.

Note

You can load a previously saved layout or revertto the default layout at any time. See WorkingWith Layouts, page 55.

Undocking

You can undock a window to separate it from agroup. To do this, click on the pin icon andselect Undock from the menu. The window isremoved from the group and becomes aseparate window.

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Tabs

Creating Tabs

You can display a window or command paletteas a tab. To create the tab, click on the pin iconand select Make Tab.

Grouping Tabs

You can remove a tab from one group and insertit into another group (the target group). To dothis, drag the tab’s pin and drop in on to a tabor pin in the target group. The mouse pointerwill change into a hand to indicate when theinsertion is possible.

If you drop the tab on to a pin, it will beinserted after the tab that the pin belongs to. Ifyou drop the tab on to a tab, it will be insertedbefore it provided that the hand icon is releasedon the left half of the tab; otherwise, it will beinserted after the tab.

Do not forget about the command palettes —they make great tabs too!

Note

If you drop a pin on to another pin (the target),both will become tabs, even if the target was nota tab.

between the Object manager and theCoordinate manager (check that you can see thedark line before you release the mouse). Youcan remove the window by undocking it andthen closing it (click on the pin to select theUndock and Close commands).

New view, still undocked

Here the new view is docked

Rename

This function in the pin’s menu allows you torename the window or command palette. Thename of a command palette is visible in theinterface only when it is defined as a tab.

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Converting Tabs into Windows

You can convert a window defined as a tab intoa freestanding window. To do this, drag thetab’s pin slightly to the left and release themouse button.

Here the Object Manager gets undocked

The undocked Object Manager

Command PalettesA command, or icon, palette can contain anycommand that can be selected from a menu.The command palette can show the commandsas icons, text or as both icons and text.

Command palettes help you reach importantcommands quickly. You can edit the defaultpalettes and create completely new palettes.You can dock new palettes into the layout.

Note

An undocked palette is a window in its ownright. For example, it can contain severalcommand palettes and windows. This isparticularly useful if you are using more thanone monitor.

Creating a New Command Palette

To create a new (empty) command palette,either:

- select Window > Layout > New Icon Palette(main window)

- click on any pin icon and select New IconPalette from the pin’s menu

- click the right mouse button within an existingcommand palette (e.g. the default palette tothe left of the main window) and select NewIcon Palette from the context menu

New command palette, still empty

There are two ways to add commands to thecommand palette. You can either drag-and-dropcommands from an existing palette (e.g. thedefault palette to the left of the main window)or you can drag-and-drop commands from theCommand manager (choose Window >Command Manager).

You must activate the Edit Palettes option in theCommand manager before you can addcommands. Once the Edit Palettes option isselected, drop the first command on to the

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empty palette box of the new command palette.When you drag-and-drop further commands onto the palette, a dark line will appear todemonstrate where the command will beinserted. To open the context menu for thecommand palette, position the mouse pointeron an icon and click the right mouse button.

The Command manager is described in detaillater in this chapter.

This is the way a command is added to the new palette

Changing the Sequence

To move a command to a different location inthe palette, drag-and-drop the command to thenew position (a dark line will indicate theinsertion position).

Icons / Text

You can reach these two settings via thecommand palette’s context menu (position themouse pointer over a command and click theright mouse button).

If the Icons option is selected, icons will beshown for the commands. If the Text option isselected, text will be shown for the commands.If both options are selected, icons and text areshown for the commands.

Different combinations of command palettes

Vertical

You can reach this setting via the commandpalette’s context menu (position the mousepointer over a command and click the rightmouse button).

If this setting is activated, text will be displayedbelow each icon instead of to the right(provided that Icons and Text are alsoactivated).

Command Alignment (Horizontal vs Vertical)

You can reach this setting via the commandpalette’s context menu (position the mousepointer over a command and click the rightmouse button).

Select Transpose to toggle the alignment of thecommands between vertical and horizontalalignment.

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Rows / Columns

You can reach this setting via the commandpalette’s context menu (position the mousepointer over a command and click the rightmouse button).

The value you set here defines the number ofrows or columns for commands. Think of this asthe number of lines. For example, if you have20 commands, setting this value to 2 will create2 lines with 10 commands in each line. A valueof 3 would create three lines (this time with 7commands in the first two lines and 6commands in the final line).

If you are using vertical command alignment,this setting refers to the number of columns. Ifyou are using horizontal command alignment,this setting refers to the number of rows.

Alignment in rows or columns

Icon Size

You can reach this setting via the commandpalette’s context menu (position the mousepointer over a command and click the rightmouse button).

You can use this setting to change the size ofthe command icons. The sizes you can choosefrom are:

Large 32 by 32 pixels

Medium 24 by 24 pixels

Small 16 by 16 pixels

Original original icon size (see below)

The original icon sizes are defined in the iconresource file. The original sizes usuallycorrespond to Large icons.

The different icon sizes

Note

If an icon is displayed at a different pixel size toits original size, it must be resampled. This maylead to a visible loss in picture quality.

Creating Folded Palettes

You can group commands to form a foldedpalette. To do this, ensure that the Edit Palettesoption is active, then position the mouse pointerover a command and click the right mousebutton to open the context menu. Choose FoldPalette.

Now, only one command is visible. This is calledthe visible command. The little arrow towardsthe bottom right of the icon indicates that itcontains a folded menu.

Next, deactivate the Edit Palettes option. Clickand hold down the left mouse button on thevisible command. The folded palette appears.You can either release the mouse button andthen click on the required hidden command, oryou can move the mouse pointer over therequired command before you release themouse button. Note that the visible command isalso a hidden command.

If the Lock Icon command of the context menuis not selected, the visible icon will always be thelast command that you selected. Hence, you can

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repeat the last command simply by clicking onthe visible icon. You do not have to unfold thepalette to reach it.

The order of the commands in the folded palettecorresponds to their order before they werefolded. You should arrange the commandsbefore you fold them.

You can drag-and-drop a visible command on toanother palette. This enables you to use severalfolded groups within the same palette. To createa palette with several folded command groups:Create two empty command palettes. Use thefirst palette to create a folded command group,then drag-and-drop the folded commands(i.e. the visible command) on to the secondpalette. Next, create the second folded group inthe first palette, then drag-and-drop it on to thesecond palette, and so on. Once the process iscomplete, close the redundant palette.

You can also use text-only display with foldedpalettes.

Unfolding icons

You can unfold a folded group of commandsinto a palette of individual commands. To dothis, select Unfold from the context menu (clickthe right mouse button on the visiblecommand).

This command can be selected only when theEdit Palettes option is active.

Lock Icon

If this command of the context menu is notactivated, the visible command for a foldedgroup of commands will always be the lastcommand that you selected.

If this command is activated, the current visibleicon will be locked, meaning that no matterwhich tools you go on to use from the foldedpalette the visible command remains the same.

This command can be selected only when theEdit Palettes option is active.

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Delete Command

You can delete a command from the palette. Todo this, move the mouse pointer over thecommand that you wish to delete, then holddown the right mouse button and select DeleteCommand from the context menu.

This command can be selected only when theEdit Palettes option is active.

Edit Palettes

You must activate the Edit Palettes commandbefore you can make changes to palettes. Youcan reach this setting via the context menu(right mouse button over a command).

Note

The palettes will be saved automatically whenyou save the layout. To save the layout, chooseSave Layout As or Save as Default Layout fromthe Window > Layout menu (main window).

The Command ManagerThe Command manager contains lists of all thecommands in BodyPaint 3D. You can use thismanager to drag-and-drop commands in orderto create your own command palettes orsubmenus (see The Menu Manager, page 38).You can also use the Command manager todefine short-cuts.

Inserting Commands in Palettes

First, select the Edit Palettes option. Next, drag-and-drop commands on to the palette. A darkline will indicate where a command will beinserted.

You can also drag-and-drop separators on topalettes to visually separate commands intological groups. Separator 1 is a line, Separator 2

is a space. Simply drag-and-drop theseseparators on to the palette. Again, a dark linewill appear to indicate the insertion point.

This is how you add separators to the new command palette

You can use the pop-up menu to the right ofthe pin to select which command category isdisplayed in the list. Each category refers to aparticular menu or manager.

You will notice that some commands do nothave icons. This is because these commandswere difficult to represent as icons and we didnot wish to cause undue stress to Joern, the icondesigner.

Allocating Short-cuts

You can allocate a short-cut to any command sothat you can press a simple key sequence to callthe command rather than select it via a menu orpalette.

For example, if you press Ctrl-B, the rendersettings dialog will open. You use the Commandmanager to allocate the short-cuts. You can alsouse the Command manager to define a secondshort-cut for the same command.

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This can be useful when two keys are logicalalternatives for a particular command. Forexample, the delete and backspace keys areboth short-cuts for the Delete command. Thesecond short-cut is also useful for standardcommands which have different short-cutsunder Windows and Mac OS.

To create a short-cut:

Select the command from the list in theCommand manager by clicking on it with theleft mouse button.

Next, click on the first text box to the right ofAssign:. Press the key combination that youwish to assign to the command.

Click on the green tick to the right of the textbox to activate it. The short-cut will appear inthe Current: box. To remove the short-cut, clickon the red cross icon.

Valid short-cuts are:

- a single key

- a key + Ctrl

- a key + Shift

- a key + Ctrl and Shift

Note

Some keys are reserved and cannot be allocatedas short-cuts (e.g. left arrow, right arrow).

BodyPaint 3D’s hotkeys are extremely useful.For example, if you hold down the 1 key youcan move the camera, no matter which tool isactive. The hotkeys come at a price - youcannot use them with short-cuts, even if youcombine them with Ctrl and/or Shift.

If a short-cut has already been allocated, thecommand that uses the short-cut will bedisplayed below the text boxes. You shouldremove the short-cut before reallocating it (toremove the short-cut, select the command thatit is currently allocated too, then click on the redcross icon).

It is not possible to predict the effect of pressinga short-cut that is applied to more than onecommand.

Note

The short-cuts are saved in the layout.

Warning!

Do not attempt to allocate short-cuts that areused by OS commands, e.g. Ctrl-Alt-Del(Windows).

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The Menu ManagerYou can use the Menu manager to editsubmenus and pop-up menus. You can alsocreate your own submenus.

The menus in the manager and how they look in the program

The Menu manager and the Command managerallow you to configure your very ownBodyPaint 3D interface, fine-tuned to the wayyou like to work.

The Menus

BodyPaint 3D has more than 25 menus andpop-up menus. Use the pop-up menu at the topof the manager to determine which menu isshown in the list.

Submenus are prefixed with Submenu. To openor close a submenu, double-click on it.

Inserting Commands

The Command manager contains lists of all theBodyPaint 3D commands. You can drag-and-drop commands from the Command managerinto the Menu manager.

The mouse pointer will change form to indicatethe insertion mode.

Copy, Delete/Cut, Paste

You can use these commands to copy, delete orpaste the selected command.

Move Up, Move Down

You can use these commands to move theselected menu entry one position up or oneposition down the list.

New Submenu

This will insert a new submenu above theselected entry. You can add commands or evenfurther submenus to the submenu.

Rename

You can use this command to rename asubmenu that you created.

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You cannot rename the standard menus andcommands.

Apply

The changes will be applied. You can test themimmediately.

Save All Changes

All menu changes will be saved.

Revert to Saved

Discards all settings and reverts to the last menudefinition that was saved.

Revert to Original

Reactivates the standard menu settings, whichare permanently stored in the program (factorysettings).

The Pin MenuEach manager has a pin icon towards its top leftcorner.

Earlier in this chapter we explained how the pinis used to combine and arrange managers (seeGraphical User Interface, page 28). The pin alsohas a menu, the functions of which aredescribed below.

Undock

This function removes the current manager fromthe main window. The manager will bedisplayed in its own window.

Undock a tab to open a manager in a floating window

Rename

You can use this function to rename a windowor a tab.

Make Tab

This function creates a tab for the activewindow/active manager.

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New Icon Palette

This function creates an empty commandpalette. You can use the Command manager(see above) to add commands to the palette.

Close

This function closes the manager. To open themanager again, select it from the Window menuof the main window.

General SettingsThese settings enable you to change the editor’sappearance as well as influence the operation offunctions. You can access this dialog from theEdit menu of the main window.

General

High Thread Priority

If you enable this option the system assigns ahigher priority, i.e. more computing time, toBodyPaint 3D than to other runningapplications. If this option is enabledapplications other than BodyPaint 3D which arerunning will execute more slowly than usual. Soif you want to work in other applications whilerendering in BodyPaint 3D, you may find ituseful to disable this option.

Graphics Tablet

If you experience problems when using agraphics tablet with BodyPaint 3D, activate thisoption.

Use HPB System

If you select this option, the HPB system will beused for object rotation. Note that the heading,pitch and bank values refer to the object’sparent system.

If the option is not selected, object rotation willtake place about its local axes or the world axes.

For further details, please see World System,page 370.

Link Manager Selection

Only relevant if you are running BodyPaint 3Dwith CINEMA 4D XL. Please consult yourCINEMA 4D reference manual for details.

Display Units

Values are displayed together with their unit ofmeasurement by default.

If this option if deactivated, the unit ofmeasurement will not be displayed.

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Center New Objects in View

BodyPaint 3D creates all new objects at theorigin of the world coordinate system bydefault. If the origin is not visible in the view, anewly created object may be out of sight.

If this option is activated, new objects willappear in the centre of the active view.

Use QuickTime

If you enable this option BodyPaint 3D usesQuickTime, if it is installed on your computer. Awider range of file formats is then available; youwill have access to more textures.

If this option is disabled the speed of theBrowser is increased slightly as it has to checkfewer file formats.

Note

QuickTime can crash if you used damaged imagefiles; this is not the fault of BodyPaint 3D, and itis for this reason that you can disable QuickTimethrough this option.

Save RTTM Textures

If you have activated realtime texture mapping(RTTM), small editor textures will be created sothat you can see textures in the editor.

These editor textures take a while to create andthey must be created each time you load thescene.

However, if Save RTTM Textures is activated,the editor textures will be saved in the scenefile. This speeds up the loading process, but thefile size will increase as a result.

Save Particles

Only relevant if you are running BodyPaint 3Dwith CINEMA 4D XL. Please consult yourCINEMA 4D reference manual for details.

Load Manager Settings

We mentioned in the Other Settings section ofthe overview that each manager also containssettings that are not represented in the settingsdialog (e.g. the size of preview icons).

You have the option either to load these settingswhen you load the scene or to use the currentsettings. If the option is activated, the settingsthat were last used in the saved scene will beactivated in the corresponding managers.

Note

These settings are always saved in the scene file.Whether or not you use them is another matter.

Render Materials on Loading

When you save a scene, the material previewpictures are saved as well. When a scene isloaded, these pictures will be used anddisplayed. However, if you load a foreign 3Ddata format, only the base colors of thematerials will be shown.

If this option is activated, BodyPaint 3D willcreate new preview pictures each time a scene isloaded. By necessity, this will slightly slow downthe loading process.

Generate Backup Copies

When you save a scene with a filename thatalready exists in the destination folder, theoriginal scene will be overwritten by default.

If this option is activated, BodyPaint 3D willrename the original file before the new file iscreated. The original file is appended with‘.bak’. For example, ‘Design.c4d’ will become‘Design.bak’. If ‘Design.bak’ already exists, itwill be overwritten.

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Save Layout at Program End

If this option is activated, the current layout willbe saved when you quit BodyPaint 3D. Whenyou next start the program, the layout will be inthe same state that you left it in.

This may possibly lead to unwelcome effects.

For example, perhaps your usual layout has thePerspective View and the Texture View side byside and of equal size. You decide to create anew layout with a larger Perspective View. Yousave the new layout under its own name andquit the program. If this option is activated, thenew layout will overwrite your usual layout.

Note

Always save a new layout using a unique name,even if you intend for it to be your normallayout. To save the layout, choose Window >Layout > Save Layout As.

Undo Depth

You can use this value to determine themaximum number of editing steps that can beundone consecutively. (See Undo/Redo,page 303 for further details.)

Recent File List

You can use this value to determine the numberof recent files that are listed in the File menu(see page 289).

Redraw Limit ... Milliseconds

Sometimes it is not possible to move an objectsmoothly in the editor with full shading due tohardware limitations such as processor speed.

BodyPaint 3D uses an ingenious system thatestimates the time required for a redraw. If theestimated time exceeds the redraw limitspecified here, a faster display mode will be

used automatically. For example, Quick Shadingwill be reduced to Wireframe. If the wireframemode is still to slow, Box will be used instead.

This process enables you to work smoothly inthe Perspective View. You can configure thethreshold value to suit your needs. The defaultvalue of 600 milliseconds means that aminimum of three pictures per second will bedrawn.

If you do not want a faster display mode to beused, set the redraw limit to a very high value(e.g. 10000 milliseconds).

Editor : Pixel

These values specify the ratio of a pixel’s on-screen width to its on-screen height. The pixelratio for most monitors is 1:1.

However, some display media use a pixel ratioother than 1:1. This will lead to distortion unlessthe pixel ratio is adjusted accordingly. Forexample, circles will appear to be ellipses.

If you need to calculate the pixel ratio manually,expand the Perspective View so that it fills theentire screen. Select the side view and import acube. Measure the width and height of the cubewith a ruler and enter values in thecorresponding boxes.

Basic Units

Here you determine the basic unit ofmeasurement in BodyPaint 3D. You can choosefrom pixels, kilometres, metres, centimetres,millimetres, micrometres, nanometres, miles,yards, feet and inches.

For example, if you select Centimetre as thebasic units, all position values will be stated incm. Note that if you change units the numericalvalues will not be converted.

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However, you can enter values in different units.For example, if the basic units are cm and youtype ‘5 km’ into a dialog, the value will beconverted to 500000 cm.

If you set the basic units to Pixel, the unit ofmeasurement will not be specified. It is then upto you to decide how to interpret the values.

You can use the following abbreviations forunits when entering values:

Pixel no units specifiedKilometres kmMetres mCentimetres cmMillimetres mmMicrometres umNanometres nmMiles miYards ydFeet ftInches in

Animation Units

Only relevant if you are running BodyPaint 3Dwith CINEMA 4D XL. Please consult yourCINEMA 4D reference manual for details.

Color System

You can choose between the RGB model andthe HSV model. You can also choose whetherthe values should be specified as a percentage,or in steps ranging from 0 to 255, or in stepsranging from 0 to 65535.

A good choice of colors is essential forconsistent photorealistic results. Photorealism isoften a yardstick for programs such asBodyPaint 3D.

The human eye can see several hundredthousand colors in the spectral range between400 nm (blue) and 700 nm (red). This colorsensitivity is the result of many thousands ofreceptors on the retina. Not all of these areequally sensitive, and not all are sensitive to thesame range of wavelengths.

Some of the receptors are particularly sensitivewithin the blue range, around 440 nm; othersare far more sensitive in other ranges, while yetothers are particularly receptive in the greenrange, around 540 or 580 nm.

The eye therefore has three different types ofreceptors for the primary colors red, green andblue. The spectral sensitivity and overlapping ofthe sensitive ranges make characterisation ofcolors extremely difficult.

The color which the human eye perceives aswhite does not contain equal parts of red, greenand blue light—this would be calledchromatic—but must, in accordance with the

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overlapping sensitivity ranges, be made up ofvarying proportions of these colors. Only thendoes the eye see white. This is what we callachromatic light.

Typical output devices for color are printers,imagesetters and computer screens. The firsttwo use the subtractive method of color mixing(CMY) and will not be part of our discussionhere. Most important for BodyPaint 3D is theadditive method of color mixing, which is theone used for representing colors on monitors.BodyPaint 3D characterises all colors by usingthree numerical values.

Two different color models are used, which youcan easily toggle between. Probably the bestknown model is RGB, which is used by mostgraphics applications because it is best suited tothe hardware components for image and coloroutput. The most commonly used output deviceis the computer screen, which has a gridconsisting of fine dots, made up from a red, agreen and a blue point. These points can beaddressed by an electron beam. By aiming thebeam at not just one color dot, but for examplethe red and the green, the added color value isyellow.

The color pigments for the screen dots havebeen selected in such a way that when equalparts are added they result in a white whichcomes closest to what the human eye perceivesas a pure white.

By beaming different intensities at the three dotsit is possible not only to generate the eight basiccolors (black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta,cyan and white) which are the result of mixingthe three primary colors, but many, many mixedcolors.

The number of colors possible is determined bythe number of gradations in the intensity of theelectron beam.

Using four gradations per primary color resultsin 4 x 4 x 4 = 64 colors. The standard is 256gradations per primary color, which gives 256 x256 x 256 = 16,777,216 colors.

These colors can be represented in a three-dimensional coordinate system.

The coordinate axes are formed by the threeprimary colors. Black is at the origin. Mixedcolors between red and green form the baseplane. Moving upward, more and more bluegets mixed in, until white is reached at the frontcorner of the cube. All white shades lie on theline connecting the origin with this corner.

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Less technical, and therefore better suited forpainters and artists, is the HSV model. H is thehue, S the saturation, V the color value. Theillustration below shows what these mean.

The six basic colors (red, yellow, green, cyan,blue, magenta) form a hexagon around thecolor white, together with black. The hue is theangle: starting with 0° for red, through 180° forcyan, to 270° for magenta. The saturation (S) isalways measured radially towards the outside.On the inside, along the black/white axes, it hasthe value 0.0, outside, at the edge of thehexagon, it is 1.0. The greater the saturation,the more intensive the hue.

The value (V) is measured in the direction of theblack/white axis. At the height of white it hasthe value 1.0; going downwards it decreasesuntil it reaches the value 0.0 for black. The colorvalue is used for darkening the hue.

Let’s summarise this:

- Pure color pigments sit at the edge of thehexagon: V = 1.0 and S = 1.0.

- To add white, reduce the saturation.

- To add black, decrease the color value.

Views

View

Refresh Active View Only

BodyPaint 3D refreshes all views simultaneouslyby default. If you are working with a complexscene using a high level of shading (e.g.Gouraud Shading with RTTM mode activated),the Perspective View soon becomes sluggish.

If this option is activated, only the window inwhich you carry out an action will be redrawn inrealtime. The other views will only be refreshedonce the action has been completed (e.g. whenyou release the mouse button having draggedan object to a new position).

Render Safe

If this option is activated, the boundaries of thefilm format (see page 410) will be shown in theeditor window.

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Note

You can set this option separately for each viewvia the viewport settings (see Configure,page 14), which apply to the active view only.

Action Safe

Only relevant if you are running BodyPaint 3Dwith CINEMA 4D XL. Please consult yourCINEMA 4D reference manual for details.

Title Safe

Only relevant if you are running BodyPaint 3Dwith CINEMA 4D XL. Please consult yourCINEMA 4D reference manual for details.

Scale Axes

If this option is activated, an object’s axes will bescaled whenever you scale the object itself.

You may find, however, that relatively large orrelatively small axes make it difficult to performquick actions (move, scale, rotate) by draggingon a particular axis.

If this option is deactivated, the object axesretain their size when the object is scaled.

Semi-Transparent Axes

If this option is activated, the object axes will besemi-transparent. You can enter the strength ofthe transparency in the box to the right.

If this option is deactivated, the object axes willbe displayed at full brightness.

OpenGL

Use OpenGL

If the Use OpenGL option is activated,BodyPaint 3D will use its built-in OpenGLroutines. You will be able to select further

options provided that they are supported byyour OpenGL implementation (see thedocumentation for your card/software).

If this option is deactivated, OpenGL support isturned off and BodyPaint 3D will use its internalshading routines instead.

Note

OpenGL can be installed on your computer ashardware or software. As a general rule,software-only implementations are much slowerthan their hardware counterparts.

Warning!

The OpenGL support has no effect on renderingspeed. It affects editor shading only.

Antialiased Lines

If this option is activated, lines will be smoothed(antialiased) by the OpenGL implementationprovided that it supports this mode.

MIP Maps

If this option is activated, the OpenGLimplementation will use MIP maps for texturingin the Perspective View. You can only use thisoption if it is supported by your OpenGLimplementation.

For more details on MIP mapping, seepage 217.

Smart Window Refresh

When activated, this option accelerates windowrefresh under OpenGL if, for example, youmove an undocked manager onto thePerspective View. If the option is inactive,OpenGL must refresh the entire screen eachtime.

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Note

This function is not supported by all OpenGLcards. If display errors appear with the optionactive, your card does not support SmartWindow Refresh.

Smart Live Selection

When this option is activated, the live selectionunder OpenGL is accelerated. Only the selectedpolygons or points are redrawn (as opposed tothe entire screen).

Note

This function is not supported by all OpenGLcards. If display errors appear with the optionactive, your card does not support Smart LiveSelection.

A Few Words on Acceleration

Many of us know that 3D computer games canbe enhanced dramatically by using a 3Daccelerator card. With this knowledge in mind,many users anticipate massive gains withprofessional software too. The reality issomewhat slower and the user is disappointedmore often than not.

Simple graphics cards soon fall by the waysidebecause they do not have enough graphicsmemory to display complex objects in areasonably large editor window. A screen that is1000 by 1000 pixels in size with 24-bit colorrequires about 4MB of memory. Double thisfigure to allow for screen buffering. If you alsotake the depth buffer into account, the memoryrequired is about 10MB. If insufficient graphicsmemory is available, the screen size must bereduced. (Our calculation doesn’t even takeeditor textures into account!)

Even if your card has sufficient memory, thereare other factors to consider:

3D objects are drawn on the screen as filledtriangles. There are two main stages involved.First, BodyPaint 3D must calculate the triangles.Next, the triangles must be drawn. If no 3Daccelerator card is present, BodyPaint 3D willdraw the triangles itself using the CPU. The ratioof the time required to calculate the triangles tothe time required to draw the triangles is about1:1. Even if a 3D graphics card takes over thesecond stage (drawing the triangles),BodyPaint 3D must still use the CPU to firstcalculate the triangles.

For example, if a graphics card can drawtriangles five times more quickly thanBodyPaint 3D, the overall increase in shadingspeed is only 40%, not the 500% that you mayhave hoped for.

The assumed ratio of 1:1 depends on otherfactors:

1. Window size

If you increase the size of the editor window,the time required by the 3D card barelyincreases (provided that the card has sufficientmemory). The CPU, on the other hand, isslowed down to a far greater degree. Forexample, increasing the window size from 640by 480 to 1280 by 960 will triple the timerequired by the CPU. As a result, the totalshading time is doubled (3:1 instead of 1:1).

2. Number of polygons to be drawn

If a scene contains many polygons in a smallarea, BodyPaint 3D can often draw them morequickly than the 3D card.

The Role Of The CPU

If you are not using a 3D graphics card, thedisplay speed increases linearly with CPU speed.If you double the CPU speed, the display speeddoubles as well.

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If you double the CPU speed when a 3D card isalready in use, the CPU accelerates thecalculation of the triangles, but not the drawingof them. In this case, the display speed increasesby a factor of 1.5 — the faster the CPU, the lessdifference (as a percentage) a 3D graphics cardmakes.

BodyPaint 3D and Other Programs

Some other 3D programs experience a morenoticeable acceleration with 3D cards. Thereason for this is quite simple. Such programsare naturally slow, whereas BodyPaint 3D isalready highly optimised for speed.

BodyPaint 3D is exceptionally fast, even beforeyou activate OpenGL.

Just because a 3D graphics card is used forshading, this does not mean that shading will beequally fast in all programs. The triangles muststill be calculated by the program itself, and thisis where BodyPaint 3D excels. The result is that,even though the same 3D card is used,BodyPaint 3D has faster shading than manyother 3D programs.

The concept that makes this possible is adaptiveshading (aka adaptive blitting). This means thatBodyPaint 3D will only redraw those parts of thescreen that have actually changed. OpenGL, onthe other hand, does a complete redraw everytime. The result is that BodyPaint 3D sometimesout-performs 3D cards. We told you thatBodyPaint 3D is exceptionally fast!

Outlook

Until OpenGL is expanded to include adaptivetechnology, a faster processor is probably moreeffective than a 3D card.

A Word of Caution

Our testers have noticed that some 3D cards

switch off their OpenGL support beyond certainresolutions and color depths. Some cards onlysupport OpenGL up to 1024 by 768 pixels and24-bits. Some even give up on OpenGL beyond800 by 600 and 65535 colors. Perhaps the mostalarming aspect is that in all cases the OpenGLwas deactivated silently, leaving the user in thedark.

A Second Word of Caution

Acceleration is not always supported on multi-monitor systems (particularly underWindows 9x). Be sure to ask about any suchOpenGL limitations before purchasing a multi-monitor system.

Textures

Perspective Correction

If this option is activated, the OpenGLimplementation will correct the perspective ofeditor textures. This will enhance the quality ofthe display, although it can also slow downshading. You can only use this option if it issupported by your OpenGL implementation.

Use Textures

This option defines whether textures aredisplayed when the Gouraud Shading mode isactivated. This setting is applied globally, i.e. itaffects all views.

You can define this option separately for eachview via the viewport settings (see Configure,page 14), which apply to the active view only.

Note

You can work more smoothly in the PerspectiveView if you deactivate this option.

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Color

Here you can define the colors used in theeditor. Select the element that you wish tochange from the pop-up box and change itscolor using the sliders or the system color dialog.

You will see either three color sliders or a colortable depending on the Color System setting onthe General page. The default setting is the RGBmodel with values specified as percentages.

The resultant color is shown to the left of thesliders. If you click on this color box, the systemcolor dialog will open.

If you click on the little triangle just below thecolor box, a hidden menu appears. You can usethis menu to change the color model or switchover to the color table. This setting will beretained for as long as the dialog is open. Assoon as you close the dialog, the setting on thegeneral page will be used.

Interface

This tab allows you control over the look-and-feel of BodyPaint 3D’s user interface.

Language

Here you can select a language forBodyPaint 3D’s interface from the installedlanguage sets. After quitting and re-launchingBodyPaint 3D, all messages, menus and dialogswill change to use the new language.

Scheme

From this pop-up menu you can choose one ofthe installed schemes.

Reset to Factory Settings

Owing to the many ways that you can configureBodyPaint 3D to your needs, it can easilyhappen that you lose the plot! So if you clickthis button all your changes are reset to theoriginal factory settings.

Dialogs (OK/Cancel Group)

Using the Style pop-up you can set the order ofthe OK and Cancel buttons within dialogs.Windows uses OK on the left and Cancel on theright, while the reverse is true under Mac OS.Choose whichever you feel comfortable with onyour platform.

Using Alignment you choose how these OK andCancel buttons are to be aligned in the dialogs;aligned left, centred or aligned right.

Help Text

If the Help Text in Statusbar option is enabled, ashort explanation of the menu entries or iconswill be displayed in the status bar (at the bottomof the screen) whenever you go to choose amenu item or hover over an icon.

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If the Bubble Help option is enabled, some helpinformation appears near the mouse pointerwhen you hover the mouse pointer over anicon.

Menus

Here you choose whether, in addition to thenormal function descriptions for menu items,BodyPaint 3D should also display icons (ShowIcons option enabled) and/or keyboard short-cuts (Show Shortcuts option enabled).

Look&Feel

In this part of the dialog you can modify thelook-and-feel of the program interface to yourown taste.

Colors

First choose from the pop-up menu the interfaceelement you want to change. Then click in thecolor selection box to the right and choose thenew color for this element from the system colorchooser that appears. Note that backgrounds ofwindows, buttons, dialogs etc. can havepatterns assigned to them. Select the UsePatterns box and then pick a pattern from thepop-up below it.

Note

You can use your own backgrounds inBodyPaint 3D. Just create a folder called‘Pattern’ inside the BodyPaint 3D Resourcefolder (if this doesn’t already exist) and placeyour own background image files in this‘Pattern’ folder.

Fonts

Here you can choose the font BodyPaint 3D willuse for displaying text in menus and dialogs,etc. Choose the font type from the pop-up

menu and then click on the F button to theright. A dialog opens in which you can choosethe font and its size.

Clicking the R button will change back to youractive system font.

Note

The font changes will be effective only after youquit and restart BodyPaint 3D.

Delays

If you are a Windows user you may havenoticed that windows and menus open quiteslowly on your desktop but rather faster inBodyPaint 3D. Now, you can use the optionsunder Delays to simulate this delayed reactionfor various actions within BodyPaint 3D.

Choose the action from the pop-up menu. Thenset the delay for this action in the box to theright.

Have some fun with this - it’s not the mostserious or useful option in BodyPaint 3D!

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Texture Paths

BodyPaint 3D searches for textures in thefollowing locations:

- in the same folder as the scene.

- in a folder named ‘tex’ which is inside thescene’s folder.

- in a folder named ‘tex’ inside the BodyPaint 3Dfolder.

If a texture cannot be found in any of thesefolders, you can add the texture’s folder to theTexture Paths.

You can specify up to 10 Texture Paths and eachis searched recursively, i.e. folders within folderswill be searched too. If a texture still cannot belocated after searching all of the Texture Paths,BodyPaint 3D will report an error.

You can type the path name directly into a textbox. Alternatively, click on a text box and guidethe dialog that opens to the folder in question.

Once you have located the folder, click on Open(Windows) or the box at the bottom of thedialog that contains the name of the folder(Mac OS). The path will be added to the textbox of the settings.

BodyPaint

Max. Memory Usage

This is a number in megabytes (MB) that is usedas a cut off point when undoing actions. Thiswill take affect only if you have alreadyexceeded the minimum number of stepsspecified in the At Least box.

At Least

You may wish to have a minimum number ofundo steps when painting your textures, if this isthe case then you can choose how many here. Ifthe minimum number of undo steps has notbeen reached, but the Max. Memory Usagevalue has been, then more memory will be useduntil the minimum number of steps has been

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reached. Users who often find themselvesrunning low on memory may wish to set thisvalue to 1.

Note:

These undo options apply only to the textures.They will make no difference when undoingcamera or object actions.

Default Texture Format

BodyPaint 3D is capable of working in layers,and indeed we recommend you do so. Ofcourse you will want to be able to save yourprojects with all of this layer information intact,so you have several choices when saving.

BodyPaint *.b3d

This is BodyPaint's own custom file format (b3d)which is recommended for most users. Usingthis format will ensure all texture data is savedand that compatibility is retained for futureversions.

Photoshop *.psd

Users of Adobe Photoshop may wish to use thisformat when saving. This will allow you to loadyour textures into Photoshop should you wish touse its tools. You should note that only the firstlayer mask will be saved and that several of theBodyPaint 3D blending modes are not availablein Photoshop.

TIFF *.tif

Saving you texture as a TIFF will flatten theimage so that all layers are merged into one.These cannot be restored. Only use the TIFFformat if you know that you no longer wish toedit individual layers or if your painting programdoes not support either of the above fileformats.

Macintosh

This tab is available only under Mac OS.

Use Navigation Services

This option activates / deactivates theNavigation Services under Mac OS 9.

Exchange CTRL <-> COMMAND key

BodyPaint 3D uses the Ctrl (control) key as thedefault modifier key. The Command key is usedfor simulating the right mouse button (hold itdown and click). If you would like it the otherway around, select this option.

Hide System Menu

If selected, the Mac’s standard system menusare hidden while BodyPaint 3D is running.

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4. Workflow   

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4 Workflow 55Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 55

Here To Help .................................................................................................................................................. 55

Working With Layouts ................................................................................................................................... 55

Load Layout .............................................................................................................................................. 56

Reset Layout ............................................................................................................................................. 56

Save As Default Layout ............................................................................................................................. 57

Save Layout As .......................................................................................................................................... 57

Further Menu Items .................................................................................................................................. 57

The Browser ................................................................................................................................................... 57

Working with the Browser ......................................................................................................................... 57

The Drawing Pin ........................................................................................................................................ 60

File Menu .................................................................................................................................................. 60

Edit Menu .................................................................................................................................................. 63

Function Menu .......................................................................................................................................... 64

Initialisation Files ............................................................................................................................................ 66

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and drop it on to an object in the Objectmanager or View window.

- What if the Object manager is not the activetab (see page 31) when you drag-and-drop amaterial from the Material manager? Simplydrag the material on to the Object manager’stab. After a short delay, the Object managerwill become the active tab and you can dropthe material on to the required object.

- There is no need to lock axes in order to move,scale or rotate an object in one direction only.There is a small arrow, cube or sphere at theend of each object axis (the exact formdepends on the active tool). Click on thearrow/cube/sphere for the required axis anddrag. Note that you can use this method tomove/scale/rotate selected points andpolygons as well as objects!

- When you need to select several adjacentpoints or polygons, do not click on them oneby one. Instead, use the Live Selection tool andpaint over the points/polygons to select them.

The text above covers only a few of the ways inwhich you can improve your workflow. Be sureto read the entire manual at the earliestopportunity, since many other workflow tips aredescribed along the way.

Working With LayoutsBodyPaint 3D has a wealth of configurationpossibilities. For example, you can define yourown short-cuts, create your own layouts, setyour own defaults and configure the Browser fora specific project.

4 Workflow

IntroductionTechnical computer terms, despite theirwidespread usage, are slow to be recognised bydictionaries and perhaps that is why they oftentake on several meanings. Workflow is noexception. We define workflow to mean theperformance of all the steps involved inachieving a task. If you can improve yourworkflow (i.e. go about things in a moreefficient way), you can work more quickly as aresult.

The purpose of this chapter is to raise yourawareness of workflow issues.

Here To HelpThere are many features in BodyPaint 3D thatcan help improve your workflow. We list just afew of the features below:

- If you need to move, zoom or rotate a camera,use the icons at the top right of the view (dragthe right mouse button on the icon yourequire). The fourth, right-most icon togglesthe active view between single-view and all-views (see Toggle Active View, page 24).

- Define short-cuts for the functions you use themost. Also, create an icon palette and fill itwith the functions. In this way, you can reachhigh-frequency functions more quickly.

- Many commands can be performed with aquick drag-and-drop rather than a trekthrough the menus. For example, to allocate amaterial, drag it from the Material manager

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The allocation of short-cuts is described in detailin Allocating Shortcuts, page 36. The Browserand default values are described later in thischapter. First, we consider working with layouts.

The golden rule for improving your workflow isto do it in stages. Make little changes at a time,then once they have become second nature,make further changes. If you attempt too muchto soon, you may worsen your workflow. Beginwith just a few (e.g. five) short-cuts. Once theseshort-cuts have become instinct, create andlearn to use a few more short-cuts.

What’s the big deal about being able to createyour own layout?

Well, we admit that we are not omniscient - inparticular, we cannot know your preferred wayto work. For example, do you prefer icons ortext in the command palettes? Should theMaterial manager be open or do you prefer alarger Perspective View?

Of course, we could activate everything, butthis would help no-one. The sheer number ofwindows, icons, menus, functions and optionswould almost make your monitor sag. Anyonenew to 3D would run a mile. As for workflow...

What is far more important is that you and yourcolleagues can create and use your very ownlayout settings. You will not have to deal withthe seemingly bizarre changes a colleague hasmade to the layout, and vice versa. Anyone whohas used a colleague’s computer will know whatwe’re getting at. (“Which folder did she say theword processor was in? I need to get homesome time tonight...”).

Not only are layouts good for office harmony,you can also create several layouts for your ownuse. For example, you may find it useful tocreate a layout biased towards painting in three

dimensions (large Perspective View) and anotherlayout biased towards editing UV mesh (largeTexture View).

Start by using the default layout. As time passesby, keep track of which commands you use themost.

Is your mouse getting too much exercise? Is itconstantly darting between a command on thebottom left and a command on the top right ofyour 21-inch, 1600x1200 res. monitor? If so,alter the layout! Put the commands next to eachother, within easy reach.

Previously, we learnt how to use layouts. In thefollowing, we take a look at the functions forlayout management. You can reach all of thesefunctions from the main menu bar underWindow > Layout.

Load LayoutYou can use this function to load a previouslysaved layout. Use the system dialog that opensto choose the layout file (with a '.l4d'extension).

Reset LayoutThis function resets the layout to the factorysettings. Use this function if you get in amuddle.

It is also very helpful if you reset the layoutbefore contacting technical support. In that way,you and the technician will be using the samelayout — it will be easier to help you locate theproblem.

Note

Remember to save the layout if necessary beforeyou reset it. You can save the layout with SaveLayout As (see below).

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Save As Default LayoutThis function saves the current layout in aspecial file. The next time you launchBodyPaint 3D, the layout will load automaticallyas the new default.

Note

There is an option in the General Settings (SaveLayout At Program End , page 42) that, whenactivated, will save the layout each time youquit the program.

Save Layout AsYou can use this command to save the currentlayout. This enables you save several layouts,e.g. one for painting in three dimensions (largePerspective View) and another for editing UVmesh (large Texture View).

Layout files are given the extension ‘.l4d’automatically.

Further Menu ItemsThe Window > Layout submenu also lists all thelayout files (extension ‘.l4d’) in BodyPaint 3D’s‘prefs’ folder. To load a layout, select one fromthe list.

The Browser

A file catalog in the Browser

Working with the Browser

Introduction

Using the Browser, you can take a snapshot ofall files produced by or used in BodyPaint 3Dscenes. Many of these files can be viewed asthumbnails. So, for example, before loading atexture image into your scene you can view it,and any other possible textures you may need,directly within the Browser.

More accurately, using the Browser you cancapture scenes, materials, textures, pictures,animations, sound, time curves and evenC.O.F.F.E.E. programs (those files ending withthe extension COF and COB e.g. UNDO.COF).A full list of all BodyPaint 3D supported fileformats can be found in Appendix 3. This list isextended further through the picture andanimation formats available when you haveinstalled QuickTime on your system.

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Note

The Browser will only recognize a movie file ifits corresponding codec is installed on thesystem.

When used correctly the Browser is a verypowerful control center and manager for your3D development.

It makes sense to organize your sceneinformation into various image catalogs (e.g.one for sunsets, one for floor tiles and so on...).You can then add notes to these archived files;these notes will aid in future archive searches.Using a search with certain criteria you could,for example, search for all of those files that arecopyright free and are able to be distributedfreely.

While working on a project you can load each ofthe required catalogs into the Browser, e.g.select suitable materials and load these directlyinto the scene. We will see how this worksfurther on in this chapter. First, we need tocreate a catalog.

Creating A Catalog

- To start with, scan a folder for all BodyPaint 3Dfiles.

From the File menu, select Import Directory.From the dialog you can choose your desiredfolder. For these first practice steps the ‘Tex’ orthe ‘Sample’ folders in the root of BodyPaint 3Dare recommended.

You may also limit the search to certain filetypes, perhaps only pictures or scenes. Thesecriteria (and more options) can be defined in theBrowser preferences.

- During the search the Browser automaticallycreates small preview pictures (slides). Thesegive you a good idea of the actual appearanceof a picture or a scene.

Tip

If the file read by the Browser contains only onesingle material (and nothing else, absolutelynothing at all different), then the Browser willdisplay only material pictures as in the Materialmanager (see Material manager, page 207), In allother cases the raytracer renders a picture of thecurrent view. (See also Save Material As onpage 209.)

- Once the Browser has finished cataloging thedata you are free to add personal notes,comments, copyright notices and similar thingsto the individual files.

Select a slide (click on it so that it is framed red)and choose Info from the Function menu. Enteryour own text into the large box. Close thedialog with OK.

Now move your mouse pointer over the slidethat you have added comments to and wait.After a short time the text appears under yourmouse pointer.

- Lastly save your whole database as a catalogfile with a meaningful name.

Choose Save Catalog As from the File menu.Again the system dialog appears. Enter asensible name, such as Test, and the file'Test.cat' will be created in the selected folder.This catalog can then be loaded into theBrowser.

So far, we have seen the basic use of theBrowser. The full potential of the Browser willbecome much clearer when it is used incombination with the various BodyPaint 3Dmanagers. Depending on where you drag athumbnail slide, you may create new materials,load scenes etc.

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Simply click on a thumbnail and keep the (left)mouse button held down. Move the mousepointer over a manager and release the button.This technique is known as drag-and-drop.

You may, of course, select several separateslides. Keep the Shift key pressed as you selectyour required slides. All selected slides areframed in red.

Drag-and-drop With The Browser

Pictures, Animations

- Pictures, animations in the Material manager:

Creates a new material, containing the image,or animation, as a color texture.

- Picture, animation on an object in thePerspective View:

Creates a new material, as above, but assignsthis material directly to the selected object.

- Picture, animation on an object in the Objectmanager:

Creates a new material, as above, using thepicture or animation as the color channel butassigns this directly to the selected object.

- Picture on the Picture Viewer:

The picture is displayed in the Picture Viewerwindow.

Tip

The texture must be located in the BodyPaint 3DTexture Paths, otherwise the preview imageremains black in the Material manager (seeMaterial manager, page 207).

Scenes

- Scene on the Material manager:

All materials (if applicable) belonging to thescene are imported to the materials list of thecurrent scene.

- Scene on the Perspective View:

The selected scene is loaded.

- Scene on the Object manager:

The selected scene is imported into the currentscene.

Materials

- Material on the Material manager:

The material is imported into the material listof the current scene.

- Material on an object in the Perspective View:

The material is added to the material list andassigned immediately to the selected object.

- Material on an object in the Object manager:

The material is imported into the material listand assigned immediately to the selectedobject in the Object manager.

Tip

If a texture that you use in the BodyPaint 3DBrowser is located outside of the Texture Paths,the program asks whether you want to copy thefile to the same location as the scene. Thisallows BodyPaint 3D to find texturesautomatically without user intervention.

If you have not yet assigned a name (andtherefore a location) to your scene, textures aresaved to the BodyPaint 3D startup folder.

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Tip

Drag-and-drop with C.O.F.F.E.E. programs willhave no effect.

Further Browser Functions

- Double-clicking on a picture file (usually atexture) opens the Pictures manager anddisplays the picture.

- Double-clicking on an animation file opens theanimation player for your system and plays theanimation.

- Double-clicking a scene file loads it into theeditor.

- Double-clicking on a material imports and addsit to the current scene and the Materialmanager.

- Double-clicking on a C.O.F.F.E.E. programopens your system’s default text editor (thedefault under Windows is NotePAD and underMac OS is SimpleText) and loads the program,ready for editing.

- Right-clicking on a preview picture will open acontext menu from which you can accessinformation about the selected slide and thisallows you to use the Search dialog.

Tip

To open the context menu on the Macintosh,hold down the Command key while you clickthe mouse button.

The Drawing PinUsing this menu you can alter the layout ofBodyPaint 3D to your own requirements.Further details are in The Pin Menu, page 39.

File Menu

New Catalog

Creates a new, empty catalog. Any existingcatalog in the Browser will be replaced with thenew one.

Open Catalog

Loads a previously saved catalog into theBrowser.

Import File

Loads and adds a file (scene, picture, material...)to the current catalog. A preview picture isgenerated.

Import Directory

Loads and adds the contents of a folder to thecurrent catalog. Depending on how thepreferences are set up, subfolders will besearched or ignored.

Tip

It is advisable not to list the complete contentsof a CD-ROM unless your computer has lots ofmemory. A quick calculation backs this up: asmall thumbnail picture with a size of 80x60pixels and a color depth of 24 bits needs around15KB of memory. So 1,000 images on a CDwould require a minimum 16MB of memory.And don’t forget the extra few megabytes for theactual display of these images within theBrowser. In such cases it is simple to create anumber of smaller catalogs, which are easier tomanage.

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Save Catalog

Saves the current catalog. The catalog is savedusing the name given in the Save Catalog Asdialog. This name also appears in the Browsertitle bar.

If your catalog is still yet to be named (in whichcase the Browser title bar will show Untitled),the Save command acts in the same way as SaveCatalog As (see below).

Save Catalog As

Save Catalog As always opens the File selector.The name you enter here will appear in the titlebar of the Browser window.

BodyPaint 3D always adds the extension ‘.cat’to the catalog filename.

Making Catalog Paths Relative

Normally, when storing a preview image in acatalog, the exact location is also saved. This isessential when using the drag-and-droptechnique to pass objects over to BodyPaint 3Dfor processing.

However, should you move, for example, atexture folder from your own system to thecompany’s network server, the location of thefiles is no longer the same as that of the savedcatalog. Therefore the Browser will not find therequired files.

A similar situation may arise when you compilea catalog for a CD-ROM collection (textures,objects, scenes etc.). These collections wouldnormally be created locally on a computer, usingthe computer’s local path definitions and driveIDs (e.g. the drive could be D:\, or even X:\under Windows, or possibly 2184: or 1601under Mac OS). This system would be unusable

for catalogs, as the Browser would look for thevarious devices and paths of the computer,rather than the CD-ROM.

The solution to this is to use relative paths. Thisoption ensures that paths are not stored ascomplete path names, but instead as relativepaths, starting from the catalog folder. Here, thelocation path of files is still used, but you arefree to define where the system is to begin itssearch. This anchor folder can be anywhere on ahard disk or CD-ROM. But, starting from thatanchor folder, and moving down, the same pathhierarchy as that of the catalog folder mustexist.

Here’s an example of anchor folders. Let usimagine that you want to list your winterbackground pictures. These are located on thesystem hard drive in the following folder:

Disk1/Texture/Backgrounds/Winter/...

So we define Texture as the anchor folder, therelative path then reads:

Backgrounds/Winter/...

This (sub-) folder hierarchy can be now movedto any other location e.g. to the companyserver:

Server7/BP3D/Resources/Tex/Backgrounds/Winter/...

The new anchor folder is now Tex. Starting fromthis location, the hierarchy sub-items now havethe same path as before. To ensure that theBrowser finds the required files requires onerule; the Browser catalog must always be in theanchor folder. In the above example the catalogwould have been created in Texture and latercopied to Tex.

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Let’s see a more practical example:

You need to collect together and write all ofyour textures, materials, objects and finishedpictures, and all other useful items, to a CD.

Firstly, a relevant catalog for the files is created.It is to contain all textures, objects andmaterials. In addition the catalog will be locatedin the root folder of the CD, so that you canview and archive it directly.

You now create the entire archive on yourcomputer. On most systems you will have areserved hard drive partition which was definedfor such CD-ROM production. Only rarelyshould you require more than the 650MB limitof a CD-ROM for this work area.

A possible CD structure for your hard drivemight look like the following illustration.

The CD-ROM structure in the Mastering folder

So this is how the structure could look. You havecreated and filled the folders with the relevantcontents. As we are just concerned withbrowsing from here, only the three folders Mat,Obj, and Tex are of any interest to us. Or havewe forgotten an important folder?

Of course ... we need to know where theanchor folder is located.

Let’s look more closely. The CD will be calledBP3D Tools. Thus the folder of the same namewithin the mastering partition forms the anchor.This is also where the catalog is to be located,making it easily accessible. So, proceed asfollows:

1. Start BodyPaint 3D and open the Browser.

2. Open File > Preferences.

Check the option Recurse Folders in the dialog(see above) as well as Pictures, Movies andScenes (and, depending on personalpreference, from the drop-down menu to theright of Scenes choose Raytracer, which willcause a delay in catalog creation, GouraudShading or Wireframe).

3. Select File > New Catalog.

4. Now each folder is added.

Select File > Import Directory. In the dialogselect, for example, the folder Mat. Thecatalog and the preview pictures are created.Use the Import Directory function twice morefor the folders Obj and Tex.

5. Now Select File > Save Catalog As.

In the system dialog define ‘Disk3:Mastering:BP34D Tools’ as the location and, say, ‘BP3DTools.cat’ as the name. This is the most crucial(and also most difficult) step. Now (and onlynow) does the Browser know where it has tocreate relative paths.

6. Open the menu command File > MakeCatalog Relative..., so that the Browserconverts all information into relative paths.

7. Save the catalog with File > Save Catalog.

You are now ready to master the CD.

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To summarize:

If Make Catalog Relative... is enabled, thencomplete paths are no longer saved, insteadonly the relative paths, starting from the catalogfolder are used. From this location the currentcatalog folder and its sub-folders are scanned.

Tip

This method only works if you have named thecatalog and assigned the path with the SaveCatalog As command (see above) prior tosearching the catalog.

Close

This command closes the Browser. The currentcatalog is removed from memory.

Edit Menu

Delete

Removes all selected pictures from the catalog.The originals on the system disk remainunaffected.

Select All

Selects all the preview pictures of the currentcatalog.

Deselect All

Deselects all the preview pictures of the currentcatalog.

Preferences

Thumbnail Size

This allows you to adjust (in pixels) the size ofthe preview images in the Browser. The changesare immediate, although actual recalculationdoes not occur until later. The images are simplyscaled up or down.

The new calculation of all pictures is achieved bythe use of Render All from the Function menu(see below).

Recurse Folders

If this option is checked, sub-folders are alsoscanned for scene elements and displayed in theBrowser.

Pictures

If this option is active, pictures are displayed inthe Browser. All image formats unknown toBodyPaint 3D are ignored.

Movies

If this option is checked, animations aredisplayed in the Browser. All animation formatsunknown to BodyPaint 3D are ignored.

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Sounds

If this option is active, the waveforms of thesound files are displayed in the Browser. Allsound formats unknown to BodyPaint 3D areignored.

Function Curves

If this option is activated, function curves aredisplayed in the Browser.

C.O.F.F.E.E. Files

If this option is activated, C.O.F.F.E.E. files aredisplayed in the Browser.

Scenes

If this option is activated, scenes are shown inthe Browser. All scene formats that are notrecognized by BodyPaint 3D are ignored.

You can use the pop-up menu to the right ofthis option to determine whether scenes areshaded in Wireframe or Gouraud or renderedwith the Raytracer. If Raytracer is selected,shadows and refraction are not rendered andonly the floor and sky can be reflected.However, each scene is antialiased.

Function Menu

Render All

Recalculates all preview pictures that exist in thecatalog.

This is necessary, for example, if you change thepicture size in the preferences or add or changefiles in the directories. You can cancel the newcalculation at any time with the ESC key.

Information

Opens an information window for the currentpreview and displays information, including thecomplete path, picture resolution and colordepth.

Tip

This command is also accessible from within thecontext menu (right-click).

You may be surprised, when you are usingrelatively small textures in a scene, if thecomputer alerts you to a lack of memory. It’svery easy to forget that images often needconsiderably more memory than their file sizesuggests.

For example a compressed JPEG picture, whichon disk is just one megabyte in size, can quiteoften need 10 or more megabytes of memory todisplay. Using several such compressed files inthe Browser, the existing memory of yourcomputer melts like ice cream in a desert.

Using the information window of the Browser,you can easily monitor the relevant values (filesize and actual memory requirement) and avoidunpleasant surprises while working on a project.

On the right-hand side of the informationwindow is an area where you can enter yourown comments e.g. copyright notes, latestchanges etc.

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These comments may run to many lines and upto 255 characters. A comment can be displayedfrom within the Browser itself. To do this, simplyleave the mouse pointer over a preview picturefor a couple of seconds. As with commandpalettes (see Command Palettes, page 32), aninformation box will open under the mousepointer.

To begin a new text line, simply press the Enteror Return key. This dialog must be closed withthe mouse by clicking on OK or Cancel.

Tip

The contents of the comment box can also besearched (see below). The Browser thuseffectively becomes a small picture database.

Tip

If the Browser finds a text file with the nameReadme.txt when scanning a folder, its contentswill be automatically transferred to theinformation dialog of each thumbnail picture ofthe folder, space permitting.

Search For

Scans the name and/or comment boxes of thecurrent database of the Browser for the textentered.

Tip

This command is also accessible from within thecontext menu (right-click).

You may use the Browser to scan for filenamesand/or comments. Simply choose the criteria bychecking the relevant box and enter the text orvalue you wish to search for in the box to theright. All thumbnails that match the find will beoutlined in the catalog.

Sort By

Use the sub-entries of this menu to define thesort sequence of the current catalog in theBrowser.

Alternatively you may sort according to filenameor file size. Items are always sorted in ascendingorder, i.e. the list starts with the smallest imagesand ends with the largest.

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Initialisation FilesBodyPaint 3D loads several initialisation filesduring startup. The content of these files isintegrated into the layout.

Template.c4d

During startup, BodyPaint 3D checks its rootfolder for a file called ‘Template.c4d’. If the fileis present, its settings are loaded and are used asdefault values.

This can be very effective if you keep using thesame scene-specific settings (e.g. severaldifferent render settings).

For an overview of all the settings which aresaved with the scene file, see Overview,page 27.

New.c4d

When you create a new file (main menuFile > New), BodyPaint 3D checks its root folderfor a file called ‘New.c4d’. If the file is present,its settings are loaded and are used as defaultvalues.

For example, to change the default renderresolution, change the value in the RenderSettings (Output tab) and save the file inBodyPaint 3D's root folder under the name‘New’ (BodyPaint 3D will append the extensionautomatically).

Template.cat

During startup, BodyPaint 3D checks its rootfolder for a file called ‘Template.cat’. If the file ispresent, it is loaded into the Browserautomatically.

This can be useful, for example, when you areworking on a large project and wish to have allthe associated textures and/or scenes availableimmediately after startup. In this case, create acatalog which shows all the required files. Then,save the catalog in BodyPaint 3D’s root folderwith the name ‘Template’ (BodyPaint 3D willappend ‘.cat’ automatically). The Browser willcontain the catalog the next time you launchBodyPaint 3D.

For more information on the Browser, seepage 57.

Note

If the template catalog is very large (lots ofpreview pictures), expect a short delay duringstartup.

Template.l4d

During startup, BodyPaint 3D checks its rootfolder for a file called ‘Template.l4d’. If the file ispresent, it is loaded and used as the activelayout.

You can create this file in one of two ways:

- Activate the corresponding option in theGeneral Settings (see page 40). The templatelayout will be created automatically when youquit BodyPaint 3D — each time you quit, foras long as the option is activated!

- Create the template layout manually using thefunction Window > Layout > Create DefaultLayout (main menu).

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5. BodyPaint 3D Basics   

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5 BodyPaint 3D Basics 69

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5 BodyPaint 3D BasicsThis tutorial shows you how to paint animported object from scratch.

In preparation, load an unpainted object intoBodyPaint 3D. If you like, use 'face.c4d' fromthe Examples folder on the BodyPaint 3D CD-ROM.

Step 1: Create the Material

The object is gray to begin with. This is becauseunpainted objects use the default material (graycolor, specular channel active). Create your ownmaterial by choosing File > New Material in theMaterial manager.

The new material’s preview appears. Notice howit is gray also. However, before you edit thematerial, apply it to the object in the followingway: drag from the material preview until themouse pointer is over the object in thePerspective View, then release the mousebutton. The Texture dialog opens:

Set the Projection pop-up menu to Flat, thenclick on the OK button. This maps the texture toyour object using flat mapping. To ensure thatthe projection covers the entire surface, chooseTexture > Fit to Object in the Object manager.

Flat mapping is a good choice if you are usingthe face example, since you will paint to oneside only. However, when you need to paint toall sides of an object, you should use Sphericalor UVW mapping. For further details on textureprojection, please see page 255.

Step 2: Create the Texture

You need to create a texture before you canpaint the object, so select Channels > Color inthe Layer manager. This creates a texture for thecolor channel.

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The New Texture dialog opens. The parametersin this dialog are used to define the new texture.Leave all the parameters at their default settingswith one exception: click on the color selectionbox to the right of Color. The color dialog foryour operating system opens. Choose abackground color for your texture (e.g.255,216,178 RGB for skin) then click on OK toreturn to the New Texture dialog. Click on OKonce more to create the texture.

A texture with a background layer is created.The background layer is filled with the color youhave just chosen, as can be seen in the Layermanager. Now, activate the Enable option sothat you will be able to edit the texture.

The new texture has been mapped to the objectautomatically. The speculars are a littleoverpowering, so double-click on the materialpreview (Material manager) and deactivateSpecular (click on the adjacent option field).

You are now ready to paint your object.

Step 3: Paint the Object

Click on a brush preset and a color preset tochoose your brush and paint. You can alsochoose the painting color by clicking on the

foreground color selector (front rectangle) forthe color channel (C) in the multi-channelpalette:

Choose the new foreground color using thecolor dialog that opens.

You can paint in two different windows (and,effectively, in two different ways):

1. Perspective View — paint directly onto yourobject in three dimensions.

2. Texture View — paint onto the bitmap in twodimensions.

Both the Perspective View and Texture Viewshow your paint strokes in real-time.

Tip:

If you have activated the Show UV Mesh option(Texture View: Tools > Show UV Mesh ) and theUV mesh is at a different angle to the textureplane, you can correct the angle by adjusting theRotation settings in the Texture dialog. (To openthe Texture dialog, double-click on the texturetag in the Object manager.)

Tip:

To open the texture in the Texture View, double-click on the Background layer in the Layermanager.

Now, paint the object in an imaginative way. Trya variety of brush presets and, above all,experiment.

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On the right is the painted face texture. The eyes wereallocated their own texture.

We painted the eyes for this example.

If you want to save your artwork, use File >Save Project from the main menu.

The Save File dialog opens. Enter a name for theproject folder. A 'tex' folder will be placed insidethe project folder — this is where your textureswill be saved. This method ensures thateverything is saved.

Tip:

BodyPaint 3D saves the scene file separately tothe textures.

The Save as command (main menu) saves thescene (i.e. the object) only. You can saveindividual textures using File > Save Texture inthe Texture View. If you want to save all thetextures, use File > Save All Textures (mainmenu).

Keep in mind that BodyPaint 3D can load thescene’s textures only if they are in one of thefollowing locations:

1. In the same folder as the scene file.

2. In a 'tex' folder inside the scene’s folder.

3. In any folder specified as a texture path in theGeneral Settings. See page 51 for details.

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6. Color Manager   

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6 Color Manager 75The Color Settings .......................................................................................................................................... 75

General ...................................................................................................................................................... 75

The Multi Channel Palette ......................................................................................................................... 81

The Color Manager ................................................................................................................................... 83

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6 Color ManagerYou can, if you prefer, enter the strength valuenumerically using the box to the right of theslider. You can set values from 0% to 100%. Avalue of 100% will apply the color/pattern withfull opacity.

If Texture Paint is selected, the texture will beapplied in the ratio of 1:1. The lower you set thestrength value, the more transparent the color/pattern will be.

The pop-up menu on the right defines theblending mode itself. These modes, such asMultiply and Darken, have exactly the sameeffect as with 2D paint programs.

The following terms are used below to helpdescribe the effect of the blending modes:

- background color — a pixel’s original color, i.e.its color before you paint over it.

- painting color/pattern — the color or patternwith which you are painting.

- resultant color — the pixel’s final color, i.e. itscolor once you have painted over it.

The blending modes you can choose from are:

Normal

Each pixel you paint over takes some or all of itscolor from the painting color/pattern accordingto the brush pressure value. The greater thebrush pressure value, the more opaque yourbrush stroke becomes.

Dissolve

This mode uses a random function to generatean (almost) random distribution of the color/pattern while you paint. Dissolve depends onthe brush pressure and it frays the edges.

The Color Settings

General

The Color Settings dialog is the most importantmeans for defining colors and patterns inBodyPaint 3D. In addition, it enables you tosave the color/pattern as a color preset in theColor manager.

Blending Mode

The Blending Mode slider controls the strength(i.e. the opacity) of the color/pattern. Thepreview picture shows the current state of thecolor/pattern, which is the result of combiningthe blending mode settings with the wallpaperproperties.

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Tip:

This mode is useful for simulating dirt effects.

Difference

With this mode, the resultant color of each pixelis the difference between its background colorand the painting color. For example, if you paintred onto black, the result is red. This is becauseblack’s RGB values are 0,0,0, so the differencecorresponds to the painting color (red). A morepractical example is to paint onto a non-blackbackground with a soft brush — this createssurreal edges.

Lighten

BodyPaint 3D compares the brightness values ofthe background color and the painting color (atthe pixel level). If the background color isbrighter, the pixel’s color remains unchanged. Ifthe background color is darker, the resultantcolor is the same as the painting color.

Darken

BodyPaint 3D compares the brightness values ofthe background color and the painting color (atthe pixel level). Where the background color isdarker, the pixel’s color remains unchanged.Where the background color is brighter, theresultant color is the same as the painting color.

Multiply

The resultant color is obtained by multiplyingthe background color by the painting color, thendividing by pure white. The more often youpaint over a pixel in this mode, the darker itbecomes. The effect is always a darkening one.This can be useful for increasing tonal variation.

Screen

Screen has the opposite effect of Multiply. Itmultiplies the inverted values for thebackground and painting colors, then divides bypure white. (To invert a color, subtract it frompure white.) The more times you paint over apixel in this mode, the brighter it becomes.

Add

The resultant color is obtained by adding thecolour channels of the background color and thepainting color. For example, if you paint red(255,0,0) onto a green background (0,255,0,),the resultant color is yellow (255,255,0).

Exclusion

This mode is similar to Difference, but it createsa softer effect.

Erase

This mode erases pixels in the active layer — theerased areas are transparent and the layerunderneath shows through.

Note:

If the Background layer is active, the Erase modepaints white rather than transparency.

Ignore Filter

The Brush Settings dialog contains filters such asWet Edges and Smudge. Use this Ignore Filteroption to turn on or off the effect for the activematerial channel.

Solid Color

This is where you choose your color. There areseven different color modes. To change mode,click on the triangle below the small previewpicture and select from the list that appears. Youcan define the color using either a color table or

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the four sliders and input boxes. The color isshown in the small preview picture to the left. Ifyou click on the preview, you can define thecolor using the color dialog that is native to youroperating system.

Color Table

This enables you to choose a color from a tableof presets. Click on a color to pick it.

Sliders

The sliders relate to either the RGB color systemor the HSV color system.

RGB: The color is defined by three colorcomponents: red, green and blue.

HSV: The color is defined in terms of hue,saturation and brightness.

Depending on the color mode chosen, you canset the slider values between the followingranges:

0%..100%

0..255

0..65535

The fourth slider defines the color’s brightness.

The four sliders combined enable you to specifya color accurately.

Texture Paint

Activate this option if you want to paint texturesonto the object. You can pick the texture usingthe eyedropper:

- Select the Eyedropper tool.

- Select Texture in the Active Tool manager.

- Click in the Texture View and the active layerwill be used as the texture.

Note that you can use the eyedropper betweenall open scenes.

Preset Patterns

You can select a preset pattern by clicking onthe triangle to the right of the material preview.You can add your own bitmaps to the list byplacing them in BodyPaint 3D’s 'pattern' folder(although see Reread Directory below). You canuse any graphics format recognised byBodyPaint 3D, such as tif, bmp and jpg.

Often, you will use your own paint patterns,which you can pick using the eyedropper.

The pop-up menu contains two functions inaddition to the pattern list:

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Load From Disk — This enables you to load atexture from a storage medium. You will beasked if the texture should be copied to the‘pattern’ folder. Click on Yes if you want thepattern to be made available permanently.

Refresh Folder — If you have copied anybitmaps to the ‘pattern’ folder during thecurrent work session, select Refresh Folder toadd the new patterns to the list.

Source X/Y

This defines the pixel in the texture that will bepainted first. For example, if the values are setto 0 and 0, the top-left pixel in the texture willbe painted first.

Tip:

If you picked the texture using the eyedropper,the values are set to the pixel position whereyou clicked.

Tiling

If this option is activated, the pattern will betiled as you paint.

Dest. X/Y

Dest. stands for Destination. You can entervalues only if the painting mode is locked (seebelow); otherwise, the boxes are ghosted. If youset the Dest. X/Y values to the same values asSource X/Y, the pattern will be painted withoutan offset — enter different values to offset thetexture. For example, to offset the texture 20pixels lower, subtract 20 pixels from the secondbox.

Painting mode

Locked — This mode paints the texture with anoffset as defined by the Source X/Y and Dest.X/Y settings. This enables you to clone a textureand paint it to another position with an offset.

For example, if you paint using the Fill Bitmaptool, the texture will be offset over the entirelayer — or if you use a brush, the texture will beoffset in the areas you paint.

Mouse Hit — This mode is similar to Locked butwith the following difference: if you release themouse button and begin to paint in a newposition, the texture is painted starting from thetexture pixel defined by Source X/Y. Many paintprograms have a comparable tool called RubberStamp.

Brush Pos. — This stands for Brush Position.Each movement during the brush stroke paintsthe texture on top of all previous movements inthe stroke. This tends to create fragments of thetexture in close proximity. If you select rotation(select the Rot. option) and couple its effector(see below) with the Draw Direction method,the pattern will rotate according to the paintingdirection, helping you to create tricky texturessuch as fur and wool.

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Scale — Select this option if you want to scalethe painting pattern. For example, if the originaltexture size is 300x300 pixels, you can resize itto 150x150 pixels by entering a value of 50%.A value of 200% would resize 300x300 pixels to600x600 pixels. Keep in mind that scaling uptextures may lead to pixelation. You can enterany scale value from 1% to 1000%.

Rot. — This stands for Rotation. It lets yourotate the painting pattern by any angle from-180˚ to 180˚. This can be useful, for example, ifyou have imported a texture and picked it usingthe eyedropper tool — sometimes the texture isrotated by 90˚ in the process. In this case, useRot. to correct the texture’s direction.

Effectors

There are two buttons to the right of Rot. andScale. Click on one of the buttons to access theeffector for the corresponding setting.

An effector enables you to change theparameter dynamically by means of a specifiedinput method. For example, you can use themouse wheel to change the texture’s Scale valuewhile you paint.

Most of the input methods have a graph thatyou can edit to fine-tune their behaviour —please see Profile on page 89 for details onediting the curve.

Eight different input methods are available. Youcan assign as many of the methods as you wishto the same effector. For example, you canchange the texture’s Scale value using themouse wheel as well as the draw distance. Also,you can use the same input method with morethan one effector. For example, you can changethe texture’s Size and Rot. values using themouse wheel.

Pen Pressure This adjusts the setting accordingto how hard you push down on the graphicstablet. The graph to the right defines exactlyhow this input method affects the setting (thegraph is linear by default).

Pen Tilt This method adjusts the settingaccording to the pen’s tilt. If the pen is at aright-angle to the graphics tablet, the tilt is 0˚.If the pen is resting on the tablet, the tilt is 90˚.The graph to the right defines exactly how thisinput method affects the setting (the graph islinear by default).

Pen Direction Adjusts the setting according tothe pen’s rotation. The graph to the rightdefines exactly how this input method affectsthe setting (the graph is linear by default).

Pen Finger Wheel This adjusts the settingaccording to finger wheel’s angle. The graph tothe right defines exactly how this inputmethod affects the setting (the graph is linearby default).

Draw Direction With this method, the settingis adjusted in relation to the direction in whichyou paint. For example, if you activate thisinput method for the Rot. effector, the texturewill rotate automatically to follow your brush

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stroke. The graph to the right defines exactlyhow this input method affects the setting (thegraph is linear by default).

Draw Distance The setting is adjusted inrelation to the distance the mouse is draggedwith the mouse button held down.

Mouse Wheel Here, the setting changes withreference to the angle of the mouse wheel.The graph to the right defines exactly how thisinput method affects the setting (the graph islinear by default).

Random — This adjusts the setting randomly.You can enter minimum and maximum values(Min and Max).

Wallpaper

Click on the triangle to choose a wallpaper froma list of patterns. These are the bitmaps inBodyPaint 3D’s 'pattern' folder.

To blend a color with the wallpaper, define acolor in the color pane and use the slider in theWallpaper pane to set the blend strength.

Also, you can choose from the full complementof blending modes — see Blending Mode onpage 75 for more details.

Tip:

Do not shy from experimenting withcombinations of color, wallpaper and blendingmode. A vast number of diverse effects can beachieved.

File Menu

These functions enable you to save your owncolors/patterns to the Color manager.

Once you have saved a color preset, you canselect it later by clicking on its icon in the Colormanager.

Add Single Channel Preset

This saves the parameters in the Color Settingsdialog as a color preset in the Color manager.

Add Multi Channel Preset

This function saves several colors/patterns andchannels under one color preset. When yousubsequently paint with the preset active, itscolors/patterns and channels are paintedsimultaneously.

Overwrite Preset

Overwrites the active color preset with thecurrent color settings.

Close

This closes the Color Settings dialog.

Edit Menu

Copy

Copies the active color to the clipboard.

Paste

Copies the color in the clipboard to the activematerial channel of the Multi Channel Palette.

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The Multi Channel Palette

The Foreground and Background Colors

Click on the channel that you wish tomanipulate. A red frame will appear to indicatethat the channel is active.

Note the two overlapping rectangles. The frontrectangle represents the foreground color, therear one the background color.

If you click on the foreground color icon, theColor Settings dialog opens so that you can picka new foreground color. Likewise, click on thebackground color icon to choose a newbackground color.

When using a brush, note that you can paintwith either the foreground color (left mousebutton) or the background color (right mousebutton). This interchanging of the foregroundand background colors applies to all the painttools including Fill Bitmap, Draw Line and DrawText.

The Edit Selection Mask Mode

The Edit Selection Mask mode enables you toedit a bitmap selection using the paint tools andfilters by means of a temporary mask. There arethree main steps involved:

- The Edit Selection Mask mode is activated —this changes the bitmap selection into a selectionmask; the bitmap selection’s dotted line isreplaced by a red overlay (the selection mask).

- The selection mask is edited using the paint toolsand filters (almost any paint tool can be used).

- The Edit Selection Mask mode is deactivated —this changes the selection mask back into abitmap selection.

This raises the question: “If you start with abitmap selection and you end up with a bitmapselection, what is the point of this mode?” Theadvantage of the edit selection mask mode isthat you can call upon (almost) all the painttools and filters, hence you can create moreaccurate selections than would be possible usingthe standard selection tools alone.

By convention, the selection mask appears as ared overlay. Selected areas are transparent,deselected areas are red. The red areas areslightly transparent so that you can still see theimage underneath.

In spite of its red color, the selection mask isgrayscale internally. This means that you shoulduse white to paint a transparent (i.e. selected)region, or black to paint a red (i.e. deselected)region. Use grays for semi-transparency (i.e.partial selection).

Once you have finished editing the selectionmask, deactivate the mode and the mask willchange back into a bitmap selection.

Tip:

You can still activate the mode if you haven’tmade a bitmap selection. In this case, the entireselection mask will be transparent (i.e.everything will be selected). Usually, though, itis more efficient to refine an existing selection.

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Multi Channel Mode

This powerful mode enables you to paint toseveral material channels simultaneously. Inaddition, you can paint a different color/patternto each channel.

For example, you can paint red to the colorchannel and black to the bump channelsimultaneously. The black color in the bumpchannel causes an indentation effect, hence thered paint stroke appears to be indented. Wereyou to use white in the bump channel instead,the paint stroke would appear to be embossed.

If the Multi Channel Mode button is inactive:

the Brush (or any other painting tool) will paintto the active material channel only, which isindicated by a small pencil icon. Note that the

Layer manager also uses a pencil icon to indicatethe (same) active channel — the selection islinked.

The small rectangles show you the foregroundand background colors/patterns.

If the Multi Channel Mode button is active:

you can paint to several channels at once.

The material channels in the Multi Channelpalette are:

Color (C)Diffusion (D)Luminance (L)Transparency (T)Reflection (R)Environment (E)Bump (B)Alpha (A)Specular Color (S)Displacement (DS)

For details on each material channel, please seeChapter 12, The Material manager, on page207.

Active channels (i.e. the material channels thatwill be painted to) are marked by a pencil iconin the Multi Channel palette. To activate ordeactivate a channel, click on the top right ofthe channel’s icon.

Note that the Layer manager also uses a pencilicon to indicate the (same) active channels(provided that the Active Material Channelsoption is selected) — the selection is linked.

You can use a different color/pattern for eachchannel. To do this, click on each channel icon inturn and choose the color/pattern that you wishto assign it. Note that the active channel isindicated by a red frame.

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Once you have activated all the channels youwish to use and assigned textures to them, youcan paint to the channels simultaneously. Apreview of each channel is shown in the MultiChannel Palette.

The Color Manager

You can use this manager to access predefinedcolors/patterns as well as any presets you havecreated and saved yourself.

Tip:

We recommend that you use the presets in thefollowing way: whenever you have a color/pattern that you feel may be useful later on,save it as color preset. When painting, have thePerspective View (including the object to bepainted) in one window and the Color managerin another. Choose a brush, click on a presetcolor, then paint in the Perspective View.

When you want to change pattern, click on theicon for the new pattern in the Color managerand paint once more.

If you work in this way, you will movefrequently and swiftly between the twowindows and your object should be painted inminimal time.

Tip:

You can right-click on a color preset to define itas the background color.

File Menu

New Group

Over time, the number of color presets willgrow as you add to them. This function enablesyou to create and name groups so that you canstore your presets in a more organised manner.

Revert to Default

This function reverts the color presets to thedefault settings. As a precaution, you will beprompted for confirmation.

Save As Default

Imagine that you have created some presets.However, the next time you use BodyPaint 3D,the new presets are missing. This is because youneglected to use Save As Default, which savesthe current presets (including their arrangement)as the default.

Do not worry if you are forgetful — BodyPaint3D will give you a chance to save the presetswhen you quit.

Import

This function enables you to use BodyPaint 3Dpatterns created by other artists. The fileselector will open. Choose any file exportedfrom BodyPaint 3D to add its presets to yourown.

Export Selection

This function saves your BodyPaint 3D patternsso that other artists can use them. The fileselector will open. Choose a destination and afilename for the selected presets (or group of

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presets). The file takes the extension 'b3d'. Inaddition, a folder named 'pattern' is created forthe textures used by the presets.

Tip:

You can only export patterns that are inBodyPaint 3D’s 'pattern' folder. So, for example,you cannot export a color if the pattern wascreated in BodyPaint 3D and picked using theeyedropper.

Export Visible

This function exports all visible presets.

Close

This function quits the Color manager andcloses its window.

Edit Menu

Rename

You can use this function to rename the activepreset or active group.

Duplicate

This duplicates the active preset or the activegroup.

Delete

This function deletes the active preset or theactive group.

Group

If you choose All Presets, all color presets aredisplayed.

If, on the other hand, you choose a differentgroup from the list, only the presets belongingto that group are displayed.

View

As List

If this option is activated, the icons are displayedas a vertical list and their names are specified.The active icon is indicated by a red frame.

To change the order of the icons, drag-and-dropwithin the list. While you drag, a dark lineindicates where the icon will be moved to if yourelease the mouse button.

You can move presets into different groups tohelp organise them. For example, you may wishto create a group specifically for wood patterns.To move a preset to a new group, drag thepreset’s icon onto the center of the group icon.The mouse pointer should turn into an arrowpointing downwards before you release themouse button.

The small + icon to the left of the group iconindicates that the group is closed. To open thegroup, click on the + icon. Once the group isopen, a small - icon appears. Click on this iconto close the group.

As Icon

If this option is activated, the icons are displayedin rows and columns rather than as a verticallist. Note that in this mode the names of thepresets are not shown. The active icon is markedwith a red frame.

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Small Icons

The preset icons are displayed small.

Medium Icons

The preset icons are displayed medium sized.

Large Icons

The preset icons are displayed large.

Tip:

You can drag-and-drop to change the order ofthe icons.

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7. Brush Manager   

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7 Brush Manager 89Brush Settings ................................................................................................................................................. 89

General ...................................................................................................................................................... 89

The Brush Manager ........................................................................................................................................ 98

File Menu .................................................................................................................................................. 98

Edit Menu .................................................................................................................................................. 99

Group Menu .............................................................................................................................................. 99

View menu ................................................................................................................................................ 99

Brush Groups ........................................................................................................................................... 100

Creating your own MultiBrush ................................................................................................................ 102

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7 Brush Managerbrush preset, the color will be saved togetherwith the brush parameters. If Store Color is notactivated, only the brush parameters will besaved.

Tip:

This has implications for painting. Imagine youhave picked a color in the Color Settings, thenyou pick a brush in the Brush manager.Suddenly, a different color replaces your chosencolor in the Color Settings — here, the brush youpicked used an active Store Color option, and soits color displaced your own choice. This optionis intended for a brush that always paints withthe same color.

Generic Brush Type

The Type pop-up menu (next to the brushpreview) defines the brush type, which can beeither Generic or Bitmap. First, the genericbrush:

The tip of the generic brush is defined by meansof options and sliders. These are:

Shape

You have two basic brush shapes from which tochoose: Circle and Rectangle. The settingsbelow refine this basic shape.

Profile

The profile defines the pressure gradient for thebrush tip. The graphs below should help toclarify. Each graph describes the strength of thebrush pressure over the brush radius.

You can choose from the following profiles:

Brush Settings

General

The Brush Settings dialog enables you to definebrushes by setting parameters such as Size andPressure. The current brush setting is previewedin the top left of the dialog. You can, if youwish, save the brush parameters at any time as abrush preset.

Many of the parameters have an effector, whichenables you to change the parameter while youpaint by means of an input method. Forexample, you might use the mouse wheel tochange the brush size while you paint.

Store Color

If you activate this option, the color in the ColorSettings is blended into the brush preview. Ifyou then save the current brush settings as a

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– Round

– Linear

– Needle

– Nozzle

– User-defined

If you select this option, you can create yourown pressure gradient for the brush tip. Click onthe button to the far right of the Profile pop-upmenu to open the following window completewith graph:

The Y axis corresponds to the brush strength(i.e. pressure) and the X axis represents thebrush radius. The curve is linear by default. Clickon the first point of the curve and notice howthe point turns orange to indicate that it isselected. Drag the point and notice how the tworeal-time previews to the right of the graphchange accordingly. The upper preview showsyou the brush profile, the lower preview showsthe brush itself.

If you click anywhere inside the graph (i.e. otherthan on a point), a new point is created. Thecurve adjusts itself to run through the newpoint. You can add any number of new points.

You can delete points as well: click on the pointyou wish to delete, then press the backspacekey.

You can use the Strength and Radius boxes toread or enter values for the active point.

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Examples:

There is a small button in the top left of thewindow. If you click on this button, a menuopens with the following functions:

Copy Curve This copies the active curve to theclipboard. Once you have copied the curve,you can use the Paste Curve command topaste it into an effector’s graph. An effectorenables you to change a brush parameterdynamically by means of an input device. Forexample, if you have a graphics tablet, you canuse the pen direction to change the brush sizewhile you paint.

Paste Curve This command will appear in themenu list only once you have copied a curve tothe clipboard. It pastes the clipboard’s curveinto the graph.

Reset to Default This restores the curve to itsdefault shape (a straight line).

Flip Horizontal This command flips (mirrors)your curve horizontally.

Flip Vertical This command flips (mirrors) yourcurve vertically.

Size

This defines the overall size of the brush. Youcan edit the value using the slider, or you canenter the value numerically in the box to theright of the slider. The value defines the brushdiameter in pixels. You can set the value from 1to 400 pixels.

Pressure

This slider defines the brush pressure. The loweryou set this value, the more transparent thebrush stroke becomes. The maximum value of100% defines an opaque brush stroke.

Hardness

This determines the percentage of the brushthat is hard. The lower you set this value, thesofter the brush becomes at the edge and themore its edge will blend into the backgroundcolor. If Hardness is set to its maximum value of100% the brush stroke will not blend into thebackground color at all.

0% Hard 100% Hard

For example, you can create dirt textures using alow Hardness value with the Dissolve blendingmode active in the Color Settings (see page 75).

Tip:

You cannot access the Hardness slider if thebrush has a user-defined profile. In this case, the

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transparent areas of the brush are defined by theprofile curve itself.

Spacing

If you select this option you can define thedistance between brush marks in the stroke. Alarge value will result in a trace of brush marksthat follow your mouse. A low value willproduce the effect of a continuous paint stroke.Note that if Spacing is deactivated, the paintstroke depends on processor performance andmay fragment during fast brush strokes.

High Spacing value

Jitter

The Jitter function causes the paint to be appliedat a certain distance from the brush tip. Pleasestudy the following examples:

Linear brush stroke with Jitter selected

Jitter and Randomness selected

Tip:

The curve in the top picture was produced witha straight brush stroke.

Squeeze

Select this option if you want to squeeze (i.e.narrow) the brush tip. The minimum value of0% leaves the brush tip in its original form(circular or rectangular). The higher you set thevalue, the narrower the tip becomes.

0% Squeeze 100% Squeeze

Rotation

You can rotate the brush tip by moving theslider or by entering a rotation angle in the inputbox.

Effectors

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You can activate an effector for each of thefollowing brush settings: Size, Pressure,Hardness, Jitter, Squeeze and Rotation. To opena setting’s effector, simply click on the small iconto the far right of that setting. You will see oneof two icons, depending on whether there isalready an active effector or not.

not active active

An effector enables you to change theparameter dynamically by means of a specifiedinput method. For example, you can use the penpressure to change the brush size while youpaint.

Most of the input methods have a graph thatyou can edit to fine-tune its behaviour — seeProfile above for details on editing the curve.

Eight different input methods are available. Youcan assign as many of the methods as you wishto the same effector. For example, you canchange the brush size value using the pen fingerwheel as well as the distance. Also, you can usethe same input method with more than oneeffector. For example, you can change the brushSize and Pressure values using the pen pressure.

Pen Pressure

This adjusts the setting according to how hardyou push down on the graphics tablet. Thegraph on the right of the dialog defines exactlyhow this input method affects the setting (thegraph is linear by default).

Tip:

The pen pressure is the most popular inputmethod with graphics tablet users. You may wishto assign it to the Size or Pressure brush setting.

Pen Tilt

This method adjusts the setting according to thepen’s tilt. If the pen is at a right-angle to thegraphics tablet, the tilt is 0˚. If the pen is restingon the tablet, the tilt is 90˚.

The graph on the right of the dialog definesexactly how this input method affects thesetting (the graph is linear by default).

Pen Direction

The Pen Direction method adjusts the settingaccording to the pen’s rotation. The graph onthe right of the dialog defines exactly how thisinput method affects the setting (the graph islinear by default).

Tip

if you assign this method to the Rotation brushsetting, a narrow brush will paint a stroke similarto that of a calligraphy pen.

Pen Finger Wheel

This adjusts the setting according to the fingerwheel’s angle. The graph on the right of thedialog defines exactly how this input methodaffects the setting (the graph is linear bydefault).

Tip

You may wish to assign this to the brushPressure so that you can adjust the settingcomfortably while you paint.

Draw Direction

With this method, the setting is adjusted inrelation to the direction in which you paint. Forexample, if you activate this input method forthe Rot. effector (in the Color Settings), thetexture will rotate automatically to follow yourbrush stroke. The graph on the right of the

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dialog defines exactly how this input methodaffects the setting (the graph is linear bydefault).

You can create some interesting effects with thisfunction, especially if you assign it to theRotation brush setting. For example, choose arectangular brush, set Spacing to about 130%and set Rotation to 90˚. Assign Draw Directionto the Rotation brush setting to create thefollowing effect:

Distance

This function’s speciality is fading brush strokes— assign Distance to the Pressure brush settingand your paint strokes will fade gradually.

The Pixel Length defines the effector’s area ofinfluence. For example, if the Pixel Length is setto 200 the curve will be evaluated over the first200 pixels of the brush stroke. So, if the default(linear) curve is used with the example, thePressure will be 100% at the start of the brushstroke and 0% by the time the stroke is 200pixels long.

Tip:

You can use Distance with large bitmaps too —you can enter values up to 100000 pixels.

You can also enter a value in the Loops box.This determines the maximum number of timesthe curve can be repeated should your brushstroke extend beyond the Pixel Length value.

The picture should help to clarify:

You can also use Distance to create wobblylines. To add a wobble to your brush stroke,assign Distance to the Size brush setting anddefine a curve similar to the one shown below.

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Note the large number of loops in the example.This lets you paint (almost) as long a stroke asyou wish without the effect diminishing.

Mouse Wheel

Here, the setting changes with reference to theangle of the mouse wheel. The graph on theright of the dialog defines exactly how this inputmethod affects the setting (the graph is linear bydefault). For example, if you assign this to thePressure brush setting, you can use the mousewheel to adjust the brush pressure while youpaint with the mouse. Alternatively, you mayprefer to use both hands: one hand paints witha graphics pen while the other uses the mousewheel to adjust the Size or Pressure brushsetting.

Randomness

This function assigns random values to thesetting. You can specify minimum and maximumvalues (Min and Max). For example, imaginethat you have set Size to 50 pixels. In theeffector for Randomness, you leave the Min andMax values set to 0% and 100% respectively. Ifyou paint with this brush, the Size altersrandomly between 0 and 50 pixels. If, on the

other hand, you set Min to 50% and leave Maxat 100%, the width of the paint stroke variesbetween 25 and 50 pixels.

The effect above was achieved by assigningRandomness to the Size, Pressure, Hardnessand Jitter brush settings.

Tip

Randomness behaves differently when assignedto the brush’s Rotation parameter. In this casethe Randomness value is added to the baseRotation value.

Bitmap Brush Type

This mode enables you to use any bitmap inBodyPaint 3D’s 'pattern' folder as the brush tip.Please keep the following in mind:

BodyPaint 3D handles all bitmaps in the'pattern' folder as grayscale images. You can stilluse RGB Color bitmaps, but BodyPaint 3D willconvert them (in memory) into grayscale for itsown use. Black areas of the bitmap aretransparent and white areas are opaque. Gray

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tones vary in transparency accordingly — tonescloser to black are more transparent than tonescloser to white.

Bitmap

If you click on the triangle, a menu opens withthe items Load From Disk and Reread Directory,as well as a list of all bitmaps in BodyPaint 3D’s'pattern' folder.

Load From Disk loads a bitmap from a storagemedium. Once you have chosen the bitmap,BodyPaint 3D will ask if it should be saved tothe 'pattern' folder. If you decline this request,the bitmap is loaded into memory temporarilyand you can work with it in the usual way.However, the bitmap is lost the moment youquit BodyPaint 3D. To prevent this fromhappening, agree to the dialog’s requestinstead.

Reread Directory updates the list of bitmaps.This is useful is you have copied any bitmapsto the 'pattern' folder since launching theprogram, as they will appear in the list onlyonce you have used this command.

Choose any bitmap in the list. It becomes thenew brush tip (as confirmed by the preview) andits name is shown in the box to the right of thetriangle.

The bitmap brush has fewer settings than thegeneric brush — Shape, Profile, Hardness andSqueeze are all absent. This is because theseproperties are defined by the bitmap itself.

The Size, Pressure, Spacing, Jitter and Rotationparameters have exactly the same effect as withthe generic brush type — please see GenericBrush Type on page 89 for details.

Filter

Filters can add effects to the brush such aspainting with watercolors and smudging.

The filters you can choose from are:

Wet Edges

This filter generates a watercolor effect. Thepaint stroke is slightly transparent and paintaccumulates at the edges (i.e. the edges are lesstransparent than the center).

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Smudge

If you activate All Layers, smudging takes alllayers into account. However, note that only theactive layer itself is altered. The Color Mix slidercontrols the extent to which the active color/pattern (i.e. the one in the Color Settings) isapplied to the smudge. If the slider is set to 0%,no new paint is applied, you smudge theexisting colors only. As you increase the slider’svalue, so more and more of the active color/pattern is applied to the smudge.

In addition, you can activate an effector for theColor Mix value.

Tip:

Set Spacing to a lower value if the smudgeeffect is too coarse. This will produce a softereffect.

File Menu

Add Preset

This saves the current brush settings as a brushpreset in the Brush manager. Enter the name forthe brush in the dialog that opens. Also, keep inmind that it will be easier to change the colorused by the brush if Store Color is not activated.

Close

This closes the Brush Settings dialog.

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The Brush ManagerYou can use this manager to access predefinedbrushes as well as any brushes you have createdand saved yourself.

Tip:

We recommend that you use the presets in thefollowing way: whenever you create a brush thatyou feel may be useful later on, save it as abrush preset. Likewise, save your interestingcolors/patterns as color presets.

When painting, have the Perspective View(including object to be painted) in one windowand the Color manager in another. Choose abrush, click on a preset color, then paint in thePerspective View.

When you want to change pattern, click on theicon for the new pattern in the Color managerand paint once more.

If you work in this way, you will movefrequently and swiftly between the twowindows and your object should be painted inminimal time.

File Menu

New Group

The number of brush presets will grow over timeas you add to them. This function enables youto create and name groups so that you can storeyour presets in a more organised manner.

New

This creates a new preset using the currentparameters in the Brush Settings dialog.

Revert to Default

This function reverts the Brush manager to itsdefault presets. As a precaution, you will beprompted for confirmation.

Save As Default

Imagine that you have created some presets.However, the next time you use BodyPaint 3D,the new presets are missing. This is because youneglected to use Save As Default, which savesthe current presets (including their arrangement)as the default. Do not worry if you are forgetful,BodyPaint 3D will give you a chance to save thepresets when you quit.

Import

This function enables you to use BodyPaint 3Dbrushes created by other artists. When the fileselector opens, choose the BodyPaint 3D file toadd its presets to the Brush manager.

Export Selection

This function enables you to save yourBodyPaint 3D brushes so that other artists canuse them. The file selector will open. Choose adestination and a filename for the selectedpresets (or group of presets). The file takes theextension 'b3d'. In addition, a folder named'pattern' is created for any textures used bybitmap brushes.

Export Visible

This function exports all visible presets.

Close

This function quits the Brush manager andcloses its window.

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Edit Menu

Edit

This function opens the Brush Settings for theactive preset. This has the same effect asdouble-clicking on the preset.

Tip:

This changes the active preset directly. This is incontrast to color presets, which can be changedwithout affecting the active preset itself.

Rename

You can use this function to rename the activepreset or the active group.

Duplicate

This duplicates the active preset or the activegroup.

Delete

This function deletes the active preset or theactive group.

Group MenuIf you choose All Presets, all brush presets aredisplayed.

If you choose a different group from the list,only the presets belonging to that group aredisplayed.

View menu

As List

If this option is selected, the icons are displayedas a vertical list and their names are specified.The active icon is indicated by a red frame.

To change the order of the icons, drag-and-dropwithin the list. While you drag, a dark lineindicates where the icon will be moved to if yourelease the mouse button.

You can move presets into different groups tohelp organise them. To move a preset to a newgroup, drag the preset’s icon onto the center ofthe group icon. The mouse pointer should turninto an arrow pointing downwards before yourelease the mouse button.

The small + icon to the left of the group iconindicates that the group is closed. To open upthe group, click on the + icon. Once the group isopen, a small - icon appears. Click on this iconto close the group.

As Icon

If this option is activated, the icons are displayedin rows and columns rather than as a verticallist. Also, the names are not shown. Once more,the active icon is indicated by means of a redframe.

Small Icons

The preset icons are displayed small.

Medium Icons

The preset icons are displayed medium sized.

Large Icons

The icons are displayed large.

Tip:

You can drag-and-drop to change the order ofthe icons.

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Brush GroupsThe Brush manager contains over a dozengroups offering a variety of brush presets. Notethat you need to paint to several materialchannels at the same time for a realistic effect. Abrush that paints to more than one materialchannel simultaneously is called a MultiBrushand you will find a selection of such brushes inthe MultiBrushes folder.

Tip:

If you change any of the brush presets, a dialogwill appear when you quit BodyPaint 3D tocheck if you want to save the current brushpresets as the default — click on Yes if you wantto overwrite the old settings. A more cautiousapproach is to change duplicates of the originalbrushes.

There are two types of brush presets:

- Brushes which paint to the active materialchannel only.

- Brushes which paint to several channelssimultaneously (MultiBrushes).

The simplest way to judge the effect of a brushpreset is to try painting with it. For this reason,only a small number of the presets are describedbelow.

Oil (soft) [Standard Tools]

This brush simulates a thick oil pencil whichsmudges its own color into the existing colors.This pleasing effect is painted to the activechannel only. The following settings were usedto create the oil pencil:

- Hardness 0%. This creates a very softtransition between the color and thebackground.

- Small Spacing value.

- Smudge filter active. This means that the colorbeing applied is smudged with the existingcolor.

- Low Color Mix value. This ensures that the oilhas color (rather than smudge existing colorsonly).

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Metal 4 [MultiBrushes > Dosch TextureBrushes]

This MultiBrush paints to three material channelssimultaneously: color, bump and specular. Theresult is similar to rusty metal.

To find out how this effect was achieved, pleaseexamine the individual channels in the multichannel palette. For example, if you click on theforeground color for the bump (B) channel, youwill see a texture in the Color Settings dialogthat opens. Click on a different foreground color(e.g. for the color channel), and you will see adifferent texture defined in the Color Settings.All three channels have their own texture, andthis is what gives the MultiBrush its realisticquality.

Beard [MultiBrushes > Organic]

The Organic brush group contains a useful setof brushes for painting human faces. The Beardbrush paints a beard stubble effect.

It is worthwhile examining the parameters forthis brush: double-click on the Beard preset. Thedecisive factor here is the Jitter effector. Thisdistributes the small brush tip (Size: 1 pixel)around the brush position using a randomisefunction.

This completes our short overview of the brushgroups. We recommend that you test furtherbrushes and examine their settings. Once youhave done so, you may wish to create your ownMultiBrush — please see the following section.

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Creating your own MultiBrushIn this tutorial, you create a brush that paints asdemonstrated in the example picture below:

The brush paints a rusty red. Not only does itpaint the rust color, it also creates a bumpy,rust-like surface by painting to the bumpchannel simultaneously. The brush itself shouldhave a soft edge.

To create the brush:

- Open the Color Settings and select the multichannel mode in the Multi Channel Palette(the brush needs to paint to the color andbump channels simultaneously) — a green tickindicates that the mode is active.

- Check if there is a small pencil in the C (Color)channel icon. If you cannot see the pencil, clickin the top right quarter of the icon to make itappear.

- Pick a reddish-brown color (RGB 145, 37, 15).

- Load the Granite texture into the Wallpaperpane using the triangle. (Granite is suitablesince it has a rust-like structure.)

- Still in the Wallpaper pane, set the Strength to100% and the Blending Mode to Multiply.This blends the granite pattern into thereddish-brown color.

- Now for a rusty bump channel: check for asmall pencil in the B (bump) channel icon. Ifyou cannot see the pencil, click in the top rightquarter of the icon to make it appear. Thereare now two pencils in the Multi ChannelPalette, meaning that you can use the currentbrush to paint to two channels simultaneously.

- Choose the granite pattern once again and setthe Strength to 100%. This time, set theBlending Mode to Normal.

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- Move into the Brush Settings and activateStore Color. The preview updates toincorporate the rust color and the granitepattern.

- Set Hardness to about 20% so that the brushis soft as planned.

- Choose any Size setting you like and setPressure to 100%.

- The default Spacing value (20%) is fine.

- Choose File > Add Preset in the Brush Settings,enter a name for your new brush and thenclick on OK.

Congratulations! You’ve just created and storedyour first multiple channel brush. Try paintingwith the new brush preset if you haven’t alreadydone so.

To use the brush at a later date, click on its iconin the Brush Presets and then paint.

Tip:

If the effect is less pronounced than in thepicture above, access the Material manager andincrease the material’s Strength setting on theBump page.

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8. Layer Manager   

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8 Layer Manager 107About Layers ........................................................................................................................................... 107

Managing Layers .......................................................................................................................................... 107

Top Area .................................................................................................................................................. 107

View Menu .............................................................................................................................................. 112

Channels Menu ....................................................................................................................................... 112

Functions Menu ...................................................................................................................................... 113

Bitmap Info ................................................................................................................................................... 115

The Info Area .......................................................................................................................................... 115

The Parameters Area ............................................................................................................................... 116

Working with Layers .................................................................................................................................... 117

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8 Layer Managereach layer, and where there is no image on alayer, the layer below shows through. Bypainting an effect onto a layer other than theBackground, the effect remains independentand can be removed at any time by deleting thelayer. You can also select, transform and paintthe layer independently of the Background andother layers. In addition, each layer has aBlending Mode and Strength setting, making itfar easier for you to create and adjust effectsthan with a single layer.

Managing Layers

Top Area

Info

This box, which is on the left side of themanager, shows you the texture’s name. This isthe filename if you imported the file; otherwise,it is the name you gave to the texture when youcreated it. All the layers belonging to thistexture are shown in the layers area whichdominates the right half of the manager.

Enable

Select this option if you want to make the activematerial editable. All the textures belonging tothe material will be loaded into RAM.

The Layer manager is the control center for allyour texture layers. Here, you can create newlayers and layer masks, specify a blending modeand strength for each layer, change the layerorder and control which layers are visible.

Tip:

Memory-permitting, you can create and use asmany layers and layer masks as you wish.

Tip:

You can import Photoshop files with layers, layermasks and alpha channels preserved.

About LayersA new material channel texture is made up ofjust one layer initially, which is called theBackground layer. Think of the Background layeras your canvas. Just like a real canvas, you canpaint onto the Background layer, and just like areal canvas, it can be difficult to removeunwanted effects that you painted some timeago. The solution to this problem is to uselayers. Layers are like sheets of acetate stackedabove the Background — you can paint onto

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If you deactivate the option, a dialog will ask ifyou want to save the textures. Following this,the textures will be removed from RAM.

Tip:

The layers in the material channels are displayedonly when Enable is selected.

Strength

You can adjust the active layer’s opacity byusing the slider or by entering the required valueinto the adjacent input box.

Tip:

You can create interesting blending effects byusing various strength settings with multiplelayers.

Layers / Alphas

These two buttons are mutually exclusive andthey determine what is shown in the layers areabelow. Select Layers to show the layers andlayer masks for the active material channel/texture. If you select Alphas, any alpha channelsin the active material channel/texture aredisplayed instead.

Blending Mode

This pop-up menu is located to the right of thestrength setting. It determines how the pixels inthe active layer are blended with the pixels inthe layers below. You can set a different modeand strength for each layer, giving rise to manycombinations and effects.

The modes you can choose from are:

Normal

This is the default mode. If the strength is set to100%, the layer is opaque. The lower you setthe value, the more transparent the layerbecomes.

Dissolve

This creates a speckled effect by blending outsmall areas of the layer. These areas are chosenat random and the strength of the effect isdetermined by the strength setting.

Difference

With this mode, the resultant color of each pixelis the difference between the active layer andthe layers below. For example, if the active layeris red and the layer below is black, the result isred. This is because black’s RGB values are 0,0,0,so the difference corresponds to the activelayer’s color (red). You can create interestingeffects by using layers with various colors.

Lighten

BodyPaint 3D compares the brightness values ofthe active layer and the layers below (at thepixel level). Where the active layer is brighter,there is no blending with the colors below.Where the active layer is darker, the resultantcolor corresponds to the layers below.

Darken

BodyPaint 3D compares the brightness values ofthe active layer and the layers below (at thepixel level). Where the active layer is darker,there is no blending with the colors below.Where the active layer is brighter, the resultantcolor corresponds to the layers below.

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Multiply

The color values of the active layer and thelayers below are multiplied, then divided by purewhite. The effect is always a darkening one. Thiscan be useful for increasing tonal variation.

Screen

This has the opposite effect of Multiply. Screenmultiplies the inverted color values of the activelayer and the layers below, then divides by purewhite (to invert a value, you subtract it frompure white). Screen always results in a brightercolor.

Add

The color values of the active layer and thelayers below are added (at the pixel level). So,for example, if there are three layers containingred, green and blue, the resultant color is white(provided that the strength for each layer is setto 100%).

Exclusion

This blending mode is similar to Difference.However, it avoids high contrasts.

Tip:

Make a point of experimenting with theblending modes using a variety of strengthsettings. Many effects can be accomplished onceyou develop a personal feel for the modes.

Normal/Premultiplied

When you render a picture that includes analpha channel, both the bitmap and the alphachannel are antialiased. If you load one suchrendered bitmap complete with alpha channelinto BodyPaint 3D, the bitmap and alphachannel will be multiplied in the normal mode.As a result, the transition from object color to

background color is calculated twice, potentiallyleading to an unattractive discoloring at theedges. Activate the premultiplied mode toprevent this from happening. Note that thisoption is available only when you are workingwith alpha channels.

Tip:

If an asterisk is shown next to a materialchannel’s name, changes have been made sincethe texture was last saved.

Textures Area (Left List)

This area shows a list of textures. There are twodisplay modes for the list, which you can setfrom the Layer manager’s View menu:

Active Material Channels

This mode lists all material channels relating tothe active material. To open or close layers, clickon the + or - icons respectively. If you click on achannel instead, all of its layers will appear inthe layers area to the right. If you double-clickon a channel name, the channel is shown in theTexture view.

All Textures

This lists all the textures stored in RAM, i.e. allthe textures you have used during the currentwork session. Even textures belonging to closedscenes are shown. This mode is ideal for editingtextures that have not yet been assigned to anobject.

Tip:

The Texture View shows the composite image ofthe layer stack. If you wish to see the activelayer only, drag-and-drop the layer into theTexture View.

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The active layer is indicated by a red frame andred text in both the textures area and the layersarea. To activate a different layer, click on it.Note that you always paint to the active layeronly.

There is a small eye to the left of each layer’sname. Click on an eye to make its layer visibleor invisible.

There is an option box to the left of eachchannel. If this box contains a pencil, thechannel is active and can be edited. Activate themulti channel mode if you want to select morethan one channel at a time. To activate ordeactivate a channel, click on the box.

Any alpha channels that exist are represented bysmall icons to the right of the layer names. Inthe illustrations above, the left icon indicates anactive alpha channel (black circle), the right aninactive alpha channel (gray circle).

If you activate the Alphas button (top right inthe Layer manager), the alpha channels areshown as layers in the layers area (see below).These layers may be activated or deactivatedseparately by clicking on the small alpha channelicon.

Layers Area (Right List)

The layers area shows the layers of the activematerial channel as a list of icons. Each iconcontains a preview of the layer — acheckerboard pattern represents transparentareas.

Any layer masks that exist are shown to theright of the layers. Note that layer masks use asmall black circle rather than an eye to indicatetheir visibility status.

Drag-and-drop Functions

To change a layer’s position in the stack, drag-and-drop it to the new position — a dark lineappears while you drag to indicate where thelayer will be placed. The following variations arepossible:

- If you drag-and-drop the layer to a newposition within the same channel, the layer ismoved accordingly. However, if you drag-and-drop the layer to a different channel, the layeris copied to that channel.

- If you drag-and-drop the layer with Ctrl helddown, the layer is always copied.

Tip:

To copy a layer quickly, hold down Ctrl, drag thelayer a fraction up or down then release themouse button. Alternatively, right-click on thelayer and choose Duplicate Layer from themenu that appears.

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You can drag-and-drop a layer or layer mask(see below) from the textures area to the layersarea and vice versa.

The following variations are possible:

- Drag-and-drop a layer (or layer mask) from thelayers area to the right of a material channel inthe textures area. This defines an alphachannel for the material channel.

- Drag-and-drop a layer (or layer mask) from thelayers area onto a material channel’s name inthe textures area. You can use this method tomove layers from one material channel toanother. If you want to move a copy of thelayer instead, hold down Ctrl while you drag-and-drop. This is useful for creating similarchannels. For example, you may wish to copya layer from the color channel to the bumpchannel so that the color and bump matcheach other.

- When dragging from the textures area into thelayers area, the variations are similar to thoselisted above: if you drag-and-drop to the rightof a layer, a layer mask is created; if you drag-and-drop below a layer icon, the layer isinserted there; if you want to move a copy ofthe layer, hold down Ctrl while you drag-and-drop.

Layer Masks

A layer mask is a grayscale image that defineswhich areas of a layer are visible: white areas arevisible, black areas are transparent and grayareas are semi-transparent.

You can, if you wish, use an RGB image as alayer mask — BodyPaint 3D will convert it into agrayscale image internally.

Any layer masks that exist are shown to theright of the layer icons. You can use the maskicon on the right to activate or deactivate thelayer mask.

You can edit a layer mask in much the same wayas you would a normal layer: click on the layermask icon to activate it, then apply the painttools in the Texture View or Perspective View.

You can convert a layer mask into a layer. To dothis, drag-and-drop the layer mask above orbelow a layer.

Likewise, you can convert a layer into a layermask: drag-and-drop the layer to the right ofanother layer. Note that if you hold down Ctrlwhile you drag-and-drop, a copy of the layerbecomes the layer mask.

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You can use as many layer masks per layer asyou wish — the grayscale values are added.

Alpha Channel

An alpha channel is, in principle, the same as alayer mask. However, an alpha channel affectsthe composite image (i.e. the channel) ratherthan one layer only. Black areas are transparentin the composite, white areas are completelyopaque and gray areas are semi-transparent.

View Menu

Active Material Channels

This mode lists all the material channels used bythe active material. To change the activematerial, click on the required preview in theMaterial manager.

All Textures

This displays all the textures stored in RAM, i.e.all textures you have used during the currentwork session. Even textures belonging to closedscenes are shown. This mode is suitable forediting textures that have not been assigned toan object yet.

Tip:

You can remove textures from the list bychoosing File > Close Texture in the TextureView.

Left List (Textures Area)

No Icons

The list is displayed as text only. This modeproduces the most compact list, hence it may beuseful when you use a large number of layers.

Small Icons

The icons are displayed small.

Medium Icons

The icons are displayed medium sized.

Large Icons

The icons are displayed large.

Right List (Layers Area)

See Left List above.

Close

This function quits the Layer manager andcloses its window.

Channels MenuThe Channels menu enables you to create newmaterial channels and delete existing materialchannels.

If you want to create a new material channel,open the menu and choose from the list thatappears. Once you have made your choice, awindow opens in which you can define thechannel’s parameters (See New Texture onpage 129). Once you have set the parametersand clicked OK, the window closes and a smalltick appears next to the channel’s name in theChannels menu.

To delete the channel, select it from the menuonce more.

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You can create and assign textures to thefollowing material channels:

ColorDiffusionLuminanceTransparencyReflectionEnvironmentBumpAlphaSpecular ColorDisplacement

The RayBrush Mode supports the followingmaterial channels:

ColorDiffusionLuminanceTransparencyReflectionBumpSpecular Color

The remaining channels can still be edited, butyou must render if you want to see their effect.For a description of each material channel,please see Chapter 12, Material Manager, onpage 207.

Tip:

You can create new material channel texturesusing the Channels menu. Consider anunpainted object that you want to texture. First,create a new material in the Material manager.Next, choose the channel you want to assign thetexture to from the Channels menu (Layermanager).

Functions Menu

New Layer

This inserts a transparent, visible layer above theactive layer. The new layer is activatedautomatically. The maximum number of layers islimited only by available RAM.

Duplicate Layer

This function creates a copy of the active layer.

Delete Layer

This deletes the active layer.

Merge Layer Down

This function merges the active layer with thelayer below to form a single layer. This freesRAM and simplifies the layer stack, hence youshould merge layers once you have finishedediting them.

Tip:

You can select this function only if both thelayers are visible.

Tip:

You can also merge layer masks with thisfunction. There are two outcomes depending onwhether the layer or the layer mask is active:

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1. Layer Mask Active. The layer mask is mergedwith its layer — the masked areas in the layerbecome genuinely transparent (rather thanmasked) and the layer mask is deleted.

2. Layer Active. The layer mask is merged withthe layer as described in 1. Layer Mask Active.Next, the layer down is merged with its layermask — again, as described in 1. Layer MaskActive. Finally, the two resultant layers aremerged to form a single layer.

Flatten Visible Layers

This function merges all the visible layers toform a single layer. Invisible layers remainunchanged.

Flatten Layers

This function merges all the layers to form asingle layer. Invisible layers are deleted in theprocess and any transparent areas in thecomposite are filled with white. The new singlelayer is identical in appearance to the precedingcomposite in the Layer manager (with theexception that white will have replaced anytransparent areas).

Add Layer Mask

This function creates a layer mask for the activelayer. If there is no selection in the Texture Viewwhen you choose this function, the layer mask isfilled with white; otherwise, the layer mask is

white within the selection and black outside theselection. In this way, the selection defineswhich areas of the layer will be visible.

You can edit a layer mask in much the same wayas you would a normal layer: click on the layermask icon to activate it, then apply the painttools in the Texture View or Perspective View.

If you want to apply the layer maskpermanently, click on the layer mask with theright mouse button, then choose Merge LayerDown from the menu that appears. This cropsthe layer.

Tip:

A layer mask masks only the layer — the layeritself is not altered.

Add Selection to Layer Mask

This function paints the selection white in thelayer mask. As a result, the corresponding areasof the layer will be visible.

Subtract Selection from Layer Mask

When you choose this command, the selectionis filled with black in the layer mask. Thecorresponding areas of the layer will betransparent.

Selection from Layer

This creates a selection from the active layer.

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The example above shows how the functionwas used to select the text. Everything that isnon-transparent is selected.

Selection from Layer (Add)

This function adds all non-transparent areas tothe existing selection.

Selection from Layer (Sub)

This command removes all non-transparentareas from the existing selection.

New Alpha Channel

If you choose this function, a new alpha channelis created for the material channel or texturebased on an existing selection. If there is noselection, the alpha channel is filled with white— the entire channel will be visible.

Convert to Gray

This converts the active channel or the activetexture including all layers into Grayscale (8-bits).

Convert to RGB

You can use this function to convert the activechannel or the active texture from Grayscale(8-bits) into RGB (24-bits). Convert to RGB willnot restore color to a black-and-white image,but it does enable you to paint your own colorsto the channel.

Bitmap InfoThis dialog provides information relating to theactive material channel or the active layer. Inaddition, it enables you to change the strengthand blending mode of each layer. Furthermore,the manager provides information on the size,memory consumption and color modeemployed.

To open the Bitmap Info dialog, chooseWindow > Painter > Bitmap Info (main menu).Alternatively, right-click on a material channel orlayer, then choose Bitmap Info from the pop-upmenu that appears.

If the Bitmap Info dialog is already open, youcan change its contents by clicking on adifferent material channel or layer.

The Info AreaThe small preview (top left) relates to the activelayer and takes all parameters into account apartfrom the Blending mode.

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Name

This displays the name of the texture or layer. Ifyou have imported the file, this will be thefilename; otherwise, it is the name you gave tothe texture when you created it.

Photoshop files are an exception: BodyPaint 3Dimports these files complete with layers andlayer names. Any layers that are unnamed in thefile are given the name 'Layer' or 'Background'.

Tip:

The Bitmap Info dialog enables you to renamelayers — click on a layer, then type its new nameinto the Name box.

Size

This is the texture’s size in pixels. If you wish tochange this value, use Painter > Functions >Texture Size (main menu).

The Parameters Area

Visible

This option box controls the layer’s visibility.Click on the box to make the layer invisible.Click once more, and the layer is visible again.This box has the same effect as clicking on thelayer’s eye in the Texture manager.

Blending

You can define a blending mode for each layer.This determines how the active layer influencesthe layers below. You can achieve a variety ofeffects by using different modes within the layerstack.

The modes from which you can choose:

NormalDissolveDifferenceLightenDarkenMultiplyScreenAddExclusion

The blending modes themselves are described inBlending Mode on page 108.

Strength

The Strength setting defines the layer’s opacity.You can set values from 0% to 100%. If you setthe value to 0%, the layer will be completelytransparent. If you set the value to 100%, thelayer will be completely opaque. Intermediatevalues produce a semi-transparent layer.Exception: transparent areas within the layeritself do, naturally, remain transparentregardless.

Offset X/Y

These settings can be used to move the activelayer. Enter offset values (in pixels) into X and Y— use negative values if you wish to reverse thedirection of the offset.

Alternatively, you can move the layer using theMove Layer tool (Painter > Tools > Move Layer).

Tip:

One advantage of using Offset as opposed tothe Move Layer tool is that you can move thelayer back to its original position at any time byentering a value of zero into both boxes.

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Mode

This displays the active layer’s color mode. Notethat you cannot change this value — it servesfor information purposes only.

Tip:

The color mode is defined in the New Texturedialog when the texture is created. Exception: ifyou are using a file, the color mode is defined inthe file itself.

Memory

This box displays the amount of RAM used bythe single layer or complete texture.

Working with Layers

The following tutorial describes how you mightgo about texturing the leaf of an exotic plant.Please keep in mind throughout that manyalternative approaches are possible.

You will need an exotic leaf for this tutorial, soplease load 'Leaf_1.c4d' from the Examplesfolder on the BodyPaint 3D CD-ROM.

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Creating the Material

Create a material and allocate it to the leaf (ifyou need help, please see Chapter 5,BodyPaint 3D Basics). In the Texture dialog thatopens, set Projection to Flat.

In the Object manager, activate the texture tagyou’ve just created (i.e. click on it) and thenchoose Texture > Fit To Object (Objectmanager). This ensures that the texture coversthe entire object. Since the leaf consists of twoparts (the leaf itself and a stalk), a dialog opensto ask if you want sub-objects to be included —click on the No button.

Still in the Object manager, choose Texture >Generate UVW Coordinates. Again, click on Nowhen the dialog asks if you want sub-objects tobe included.

You have just created UV coordinates for theleaf — you will edit these coordinates later on inthe tutorial.

Creating a Color Material Channel

To create the color material channel, activate thematerial you created, then choose Channels >Color in the Layer manager. The New Texturedialog opens so that you can define parametersfor the new bitmap.

Set Width to 400 pixels, Height to 700 pixelsand ensure that New Texture is active. Click onthe OK button to create a 400x700 colorchannel bitmap with a gray background.

Filling the Layer

The next step is to turn the leaf green. First,double-click on the Background in the Layersmanager. This opens the texture in the TextureView.

Now you need to define a green color.

In the multi channel palette, click on theforeground color icon (the top left rectangle) inthe color (C) channel. The Color Settings dialogopens.

Ensure that the color mode is set to RGB 0..255(to change the mode, click on the small triangleto the left of the Brightness slider and choose amode from the list that appears). Set the colorto RGB 91,150,30. Fill the Background layerwith the green color by choosing Edit >Fill Layer (Texture View).

Note that the Fill Layer command fills the activelayer with the color defined in the ColorSettings. For example, you could have chosenthe color by clicking on a preset color in theColor manager.

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As you can see in the Perspective View, the leafis now green. Green it may be, but it doesn’tlook particularly real. For one, real-world leavesdo not have uniform color and tone. Your nexttask is to introduce some tonal variation.

Ensure that the Background layer is active (itshould have a red frame; if not, click on it) thenchoose Functions > New Layer (Layer manager).

The new layer is activated automatically, asindicated by the red frame. So that you can seethe texture in its entirety, choose View > Fit ToScreen in the Texture View.

Painting the Layer

Next, you are going to paint several tones ofgreen to the new layer using several brush sizes.First, click on the foreground color icon for thecolor channel once more (multi channel palette).

The Color Settings dialog opens — it shouldcontain the green color still (RGB 91,150,30). Toobtain a new tone, simply move the Brightnessslider to about 95%.

Now, in the Brushes manager, double-click onthe icon named Brush.

In the Brush Settings dialog that opens, set Sizeto about 200.

Before you start to paint with your new brush,make sure that the Brush tool is active (mainmenu: Painter > Tools > Brush).

Add dabs of paint by clicking several times inthe Texture View. Notice how soft the edgesare. Try a few more brush sizes and green tonesuntil your texture looks something like this:

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The tones make a big difference, but the leaf isstill rather bland, which is why you are going toadd some yellow to it in just a moment. First,though, do some 'housekeeping' by mergingthe two layers:

Choose Functions > Merge Layer Down (Layermanager). This frees RAM and simplifies thelayer stack as well.

Tip:

As it transpires, there was no need to create asecond layer for the dabs of paint — you couldhave painted the dabs directly onto theBackground layer. However, it is a good idea ingeneral to use new layers during the creativeprocess to keep your options open. For example,with the dabs on a separate layer, you were freeto change their opacity and/or to specify aparticular Blending Mode such as Darken.

Create a new layer (Layer manager: Functions >New Layer). Click on the foreground color iconfor the color channel (multi channel palette) andset the color to RGB 204,201,115. Next, fill thenew layer with the yellow color (Texture View:Edit > Fill Layer).

Once again, the layer is too bland because it ismonotone. Introduce some tonal variation usingthe same procedure as before:

- Create a new layer; alter the color brightness;alter the brush size; apply several dabs; alterbrightness and size several times, applyingdabs each time.

Once you are satisfied with the result, mergethe two yellow layers with Layer manager:Functions > Merge Layer Down.

Creating the Layer Mask

At this stage, there should be two layers in theLayer manager: a yellow layer above a greenlayer. The final leaf needs to be green but withyellow edges — this effect can be achieved withthe help of a layer mask.

The layer mask will be applied to the greenlayer, which means the green layer must be thetop layer:

Drag the green layer above the yellow layer inthe Layer manager.

Next, you need to create a layer mask for thegreen layer based on a selection. Choose theSelect Rectangle tool (main menu: Painter >Bitmap Selection > Select Rectangle). Click onthe green layer if it isn’t already active, thencreate a selection in the Texture View similar tothe one depicted below:

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Notice how the selection appears in thePerspective View as well. The selection is notquite in line with the leaf due to projectionreasons. You will correct this discrepancy laterusing the UV tools.

For now, create the layer mask from theselection using Function > Add Layer Mask(Layer manager).

If you look to the right of the green layer in theLayer manager, you’ll notice a new icon for thelayer mask.

The purpose of making the selection beforecreating the mask was to define the visible areaof the green layer. Consequently, the compositeimage is now a broad, green stripe on a yellowbackground.

Editing the Layer Mask

The transition between green and yellow looksanything but natural for a leaf. You can achievea more realistic transition by editing the layermask.

Drag the layer mask from the Layer managerinto the Texture View so that you can edit itthere. The Texture View displays the mask as an8-bit grayscale image.

Now for the brush: double-click on the icon forBrush average in the Brushes manager. In theBrush Settings dialog that opens, set Size to 40and Hardness to 100%.

Select a white color from the Color manager andpaint several dabs in the transition area.

Now, change the brush size, pick a black colorand paint several more dabs.

Continue applying black and white dabs ofvarying size until your layer mask lookssomething like this:

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The transition area needs to be smoothed — ablur filter is called for. Ensure that the layer maskis active, then choose Plugins > BitmapFilter >Gaussian Blur from the main menu. Set boththe radius values to 40 pixels, then click on OKto apply the blur effect. Your layer mask shouldlook as follows:

As you can see in the Perspective View, thetransition is now soft and irregular.

Unfortunately, the texture is slightly out of linewith the leaf. You can correct this by editing theUV polygons.

Editing the UV Polygons

To make the UV mesh visible, choose Tools >Show UV Mesh (Texture View). The turquoiseUV mesh should appear. If the mesh is whiterather than turquoise, you have not created UVcoordinates for the leaf.

Tip:

If your mesh is white (i.e. has no UVcoordinates), click on the texture tag in theObject manager and choose Texture >Generate UV Coordinates (Object manager).The mesh will turn turquoise, indicating that it isa bona fide UV mesh ready for editing.

The UV mesh needs to be rotated in order toalign the texture with the leaf. Make sure thatyou can see the entire texture in the TextureView (choose View > Fit to Screen if necessary).

Before you can rotate the UV mesh, you need toselect all the UV polygons — choose Tools >Rectangle Selection (Texture View) then drag arectangle over the entire texture.

Tip:

Do not confuse this selection tool with SelectRectangle (main menu: Painter > BitmapSelection > Select Rectangle ). One tool selectsUV polygons, the other selects bitmap pixels.

The UV polygons are red, indicating that theyare selected. Activate the Rotate tool (TextureView: Tools > Rotate) and drag to rotate the UVpolygons until they line up with the texture. Ifone end of the UV mesh juts out over thetexture, move the UV mesh into place with theMove tool (Texture View: Tools > Move).

The effect of editing the UV mesh can beenseen in the Perspective View.

The leaf is looking better all the time, but itmight benefit from some yellow at the tip.

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Select a brush and change the Size to 50,Pressure to 40% and Hardness to 0%. Paintvarious shades of yellow directly onto the leaf inthe Perspective View until it looks somethinglike this:

Creating an Alpha Channel

The edges of the leaf are far too regular. In thissection, you are going to use an alpha channelto snip at the edges.

First, you need a texture for the alpha channel,so choose Channels > Alpha (Layer manager).In the New Texture dialog that appears, setWidth and Height to 400 and 700 respectively,then click on OK to create the alpha channeltexture.

By default, the Background is filled with whiteso that the entire object is visible to begin with.

Tip:

Black areas in the alpha channel texture makethe corresponding areas of the object surfacetransparent when rendered.

Tip:

Although you can paint to the alpha channel,the alpha channel itself is only evaluated whenyou render. Therefore, do not expect parts of theobject to disappear when you paint thecorresponding pixels black in the alpha channel— you must render to see the effect.

Double-click on the alpha channel in the Layermanager. The texture appears in the TextureView. Ensure that the UV mesh is visible(Texture View: Tools > Show UV Mesh).

Next, choose a black color and a brush (set Sizeto 35, Hardness to 70%) and paint along theoutside of the UV mesh until the texture iscomparable to the right-hand picture above.

Render the Perspective View (main menu:Render > Render View). This time, the alphachannel is evaluated and the edges of the leaflook much more natural.

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To round off for now, allocate the material tothe stalk. Click on OK as soon as the Texturedialog opens — the exact settings make littledifference in this case.

You may wish to refine the leaf further. Keep inmind that several other channels can helpenhance the realism. For example, a bumpchannel can be used to give the leaf a surfacestructure. After all, no leaf is completely smooth.

We would like to thank Frank Vitale for the article which inspired thistutorial.

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9. Texture View   

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9 Texture View 127General ......................................................................................................................................................... 127

File Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 129

Edit Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 132

Tools Menu ................................................................................................................................................... 134

Functions Menu............................................................................................................................................ 146

Bitmap Filter Menu ....................................................................................................................................... 151

Filter Examples ............................................................................................................................................. 152

View Menu ................................................................................................................................................... 159

Textures Menu.............................................................................................................................................. 159

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9 Texture View- You can open an existing material channel by

double-clicking on the channel in the LayerManager. Alternatively, drag-and-drop thechannel into the Texture View. If you wish toopen a single layer instead of the entirechannel, drag-and-drop the layer into theTexture View.

You can paint to the texture as soon as itappears in the window. Note that you paintexclusively to the active layers of the activechannels — each active layer is indicated by ared frame in the Layer manager textures area(Left List); each active channel is indicated by apencil icon in the Multi Channel Palette.

The Texture View can display only one channelat a time. Bear in mind when using amulti-channel brush (i.e. a brush that paints tomore than one material channel) that you willbe painting to channels in addition to the oneshown in the Texture View.

Another reason for having a Texture View is theintegrated UV Editor, which enables you to viewand edit an object’s UV mesh in two dimensions.See UV Editor on page 134 for details on thispowerful module.

What are Textures?

The textures used by BodyPaint 3D are, withoutexception, bitmaps. A bitmap represents animage by means of a grid of small squares calledpixels. Each pixel has its own color and its ownposition in the grid.

General

In contrast to the Perspective View, the TextureView enables you to view and edit textures intwo dimensions.

Painting an object in the Perspective View is notalways the best option. Consider a sphere thatyou wish to embellish with a flower patternaround its entire equator. If you decide to paintthe ring of flowers in the Perspective View,you’ll need to rotate the sphere in the process,since you cannot see all of its surface from anyone position. In this case, it is much easier topaint in the Texture View, where the texture canbe shown in its entirety in two dimensions.

There are two ways to open a texture in theTexture View:

- You can create a new texture or load anexisting texture via the Texture View’s Filemenu.

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The bitmap’s picture quality and its size in bytes(i.e. how much storage space it requires) areaffected by its dimensions, resolution, colordepth and the data compression methodemployed.

The RGB color model is the most common wayin which colors are defined in the computerworld. The RGB color model defines colors interms of red, green and blue brightnesscomponents. These components are combinedto form a particular color.

The term 'True Color' refers to 256 brightnessvalues per color component. The value of 256was not chosen at random. It arises becausewith True Color each color component isspecified in a computer byte. Since a byte iscomposed of 8 bits, the total number ofpossibilities per color component is 28 bits =256. Therefore, a color component may haveany integer value between 0 (no brightness) and255 (full brightness) inclusive.

Each True Color pixel requires 24 bits of storagespace (8 bits x 3 color components). It follows,then, that a True Color image of size 600 x 600pixels requires 600 x 600 x 24 bits = 8,640,000bits of storage space, which is about 1 MB(8640000 bits / 8 = 1080000 bytes / 1024 =1054 KB / 1024 = 1.03 MB).

Compression formats such as JPEG enable thebitmap to be saved to a storage medium with amuch-reduced file size. However, some imagequality is lost in the process unless somethingcalled a 'non-lossy' compressor is used.

Compressed files may reduce the strain on yourhard disk, but do not make the common mistakeof thinking that a compressed file takes up lessspace in BodyPaint 3D than an equivalentuncompressed file. BodyPaint 3D always works

with bitmaps and so a 600 x 600 JPEG takes upjust as much RAM as, say, an uncompressedcolour TIFF image of the same dimensions.

In addition to the three color components,bitmaps may also have an alpha channel. This isusually an integrated 8-bit grayscale image thatis used for masking purposes. If you load such abitmap into BodyPaint 3D, the alpha channelwill be implemented as a layer mask.

Tip:

You can paint finer details to your object if youuse a bigger texture (i.e. a texture with morepixels). Consider an animation which zooms infor a close-up of stubble on a chin — a relativelylarge texture is called for so that individual hairstubs can be shown.

The main disadvantage of larger textures is thatthey consume more RAM. The demand on RAMincreases sharply if you use the RayBrush modein conjunction with multiple material channels.Avoid encumbering your system — let the needsof the day dictate the size of your textures.

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File Menu

New Texture

The following window opens when you chooseNew Texture:

You can now do one of two things: you caneither create a new texture (specify thedimensions, color mode, etc.), or you can loadan existing texture from a storage medium (e.g.hard disk).

New Texture

You can type a name for your texture into thetop input box. This name will be used to refer tothe texture in the Layer manager and it is alsoused to form the filename when you save thetexture (although you may opt to specify adifferent filename at save time).

Width, Height

These fields define the width and height of yournew texture. Select the unit of measurementusing the pop-up menus to the right. You canchoose between pixels (the default), inches andcm.

Resolution

In most cases, the default resolution of72 pixels/inch (dpi) is appropriate, since this isthe resolution used by most monitors.

Exception: you may need to change the defaultresolution if you wish to print out the textureand you have specified the dimensions (Widthand Height) in inches or cm.

Mode

This is where you establish the color mode forthe texture — either RGB 24 Bit (3 Byte/Pixel)or Grayscale 8 Bit (1 Byte/Pixel).

Color

This defines the texture’s background color. Youcan choose one of four options:

Background

The current background color is used.

Foreground

The current foreground color is applied.

Color

To choose any color you like, click on the colorselector box to the right of the pop-up. Thecolor dialog native to your operating systemopens. Pick the color you wish to be used as thetexture’s background color. Note that the pop-up changes to Color automatically if it is notalready selected — there is no need to set thepop-up manually.

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Transparent

This allocates a transparent background to thetexture.

The Max. Memory/Layer value, near thebottom of the window, informs you of themaximum amount of memory that will berequired per layer.

Once you have set the parameters as required,click on OK to create the new texture. Thewindow will close and the new texture willappear in the Texture View.

Allocating a Texture to a Material Channel

There are two ways to allocate a texture to amaterial channel:

- Double-click on the material in the Materialmanager. In the Material dialog that opens,activate the material channel you want toallocate the texture to. Next, click on thetriangle to the right of the Image button. Fromthe menu that opens, choose the texture fromthe Bitmaps sub-menu. Note that the bitmapslist shows all textures stored in RAM.

- When you create a new material channel inthe Layer Manager, the New Texture dialogopens. Select the From Disk option, then enterthe name of the texture into the box to theright of the Name button. Click on OK.

Open Texture

A dialog opens when you select this command.Use the dialog to select the bitmap file you wishto load. You can use the following formats astextures in BodyPaint 3D: B3D (the nativeBodyPaint 3D file format), PSD (Photoshop files

including all layers), TIFF, PICT, BMP, JPEG,TARGA, IFF-ILBM. Please see the Appendicesfor further details.

Note:

Although you can open a QuickTime or AVImovie, you cannot paint it. Also, please notewhen editing loaded scenes: you cannot paintmaterials that contain animation (movies,picture sequences).

Revert to Saved

This function reverts the current texture to itslast saved state. Any changes made to thetexture since it was last saved will be lost, hencea dialog you ask you to confirm the action.

Close Texture

This removes the active texture from RAM. Ifthe texture’s current state has not been saved, adialog will appear to offer you the chance tosave the texture. This safety measure shouldensure that you do not delete textures byaccident.

Close All TexturesThis command closes all textures and removesthem from RAM. A dialog will requestconfirmation.

Tip:

As a precaution, you should use this commandbefore you render to the Picture Viewer. This isbecause BodyPaint 3D can render to the Picture

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Viewer only if all of the scene’s textures havebeen removed from RAM. For example, youcannot leave a texture open in the Texture Viewand have it rendered to the Picture manager aswell.

Save Texture

This command will save your texture without adialog appearing. That is, unless you are savingthe texture for the first time, in which case adialog opens so that you can specify thefilename and the folder you wish to write thefile to.

Save Texture as

A small window will open when you select thiscommand.

Use the drop-down menu to specify thetexture’s file format. Your choice is:

B3D (BodyPaint 3D’s native format)PSD (Photoshop files complete with layers), TIFF,PICT, BMP, JPEG, TARGA, IFF as well as any formatsinstalled on your system under QuickTime.

Once you have chosen the file format andclicked OK, a dialog will open so that you canspecify the filename and the folder you wish towrite the file to.

Tip:

Note that textures are saved separately fromscenes in BodyPaint 3D. Ensure that you savethe textures to the same folder as the scene theybelong to, otherwise BodyPaint 3D will beunable to access the textures the next time youload the scene. The scene itself can be savedusing File > Save as from the main menu.

For further details, see BodyPaint 3D Basics onpage 69.

Save Texture as Copy

You can use this function to save a copy of thecurrent texture. Note that the current texture’sname in RAM and in the material channel is notchanged in the process. This is in contrast toSave Texture as.

Save All Textures

Use this command to save all the textures in onego. However, if any of the textures are beingsaved for the first time, the following process isrepeated for each new texture:

1. A small dialog opens. Use the dialog’s pop-upmenu to specify the file format for the textureand then click on OK.

2. A dialog will open so that you can specify thefilename and the folder you wish to write thefile to.

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Close

This closes the Texture View window. Thetextures themselves remain in RAM and may stillbe accessed via the Layer manager. Forexample, if you double-click on a texture in theLayer manager, the Texture View will openagain to display the texture.

Edit Menu

Undo

This command reverses the last change youmade. You can select Undo repeatedly toreverse the changes one by one. By default, youcan undo a maximum of 10 changes. You can,however, set your own Undo Depth value in theGeneral Settings (choose Edit > General Settingsfrom the main menu).

Tip:

The Edit > Undo (Texture) function on the mainmenu relates to texture changes, such as paintstrokes and filter effects, only. Note that thiscommand will not undo UV polygonmovements.

Redo

Redo undoes an undo, i.e. it restores the lastchange that was undone (see Undo above). Youcan select Redo repeatedly to continue restoringthe changes. You can redo up to 10 changes bydefault. Since you cannot redo more than youhave undone, there is no separate setting for theredo depth in the General Settings.

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Cut

If there is no selection in the Texture View, thisfunction is ghosted and cannot be selected.Otherwise, it cuts the selected pixels from theactive layer and copies them to the clipboard.

Copy

If you have made a selection in the TextureView, this function copies the selected pixels inthe active layer to the clipboard.

Copy Merged

In contrast to Copy, this function merges allvisible layers into a single layer internally. Theselection is then applied to the merged layer andthe resultant pixel selection is copied to theclipboard. Invisible layers are ignored in theprocess.

Paste

This command creates a new layer in the activematerial channel/texture. Next, the clipboard’scontents are copied to the new layer in theiroriginal position when cut or copied to theclipboard (see Cut and Copy above).

Paste into SelectionWhen you choose this command, a new layerand layer mask is created. The clipboard’scontents are pasted into the new layer and theselection is used to define the layer mask. Thelayer mask hides areas outside the selection so,in effect, you have pasted into the selection butyou have the added benefit of an editable mask.

Delete

This deletes the selected contents of the currentlayer. In contrast to the similar Cut command,the contents are not copied to the clipboard inthe process.

Fill Layer

If you choose Fill Layer the selection is filledwith the active color in the Color Chooser. If, onthe other hand, no pixels are selected at thetime of the function call, the entire layer will befilled — again with the active color in the ColorChooser.

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Select All

All the pixels in the current layer are selectedwhen you choose this command.

Deselect All

This command ensures that all pixels aredeselected.

Tip:

If, at any time, you are unable to paint to a layerfor no apparent reason, try the Deselect Allcommand. This may resolve the problem, since aselection may have escaped your attention;pixels outside a selection are maskedautomatically and hence cannot be painted to.

Invert SelectionWhen you choose Invert Selection, the selectedpixels become deselected and, at the same time,deselected pixels become selected. In otherwords, the selection is inverted.

This can help to simplify the selection process attimes, offering an indirect approach. Forexample, imagine that you wish to select aparachutist and, conveniently, the parachutist issurrounded by clear, blue sky. Simply select thesky with the Magic Wand and then invert theselection.

Tools Menu

The UV Editor - IntroductionThe UV Editor enables you to adjust the way inwhich a texture is mapped to an object. For thisto be possible, the object must have UVcoordinates (BodyPaint 3D can generate them ifrequired) and the texture must use UVWMapping.

Two important advantages of UVW Mappingare:

1.UVW Mapping prevents texture slippage sothat whenever you deform an object (e.g. aflag in the wind), the texture follows suit.

2.UVW Mapping, in conjunction with theUV Editor, offers the most advanced way topaint your textures. You can see and edit theUV mesh in two dimensions. You can select theUV polygons that constitute the UV mesh andmove, scale and rotate them as required.

For example, imagine that you are using arelatively small texture for a male face. Afterdeliberation, you decide to add a moustache.

However, the UV polygons are too small (i.e.cover too few texture pixels) to obtain the detailrequired for hair. One solution is to select theUV polygons in question, move them to anunused part of the texture and scale them up.The UV polygons will then cover more texturepixels, enabling you to paint more detail thanyou could in their previous position.

What is a UV Mesh?

If your object has UV coordinates, a UV polygonis assigned to each object polygon. The UVpolygons have their own independentcoordinates and together they form a UV mesh.

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What shall I do if the object has no UVcoordinates?

1.First of all, ensure that your object is editablei.e. made of polygons (as opposed toparametric). If you have imported your object,this will always be the case but if you are usingBodyPaint 3D with CINEMA 4D and havestarted, say, with a simple, parametric cubeyou will need to apply Structure > MakeEditable.

2.Create a new material in the Material managerwith a suitable texture.

3.Drag-and-drop the new material onto yourobject. The Texture dialog will open. Choosethe most relevant Projection setting (see theMaterial manager chapter if you need help —if you’re still not sure which type to use, optfor Spherical Mapping, which wraps thetexture around the entire object in the shape ofa sphere).

4. In the Object manager, click on the object‘stexture tag to activate the texture. Next,allocate UV coordinates to the object byselecting Texture > Generate UVWCoordinates from the Object manager menu.

5.Now that your object has UV coordinates, goto the Layer manager, with your materialselected, and check Enabled. Move into theTexture View, choose your texture from theTextures menu and activate Tools > Show UVMesh. The two-dimensional, turquoise UVmesh should appear.

When setting up a texture on an object,consider the projection mode quite carefully.The example pictures below show two cubeswith UV coordinates. One UV mesh was derivedfrom Spherical Mapping, the other from CubicMapping.

The Perspective View and the Texture View for a cube withspherical mapping and some selected object polygons

The Perspective View and the Texture View for a cube withcubic mapping and some selected object polygons

Note how each polygon is allocated its own UVpolygon in the Spherical Mapping example. As aresult, you can paint each side of the cubeseparately. In this respect, Spherical Mapping isthe next best projection setting after UVWMapping.

In the second picture (Cubic Mapping), you cansee that there are no separate UV polygons; thesides cannot be painted separately, because thetexture has been applied six times — once toeach side. Any stroke that is applied to one sideis applied to the other sides automatically.

However, one of the disadvantages of SphericalMapping is all too apparent in the example: theUV mesh is particularly distorted near the topand bottom. These areas are at the poles of thespherical projection.

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This distortion is caused by the fundamentalprinciple of projection: a two-dimensionalsurface (texture) must be placed onto a 3Dspatial object. Distortion is inevitable. Think oftrying to wrap your child’s favorite Pokemon™sticker around a baseball!

Tip:

Maps of the world face the same problem. Forexample, Greenland appears to be larger thanthe United States on a map. In reality, the UnitedStates is more than three times larger thanGreenland.

Distortion arises automatically when a sphere’ssurface (such as that of the Earth) is representedin two dimensions.

Nonetheless, you can paint your object free ofdistortion using Functions > Optimal Mapping(see page 147). This attempts an optimal fittingof the UV mesh.

Show UV Mesh

You can use this option to turn on or turn offthe display of UV mesh in the Texture View. TheUV mesh is usually turquoise in color, indicatingthat it can be edited.

If the UV mesh is white instead, it cannot beedited because the object lacks UV coordinates.In this case the UV mesh is merely a previewand, although you can select polygons, you willbe unable to edit them. To obtain an editableUV mesh, select the texture’s tag in the Objectmanager and choose Texture > Generate UVWCoordinates from the Object manager. The UVmesh should change color to turquoise.

Tip:

The following rules apply when Show UV Meshis active:

1. If you select a UVW Coordinates tag in theObject manager, the UV mesh is shown andcan be edited.

2. If you choose a Texture tag in the Objectmanager which uses a projection settingother than UVW Mapping, the correspondingUV mesh is shown in white and cannot beedited.

3. If you click on a Texture tag which uses UVWMapping but for which there is no UVWCoordinates tag, no UV mesh is shown.

There are two modes for editing a UV mesh:Edit Points and Edit Polygons.

Edit Points

With Edit Points, the UV coordinates aredisplayed as points which you can select andmodify using the tools described in thefollowing pages.

If you select points in the Perspective View, thecorresponding points in the Texture Viewbecome selected as well. However, the conversedoes not apply; selecting points in the TextureView does not affect point selection in thePerspective View.

The reason why points are not linked is that UVpolygons do not share points, whereas theobject’s polygons do. Each UV polygon has fourindependent points. As a result, UV polygonscan be moved, scaled and rotated withoutaffecting neighbouring UV polygons.

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Edit Polygons

This is one of two modes for editing the UVmesh. The other mode, Edit Points, is describedabove.

Edit Polygons is the default mode and it enablesyou to select and modify UV polygons using thetools described in the following sections.

Selecting UV Points or UVPolygonsYou must activate Show UV Mesh before youcan make a selection.

UV polygon selection is linked to polygonselection. In other words, if you select UVpolygons in the Texture View, the object’sassociated polygons will be selected in thePerspective View (provided that the PolygonsTool is active). The reverse applies also.

With regard to all the selections tools: holddown Shift to add to an existing selection; holddown Ctrl to subtract from an existing selection.

Selected points or polygons are colored red.

The selection tools you can choose from arenow discussed. Note that the icons for these arefound to the right of the Texture View.

Live Selection

The Live Selection tool in action, with a large brush

To use this selection tool, hold down the mousebutton and drag over the UV points/polygonsyou wish to select. You may prefer to think ofthis tool as a brush which selects UV points/polygons by painting over them.

Options in the Active Tool manager

The Live setting determines the diameter of theLive Selection. Returning to the brush analogyabove, it may help you to think of the Livesetting as the brush diameter. You can set valuesbetween 0% and 10%.

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Rectangle Selection

Rectangle Selection in action

To make a selection using this tool, hold downthe mouse button and drag a rectangle over theUV points/polygons you wish to select.

Options in the Active Tool manager

If Tolerant is active, all UV points/polygons thatare inside the marquee or intersected by themarquee are selected.

If Tolerant is inactive, only the UV points/polygons that are fully enclosed by the marqueeare selected.

Polygon Selection

Polygon Selection in action

The Polygon Selection tool enables you to drawa polygon around UV points/polygons in orderto select them. Your first mouse click creates thestarting point and subsequent clicks create newcorner points. To complete the selection, eitherclick on the starting point or click the rightmouse button (Macintosh: hold down theCommand key while clicking).

Options in the Active Tool manager

The Tolerant option has the same effect asdescribed for the Rectangle Selection tool,above.

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Free Selection

Free Selection in action

With this tool, you select UV points/polygons byholding down the mouse button while you drawa loop (a lasso) around the polygons. Tocomplete the selection, release the mousebutton. The two ends of the loop are joinedautomatically.

Options in the Active Tool manager

The Tolerant option has the same effect asdescribed for the Rectangle Selection tool,above.

Editing UV PolygonsThe key to editing UV polygons effectively is tounderstand how they relate to polygons of theobject to which the texture is applied (termedobject polygons below for reasons of clarity).

Each object polygon is represented by a UVpolygon, so the number of UV polygons equalsthe number of object polygons. If you delete anobject polygon, its UV polygon is also deleted.

A UV polygon determines which part of atexture is mapped to the object polygon itrepresents. The UV polygon is otherwiseindependent and can be moved, scaled androtated.

In other words, no matter how you move, scaleand rotate the UV polygon, the position, sizeand direction of the object polygon remainsunchanged. All that changes is the part of thetexture that is mapped to the object polygon.

For example, imagine that a UV polygon iscurrently over a black area of the texture. As aresult, the object polygon it represents is black.Next you move the UV polygon to a red area ofthe texture. The object polygon itself is notmoved, but it now receives the red part of thetexture, and changes color.

Tip:

To see textures directly in the Perspective View,activate the Textures option from the Displaymenu and choose a suitable shading mode (i.e.Gouraud Shading or Quick Shading).

You can, if you wish, place UV polygons on topof one another. In theory, all UV polygons canoccupy the same part of a texture. In this case,every object polygon would receive the samepart of the texture.

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This concept is explored in the followingexamples.

First consider a 2x2 plane which has a textureconsisting of the letters A, B and C but with itsUV polys edited so that they are all over the A.

Perspective View: plane (2x2) with 4 polygons. Its texturecontains letters A, B and C, but all the UV polys for the textureare over the A, as shown below. So the plane shows just As.

Texture View: The texture that is applied to the plane, above.A top left, B bottom right, C bottom left. All four UV polys areover the A.

To obtain the next example, all four UVpolygons were placed over the A, then one ofthe UV polygons was scaled, rotated and movedover the B.

Perspective View: plane (2x2) with 4 polygons. Its texturecontains the letters A, B and C. 3 UV polys are over the A. Thefourth UV poly has been scaled, rotated and placed over theletter B.

Texture View: The texture that is applied to the plane, above.3 UV polys over the A. The fourth UV poly has been rotated,scaled and placed over the B.

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The next two pictures highlight the flexibilityoffered by UV editing.

Perspective View: a plane (9x5) showing “BODYPAINT 3D”.

Texture View: the texture is the alphabet with its UV meshedited so that ‘BODYPAINT 3D’ appears in the PerspectiveView. At the top right you can see the ‘unused’ UV polys.

The bottom picture shows how the UV meshhas been edited to arrive at the required result.First, the UV mesh, which originally covered theentire texture, has been scaled down and movedto an empty, black, area of the texture.

The UV polygons of the second row have eachbeen scaled back up and placed over therequired letter to spell out ’BODYPAINT‘ whiletwo polys from the fourth row have been scaledup and placed over the ’3‘ and the ’D‘.

Other UV ToolsYou can use the following UV tools to edit UVpoints or UV polygons. In the description ofeach tool, only the effect on UV polygons isdescribed, for clarity. The effect on UV points isexactly the same unless otherwise stated.

Move

You can use this tool to move the selected UVpolygons: click anywhere in the Texture Viewand hold down the mouse button while youmove the mouse.

Options in the Active Tool manager

Options Tab

Keep Face Neighbors

If Keep Face Neighbors is active, the selectedUV polygons remain attached to adjacent UVpolygons (neighbors). You can still move theselection freely, but the adjacent UV polygonswill distort to accommodate the move. This is, inprinciple, similar to moving object polygons inthe Perspective View.

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Clip UV Coordinates (0..1)

When active, this option prevents you fromplacing UV polygons outside the texture. This isachieved internally by restricting the UVcoordinates to values between 0 and 1. If youtry to move the UV polygons outside thetexture, they will squash against the edge.

Magnet

If the Magnet option is enabled, UV polygonsoutside the selection (but within the Distancevalue of the selection) are pulled along whenthe selection is moved. The further away a UVpolygon is from the selection, the weaker thepull.

There is a Magnet tab to control this option.

Tip:

Do not confuse the Magnet option with theMagnet tool. The Magnet option relates to theMove tool, whereas the Magnet tool is a tool inits own right.

Snapping Tab

The Snapping options determine whether theUV polygons you move snap to other UVpolygons. A cross will appear in a corner of oneof the selected UV polygons according to whereyou click with the mouse. Keep the mousebutton held down and move the cross to movethe selection. If the Point option is active, thecross will snap to UV points. If Edge is enabled,the cross snaps to UV edges.

Tip:

Point and Edge can be activated at the sametime. Point snapping takes priority.

Radius determines how close the cross must beto a point or edge before it snaps to it. You canset Radius to a value between 0% and 10%. Ifyou set it to the maximum value of 10%, freemovement will be limited severely as the crosssnaps from one point or edge to the next.

The Quantize options offer further ways torestrict movement. If you activate the Moveoption (or Scale or Rotate for the other tools),you will only be able to move the selected UVpolygons in steps of the value entered. Forexample, if the value is set to 10%, the distancebetween each step corresponds to 10% of thetexture’s width or height.

Taking this example further, if the texture is 300pixels wide and 500 pixels high, the UVpolygons can be moved 30 pixels horizontallyand 50 pixels vertically, in this case.

Colors tab

You can use this tab to assign any color you liketo each of the following mesh elements:

- Ghosted Polygons- Inactive Polygons- Active Polygons- Inactive Points- Active Points

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To change the color for an element, click on itscolor field and pick the color using the dialogthat appears.

Uniform Scale

This function scales the selected UV polygonsuniformly about their common centre, which isrepresented by a cross.

Tip:

If you have selected a single UV point instead ofa UV polygon, you will be unable to scale sinceUV points have no spatial dimensions. You canonly scale if at least two UV points are selected,in which case they will be scaled from theircentre of gravity.

Scaling a grid of 5x5 points (showing the cross that representsthe common centre)

Options in the Active Tool manager

The same options apply as for Move with oneexception; the Point and Edge snapping optionshave no effect.

The Scale option under Quantize has thefollowing advantage: you can scale a UVpolygon safe in the knowledge that you canreturn it to its exact original size later on.

Non-Uniform Scale

Non-uniform scaling works as described above(for Uniform scaling), with the exception thatscaling is not uniform and instead takes place inthe direction in which you drag with the mousebutton held down.

Options in the Active Tool manager

The same options apply as for Move with theexception that the Point and Edge snappingoptions have no effect.

Rotate

This tool rotates the selected UV polygons abouttheir common centre: click anywhere in theTexture View and drag horizontally with themouse button held down.

Options in the Active Tool manager

The same options apply as for Move with theexception that the Point and Edge snappingoptions have no effect.

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Shear U, Shear V

Shear the selected UV polygons about theircommon centre. You can shear horizontally(Shear U) or vertically (Shear V).

An example of using Shear U.

An example of using Shear V.

Options in the Active Tool manager

The same options apply as for Move with theexception that the Point and Edge snappingoptions have no effect.

Magnet

This tool distorts the UV mesh. If a selection isactive, only the selected UV polygons aredistorted. If no UV polygons are selected, all UVpolygons within the magnet’s sphere ofinfluence are distorted.

Click anywhere on the UV mesh and move themouse with the mouse button held down. TheUV coordinates follow the mouse pointer. Thefurther away a UV coordinate is from the mousepointer, the less the Magnet pulls on it.

Options in the Active Tool manager

Nearest Point Method

If this function is inactive (the default), theMagnet will only deform if you click directly ona UV polygon. If the option is active, theMagnet will deform no matter where you click.In this case, the nearest UV point is chosen asthe centre of the deformation.

Radius

This is where you define the magnet’s sphere ofinfluence.

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Type

You can choose one of six fall-off functions,shown below.

Constant

Linear

Dome

Bell

Circle

Needle

Width

This parameter determines how hard or soft themagnet’s sphere of influence is.

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Functions Menu

Bake UVThis function bakes the current UV coordinates.In other words, it saves the current positions ofthe UV coordinates. You can restore the bakedcoordinates at any time using Restore UV andRemap, which are described below.

Restore UVThis restores the UV mesh to its last baked state,i.e. the UV coordinates are reset to theirpositions when Bake UV (see above) was lastcalled. In this way, you can experiment with theUV mesh safe in the knowledge that you mayrevert to its original state at any time.

RemapUntil now, all you have edited in the UV Editorare UV polygons and UV points. This functionallows you to edit the bitmap itself.

First, bake the UV coordinates (Functions >Bake UV). Next, select the UV polygons that areabove the part of the texture you wish to move.Move the selected UV polygons to an emptypart of the texture. If you call Remap now, thebitmap will be copied (or cut and pasted) fromthe original position of the UV polygons to theirnew position.

The following window opens when you selectRemap:

The list on the left side of the windowrepresents all the material channels — activatethe channels to which you wish the Remapfunction to be applied. If you activate the Cutoption on the right side of the window, thebitmap will be cut rather than copied from theoriginal position of the UV polygons.

Finally, there is a pop-up menu calledOversampling. If you scale up a UV polygonbefore using Remap, the corresponding part ofthe bitmap is scaled up too and is interpolatedaccording to the Oversampling value.

Perspective View with a polygon (over the ‘C’) selected.

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The polygon has been moved and scaled up without the cutoption.

The polygon has been moved and scaled up with the cutoption active.

Tip:

Remap enables you to move and scale part ofthe texture so that finer details can be added.

Optimal MappingThis is, without doubt, one of the TextureView‘s most advanced functions. It attempts tooptimize the UV mapping with the help of thepolygon object. It aims to prevent parts of theUV mesh from overlapping, which would soonbe the case with complicated objects.

In addition, groups of UV polygons are placed aspecified distance apart and are arranged so thatthey make full use of the texture surface.

In this section, polygons from a model arereferred to as object polygons to helpdistinguish them clearly from UV polygons.

The function carries out the following steps onthe selected UV polygons:

1. First, the algorithm attempts to sort the UVpolygons into groups. This is achieved bycomparing the surface normals of adjacentobject polygons. Provided that the angledifference does not exceed a certain user-defined value, the associated UV polygons aredefined as a group.

2. New UV coordinates are calculated for eachgroup with the assistance of a flat projectionprojected from the common centre in thedirection of the average surface normal.

3. Each UV polygon group is rotated horizontallyuntil it occupies the smallest amount of texturepossible. This step can add noticeably to theprocessing time.

4. BodyPaint 3D tries to arrange the UV polygongroups by size, placing the largest groups inthe top left of the texture and the smallestgroups in the bottom right. In this way, as littletexture space is wasted as possible.

This makes the painting process much easier,since the brush size will remain constant over allparts of the object.

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The example shows a cube with OptimalMapping applied.

A cube in the Perspective View

The optimized mapping for the cube

A dialog opens when you select the OptimalMapping command.

Preserve Orientation

If you activate this option, the algorithm doesnot attempt to arrange each UV polygon groupin the optimum horizontal direction. This savesprocessing time.

Stretch to Fit

When this option is activated, the UV polygongroups are stretched in the U and V directionsso that they cover the entire bitmap while takingthe Spacing value into account.

Maximum Distortion

Remember that Optimal Mapping arranges theUV mesh into UV polygon groups based on theobject polygons. If the difference in anglebetween the surface normals of two connectedobject polygons is less than or equal to theMaximum Distortion value, the associated UVpolygons are placed into the same UV polygongroup; otherwise, they are placed into differentgroups.

In general, enter a relatively small value in thefield, otherwise the changes to the UV mappingwill be minor. Lower values produce more UVpolygon groups. The lowest value (0%)separates each UV polygon from its neighbors.A value of 100% corresponds to 90˚ differencein angle, 50% corresponds to 45˚ and so on.

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Spacing

Spacing determines how far apart the UVpolygon groups are placed from one another. Ingeneral, enter a relatively small value, otherwisethe UV polygons will be scaled down to makespace for the gaps.

Note:

Naturally optimal mapping can never be perfect,only an approximation. Do not lose heart if thefirst call to the function does not bring about theresult you had in mind. Try different settings —even a small change to the Maximum Distortionvalue can have a dramatic effect on the UVmesh.

Fit Canvas To UVWhen you move UV polygons in the TextureView, you are free to place them outside thetexture. Exactly what is mapped to theassociated polygons depends on the object’sTexture tag: if Tile is active, the texture is tiled;otherwise, nothing (neutral gray) is mapped tothe polygons.

More often than not, though, the reason you’llmove UV polygons outside the texture isbecause you need extra texture space. In thiscase, choose Functions > Fit Canvas To UV —the texture’s size will change accordingly. Thenew texture pixels will be filled with thebackground color.

Clear UVThis deletes the selected UV polygons. Theassociated object polygons will adopt thematerial’s background color.

Mirror U

You can use this function to mirror the selectedUV polygons horizontally. The mirror axis runsthrough the common centre of the UVpolygons.

Mirror V

This function mirrors the selected UV polygonsvertically. The mirror axis runs through thecommon centre of the UV polygons.

Transform

Transform enables you to move, scale and rotatethe selected UV polygons with precision. Whenyou select the function, the Transform dialogopens. Enter numerical values under Position,Scale and Rotate and the UV polygons will beadjusted accordingly.

The X and Y fields under Position specify thedistance the UV polygons are to be moved inpixels. Enter negative values if you wish to movethe selection in the negative U or V direction. Xrepresents the horizontal movement (U), Y thevertical movement (-V!).

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To scale the selection, set the required values inthe Scale column. X scales in the horizontaldirection, Y in the vertical direction. Set X and Yto the same value for uniform scaling. Valuesbelow 1 shrink the selected UV polygons, valuesabove 1 enlarge them.

Finally, enter a value in the Angle field belowRotation to rotate the selection.

Tip:

Enter values under all three columns to move,scale and rotate the selected UV polygons in onefunction call.

Start Interactive MappingThis function offers a simple way to alter themapping for the selected UV polygons. Forexample, imagine that you wish to change themapping for the left ear of a head mesh. First,select the UV polygons for the left ear. Next,select the Start Interactive Mapping function.The following happens:

- A Texture dialog opens which relates to eitherthe active Texture tag or the Texture tagbelonging to the active UVW tag. You canchange any of the mapping parameters. Bydefault, the projection changes from UVWMapping to Flat. In most cases, this is the bestsetting. However, you can choose your ownprojection setting if you wish.

- Click on OK in the Texture dialog. The dialogcloses and the chosen mapping method isapplied. At the same time, the Texture Axistool is activated. To move the texture axis, clickin the Perspective View and drag with themouse button held down. The texture isshown in real-time throughout, provided thatyour processor is fast enough; otherwise, onlythe texture envelope is displayed.

Move the texture axis until the texture is in asuitable position over the selected polygons.Now, finish the function by choosingFunctions > Stop Interactive Mapping.

Note how the texture moves over the entireobject in the Perspective View. Ignore thistemporary effect — the new mapping affectsthe selected polygons only.

Tip:

This function offers nothing new, as such. Youcould carry out exactly the same steps using thetools individually. However, you save a fewclicks and mouse movements in this way. Inshort, this function has been implemented toimprove your workflow.

Stop Interactive MappingSelect this function to signal the end of theinteractive mapping process (see StartInteractive Mapping above). New UVcoordinates will be assigned to the selected UVpolygons and the tool that was active prior tothe interactive mapping process will be activatedonce more.

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Bitmap Filter MenuFilters enable you to apply special effects toyour textures — among other things, you canblur, emboss, sharpen and invert.

Filters affect the active layer only. If a bitmapselection exists, only the selected pixels areaffected; otherwise, the filter is applied to theentire layer.

To use a filter, activate the layer to which youwant to apply the effect, then choose the filterfrom the Texture View’s Bitmap Filter menu. Adialog similar to the one pictured below opens.The exact contents of the dialog vary accordingto which filter you are using.

The left window shows an area of the originaltexture (the source texture). You can zoom in orout on the area by clicking on the correspondingmagnify icon. To move the area, drag in thewindow.

The right window shows you the same area ofthe texture, but this time with the filter applied.This helps you to judge how the filter will affectthe texture.

The sliders below the two windows enable youto adjust filter-specific parameters.

Most filter dialogs contain the following threeoptions:

Blend

The Blend slider defines the intensity of thefilter’s effect. You can set a value between 0%and 100%.

Wrap Texture

Activate this option if you intend to tile thetexture.

Imagine that you want to apply a blur filter toyour texture with a blur radius of 20 pixels.What does the filter do at the edges of thetexture? Usually, the edge pixel is repeatedmultiple times in the blur calculation to make upthe numbers.

The resultant texture is likely to produceunattractive seams when tiled. However, whenthe Wrap Texture option is active, the filter usesthe required pixels from the opposite side of thetexture, thus helping to avoid seams.

Document Preview

This option shows a preview of the filter in thePerspective View and Texture View. Note thatthe preview may take a few moments to appear.

Tip:

To reapply the last filter used, select ExecuteLast Plugin (first item in the Plugins menu).

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Filter Settings

Preview Width

This defines the width of the preview in pixels.

Preview Height

This is the height of the preview in pixels.

Show Source Preview

Select this option to show a preview, as well asthe original, in the filter dialogs.

Live Action

If this option is active, the filter is applied in real-time when you move the area in the previewwindow. Changes to the sliders are also appliedin real-time. Deactivate this option if you needto speed up the preview.

Wrap Texture

See the previous description of Wrap Texture,above.

Document Preview

See the previous description of DocumentPreview, above.

Filter ExamplesThe best way to learn about the filters is to trythem. In this section, we avoid an in-depthmathematical analysis of each and everyparameter. Instead, we provide example picturesto demonstrate the effects.

This is the original image. The remainingpictures in this section show you the effect ofthe relevant filter on the image.

Blur > Blur

This filter softens the texture by reducing thecontrast between neighboring pixels.

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Blur > Gaussian Blur

This blurs your textures. You can set thehorizontal and vertical radii separately.

Gaussian Blur is particularly useful for removingcolor banding.

Blur > Motion Blur

This applies a motion blur effect to your image.You can set the angle and the length of the blur.

Blur > Radial Blur

A filter which creates the impression that thetexture is rotating quickly and is blurring in theprocess.

Blur > Selective Blur

This is similar to the Gaussian Blur filter, exceptthat it preserves more detail.

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Blur > Smooth

A filter which smoothes your texture usingvarious methods.

Color Correction > Gamma Correction

The Gamma Correction filter enables you tochange the gamma value, contrast andbrightness.

Tip:

If you change the gamma value, only themidtones are lightened or darkened. Highlightsand shadows remain more or less unchanged.This means that black remains black, even aftera gamma correction. White remains white.

Color Correction > Levels

This filter enables you to correct the tone levelsso that the darkest color in the layer is black andthe lightest color is white. In addition, you canbrighten the image, increase/reduce contrastand influence the tonal range in the image.

Distort > Magnifying Glass

This filter distorts the texture as though youwere observing it through a magnifying glass.Define the effect using the Refractionparameter.

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Distort > Waves

This filter simulates water waves. Think of yourtexture as being projected onto a water surface.You can define the waves of the surface usingseveral parameters.

Distort > Whirl

Choose this filter if you want to whirl yourimage. You can influence the rotation usingseveral parameters.

Noise > Despeckle

This filter levels out small irregularities in yourtexture. It attempts to blur noise yet preserveedges in the image in accordance with theRadius and Feedback settings.

Noise > Distribute Pixels

This filter jumbles pixels according to the Radiussettings.

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Noise > Noise

You can use this filter to add noise to yourimage, helping you to break up areas that aretoo regular.

Other > Deinterlace

This is useful for video images — it can removeodd or even interlaced lines.

Other > Invert

This reverses the image. The result is the sameas a photo negative of your texture.

Other > Matrix

A special filter that has entire books dedicatedto it. The abridged version is that it enables youto define a matrix of up to 15 * 15 fields in size.You can create your own filter effects byentering values into the fields.

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Other > Mosaic

Apply this filter to break down your image intoblocks, Roman-style.

Other > Oil Painting

Photo textures look too real at times. This filteradds an artistic touch by giving the image an oilpainting look.

Sharpen > Sharpen

Use this filter if you want to sharpen yourimage. It works by increasing the contrast ofneighboring pixels. You can choose from variousmethods using the Filter Type pop-up menu.

Sharpen > Unsharp mask

The Unsharp Mask filter uses three variables.Radius, Amount and Threshold influence oneanother, making exact modifications possible.

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Stylize > Difference Operators

This filter offers a number of methods by whichcontrasts in the image may be increased.

Stylize > Emboss (Matrix)

You can use this filter to raise or lower thebrightness values of the pixels. Several presetmatrices are available.

Stylize > Emboss (Texture)

This creates a raised effect based on thebrightness values of the texture’s pixels.

Stylize > Enhance Details

Enhance Details can enhance or reduce effectsby increasing or decreasing contrasts in thetexture. Choose the effect you require from thepop-up menu.

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Stylize > Enhance Structures

Use this filter if you want to enhance structures.You can choose from diverse methods using theOperator pop-up menu.

Stylize > Texture Blend

This filter blends an image into the active layer.

Click on the Texture Name button and choosethe image using the Load File dialog thatappears. The image will be tiled and blendedinto the active layer.

Note that transparent pixels will remaintransparent.

View Menu

Fit to ScreenThis function zooms the texture so that it fillsthe Texture View window.

Zoom 100%The texture is shown at its original size.

Zoom InThe texture is shown 25% larger.

Zoom OutThe texture is shown 25% smaller.

Set ZoomHere you can enter the zoom factor manually oryou can click on the small button to the right ofthe field to open a menu with the particularzoom settings.

Textures MenuThis menu shows a list of all the textures inRAM. If you choose a texture from the list, thetexture will be displayed in the Texture View andthe corresponding texture will be activated inthe Layer manager.

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10. Painter Menu   

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10 Painter Menu 163Bitmap Selection ........................................................................................................................................... 163

Tools ............................................................................................................................................................. 170

Functions ...................................................................................................................................................... 178

Bitmap Filter ................................................................................................................................................. 182

RayBrush Mode ............................................................................................................................................ 182

High Quality Shading ................................................................................................................................... 183

Display Selected Channel ............................................................................................................................. 183

Tile U / V ...................................................................................................................................................... 183

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10 Painter Menuthe Perspective View may correspond to severalirregular outlines in the Texture View if the UVmesh is fragmented. (For details on UV mesh,please see UV Editor on page 134.)

Select Circle

Select Circle enables you to create circular andelliptical selection outlines in one of three ways:

Box

Drag to define an imaginary rectangle insidewhich the circle or ellipse will be fitted.

Bitmap SelectionThe selection tools are more or lessindispensable for your day-to-day work inBodyPaint 3D. They restrict the effect of tools tothe selected pixels and are otherwise well suitedto moving, cutting and copying areas of thebitmap.

BodyPaint 3D’s selection tools are divided intothree groups:

1. Polygon selection tools (Perspective View).

2. UV polygon selection tools (UV Editor).

3. Bitmap selection tools.

The bitmap selection tools, which are describedin this chapter, select pixels in the bitmap. Thereare two types of bitmap selection tool:

1.Tools which you use to draw a shape (e.g.Select Circle, Select Polylines).

2.Tools which select according to colordifferences (e.g. Magic Wand, Color Range).

Bitmap selections appear as moving, dotted linesin both the Texture View and the PerspectiveView. To move a selection, move the mousepointer inside the selection and drag it to thenew position.

Tip:

With the exception of Select Polylines , you canuse all of the bitmap selection tools in thePerspective View as well as the Texture View.Note that the selection outline may vary inappearance between the two views. Forexample, a single, circular selection outline in

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Center

Click anywhere and drag to define the radius ofthe circle.

Diameter

Drag to define the circle’s diameter. In theprocess, you can rotate the circle about thepoint where you clicked.

Select Rectangle

This tool creates rectangular selection outlines inone of three ways as specified in the Active Toolmanager.

Box

Drag to create the top left corner and thebottom right corner respectively.

Center

Drag to define the center and edge respectively.Note that you can rotate the rectangle in theprocess. The result is always a square outline.

Diameter

Drag to define the diameter of a square. Youcan rotate the rectangle while you drag.

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Select Polylines

This tool draws a polygonal shape around pixels,to select them. Click to create the polygon’sstarting point. Continue clicking to createsuccessive corner points. When you are ready toclose the shape, double-click on the last point toconnect it to the starting point.

Tip:

If you hold down Shift while you create thepolygon outline, the lines will be constrained tomultiples of 45˚ to each other.

Select Freehand

Select Freehand is the most flexible selectiontool, yet potentially the least precise. This isbecause it relies upon a steady hand foraccuracy. Drag to draw a freehand outline. Thetwo ends of the outline will be connected by astraight line the moment you release the mousebutton.

Tip:

If you hold down Shift during the freehandselection, straight lines will be drawn. Thesestraight lines will, in addition, be constrained tomultiples of 45˚ to each other.

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Additional Options

The options described in this section apply to allthe bitmap selection tools. The options arelocated in the Active Tool manager.

Anti-Aliasing

Activate the Anti-Aliasing option if you want tosmooth the edges of the selection. Theadvantage of this option becomes apparentwhen you copy a selection to a new position ona different background color — anti-aliasingsoftens the color transition between theselection’s edges and the background.

With anti-aliasing

Without anti-aliasing

Feather

Feather defines the size of the transitionbetween the selection and the background.

A feather value of 20

New selection

This creates a new selection. Existing selectionsare deleted in the process.

New inverse selection

When this option is active, everything that youselect is, in fact, deselected. This may seemparadoxical, but it can be useful. For example,imagine that you want to select a large areaminus a small, unwanted region within thatarea. Using conventional methods, you wouldselect the large area then remove the smallregion using Subtract from selection (seebelow). With New inverse selection, all youneed do is select the small region.

Add to selection

This option, if enabled, will add the nextselection you make to the existing selection.Alternatively, hold down Shift while you makethe new selection.

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A circular selection exists and a square selection is beingdragged out …

… to be added to the original selection

Subtract from selection

Activate the option if you want to subtract thenext selection you make from the existingselection. Alternatively, hold down Ctrl as youmake the new selection.

A circular selection exists and a square selection is beingdragged out …

… to be subtracted from the original selection

Magic Wand

In contrast to the selection tools described in theprevious section, the magic wand does notselect pixels by drawing a shape around them.Instead, the magic wand selects pixels accordingto their color.

All contiguous pixels similar in color to whereyou click are selected. A Tolerance value (in theActive Tool manager) enables you to control justhow similar the colors must be.

Select Color Range

This function is very similar to the magic wandwith the key difference that the selected pixelsdo not have to be contiguous.

Click in the bitmap and all pixels of similar colorto where you clicked will be selected. ATolerance setting enables you to choose howsimilar the colors must be.

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Magic Wand / Select Color Range options

All visible layers

If this option is activated, the selection will bebased on the composite image of all visiblelayers. With the option deactivated, theselection will be based on the active layer only.

Tolerance

The Tolerance value defines how similar in colora pixel must be, compared to where you clicked,in order to be selected. You can set valuesbetween 0% and 100%. If you set Tolerance to0%, only pixels of identical RGB color will beselected. With a Tolerance of 100%, all pixelswill be selected.

The remaining options (New Selection, Newinverse selection, Add to selection and Subtractfrom selection) have the same effect asdescribed in the Additional Options section onpage 166.

Select All

This command selects the entire texture area.

Deselect All

The entire texture area is deselected when youchoose this command.

Invert All

This command inverts the existing selection —selected areas become deselected; deselectedareas become selected.

Feather

Feather softens the edges of an existingselection.

A window appears when you select thefunction.

Enter the distance in pixels over which theselection should fade — you can enter valuesbetween 0 and 1000. Click on the OK button toapply the feathering.

Tip:

This option applies feathering to an existingselection. To apply feathering at the same timeas you create a selection, use the Feather settingin the Active Tool manager instead.

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Grow Selection

This function expands the selection by aspecified number of pixels.

A window opens when you select GrowSelection.

Enter a value between 1 and 100, then click onOK to expand the selection by that number ofpixels. Note that you cannot expand theselection past the texture’s edges.

Shrink Selection

Use Shrink Selection to contract the selection bya certain number of pixels.

A window opens when you select thecommand.

Enter a number between 1 and 100 to specifythe number of pixels you want the selection tocontract by, then click on OK.

Edit Selection Mask

This function activates the edit selection maskmode (see The Edit Selection Mask Mode onpage 81).

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ToolsYou can use all the tools described in this section(except Magnify and Transform Bitmap) in thePerspective View as well as the Texture View.

Move Layer

This tool moves the active layer.

Drag in the Texture View to move the layer. Anyparts of the layer outside the texture will bediscarded.

Magnify

Drag a rectangle with this tool selected to zoomin on its contents of the Texture View. To zoomout, hold down Shift or the right mouse keywhile you drag.

Eyedropper

You can use this tool to pick a color or a texture— click on the corresponding position in theTexture View to choose which. If you click withthe left mouse button, the color/texturebecomes the new foreground color. Click withthe right mouse button to define the color/texture as the new background color.

Options in the Active Tool manager

Solid Color

This option loads the color you click on into theColor Settings.

Tip:

You can also pick the color by clicking on theobject in the Perspective View.

Texture

If you activate this option, the texture you clickon is loaded into the Color Settings. You canthen paint the texture using a paint tool — fordetails on how to paint the texture, please seethe Texture Paint section in the Color chapter,on page 77.

All visible layers

If this option is active, the color you click on inthe Texture View is picked. With the optioninactive, the color in the active layer is picked —this may be completely different from the

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composite color you see in the Texture View.With this in mind, keep the option active unlessyou have a specific reason to deactivate it.

Sample Radius

This option applies to the Solid Color optiononly. Rather than pick the color of the exactpixel that you click on, this option picks theaverage color of all pixels within the specifiedradius — you can enter values between 0 and100 pixels.

Example: if you click on the border between ablack column and a white column with a largeSample Radius, the color picked will be mediumgray.

Brush

The brush is the single most important tool inBodyPaint 3D. Therefore, brushes are dealt within a separate chapter of their own. Please seeChapter 7, Brushes for full details.

Clone

You can use this tool to clone parts of yourtexture. When you select the tool, the mousepointer changes into a pipette. Move the pipetteto the region you want to clone, then click themouse button. The pipette changes into a brushand stamp. Now, drag anywhere you like topaint the clone.

To clone a new region, click on the Clone Toolicon. The pipette appears once more, ready foryou to select the new region to be cloned.

Note that the Clone Tool uses the current BrushSettings for the Generic brush type. Brusheffects such as Spacing and Jitter are evaluated— usually, you will want to deactivate theseeffects when cloning.

Finally, there is an All visible layers setting inthe Active Tool manager. If the option is active,the composite image (i.e. the image you see inthe Texture View) is cloned; otherwise, only thepixels in the active layer are cloned.

Cloning in action

Tip:

You can use the Clone Tool in the multi channelmode as well. Activate the mode. All thematerial channels that you activate in the MultiChannel Palette via pencil icons will be takeninto account by the Clone Tool.

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Eraser

The Eraser erases pixels in the active layer bymaking them transparent with the exceptionthat, if the Background Layer is active, theeraser paints the pixels white.

Note that the Eraser adopts the parameters inthe Brush Settings, including effects. Deactivateall effects for a standard eraser.

Fill Bitmap

With Fill Bitmap, all contiguous pixels of similarcolor to where you click are filled with the colorin the Color Settings. The Tolerance valuedetermines how similar the colors must be.

Options in the Active Tool manager

All visible layers

Activate this option is you want to fill all like-colored pixels in the composite image. If theoption is deactivated, only the like-coloredpixels in the active layer are considered. Notethat, even if this option is selected, the color ispainted to the active layer only.

Tolerance

The tolerance, which can be set to valuesbetween 0% and 100%, defines how similar incolor a pixel must be compared to where youclicked in order to be filled with the color in theColor Settings. A value of 0% will fill only thosecontiguous pixels of exactly the same RGB color.100% will cause all pixels to be filled.

Transform Bitmap

This tool can add interest to your textures byrotating, scaling and shearing them amongother things.

A rectangular frame will appear when youactivate the tool. The frame has five handles:one in the center, and one in each corner. Eachhandle can be moved separately.

To move the entire frame, drag the centerhandle. The other handles affect the frameaccording to the option that is selected in theActive Tool window (Move, Scale, Rotate,Perspective, Shear).

Note that only the frame is transformed in real-time — transform the frame as you intend theactive layer to be transformed, then click on theApply button to transform the active layer itself.

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Also be aware that Transform Bitmap affects theactive layer only. If you attempt to activateanother layer (by clicking on it) while the frameis active, the following dialog opens.

Click on the Yes button to apply thetransformation, or click on Cancel to abort it.

You can transform in one of five ways:

Move

Scale

Rotate

Perspective

Shear

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Draw Line

This tool draws straight lines. Drag in theTexture View to create the starting point andending point respectively.

Options in the Active Tool manager

Endings

You can define different shapes for the startingpoint (left pop-up menu) and ending point(right pop-up menu).

Line Width

This is the line’s width in pixels — enter anyvalue between 1 and 100.

Feather

This setting determines the size of the transitionbetween the line and the background — enter avalue between 0 and 50 pixels.

Anti-Aliasing

Activate this option to smooth the edges of theline. Anti-aliasing helps to avoid or reducestaircasing effects (jagged edges).

Draw Text

This tool paints text to the active layer. You canuse any TrueType font installed on your system.

Options in the Active Tool manager

Type the text into the text box in the Active Toolmanager. The text can span several lines andyou can also paste text from the clipboard.Once you have entered the text, drag in theTexture View to move or rotate the text. Assoon as you release the mouse button, the textis fixed in place.

Note:

Parts of the text that you place outside thetexture will be discarded.

Font

Click on this button to choose your font fromthe Font dialog. If you are using a PC, you canalso set the font style here (e.g. Bold, Italic).

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Size

This is where you define the size of the text. Intheory, values may range between 1 and 1000.

Align

Set this pop-up menu to your favoured textalignment. Your choice is between Left, Centerand Right. For example, if you set the pop-up toLeft, your first mouse click defines the left edgeof the text.

Some examples of aligned text

Move

If this option is selected, you can drag in theTexture View to create and move the text. Notethat the text will be fixed in place as soon asyou release the mouse button — a second dragwill merely create and move a new copy of thetext.

Rotate

When this option is active, drag in the TextureView to create and rotate the text about thepoint where you clicked. The text is fixed inposition the moment you release the mousebutton. The next time you drag, a new copy ofthe text will be created and rotated.

Outline

Activate this option if you want to stroke thetext’s outline with the current Brush Settings.The text will not be filled. You can achieve someinteresting effects with this option — try it inconjunction with a slight Jitter effect.

Anti-Aliasing

Activate this option if you want the edges ofyour text to be smooth.

Feather

This function is more or less enhanced anti-aliasing. Enter a value between 0 and 50 pixelsto specify the size of the blending regionbetween the text and the background.

Draw Polygon Shape

This tool will assist you in drawing certainpolygon shapes.

To draw a polygon shape, drag in the TextureView to set the position and size respectively(the shape itself is drawn automatically). Youcan rotate the preview while you drag — holddown Shift at the same time to constrain therotation to multiples of 45˚.

When you release the mouse button, the shapewill be filled with either the foreground color(drag with left mouse button) or thebackground color (drag with right mousebutton).

You can access parameters specific to yourchosen shape by clicking on the Edit button. Awindow opens. Ignore all parameters that do

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not relate directly to the shape — this windoworiginates from CINEMA 4D XL, the program onwhich BodyPaint 3D is based.

Tip:

You can draw shapes directly onto your object inthe Perspective View.

Options in the Active Tool manager

The shapes from which you can choose are:

Circle

Use this shape to draw rings or circles. If Ring isactivated, enter a value under Inner Radius. Todraw the ring, drag to define the position andouter radius respectively (the inner radius isdrawn automatically according to the value youentered).

Rectangle

To round the corners of the rectangle, activatethe Rounding option and type the size of therounding in pixels into the adjacent box.

4-Sided

Select this shape if you want to draw adiamond, kite, parallelogram or trapezium —make your choice using the Type pop-up menu.If you set the Type to Parallelogram orTrapezium, you can also enter a value in the topAngle box.

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n-Sided

Enter the number of sides into the Sides box. Ifyou want to round the corners, activate theRounding option and type a value into theRadius box.

Star

The Twist and Points parameters determine thestar’s appearance. Twist rotates the star’s arms(see the star on the right in the picture above).Points defines the number of arms.

Cog Wheel

Enter the number of teeth into the Teeth boxand type the degree of bevel into the Bevel box.

Flower

This shape draws flowers for you. Type thenumber of petals into the Petals box.

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General Options

The following options apply to all shapes:

Box

Drag to define the top left and bottom rightcorners respectively of a temporary rectangleinside which the polygon shape will be drawn.

Center

Drag to define the center and radius respectivelyof a temporary circle inside which the polygonshape will be drawn.

Diameter

Drag to define the diameter of a temporary circleinside which the polygon shape will be drawn.

Outline

This option strokes the polygon shape’s outlinewith the active color and the active Brush Settings.

Anti-Aliasing

This option softens the edges of the polygonshape. This prevents a staircasing effect (jaggedlines).

Feather

You can use the slider to alter the size of theblending region between the polygon shape andthe background. This is more or less enhancedanti-aliasing.

Functions

Texture Size

You can use this function to scale the textures ofthe individual material channels.

When you select the function, the Scale Texturedialog opens. All material channels are listed onthe left — unused channels are ghosted. Selectthe channels you want to scale from the list. Thecurrent texture size is listed next to eachchannel.

There are four scaling modes:

User Defined Size

Enter the new size into the Width and Heightboxes. If Lock Aspect Ratio is selected, thewidth to height ratio is maintained. So, if youenter a new width value, the height value ischanged automatically to maintain the originalratio. Lock Aspect Ratio is available only in thismode.

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Maximum Size

This mode sets the Width and Height values tothe values of the largest texture.

Average Size

This sets Width and Height to match theaverage size of the textures.

Minimum Size

In this mode, Width and Height are assignedthe dimensions of the smallest texture.

Finally, define the way in which the pixels areinterpolated using the Interpolation pop-upmenu.

Interpolation

When bitmaps are scaled, pixels must be addedor removed and new color values calculated.The new color values can be calculated usingone of two interpolation types:

Bilinear

Bilinear maintains high image quality. However,it is relatively slow to calculate, especially ifseveral material channel textures are beingscaled at the same time.

Nearest Neighbor

This is quick to calculate but low on imagequality.

Tip:

Although you can assign different texture sizesto each material channel, you can only use aMultiBrush if the channels it paints to all havethe same texture size. If this is not the case, adialog will notify you when you attempt to usethe MultiBrush.

Canvas Size

Select the channels you want to add borders tousing the list on the left — channels not in useare ghosted. Use the top four boxes in the AddBorders pane to enter the size of the border (inpixels) to be added to each side. If Symmetric isactive, any border value you enter is copied tothe other three boxes.

Example: you want to add a border 100 pixelslong to the top of the texture.

Deactivate Symmetric, enter 100 into Top, thenclick on OK to add the new border.

Activate Transform UVW if you want to fix theUV polygons to the canvas pixels they currentlycover. This prevents the UV polygons venturinginto the new border(s).

If you do not understand why a transformationis required, bear in mind that UV coordinates arespecified as values between 0 and 1 relative tothe texture’s size.

If you are not sure why you might want tocreate empty borders, please read The UV Editor– An Introduction on page 134.

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Rotate Texture

This function rotates your texture by a specifiedangle. Note that the texture size will alter forrotations other than 90˚, 180˚ and 270˚, asdemonstrated by the two example pictures.

Original texture

The same texture, rotated by 25˚

When you call the function, the Rotate Texturedialog opens (see above). Use the left list toselect the channels you want to rotate —channels not in use are ghosted. You can selecta rotation value of 90˚, 180˚, 270˚ or Free. Ifyou choose Free, you can enter your own

rotation value in the Angle box. Positive valuesrotate the texture clockwise, negative valuesrotate it anti-clockwise.

Interpolation

Textures must be recalculated during therotation. Choose the interpolation type for thecalculation from this pop-up menu. You canchoose from two types:

Bilinear

This maintains high image quality, but it isrelatively slow to calculate, particularly whenseveral channel textures are rotated at once.

Nearest Neighbor

This is low on quality but quick to calculate.

Transform UVW

Activate this option if you want to rotate the UVpolygons as well.

Tip:

You can only select Transform UVW if allchannels to be rotated have the same texturesize.

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Flip Texture Horizontal/VerticalWhen you call either of these functions, thefollowing window opens:

Select the channels you want to mirror. SelectTransform UVW if you want to mirror the UVmesh as well.

Tip:

You can only select Transform UVW if allchannels to be rotated have the same texturesize.

Fill Layer

The selection is filled with the color in the ColorSettings. If no pixels are selected, the entirelayer is filled.

Fill Polygons

This fills the selected UV polygons with thecolor/pattern in the Color Settings.

Tip:

Object polygon selection and UV polygonselection is linked. Sometimes it is easier toselect object polygons. For example, if you wantto fill a specific side of a six-polygon cube, it iseasier to click on the object polygon in questionrather than figure out which UV polygon youneed to select. Note that you must activate thePolygons Tool in order to select objectpolygons.

Selected UV polygons (Texture View) andselected object polygons (Perspective View) areindicated by red edges.

Outline Polygons

This strokes the edges of the selected UVpolygons with the current Brush Settings andthe active color. This is useful for UV meshvisualisation on the texture.

Create Mask from Selection

This function creates a bitmap selection from anexisting UV or object polygon selection.

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Bitmap FilterSee Chapter 9, The Texture View, on page 127.

RayBrush ModeThe RayBrush mode enables you to paint in apre-rendered view in real-time and in threedimensions. You can view the followingchannels simultaneously:

- Color- Diffusion- Luminance- Transparency- Reflection- Bump- Specular Color

The RayBrush mode is relatively close torendering in terms of image quality. However, afew restrictions are made so that a reasonabledisplay speed is maintained. Note that theserestrictions apply to the RayBrush mode only.Also, some of the restrictions apply to importedCINEMA 4D XL scenes only. When you renderproper, BodyPaint 3D uses the full power ofCINEMA 4D’s rendering engine (BodyPaint 3D isbased on CINEMA 4D XL technology).

RayBrush Mode Restrictions

- CINEMA 4D's Sky, Foreground andBackground objects cannot be painted.

- Post-processing effects such as glow, lenseffects, depth of field and motion blur are notdisplayed.

- Anti-aliasing is not shown.

- Textures are not interpolated (e.g. there is noSAT and MIP interpolation).

- Only the raytracing mode can be used (e.g.you cannot use Cel-Render Color mode).

- Morphing materials are not displayed.

- You cannot paint over additively mixedmaterials. Consider an object A with materialsX (base material) and Y (additively mixedmaterial), and an object B with material Y (itsonly texture). You can paint material Z ontoobject B only.

- Objects with Visibility tracks in the Timelinecannot be displayed (only relevant whenrunning CINEMA 4D XL with BodyPaint 3D).

- You cannot paint to sub-channels. Forexample, you cannot paint over a third-partyshader which in turn uses textures.

- Imagine that you have assigned three materialsto an object and you are editing the secondmaterial. Only the materials above this materialare shown.

- Irregularities may appear at the edges oftextures (e.g. if you tile them).

- Fresnel reflections with transparent objects arenot shown.

- You cannot paint objects that are behindtransparent, refractive objects.

- You can paint transparency and reflection, butonly as a rough approximation of the renderedresult. Also, double transparencies cannot bedisplayed. For example, consider a tin: if youpaint transparency to the front and back of thetin, only the front will become transparent.

- Transparency and reflection are not taken intoaccount when you paint to the bump channel.

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Tip:

The more light sources you use, the moreprocessing time is required when you paint tothe bump channel. Likewise, the processing timeincreases with the use of Tube and Area lights.

RayBrush Render ViewChoose this function to RayBrush render (i.e.pre-render) the active view. The RayBrushrender will take a few moments. Once it hascompleted, you are in RayBrush mode and youcan paint in the view.

The RayBrush mode is deactivated the momentyou move, scale or in any way change the viewor object.

RayBrush Render Active ObjectOnly the active object (including its childobjects) is RayBrush rendered. All other objectsare ignored.

RayBrush Render RegionAfter activating this function, drag a frame inthe Perspective View (or a 2D view). Only theframed region will be RayBrush rendered,although you will be able to paint outside theregion (in which case, the view’s shading modeis used).

High Quality ShadingThe high quality shading mode displays themapped active material in high resolution. Thefollowing channels are evaluated: Color,Luminance, Diffusion, Reflection, Bump andSpecular Color.

Tip:

The high quality shading mode is slower thanthe standard shading modes, but faster than theRayBrush mode.

Tip:

The following restrictions apply to the highquality shading mode: the Sky object cannot bepainted. The bump channel is only a roughapproximation, since only the first light source inthe Object manager is considered.

Display Selected ChannelThis mode displays the active channel only. Inthe process, the channel is evaluated as a colorchannel. For example, if you click on the bumpchannel to activate it, grayscale colors will bemapped to your object. You can then edit thechannel in the usual way (e.g. by painting witha brush). This mode is available in the highquality shading mode only.

Tile U / VActivate these options so that if you paint over atexture’s edge, the stroke will continue from theopposite edge. Activate Tile U to apply thisfeature horizontally, Tile V to apply the featurevertically.

Tip

In general, always work with Tile U and Tile Vactivated — you can achieve texture continuityby painting over the edges, thereby helping toprevent seams where the texture edges meet onthe 3D object.

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17. Object Manager   

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11 Object Manager 187File Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 189

Edit Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 197

Objects Menu ............................................................................................................................................... 198

Tags Menu .................................................................................................................................................... 201

Texture Menu ............................................................................................................................................... 201

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11 Object ManagerThe Object manager is the center of objectadministration in BodyPaint 3D. You can use itto activate objects, change object hierarchies ormanipulate tags.

On the left side of the manager is a list of all theobjects in the scene. Hierarchies are shown as atree structure. You can collapse and openhierarchies, just as you can on your computerdesktop. You can use drag-and-drop to re-groupor copy objects.

The narrow column running down the center ofthe Object manager contains up to threeswitches for each object. The switches aredescribed in detail later in this chapter.

To the right of the switches are the object tags(e.g. texture tag, smoothing tag). You can usedrag-and-drop to move or copy these tags toother objects. The tags are described in detaillater in this chapter.

You can use context menus in the Objectmanager. To do this, click the right mousebutton within the manager (Macintosh - holddown the Command key and click the mousebutton to simulate the right mouse button).

When you select a command in the Objectmanager, it is applied to the active object.

Drag-and-drop in the Object Manager

Drag-and-drop is the technique of clicking on anobject, holding down the mouse button anddragging the object to another position; whenthe target location is reached, you release themouse button and this will drop the objectthere. Depending on the target location, thismay have different results.

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To re-arrange objects in the Object manager

There are many ways that you re-arrangeobjects in the Object manager and these aredescribed below. The icon on the left showswhat the mouse pointer will look like while youare doing the action described on the right.

Drag an object between two others or tothe end of the list.

If you wish to move a duplicate, ratherthan the original, use Ctrl-drag.

To change the object hierarchy, drag theobject on top of an existing one in the list.This makes the dragged object a child ofthe other.

If you wish to create a duplicate andmake it a child of another object, use Ctrl-drag and move the mouse pointer overan object.

You can also drag-and-drop tags. Totransfer a tag from one object to another,drag the tag icon on to the line of theother object.

If you wish to create a duplicate, use Ctrl-drag.

If an operation is not available, this iconappears.

Each object in BodyPaint 3D has a type, e.g.polygon object, light.

To open an object’s dialog, double-click on itstype icon. These dialogs are described inChapter 18.

You can apply tags to objects (e.g. texture tag,smoothing tag). Double-click on a tag icon toopen its dialog.

Mouse actions in the Object manager

Function Action

Activate object Click on object

Rename object Double-click on objectname

Activate object type Click on type icon

Activate tag Click on tag

Edit tag Double-click on tag

Move active Drag-and-dropobject or tag

Copy active Drag-and-drop withobject or tag Ctrl key

Open/close Click on icon left ofobject hierarchy the object name

Activate previous / Up / downnext object cursor keys

Context menu Right-click on name,type icon or tag(Macintosh:Command key andmouse button)

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File Menu

New TagYou can use this menu to select a tag. The tagwill be added to the active object.

Display Tag

Display, Backface Culling, Use Textures

These settings have the same effect as theircounterparts in the View menu (see Chapter 2),although the effect of a tag is limited to anobject and any children it may have.

The display tags enable you to mix displaymodes within the editor. For example, someobjects may use Gouraud shading, the othersWireframe. The main purpose of this is toreduce the strain on the processor so that theredraw rate remains fast.

If your scene is becoming sluggish in the editor,try a simpler display mode for objects of lesserimportance.

Note that Display > Use Display Property mustbe activated in a view window for the displaytags to have an effect there (the option isactivated by default).

Level of Detail

You can use this to control the level of detail forgenerators and deformers.

The tag’s value is used in preference to the valuein the project settings of CINEMA 4D. Forexample, you can set the Level of Detail in theproject settings to 50% and allocate a displaytag with Level of Detail set to 100% to theobject that you are currently working on.

If the tag’s Level of Detail option is activated, itis always used in a view window, even if UseDisplay Property is not selected there.

Protection Tag

This tag does not have a dialog. An object witha protection tag cannot be moved, rotated orscaled. If you wish to make changes to aprotected object, you must first remove itsprotection tag.

Smoothing Tag

Smoothing is an extremely important tag. Itgives object surfaces a rounded appearance.

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The picture below left shows a sphere before asmoothing tag is applied; on the right asmoothing tag has been applied.

If you look closely, you will see straight linesaround the right sphere’s silhouette. Smoothingdoes not increase the number of polygons. Youcan think of it as an illusion that loses its effectaround the silhouette. If you wish to smooth thesilhouette region, you must use moresubdivisions.

You can use the dialog to specify the maximumsmoothing angle. To do this, activate the AngleLimit option and type the required angle intothe text box. Adjacent polygons equal to orbelow the angle will be smoothed.

The following pictures demonstrate the effect ofthe smoothing angle. The cylinder on the lefthas smoothing with no angle limit specified (i.e.all angles are smoothed), the middle cylinder hasan angle limit of 89.5° and the cylinder to theright has no smoothing at all.

When BodyPaint 3D calculates the smoothing, itassumes that the surface normals are aligned. Ifthis is not the case, shading anomalies mayappear. All primitive objects are aligned bydefault.

Smoothing is a good way to reduce render timeand save on memory. Without the smoothingtag, an object would require a far greaternumber of polygons in order to appear smooth.Note that smoothing can only take place acrossconnected surfaces (surfaces that share points).

How smoothing works

During rendering, the program creates a normalfor each surface. Each normal is perpendicular toits surface. The color and brightness of a point isdetermined by the angles which the normalforms with the rays of the camera and the lightsources.

Without smoothing, two connected surfaces willhave a hard transition, since each surface has itsown normal. This will cause brightness bands.

If a smoothing tag is activated, the normals willbe interpolated. There will be a soft transitionbetween one normal and the next (providedthat the surfaces are connected).

If a smoothing tag is not applied, there will beno interpolation.

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light course light course

The top-left picture shows three connectedsurfaces. The middle surface is not aligned tothe other surfaces (you can tell by the normals).The bottom-left picture illustrates how thenormals are interpolated for smoothing. Thelight bar shows the hard transition caused by thenon-alignment.

The top-right picture shows the same threesurfaces, but this time they are aligned. Noticehow the interpolation (bottom-right picture) ismuch smoother this time. The light bar issmoother as a result.

These pictures illustrate why it is important forsurfaces to be aligned. The convention for thealignment direction is that the normals shouldpoint outwards from the object. For example, ifyou have an apple, the normals should pointoutwards into the world, not inwards towardsthe core.

This convention does not matter for smoothingin BodyPaint 3D - the important point is thatthey must be aligned, i.e. point in a consistentdirection. However, it is best to followconvention. For example, the normal directionplays an important part in decal mapping (seepage 263).

Note

The normals are shown for selected polygonsonly. To see the normals, activate the Polygonstool. Next, select some polygons using a

selection tool (or choose main menu: Edit >Select All).

To see the normals, select their polygons. Forexample, create a sphere, then chooseStructure > Make Editable in the main window(this will convert the sphere into polygons).Next, activate the polygons tool and select somepolygons using one of the selection tools (orchoose Edit > Select All in the Selection menu).

To align normals, choose Structure > AlignNormals in the main window.

Render Tag

This tag has several options that affectrendering.

Cast Shadows

Sometimes it is useful to prevent objects fromcasting shadows — especially for technicalillustrations. To turn off shadow-casting,deactivate this option.

Receive Shadows

Sometimes it is useful to prevent shadowsappearing on an object — especially fortechnical illustrations. To turn off shadow-reception, deactivate this option.

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Seen by Camera, Seen by Rays

You can use these options to create vampires inyour scene — according to legend, a vampirehas no reflection. Joking apart, there areinstances where it can be useful to make avisible object have no reflection. It can also beuseful to make an object invisible yet have itcast a shadow.

If Seen by Camera is activated, the object will bevisible in the render. If the option is deactivated,the object will be invisible.

If Seen by Rays is activated, the reflection andrefraction of the object will be visible in therender. If the option is deactivated, thereflection and refraction will be invisible.

You can combine these two options.

For example, you can create a visible objectwhich casts no shadow, receives no shadows,has no reflection and cannot be seen behindglass; or perhaps an invisible object which castsa shadow, can be reflected and can be seenbehind glass.

Normal object

Visible object

Invisible object

Compositing Background

This option will cause the object to be self-illuminated yet still receive shadows.

An example

You are creating a cartoon character for yourwebsite. Your website uses a white backgroundand you need to render the character so that itappears to cast a shadow on to the webpage.

You import a large rectangle to serve as a floorand assign it a white material (with the RGBvalues matching the white color of the webpage), but when you render the picture, thefloor is not of the correct brightness.

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To solve the problem, create a render tag for thefloor and activate Background Compositing.The floor will now illuminate itself evenly andwith full brightness yet it will still receive thecharacter’s shadow.

Note

The object in question (in our example, thefloor) must have its own material.

Texture Tag

This command creates a new texture geometry.Initially, no material is assigned. To assign amaterial, type its name into the Search for textbox. This dialog is described in detail onpage 256.

Note

If you allocate a material to an object, a texturetag will be created automatically. As a result,you rarely need to use this menu item.

You can assign as many texture tags as you liketo an object. This allows you to apply severaltexture layers to the same object. The texturepriority increases to the right in the Objectmanager. This means that the right-most texture

will be the top layer and the left-most texturewill be the bottom layer. The top layer will coverthe object completely unless it is limited in sizeor has an alpha channel activated.

Note

If a child object has no texture tags applied to it,it will use the texture tag(s) of its parent.

Warning

The note above does not apply to light sourcesi.e. if a light object has no texture tag and is achild of another object it will not inherit itsparent’s texture tags. This is to prevent childlights receiving gels automatically.

Stick Texture Tag

This function is relevant only if you are runningBodyPaint 3D with CINEMA 4D because theStick Texture tag is unique to CINEMA 4D. Assoon as you export a scene or object fromBodyPaint 3D in a foreign file format, any StickTexture tag information will be lost.

The Stick Texture tag fixes all of an object'stextures to its surface. You can use the tag withpolygon objects and HyperNURBS as well aswith parametric primitives and NURBS objectsimported from CINEMA 4D.

Once the tag has been applied, the texturesremained fixed to the object when the object isdeformed (e.g. using CINEMA 4D's Twistdeformer).

The following pictures show part of a faceincluding an eye. The object contains a relativelysmall number of points for a face — it issmoothed by the HyperNURBS object it isplaced in.

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The pictures demonstrate a problem that canarise when UVW mapping is used with aHyperNURBS object.

A cage object. The point density is comparatively high in theeyelid area

Flat projection

Flat projection converted to UVW mapping. The texture isdistorted where areas of high point density meet areas of lowpoint density

There are not enough points to fix the texture tothe object properly, so when the object issmoothed by the HyperNURBS, the texture isdistorted.

The stick texture tag solves this problem. Withthe tag, you no longer need to use UVWmapping to fix textures. Instead, use a suitableprojection type (e.g. Flat or Cylindrical for ahead), then fit the texture to the object (Objectmanager: Texture > Fit to Object). Next, chooseFile > New Tag > Stick Texture Tag (Objectmanager).

If you deform the object now, the texturedeforms along with the mesh. This enables youto avoid the problem of texture distortion withHyperNURBS.

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The stick texture tag works in the followingway:

If a texture tag is created, the program checkswhether the object has a conventionalprojection type, i.e. not UVW or Frontal, andwhether the object has been deformed in anyway, e.g. using CINEMA 4D's Twist deformer.

If so, the texture projection is calculated bycomparing the deformed object to its originalstate, the original state is stored in the sticktexture tag. This enables the texture to bemapped taking the deformation into accountand without the distortion mentioned earlier.

If you double-click on the Stick Texture tag, thefollowing dialog opens:

Active

if you deselect this option, the stick function isdisengaged. The original state is still stored inthe tag — activate the option to resume thestick function.

Record

This button saves the object's current state tothe texture tag.

Reset

Click on this button if you want to return thedeformed object to its original state (as stored inthe tag). This is useful, for example, if you wantto reset an object that you have animated usingCINEMA 4D's point-level animation (PLA).

Tip:

Only polygon objects can be recorded and reset.

Tip:

The point copy becomes invalid as soon as youadd points to a polygon object. This is not aproblem when using CINEMA 4D's deformationobjects, because a new reference copy is storedin the stick texture tag automatically before eachdeformation. However, if you use PLA inCINEMA 4D, the copy stored in the tag as wellas all PLA keys already created becomeunusable. Hence, you should finish modeling theobject in CINEMA 4D, then create the StickTexture tag, then create the PLA keys.

The Stick Texture tag has an interesting sideeffect:

If you put a polygon object inside CINEMA 4D'ssymmetry object and texture one half inBodyPaint 3D, the texture is mirrored to theother side automatically. So, for example, youcan paint half of a face, project it using flatmapping, then let CINEMA 4D do the rest.

If you do want this behaviour (for example, notall faces are symmetrical), just put the textureonto the symmetry object itself.

URL Tag

You can assign a URL to an object. This is usefulif you are creating VRML files for the Internet.These VRML files (.wrl) contain complete 3Dscenes and can be viewed in web browsersprovided that you have a corresponding VRMLplug-in.

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The viewer can click on a 3D object that has aURL tag in order to link to an Internet address.

URL contains the link address. Take care to enterthe complete address (do not forget http://,ftp://, https://). You can use Info to define thetext that will appear when the mouse pointermoves over the object in the web browser.

C.O.F.F.E.E. Error Tag

When loading a scene which includes tagscreated by plug-ins and, for whatever reason,BodyPaint 3D cannot find a plug-in, a questionmark will be displayed instead of the tag icon.The same happens with C.O.F.F.E.E. errors.Please contact the plug-in author in such a case.

C.O.F.F.E.E.-Error-Tags

Restore SelectionIn this submenu the point and polygonselections are displayed and can be activated byselecting them.

The selections are displayed only in point mode(see page 366) or polygon mode (see page366). If you are working with a different toolthis menu remains empty.

If your selections are unnamed they will benumbered and displayed as 'selection1','selection2', etc.. If you select one of theselections displayed the points or polygonsstored inside this selection are selected.

This function can also be accessed by clicking oneach selection tag (see page 382).

Load ObjectYou can use this command to load a filecontaining object information (e.g. DXF,BodyPaint 3D, Illustrator path, etc.). The objectsin the file will be loaded into the scene alongwith any material and animation data.

Save Object As...This function saves the active object. Thestandard system dialog for saving files will open.

Display TagsYou can use this option to switch on or off tagdisplay in the Object manager.

CloseThis function closes the Object manager.

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Edit Menu

UndoThis function reverses the last change (action)that you made, restoring the scene to itsprevious state. You can select Undo repeatedlyto continue reversing the actions.

RedoRedo restores the last action that was undone.You can select Redo repeatedly to continuerestoring the actions.

CutThis function deletes the active object andcopies it (including its materials and animationdata) to the clipboard. The object can be copiedback from the clipboard with the Paste function(see below).

CopyThe Copy function copies the active object(including its materials and animation data) tothe clipboard. The object can be copied from theclipboard to the active scene with the Pastefunction (see below). You can paste repeatedlyto create additional copies.

PasteThis function inserts an object from theclipboard into the scene.

DeleteThis function deletes the active object or theactive tag without copying it to the clipboard.

Select AllYou can use this function to group all theobjects in the Object manager into a null object.The null object is selected, including its childobjects.

Deselect AllThis function deselects all active elements (e.g.objects, tags, etc.).

This function deletes the active object or theactive tag without copying it to the clipboard.

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Objects Menu

Object DisplayThe items on this menu control the editor andrenderer visibility for the selected object.Alternatively, you can change the visibility usingthe switches in the middle column of the Objectmanager:

The two switches (we could call them trafficlights) are colored grey by default. Each canhave one of three states: grey, green and red.These switches control the object’s visibility.

The top switch controls editor visibility, thelower switch controls render visibility.

Editor Unchanged / top switch grey

The object adopts the editor visibility of itsimmediate parent. If the object is on the tophierarchy level (i.e. has no parent), it will bedisplayed as normal. Editor Unchanged is thedefault setting for new objects.

Editor On / top switch green

The object will be visible in the editor, even ifthe hierarchy parent is invisible (red).

Editor Off / top switch red

The object is not displayed in the editor, even ifthe hierarchy parent is visible (green).

Note

An object that is invisible in the editor willnonetheless be visible in the renderer.

Renderer Unchanged / bottom switch grey

The object adopts the renderer visibility of itsimmediate parent. If the object is on the tophierarchy level (i.e. has no parent), it will berendered as normal. This is the default settingfor a new object.

Renderer On / bottom switch green

The object will be visible in the renderer, even ifthe hierarchical parent is invisible (red).

Renderer Off / bottom switch red

The object is not displayed in the renderer, evenif the hierarchical parent is visible (green).

Note

To apply a status to all child objects, Ctrl-clickon the switch for the parent object. The statuswill be transferred to all child objects.

Object ActivationTwo important object types that you can use inBodyPaint 3D are generators and deformers.These objects can be created only if you areusing BodyPaint 3D with CINEMA 4D.

Exception

You can create the HyperNURBS generatordirectly in BodyPaint 3D.

Generators include most NURBS types importedfrom CINEMA 4D as well as BodyPaint 3D'sHyperNURBS object. Deformers includeCINEMA 4D's Twist and Melt objects.

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All generators and deformers have the twostandard visibility switches (see Object Displayabove) in the Object manager. In addition, theyhave a third switch for Object Activation.

The activation switch is represented as either atick (activated) or a cross (deactivated).

You can use this switch to turn on or off theeffect of the generator/deformer.

An example

You are editing the polygon cage of aHyperNURBS object. So that you can see thepoints more clearly, you turn off theHyperNURBS activation switch.

Note that the HyperNURBS is not invisible.Rather, it ceases to generate a mesh.

Note

If you have an object in the scene that usesdeformers, you can increase the redraw rate bydeselecting object activation for each deformer.

Edit ObjectYou can use this function to edit the object type.A dialog will appear. For a detailed descriptionof the type dialogs, see Chapter 18, ObjectsMenu, on page 309. You can also call thisfunction by double-clicking on the object’s typeicon.

If an object type cannot be edited (e.g. apolygon object), the Rename Object dialog willopen instead.

Rename ObjectYou can use this function to change an object’sname. You can also call this function by double-clicking on the object’s name.

Group ObjectsYou can use this function to group severalobjects in the Object manager. When you selectthis function, the mouse pointer changes intocrosshairs. Use the crosshairs to drag a box overthe objects that you wish to group. Child objectswill also be incorporated into the group —existing hierarchies will be preserved within thenew group.

Expand Object GroupThis function is the reverse of Group Objects. Itremoves all objects from the group and placesthem on the same hierarchy level as the groupparent. Existing hierarchies within the group willbe preserved.

Information (Object)

This function displays the following informationabout the active object (including its children):size in kilobytes, number of points, number ofpolygons and number of objects.

Note

Polygons that are created by generators will notbe included in the number of polygons.

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Information (Scene)

This function displays the following informationabout the scene: size in kilobytes, number ofpoints, number of polygons and number ofobjects.

You are not required to select an object beforecalling this function.

Note

Polygons that are created by generators will notbe included in the number of polygons.

Search Active ObjectYou can activate an object by clicking on it inthe editor window. You may then wish to findthe object in the Object manager. However, theobject may be out of sight and nested deeplywithin a hierarchy, or perhaps there arethousands of objects in your scene. Searchingfor objects manually can be time-consuming.

If you call this function, the active object will beshown in the Object manager. The manager willscroll and the hierarchy tree will be opened ifnecessary.

Fold AllThis command collapses all hierarchies in theObject manager. In this state, the objects takeup the least amount of space in the Objectmanager.

Unfold AllThis command is the reverse of Fold All (seeabove) — it expands all hierarchies. In this state,the objects take up the most space in the Objectmanager. The advantage is that all objects willbe visible (although you may need to use thescroll bar).

Warning

Unfold with caution if your scene is very large.In this case, it may be wiser to unfold thehierarchies by hand. Large projects often havemore than 1000 objects. The display speed willbe just as slow as if 1000 files were to bedisplayed hierarchically in your operatingsystem’s window. You can query the number ofobjects in your scene by selecting the Objects >Information (Scene) command.

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Tags Menu

Edit TagYou can use this function to edit the active tag.The tag’s dialog will open. You can also accessthis dialog by double-clicking on the tag.

Copy Tag to ChildrenIf you select this function, the active tag will becopied to all child objects of the active object.

If a child object already has a tag of the sametype, its tag will be overwritten with that of theparent. There is one exception, the texture tag.This tag is still copied, but the child will keep itsown tag as well (an object can have more thanone texture tag).

Proceed with caution when using this functionwith complex scenes.

Delete Tag from ChildrenThis function does the reverse of Copy Tag toChildren (see above). Delete Tag from Childrenwill delete the active tag from the active objectand its children.

Proceed with caution when using this functionwith complex scenes.

Texture Menu

Generate UVW coordinatesYou can use this function to generate UVWcoordinates. This is particularly useful forimported objects that do not have UVWcoordinates. UVW coordinates prevent a texturefrom slipping when you deform the object.

Proceed as follows:

- Create a texture and allocate it to the object.

- Set the required projection type (e.g. spherical,cylindrical, etc.).

- Generate UVW coordinates.

- Deform the object.

The effect of UVW coordinates is shown in thepicture above. The object to the left uses cubicmapping. The texture slips when the object isdeformed. The texture for the object to the rightdoes not slip since its original cubic mapping hasbeen fixed with UVW coordinates.

You may use more than one UVW geometry totexture an object. To do this, give the object anew texture tag and set the required projectiontype, e.g. flat mapping for a label. Next, chooseGenerate UVW coordinates. A new UVW

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geometry will be created and the active texturetag will switch over to UVW mapping so thatthe texture is fixed to the object surface.

For more details on UVW mapping, seepage 260.

Assign UVW coordinatesThis function enables you to texture an objectwith several different projection types using asingle UVW geometry and a single texture tag.

Proceed as follows:

- Import a polygon sphere.

- Create a new material with a texture, e.g. theCheckerboard shader, and allocate it to thesphere.

- Change the projection type from UVWMapping to e.g. Flat.

- Activate the polygon tool and select severalpolygons.

- Select Texture > Assign UVW Coordinates inthe Object manager.

If you are in RTTM mode, you can seeimmediately that the selected polygons use flatprojection while the unselected polygonscontinue to use the normal UVW mapping. Ifyou deform the object later (e.g. using a twist

function in your main 3D application), thetexture will remain fixed in the selected regionas well.

Note

Selective UVW mapping is intended for you tooptimise projection for a single texture. If youwish to use more than one texture, use RestrictTo Selection - see page 269.

If the object has no UVW coordinates (i.e. noUVW tag), new coordinates are createdautomatically.

Fit to Object

If you select this function, the texture will bemade to cover the object completely - thetexture will have a length of 100% in both the Xand Y directions.

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Fit to Image

You must apply your texture with flat projectionif you wish to use this function. Type the nameof an image into the dialog. BodyPaint 3Dcalculates the image’s X and Y resolution andscales the texture image accordingly.

You can use this function to ensure that yourtexture uses the correct proportions, therebyavoiding distortion.

Fit to Region

You must apply your texture with flat projectionif you wish to use this function. Use the mouseto drag a box. BodyPaint 3D will set theprojection so that the size of the texturematches the specified region exactly.

Adapt to Object Axis

This function rotates the texture axes in such away that they are parallel to the object axes.

Adapt to World Axes

This function rotates the texture axes in such away that they are parallel to the world axes.

Adapt to View

This command rotates the texture axes in such away that the texture is perpendicular to theviewing perspective. For a 3D view this is thecamera plane; for all other views it is the worksurface.

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Mirror Horizontally

This command flips the texture horizontally.

Mirror Vertically

This command flips the texture vertically.

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12. Material Manager   

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12 Material Manager 207File Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 208

Edit Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 209

Function Menu ............................................................................................................................................. 210

The Material Editor ....................................................................................................................................... 212

The Material Editor Pages ............................................................................................................................. 220

The Shaders .................................................................................................................................................. 238

Texture Mapping .......................................................................................................................................... 255

Texture Layers .............................................................................................................................................. 267

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12 Material Manager

You use the Material manager to creatematerials for the objects in your scene. Goodmaterials and lighting are essential for photo-realistic images.

The Material manager contains all the materialsand 3D shaders used in the active scene. Apreview picture and a name is shown for eachmaterial. Names that are too long for the displayspace are shortened with a full-stop.

The material preview shows how the texturelooks when placed on a sphere which is in frontof a striped background. This helps youdetermine how the material will look whenapplied to an object. You can choose betweenthree different preview sizes.

When an object is active, all the materials it usesare shown indented. This makes it easy for youto tell which materials an object uses.

If an individual texture tag (rather than theobject itself) is active in the Object manager,only that corresponding material is shownindented.

You can apply a material to an object usingdrag-and-drop from the Material manager. Youcan drop the material on to the object in theObject manager, or you can even drop it directlyon to the object in the Perspective View (seeApplying a Texture, page 255).

If you drop a material on to a texture tag (akatexture geometry tag) in the Object manager,this material will replace the previous one andthe existing texture geometry will be used.

If, instead, you drop a material on to an objectname, a new texture geometry tag is created.Any existing texture tags remain intact so thatyou can layer textures. For details on layering,material administration and texture geometrysee Texture Mapping, page 255.

If you click on a material preview, the material’sname becomes red to indicate that it is the‘active material’ (also known as the ‘selectedmaterial’). Only one material can be selected ata time. You can also use the cursor keys tochange which material is selected. All menufunctions in the Material manager operate onthe selected material.

If the Material editor is open, the activematerial’s settings are displayed there. If theMaterial editor is closed, you can open it bydouble-clicking on the material you want toedit.

You can access many of the menu commandsvia the context menu. Please note that thecontext menu is accessible only if you have atleast one material in the scene. If you are usinga Windows operating system, you access thecontext menu by clicking the right mousebutton in the Material manager. If you are usinga Macintosh, hold down the Command key andclick in the Material manager.

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File Menu

New MaterialThis function creates a new material with thedefault material values (white with 80%brightness and a specular width and height of20%). The new material will be placed at thestart of the material list.

You can also access this function via the contextmenu.

New 3D ShaderNew 3D Shader opens a submenu showing allthe 3D shaders installed on your system. Selectthe name of a shader to add it to the materiallist.

Shaders, also known as procedural textures, aremore sophisticated than conventional textures.Shaders are computed using mathematicalformulae whereas conventional textures arepixel-based. One advantage of shaders is thatthey do not become pixelated when viewedclose-up.

BodyPaint 3D recognizes two-dimensional andthree-dimensional shaders.

2D shaders can be loaded in the Material editorin the same way you would load a conventionaltexture.

3D shaders cannot be loaded from the Materialeditor. This is because 3D shaders take anobject’s volume into account, whereas 2Dshaders and standard textures are simply appliedto the object’s surface. 3D shaders areindependent of the object’s geometry and thetexture projection type (an exception is thatUVW projection can be applied to volumeshaders).

The difference between conventional texturesand 3D shaders is particularly apparent whenapplying them to an object with a section cutout. With conventional textures, you can seethe edges of the cut very clearly. With 3Dshaders, the cut is taken into account.

The following picture compares a 2D texturewith a 3D shader. Note how the 3D shaderseems to flow from the sides and into thehollow.

A 2D shader (top) in comparison with a 3D shader

3D shaders can do even more. For example,the Fog shader fills a volume with fog clouds.Shaders are often used with simple objects(such as a cuboid) to create computer-generated landscapes.

Please note that you cannot load 3D shadersinto a material; they are materials in their ownright.

Note

BodyPaint 3D computes 3D shaders using SATMapping (see page 217).

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Note

The shaders can only be evaluated inCINEMA 4D or BodyPaint 3D. If you save anobject or a scene in another file format, theshader information is lost.

For a detailed description of the 2D and 3Dshaders supplied with BodyPaint 3D, please seepage 238, The Shaders.

Load MaterialsThis function loads materials, adding them toany materials already in the scene. You can alsoimport materials from another scene by loadingthe scene file.

A word of caution regarding textures: whenBodyPaint 3D renders the scene, it must locateall the textures. BodyPaint 3D will look for thetextures in the same folder as the scene, as wellas in a sub-folder called ‘Tex’. In addition, youcan specify up to 10 alternative search paths(see Texture Paths, page 51). When the scene isto be used on another computer (perhaps by acolleague) we strongly advise that you save thescene using Save Project (see page 291). Thiswill ensure that all of the textures are saved in a‘Tex’ sub-folder along with the scene.

Save Material AsThis function saves the active material. Thestandard system dialog for saving files will open.Once you have saved the material, you canreload it at a later date using Load Materials.

Save All Materials AsThis saves all the materials in the active scene.You can use this function to create your ownmaterial libraries. Use Load Materials to importthe materials at a later date.

CloseThis function quits the Material manager andcloses its window.

Edit Menu

UndoUndo will undo the last change that you madeto a material. Keep calling this function tocontinue undoing (multiple undo).

You can set the maximum number of undosusing Undo Depth in the General Settings (seepage 42).

Note

The functions Remove Duplicate Materials andRemove Unused Materials cannot be undone. Ifyou delete a material, any objects which usedthat material will use the default materialinstead. Although it is possible to undo thedeleted material, it will not be reapplied to theobjects; you must do this manually.

RedoRedo undoes an undo. You can set themaximum number of undos using Undo Depthin the General Settings (see page 42).

CutCut removes the active material from theMaterial manager and copies it to the clipboard.You can use the Paste function to retrieve thematerial from the clipboard, even if you havechanged the active scene (i.e. you can pastebetween scenes).

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CopyThis copies the active material to the clipboard.Use the Paste function to retrieve the materialfrom the clipboard. Note that you can pastemore than one copy; each new copy is added tothe start of the material list.

Note

To quick-copy materials, drag-and-drop with theCtrl key held down. Drop the copy at therequired position in the material list. The firstcopy will be called ‘name.1’, the second copywill be called ‘name.2’ and so on.

PasteThe Paste function inserts the last material thatyou copied (or cut) to the clipboard. The copywill be placed at start of the material list. Thefirst copy will be called ‘name.1’, the secondcopy will be called ‘name.2’ and so on.

DeleteThis function deletes the active material.Alternatively, press the Delete or Backspace key.

Small, Medium, Large IconsSelect one of these three settings to determinethe size of the material previews (the default issmall). Small icons are 45x45 pixels, mediumicons 60x60 pixels, large icons 90x90 pixels. Thepreview pictures may be slightly pixelated withsome graphics cards. Do not be concerned,there are technical reasons for this.

Function Menu

Render MaterialThis function redraws the preview picture of theactive material.

When you create a new material, it is renderedautomatically. Why, then, would you need touse this function?

When you save a scene, the preview picturesare compressed to reduce the file size. As aresult, when you load a previously saved scene,you may notice artifacts with some materials.

Also, preview pictures are not renderedautomatically when importing foreign formatssuch as DXF or 3D Studio R4.

If only the base color is shown after renderingthe material, BodyPaint 3D was unable to findthe texture(s).

When saving scenes for use on anothercomputer, you can ensure that all textures areincluded by using Save Project (see page 291).

If you cannot find a texture, select an alternativetexture or delete the name on the appropriatepage of the Material editor.

You can also access this function via the contextmenu.

Render All MaterialsThis function redraws the preview pictures of allthe materials.

When you create a new material, it is renderedautomatically. Why, then, would you need touse this function?

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When you save a scene, the preview picturesare compressed to reduce the file size. As aresult, when you load a previously saved scene,you may notice artifacts with some materials.

Also, preview pictures are not renderedautomatically when importing foreign formatssuch as DXF or 3D Studio R4.

You can cancel the render process with the Esckey. If you are using a Macintosh, you can alsocancel with the standard Command-dotkeypress.

If only the base color is shown after renderingthe material, BodyPaint 3D was unable to findthe texture(s).

When saving scenes for use on anothercomputer, you can ensure that all textures areincluded by using Save Project (see page 291).

If you cannot find a texture, select an alternativetexture or delete the name on the appropriatepage of the Material editor.

You can also access this function via the contextmenu.

Sort MaterialsThis will arrange the material list intoalphabetical order.

You can also sort materials manually using drag-and-drop. This lets you position the materials inany order you like. Drop the material in theposition of your choice. The insertion is right-justified, which means it will appear to the rightof the material that you drop it on.

If the target position of the material is outsidethe visible range of the Material manager, youcan scroll by moving the mouse to the upper orlower edge of the window.

You can also access this function via the contextmenu.

EditThis function opens the Material editor if it isnot already open, and the Material editor willbecome the active window. You can use theMaterial editor to change the properties of theactive material.

You can also open up the Material editor bydouble-clicking on a material’s preview picture.For more details on the Material editor seebelow.

You can also access this function via the contextmenu.

ApplyApply creates a texture geometry for the activeobject. The active material is applied to thetexture geometry.

You can alternatively apply the material withdrag-and-drop. If you drop the material on toan existing texture geometry tag...

...the previous material in the tag is replaced bythe new one. If, however, you drop the materialon to the object name, a new texture geometryis created for the material.

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Texture geometry is described in detail onpage 255 under Texture Mapping.

Note

Hold down the Shift key if you do not want thetexture geometry dialog to open.

You can also access this function via the contextmenu.

RenameUse this function to change the name of theactive material.

It’s also possible to rename a material bydouble-clicking on its name, which is just belowits preview picture.

You can also access this function via the contextmenu.

Remove Unused MaterialsThis deletes all materials which have not beenapplied to objects in your scene.

This function is particularly helpful when usingmaterial libraries as it will remove the (possiblymany) unused materials.

You can also access this function via the contextmenu.

Note

The Remove Unused Materials function cannotbe undone.

Remove Duplicate MaterialsThis deletes all materials of the same namewhich have identical parameters.

You can also access this function via the contextmenu.

Note

The Remove Duplicate Materials functioncannot be undone.

The Material Editor

You use the Material editor to change amaterial’s properties.

Open the Material editor by double-clicking ona preview in the Material manager. The Materialeditor is a non-modal window, which meansthat it does not have to be closed before youcan edit another material. Simply click once onanother material in the Material manager and itwill appear in the Material editor. This helpsspeed up your workflow.

You do not have to close the window in orderfor the parameter changes to be remembered.

If you do not like the changes that you havemade and wish to revert the material to itsprevious state, click on the Undo button. This

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function is for the active material only. You canrestore other materials by using the Undo menufunction.

Click on the Refresh button to reshade theobjects in the Perspective View (an automaticrefresh would take up too much CPU time).

The Material editor window is divided into asmany as five panes. The material display is atthe top-left.

There are also 13 parameter pages. The settingson the parameter pages combine to form anoverall material property. The entire settings fora parameter page can be activated ordeactivated using the corresponding checkmarkbelow the material preview. Do not be dauntedby the sheer number of settings! Each parameterpage operates in a similar way and the controlelements are located in the same place. Toaccess a parameter page, click on the parametername that you require, e.g. Diffusion.

Property What it controls

Color Surface color

Diffusion Irregularities in surface color(works by lightening anddarkening the color channel)

Luminance Luminescent color (light-independent color)

Transparency Transparency (includingrefraction index)

Reflection Ability to reflect other objects

Environment Environment reflection (simulatesreflection)

Fog Fog effect

Bump Virtual bumps on a surface

Alpha Localized texture invisibility

Specular Highlight

Specular Color Highlight color

Glow Halo around an object

Displacement Authentic bumps on a surface

The Color PaneMost parameter pages have a color that you canadjust. Depending on your General Settings (seeColor System, page 43), you will adjust the colorusing either a color table or sliders. The meaningof each slider also depends on the GeneralSettings. You can use either the HSV colorsystem or the RGB color system and you canchoose whether the units should run from 0-100%, 0-255 bits, or 0-65535 bits.

Use the Brightness slider, which is below thethree color sliders (R red, G green, B blue or Hhue, S saturation, V value), to adjust the overallbrightness of the color. Note that if you areusing the HSV system, the Brightness slider hasthe same effect as the V slider (i.e. you do nothave to use the Brightness slider; you can leaveit at 100%).

The resultant color is shown just to the left ofthe sliders. Click on this color field if you wantto open the color dialog for your system.

Earlier we said you can change the color systemby using the General Settings. You can alsochange the color system by clicking on thesmall, right-facing triangle just below the colorfield. A popup menu will open for you to selectyour color system. The Material editor will usethe new system (or color table) for as long as itis open. The moment you close the Materialeditor, it will revert to the color system that isselected in the General Settings.

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The Texture PaneUse the texture pane to select a two-dimensional picture, a 2D shader or a movie(QuickTime, AVI or a frame sequence). Yourselection will be used as a texture. BodyPaint 3Drecognizes these formats: JPEG, IFF (ILBM), TIFF,TGA, BMP, PICT, Photoshop PSD, MOV andAVI. All formats supported by QuickTime arealso recognized, provided that QuickTime isinstalled on your system.

Note

Avoid using numbers in picture filenames suchas ‘leaf01’, ‘leaf02’. This is becauseBodyPaint 3D tries to interpret files numbered inthis way as a frame sequence. Unless you reallyare working with a frame sequence, use moredescriptive names rather than numbers (e.g.‘leaf_maple’, ‘leaf_oak’).

Note

You can load an animation into a material, butyou cannot paint it. If you are editingCINEMA 4D scenes that contain animatedtextures, replace the textures if necessary.

The shader pop-up also contains submenus toprovide a better overview. This makes it easy tofind the shader you need. You can define thehierarchical structure yourself by arrangingfolders and subfolders inside the ‘Plugins’ folder.However this is possible only if the plug-inauthor has not defined the menu position forthe plug-in; if so, you cannot change the menuposition of the plug-in.

You can copy and paste shader settings fromone material channel to another by using CopyChannel and Paste Channel. So it is just a few

clicks to adjust, say, the bump channel to thecolor channel. Of course, this works only forchannels which accept textures and shaders.

Shader submenu

Once you have selected a texture, its previewwill appear to the right with three numbersimmediately below. These numbers tell you thewidth, height and color depth of the texture.You can copy a color from the preview to thecolor pane by clicking within the texturepreview; this acts like a color picker.

Image

Use the Image button to load a texture into thetexture pane. Use the system dialog to load animage file from either your scene’s folder, yourscene’s ‘Tex’ sub-folder, or a texture path thatyou have specified in the General Settings (seepage 51). A dialog will warn you if the imagefile is not in a search path and you will be askedif you wish to copy the image to the document’sfolder or, if your scene does not have its ownfolder yet, to the BodyPaint 3D root folder.

Once you have loaded a texture, its path nameappears in the text field. To the right you cansee the texture’s preview picture.

Note

BodyPaint 3D searches for textures in the‘BodyPaint 3D/Tex’ folder, the scene’s folder, thescene’s ‘Tex’ sub-folder and the texture pathsspecified in the General Settings (including sub-folders).

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If BodyPaint 3D cannot find a texture whenrendering, a message will appear to tell youwhich textures are missing and which materialsuse these textures. You can still render the scene(just click on OK); the materials concerned willbe used without the missing textures.

You can load a 2D shader into the texture paneby clicking on the small, right-facing triangle tothe right of the image button. Select yourshader from the popup menu.

You can also use the small, right-facing triangleto reload the image. This is useful if you havechanged the texture in an imaging program andthe preview is now out of date. Reload theimage by selecting the top entry, Reload Image.

Note

You cannot reload a texture while it is in use(e.g. during rendering).

Note

The shaders can only be evaluated inCINEMA 4D or BodyPaint 3D. If you save anobject or a scene in another file format, theshader information is lost.

Blur Offset / Blur Strength

MIP and SAT mapping only approximate theoptimum computation, since a precisecomputation would increase the render timegreatly. SAT mapping is more accurate than MIPmapping. But sometimes these approximationscan make a texture too blurred or too sharp.Hence the usefulness of these options.

Blur offset softens a texture. The illustrationbelow shows how you can use this setting toblur a texture.

Use Blur Strength to fine-tune the strength ofthe MIP/SAT mapping. A positive valueincreases the blur; a negative value weakens it.

Interpolation

Use Interpolation to change the method bywhich a texture’s pixels are interpolated.

There are several interpolation types. Each typeis explained below using an example picture. Inparticular, we pay special attention to MIP andSAT mapping.

The texture we used was a mere 16x16 pixels insize and was placed on to a floor object.

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None

When the interpolation type is set to None, theoriginal texture values are used without anyinterpolation. This method is very fast but oftengives poor results. Textures tend to becomepixelated.

You can try to compensate for the pixelation byusing a high antialiasing setting.

Generally, avoid using this interpolation typeunless you are sure of what you are doing.

Circle

Circle interpolation uses a circle of texture pixels(those that surround the intermediate value).Textures that are enlarged at render time tend tolook more natural than with the Noneinterpolation type. However, as the picturebelow demonstrates, straight lines are aproblem.

The lines seem to be frayed at the edges.

Circle interpolation is, however, well suited tovery small textures (e.g. 3x3 pixels), since ithelps the pixels to blend softly.

Square

Square interpolation uses a square of texturepixels (those that surround the intermediatevalue). This leads to a softer transition betweentexture pixels than with the None interpolationtype.

The image quality is good, although itdeteriorates towards the horizon (especially withfloor textures).

Alias 1, Alias 2, Alias 3

Alias 1, Alias 2 and Alias 3 interpolation blendthe texture more strongly than with Circle andSquare interpolation. Alias 3 blends the most,Alias 1 the least.

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In the picture above, the texture is difficult torecognize with Alias 3 because it is so small(16x16). Alias 3 can give smoother results thanAlias 1, but it also takes longer to calculate.

MIP

MIP stands for multum in parvo, which is Latinfor many things in a small place. When manytexture pixels effectively lie within a singlescreen pixel, an approximation is made based onthe (known) texture pixel values.

This results in very smooth blending. MIP is thedefault mapping type.

SAT

SAT stands for summed area tables and it doesan even better approximation than MIPmapping. As with MIP mapping, theapproximation is based on the texture pixelsthat lie within a single screen pixel.

SAT is the highest-quality interpolation type.

Note

SAT mapping works with textures up to4000x4000 pixels. BodyPaint 3D will use MIPmapping automatically if you try to use SATmapping with larger textures.

MIP/SAT mapping

MIP and SAT mapping are very important fortop-quality rendering. MIP mapping is thedefault interpolation type.

The next two pictures demonstrate MIP/SATmapping. The top picture was rendered with theantialiasing set to Always and oversampling setto 2 x 2. The tiled texture used Circleinterpolation. Although the quality is relativelygood, you can see how it falls apart near thehorizon.

The texture breaks up near the horizon.

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This effect is caused by perspective distortion.Each screen pixel representing the floor near thehorizon contains perhaps hundreds or eventhousands of texture pixels. MIP and SATmapping approximate a value using these pixels.Only an approximation is made, sincecalculating the exact value would increaserender time greatly.

The lower picture shows Edge antialiasing with 2x 2 oversampling. The material used SATinterpolation. Now even the reflection in thesphere looks great.

A smooth horizon!

SAT and MIP mapping give you superb renderquality. As with most things wonderful, there isa price to pay; MIP and SAT mapping lovememory.

MIP mapping needs an extra byte of memoryper texture pixel. SAT mapping is even greedier,consuming an extra 12 bytes per texture pixel.

So, although SAT mapping gives you higherrender quality than MIP mapping, MIP mappingneeds far less additional memory. Because ofthis, MIP mapping is BodyPaint 3D’s defaultinterpolation type.

As a rule of thumb, use MIP mapping initially,then switch over to SAT mapping if required.

Interestingly, BodyPaint 3D’s shaders use SATmapping automatically without consumingadditional memory.

MIP and SAT mapping will affect your rendertime. On the one hand, MIP and SAT mappingtake longer to render. On the other hand, youmay be able to reduce the antialiasing setting.Sometimes you can even work with just Edgeantialiasing. In any case, the superior renderquality more than makes up for a slight increasein render time.

MIP Falloff (Bump page)

Use MIP Falloff to help enhance the MIP/SATmapping effect for bump maps. This will reducethe strength of the bump map with increasingdistance from the camera.

Left, no falloff; right, MIP falloff active

Edit

If you have loaded a 2D shader into the texturepane, you can access its parameters by clickingon the Edit button.

If you are using the integrated version ofBodyPaint 3D with CINEMA 4D, you can load amovie from the texture pane (QuickTime, AVI or

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a frame sequence) - click on the Edit button toaccess the time control for the movie. Please seeyour CINEMA 4D Reference manual for details.

Note

You can load an animation into a material, butyou cannot paint it. If you are editingCINEMA 4D scenes that contain animatedtextures, replace the textures as necessary.

The Mix PaneYou use the Mix pane to mix the color andtexture channels using one of four mixingmodes. The default mixing mode is Normal,apart from the Environment page which usesMultiply as the preset.

Not all pages have a mixing pane.

If you load a texture or a 2D shader, it is placedon a layer above the color (i.e. the texture isplaced on top of the color) and you can use theStrength slider to set the mixing proportionbetween the texture and color panes.

The Mixing Modes

Normal

In normal mode, Strength sets the opacity of thetexture. If Strength is set to 100%, then you seethe texture only (remember, the texture is thetop layer, so if it is opaque, you will not see thecolor underneath). If Strength is set to 70%, theresult is 70% of the texture and 30% of thecolor.

Let’s take an example: if a texture pixel of RGB255/0/0 (red) is used with a color value of RGB255/255/0 (yellow) with Strength set to 50%,the resultant color is 255/128/0 (orange).

Add

The texture’s RGB value is added to the colour’sRGB value. Color channel values cannot exceedthe maximum of RGB 255. So if a texture pixelof RGB 0/255/255 (cyan) is added to a colorvalue of 255/255/0 (yellow), the result is 255/255/255 (white).

Subtract

The colour’s RGB value is subtracted from thetexture’s RGB value. Thus if a texture pixel isRGB 255/255/255 (white) and the color value is255/0/0 (red), subtracting with 100% strengthgives the result 0/255/255 (cyan).

Multiply

The RGB value of the texture is multiplied by theRGB value of the color. Multiply takes as itsresult the lowest R value, the lowest G valueand the lowest B value of the texture and color.For example RGB 255/128/0 (orange)multiplied by RGB 0/255/0 (green) results inRGB 0/128/0 (dark green).

By layering textures over colors you can create somespectacular materials

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The Material Editor Pages

ColorYou use the Color page to set the basic color ofthe material, e.g. RGB 255/0/0 (red).

If you want to create a more complicatedmaterial (such as a chequered pattern usingseveral colors), use the Texture pane. Thetexture is layered above the color. If you want tosee the color only and not the texture, set theStrength slider in the Mix pane to 0%.

Note

If you set the Strength slider to 0%, the textureis not loaded into memory since no calculation isrequired.

DiffusionThe Diffusion page lets you darken and lightenthe material in specific areas using a diffusionmap. One reason why you might want to use adiffusion map is to add dust or dirt to thematerial, helping you achieve a more naturallook. The diffusion property is a must forphotorealistic results.

You use either a conventional texture or a 2Dshader as the diffusion map. (If the texture iscolored, it will still be treated as a grayscalemap.) The darker a pixel in the diffusion map,the darker the corresponding region of thematerial.

You select the Luminance option if you want touse a diffusion map with the luminanceproperty. The darker a pixel in the diffusion

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map, the darker the corresponding region of theluminance. This helps you add irregularities tothe luminance to achieve a more natural look.

The Specular option applies the diffusion map tothe specular property as well. This will reducethe material’s specular values where thediffusion map is dark. This option is selected bydefault, since it enhances the realismconsiderably.

Select Reflection if you want to apply thediffusion map to the reflection and environmentproperties for an even more natural look. Thedarker a pixel in the diffusion map, the darkerthe corresponding region of the reflection.

LuminanceA luminescent object can be seen even whenthere are no lights in the scene. It is self-illuminated.

You can use the Image button to load an imagethat is to act as a luminance map. The brighter apixel in the luminance map, the moreluminescent the corresponding region of thematerial.

If you have chosen a Luminance Color andloaded a texture (luminance map) as well, thecolor will be added at 100% strength to thetexture. If you want to see the result withoutthe chosen color you can set the Mix slider to0%.

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Luminescent materials are used to help simulateobjects that seem to be self-illuminated in thereal world, e.g. the windows of an office blocklate at night, or neon writing.

Note

The Luminance property does not emit light, i.e.an object with a luminescent material will notcast light on to other objects. If you want tosimulate the light cast by luminescent objects,use light sources.

TransparencyYou use this page to make a materialtransparent or semi-transparent.

If your material also has a color, the color isautomatically reduced with increasingtransparency.

The equation is: color percentage +transparency percentage = 100%.

So a white material with 0% transparency iswhite (100%). A white material with 50%transparency is 50% white (gray). A whitematerial with 100% transparency has no color.

If you select the Additive option, the colorstrength is not reduced automatically and unlessyou take care the material will look unnatural.

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Transparency is similar to a light filter; black letsno light through, white lets all light pass.

You can use a texture as a transparency map.The brighter a pixel in the transparency map,the more transparent the corresponding regionof the material.

To control the transparency via the TransparencyColor only, set the Strength slider in the Mixpane to 0%.

A transparency texture is similar to aphotographic slide. Red parts of the slide allowonly red light to pass through; white parts allowall the light through. With black, no light canpass through the slide.

You can use a transparent material with a lightsource to create a light map. If a transparenttexture is assigned to a light source, the lightwill be filtered according to the texture’scoloration, just like a real slide. You can use thiseffect to simulate disco lights, light cast from amonitor and so on.

You can also simulate the refractive index of amaterial by setting the n value on the Refractionpane. There is, of course, no point setting therefractive index unless the material istransparent or semi-transparent.

Objects that are not closed (such as ahemisphere without a cap) can give unexpectedresults with refraction:

When a ray hits a surface with transparency andrefraction, the ray is bent to simulate refraction.The bent ray is considered to be inside theobject. When the ray reaches another surface ofthe object (the exit side), it is bent back as inreal life. If, however, you are using an openobject, the ray may not hit a second surface ofthe object.

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The raytracer will think that the ray is still insidethe object (e.g. the open hemisphere), becauseit never meets an exit surface (which wouldbend the ray back as in real life).

Avoid using open surfaces with refraction,otherwise you may get unexpected refractionresults. In the example, you could effectivelyclose the open hemisphere with a second wall ora cap; the important thing is to make sure thereis an exit surface, otherwise the poor ray stillthinks it is inside the object.

If you activate the Fresnel option, the viewingangle (i.e. the angle between the camera andthe surface) will affect the transparency andreflection values. If in real life you look at a paneof glass with your eyes parallel to the pane (i.e.with a 90˚ viewing angle), you will notice thatthe pane barely reflects; almost all light passesthrough. However, look at the pane from anarrow viewing angle and you should see that itreflects much more of its surroundings. Thetransparency and reflection values aredependent on the viewing angle. The Fresneloption simulates this phenomenon for you.

For example, if you have transparency with RGBvalues 80%, 80%, 80%, the material is 80%transparent and 0% reflective with a viewingangle of 90˚. With a very low viewing angle, thematerial is approximately 0% transparent and80% reflective.

If you have entered a reflection value in additionto transparency, the reflection value is added tothe angle-dependent reflection.

With Fresnel switched on, the water’s reflectivity increasestowards the horizon

If Fresnel is not selected, the transparency andreflection values are used as they are,irrespective of the viewing angle.

Note

If there are a large number of overlappingtransparent objects in your scene, you maynotice that some of the overlapping areas areblack when rendered instead of transparent. Inthis case you need to increase the Ray Depthvalue on the Options tab of the Render Settings(see page 417).

You may also encounter problems with theThreshold default value of 15% (see page 418).Try lowering the Threshold value to 0%.

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Some useful refraction values

Material Refractive Index

Vacuum 1.000

Air 1.000

Ice (H2O) 1.310

Water 1.333

Glass 1.440 – 1.900

Obsidian 1.480 – 1.510

Onyx 1.486 – 1.658

Acrylic glass 1.491

Benzene 1.501

Crown glass 1.510

Jasper 1.540

Agate 1.544 – 1.553

Amethyst 1.544 – 1.553

Common salt 1.544

Amber 1.550

Quartz 1.550

Sugar 1.560

Emerald 1.576 – 1.582

Flint glass 1.613

Topaz 1.620 – 1.627

Jade 1.660 – 1.680

Sapphire 1.760

Ruby 1.760 – 1.770

Diamond 2.417 – 2.419

ReflectionYou use the Reflection page to set a material’sability to reflect. The color that you setdetermines the color of the reflection.

You can use a grayscale texture as a reflectivitymap. The brighter a pixel in the reflectivity map,the more reflective the corresponding area ofthe material.

You can also use a coloured texture in thetexture pane. The color of a pixel will affect thecolor that is reflected from the correspondingarea of the material.

To control the transparency via the ReflectionColor only, set the Strength slider in the Mixpane to 0%.

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The picture above shows some reflectivityeffects including a reflectivity map. The flask hasa simple reflective material. Note how thereflection of the rod is distorted as you wouldexpect in real life.

Look closely and you will see that the flask itselfis reflected on the tiles.

Look even more closely and you should see thatthe flask is reflected on the tiles but not on thejoints, even though the tiles and joints are partof the same tiled material.

This effect was created by using a grayscalereflectivity map. The reflectivity map was basedon the original tile and joint texture. In the areascovered by a tile the reflectivity map is white. Inthe joint areas the reflectivity map is black. Theresultant map means that only the tiled areas,not the joints, are reflective.

This is just one example of how you cancombine several properties to create morerealistic materials.

Note

If there are lots of reflective objects in yourscene, you may notice that with some of themshadows do not appear in the reflections. To

make the shadows appear, increase the ShadowDepth value on the Options tab of the RenderSettings (see page 418).

Similarly, you may notice that subtle reflectionsare missing. In this case set the Threshold valuein the Render Settings to 0 (see page 418).

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EnvironmentThe Environment page uses a texture tosimulate reflection. Here, in contrast to theother pages, the Color and Texture aremultiplied in the Mix pane (i.e. not added).

Why would you want to use the environmentproperty instead of reflection? One reason isthat your scene may not have enough objects init to produce good results with reflection.Another reason is that the environment propertyrenders more quickly than the relatively sluggishreflection property.

However, the reflection property has a veryimportant advantage: it can simulate the objectreflecting itself. Just how important self-reflection is depends on the object.

Imagine the handle of a gold carriage clock. Theclock looks odd if the handle is not reflected onthe top lid. With a metal ball-bearing, on theother hand, there is no self-reflection in real-life,so environmental reflections are fine.

In practice, sometimes you will use anenvironment map and reflection in the samematerial to get the best of both worlds (self-reflection and realistic reflection despite a lack ofother objects to reflect).

Environment reflections are very useful forsimulating metal surfaces, which typically havesoft transitions from black to white.

The environment property is independent of theprojection type of the material. The environmentis always placed spherically around the object,parallel to the world axis. Use Tiles to set thenumber of tiles in the X and Y directions. Notethat these tile settings are used instead of thetile options in the texture geometry (see page255). The latter settings are ignored for theEnvironment property.

Note

Environment reflections are rendered veryquickly, since the raytracing mode is notrequired.

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The reflections on the BNC connectors were simulated usingthe environment property only

FogWith these parameters you can simulate fog orgas clouds. Objects with such materials aretranslucent but weaken the light that shinesthrough them, depending upon their density.

If a light ray penetrates into the fog, it isweakened. You can control this weakening withDistance. The larger this value, the thinner thefog. Distance indicates at which distance a lightray is completely weakened.

You can also color the fog and this also affectsits visibility. The further you look into the fog,the less the objects are visible and the more thefog color becomes visible.

The fog color therefore also depends on thedistance value. If you choose, say, a Distance of500 units, a light ray of originally 100%

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intensity has an intensity of 50% after adistance of 250 units while after a further 250units it is extinguished completely.

The shorter the distance, the thicker the fogappears. In addition to this effect, after 250units half the fog color is added to the light andafter 500 units the full fog color is added.

You can use fog objects for the simulation ofsmoke and vapor in mountain valleys or forclouds, among many other things.

Fog objects should be always closed volumeobjects. Non-closed objects can lead tophysically incorrect results since a light ray,having once entered the object never againemerges from the object. The raytracer thenassumes that the light ray is still lost in the fog.

In the illustration above the scene was placedinto a square filled with fog.

Note

Fog uses the refractive index defined inTransparency and deactivates the transparency.Fog and transparency are thus never renderedtogether, you can render either fog ortransparency.

BumpActivate this option to produce a bump map, orrelief map, for your material.

When you select Bump you must always choosea texture since it is only from the greyscales insuch an image that a bump map (a height orrelief map) can be calculated.

You can change the strength of the bump mapwith the Strength slider. This value controls howfar the normal vectors of the object to which thematerial is applied change when the bump iscalculated at render time. The higher the value,the rougher the surface.

However, apply large values carefully since amaterial can look unrealistic with high bumpvalues due to the large jumps in lighting. If youmove the slider to the left, you can choosenegative values. If the strength is negative, thebump effect is reversed; bright pixels within the

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map cause the material surface to indent anddarken while darker pixels elevate the height ofthe normals.

Note

You can type in values over 100% (up to500%). This can be meaningful and useful if youare using MIP or SAT mapping since, in thosecases, the bump map is rendered somewhatflatter than usual.

Here is an even surface, viewed from the side.

Since during the lighting of such an even surfacethe same normal vector is used, the surfaceshows a uniform brightness. But if you use abump texture, BodyPaint 3D interprets thebrightness values of the picture as height valuesfor the surface, as you can see in the followingpicture.

These height values are converted into a profile,whose height affects the inclination of thenormal vectors. Although the surface is actuallysmooth, through the change in the normalvectors an apparently three-dimensional surfacewith a bump-like structure is created at rendertime; this is shown in the picture below.

You can strengthen the MIP/SAT mapping effectwhen using bump mapping by selecting MIPFalloff. The bump mapping effect is thenreduced more strongly with increasing distancefrom the camera.

Left without, right with MIP Falloff

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AlphaWith the parameters of this page you can maskparts of a texture by selecting an image to applyto the material. There are two ways to do this:

- Use hard genlocking (so-called clip mapping)to mask particular areas with a color value.

- Use Alpha channels to mask areas softly andmore accurately.

The idea is to define areas of your material thateffectively become non-existent so that anyunderlying materials show through. Thedifference between the two modes is that withclip mapping color seams can be visible aroundthe masked texture. Using alphas this can beavoided. Further, using alphas you can fadetextures and materials softly from one toanother, which gives you even more ways ofcreating realistic-looking objects.

If you switch off Soft, you can choose the color(using the RGB sliders) that is to be masked inthe material.

Alternatively you can click on the texture previewpicture and pick any particular color that exists inthe material’s color.

By setting values for dr (delta red), dg (deltagreen) and db (delta blue) you can define extracolor deviations; in this way the color seamaround the masked color can be adjusted.

Similarly, alpha/genlocking is often attemptedwith texture images that are antialiased; thisproduces a bright border around an object(caused by the antialiasing of colours betweenthe main texture and the alpha color); byadjusting these deviation sliders you can removethis border.

With Soft enabled (the default setting) the colorand delta sliders lose their meaning. The texturemap is now used to decide which ranges shouldbe faded. A white texture pixel within the imagemeans that here the material is to be 100%opaque. If the texture pixel is black theunderlying material shines through 100%.

With Image Alpha checked you can use anyexisting alpha channel of the loaded image. Thefollowing image formats support alpha channels:TIF, TGA, PICT and Photoshop. If you haveinstalled QuickTime, additional formats maysupport the alpha channel. If no alpha channel ispresent, the Image Alpha option will be ignored.

Use the Invert function to invert the result ofyour genlock operation, without having torework the texture in your image processor (e.g.Photoshop, PaintShop Pro).

Note

Many of the built-in shaders have built-in alphachannels (see Shaders below).

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The simple clip mapping does not work withMIP and SAT mapping - only if you work withalpha channels can you use MIP and SATmapping.

If many alpha materials are present on anobject, it can happen that some underlyingmaterials are not calculated at render time or arerendered partly with black areas. If this is thecase, increase the Ray Depth option in theRender Settings (see page 417).

If clip mapping or alpha mapping affects a partof the surface, then the underlying materialbecomes visible. If the object does not have anunderlying material, the object will be non-existent at this point.

An example

If you want to place, say, a scanned picture of atree into a scene, you will create a material,activate the Color option, choose a picture of atree as the color texture/image and then assignthis material to, perhaps, a rectangular polygon.

If you render this scene now, you should see thetree on the rectangular polygon. However thearea around the tree is probably not transparentbut may well be blue (if the scanned picture hasa blue sky background).

Now edit your tree material, check the Alphaoption, switch to the Alpha page and load thetree texture there as well. Use the mouse tochoose the color which you want to mask - inour case the blue sky around the tree.

BodyPaint 3D immediately sets the color slidersto this color and masks it according to thepicture. You should now see only the treewithout surrounding background (yes, in thePerspective View), assuming you have GouraudShading or Quick Shading on). You can nowselect a slightly different color on the Alphapage, click Refresh and see the effectimmediately.

However it may happen that there is still somebackground left around the leaves, branchesand the trunk. So the result is not quite rightyet. To obtain a more accurate result, create analpha channel in your favorite image processor(e.g. Photoshop, PaintShop Pro) and integratethis into your tree image - for details on how todo this consult your image processor manual.Then load that picture into the Alpha page andcheck Soft and Image Alpha. Now the texture ismasked cleanly.

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In the illustration below two materials havebeen used, a reflecting gold and a matt wood.To make the wood visible, one of the twocolours was masked (i.e. genlocked) from ascanned black-and-white graphic.

The section on texture mapping describes thehandling of several materials in detail, startingon page 255.

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SpecularHere you can adjust the width and height of thespecular, or highlight.

If you want a matt surface you should selectbroad and low specular values; for polished andshiny surfaces, however, narrower and highervalues are appropriate.

You can also choose between two lightingmodels for the surface:

With Plastic the color of the specular isindependent of the color of the material i.e. itwill normally appear white. This mode isparticularly useful for materials such as plastics,glass or wood.

With Metal the color of the specular iscalculated from the material color. This lightingmodel is well suited to matt (i.e. not highlyreflective) metal surfaces such as silver, brassand gold.

Note

You can enter values over 100% (up to 1000%)for the height of the specular to achieve almostany result you want. To do this you must enterthe values, numerically, into the box and not usethe slider. High values can be very effective ifyou are using the Metal mode.

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Specular ColorHere you can select the color of the specular.The strengths of the Color page and theSpecular Color page are added together.

The total color here is multiplied with thenormal color of the highlight. If, for example,you have a white plastic highlight, you candefine its color here directly.

The intensity of the specular is affected by anychosen texture image (color or grayscale). Thebrighter a pixel in the image, the more evidentthe highlight is at that point.

With metallic effects in particular, any highlightcolor other than white adds to the material’srealism. The example above of a spaceshipsurface shows that quite clearly.

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GlowThis property enables you to create a glow, akind of halo that emanates from the object andsurrounds it.

Inner Strength specifies the intensity of the glowabove the material surface; Outer Strength isthe intensity of the glow on the outside (at theedges).

The Radius determines how far the glow is toextend from the object. This value is renderedrelative to the distance of the object from thecamera. The further the object is, the smaller theglow and vice versa.

You can define a random factor as a percentage:

0% No change100% Maximum change

Frequency (CINEMA 4D integrated version only)specifies how often you wish the glow tochange. The amplitude of the change is given bythe Random value.

1Hz the glow reaches a new random valueafter 1 second

25Hz the glow has a new value for eachframe (for 30 fps), which causes aflicker

Selecting Use Material Color causes the glow tobe calculated on the basis of the material color,rather than from the color specified here.

If this option is turned off, the object color andthe glow color will be mixed; green objects, forexample, will appear yellowish under a red glow.

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Above are two examples of using glow. For theneon advertisement only an outer glow wasused. For the coal the glowing areas werecreated with Use Material Color.

Notes

The glow you specify here does not act as alight. In other words, other parts of the scenewill not be lit by the glow, nor will any shadowsbe cast.

Glows cannot be seen through transparentobjects, nor in reflections.

Glows are restricted to a maximum imageresolution of 4,000 x 4,000 pixels.

DisplacementDisplacement is similar to Bump, the differencebeing that here the object is actually (not justapparently) deformed.

This difference is best seen at the edges ofobjects. Look carefully at the illustration below.

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A bump texture has been applied to the left halfof the sphere, a displacement texture to theright. The bump region is characterized by asmooth edge, the displacement region hasdistinct deformities; as a consequence of theactual deformation, the shadows on the insideof the sphere’s surface have changed slightly.

You can adjust the strength of the displacementwith the Strength slider. Under MaximumHeight you specify a distance from the objectsurface, which may not be exceeded whateverthe strength setting.

The illustration above illustrates that fairlycomplex models can be created using relativelysimple means.

Note

It is in the nature of the displacement effect thatobjects must be finely subdivided for this effectto work.

The ShadersShaders are mathematically computed textureswhich can be two dimensional or threedimensional. The advantage of shaders is thatthey are always only as large (detailed) asnecessary since they are computed on the fly.That means that you are able to zoom infinitelyclose to a shader without ever seeing a pixel.

You will find shaders in different places inBodyPaint 3D. There are native BodyPaint 3Dshaders which are built into the program, andthere are external shaders that are found withinthe ‘Plugins’ folder.

External shaders may be in C.O.F.F.E.E. format(extension ‘.cof’ ASCII or ‘.cob’ binary) orprogrammed natively in C for a particularplatform (extension ‘.cdl’).

All shaders are loaded when you start theprogram and can be invoked directly from theMaterial manager using File > New 3D Shaderfrom the menu or from within the Materialeditor, directly from the Texture input field.Shaders cannot be invoked by directly typingtheir name.

Note

The shaders can only be evaluated inCINEMA 4D or BodyPaint 3D. If you save anobject or a scene in another file format, theshader information is lost.

2D Channel Shaders2D shaders are also known as channel shadersbecause they are only ever used for a singlematerial channel in BodyPaint 3D lingo, i.e. for aparticular material property such as Color or

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Transparency. These shaders are always flat andare applied to an object using a particular typeof projection (see page 258).

2D shaders are loaded in the Material editor inplace of bitmap textures. To open a 2D shaderclick on the right-facing triangle, which is to theright of the texture input field in the texturepane. This opens a popup menu from which youcan select the appropriate 2D shader.

To edit a 2D shader, click the Edit button in theMaterial editor.

Note

There are three ways of changing the detail (i.e.the frequency) of the shading; adjust the lengthof the texture axes, change the actual frequencyvalues in the shader dialog, or modify the tilingor texture lengths.

There follows a description of each built-in 2Dshader, complete with a description of itsparameters (accessible through the Edit button)and the effects of changing those parameters.

Brick

This shader generates brick patterns. The Brickshader has an alpha channel which you can usewithin the Material editor on the Alpha page.

Color 1 determines the color of the brick.

Color 2 determines the color of the joints.

Joint is the width of the joint relative to the sizeof the brick.

Bevel defines the width of the sloping edgebetween joint and brick, as a percentage of thebrick width; this gives a fuzzy edge to the brick.

Note

You change the number of bricks using thetexture tiling.

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Checkerboard

This shader creates checkerboard patterns.

Color 1 and Color 2 determine the colours ofthe two tiles.

U-Frequency and V-Frequency determine thesize of tiling, the fineness of the structure, intwo independent directions. Higher values resultin a smaller tiles and vice versa. If you useunequal values such as 1/2, instead of squaretiles you’ll get rectangular ones.

Cloud

This shader simulates simple cloud structures. TheCloud shader has an alpha channel which you canuse within the Material editor on the Alpha page.

Color 1 determines the color of the sky.

Color 2 determines the color of the clouds.

U Frequency and V Frequency determine thefineness and shape of the structure. Thus 1/1results in rather regular cloud structures, 1/0.25rather oblong clouds and the higher the value,the finer (less wispy) the clouds.

Clouds affects the number of clouds in the sky.

Note

Effective Cirrus-like clouds can be created withasymmetrical UV parameters (e.g. 0.25/1).

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Cyclone

This shader simulates a cyclone. The Cycloneshader has an alpha channel which you can usewithin the Material editor on the Alpha page.

Color 1 and Color 2 define the start and endcolours for the color transition.

T Frequency (integrated version only) definesthe timing of the cyclone rotation, the strengthof the storm.

Rotation determines the effective density of thecyclone, the higher the value the more spirals inthe storm.

Clouds affects the number of clouds (Color 1areas) in the cyclone.

Fire

This shader simulates a wall of flame. The Fireshader has an alpha channel which you can usein the Material editor on the Alpha page.

U-Frequency and V-Frequency determine thefineness of the structure. Thus 1/1 results inregular flames, 1/0.25 rather elongated flames.T-Frequency (integrated version only) affects thespeed of the flicker, how quickly the flameschange - the higher the value, the higher thefrequency of the flicker.

Turbulence (integrated version only) determineshow violently the flames move around, or breakup, in a notional wind. A setting of 2 doublesthe speed of movement (i.e. the wind); a settingof 0 suppresses all wind.

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Note

The wall of flames stretches infinitely in the Udirection. Good fire materials can be created byusing this shader both in the Alpha channel andthe Transparency channel (in the Alpha channel,dr/dg/db should be set relatively high, toapprox. 30%).

Flame

This shader simulates a single flickering flame,such as a candle. The Flame shader has an alphachannel which you can use within the Materialeditor on the Alpha page.

T-Frequency (integrated version only) is ascaling factor that affects the speed of flicker,how quickly the flame changes.

Turbulence (integrated version only) determineshow violently the flame moves around, orbreaks up, in a notional wind. A setting of 2doubles the speed of movement (i.e. the wind);a setting of 0 suppresses all wind.

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Galaxy

This shader simulates a galaxy with spiral arms.The Galaxy shader has an alpha channel whichyou can use within the Material editor on theAlpha page.

Color 1 is the color of the star clouds.

Angle is the degree of rotation of the spiralarms.

Spiral Arms is the approximate number of spiralarms.

Gradient

This shader creates a smooth gradient betweentwo colours.

Color 1 and Color 2 specify the start and theend colours for the transition.

Mode gives the type of the gradient. Axial iscolor gradient along a line, the orientation ofwhich is defined by Angle (see below). Radial isa radially expanding gradient starting from thecenter of the texture.

Angle gives the direction of the (axial) colorgradient. 0° is the X axis, 90° is the Y axis, etc.

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Marble

This shader creates marble structures.

Color 1 and Color 2 determine the marblecoloring.

U-Frequency and V-Frequency determine thefineness and shape of the structure. Thus, forexample, 1/1 results in a radial-like pattern, 1/0.25 rather elongated shapes. The higher thevalue, the higher the frequency, or detail, of thepattern.

Turbulence adds noise to the detail. 0% = noturbulence.

Neptune

This shader has no dialog. It simulates the planetNeptune with its typical colouring and cloudstructure.

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Noise

This shader creates a random pattern that canbe used, for example, for sun surfaces and stonereliefs.

By overlapping several Noise shaders withdifferent amplitudes and frequencies, you cancreate masses of interesting patterns (this is likesignal synthesis).

Color 1 and Color 2 determine the start and endcolours of the transition.

U-Frequency and V-Frequency determine thefineness of the structure. Thus, for example, 1/1results in a radial-like pattern, 1/0.25 ratherelongated shapes. The higher the value, thehigher the level of detail in that direction.

Saturnring

This shader has no dialog. It creates, for usewith the Saturn shader, an astronomicallycorrect simulation of the rings around Saturn —the D, C, B, A, F and G rings, with the Cassiniand Encke gap.

The Saturnring shader has an alpha channelwhich you can use within the Material editor onthe Alpha page.

Notes

Saturn is approximately one third as wide as thewidth of the ring structure.

So that stars shine through between the rings,you should activate the alpha channel of anymaterial to which this is applied.

You may want to make the rings quitetransparent since in reality these rings aremillions and millions of tiny rock and iceparticles which allow the light from beyond toshine through.

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Saturn

This shader has no dialog. It simulates the planetSaturn with its typical coloring and cloudstructure.

The texture is cyclic in the U direction.

Note

Because of its fast rotation speed (a mere 10hours) Saturn has an elliptical shape. If you wantan astronomically accurate representation of theplanet, you will need to flatten any sphere towhich this shader is applied — in other words itsY axis should be scaled by about 0.85.

Tip

If you mix the Saturn shader with, say, a browncolor (50% shader/50% brown color) you cansimulate many rock formations which you canthen project on to a Landscape object.

Starfield

This shader has no dialog and simulates a starrynight. The number of stars can be controlled bytiling the texture.

Note

The stars are always computed with acontinually varying size. In addition, thebrightness of the stars varies. Thus you shouldhave the impression that some stars are closerthan others.

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Stars

This shader creates a star-filled wallpaper.

Color 1 is the color of the wallpaper.

Color 2 is the color of the stars.

Points is the number of star tips or points.

Inner Radius and Outer Radius determine thedimension of each star, given as a percentage ofa U/V unit.

Stars is the average number of stars per UVunit.

Although we use the term U/V unit aboveaccurately, you may want to think of thepreview as an element that is one U/V unit ineach direction - this will help you visualize thechanges you make.

Sunburst

This shader generates sun flares and eruptions.The Sunburst shader has an alpha channel whichyou can use within the Material editor on theAlpha page.

R Frequency determines the radial frequency; avalue of 0 yields a lovely aurora.A Frequency gives the angular disturbance; 0gives individual layers.T Frequency (integrated version only) definesthe speed of the sunburst; 2 doubles it, 0suppresses all movement.Turbulence changes the appearance of theeruption; the higher the value, the morefragmented this region appears.Radius defines where the eruption begins, as apercentage of the overall size.Height defines the width of the eruption regionrelative to the radius.

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Turbulence

This shader creates colored, fractal turbulence.

Color 1 and Color 2 specify the ends of thecolor transition.

U Frequency and V Frequency determine thefineness of the structure. 1/1 creates a radial-like pattern, 1/0.25 elongated shapes. Thehigher these values, the greater the detail (orfrequency) in the relevant direction.

Steps is the number of iteration steps forgenerating this fractal turbulence.

The more steps you have the more added detailyou obtain. With a setting of 1 the Turbulenceshader is almost identical to the Noise shader;there is no point in setting this value too high sinceonly a certain amount of detail can be added.

An example of using the Turbulence shader on a cube

Uranus

This shader has no dialog.

It simulates the planet Uranus with its typicalcolouring and cloud structure.

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Water

This shader generates water surfaces and is idealfor use in a material’s Bump channel forsimulating water surfaces perturbed by wind. Itcan simulate slight turbulences (ripples) andmore significant ones (waves).

U Frequency and V Frequency determine thefineness of the structure. 1/1 creates radial-likewave patterns, 1/0.25 rather elongated wavefronts. The higher the values, the higher theeffective wave detail in that direction.

T Frequency (integrated version only) is thespeed at which the water moves in the Udirection (0 means no movement, 2 doubles thespeed of movement).

Wind specifies the amplitude of a notional windthat breaks up the water — the higher this valuethe more the wind disturbs the water surface.

3D Volume Shaders3D shaders are also known as volume shadersbecause they penetrate the volume of the objectand emerge on its surface. This means that theycannot be used as textures within the Materialeditor; instead, a 3D shader directly defines amaterial - or, in other words, a 3D shader is thematerial.

3D shaders are loaded in the Material managerin place of materials. To load such a shader goto the menu File > New 3D Shader and select ashader from the submenu.

3D shaders are edited, like all materials, bydouble clicking in the Material manager on theirpreview picture.

All volume shaders can be applied to a 3Dobject very precisely either by changing thevalues in the relevant Shader dialog or, oftenmore simply, by adjusting the texture axesvalues (double-click on the texture attribute iconin the Object manager). By changing the lengthof the texture axes (in addition to modifying theshader settings) a change of the effect of theshader is possible.

A 3D shader will always adapt to the size of (orgrow on) the 3D object to which it has beenapplied. There will be no edges or seams. Sincethey exist throughout an object’s volume, 3Dshaders can give much more realistic resultswhen applied to objects that have areas cut out.

Note

3D shaders cannot be combined, unlike normaltextures.

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Color

This colourful shader uses sine functions to cyclethrough the RGB color range.

X-Frequency, Y-Frequency and Z-Frequencyspecify the behaviour of the colours: e.g. highvalues mean more detail in that direction,different values for X, Y and Z give asymmetricalbehavior.

Earth

This simulates an Earth-like planet with mountains.

Sea Level determines the color for areas whichhave a height of less than zero.

Land Level is the color for middle height terrain.

Mountain Level is the color for high terrain.

Bump gives the degree of bump mapping —0% means a smooth surface with only patchesof color. Note that water is always smooth; onlyland areas should be covered with a relief.

Frequency adjusts the level of land detail. 0% ispractically all water; 50% is equal parts of landand water; 100% is practically all land.

Specular is the specular factor, which appearsonly on water surfaces. 0 is none; 1 is large; 50is small; 150 is very small

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Fog

This shader simulates volumetric fog.

General pane

Samples defines the average number of samplesthat need to be computed per raytracing ray.The higher this number, the greater the qualityof the fog but the longer the calculation time.

Tip

Start with low numbers, say 6 or 8. Increase thisvalue only if you get disturbing artifacts or if thedetail is not good enough (e.g. in relation tovisible shadows in fog). Note that after a certainpoint (depending on what’s in the scene) highersample values will not produce better images.

Volumetric is the ultimate performance killer. Ifthe option is switched off, the basic color of thefog is all pervading. Light sources have noeffect. This is normally sufficient to simulate fogin a fractal valley.

With Volumetric switched on, all light sources(including the type of the light source) will betaken into account. If the light sources cast softshadows and there are objects in the beam,these will cast shadows even in fog.

Caution!

The Volumetric option costs a tremendousamount of computing time.

X-Frequency, Y-Frequency and Z-Frequencydetermine the appearance of the fog: doublethe values to get twice as much detail, usedifferent values for X, Y and Z for asymmetry.

Fog pane

Color is the color of the fog.

The popup allows you to control the fogintensity over distance. Linear decreases the fogintensity along the Y axis of the texture axes.Exponential decreases the fog intensity alongthe Y axis of the texture axes. None meansconstant fog density.

Thickness: the lower this value, the thinner thefog.

Decrease: the lower this value, the lower thevolume (or depth) of fog that is generated.

Turbulence pane

In addition to the above parameters you canalso create turbulent fog patches. Turbulencespecifies the degree of whirl within the fog (0 =no turbulence). Amplitude specifies the averagesize of the rotating turbulence cells (rolling fog).T-Frequency (integrated version only) controlsthe speed of the swirling fog (0 = nomovement).

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Marble

This shader generates 3D marble structures.

Color 1 and Color 2 specify the marble coloring.

Reflection is the degree to which theenvironment is reflected in the marble. To see aweak reflection you will need to activateReflections in the Render Settings and possiblyreduce the Threshold from its default 15%.

Specular determines the factor for thespecularity. 0 is none; 1 is large; 50 is small; 150is very small, etc.

X-Frequency, Y-Frequency and Z-Frequencydetermine the detail of the marble in thosedirections (e.g. double values mean twice asmuch detail). Use different values for X, Y and Zfor asymmetry.

Turbulence changes the overall complexity ofthe marble.

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Metal

This shader simulates metallic surfaces.

Color specifies the color of the metal.

Bump and Frequency define the roughness ofthe surface. The surface is reflective andoptionally takes a metallic specular.

The strength of the reflection is determined bythe Reflection setting.

Specular is the strength of the specularity.

Rust

This shader simulates rust on metal surfaces.

You choose the colours for the metal and therust using the color fields, Metal... and Rust....

Rust specifies the percentage of rust on themetal surface.The rust is initially flat. It can be raised byoptionally using the Bump (relief) setting.Frequency determines the degree of jaggednessof the rusty areas.You define the degree of reflection of the cleanpart of the surface with the Reflection setting.The rust-free areas are reflective and may beenhanced by an optional metallic specular.Specular defines the size of this specular.

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Terrain

This shader generates virtual, fractal landscapesfeaturing mountains and valleys. The popupmenu at the top allows you to select from a listof predefined types of terrain or to start fromscratch with user-defined.

Using the buttons below the popup menu youcan assign colors to different heights of terrain.The values are percentages of the fractal height.

Height defines the vertical dimension of thefractal within a 3D object. With a value of 50the fractal covers half the object (assuming thetexture is adapted by size to the object).

The Terrain shader is not infinitely large. Itsmaximum size is determined by the size of thetexture geometry. If this is smaller than theobject on which the shader is used, the shaderdoes not fill the object. If necessary adapt thesize of texture geometry to the object.

Venus

This shader simulates a gaseous planet withcloud structures whirled around by the Coriolisstream.

Color 1 and Color 2 define the colours of theclouds and the background sky.

Rotation determines the degree of whirl orturbulence caused by the Coriolis stream.

X-Frequency, Y-Frequency and Z-Frequencydetermine the fineness of detail in thosedirections.

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Wood

This shader simulates wood patterns. The popupmenu at the top allows you to choose some pre-defined wood types (which you can then change)or go for a user-defined wood from the beginning.

Color 1 and Color 2 change to color of thewood and its grain.

X-Frequency, Y-Frequency and Z-Frequencyaffect the look of the wood. X and Y change thefrequency of the rings in those directions (highvalues lead to fine detail) while Z affects thegrain — for example, values of X=0.5, Y=1 andZ=1 will produce elliptical rings.

Turbulence determines the degree of growthirregularity (0% = even concentric annual rings,100% = a more natural, uneven ringappearance).

Texture Mapping

Texture geometry

The Texture geometry dialog opens when youallocate a material to an object. The settings inthis dialog tell BodyPaint 3D how to apply thematerial. For example, you may want thetexture to be tiled (i.e. repeated), or you maywant to place the texture in a specific region ofthe object. You can also have the texturemapped on one side only (decal mapping). Inthis chapter we will explain all the options in theTexture geometry dialog.

Applying a texture

You can apply a texture to an object in thefollowing way:

- First, make sure that you can see the object inthe Object manager. Then, hold down the left

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mouse button while you drag the materialfrom the Material manager and drop it on tothe name of the object in the Object manager.The Texture geometry dialog will open for youto enter details of how to apply the texture.This dialog can be skipped if you hold downthe Shift key while dragging the material on tothe object.

The mouse pointer will change during thisprocess to indicate the add state.

- You do not have to use drag-and-drop, youcan also use the following method: first,activate the object in the Object manager, thenactivate the material in the Material manager.Now select Function > Apply in the Materialmanager. The Texture geometry dialog willopen for you to enter details of how to applythe texture. This dialog can be skipped if youhold down the Shift key while dragging thematerial on to the object. Once this dialog isOK’d (or if the Shift key was held down), theactive material will be allocated to the activeobject.

- You can drop a new material on to an existingtexture geometry. The new material willreplace the old one but will inherit the existinggeometry settings.

If the material does not use texture maps (pureglass, for example) or if it a 3D shader, you willnot need to change any settings in the Texturedialog; you can click on OK to close the dialogimmediately. Such materials do not use thetexture geometry settings.

Note

Remember, to prevent the Texture geometrydialog opening hold down the Shift key when

you apply the texture. This is particularly usefulfor 3D shaders or materials that do not usetextures, since they do not use the texturegeometry settings.

If, on the other hand, your material does usetexture maps, you will need to set the Texturegeometry dialog to specify the projection type,the position of the texture and so on.

Search For

The first text box contains the name of thematerial that is being applied. If you type in thename of a different material, BodyPaint 3D will usethe new material instead of the previous one forthis texture geometry. Also, note that you usuallyneed type only the first few letters of the name,since BodyPaint 3D will complete the rest of thename for you in the area to the right of Name.

Comment

Perhaps you are wondering why you must type inthe material name rather than select it from a list.Imagine that you have started a new project andyou have loaded your standard material library,

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which contains 100 woods, 50 marbles, 20 relieftextures, 30 backgrounds and so on. You want toadd one of the mahogany textures to an object.Up pops the selection window. Okay, it’s downhere. Down a bit more. Oops, missed it. Back a bit... Once you have become accustomed to typingin material names (and giving your materialssensible names!), you should find this a muchmore efficient way to work.

Offset, Length, Tiles

These settings are to be found towards themiddle of the dialog. Offset and Length set theposition and size of the texture respectively onthe texture geometry. You can also change thesevalues interactively in the Perspective View withthe Texture tool active (see page 369).

Offset defines the position of the texture on thetexture envelope (the texture geometry). Youcan use Length to increase or decrease the sizeof the texture on the texture envelope. TheOffset X and Offset Y values are given aspercentages, since the actual size is irrelevant.100% for both means that the texture coversthe envelope completely.

The Tiles X and Tiles Y values define how manytimes the texture fits on to the texture envelopein the X and Y directions. Hold on a moment,isn’t that the same as changing the length? Yes,exactly. You can change the length either interms of tiles (Tiles) or as a percentage of thetexture envelope (Length). Either way, changingone will cause the other to change too.

Using the Tiles X and Tiles Y settings does notmean that the texture will be repeated (tiled)automatically. This only happens if you activatethe Tile option (which we will return to later).

Position, Size, Rotation

These settings appear near the bottom of thedialog window. You can also change thesevalues interactively in the Perspective View withthe Texture Axis tool selected (see page 369).

The following pictures show you the differencebetween the Texture tool and the Texture Axistool. Both pictures demonstrate a movement inthe X direction. In the first picture, the texture ismoved about the texture envelope (Texture tool,Offset). In the second picture, the texturegeometry itself is moved (Texture Axis tool,Position).

The texture geometry can be shown either as atexture grid or as a realtime texture. You can setthis option globally (enable Display > Texturesin the Perspective View), or you can give theobject its own (local) display tag with this optionon or off (see page 196).

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Projection (mapping types)

The Projection setting determines how thetexture is projected on to a surface. Theprojection surface is independent of the realsurface of the object, although often it has thesame basic shape (e.g. flat, spherical, cubic...).

UVW mapping (which is explained in moredetail later) fixes the projection on to the surfacepoints of an object so that, when the objectsurface is deformed (like a flag would be in thewind), the texture deforms with it.

The best mapping type to use depends on theshape of the object to which you apply it. Firstlet’s take a look at some examples for the firstthree mapping types (spherical, cylindrical andflat) and then we’ll describe the others withfewer examples.

You can change the mapping type using theProjection pop-up in the Texture dialog.

Spherical mapping

Spherical mapping projects the texture on to theobject in a spherical form.

Spherical mapping applied to a plane

Spherical mapping applied to a cylinder

Spherical mapping applied to a sphere

Spherical projection is rarely suitable for flatobjects. There is distortion with cylindricalobjects too.

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Cylindrical mapping

This mapping type projects the texture on to theobject in a cylindrical shape.

Cylindrical mapping applied to a plane

Cylindrical mapping applied to a cylinder

Cylindrical mapping applied to a sphere

Cylindrical projection is rarely suitable for flatobjects. It also leads to distortion when usedwith spherical objects. Notice how the pixelsnear the top and bottom of the texture map arepulled inwards on the caps. You should applyseparate textures to the caps.

Flat mapping

Flat mapping projects the texture on to theobject in a planar direction.

Flat mapping applied to a plane

Flat mapping applied to a cylinder

Flat mapping applied to a sphere

Flat projection tends to be used with flat objectsonly. The texture is soon distorted when appliedto a sphere or cylinder, as the examplesdemonstrate.

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Cubic mapping

Cubic mapping projects the texture on to all sixsides of a texture cube.

Cubic mapping applied to a cuboid

We have halved the size of the texture aboveleft so that you can see the mapping moreclearly. In the rendered picture the texturelength has been restored to 100%.

Frontal mapping

The texture is projected from the cameraposition on to the object.

Frontal mapping applied to a cuboid

The picture above shows how the cube blendsinto the background using frontal mapping -only the cube’s shadows are visible.

Spatial mapping

Spatial mapping is similar to flat projection.However, with spatial mapping, the texture ispulled up and to the right as it passes throughthe object.

The difference between flat and spatial mapping

On the left, notice how flat projection can leadto unattractive stripes. The picture on the rightshows how spatial mapping solves this problem.

Spatial mapping does, however, cause somedistortion and as such it is not suitable forphotographic images. Spatial mapping is moresuitable for structure textures (e.g. marble,plaster, ...).

UVW mapping

If an object has UVW coordinates you can selectthem as the projection type. In this case thetexture geometry is fixed to the object surfaceand is subject to all subsequent movement anddeformation applied to the object.

All polygon objects with UVW coordinatesdisplay a UVW coordinates icon in the Objectmanager.

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In the illustration below, flat projection was usedfor the object on the left, UVW mapping for theone on the right.

Notice how the UVW texture has beendeformed along with the object.

You may be wondering why there are threecoordinates (UVW). What is the third coordinatefor?

The third texture coordinate (W)

Conventional textures have two coordinates,one for the horizontal position X, and one forthe vertical position Y. In order to make it clearthat the coordinates refer to a texture, X isrenamed U, and Y is renamed V. Twocoordinates (U and V) would be sufficient wereit not for 3D shaders. These are threedimensional textures (see The Shaders,page 238), and as such they require a thirdcoordinate (W) in order to be fixed to theobject.

You can apply more than one UVW texturegeometry to an object. Create a new texturegeometry for the object, then set the projectionyou require, e.g. flat mapping for a labeltexture. Next, create new UVW coordinates forthe active texture by selecting Generate UVW

Coordinates in the Object manager. The activetexture geometry will be set to UVW mappingand will deform together with the object.

The UVW coordinate system

What is the structure of UVW coordinates?Imagine a grid divided into a U direction and aV direction.

The UV range starts at 0,0 and ends at 1,1. Foran upright polygon 0,0 describes the top left;0,1 the bottom left; 1,0 the top right and 1,1the bottom right. A texture is stretched outbetween these four coordinates.

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But where is the W coordinate in this system?Recall that conventional textures are two-dimensional - the W coordinate is created onlywhen it is needed. Once created, the Wcoordinate behaves in the same way as the UVcoordinates.

Selective UVW mapping

BodyPaint 3D has two ways of allocating textureprojections to polygon selections (rather than tothe whole object as described above). The firstmethod is described below. The second method,Restrict To Selection, is described on page 269.

Selective UVW mapping allows you to apply adifferent projection type to several regions ofthe object using the same texture geometry.

Proceed as follows

- Import a sphere.

- Create a new material with a texture, e.g. thecheckerboard shader.

- Set Projection to Flat.

- Activate the Polygons tool and select severalpolygons in various locations.

- Select Generate UVW Coordinates from theTexture menu (in the Object manager).

If you are in RTTM mode you can seeimmediately that the selected polygons use flatprojection while the unselected polygonscontinue to use the normal UVW mapping. Ifyou deform the object, the texture remains fixedin the selected region.

Note

Selective UVW mapping is designed to allowyou to allocate an optimum projection type tospecific areas. If you want to use differentmaterials in these areas you should use RestrictTo Selection - see page 269.

Shrink Wrapping

With this projection type the centre of thetexture is fixed to the north pole of a sphere andthe rest of the texture is stretched over it. Theadvantage of this mapping type is that thetexture meets itself at the south pole only. Thisavoids a seam running between the poles.

Only a circular section of the texture is used,with the centre of the circle corresponding tothe centre of the picture. The remainder of thepicture is discarded.

In the illustration above, notice how the texturemeets itself at the south pole.

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Decal mapping

Unfortunately, the term decal means differentthings in different programs. Therefore we needto be clear on BodyPaint 3D’s definition.

Imagine that you project a texture on to arectangular polygon with flat mapping. If youmove the camera around the rectangle to lookat the other side of the surface, you will still seethe texture, but it will be the wrong way round.You can solve the problem by using a decal - amaterial that is projected on one side of apolygon only.

It is very important for you to understand howdecal mapping works, since guessing is notalways enough. (You may find that, whateveryou guess, you still cannot get the decal yourequire.)

The direction of the surface normals for eachpolygon (see page 14) plays a pivotal role indeciding to which side of the polygon the

texture is mapped. Front is in the direction ofthe surface normals and Back means in theopposite direction to the surface normals.

Example

You wish to place a label on a tube. With flatprojection this ought to be simple enough. Youhave adjusted the settings (see Labels,page 267) and you render the tube. Hold on amoment, that’s not right... the texture alsoappears on the reverse side of the tube:

What has happened? With flat projection atexture is projected from the front through tothe back of an object. As a result, the texture isalso visible where it is not wanted. Decal

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mapping comes to the rescue - change Frontand Back in the texture geometry to Front. Nowrender the tube again. This time the label isvisible on the front side only:

The explanation is simple. If the viewing angle(i.e. the camera angle) and the surface normalform an angle of less than 90° to each other, thepolygon is a front polygon; otherwise it is a backpolygon.

The only exceptions are for flat and spatialmapping. Here there is an additional criterion:the direction of the texture projection’s Z axis. Ifthe texture’s Z axis points in the oppositedirection to the surface normal, and if theviewing angle and surface normal form an angleof less than 90° to each other, the polygon is afront polygon; otherwise it is a back polygon.

Front and Back

If you choose Front and Back the texture isprojected in the direction of the surface normalsand also in the opposite direction.

Front

If you have selected Front you see the texturewhere the surface normals point towards thecamera, otherwise the material is invisible.

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Back

If you project the texture from the back you willsee the texture only where the surface normalspoint in the opposite direction to the camera.The material is otherwise invisible.

A practical example of decal mapping

Tiled TexturesSometimes we need to do more than merelyproject the texture on to an object. Imagine youare texturing a brick wall. Do you really want tocreate a texture for an entire facade and fourwalls? There is a much easier way.

All you need is a seamless texture, which youproject, perhaps with cubic mapping and asuitable number of tiles.

Tiles

You can use the Tile X and Tile Y settings todefine how many times the texture picture isrepeated, i.e. you use these settings to specifythe number of tiles. BodyPaint 3D calculates thesize of an individual tile from the current texturesize. For example, if you have scaled the textureso that it has a length of 25% in the X directionand 50% in the Y direction, the texture fits fourtimes in the X direction (1.0/0.25) and twice inthe Y direction (1.0/0.5) on the surface.

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If you change the Tile X or Tile Y settings, theLength settings change automatically. Forexample, if you change the number to 3, thetexture shrinks from 50% to 33.33%. You cansee this immediately if you leave the window byclicking on OK.

Tile

If you activate this option the texture picturewill be repeated endlessly on the surface.

The effect becomes visible when you scale downthe texture (see page 369), or when the texturegeometry has not yet been fitted to the object(see Fit To Object, page 202). Otherwise, thetexture map fills the entire texture geometryonce.

If this option is not active, the texture map willnot be repeated on the surface.

Any materials that are underneath (see TextureLayers, page 267) will show through in the partsnot covered by the texture tile.

Note

If you select the Tile option for a 2D or 3Dshader it is not, strictly speaking, tiled, butinstead fills the entire object seamlessly. Theremay or may not be a repeating patterndepending on the programming of the shader.

Seamless

If the Seamless option is activated, tiles aremirrored to prevent visible seams. This isparticularly useful for objects that are notseamless, although typically it generates abutterfly pattern.

Note

Seamless is generally of little use for phototextures (although you can generate someinteresting patterns). This option is better suitedto pictures with a pattern, such as wood, stoneor marble.

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Labels

By now you know how to apply textures, howto tile (or not tile) them, and how to preventseams. How, though, can you put a label on abottle?

This is what you need to do:

- Open the Texture geometry dialog.

- Deselect the Tile option.

- Check that only one tile is created in the X andY directions.

Done. OK, the texture probably covers theentire object (that’s one big label) but now youcan scale it down.

Usually, the quickest way to scale (and for thatmatter position) your textures is to work inRTTM mode. Select the Scale tool, then selectthe Texture Axis tool. You can use the mouse toreduce the scale of the texture. Next, select theMove tool and place the texture wherever youlike on the object surface.

The texture is often slightly out of proportionafter scaling. However, we have a little trick foryou. Open the texture geometry dialog andadjust the size of your texture in the lengthfields. Since the length cannot exceed 100%,you may need to divide both values.

For example, if your texture is 800 x 600 pixels,you might set the lengths as follow:

X Y Conversion Factor

80 60 / 108 6 / 10032 24 / 100 x 4 etc.

Texture LayersBodyPaint 3D lets you use as many materialsand texture geometry tags on an object as youlike. Think of a suitcase with travel stickers -there is a base material (e.g. the leather of thesuitcase) and many materials on top (e.g. thestickers).

You cannot see the original suitcase material(leather) in those places where there are stickers.Also, when there are many stickers on thesuitcase, they overlap each other. The stickerson top cover those underneath. Where severalstickers share the same space, only the topsticker is visible. If you want to see one of theold stickers, you must either remove one of thenewer ones or make a hole in it.

This analogy can be related closely toBodyPaint 3D’s behaviour. Your object has abase material. You have additional materials ontop of the base material. In order to see thebase material, the overlying materials must bescaled down and not tiled. You can do this byscaling down the texture geometry and at thesame time turning off the Tile option (see Labelsabove). If two materials overlap and you wantto see the bottom one, you must make a hole inthe top one. You can do this using alphamapping or clip mapping (see page 231).

Only one question remains unanswered: howdoes BodyPaint 3D know which layer a materialis on?

The answer is quite simple. When you applyseveral materials, each new material is placed ontop of the previous one. The order of thetexture tags in the Object manager (see pages188 and 189) defines the layer - the right-mostmaterial is the top layer, the left-most is thebottom layer.

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You can change the layering order simply byswapping the positions of the texture iconsusing drag-and-drop.

Note

The Transparency material property does notallow the next layer to show through. Instead,use alpha or clip materials.

In the example above T1 is a wall material, T2 isa plastic material (scaled down, no tiling) and T3is graffiti (with alpha mapping to remove thenon-graffiti parts of the texture).

The order of the materials in the Objectmanager (from left to right) is: T1-T2-T3.

The graffiti (T3) is the top material layer.However, it uses the alpha channel to removethe non-graffiti parts, thereby exposing the nextlayer down (the plastic material (T2). Eventhough the plastic material (T2) is on a layerabove the bricks (T1), the bricks can still be seenbecause the plastic was scaled down and is nottiled (i.e. the plastic does not cover the entiresurface).

Additive Textures

In the previous example a wall material wascreated using a color channel and a bumpchannel. The bump channel creates the illusionthat the wall has joints. Now we want to add asecond bump map to the wall without changingthe texture itself. How can this be done?

The powerful function that makes this possibleis called Mix With Other Textures and, no prizesfor guessing, you can use it to mix texturestogether. The material properties are addedtogether, hence the term additive textures.

For example, the sum of the colours 100/0/0(red) and 0/100/0 (green) is 100/100/0(yellow). If the green color has a brightness of50%, then only 50% of the color is added. Theresult in this case would be 100/50/0 (orange).

However, the result cannot exceed themaximum color values. Adding 100/0/0 to 100/100/0 does not produce 200/100/0, but 100/100/0.

Some channels cannot be added meaningfully,e.g. two materials with a refractive index of 1would result in a material with a refractive indexof 2, which is probably not what you intended.So in such cases the value of the additivematerial is used (provided that the channel isactive).

Notes

You can add together as many textures as youwish.

Only the following properties are additive:Color, Transparency, Reflection, Relief,Displacement and Luminance.

Only active properties are evaluated.

The alpha channel marks the parts of theadditive material that should not be added.

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3D shaders cannot be added.

An additive texture (option ticked) must be tothe right of the texture to which it should beadded in the Object manager.

All textures to the right of the first additivetexture, up to but not including the next non-additive texture, are added.

The Transparency property does not expose thenext material layer. Use alpha mapping instead.

It’s time we returned to our example:

Now you can see the second bump map (T2) onthe wall in addition to the original bump (T1).

Mixed Textures

By now you should know how to use severalmaterial layers and how to add materialstogether.

Let’s combine these two techniques to placeseveral materials on the same object and addsome of them together.

Our example graffiti wall uses five materials.Their order in the Object manager (from left toright) is: T1-T2-T3-T4-T5. T1 (wall), T2 (poster)and T4 (graffiti) are normal materials. T3 (50%

bump of T1) and T5 (100% bump of T1) areadditive. T4 (graffiti) uses alpha mapping toremove the non-graffiti parts of the texture.

T3 is added to T2, giving it an additional bumptexture. Since T2 is not tiled, T1 is visible. T5 isadded to T4, giving it an additional bump map.T4 uses an alpha channel to expose the lowerlayers, hence you can see T1 and T2.

Restrict to SelectionThe function enables you to use differentmaterials on different parts of the same object.This is a convenient way to add, for example,labels to objects. First of all you need a selectiontag.

Proceed as follows

- Activate the object and select the Polygonstool.

- Select several polygons using the selectiontool.

- Choose Set Selection from the selection menu.

A polygon selection tag appears in the Objectmanager to represent the selection.

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See Chapter 20, Selection Menu, page 373 formore details on selections.

- Double-click on the polygon selection tag.Enter a name for the selection in the dialogthat appears, then click on OK to close thedialog.

- If your object does not have a texture yet,apply a new texture (drag the material fromthe Material manager and drop it on to thename of the object in the Object manager).The Texture geometry dialog opens. Enter yoursettings (e.g. the projection type, tiles, etc.),then enter the name of the selection in theRestrict To Selection field. Close the Texturegeometry dialog by clicking on OK.

Tip

When you are positioning a texture on aselection you may find it helpful to hide theunselected surfaces. You can hide them usingSelection > Hide Unselected.

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13. Picture Manager   

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13 Picture Manager 273File Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 273

Open ....................................................................................................................................................... 273

Export ...................................................................................................................................................... 273

Stop Rendering ........................................................................................................................................ 273

Close ....................................................................................................................................................... 273

Edit Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 274

Copy ........................................................................................................................................................ 274

View Menu ................................................................................................................................................... 274

Fit to Size ................................................................................................................................................ 274

Zoom Factors .......................................................................................................................................... 274

Zoom In, Zoom Out ................................................................................................................................ 274

Red, Green, Blue ..................................................................................................................................... 274

Alpha ....................................................................................................................................................... 274

Grayscale ................................................................................................................................................. 274

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13 Picture Manager

File Menu

OpenThis function opens an image file and displaysthe image in the Picture manager. All 2D imageformats supported by BodyPaint 3D can beloaded. For a list of these formats, please seepage 439.

ExportWith this function an image can be saved tohard disk in different formats. This enables youto use the Picture manager as an image formatconverter as well.

Stop RenderingThis stops the rendering of the scene. All picturedata is lost in the process; you cannot restartfrom where you left off, hence you will need tostart the next render from the beginning.

Note

Alternatively, you can stop rendering by pressingthe ESC key.

CloseThis closes the Picture Viewer.

The Picture manager (also known as the PictureViewer) is the external output window ofBodyPaint 3D. This is where the render isdisplayed if you have chosen Render to PictureViewer from the Render menu (see page 402).

But the Picture manager is able to do more. Forexample, it displays textures if they have one ofthe known formats (TIFF, JPEG etc.). OtherPicture manager functions are described below.

Note

You must use the Picture manager whenrendering a scene to hard disk.

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Edit Menu

CopyThis copies the image in the Picture manager tothe clipboard. You can then paste the image intoanother program, e.g. an image editor.

View Menu

Fit to SizeIf Fit to Size is activated, the displayed image isscaled automatically to the size of the Picturemanager window, assuming the window issmaller than the image itself. The aspect ratio iskept constant. Fit to Size is recommended if thePicture manager is docked to other parts of theBodyPaint 3D interface.

Zoom FactorsYou can display the image in differentpredefined zoom factors from 12.5% to 800%.At 100% the image is displayed actual size.

Zoom In, Zoom OutUse these to zoom in or out of the image,stepping through the predefined zoom factors.

Red, Green, BlueBodyPaint 3D renders all images in the RGBcolor system. Using these three options you canfilter out these separate colors. So you can savethe red separation of a render without needingto launch a separate image editor.

AlphaIf this option is enabled the Picture managerdisplays the image’s alpha channel instead of theimage itself.

Note

This option works only with images that have anintegrated alpha channel.

GrayscaleIf you enable this option, the image will bedisplayed not in color but in grayscale. Thisfunction is useful for checking certain aspects ofthe render, perhaps to evaluate the contrast ofan image for monochrome printing.

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14. Structure Manager   

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14 Structure Manager 277Navigation ............................................................................................................................................... 277

File Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 278

New Line ................................................................................................................................................. 278

Import ASCII Data ................................................................................................................................... 278

Export ASCII Data ................................................................................................................................... 279

Close ....................................................................................................................................................... 279

Edit Menu ..................................................................................................................................................... 279

Undo ....................................................................................................................................................... 279

Redo ........................................................................................................................................................ 279

Cut .......................................................................................................................................................... 279

Copy ........................................................................................................................................................ 279

Paste ....................................................................................................................................................... 279

Delete ...................................................................................................................................................... 279

Select All .................................................................................................................................................. 279

Deselect All ............................................................................................................................................. 280

Invert All .................................................................................................................................................. 280

Select Area .............................................................................................................................................. 280

View Menu ................................................................................................................................................... 280

Jump Last Selection ................................................................................................................................. 280

Jump Next Selection ................................................................................................................................ 280

Jump Page Up ......................................................................................................................................... 280

Jump Page Down .................................................................................................................................... 280

Jump Home ............................................................................................................................................. 280

Jump End ................................................................................................................................................. 280

Mode Menu ................................................................................................................................................. 281

Points (default) ........................................................................................................................................ 281

Polygons .................................................................................................................................................. 281

UVW ....................................................................................................................................................... 281

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14 Structure Manager

The Structure manager resembles a spreadsheet;both can process data directly within cells which,in turn, are divided into lines and columns.

Within BodyPaint 3D’s Structure manager,various attributes of the active object aredisplayed and can be edited directly in the cells.The points and polygons of an object and itsUVW coordinates can all be displayed (ifrelevant) by selecting from the Mode menu; bydefault, an object’s points are displayed.

Values in the cells can be edited directly, linescan be moved by means of drag-and-drop andcut, copy, paste is supported. Larger quantitiesof data can be processed rapidly, even if theobject has a large number of points or polygons.The selection frame (a red frame around anactive box) shows you which data you areworking on; navigating around the table is thusvery simple.

Navigation

Selection

Clicking on one of the line numbers to the leftof the table selects this line and highlights it.

If you keep the Shift key pressed while clicking(known as Shift-clicking), several lines can beselected at the same time; Shift-clicking analready-selected line will deselect that line.

To select all the lines of a particular attribute(such as all the points) click directly in therelevant name field (e.g. Point). Shift-clicking aselected set will deselect the set.

Selection frame

When you first open the Structure manager, theselection frame is over the cell at the top left ofthe display (the first column of the first line).Single-clicking on a particular cell moves theselection frame to this cell i.e. makes it active.You can also move the selection frame with thecursor keys.

Using the TAB key moves the selection frameleft-to-right and top-to-bottom over the cells;Shift-TAB reverses this.

The Home key moves the selection frame to thevery first cell of the table whilst the End keymoves it to the last cell.

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Note

The Apple USB Keyboard does not have an Endkey. Please use the ‘+’ key on the numerickeypad instead.

Page Up and Page Down move the selectionframe a page at a time, back and forwardrespectively.

Double-clicking on a cell moves the selectionbox there and enters Edit mode, where you canmodify the value of the cell. While in Edit modeyou can use Tab and the cursor keys asexplained above and you will remain in Editmode.

The Return key acknowledges input andswitches between editing and selection modes.

If you press the ESC key, the previous value ofthe cell is restored and you revert to selectionmode; assuming, of course, that you have notalready pressed Return!

Drag-and-drop

By means of drag-and-drop you can re-orderone or more lines and thus modify, say, thepoint order. Click at the left of the display, overa line number, hold the mouse button down anddrag; a red line appears to show where theselected row(s) will be moved. The row(s) willbe inserted at the position of the red line and allrows above will be shuffled up.

Note that, if you change the order of points, theassociated polygons will be deleted!

Additionally you can transfer the contents of anindividual cell to another cell; simply click on acell and move the mouse with the left buttonheld down until you the pointer is over thetarget cell. Release the mouse button and thevalue of the original cell is copied here.

File Menu

New LineA new line is inserted into the table, below theselection frame.

If you are in the point mode (default), a newpoint is added to the object. This is created atthe world origin (X=0, Y=0, Z=0). By the inputof suitable X, Y and Z coordinates, you canchange the spatial position of the point.

If you are in the polygon mode, New Line addsa new polygon to the object. The new polygonwill not be visible yet, since it has not beenallocated suitable points (see Mode). You mustdo this point allocation by hand.

If you are in UVW mode, New line creates anew UVW coordinate. Since an entire UV meshcan be created easily (see Generate UVWCoordinates, page 201), you may find little usefor this function.

Import ASCII DataBodyPaint 3D is able to import point data,polygon data and UVW coordinates into theStructure manager. The data to be importedmust be present as an ASCII file and have thefollowing format:

Point X Y Z1 <Coordinate> <Coordinate> <Coordinate>2 <Coordinate> <Coordinate> <Coordinate>

3 <Coordinate> <Coordinate> <Coordinate>

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Here's a real Point mode example for a cube:

Point X Y Z0 -100 -100 -1001 -100 100 -1002 100 -100 -1003 100 100 -1004 100 -100 1005 100 100 1006 -100 -100 1007 -100 100 100

The ASCII file must start with a header (the‘Point X Y Z’ in the example above) and the linenumbering as shown is required. The valueswithin each line may be separated with a TABcharacter, a comma, a semicolon or acombination of these. Each line must end withthe ASCII LF (linefeed) character or the CR(carriage return) character, or a combination ofboth. Thus it does not matter whether the ASCIIfile was created on a Macintosh, Windows orUnix computer.

If data already exists in the Structure manager,the imported data is inserted before the linecontaining the selection frame.

Export ASCII DataBodyPaint 3D can export the Structure managerdata so that you can use it within, say, a texteditor or some other 3D program or perhapsimport it into a spreadsheet for analysis.

In Point mode, the X, Y and Z coordinate foreach point is exported.

In Polygon mode, the coordinates of each threeor four point polygon are exported.

In UVW mode the UVW coordinates of eachpolygon (defined so far) are exported.

CloseExits the Structure manager, closing the window.

Edit Menu

UndoThis cancels the last action that changed theobject and restores the previous values to thecells. The undo level (i.e. how many actions areremembered) is set in the General Settings(Undo Depth, see page 42).

RedoUndoes or cancels the last undo. The redo levelis the same as the undo level, set in the GeneralSettings (Undo Depth).

CutRemoves the selected line(s) from the table andcopies to the clipboard. Use Paste to insert backinto the table, below the selection frame.

CopyCopies the selected line(s) from the table intoclipboard, without deletion. Paste will insertline(s) from the clipboard back into the table,below the selection frame.

PasteInsert any data already copied or cut into theclipboard back into the table, below theselection frame.

DeleteDeletes the selected line(s) from the table.

Select AllAll lines within the table are selected.

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Deselect AllAll selected lines of the table are deselected.

Invert AllAll the not-selected lines of the table areselected and the selected lines are deselected.

Select AreaThe mouse pointer changes into a crosshair andyou can now draw a selection area with themouse. All lines within the area you draw areselected. If lines that you want to select areoutside the visible area, move the mouse outsidethe Structure manager window in the directionthat you want the window to scroll; the windowwill then scroll until you move the mouse backwithin the window.

View Menu

Jump Last SelectionThe selection frame moves up to the last activeline.

Jump Next SelectionMove the selection frame down to the nextavailable line.

Jump Page UpDisplay the previous page of information (if itexists) in the table and move the selection frameto the first column of the first line on the page.

Jump Page DownDisplay the next page of information (if it exists)in the table and move the selection frame to thefirst column of the last line on the page.

Jump HomeThe selection frame moves to the first column ofthe first line in the table.

Jump EndThe selection frame moves to the first column ofthe last line in the table.

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Mode Menu

Points (default)In Point mode, the spatial coordinates of theindividual points of the object are displayed inthe Structure manager.

The display is organised as follows:

X Y Z

show the coordinates of the respective point inthe world system. No unit is displayed; the unitof measurement is selected in the GeneralSettings and is assumed here.

PolygonsIf you are in Polygon mode, the number of eachdefining point is displayed, as follows.

A, B, C, D (which could be blank) correspond tothe respective point numbers of the three (orfour) corner points of the polygon.

Note

If C and D are identical, BodyPaint 3D interpretsthe polygon as a triangle.

UVWIf you are in UVW mode, the UVW Coordinatesof the polygons of the object are displayed, asfollows:

U[A], U[B], U[C], U[D]

are the U coordinates of the corner points of apolygon.

V[A], V[B], V[C], V[D]

are the V coordinates of the corner points of apolygon.

W[A], W[B], W[C], W[D]

are the W coordinates of the corner points of apolygon.

Note

Avoid changing the UVW coordinates unless youare sure of what you are doing. Otherwise, theobject's mapped textures are likely to distorted.

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15. Coordinate Manager   

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15 Coordinate Manager 285

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15 Coordinate ManagerScale

shows the axis length for each axis of the objectcoordinate system. The default values are 1/1/1.

World Coordinates

The size or scale is also specified in worldcoordinates, although along the local axes. Forexample, if a cube of length of 100 lies askew in3D space, it still has a size of 100 units in worldcoordinates.

Relative Values

You can also enter relative values. BodyPaint 3Dhas a parser which enables you to includemathematical operators.

For example, you can append +100 to anexisting position value. The active element willthen move 100 units relative to its initialposition. BodyPaint 3D supports many otherfunctions - see the Appendices for a completelist of valid operators, functions and constants.

Some values must be entered as relative ones,e.g. for the rotation of points. This is becausepoints do not have their own coordinate system,so the program cannot keep track of previousrotations.

Tip

Keep in mind that you may be changing the axesof sub-objects unintentionally when you changethe axes of the parent.

The Coordinate manager allows you tomanipulate objects numerically. It displaysinformation relating to the tool you are using.For example, if you are using the move tool, theposition, size and rotation values of the activeelement are shown; if the camera tool is active,you can enter the focal length for the lensinstead of its size.

Once you have made changes to the values youcan update the element by clicking on Apply.

You can use the pop-up menu at the bottom leftto determine how the values are interpreted. Ifthe menu is set to Object, all the values relate tothe object’s (immediate) parent system. If themenu is set to World, the position and rotationvalues are converted into world coordinates. TheRotation values always use the HPB System (seepage 370).

The pop-up menu below the middle coordinatescolumn (Size) specifies which object size is shown.

Size

This displays the size of the object, notincluding sub-objects.

Size +

This, on the other hand, shows the size of theactive object including all sub-objects.

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16. File Menu   

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16 File Menu 289Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 289

The File ‘New.c4d’ ................................................................................................................................... 289

The File ‘Template.c4d’ ........................................................................................................................... 289

New ......................................................................................................................................................... 289

Open ....................................................................................................................................................... 289

Import ..................................................................................................................................................... 290

Revert to Saved ....................................................................................................................................... 290

Close ....................................................................................................................................................... 290

Close All .................................................................................................................................................. 290

Close All Textures .................................................................................................................................... 290

Save ......................................................................................................................................................... 290

Save As .................................................................................................................................................... 291

Save All ................................................................................................................................................... 291

Save All Textures ..................................................................................................................................... 291

Save Project ............................................................................................................................................. 291

Export ...................................................................................................................................................... 291

Import / Export Settings .......................................................................................................................... 292

Recent Files ............................................................................................................................................. 298

Recent Files ............................................................................................................................................. 299

Quit ......................................................................................................................................................... 299

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New

This command opens a new document andmakes it the active (current) document. All iconsthat are selected from the toolbar, andcommands from any of the menus or managersthen refer to this new document.

Until you save the new document and give it aname, the title bar of the document window willshow ‘Untitled’.

If you have several documents open you canswitch quickly between them using the Windowmenu on the main menu bar.

Open

This command loads a file (a scene, a material,etc.) from a storage device (such as a hard disk)into memory and opens it in a new documentwindow. If the current document window isempty, this is used instead.

The following formats are understood byBodyPaint 3D:

- BodyPaint 3D scenes (‘.c4d’), catalogs (‘.cat’),preferences (‘.prf’)

- CINEMA 4D scenes (‘.c4d’)

- DXF to AutoCAD R12

- QuickDraw 3D (‘.3dm’) (binary only, notASCII)

- VRML V1 and V2 (‘.wrl’)

16 File Menu

IntroductionThere are several ways of starting BodyPaint 3D:

- Double-click on the program icon.

- Double-click on a scene file.

- You can also drag one or more BodyPaint 3Dfiles in the Explorer (Windows) or the Finder(Macintosh) on to the BodyPaint 3D icon.

The File ‘New.c4d’In the BodyPaint 3D startup folder you may finda scene with the name ‘New.c4d’; if there, this isloaded into BodyPaint 3D when you create anew file (File > New). Thus, BodyPaint 3D doesnot use a separate preferences file, it useswhatever preferences have been set for this'New.c4d' scene

In order to change, say, the default outputresolution to 800x600, create a new file, changethe value on the Output page of the RenderSettings (main menu: Render > Render Settings)and save the file as ‘New.c4d’ into theBodyPaint 3D folder.

The File ‘Template.c4d’In the BodyPaint 3D startup folder, there is alsoa scene with the name ‘Template.c4d’; this isloaded automatically when BodyPaint 3D islaunched, thus enabling user-definedpreferences to be set at startup.

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- 3D studio R4 (‘.3ds’) (including materials, lightsources and textures)

- Wavefront (‘.obj’)

- LightWave (‘.lwo’, ‘.lws’) (including scenedescriptions, light sources, and textures; withLightWave [6], UV coordinates and focallengths as well)

- DEM scenery files (‘.dem’)

- Illustrator paths as polygons (‘.ai’, ‘.art’, ‘.eps’)

Recognition of these formats is automatic.Filename extensions (Windows) are superfluous,as are types and creators (Macintosh).

You can also use this command to view images,play animations or load other settings. If youopen a QuickTime movie or an AVI animation,this will launch the default system movie player.

Alternatively, you can also open a new file bydragging it and dropping it into the Editorwindow.

Import

This command lets you add scenes, objects,materials etc. into the active document.

Revert to Saved

This command will load the last saved versionfrom disk. Before this happens, a dialog opensasking for confirmation. You will lose anychanges that were made to the currentdocument after it was last saved.

Close

Closes the active document. If it contains anyunsaved changes, a dialog opens asking if youwant to save the scene before closing it.

Close All

Closes all open documents. If any documentscontains unsaved changes, a dialog opensasking if you want to save the scene beforeclosing it.

Close All TexturesThis closes all the textures in RAM that are notused by any materials. If any of the textureshave been changed since they were last saved, adialog will check if you wish to save thechanges.

Save

This command saves your document withoutfirst opening the file selector. The scene is savedusing the name chosen when you selected theSave As command (i.e. the name that appears inthe title bar). If this is the first time you aresaving a new document and it does not have aname yet, then the Save command behaves justlike Save As.

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Save As

Save As always displays the file selector. Thefilename you enter here will be displayed in thetitle bar of the document window. BodyPaint 3Dautomatically appends the appropriate extension(‘.c4d’ for scenes) to the filename.

Save All

This function saves all open documents. If ascene has not yet been saved (and therefore isuntitled), the appropriate system file selectorappears for you to choose a name and folder.

Save All TexturesYou can use this command to save all thetextures. A dialog will appear for each texturethat is being saved for the first time — specifythe file format using the pop-up menu, thenclick on OK. Next, the Save dialog will open foryou to choose name and folder.

Save Project

Transferring scenes from one computer toanother is always particularly challenging for aproject leader. When the question of missingtextures for materials arises, you know thatthese can be found automatically in your ownlocal search path (Edit > General Settings >Paths).

BodyPaint 3D helps you build complete scenes.

Selecting this command opens the usual systemfile selector for saving files. Choose a folder hereand enter a name. BodyPaint 3D creates a newfolder in the specified path and saves the scenethere. In addition, it creates a sub folder, namedTex, into which it copies all the pictures andtextures necessary for rendering the scene.

There is now nothing to stop you moving theproject to another system.

ExportA scene can also be exported to a foreign fileformat for subsequent work in other 3Dsoftware. The filetypes described below areavailable. BodyPaint 3D automatically adds therelevant file extension to the file.

In principle each 3D program works differently.Therefore it is not always possible to convert allinformation within a scene. Further, the resultwill always differ according to the materials andlighting used; so a manual re-working may oftenbe necessary.

As well as the following built-in export formats,BodyPaint 3D can export in a variety of otherformats via separate plug-ins (e.g. for exportingin LightWave format).

3D Studio R4 (.3DS)

Common data format under DOS/Windows.3D Studio is the predecessor of 3D Studio MAX.The last freely available file format is release 4and the MAX data format is not accessible toother manufacturers.

In principle the MAX format is not generallyreadable since MAX (like BodyPaint 3D) usesparametric objects, which are useless withouttheir associated specific algorithm. For examplea teapot is not saved with points and surfaces,but only with the dimensions and the

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subdivision rate. For re-creating the surfaces (todisplay the teapot on the screen) one needs toknow the internal routines of MAX.

Therefore, because of this, there is also noexternal conversion tool for the MAX format.

Direct3D / DirectX (X)

Direct3D is a Microsoft specific 3D format,which is used by Windows 95/NT (providedDirectX is installed). This export module isparticularly useful to game developers.

DXF (DXF)

The standard exchange format for graphics files.BodyPaint 3D splines are generally written asPOLYLINEs, independent of the surface settingsfor polygons.

QuickDraw 3D (3DM)

The standard format for three-dimensionalgraphics on the Apple Macintosh.

VRML 1 (WRL)

The Virtual Reality Modeling Language enablesyou to produce platform-independent three-dimensional representation of objects andscenes on the Internet. It has also proved usefulas an exchange format for CAD programs, sinceit contains more file information than the often-used DXF format.

VRML 2 (WRL)

Version 2 of the standard format for three-dimensional graphics files on the Internet. Theadvantages for data exchange with CADsoftware mentioned above also apply toVRML 2.

Wavefront (OBJ)

A common 3D data format in the UNIX world,developed by Alias.

Import / Export Settings

3D Studio R4

Factor

This is for specifying whether and to whatdegree 3D Studio files are scaled when they areloaded and saved.

Adapt Textures

3D Studio does not support as many graphicsfile formats for textures etc. as BodyPaint 3D. Itsmain format is TIFF.

If you enable this option, all texture filenameextensions are changed to that which you havespecified (for example ‘frame.jpg’ becomes‘frame.tif’).

However, you will still have to do the actualconversion of the images yourself. This is verysimple if you use one of the graphics programsthat are provided with the package (PaintShopPro or Graphics Converter).

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Direct3D/DirectX

Factor

This is the scaling factor for saving the scene inthis format. When exported, the scene isreduced by this factor.

Format

Direct3D is a text format. To facilitate manualediting of the file, this option formats the wholefile automatically. This increases the file sizesomewhat.

Save Templates

When enabled, the template header is written tothe file.

Export Textures

When enabled, all texture information is savedfor all objects. This includes creating UVcoordinates for each object.

Adapt Textures

DirectX uses mainly the ‘ppm’ (Portable-Pixel-Map) graphics format, but also ‘.bmp’(Windows-Bitmap). BodyPaint 3D does notrecognise the former, which means that texturesneed to be converted.

This can easily be done using the graphicsprograms PaintShop Pro or Graphics Converter,which are provided in the package. But whatabout adapting the names?

If you enable this option, all texture filenameextensions of scene materials are automaticallychanged when they are imported (so that‘image.jpg’ becomes ‘image.ppm’). This has thebenefit that you do not need to check for eachmaterial and for each attribute whether achange of name is required.

Note

This really does only change the name. You stillneed to convert the image!

Note that DirectX can only process graphicsmeasuring 2n pixels (i.e. textures need to be2x2, 4x4, 8x8, 16x16, 32x32, 64x64, 128x128,256x256, …).

Save Normals

If this option is enabled, normal vectors arecreated for all surfaces. If not, calculating thenormals is left to Direct3D.

Generate Mesh

Direct3D works with two types of models;Frame and Mesh.

Frames, as with BodyPaint 3D, consist of objectsarranged in a hierarchical structure. Objectsremain encapsulated.

In a mesh, on the other hand, all objects are onthe same level. The hierarchy disappears.

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DXF

BodyPaint 3D can work with DXF files of allversions. It can correctly interpret the followingelements: SOLID, 3DFACE, LINE, POLYLINE,CIRCLE, ARC, POINT and TRACE. All three-dimensional data is read in accurately.

All documented POLYLINE combinations as wellas height and elevation data are supported. Thesame is true of element coordinate systems,layer names and various line thicknesses.

Factor

This specifies whether and to what extent DXFfiles are scaled during loading and saving.

Circle

This determines the number of polygonsegments that are used for subdividing circlesegments.

Frozen Layers

Enable this option if you want to convert frozenlayers of a DXF file when loading. Many CADprograms offer the option of freezing (i.e.hiding) temporary or unused layers.

2D Elements

This specifies whether or not two-dimensionalDXF elements should be converted whenloading a file.

Align Normals

BodyPaint 3D assumes that all surfaces of anobject are uniformly aligned. This is notnecessarily the case with DXF files.

If adjacent surfaces are differently aligned, theirnormal vectors point in a different direction.During rendering, this can result in undesirablecolor jumps. BodyPaint 3D uses this option tore-align all adjacent surfaces in the samedirection.

Triangulate Polygons

DXF files may contain three-dimensionalpolygons. BodyPaint 3D can triangulate these ifthis option is enabled. This means that theinscribed surface is generated as a 3D object.This is useful in most cases, and it is thereforethe default setting.

Unless the option is disabled, polygon lines areconverted as such, which is useful for furtherprocessing in BodyPaint 3D.

Layer

DXF files often consist of a great number ofsmall elements. When this option is enabled,BodyPaint 3D attempts during a load tocombine elements of the same color (Connectby Color) or of the same layer (Connect byLayer). If you wish to prevent this, use Don’tConnect.

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Export

The DXF standard offers several options forsaving an object. Here you can choose the typeinto which the object is converted when beingsaved. The choices are Polyline, Solid and3DFace.

DEM

DEM files are used in geography and are oftenused for the description of landscapes. Thisformat can be imported only.

Factor

Use this to determine whether and how muchDEM files are scaled when they are loaded.

Illustrator

If you want a high-quality 2D vector graphic(e.g. a company logo) to be three-dimensional,then import it in the Illustrator format.

Also vector graphics from other programs, suchas FreeHand or CorelDraw, can be imported ifthey were saved in Illustrator format.

Please also read about how to export files in therelevant product manuals.

Factor

Use this to determine whether and how muchIllustrator files are scaled when they are loaded.

LightWave

When you load a file in LightWave format,object geometries, lights, texture maps and thefocal length are copied over.

Factor

This specifies whether and to what extentLightWave files are scaled during loading andsaving. The default value is 100, sinceLightWave uses a smaller construction scalethan BodyPaint 3D.

Textures

This lets you decide whether BodyPaint 3Dshould import a LightWave object’s textureinformation.

Lights

This lets you decide whether BodyPaint 3Dshould import a LightWave object’s light sourceinformation.

Split selections

In LightWave 3D, it is possible to create objectswith double-sided polygons. When you loadsuch an object into BodyPaint 3D, each double-sided polygon is replaced by two polygons andthis may lead to render anomalies.

If the scene you are importing contains double-sided polygons, select this option. Two objectgroups will be created — delete one of thegroups if necessary.

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QuickDraw 3D

Factor

Use this to determine whether and how muchQuickDraw 3D files are scaled when they areloaded.

Sphere

Use this to specify whether and to what extentQuickDraw 3D spheres are triangulated duringloading.

Cone/Cylinders

Use this to specify whether and to what extentQuickDraw 3D cones and cylinders aretriangulated during loading.

NURBS

Use this to specify whether and to what extentQuickDraw 3D NURBS are triangulated duringloading.

Save Textures

If this option is enabled, all objects are savedwith their textures (including any UVcoordinates).

If this option is disabled, objects are saved withtheir color information only (i.e. withouttextures).

Maximum

BodyPaint 3D allows you to use any size oftexture — provided of course that you haveplenty of memory. However, when viewing ascene it can be irritating to wait for textureswhich are very large to load.

This option lets you restrict the size ofQuickDraw 3D files. The material images arescaled to the specified value (in pixels); theproportions remain intact.

Note

If imported QuickDraw 3D models containtextures you have the option when loading themto either ignore them or to save them separately.

VRML 1

Factor

This is for specifying whether and to whatdegree VRML files are scaled when they areloaded and saved.

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Optimize Hierarchy

If Optimize Hierarchy is selected, the scenestructure will be optimized once the VRML1 filehas been loaded. Superfluous dummy objectswill be removed and the object hierarchy will beoptimized. This creates a clearer overview,helping you to work more quickly.

Format Text

VRML is a text format. To facilitate manualediting of the file, this option carries outautomatic formatting on the entire text fileduring export.

Backface Culling

This option enables an attribute on all exportedobjects which switches off drawing of the non-visible sides of all objects in the www browser.This gives a much faster display.

Textures

This menu specifies the action BodyPaint 3D isto take when exporting textures.

None ignores the textures and saves only colorinformation.

Referenced means objects are saved with thepaths to the textures.

With File saves all textures directly in the VRMLfile (so-called inline textures). Any UVcoordinates are also saved.

Maximum

BodyPaint 3D allows you to use any size oftexture — provided of course you have plentyof memory. However, when viewing a scene itcan be irritating to wait for textures which arevery large to load.

This option lets you restrict the size of VRMLfiles. The material images are scaled to thespecified value (in pixels); the proportionsremain intact.

Note

If imported VRML models contain textures youhave the option when loading them to eitherignore them or to save them separately.

VRML 2

Factor

This is for specifying whether and to whatdegree VRML files are scaled when they areloaded and saved.

Optimize Hierarchy

If Optimize Hierarchy is selected, the scenestructure will be optimized once the VRML2 filehas been loaded. Superfluous dummy objectswill be removed and the object hierarchy will beoptimized. This creates a clearer overview,helping you to work more quickly.

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Format Text

VRML2 is a text format. To facilitate manualediting of the file, this option carries outautomatic formatting on the entire text fileduring export.

Backface Culling

This option enables an attribute on all exportedobjects which disables the drawing of the non-visible sides of all objects in the web browser.This gives a much faster display.

Save Animation

With this option enabled, it is possible to exportanimation sequences into VRML2 format.

Keys/Second

When animation export is enabled you choosethe frequency with which the keys are beingwritten.

Since VRML2 has only linear interpolationavailable you can increase the precision of theexport by setting this value higher (expect aproportional increase in the file size).

Sensible values are in the range 5 to 25. Morekeys than frames per second does not seemparticularly useful!

Textures

This menu specifies the action BodyPaint 3D isto take when exporting textures.

None ignores the textures and saves only colorinformation.

Referenced means objects are saved with thepaths to the textures.

With File saves all textures directly in the VRMLfile (so-called Inline textures).

Any UV coordinates are also saved.

Maximum

VRML-2 provides two options for makingtextures available to their objects:

The first option is identical to the one used inBodyPaint 3D; a reference to the texture file issaved along with the VRML scene. If you wantto go with this option, specify the value 0.

The second option integrates the graphics datadirectly into the VRML2 file.

Since the texture is written uncompressed, intext format, a texture of 1000x1000 pixelsquickly reaches a file size of 4MB. If you wish toavoid having such large files, you can specify avalue (larger than 0), to restrict the size oftextures. The materials are then scaled to thatvalue (in pixels). The proportions remain intact.

If you have a texture of 800x600 pixels and youset a maximum value of 100, the texture isproportionally scaled down to a size of 100x75pixels before being saved.

Note

If imported VRML models contain textures youhave the option when loading them to eitherignore them or to save them separately.

Wavefront

Factor

This specifies whether and to what extentWavefront files are scaled during loading andsaving.

Recent FilesBodyPaint 3D remembers the files opened lastand lists them in this sub-menu for quick access.You can define the maximum number ofremembered files in Edit > General Settings.

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Recent FilesBodyPaint 3D remembers the files opened lastand lists them in this sub-menu for quick access.You can define the maximum number ofremembered files in Edit > General Settings.

QuitThis command quits BodyPaint 3D.

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17. Edit Menu   

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17 Edit Menu 303Undo/Redo .................................................................................................................................................. 303

Undo (Undo View) .................................................................................................................................. 304

Redo (Redo View) ................................................................................................................................... 304

Undo (Texture) ........................................................................................................................................ 304

The Clipboard ............................................................................................................................................... 305

Cut .......................................................................................................................................................... 305

Copy ........................................................................................................................................................ 305

Paste ....................................................................................................................................................... 305

Delete ...................................................................................................................................................... 306

Selection ....................................................................................................................................................... 306

Select All .................................................................................................................................................. 306

Deselect All ............................................................................................................................................. 306

Screen Refresh .............................................................................................................................................. 306

Use Generators ........................................................................................................................................ 306

Use Deformers ........................................................................................................................................ 306

Customisation ............................................................................................................................................... 306

General Settings ...................................................................................................................................... 306

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17 Edit MenuThe Edit menu contains some of the mostimportant and most frequently used functions(like Undo) in the entire BodyPaint 3D program.We often take these functions for granted, butwe would soon be lost without them. Thesefunctions are of such fundamental importancethat you will find them in almost all managers(within a local Edit menu).

As we work through this chapter we will presentyou with a little theory. For example, we willexplain how the internal buffers work. Pleaseavoid any natural instinct to skip over thetheory; it is very relevant to your everyday workbecause it helps you to understand and predictBodyPaint 3D’s behavior.

Also, it helps you to solve problems. Little ismore frustrating than knowing you are doingsomething wrong but not knowing what it is.Here is your chance to be well-prepared!

Undo/RedoBodyPaint 3D has multiple-undo, which meansthat a single undo can reverse multiple actionsthat logically belong together. Confused? Here’sthe explanation:

Imagine you have 10 objects in the Objectmanager, then you use the Group Objectscommand to place them into a group. Internally,12 actions are required: first a new (null) objectis created, then 10 transfer actions place theobjects into the null object, finally the null objectis activated. BodyPaint 3D’s intelligent undorecognizes that these 12 actions belong together

and it will treat them as though they were oneaction, i.e. you can undo all 12 actions with asingle undo command.

Not only does BodyPaint 3D have multipleundo, it also differentiates between memory-intensive actions and non-memory-intensiveactions.

Examples of memory-intensive actions includethe deletion of an object and the movement ofan object’s points. Non-memory-intensiveactions include the activation of an object andthe renaming of an object.

Non-memory-intensive actions can be recalled10 times more than the Undo Depth value inthe general settings.

For example, with an undo depth of 12 you canundo either 12 delete object actions or 120activate object actions. You can also mix bothtypes of action, e.g. you can undo 6 deleteobject actions and 60 select object actions.

The Undo Buffer

When you perform an action in BodyPaint 3D,information about that action is written to anarea of memory referred to as the undo buffer.The Undo and Redo functions use theinformation in the undo buffer to revert thescene to a previous state.

An example

Imagine that you import an object and thenchange its scale to (400/400/400) units. Next, youmove the object to coordinates (100/-300/0).

The undo buffer would then contain thefollowing action history:

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1 Import object2 Scale object to (400/400/400) units3 Move object to position (100/–300/0)

The buffer’s current state is step 3, the moveaction. If you call the Undo function,BodyPaint 3D will undo the current state(move), then set the current state to step 2(scale).

If you call the Undo function again, the scaleaction is undone and the current state is set tostep 1 (import).

What particularly interests us here is thatthroughout the process the buffer content itselfis not altered - nothing is deleted. As a result,you can restore the undone actions with theRedo function.

You can use Undo to move backwards throughthe undo buffer. Redo will advance you throughthe buffer.

Recall that nothing is deleted from the buffer.There must, however, be some constraint on thesize of the buffer to prevent it taking up toomuch memory. This is the purpose of UndoDepth in the general settings - it specifies themaximum number of actions that can beundone (see Undo Depth, page 42).

Note

Some functions, such as Save and GeneralSettings, are not recorded in the undo buffer andsubsequently cannot be undone.

Undo (Undo View)

This function will reverse the last change youmade, restoring the scene to its previous state. If,for example, you move an object by accident,Undo will put the object back into position.

You can select Undo repeatedly to continuallyreverse actions. By default, you can undo amaximum of 10 changes. We refer to thenumber of actions that you can reverse as theundo depth. You can set the undo depth in theprogram settings (see General Settings,page 42).

In the View window, Undo View operatesexclusively on the editor camera. It will notaffect camera objects. You can undo a maximumof 500 editor camera changes.

Redo (Redo View)

Redo will restore the last action that wasundone (see Undo, above). You can select Redorepeatedly to continue restoring the actions.

You can traverse the recent development stagesof your scene by using Undo to movebackwards and Redo to move forwards.

Naturally, the number of steps you can redocannot possibly be greater than the number ofactions you have undone. Therefore, there is noseparate setting for the redo depth in theprogram settings.

In the View window, Redo View operatesexclusively on the editor camera. It will notaffect camera objects. You can redo a maximumof 500 editor camera changes.

Undo (Texture)This function differs from the conventionalUndo function in that it only undoes texturechanges. Hence you can use this function toundo paint strokes, filter effects and so on.

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Although this function undoes texture changesonly, it shares the same buffer as the standardUndo function. However, you cannot use thisfunction to undo changes to e.g. UV polygons.

The ClipboardWhen you use the Cut or Copy commands, theactive object or element is copied into astructure in memory known as the clipboard.When you select the Paste command, the datain the clipboard is inserted into the currentscene. For example, to copy an object from onescene to another scene: open both scenes,activate the scene that contains the object, copythe object, activate the other scene and thenpaste.

The clipboard can hold only one data element ata time. If you want to copy several objects,group the objects first, then copy the group.

The size of the clipboard is determined by thesize of the data stored there. If, for example,you copy an 18MB object, the clipboard will use18MB of memory. Naturally, you may want topurge the clipboard (e.g. before you render) tofree up memory. You can purge the clipboard bycutting a null object (see Null Object, page 309)- the null object wastes only a few bytes.

Cut

This function deletes the active object or activeelement from the current scene and copies it(including its materials) to the clipboard. Theobject can be copied back from the clipboardwith the Paste function (see below).

Copy

The Copy function copies the active object orelement (including its materials) to theclipboard. The object can be copied from theclipboard to the active scene with the Pastefunction (see below). You can paste repeatedlyto create additional copies.

Note

You can copy and paste objects using drag-and-drop in the Object manager. Keep the Ctrl keyheld down while you grab the object’s namewith the mouse and drop it elsewhere within theObject manager. The first copy takes the nameof the original and appends ‘.1’. The first copy of‘Apple’ will be called ‘Apple.1’, the second copywill be called ‘Apple.2’ and so on.

Paste

This function inserts the contents of theclipboard (i.e. the last object that was cut orcopied there) into the active scene.

Note

You can cut and paste between scenes - use thecopy command in the source scene, thenactivate the target scene and select the pastecommand.

The names of the inserted objects are appendedwith numbers to differentiate them from theoriginal (‘Name.1’, ‘Name.2’, etc.).

The trio Cut, Copy and Paste are found in almostall programs. Sometimes they are referred to

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collectively as cut-copy-paste, promptinginstructions such as “Remove the item with cut-copy-paste”. Only Cut removes the item - thishas nothing to do with Copy and Paste.

Delete

This function deletes the active object orelement from the current scene without copyingit to the clipboard (see below).

Selection

Select All

This function selects all the objects in the scene.If it is not possible to select all the objectsdirectly, the objects will be placed in a groupand the group will be selected.

If the Points tool is active (see Points, page 366)when you call Select All, all the points of theactive object will be selected. Similarly, if thePolygon tool is active, all the polygons of theactive object will be selected.

Deselect All

This function deselects all the active objects orelements. If the Points tool (see Points,page 366) is active when you invoke DeselectAll, all the points of the active object will be

deselected. Similarly, if the Polygon tool isactive, all the polygons of the active object willbe deselected.

Screen Refresh

Use GeneratorsIf you turn off this option, any generators willstop generating mesh. This can help simplify theview and speed up the redraw rate.

Note

BodyPaint 3D's only built-in generator is theHyperNURBS object. If you are runningBodyPaint 3D with CINEMA 4D XL6, you canuse XL's generators as well (e.g. loft NURBS).

Use DeformersIf this option is switched off, any deformersimported from CINEMA 4D (e.g. twist) will stopdeforming their associated objects. This cansimplify the scene and improve the redraw rate.

Customisation

General Settings

The General Settings enable you to change theway BodyPaint 3D operates and the way theprogram looks.

The numerous options are explained in detail inGeneral Settings, page 40.

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18. Objects Menu    

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18 Objects Menu 309Null Object ................................................................................................................................................... 309

NURBS > Hyper NURBS ............................................................................................................................... 310

Scene > Camera ........................................................................................................................................... 311

Interactive control of the camera and its parameters .............................................................................. 313

Cameras Menu ............................................................................................................................................. 314

Scene Cameras ........................................................................................................................................ 314

Link Active Object ................................................................................................................................... 314

Editor Camera ......................................................................................................................................... 314

Scene > Target Camera ................................................................................................................................. 315

Scene > Light ................................................................................................................................................ 315

Light Settings ................................................................................................................................................ 316

General .................................................................................................................................................... 316

Details ..................................................................................................................................................... 327

Shadow ................................................................................................................................................... 333

Visible Light ............................................................................................................................................. 338

Noise Tab ................................................................................................................................................ 343

Lens Effects ............................................................................................................................................. 345

Glow Editor ............................................................................................................................................. 347

Lens Editor .............................................................................................................................................. 349

Making Gels ............................................................................................................................................ 352

Three Point Lighting ................................................................................................................................ 352

Target Light .................................................................................................................................................. 354

Floor ............................................................................................................................................................. 354

Sky ............................................................................................................................................................... 355

Environment ................................................................................................................................................. 356

Background .................................................................................................................................................. 357

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Null Object

With the null object one could say it’s a “Icannot do anything, I’m nothing” object. Andthat’s right ... well, almost.

If you call this function, BodyPaint 3D createsonly an empty axis system in the 3D space. Theobject contains neither points nor surfaces andcannot be edited in the normal way.

So why use a null object?

Well, the null object can have other objectsplaced within it. So it is useful for groupingmatching elements of a scene. Null objects arealso created by an automatic grouping in theObject manager (Group Objects, page 199).

Let’s not forget one of the most frequently usedapplications of the null object; its use as adummy object for accurate rotation ofpreviously rotated objects.

As long as the axes of an object lie parallel tothose of its parent system (with newly createdobjects the parent is the world coordinatessystem), an object rotates around its Y axis (aheading rotation). However, if the object, or itslocal object coordinate system, is already rotated(so that its axes are not parallel to those of itsparent), the result often astonishes even themost experienced 3D designers.

Left: rotation with parallel axes systems, Right: with analready rotated object system (in each case the final rotationis through 90°)

The use of a null object gives the desired result.Here the null object and the object which is tobe rotated lie on top of each other. The axes ofthe two objects have the same direction and —quite importantly — the object in question iswithin the hierarchy of the null object.

Correct rotation behavior through the use of a null object

18 Objects Menu

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NURBS > Hyper NURBSNURBS objects are generators, meaning thatthey use other objects to generate a newgeometry. BodyPaint 3D's Hyper NURBS objectuses a polygon object to generate a smooth,organic mesh.

The Hyper NURBS object is interactive, whichmeans that as you edit the polygon cage (thesource object), the generated mesh changesautomatically.

The Hyper NURBS object uses an algorithm tosubdivide and round the object interactively - aprocess termed subdivision surfaces. This is anextremely quick and simple way to createorganic forms.

To use the Hyper NURBS, make a polygonobject a child of the Hyper NURBS object (drag-and-drop the polygon onto the Hyper NURBS inthe Object manager).

Both the Hyper NURBS object and the cage object are visible

Only the cage object is visible

Double-click the Hyper NURBS icon in theObject manager to change the appearance ofthe Hyper NURBS.

You can use the dialog to specify the subdivisionlevel for shading in the editor and for raytracing.Normally the value you use for raytracing will beequal to or greater than the resolution for theeditor. The higher you set the resolution, thesmoother the object becomes, but also the morememory it uses and more slowly it renders.

Note

Each 3D program has different options andmechanisms for subdivision surfaces. You mayfind that BodyPaint 3D's implementation differsslightly from other 3D programs.

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Scene > CameraAs well as the default camera in the PerspectiveView, you may add as many additional camerasas you need. Each camera can view your scenefrom a different perspective.

When you select this command a new camera isplaced in the scene using the default positionand focal length values of the current View.

To open the Camera dialog, double click on thecamera's icon in the Object manager:

When placing and aligning a camera,BodyPaint 3D uses the camera coordinatesystem. This system behaves in such a way thatthe X and Y axes define the focal or film plane,and the Z axis indicates the direction that thecamera is pointing and displays this view in thePerspective View.

In the Perspective View, the camera is shown asa cube with two spools of film and a lens:

Additional camera parameters are describedbelow.

Projection

To show all objects in a scene, BodyPaint 3Ddisplays them using a central perspectiveprojection. By default, objects are shown fromthe viewpoint of this virtual camera.

Alternatively you can select from a variety ofother types of projection (e.g dimetric orisometric views, which are commonly used intechnical applications).

Some examples follow: top left; centralperspective, top right; gentleman projection,bottom left; dimetric and bottom right;isometric.

Camera Type

From this pop-up you may select from a list oftypical types of camera lens with preset focallengths:

Normal 36 mmTelephoto 200 mmSuper-Telephoto 1000 mmWide Angle 18 mmFish Eye 10 mmSuper Telephoto 1000 mm

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Zoom

For all camera projections except Perspective, bydefinition there is no focal length, so you maytype a zoom factor into this box if required.Values from 0.1 to 10000 are acceptable.

Typing a number in this box is the same aszooming with the Camera tool selected.

Focal Length

The BodyPaint 3D cameras, like their real worldcounterparts, use a lens system. You are free tochoose from different lenses and to specify thefocal length.

Note

The camera model used in computer graphicprograms corresponds to a pinhole camera withinfinite sharpness. Therefore CG focal length isto be understood only as a simulation andcorresponds in no way to a physical model.

Short focal lengths give a wide-angle view andare ideal for a good overview of the wholescene. They do, however, distort objects in thescene - a particularly striking effect is that of avery short focal length such as a fisheye lens.

Large focal lengths correspond to a telephotolens, they display a very small area of the scenesince they can capture only a small spatial angle.

This is compensated by the fact that you cancapture far more detail with hardly anydistortion. With an extremely high value used asa focal length, the perspective depth is lostcompletely as the perspective projectionchanges into a parallel projection.

Aperture Width

You can manually adjust the field of vision(FOV) and focal ratio by typing an aperturewidth into this box and/or manually adjustingthe focal length.

Depth of Field

BodyPaint 3D will also let you simulate thequality of the lens system, blurring with anincreased aperture, which is known as depth offield.

Depth of Field lets you specify which part of apicture will be out of focus. You have a choiceof Front or Back, depending on whether yourequire the objects at the front or the back to bedisplayed clearly.

You can also choose to have the central range infocus, in which case both the front and back ofthe scene will be out of focus. Selecting Nonewill leave the settings unchanged and willdisplay all objects in focus.

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If you use depth of field in your scene, thefollowing options will let you define the effectmore precisely. Depending on the settings, notall options may be available to you.

Sharpness

Defines the distance from the camera at whichthe picture will be perfectly sharp. Dependingon the Depth of Field values, the sharpness willdecrease towards the front or the rear.

Front/Rear Focus

Determines the distance from the camera to thefront and to the rear of the scene where objectswill become completely out of focus.

Note

The contrast of the grayscale depth channel iscontrolled by the sharpness settings of thecamera. You will get optimum contrast if FrontFocus is set to immediately before the firstobject of the scene and Rear Focus set toimmediately after the last object. The easiestway to control these values is to interactivelyadjust the camera’s handles in the editor (seebelow - Interactive control of the camera).

Note

Remember that depth of field will appear lessobvious at high resolutions.

Show Cone

If you select this option the exact area seen bythe camera will be displayed in the PerspectiveView.

Interactive control of thecamera and its parametersCameras will be frequently used, so ease of useis important. To make things simple, you canadjust the camera parameters without having toopen the dialog. Instead use the adjustablehandles in the Perspective View. Follow thisexample to see how:

1.Create a new, empty document.

2. Create a camera object and set the Depth ofField Front and Rear values to 500 and 2000respectively.

3.Now take a look at the camera object in thePerspective View.

Select the menu option Edit > Frame Scene.Zoom out until you can see the camera objectcompletely. The camera symbol is now relativelysmall, similar to this illustration (you might wantto switch to a Perspective View for a better viewof the scene):

We will now describe the process in more detail.

A green line runs from the camera origin, endingin a single orange point. This is the target pointof the camera. You can grab this point with themouse, move it and align it to other objects,thereby rotating the camera around its origin.

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At the same height as the target point there is a4-sided plane with grab points. This is the focallength plane. At the center point of each side ofthis plane is an orange handle. These handlesallow you to change the focal lengthinteractively.

Switch to the Perspective View, activate thecamera object and adjust the focal length. Youcan see the adjustments in real time in theeditor.

There are two further, optional, planes that runparallel to the focal length plane, one in frontand one at the back. These two planes (or justone of them) are only available if you select adepth of field. At the center of each plane youwill see another orange handle. Use this handleto shift the depth of field plane interactivelyalong the Z-axis of the camera. Again, you cansee these real time adjustments in the editor.

You may also adjust the focal range i.e. the areathat is shown in focus.

By holding down the Shift key while draggingthe handles you will see that the entire plane,rather than just the focal length, can be movedalong the Z-axis.

As you see, interactive control of the camera isvery easy.

As mentioned earlier, you may create as manycameras in BodyPaint 3D as you wish. Keep inmind that it is always the active camera that isused for rendering.

Cameras Menu

Scene CamerasEach view may have its own camera. The editorcamera is used by default but you may createand use your own cameras. The Scene Camerassub-menu will display a list of all the camerasyou have placed in your scene, from which youmay choose one for each view.

Link Active ObjectAfter creating a camera, the view is not initiallyswitched to the new camera. You can move thecamera in the Perspective View and see youradjustments to the camera in the scene.

In order to view using your new camera youmust activate the view by selecting Link ActiveObject from the Cameras menu of theappropriate Perspective View. Now thePerspective View will show the new cameraview.

Note

With more than one camera in a scene, you mayassign each of the respective camera views toyour main Perspective View and very easilyswitch between different cameras and theirviews. Alternatively you can open and attach anindividual Perspective View for each cameraobject and its view. Then you may control all thescene’s cameras at the same time.

Editor CameraTo cancel the view from a selected camera,detach it using this command. This removes theview connection from a camera and shifts backto the editor camera view.

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Note

Camera objects are not only used as cameras.You can also use a camera to help you align yourscene elements and objects. This would makesense with a spotlight for instance (seepage 319) when, like camera objects, the Z-axisis used as the line of sight.

Scene > Target CameraA camera with a target is, in principle, nodifferent to the camera described above.However, when you choose a target camera, atarget expression tag is created. If you double-click on this tag in the Object manager, you canenter a name in the Object dialog that opens.Type in the name of an object, then click on OK.Now, the camera will track the objectautomatically.

Note that a null object is created at the sametime as the camera. The camera aligns to thisnull until you define your own target object.

As you would expect, everything is interactive; ifyou move the camera in the Perspective View, itstays aligned to the target object; if you movethe target object, the camera follows it.

Scene > LightWhen starting a new scene in BodyPaint 3D, adefault light is used. This light is positioned tothe left of your initial perspective view.

If you wish to change the default lighting setupfor all future scenes, build a new scene thatcontains only the lights that you require for yourdefault lighting and save this scene as ‘new.c4d’.This setup will then be opened automaticallyeach time you start a new BodyPaint 3D scene.

Note

You can also add settings such as the outputresolution to your default scene setup in thisway.

Displaying Lights in the Perspective View

The lighting within a scene can be easilypreviewed by turning on the Gouraud shadingoption. This option will update your lighting inreal-time, even adjusting the lighting andupdating your scene as you move the lightsaround.

If your scene is complicated and updates tooslowly when moving your light with the Objecttool, adjust your light’s position with the Modeltool.

The Object tool and the Model tool

Name your light in the Object manager bydouble-clicking on its name.

To change the properties of your light, double-click on its icon in the Object manager.

This opens the Light settings dialog.

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Light SettingsThis dialog provides the details of each lightsource in your scene.

General

Many of the light attributes that you select here(such as Noise) have their own tab on whichyou can give more detail of the particularfeature. We will give an overview of thesefeatures here; more detail can then be found inthe section on the relevant tab, later in thischapter.

Color

You can adjust the color of each of your lightsusing the slider controls and the input boxes foreach color element (R,G,B). You may change thecolor system (perhaps to HSV 0...255) using thepop-up menu below the color box.

The brightness of each light is independent ofthe light’s color and can be controlled with theBrightness slider. By adjusting brightness valuesyou can simulate any type of light from thesmall glow of a candle to the extreme flare ofsunlight.

In most cases the maximum slider value of100% will suffice, but in extreme cases a valueof up to 1000% can be manually typed into theadjacent box.

It is also possible to use the color sliders toachieve negative lighting effects, which isdiscussed in detail below.

Type

You may change the type of light with this pop-up. Detailed explanations of each light type aregiven later in this chapter.

Shadow

Using this selector you may choose to havevarious shadows generated by your light source,or no shadows at all. Detailed explanations ofthe different shadow types are given in theShadow section of this chapter.

Select None if your light is to cast no shadow.This is a helpful option in a scene with manylights, allowing you to turn on shadow-castingfor the main lights only. Any real worldphotographer will envy you this option and itspossibilities.

Visible Light

With this pop-up you can adjust the visibility ofthe light in your rendered scene.

In nature, light normally becomes visible only ifsmall particles such as dust, insects, smoke orfog are present in the air. For example, if a carheadlight shines in fog, you will see its cone of

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light quite distinctly. Detailed explanations ofthese various types of visibility are given later, inthe Visible Light section of this chapter.

Noise

With this option you can make your lightsexhibit irregularities in the visible light or on thesurface lit by the light.

Note that noise will add to the render time.

No Light Radiation

If you need to see just the visible light and/or itslens effects without the light source actuallycasting light onto your objects, activate thisoption. Should you need your light sources forspecial effects check this box, otherwise therender time will increase.

Show Illumination

Selecting this option will show a wireframeapproximation of the light’s illumination range inthe Perspective View. This range can then beadjusted by dragging the handles on thewireframe representation.

Show Visible Light

Selecting this option will display in thePerspective View an approximation of the light’svisible range, not to be confused with theaforementioned illumination range. It maybecome confusing if both indicators are turnedon in the Perspective View. For this reason, thisoption is turned off by default. Again, this rangecan be interactively adjusted with its handles.

Show Clipping

Selecting this option shows an approximation ofthe selected light’s clipping range (restriction ofthe light range - see later) in the PerspectiveView. Again, the range can be adjusted usingthe wireframe’s handles.

Memory

This indicator shows the amount of memoryneeded for the selected light sources in yourscene.

Here is an overview of the memoryrequirements for light sources:

- Hard shadows and area shadows needmemory-intensive raytracing calculations.

As more objects are added to a reflection orrefraction dependent scene, additional memorywill be required.

- a soft-shadowed visible light will need ashadow map of at least 250KB X-resolution x250KB Y-resolution

- Omni light sources require six times as muchmemory for their shadow maps.

- When used in combination with texturedtransparencies (Light Maps), up to 20 timesmore memory can be needed.

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Render Time

This indicator gives an approximate render timefor the selected light source.

Here is a short overview of lighting render times.

- Soft shadows are calculated more quickly thanhard shadows.

- Hard shadows are calculated far more quicklythan area shadows.

- Making a light visible in a rendered scene addsa negligible amount to its render time.

- Using a volumetric light increases render timein inverse relation to the sample distance (i.e.the shorter the sample distance, the longer therender time).

- Noise adds to render time, with hard and softturbulence requiring more calculations thanbasic noise, while wavy turbulence roughlydoubles rendering time over that of standardnoise.

- Using a high sample radius will increase therender time of soft shadows.

- Tube light and area light sources also increaserender time, although not to the same extentas the processor-intensive volumetric light.

Types of Light

This section describes the kinds of light sourcesyou can select from the Type pop-up on theGeneral tab.

Omni

An Omni light acts like a real life light bulb —casting its rays in all directions.

Placing an Omni light into the center of yourscene will illuminate your scene evenly.

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Spot (round/square)

Spotlights cast their rays in just one direction,which is along their Z axis by default. Oncecreated, they can be easily moved and rotatedto light individual objects and certain areas of ascene. The spotlight source can project a roundor a square cone of light.

Square light cones are ideal for, among otherthings, the simulation of projectors whichrequire a square picture to be cast onto a wall.

Some typical examples of round spotlights arecar headlights, torches etc.

Distant

The Distant light type is so called because itmimics the light that is cast from an extremedistance. Using a Distant light would, forexample, evenly illuminate the whole of a floorobject in all directions.

Since a Distant light is effectively infinite, thelight has no actual origin. Thus the exact placingof a Distant light, near or far, has no effect onyour scene’s objects. Only the actual direction inwhich the light is facing is important with thislight source.

Distant light sources are very suitable for thesimulation of sunlight.

Note

Owing to its characteristics, the Distant lightsource cannot radiate visible light.

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Parallel

Parallel lights resemble a very distant lightsource. Unlike the Distant light source however,the Parallel light has an origin and simulates alarge, single axis wall of light.

By default, all Parallel lights when created willradiate light rays along the Z-axis. These lightstake the appearance of an infinitely largesurface, radiating parallel light in a singledirection; anything behind the point of originwill not be illuminated.

Note

Like the Distant light, Parallel lights cannot berendered as a visible light.

Parallel spot (round/square)

Parallel spotlights resemble the regular spotlightsource object, but do not have light cones todefine falloff or distance. Instead, light rays arecast along cylinders and/or bars.

The origin is important in defining which objectsin a scene will be affected by this light. Theradius of the spotlight can also be modifiedusing the adjustment handles.

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Tube

Tube lights do not have an exact point of origin,but a linear one. The Tube light is representedby a line, from which light is radiated in alldirections. When used as a Visible light, this is avery quick and easy way to make neon tubes.

A classic example of the use of the Tube light isof course the laser sword.

Quick tip

Tube lights are a great way to produce long-drawn-out specular highlights, as on the vase inthe illustration below.

Area

The light rays from an Area light expand from itsorigin outwards in all directions. A rectangularcomputer screen is a good example of such alight.

The resultant lighting and specular effects aresomewhat different from those of an Omnilight. Specular highlights are more angular andthe surface illumination is richer (see illustrationbelow). The closer the light source is to theobject, the more apparent this becomes.

However, an Area light with a small radius thatis placed far away in a scene will hardly seem todiffer from an Omni light source.

Note

As with the Distant and Parallel lights, an Arealight cannot be rendered as a visible light source.

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Types of Shadow

This section describes the different types ofshadow you can select from the Shadow pop-upon the General tab. The Shadow tab itself isdescribed on page 333.

You can combine all light source types with allshadow types in BodyPaint 3D. For example anarea light can cast not only area shadows, buthard shadows as well. And a parallel light caneasily cast soft shadows.

There are no restrictions to this mixing of lightsand shadows, since the shadow is computedindependently of the light source.

Hard shadow

Traditionally in raytracers, genuinely raytracedscenes contained hard shadows. As thistechnique needs to compute many moreadditional rays, this method increases the rendertime dramatically.

Hard shadows, because of their abrupt, sharpappearance (see illustration below), are ofparticular interest for technical illustrations.

However, in other more natural pictures theylook rather unrealistic because such hard, sharpshadow borders are rarely found in real worldenvironments.

Soft shadow

In reality all objects, whether they are treesgrowing in the wild or a vase in a room, are litby several partial light sources. The result of thisis a gradual transition of light to shadow.

This soft edge, or umbra, can be simulated inBodyPaint 3D by using a so-called shadow map— the Soft shadow.

A shadow map is a grayscale picture of thescene seen from the view of the light source.Contained in this are all the objects lit by thelight source. During the render calculation therenderer will determine exactly which objectswill fall into this shadow of the light source.

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The major advantage of this method is the fastcomputing speed and the soft shadow’s naturalappearance.

However, the one disadvantage of soft shadowsis the memory required to calculate them.Depending on the size of the shadow map, agreat deal of additional memory may beneeded. So be careful in your allocation ofshadow maps or you may find your sceneswasting precious memory.

Area

Although soft shadows are more natural thanhard shadows, they are still not perfectlynatural. On careful examination you can seethat the soft edge always has the same width. Innature this does not happen; the nearer anobject is to a surface on which it casts itsshadows, the sharper this edge will be. Areashadows simulate this effect perfectly.

Take a look at the above illustration. Where theshadow borders on the cube, it has a very hardlook. As the shadow falls away from the cube itbecomes softer.

How does this work? Quite simply really;BodyPaint 3D calculates the shadow at theorigin of the light source outwards (for all lights,whether Omni, Spot or Area). Only a hardshadow is computed at this point. The softer

area shadow is the result of a virtual area lightsource, which simulates the overlay of severallight sources. This provides the naturalscattering of light.

However, as usual, this method comes with aprice; longer render times. Sometimes the resultmay not justify the length of render time as asoft shadow will almost always be sufficient.Carefully assigned Area shadows, however, canproduce very impressive effects.

An example of a realistic shadow

Types of Visible Light

This section describes the different types ofvisible lights you can select from the VisibleLight pop-up on the General tab. The VisibleLight tab itself is described on page 338.

In BodyPaint 3D all light sources and/or thelight cone can be made visible. This type ofeffect can be seen in a smoke-filled room.

This effect is comparable to fog, which does notdiminish light, but rather adds to its brightness.

With visible light you can produce the moststunning computer graphic effects. Headlights,glowing and shimmering lights, laser beams andatmospheric effects to name just a few.

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There follows a description of the various typesof visible light, available from the Visible Lightpop-up in the General tab.

Visible

If only the Show Visible Light option isactivated (General tab), then the light sourcepenetrates all objects, no shadows are cast bythe objects. For example, you might place avisible light in the center of a sphere to simulatean atmosphere around a planet.

A simple example of visible light

Volumetric

If you have experimented with the visible lightsettings, you may already know that a visiblelight pays no attention to objects which lie in itscone of light. The light rays penetrate objectsunhindered, casting no shadow in the light’sbeam.

In order for shadows to be cast in the visiblelight, volumetric lighting must be added.

The parameters for the visible volumetric lightare taken from the light source’s shadow mapvalues, X-resolution, Y-resolution, parallel widthand the sample radius. The algorithm forvolumetric light is based on the shadow mapand needs these parameters. (These shadowmap parameters are covered in more detail inthe Shadow section of this chapter.)

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This is volumetric visible light; shadows can be cast within thelight cone

Inverse Volumetric

Using the inverse volumetric function has theinteresting effect of inverting your volumetriclight — that is, the light is visible where the lightcone would normally be in shadow (see theillustration below for an example).

Imagine a company logo, behind which youhave placed an inverse volumetric light source.This inverts the light’s volumetric effect, givingthe impression that the light is radiating fromthe logo itself.

With inverse volumetric lighting, the light appears to emanatefrom the object

Types of Noise

This section describes the different types ofnoise you can select from the Noise pop-up onthe General tab. The Noise tab itself is describedon page 343.

Illumination

You can add irregularities to your light source inorder to give it a realistic appearance.

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A real-world surface is unlikely to be evenly lit,especially if dust or particles are in the air.

Visibility

This option adds irregularities not to your litsurface, but to the visible light itself.

With this you can simulate for example thewaving effect of fog, which is visible in the lightcone.

Here is an example: Using Noise you canproduce very interesting effects, such as asupernova, simply by setting the internal andexternal colors of the visible light to yellow andred.

Both

Using this option will ensure that both the basiclight and any visible light are provided withnoise irregularities.

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Details

Using the options on the Details tab, you canaccess the individual properties of each of yourlight sources.

Inner Angle

Depending on the type of light you use, this willadjust either the inner angle (for a standardspotlight) or the inner radius (for a parallelspotlight) of the light.

Within the inner angle area, the luminosity valueof the light source is 100%. From the inner tothe outer angle the luminosity value falls from100% to 0%.

If you switch off the Inner Angle option, theluminosity of the light source in the entire lightcone amounts to 100%, resulting in a hard coneof light; the following picture illustrates this.

If Inner Angle has a value of 0, the light sourcewill have a soft transition spreading from thecenter of the light to the light’s edge, asillustrated below.

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Outer Angle

Adjusting this value will define how large thelight will be in total. The Outer Angle valueindicates the limits of the light source’sluminosity.

Aspect Ratio

This option allows you to stretch and shear theshape of the light’s cone angle. The standardaspect ratio value is 1; increasing the value to 2,for example, will double the light cone’s heightrelative to its width. Similarly, reducing the valueto 0.5 will make the light cone only half as highas it is wide.

Note

This effect can also be achieved by scaling theaxes of the light source using the Object tooland/or the Object Axis tool.

Object tool

Object Axis tool

Brightness

This value controls the overall brightness of thelight source.

While this control may be seen as just a way ofbrightening or dimming your light source, it’salso capable of another interesting, and veryuseful, effect. Using a negative value with thisoption results in negative lighting.

The color of your light source (set in the Generaltab) is important here. That color will not beadded to the scene where a negative light

source is in effect. With this technique you canartificially darken and shade specific areas ofyour scene.

This type of lighting works even better whenused with carefully constructed environmentlighting and falloff ranges. A goodunderstanding of environment lighting is neededfor this and this is covered later in this chapter.

Contrast

The intensity of a light source on an object isnot dependent on the distance of the light fromthe object (unless you explicitly adjust its falloff),but rather on the angle at which its rays hit theobject.

If a ray hits a surface at an angle of 90°, thesurface is illuminated with the light's maximumintensity (taking any falloff into account). As thisangle (called the angle of incidence) decreases,the strength of the illumination decreases aswell. Therefore, in an average scene, a softtransition is normally seen on any lit surfaces.The Contrast value controls this transition.

In the illustration below you can see a series ofpictures of a planet, towards which a light isdirected. You can clearly see how little theplanet’s front and sides are lit using 0%

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contrast. The transition on this lit surface is notvery soft; this surface contrast is not natural forplanets. If you look at photographs of a planetyou will see that the transition of its lit surfaceto its shadowed edge is hard - as illustratedfurther to the right in the series of pictures.

0% 50% 100%

With the contrast control you can adjust howsoft or hard you wish the lit surface transition tobe.

If you need a special over-soft look to yourobjects you may even enter negative values,here‘s an example:

0% -50% -100%

Inner Color

Independently of the light source’s color, whichwas assigned in the General tab, you may assignanother color to the internal range of the light.

When used, this Inner Color is the core color ofthe light source. Starting at 100% of its value,the inner color spreads outwards and graduallychanges into the light source’s general color. Forthe inner color to be used, the Colored EdgeFalloff option (see below) must be activated.

The inner distance of the falloff determines theexpansion of the inner color. Click on the colorchooser to select the color properties of yourinner color.

In this illustration the light source is yellow andthe inner color is red. The light shows a gradualprogress of color change from red to yellow.

Colored Edge Falloff

This option is available only when using aspotlight with an Inner Color option selected.The normal behaviour of the inner color is tospread in a linear direction along only the Z-axisof the spotlight, from its origin to the lightsource’s color (selected in the General tab).

If you select Colored Edge Falloff, however, theinner color will also radiate outwards from theinner angle through to the light source’s generalcolor.

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In this picture Colored Edge Falloff is deactivated.

Here Colored Edge Falloff is on – you can see the inner color inthe center of the light cone.

Falloff

A normal virtual light source will illuminate itssurrounding environment with a continuous,linear brightness. However, this is not how alllights work in reality; real light sources will havetheir luminosity absorbed.

Just as in nature, BodyPaint 3D light sources areable to have their luminosity reduced over anydistance. To achieve this, several falloff functionsare available in this pop-up and are illustratedbelow.

Inner Distance

Within Inner Distance there is no falloff. Up tothis point, the brightness of the light remainsconstant. Outside of this boundary is where theinner distance falloff begins.

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Outer Distance

The range between the inner distance and theouter distance is where the brightness of thesource light changes from 100% to 0%. ThisOuter Distance value indicates the maximumrange that will be illuminated by the sourcelight.

Near Clipping

You can use clipping to restrict the illuminationand visible light (if present) radially with anOmni light and linearly with all other light types.This means your light source does not have toradiate light from its origin; the radiation maybegin, for example, five meters from the lightsource’s origin.

The two values used for this effect are From andTo and signify, in metres, the distance for theclipping effect. The larger the difference in thetwo values, the softer the transition.

From = 90, To = 90

From = 90, To = 150

An example:

If values of 10m and 50m are used in the twoboxes, it means that there will be noillumination from the light source between 0and 10 meters; from 10 metres the luminositybegins, reaching full luminosity at 50 metres.

Far Clipping

Far clipping can be used to cut off your lightsource’s illumination abruptly.

To use far clipping, once again two values areneeded. This time the From and To valuesdenote where the cut off begins, and where thelight source will fully vanish. Again, the largerthe difference between these two values, thesofter the transition.

Examples of clipping with point and spotlightsare shown below.

From = 300, To = 300

From = 220, To = 300

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Schematic display of the individual clipping ranges using theexample of an Omni light source

Ambient Illumination

Normally the brightness of a surface isdetermined by the angle at which a ray of lighthits it. The greater the angle between the rayand a tangent to the surface, the more thesurface will be lit by the light.

When Ambient Illumination is switched on,however, this physical law is waived. Here theangle does not matter. All surfaces are lit withthe same intensity. Thus a much flatter lookresults. Only the material color is considered inthe lighting calculations.

In the example picture above, the light’s Falloffwas also activated.

With both Ambient Illumination and Falloffactivated for the light source, you can lightencertain regions of your scene in a similar way tohow you darken them with negative lighting,explained earlier.

No Diffuse

When No Diffuse is selected, the colorproperties of an object are ignored by the lightsource; only specular surfacing is produced bythe light. This can be useful for some objectse.g. a golden signature, where you would likesome specular glints, but no lightening of thecolor properties.

Writing with No Diffuse off

Writing with No Diffuse on

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No Specular

When this option is selected, the light sourceproduces no specular highlights on your scene’sobjects. Imagine you have a wineglass on atable with two or more light sources in thescene. Your wine glass may then show too manyspecular highlights, with the glass materiallooking too busy. To avoid this, turn on NoSpecular for some of your light sources.

The bottle below is lit by two light sources,causing several highlights to develop.

Below, the No Specular option has beenactivated for one of the light sources.

Shadow

This attributes tab is used for the fine-tuning ofyour scene’s shadow maps.

Density

Adjusting this value will vary the intensity ofyour shadow. A value of 100% means theshadow has full intensity. With 50% yourshadow will be semi-transparent, and at 0% theshadow is invisible.

Color

Here you can change the shadow’s color. Youmay be asking yourself why you would everneed to do this. With a little thought, however,you may realise that in nature a shadow ishardly ever truly jet black. Coloring your shadowwith a shade of brown, for example, could givea particular scene some natural, extra warmth.

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Bias

Because of the particular principle involved inthe calculation of shadow maps (shadows donot begin at the object’s origin), you may attimes find the need to adjust the shadow’sposition using the Bias value. Usually a value of1m will suffice for most scenes. However,sometimes an adjustment may be necessary.

When zooming the camera in on extremelysmall objects, this distance between object andshadow will become apparent (seeillustration 1).

Entering a lower value can correct this error (seeillustration 2).

You may also at times have too small a Biasvalue (e.g. with very large objects), which canresult in the object casting the shadow on toitself (see illustration 3). In a case like this, setthe Bias value somewhat higher.

Illustration 1

Illustration 2

Illustration 3

Note

The smaller an object is and the more you zoomin on it with the camera, the smaller the biasvalue must be set. This ensures no gap betweenobject and shadow is visible. If the object isexcessively large and unwanted self-shadowingoccurs, raise the bias value. Generally speaking,a value of 1m is adequate for all objects up to asize of 10000m.

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Absolute

You should leave this option activated!

If you switch it off, the distance of the shadowfrom the object depends also on the distance ofthe light source from the object – so-calledrelative bias. With relative bias, the further thelight source is from the object, the further theshadow will be from the object.

It can be useful to deactivate the option in casesof extreme scale.

Transparency

If you need your shadow maps to consider thetransparent (alpha channel) properties of yourobjects, you should switch on this option. Whenactivated, your shadows will take into accountthe transparent surfaces of your objects andrender your shadows with the correcttransparency. Transparencies can also becomputed with all other shadow types.

The Transparency option is on

The Transparency option is off

Note

Transparent soft shadows use lots of memoryduring rendering. An Omni light source cansometimes use six times as much memory as aspotlight, as six shadow map calculations mustbe computed compared to the spotlight’s singleshadow map.

Clipping Influence

If you select this option, the clipping settings onthe Details tab will be applied to shadow-castingas well.

Area Shadow

This value will set the parameter range for yourarea shadow.

Width

As described above, the area shadow isproduced by a virtual area light source(independently of the actual light source). ThisWidth value indicates the size of this surface.The larger you make this value, the more thelight is scattered and the softer the shadowbecomes. However, as the value is increased, sois the render time, sometimes substantially.

With large radius (300 m)

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With small radius (50 m)

Samples

If you lower this value, the quality of the areashadow is reduced, but it is calculated morequickly.

Soft Shadow

Use this for the finer details of your softshadows.

Map Size

When using soft shadows, BodyPaint 3D initiallysees the scene from the point of view of thelight source and calculates the complete scenefrom this view. All objects seen in this view areinterpreted as shadows for the scene. Thisresults in shadow maps being created.

Map Size assigns memory for each shadowmap. The smaller the memory assignment, themore pixelated the shadow will appear. This canresult in a shadow map with a jagged, staircase-like appearance at its edges. The more memoryused for the map size, the smoother the shadowand its edges, but the higher the memory usage.

By default, a standard size of 250x250 is usedfor Map Size. Shadow map sizes are commonlyset anywhere up to 1000x1000. Although youcan define a larger map size, you should rarelyneed to do so.

You can see clearly that, in order to keep yourshadow sharp and smoothly defined, yourshadow map will need to increase in size.

If you simply need to keep your shadow edgesoft, you can increase the Sample Radius (seebelow). Again, this will increase render time.

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Note

Rather than use a map with a doubled map size,you can achieve an equivalent soft edge bydoubling the sample radius.

Sometimes when you have a small shadow mapcreated by a very distant light source, a problemmay appear with spherical objects castingrectangular shadows.

You can check this by viewing the scenethrough your light source. A light source, likeany other scene object, can be defined as acamera view. To do this make sure your lightsource is selected and from the Perspective Viewmenu select Cameras > Link Active Object.

X-resolution

If the pre-set value of the map size is not givingyou the desired result, you may optionally adjustthe X-resolution manually. In general it isstandard to set the manual X-resolution (width)to the same value as the Y-resolution (height)

Y-resolution

With a spotlight source, you can also provide anon-square shadow map by manually entering avalue for the Y-resolution.

Memory Usage

BodyPaint 3D automatically calculates themaximum memory use for the shadow map,which is shown here. This can help you inestimating exactly how much memory will beallocated for your light sources shadow mapcalculations in your scene.

Sample Radius

The sample radius determines the accuracy ofthe shadow map. The higher the sample radius,the more accurate the shadow is, at the expenseof a higher render time. If, for some reason, you

must use a small shadow map, selecting a higherSample Radius value will improve the shadowquality. So you can trade off render time againstmemory usage.

Parallel Width

This setting will only be active for distant and/orparallel lights.

Here we meet a visible light setting known as alight cube (more accurately, a light cuboid). Thislight cube has its length/width dimensions set tothe Parallel Width value, the depth (z-axis) ofthe light cube being infinite. Importantly, onlyobjects within this cube can cast shadows.

This boundary for shadow-casting is a necessitysince the scope of parallel/distant light sources isinfinite.

Outline Shadow

Using this option will result in your shadowbeing seen as just a thin outline, instead of afull, darkened surface.

Note

With this option, it is recommended you usehigher values for the shadow maps resolutionand sample radius.

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Use Shadow Cone

One of the main problems with Omni lightsources is that six shadow maps must becomputed in total, which can sometimesproduce small artifacts at the shadow’s edges. Ifthe Use Shadow Cone option is activated, theshadow production is limited to a cone, thusgenerating a single shadow map withoutartefacts.

Additionally, producing these shadow maps onlywhere necessary will save considerable rendertime.

Soft

Activating this option will give the shadow conea softer edge.

This option is used to ensure that any objectwhich is only partially in the shadow cone areacasts a soft, fading shadow.

Angle

This value changes the vertex angle of theshadow cone.

Visible Light

Falloff

This is the percentage reduction in the light’sdensity. The axial falloff of the visible light is setto a standard 100%.

This means that from the origin of the light toits outer distance, the density of the visible lightfalls from 100% to 0%. So, if a value of 10% isentered, the outside edge will be at 90%visibility.

100% Falloff 0% Falloff

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Edge Falloff

Edge falloff is relevant only with spotlightsources. The edge falloff determines howquickly the light’s density decreases towards theedge of the light cone.

If you enter a value of 0% (or leave the optionunselected), you will produce a very hard visiblelight.

A value of 100% gives a more gradual fallofffrom the inside of the light cone to its outeredge, until it reaches 0%.

0 % Edge Falloff

100 % Edge Falloff

Custom Colors

With this option you can assign your own colorsto the visible light, independently of the actualcolor of the light source (General tab) and theinner color (Details tab).

Outer

Use the color selector to define your light’souter color edge.

Inner

Use the color selector to define your light’s innercolor edge.

Colored Edge Falloff

This option is only available with spotlightsources and works with your selected customcolors. Normally the inner color behaves in sucha way that it travels along the Z-axis of thespotlight source linearly to the outer color.However, selecting Colored Edge Falloff willcause the inner color to also spread outwardsradially from the inner angle to meet the outercolor.

In this picture Colored Edge Falloff is off

Here Colored Edge Falloff is on – you can see the inner colorwithin the light cone

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Inner Distance

Within this value, the density of the visible lightis always a constant 100%. The falloff beginsonly outside of this distance.

Outer Distance

Between the inner distance and the outerdistance the density of the visible light changesfrom 100% to 0%. This value thus gives themaximum visible range of the visible light.

Outer Distance Y

When using Omni light sources, you have theability to set the falloff distance for both Y and Zaxes. This option sets the distance of light fallofffor the Y axis.

Outer Distance Z

This option sets the value for the Omni light’sfalloff along the Z-axis.

Sample Distance

The sample distance is relevant for only visiblevolumetric lights. Adjusting this value defineshow finely the visible light’s volumetric shadowwill be computed.

Larger values lead to a somewhat rough (butswift) calculation, while smaller values lead to amuch finer, but more time-consuming result.

The value of this sample distance is measured inworld units. This value thus determines howfinely the shadows within a visible light will besampled. Values will usually be from 1/10th to1/1000th of the light source radius.

By increasing the value your scene will rendernoticeably quicker but certain parts of yourscene will be sampled very roughly, resulting insampling artifacts. To reduce these sampling

artifacts requires a reduction in your samplingvalue too. The smaller the value, however, thehigher the cost in rendering time.

BodyPaint 3D contains an integrated antialiasingtechnique for surface shine, ensuring even theroughest surfaces render smoothly, allowing youto set the Sample Distance value somewhathigher than without this feature.

Sample distance tips

If you want to create fine shafts of light, such aslight beams radiating through cracks or frombehind stone columns, set the sample distanceto a relatively small value. On the other hand, alight that is completely covered and allows nobeams of light to break through may besampled using a much higher value.

The following example demonstrates this. Thepumpkin in the picture has a radius of 150 units,the visible volumetric light a radius (outerdistance) of 700 units.

top left

Sample Distance: 10 unitsRender time: 105sThe pumpkin looks perfect.

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top right

Sample Distance: 20 unitsRender time: 60sHere the rays emitting from the mouth and the righteye are showing the first signs of artifacts.bottom left

Sample Distance: 40 unitsRender time: 35sYou can clearly see now how the rays in the visiblelight are losing their fine edges.bottom right

Sample Distance: 80 unitsRender time: 23sThe picture has, quite literally, been rendered useless.

Why is volumetric lighting so render-intensive?

When a beam hits a light cone, it is not only theintensity of the light that needs to be computed.Additionally, for each part of the beam, theprogram needs to check for other objects withinthe light cone that might be casting shadows.So for every part of the beam of light, an extraraytracer ray needs to be initiated and emitted.

However, segments in the fog cannot bereduced below a certain length, and as a result,an approximation must be used - the length ofthe light cone is subdivided into equal parts.

Let’s say the raytracer ray hits the light cone andthe distance between the entry and the exitpoints of the light cone is 1,000 units. So asample distance of 50 units will mean that anintensity value and a shadow beam will have tobe calculated 20 times (1000 divided by 50).

The shorter the sample distance, the longer thecalculation will take. Even if you have only fivesubdivisions (so a sample distance of 200 in theabove example) this will require a five-foldincrease per raytracer ray and per contact withthe light cone than without volumetric lighting.Using progressively finer subdivisions, the

processing time involved will very quicklybecome astronomical. Alas, this is an inherentproblem with computer graphics which cannotbe resolved or accelerated other than bythrowing processor power at it.

So why can’t you input a fixed value for thenumber of samples?

Well, if the raytracer beam hits the light cone atits beginning, the distance between the entryand exit points might be, for example, 100units. But if the beam hits the cone further fromthe light source, this distance might grow to5,000 units or more. So if you used a fixednumber of samples, at the narrow end of thecone a lot of unnecessary calculations would bemade and later too few (which would result inugly artefacts).

Tips

Volumetric lighting needs a lot of calculationtime, therefore render such light sources onlywhen it is absolutely necessary. If you choose touse a volumetric light as a particle (which isperfectly possible), then perhaps you shouldconsider buying a second computer which youcan leave to render that scene over a period ofdays. Take care with your sample distancevalues. Finding a happy medium (small for finedetail, but as large as possible for reducingrender time) is the key here.

Brightness

This value gives the brightness of the visiblelight source.

Dust

With this option you can determine the darknessof the light cone. With a Dust value of morethan 0% brightness is not added, butsubtracted. To make sure you see the full effect

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of this, lower your light’s brightness accordingly.The difference between a normal bright lightand a dust-assigned light can be clearly seen inthe following illustration. To the left is a bright,visible light. To the right a dark, dusty,somewhat sooty light.

Dithering

This produces small irregularities in the visiblelight which, in certain cases, can help preventunwanted banding (aka contouring) in thevisible light source.

Explanation

With certain light source combinations (e.gvisible lights that overlap), you may find that the24-bit picture depth of your output device isinsufficient and it may display color gradients inlarge steps. This display problem is known asbanding or contouring. To avoid this problemuse the dithering option to give your visible lighta certain irregularity and help to smooth thecolor graduations.

Adapt Brightness

This option prevents a light beam from beingover-exposed. The brightness is reduced untilthe over-exposed effect disappears.

Adapt Brightness off

Adapt Brightness on

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Additive

Select this option if you wish to mix the lightbeam additively with other light sources in yourscene.

Additive on

Additive off

Noise Tab

Type

Select from four Noise types.

Simple Noise produces dark and bright areas:

Then there are three types of turbulence thatchange the characteristics of the noise byadding cloud-like effects.

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Soft Turbulence:

Hard Turbulence:

Wavy Turbulence:

Octaves

(Only relevant for the Turbulence types above)

The Octaves value determines the graininess ofthe noise. The higher the value, the more grittythe appearance.

Velocity

Indicates the speed at which the irregularitieswill move.

Brightness

Using this you can raise the overall brightness ofthe irregularities. You may also enter negativepercentages and reduce the brightness.

Contrast

Changing this will allow you to adjust thecontrast of the noise. Higher values increase thecontrast, lower values reduce it.

Use Local Coordinates

Selecting this option will ensure that the localcoordinates of the light source are nailed down.If the light source is moved now, the noise/turbulence will move also.

In normal use you should leave this option off,as dust and particles in the real world move dueto the forces of nature, not because the lightitself moves.

Scale

This value will determine the size of theirregularities in relation to the scene’s absoluteCartesian coordinates. If the noise effect is toosevere, try reducing this value.

Illumination

This is where you set the general intensity of thenoise.

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Wind

This is only relevant when you are usingBodyPaint 3D in conjunction with CINEMA 4D;please see the CINEMA 4D reference manual fordetails of this function.

Lens EffectsBodyPaint 3D is a powerful tool when it comesto producing the aberrations of real-worldcamera lens systems and film material.

Basic sunbeams are brought to life with a solarcorona or a halo. A lens reflection of a low-quality camera lens can be easily simulated, asrainbow colored circles develop and rundiagonally across the screen. A welcome flaw inan otherwise too perfect virtual world.

You may recall that the General tab has anoption for turning off light radiation (No LightRadiation). If this option is chosen, the lightsource will no longer illuminate the scene but itslens effects will still be visible. This is useful, forexample, if you are already satisfied with thelighting in your scene and you wish to add alens flare but no further surface illumination.

The parameters for these lens effects are manyand varied and take up three tabs of the Lightsettings dialog. But fear not, with a step-by-stepapproach you will soon be comfortable with allthe effects and their various options.

On the main Lens Effects tab you can defineyour basic effect, choosing both reflexes andglows separately. Using the two related tabs(Glow Editor and Lens Editor) you may fine tunethe finest details of the entire lens effect. To aidyou in this, a preview window will constantlyupdate the adjustments as you make them.

Tip

It’s very easy to build yourself a light sourcelibrary containing spectacular effects. You canproduce many types of light sources withdifferent effects that can then be saved asindividual objects in the Object manager. Whenyou require one of these specific lights for yourscene you may simply load it from your sourcelight library.

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So to the details of the Lens Effects tab. Fromhere you can quickly access a number of pre-defined glow and reflex examples. You can alsochange the basic properties of the lensaberration from here.

Glow

From this popup menu you can select, from apre-defined library, the glow of the light source.

Reflexes

From this popup menu you can select the typeof lens reflection from a pre-defined library.

You will find a detailed overview of all theeffects at the end of this section.

S (brightness)

Adjusting this value will change the globalbrightness of the glow or reflex. Smaller valueswill reduce the effect, values of 100% or morewill strengthen it.

R (aspect ratio)

Change the global aspect ratio of both glowsand reflexes with this value. At the default valueof 1, both will appear circular. Smaller or greatervalues will give you a squeezed/stretchedellipse.

Scale

This value will adjust the size of the whole lenseffect (rays, glows and reflexes). This saves youfrom adjusting each effect individually.

Rotation

Use this value to rotate the lens effect to anyangle.

Use Light Parameters

When this option is activated, the light sourceproperties defined in the General tab will alsoaffect the glow/reflex effects. So if the lightsource color is red then the glow/reflex effectwill also appear red.

Fade if near Border

Using this option will make the lens effect fadethe nearer it is to the edge of the image. Whenat the center of the screen, the lens effect willhave maximum intensity. This corresponds to alight’s physical behaviour in the real world.

Fade if behind Objects

Using this option will determine whether lightsources that lie behind objects are still toproduce their effects or not.

Lens flares do not occur if light sources arebehind objects, but glows or radiation canproduce attractive effects.

Fade if approaching Objects

Normally, if a light source with a lens effectdisappears behind an object, the effects are stillat maximum strength until the light sourceorigin is fully behind the object. With this optionenabled, the effect’s strength will gradually fadeas the light source approaches the object.

Note

The gradual fading of the sun behind a planet,complete with atmosphere, is a good example ofthis effect.

Scale Glow with Distance

This option will scale the glow effect accordingto its distance from the camera. The further thedistance from the camera, the smaller the effectwill be.

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Scale Reflexes with Distance

This option will scale the reflex effect accordingto the distance. The further the distance fromthe camera, the smaller the effect will be.

Reference Size

With this option you can adjust the distancevalue with which the glow and reflex effects arecalculated. The smaller the value the moredistant, thus smaller, the effect will appear.While increasing the value will make the effectappear closer, thus larger.

Normally lens reflexes have a constant size, nomatter how far removed from the camera theyare.

Glow Editor

With this tab you can tweak the lens glow toyour exact requirements. This dialog is dividedinto three parts, the glow properties (top left),the ring properties (top right) and the beamproperties (bottom left), which incorporates theStreak Editor.

Of major importance is the preview windowthat updates your effect as you modify it.

Glow properties

Glow

Select the required glow element from thismenu of pre-defined light source glows, tochange the overall shape of the light’s glow.

Type

Selecting a glow type from this pre-defined setwill change how the glow’s brightness isdistributed.

Size

Adjusting this value determines the size of theglow’s element. The radius is shown as apercentage, where 100% is the distance fromthe center of the screen to the edge.

R (aspect ratio)

Modifying this value allows you to change theaspect ratio of the glow. At its default size of 1the glow will appear circular. Smaller or largervalues will shrink/stretch the glow’s aspect,making it a horizontal or vertical ellipse.

Color

From this dialog (obtained by clicking the box tothe right of Size) you can select the color of thesurrounding outer glow.

Ring properties

Using these values will produce a ring, or halo,around the lens effect. Adjust this effect to yourrequirements by consulting the preview window.

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Ring

From this drop-down menu you choose the halotype you require; Inactive, Ring or RainbowRing.

Size

Adjust the size of the ring from here, the valuebeing a percentage.

R (aspect ratio)

Adjust the ring’s aspect ratio with this value.Decreasing the default value of 1 will flatten thering, while increasing it will stretch it into anellipse.

Color

Choose the color for the ring from this colorpicker.

With this dialog you can define the corona ofyour lens effect — the rays of light that are castin star-like fashion around the effect.

Change this effect until you see what you wantin the preview window.

Beam properties

Choose your preferred beam/corona from thispre-defined, drop-down set.

Type

Choose the corona type from here. Dependingon the type chosen, the pattern and number ofbeams cast will vary.

Size

Use this value to determine the size of theelement. The radius is indicated as a percentage,where 100% is the distance from the center ofthe screen to the edge.

R (aspect ratio)

Adjust the aspect ratio of the corona with thisvalue. At the default value of 1 it will appearcircular. Smaller values will flatten the effect intoa small horizontal ellipse, while increasing thevalue stretches it into a taller, vertical ellipse.

Color

Choose a color for your corona from this colorpicker (click to the right of Size).

Angle

To rotate the beams of your star/corona to anyangle you want, enter a new value here.

Edit

Still not satisfied? OK, there’s more; click thisEdit button to open the Streak Editor.

The Streak Editor

This dialog enables you to adjust the light thatdefines the appearance of the corona. Thesevalues are set with four sliders and three optionboxes. As usual, a preview window is updatedconstantly to let you see your changes.

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Thickness

Change this value to specify the width of thebeam’s rays. The smaller the value, the sharperthe beam (or streak) appears.

Beams

You can choose the number of beams producedby your corona effect here. Up to 200 beamscan be produced by each light source.

Breaks

With this option you can insert interruptions orbreaks into your corona. These are added to thegaps which already exist between the beams.

Width

Adjust the size of the above breaks with thisvalue.

Random Distribution

Activating this option ensures that the beamsare arranged randomly, rather than in asymmetrical pattern.

Random Beam Length

To ensure that all beams are not the samelength, activate this option. All individual beamswill then be different lengths.

Star-like

Once activated, this option will arrange thebeams in a more star-shaped pattern, thickeningthe beams towards the center.

This effect is particularly effective when usedwith a small number of thick beams.

Lens Editor

The Lens Editor helps you to create and adjustthose famous, often infamous, lens reflections(aka lens flares) to your specific needs. Onceagain, all changes are shown in the previewwindow.

Element no.

Use this slider to select the reflection you wishto edit. You can add or remove extra reflectionsto and from the existing set by using the + and -buttons. A maximum of 40 reflections are atyour disposal, enough to recreate anycombination of light/lens flares or aberrations.

Type

Select the shape of your reflection with thisslider. Only in the rarest case, if at all, shoulddifferent reflection types be used in a scene. Forexample, apply only circular or only hexagonaltypes to the one scene. Remember, your scene is

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shot through one simulated real-world lens —these lens reflections depend upon that lenssystem, not on your existing scene lights.

Here are some examples:

Pos

This value sets the positioning of the element onthe screen. The axis on which all reflections lietravels through two points; the light source andthe center of the screen (which is also the centreof the lens).

Here the following values apply.

0% = light source50% = screen center100% = 2x distance light source center

Negative values place the reflections behind thelight source.

Size

This value determines the size of the element.The radius is shown as a percentage, where100% is the distance from the center of thescreen to the edge.

Color

Select the color for the element.

Real World Glows, Halos and Reflexes

Glows

Glows are a type of over-exposure to light.When the light intensity is sufficient, thisexposure bloom includes film grain in the areassurrounding a bright light, even though thoseareas are not illuminated at all.

Halos

Halos are also caused by over-exposure, butwith added color distortions caused by thediffraction of the film grain.

Reflexes

Lens reflections are caused by the focal image ofpoor quality lenses. The colored shape producedis an artifact of the lens surface, the shaperesulting from the shape of the lens.

Large apertures produce small reflections, smallapertures produce larger ones.

Default CINEMA 4D V4

Wide angle Zoom

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Hi-8 Camcorder

Floodlight Artefact

Star 1 Star 2

Star 3 Violet

Flash 1 Flash 2

Flash 3 Sun 1

Sun 2 Grey

Blue 1 Blue 2

Red Yellow-green 1

Yellow-green 2 Candle

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Making GelsA gel is produced by assigning a material with atransparency map texture to a light source. Thelight’s colored areas are then filtered by thistexture and colored in exactly the same way as aslide projector will project a still picture.

You can assign as many gels as you wish to eachlight object. Thus you are able to produce manycomplex picture effects with ease.

For example, the striped-shadow effect of avenetian blind can be simulated, without thecomplicated and time-consuming shadowcalculations normally associated with such aneffect, simply by assigning a black-and-whitestriped gel (aka light map) to a light object.

Note

Lights do not take on the material properties of aparent object

Three Point LightingA simple and very common lighting principle isthe three point lighting technique. This methodis excellent for lighting individual objectscorrectly e.g. a character in a scene.

The object is illuminated by a main (key) light, afill light and a third light from the rear, known asthe backlight. Naturally all scenes and objectsare unique and require individual setups, but thissystem is a good starting point for your scene’slighting properties.

The first light is the main light of the scene (thekey light) – often a white spotlight with a softshadow and the brightest light of the three. Thislight is placed to the right of the camera andaligned to your object. The radius is thenadjusted to illuminate the whole of the object.

The second light is the fill light whichcomplements the key light by illuminating theparts of the scene not reached by the key light.Changing this light to another color (e.g. yellowor red-brown) will make the scene appear softerand warmer. This fill light should be at roughly50% brightness and placed to the left of thecamera and key light.

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The third of these lights is the backlight. Thisspotlight provides lighting from the rear andabove in order to emphasize the outline of yourobject against the background.

Blue is a suitable color here, as cooler colors areseen by the human eye as somewhat moredistant than warmer colors, thus giving moreapparent depth to your scene.

Here is an image lit with simple, one-sourcelighting ...

Now here is the same image lit with carefully-designed three-point lighting ...

The light sources do not have to be spotlightsbut the limited and more central spread of aspotlight’s illumination means the objects won‘tbecome lost in a lighter, more evenly litenvironment.

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It is also preferable to have just one light (thekey light) cast shadows. All three lights castingshadows can become confusing. One shadow-casting light is often more than sufficient.

Note that you should not place your lightsources too close to your object, otherwiseunwanted specularity may result. The furtheraway the light source is from the object, themore evenly lit the object will be.

Target LightWhen you choose Objects > Scene > TargetLight, a null object is created, containing a lightsource and another null object. The latter is thetarget object to which the light is tied at alltimes.

The light source can be any light type of yourchoosing and you simply move objects into thehierarchy of the target object for the light tobecome aligned to them.

You can edit the whole structure interactivelywithin the editor so, if you move the lightsource, it stays aligned to the target object and,conversely, if you move the target object thetarget light follows it.

Floor

This command creates a floor object. The flooralways lies in the XZ plane of the worldcoordinate system, stretching to infinity in alldirections.

You may create as many floors as you need anduse them all at the same time in BodyPaint 3D.You could, for example, use multiple floors aspseudo skies on to which you can add cloudlayers of differing transparency. In the followingexample four floors were used, one for theactual ground and three for the layers of cloud,each one situated higher than the other.

As you may have realized, floors can be movedand rotated relative to each other. This featurecan help you avoid cloud layers appearingidentical, by avoiding repeating textures.

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Sky

This command will create a sky object which, toall intents and purposes, is an infinitely largesphere whose center is the origin of the worldcoordinate system.

If you want to apply a texture (e.g the 2D cloudshader) to the sky, you should use Spherical orCubic projection. If the clouds appear too large,increase the repetition of the texture’s tiling andensure you switch on Seamless (see TextureMapping, page 255).

Do the clouds seem a little artificial? Thepossible reason for this is that the clouds havethe same tiling in both the X and the Ydirection. Adjusting the repetition of the tilingon the Y-axis, making them approximately twiceas high as for the X-axis, ensures the clouds looksomewhat stretched and they appear nearer andmore natural.

Alternatively, you can use several floor objectsfor the simulation of cloud layers.

For simulating a starlit sky, Cubic projection isrecommended as this will avoid unwanteddistortions at the poles.

Aiming the camera directly up will display aproblem — the cloud texture tends to gather atthe zenith. You can fix this by assigning ShrinkWrapping (see page 262).

When rendering note that only one Sky object istaken into account. If you have several Skyobjects in your scene, the uppermost one in theObject manager is used when rendering thescene.

Note

With environment fog switched on the skyobject’s visibility will be lost. How you create asky to appear with environment fog is explainedon page 228.

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EnvironmentYou can use the Environment object to defineseveral global scene parameters.

Note

Only one environment object can be rendered.

Environment Color Tab

This is the color of the environment light (akaambient light). The environment light illuminatesthe scene evenly from all sides and is meant tosimulate the background light of a daytime skyor the indirect lighting of a room light.

The brightness slider is set to 0% by default. Ifyou wish to simulate environment light, increasethe value of the brightness slider to, say, 10%for architectural scenes.

Be very careful when increasing the brightness,since it reduces the contrast in the scene; oftenyou can get better results by adding omni lightsthat do not cast shadows.

Note

Environment color can be useful for increasingthe color contrast. For example, you can use it tointroduce complementary colors into the scene.Perhaps you will set a dark blue to contrast with

a warm yellow window glow as well as tosimulate night. Or imagine a moonlit scene; youcan enhance the bright yellow moonlight byusing a dark purple environment.

Fog Tab

Use environment fog for, among many otherthings, atmospheric autumn images orunderwater scenes.

Environment fog fills the entire screen,stretching to infinity. Use this dialog to select thefog’s color.

Distance

Distance refers to the fog’s intensity byspecifying the distance over which a light beamwill lose its intensity completely. As the lightloses intensity, the fog color is added.

If, for example, you have entered a value of 500for Distance, a light beam that starts off with100% intensity will reduce to 20% aftertravelling 400 units; at the end of a further 100units, the light will have faded out completely,giving way to the fog color. The shorter thedistance, the thicker the fog.

Beams that penetrate the fog beyond the limitdefined in Distance are absorbed completely bythe fog color — if you enable environment fog,you cannot see a sky or a background image.

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BackgroundIn order to render a background image, or todisplay one in the Perspective View, you mayassign a textured material to a backgroundobject, just as you would to any other object.For transparent areas, assign an alpha channelto the material (see page 231).

The background picture might be a landscape,into which your scene will fit. For this you assigna material, with the required texture in its colorchannel, to the background object.

These images will be neither reflected by yourscene’s reflective objects nor lit in any way bythe scene. Nor will they change with any changeof camera settings.

The background image will show throughtransparent and refractive objects but will notchange with altered camera settings.

You could compare it to a background layergenerated by the alpha channel feature, onwhich the rendered image is then superimposed.

Note

As soon as you have applied a texture to abackground object, it will be displayed in thePerspective View. If this display distracts you,you may turn it off by selecting the object in theObject manager and choosing Objects > ObjectDisplay > Editor Off (see page 198).

Note

Any background picture (see page 15) isnormally displayed in the Perspective View only,so as not to distract you when working in theflat views. However, attaching the camera to theview in any Perspective View will make thebackground object appear in all view modes forthat window. Any background picture already

displayed will then be covered by thebackground object texture.

The background picture can also be tiled. Forthis effect, use the texture geometry dialog (seepage 255).

The background picture is scaled to the filmformat during rendering (see Output Tab, page410). Transparent sections of the backgroundare ignored.

Note

Only one background object can be rendered.

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19. Tools Menu   

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19 Tools Menu 361Move ............................................................................................................................................................ 361

Scale ............................................................................................................................................................. 362

Rotation ........................................................................................................................................................ 363

Magnify ........................................................................................................................................................ 364

Using the Keyboard ................................................................................................................................. 364

Camera ......................................................................................................................................................... 364

Move ....................................................................................................................................................... 364

Scale ........................................................................................................................................................ 365

Rotation .................................................................................................................................................. 365

Object .......................................................................................................................................................... 366

Points ........................................................................................................................................................... 366

Polygons ....................................................................................................................................................... 366

Object Axis ................................................................................................................................................... 367

Model ........................................................................................................................................................... 367

The difference between the Object and the Model tool ......................................................................... 367

Texture ......................................................................................................................................................... 369

Texture Axis .................................................................................................................................................. 369

3D Painting Mode ........................................................................................................................................ 370

The Axes ....................................................................................................................................................... 370

World System ............................................................................................................................................... 370

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19 Tools MenuIf, on the other hand, you select the objectcoordinate system, the cuboid moves along itsown (the object’s) X axis, which results in a quitedifferent behavior as you can see.

Both can be useful but you should always beaware which you are currently using (check onthe Tools menu).

The X, Y and Z symbols allow you to lockcertain axes. This can be useful, for example,when you have constructed an object that is atfloor level. If you now move it in one of theperspective views, it automatically changes its Yvalue and could, in the worst case, end upbelow the floor.

By taking the precaution of locking the Y symbolthe object remains on the floor and moves onlyin the other directions.

A left/right movement of the mouse whileholding down the mouse button moves theobject horizontally on the screen.

Move

This command will let you place the activeobject or element anywhere in the work area,subject to other options like snap, the mousegrid, whether certain axes are locked etc.

When moving objects, BodyPaint 3Ddistinguishes between the world coordinatesystem and the local object coordinate system.

This distinction is particularly noticeable whenmovement takes place in different axial systemsand only the X axis is activated, say.

Let’s assume you are moving a cuboid which ispositioned somewhat askew relative to theworld coordinate system and you have lockedthe Y and Z axes for movement (see below). Ifyou move within the world coordinate systemthe cuboid moves parallel to the X axis of theworld system.

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An up/down movement moves it vertically.Keeping the right mouse button depressed(Macintosh users Command-click) while right/left moving the mouse moves the object intothe screen and out of it.

When editing textures, mouse movements havea somewhat different effect. A left/rightmovement of the mouse moves the texturealong its X axis, an up/down movement movesthe texture along its Y axis.

Scale

With this function you can resize the activeobject or element.

When in Scaling mode, BodyPaint 3Ddistinguishes between the world coordinatesystem and the local object coordinate system.

The difference between the systems becomesparticularly clear if you activate only the X axis.Imagine you scale a cuboid, which lies inclinedin the world coordinate system. If you choosethe world coordinate system for scaling, thecuboid becomes larger/smaller parallel to the Xaxis of the world coordinate system and istherefore distorted.

If, on the other hand, you select the objectcoordinate system of the cuboid when scaling,the cuboid becomes larger/smaller along its ownX axis and does not distort.

Scaling is performed by left/right movement ofthe mouse. You can hold down either mousebutton.

When editing textures, mouse movements havea somewhat different effect. A left/rightmovement of the mouse resizes the texturealong its X axis, an up/down movement rescalesit along its Y axis.

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The default size of any axis in the object systemis 1.0. If for example you resize the X axis from1.0 to 2.0, the object doubles its size along theX axis. This results in a distortion of the objectsystem, making precise construction moredifficult since all local positions are now alsodistorted and no longer correspond to thelength units of the world system. Werecommend therefore that you do not usescaling in combination with objects until theconstruction phase is completed.

Rotation

This command will rotate the active object orelement.

When rotating objects, BodyPaint 3Ddistinguishes between the world coordinatesystem and the local object coordinate systemand you can choose to rotate in either system.As long as the object lies parallel to the axes ofthe world coordinate system you will not noticea difference when you rotate in either system.But when the object is askew, there can be largedifferences between rotating in the world orobject systems - see above for more details andconsider carefully what you need.

A left/right movement of the mouse whileholding down the left mouse button will rotatethe object around its Y axis. An up/downmovement rotates it around its X axis, whileholding down the right mouse button causesrotation around the object’s Z axis (Macintoshusers use the mouse button with the Commandkey pressed to simulate a right mouse button).

The behavior of the rotation is totally differentif, in General Settings, you have switched on theHPB system (see General Settings, page 40). Aleft/right movement will now change theheading, an up/down movement changes thepitch and holding down the right mouse buttonwhile moving left or right will change the bank(Mac users, remember the Command key). TheHPB angles here refer to the object’s parentsystem i.e. if the object which is to be rotatedlies within a hierarchy, the parent objectfunctions as the world coordinate.

Navigation with the Mouse and Keyboard

Moving, Scaling and Rotating with the Mouse

You can use the mouse for moving, scaling androtating. A left/right movement manipulates theX axis while a back-and-forth movementcontrols the Y axis. For the Z axis you have touse the right mouse button.

Macintosh users; as usual, use the Commandkey to simulate the right mouse button.

You can toggle instantly between the left andright mouse buttons. If you are currentlypressing the left button, press the right onebefore releasing the left and vice versa.

Moving, Scaling and Rotatingwith the cursor Keys

On the keyboard, use the directional (cursor)keys for moving, scaling and rotating:

Cursor right + X axis

Cursor left - X axis

Cursor up + Y axis

Cursor down - Y axis

Shift + cursor right or cursor up + Z axis

Shift + cursor left or cursor down - Z axis

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If you are working with the Edit Camera toolselected (see page 364), it is the camera that isaffected. In all other cases the object currentlyselected is moved, scaled or rotated.

Moving, Scaling and Rotatingwith Quick Navigation

Using Quick navigation you can edit objects,the editor or the active object cameraindependently of the chosen tools. Use thefollowing keys:

Key 1 - Move the view/camera

Key 2 - Scale (zoom) the view/camera

Key 3 - Rotate the view/camera (only in thecentral perspective view)

Key 4 - Move the active object

Key 5 - Scale the active object

Key 6 - Rotate the active object

Tip

If you want to zoom, in the central perspectiveview, onto an object, you can use the move toolinstead of the scale tool. That has the advantagethat you can zoom without perspectivedistortions.

Magnify

Use the Magnify command to zoom in on aparticular region of the work area. To definethat area, drag a rectangle around it.

Alternatively, click once using the left mousebutton. This will magnify the work area by 25%.If you wish to reduce it, hold down the Ctrl keywhile clicking.

Using the KeyboardThese are the keyboard short-cuts for the Zoomfunction:

+ Zoom In (magnify)

- Zoom Out (reduce)

Camera

When you select this command you can edit thecamera in the Perspective View. All subsequentactions affect this view. In two-dimensionalviews (XY, ZY, XZ) you can move and magnifythe displayed area; in three-dimensional viewsyou can change the Editor camera or the Objectcamera.

Using the mouse, you can move in the followingways.

MoveThe camera always moves in the oppositedirection to the mouse. For example, when youmove to the left, this will shift the camera to theright, thus causing the objects to move left. Thisis the most intuitive method and easy to learn.Since mouse movement is restricted to twodimensions, BodyPaint 3D needs to make use ofthe right mouse button. This modifier allowsyou to control not only left/right and up/downmovements, but also depth movements(backwards and forwards). If you hold down the

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right mouse button while moving left or right,this will be interpreted as going back and forth.It is possible to alternate between the left andright mouse buttons at any time.

Macintosh users; use the Command key tosimulate the right mouse button.

Movements, scaling and rotation processes maybe cancelled at any time by pressing the ESCkey.

When moving objects you can choose whichaxis system you wish to use. Normally, this willhave no effect, since the X, Y and Z symbols areall selected. However, if you switch certain axeson or off, you will observe that certain actionswill show different results. If for example youhave activated the X symbol only and you areworking with the world coordinate system, thecamera will move parallel to the X axis of theworld system. If on the other hand the objectsystem is selected, the camera will move left andright within its own camera coordinate system.

No grid is applied for the camera or the visiblesection of the document so that you can reachany position, even if a motion grid is active.

ScaleUsing scale the visible section of the scene canbe resized. You do this by moving the mouseleft/right while holding the left or the rightmouse button down (in this case it does notmatter which).

In the two-dimensional views the zoom factor,(which initially is set to 1.0) is changed. In theperspective views it is the camera’s focal lengththat changes. Its default value is 50mm. Theshorter the focal length, the greater thedistortion.

If you wish to avoid distorting your scene, donot change the focal length, instead move thecamera further away from the scene. Do this byselecting Move and then right-dragging themouse to the left. (Try it out to see thedifference.)

RotationRotation only makes sense if you are workingwith a perspective view. Two-dimensional viewscannot be rotated.

When rotating the perspective view, certainmouse movements affect particular rotationalaxes. For example, if you hold down the leftmouse button and move left or right, this resultsin a rotation around the Y axis of the camera’scoordinate system. An up/down movement withthe left mouse button held down rotates thecamera around the X axis of the camera’scoordinate system.

If on the other hand you hold down the rightmouse button, the camera will rotate around itsZ axis. What is special about this function is thatthe selected coordinate system (world or object)has a somewhat different meaning from thatwhich you might expect: the rotation is alwaysaround the camera’s axis and not around theworld’s axis.

Macintosh users: use the Command key tosimulate the right mouse button.

If an object is active, the camera also changes itsposition while it rotates. This occurs in such away that the centre of the active object remainsin the same position on the screen. This featureis extremely useful when you wish to movearound an object. If no active object exists, therotation is around the world origin.

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Object

Selecting this allows you to edit an object. Forexample, you can change the object’s positionand direction.

The current position of the active object in spaceis shown in the Coordinate manager. That iswhere you can change any of the valuesindividually.

Changing objects is performed by manipulatingtheir coordinate axes. Scaling, for example, doesnot scale the number of points of an object, it isthe object axes that are scaled. If you want toknow what this means or why this is the case,read the section at the end of the Model tool,below.

Points

By selecting this tool you can edit the points ofan object. All subsequent actions will affect thepoints. In addition, the Delete function in theEdit menu now refers to the points of the objectrather than to the object itself.

As soon as the tool is selected, all points of theobject are represented by small squares.Selected points are highlighted in color.

It is possible to select individual points byclicking on them. If several points are visually ontop of each other, only the topmost is selected.The selection may be extended by Shift-clicking.If you want to select several points use one of

the four selection options (see page 375-378).To deselect points, select them again by Shift-clicking.

All points can be selected with the menu optionEdit > Select All. With Edit > Deselect All thecomplete selection can be deselected again.

To move a point, grab it with the mouse anddrag it to the new position.

To delete the active point, use the Deletecommand from the Edit menu or use either theDel key or the Backspace key.

You can also edit a point by double-clicking onit. A window opens in which you can changethe position of the point.

Alternatively you can edit the points with theStructure manager (see Mode menu, page 281).

Polygons

There are polygons with three vertices (trianglepolygons) and polygons with four vertices(rectangle polygons).

Editing polygons hardly differs from editingpoints. As soon as you activate the polygontool, the polygons of the chosen object aredisplayed. Select a polygon by clicking on it withthe mouse; selected polygons are shown in abrighter color.

You can select several polygons at once byholding down the Shift key while selecting apolygon. If you Shift-click on a polygon asecond time, it is deselected. All other (active)polygons remain unchanged. Another way of

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selecting several polygons at once is to use oneof the four selection options (see page 375-378).

To delete active polygons, use either the Deletecommand from the Edit menu, or the Del key orthe Backspace key.

Object Axis

The Object axis tool modifies the axes of theactive object.

The current position of the axes of the activeobject is shown in the Coordinate manager,where you can change all values individually.

Scaling object axes is a rather special case. Here,it is not only the axes that are resized, but alsothe points and the textures of the active object.In contrast, Model scaling changes points andtextures, but does not resize the axes.

Model

Selecting this allows you to edit an object. Forexample, you can change the object’s positionand direction.

The current position of the active object in spaceis shown in the Coordinate manager. That iswhere you can change any of the valuesdynamically.

While the Model tool is selected, changingobjects is achieved by scaling the object pointsrather than the object axes. If you want to knowwhat this means or why it has to be this way,read on.

Tip

Note that if you scale an object to zero in anydirection by using the Model tool, this operationcannot be undone.

If the active object contains sub-objects, theseare also changed. If you wish to restrict thechange to the active object, modify the actionby holding down the Ctrl key.

Use the Model tool during the modelingprocess.

The difference between theObject and the Model toolWe strongly recommend that you read thissection, otherwise you may be in for someunpleasant surprises when you createanimations.

Let’s start by clarifying the problem with thehelp of an example, then we’ll tell how youavoid the problem altogether and how you cancorrect it if it does crop up.

Consider a scene with two objects, a (polygon)sphere and a cube. The cube is a child (sub-object) of the sphere. The axial length of bothobjects is 1/1/1.

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Now we choose the Object tool (Tools >Object) and scale the sphere with theCoordinate manager only in X direction to, say,2/1/1 (ensure that Size, rather than Scale, isselected in the popup at the bottom of theCoordinate manager). As to be expected, sphereand cube are distorted.

Now rotate the cube around its Z axis (lock theX and Y axes and rotate the cube). During therotation you will see an up and down pump-likedistortion.

The points of the cube no longer obey a circulartrajectory while they are rotated in the XY plane.Instead, the distorted parent system causes thismovement to be elliptical.

And that is where the problem lies. It invariablyoccurs when objects exist in a distorted parentsystem.

Effects of this type are encountered by each andevery 3D application, since it is a fundamentalproblem. Many resolve it by implementingseparate editors for modeling and animation. Inthis way, you do not see the problem but,instead, you have to keep changing editors.

So how can we prevent the problem? Use theModel tool for scaling the sphere. You will thenget the required result when rotating the cube:

Tip

If all this is a bit much to grasp, simplyremember these rules:

Use the Model tool when constructing objects(modeling).

Use the Object tool when animating (integratedversion only).

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Texture

This allows you to edit the active texture. Assoon as you choose this tool the texture of theobject is represented by blue grid lines.

Or, if you have activated Real Time TextureMapping, or RTTM, (Display > Textures on theeditor Window menu), you will see the texturedisplayed on the object. The chosen projectiontype is taken into account (see ProjectionMapping Types, page 258).

If the texture is displayed with grid lines, theiraxes are labelled in color (X and Y). Since thetexture is in two dimensions only (the image hasno depth information), there is no Z axis.

The grid lines are drawn according to the kind ofchosen projection, e.g. spherical mapping isshown with a spherical blue grid.

An exception is UVW mapping. Here the bluegrid is displayed over the entire editor window.The axes are not shown in RTTM mode.

The texture axes of the object are shown withan envelope on whose surface the texture canbe moved by using the familiar Move and Scalefunctions. The texture itself cannot be rotated(but see Texture Axis below).

A left/right movement of the mouse will movethe texture along its X axis, an up/downmovement will move it along its Y axis.

The Scale function uses the same principle, onlyhere the texture does not get moved butresized.

The data for X and Y referring to positioningand dimensions of the texture in the Coordinatemanager are always given as percentages, since

the actual size is not relevant. A size of 100%for both coordinates means that the texturecovers the cylinder, the sphere or the areacompletely.

Texture Axis

This tool allows you to edit the texture axes ofthe active texture. As soon as you select thistool, the texture with its envelope is displayed.In RTTM mode you will see the texture itself.You can move, scale and rotate the envelope inthe usual fashion.

The difference between Edit Texture and EditTexture Axes is illustrated by the following twopictures. In both cases, the movement is alongthe X axis; in the upper picture using the EditTexture tool (the texture is moved on itsenvelope) while in the lower picture by usingEdit Texture Axes (the envelope itself is moved).

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3D Painting ModeThis mode enables you to paint the object’sactive texture in the Perspective View using anyof BodyPaint 3D’s paint tools.

You can paint in the default High QualityShading mode (see page 183) or in theRayBrush mode (see page 182).

Keep in mind that you always paint to the activematerial in the Material manager only.

The Axes

X Axis / Heading

Y Axis / Pitch

Z Axis / Bank

These three tools allow you to lock movement,scaling or rotation along certain axes.

With a rotation you have the option of lockingeach axis separately. If, in General Settings (seepage 40), you have selected Use HPB System,the HPB designators apply. (The letters HPBstand for Heading, Pitch and Bank.)

For each type of operation, BodyPaint 3Dremembers the state of the axes (locked orunlocked). If for example you have made amovement along the Y axis while X and Z werelocked, and subsequently change to Rotate, allaxes are unlocked again. When you changeback to Move, the program remembers thatonly the Y axis was unlocked.

World System

Here you decide in which coordinate system anoperation will take place.

Not all options work with both systems. Scalingof object axes for example can occur only withinthe object coordinate system.

The object coordinate system is the local systemof an object, shown in the editor by thecoloured axes; X (red), Y (green) and Z (blue).Every BodyPaint 3D object has its own objectcoordinate system.

If you chose the HPB system in the settings (seepage 40), HPB angles will be used for therotation - independently of the chosen axissystem.

Internally BodyPaint 3D works exclusively in theHPB system. HPB is an abbreviation forHeading, Pitch and Bank.

You may have come across the terms heading,pitch and bank in connection with flightsimulators. An aeroplane turning left or rightchanges its heading; when it tilts upwards ordownwards it changes pitch; when rolling itchanges its bank.

So when you are changing angles you may findit helpful to think of a plane.

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20. Selection Menu   

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20 Selection Menu 373Fundamentals ............................................................................................................................................... 373

Selection Menu ............................................................................................................................................. 374

Rectangle Selection ................................................................................................................................. 375

Freehand Selection .................................................................................................................................. 376

Polygon Selection .................................................................................................................................... 377

Live Selection .......................................................................................................................................... 378

Select All .................................................................................................................................................. 379

Deselect All ............................................................................................................................................. 379

Invert ....................................................................................................................................................... 379

Select Connected ..................................................................................................................................... 379

Grow Selection ........................................................................................................................................ 380

Shrink Selection ....................................................................................................................................... 380

Polygon Selection From Points ................................................................................................................ 381

Point Selection From Polygons ................................................................................................................ 381

Select Adjacent Polygons ........................................................................................................................ 381

Hide Selected .......................................................................................................................................... 381

Hide Unselected ...................................................................................................................................... 381

Unhide All ............................................................................................................................................... 381

Invert Visibility ......................................................................................................................................... 381

Set Selection ............................................................................................................................................ 382

Frozen Selections in the Object Manager ..................................................................................................... 382

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20 Selection MenuThis is not a problem if the points are planar -i.e. if they all lie on the same plane...

The quadrangle is no longer a rectangle. However, all thepoints are on the same plane - the quadrangle is still planar.

If the quadrangle's points are not on the sameplane, the quadrangle is said to be non-planar.In the diagram below, point B has been movedinto the depth plane. Now, BodyPaint 3D mustrender this polygon as two triangles. This isdealt with internally without any negativeeffects.

Point B has been moved into the depth plane. Now, thepolygon is non-planar.

With the tools from this menu you can selectand deselect points and polygons in manydifferent ways; in addition you can hide orreveal selected points/polygons.

FundamentalsBodyPaint 3D works with polygons (surfaces)and points. There are two types of polygons inBodyPaint 3D: triangles and quadrangles.

Polygons

A polygon is a triangle or a quadrangle. Atriangle has the points A, B and C; a quadranglehas the points A, B, C and D.

So-called perfect polygons, like the one shownbelow, are not that common, since the pointsmay lie anywhere in 3D space...

A ‘perfect’ polygon

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If the angle at points B or D is greater than180°, problems can occur when rendering - thisis because the polygon overlaps itself...

The angle at point B is greater than 180° - the polygonoverlaps itself.

Another problem arises if all of the polygon'spoints are on the same line. In this case, asurface normal cannot exist and the polygon iscalled a degenerated polygon...

All the points for this polygon are on a line.

Selection MenuYou can use the tools in this menu to select theactive object's points or polygons. The followingapplies:

- To select an element click the (left) mousebutton.

- To remove an item from your selection, holdthe Shift key down while left-clicking on thealready selected item.

- To add to your selection, hold the Shift keydown while left-clicking on a new, unselecteditem.

- To select points/polygons with the rectangle,freehand, polygon and live selection tool

Select with the (left) mouse button down anddragging.

- To add to your selection, hold the Shift keydown while applying the relevant tool to yournew, unselected items.

- To reduce the items in your selection, holddown the Ctrl key while applying the relevanttool to the already selected items.

The editor display

- In the polygon mode selected surfaces areframed in red and shown more brightly thanunselected surfaces.

- In the point mode selected points are shown inlight red while unselected ones are coloreddark red.

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Rectangle SelectionIf you choose this selection tool you can framepolygons and points with a rectangle-shapedmarquee. Hold the left mouse button down anddrag; all items that are fully enclosed within theresulting rectangle will be included in yourselection.

Active Tool Manager

Tolerant Selection

This option makes sense only in polygon mode.Enabling this option means that polygons areselected as soon as a corner point of thepolygon is within the selection marquee. If thisoption is not active, a polygon is included only ifall corner points of the polygon are within themarquee.

Only Select Visible Elements

If this option is active only items which are nothidden by other items are selected. For example,with a sphere you could select only points orpolygons at the front of the sphere.

It does not matter whether the back of thesphere is visible in the screen mode or not. Assoon as a polygon and/or point lies overanother, the latter element is invisible as far asthe selection tool is concerned.

With backface culling on (see page 22) thebacks of objects are always invisible and cannotbe selected even if you turn off the Only SelectVisible Elements option.

Of course, elements are also invisible if theyhave been made invisible with Selection > HideSelected or Selection > Hide Unselectedcommands. Then again they cannot be selectedeven if you turn off the Only Select VisibleElements option.

The same applies to objects which have a redvisibility switch (see page 198). Naturally, thepolygons and points of such objects cannot beselected.

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Freehand SelectionFreehand selection behaves like a lasso. Usingthe mouse with the left button pressed you pulla loop around all the elements that you want toselect. The loop does not have to be closed.

Active Tool Manager

Tolerant Selection

This option makes sense only in polygon mode.Enabling this option means that polygons areselected as soon as a corner point of thepolygon is within the selection marquee. If thisoption is not active, a polygon is included only ifall corner points of the polygon are within themarquee.

Only Select Visible Elements

If this option is active only items which are nothidden by other items are selected. For example,with a sphere you could select only points orpolygons at the front of the sphere.

It does not matter whether the back of thesphere is visible in the screen mode or not. Assoon as a polygon and/or point lies overanother, the latter element is invisible as far asthe selection tool is concerned.

With backface culling on (see page 22) thebacks of objects are always invisible and cannotbe selected even if you turn off the Only SelectVisible Elements option.

Of course, elements are also invisible if theyhave been made invisible with Selection > HideSelected or Selection > Hide Unselectedcommands. Then again they cannot be selectedeven if you turn off the Only Select VisibleElements option.

The same applies to objects which have a redvisibility switch (see page 198). Naturally, thepolygons and points of such objects cannot beselected.

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Polygon SelectionWith this selection tool you set the corner pointsfor an n-Side that frames the elements whichare to be included. The first mouse-click definesthe starting point of the n-Side. All furthermouse clicks define further corner points.

The selection ends either with a right-click ofthe mouse (Macintosh: Command-click) or byclicking again on the starting point of the n-Side.

Active Tool Manager

Tolerant Selection

This option makes sense only in polygon mode.Enabling this option means that polygons areselected as soon as a corner point of thepolygon is within the selection marquee. If thisoption is not active, a polygon is included only ifall corner points of the polygon are within themarquee.

Only Select Visible Elements

If this option is active only items which are nothidden by other items are selected. For example,with a sphere you could select only points orpolygons at the front of the sphere.

It does not matter whether the back of thesphere is visible in the screen mode or not. Assoon as a polygon and/or point lies overanother, the latter element is invisible as far asthe selection tool is concerned.

With backface culling on (see page 22) thebacks of objects are always invisible and cannotbe selected even if you turn off the Only SelectVisible Elements option.

Of course, elements are also invisible if theyhave been made invisible with Selection > HideSelected or Selection > Hide Unselectedcommands. Then again they cannot be selectedeven if you turn off the Only Select VisibleElements option.

The same applies to objects which have a redvisibility switch (see page 198). Naturally, thepolygons and points of such objects cannot beselected.

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Live SelectionThis selection tool behaves somewhat differentlyfrom the others. Live selection functions like apaint brush with which you can paint over yourobjects. The painted elements are included inthe selection set.

You can choose a radius for this tool from theActive Tool manager. During the live selectionyou can increase this radius with the ‘+’ key andmake it smaller with the ‘-’ key. With a trackballthe radius can be changed with the wheel.

Active Tool Manager

Radius

This determines the radius of the "selectionbrush".

Only Select Visible Elements

If this option is active only items which are nothidden by other items are selected. For example,with a sphere you could select only points orpolygons at the front of the sphere.

It does not matter whether the back of thesphere is visible in the screen mode or not. Assoon as a polygon and/or point lies overanother, the latter element is invisible as far asthe selection tool is concerned.

With backface culling on (see page 22) thebacks of objects are always invisible and cannotbe selected even if you turn off the Only SelectVisible Elements option.

Of course, elements are also invisible if theyhave been made invisible with Selection > HideSelected or Selection > Hide Unselectedcommands. Then again they cannot be selectedeven if you turn off the Only Select VisibleElements option.

The same applies to objects which have a redvisibility switch (see page 198). Naturally, thepolygons and points of such objects cannot beselected.

Note

By its very nature the live selection tool has ahigh memory requirement when you turn offOnly Select Visible Elements. Therefore youshould switch off this option only if it isabsolutely necessary.

Vertex Painting pane

The options in this pane apply to the integratedversion with CINEMA 4D only - please consultthe CINEMA 4D Reference manual for details.

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Select AllWith this command you can select all points orall polygons of an object. If you are in polygonmode only the polygons are selected; in pointmode only the points are selected. Hiddenelements are not selected.

Deselect AllWith this command you can deselect all pointsor all polygons of an object. If you are inpolygon mode, only the polygons aredeselected; in point mode only the points aredeselected.

InvertThis command inverts a selection. All selectedelements are deselected and all deselectedelements are selected. If you are in polygonmode, only the polygon selection is inverted; inpoint mode only the point selection is inverted.Hidden elements are not inverted.

Select ConnectedPolygon objects often consist of severalsegments that are not connected by polygons. Ifyou wanted to select one of these individualsegments completely you might encounterproblems if this segment overlapped with othersegments; it can be difficult to see whichelements belong to this segment.

So BodyPaint 3D comes to the rescue; select justone point or polygon of the required segmentand then choose the Select Connectedcommand. All points or polygons which areconnected to the selected element are then alsoselected. If you are in polygon mode, onlyconnected polygons are selected; in point modeonly connected points are selected.

First some polygons, then Select Connected...

All connected polygons are now also selected

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Grow SelectionWith this command you can add to a selection.All adjacent points or polygons (depending onwhich mode you are in) are added to the currentselection.

The initial selection

Adjacent polygons are now also selected

Shrink SelectionThis command reduces the selection. Allpolygons or points (depending on which modeyou are in) on the outside of the currentselection are deselected.

If the polygon is closed (such as a sphere is) andyou select all polygons, the selection cannot bemade smaller because there is nowhere to start(there are no elements that can be considered tobe on the outside).

The initial selection

The outside polygons deselected

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Polygon Selection From PointsThis selects the polygons which border on thepoints that are already selected. Polygon modewill then be entered automatically. Onlypolygons that have all their corner pointsselected are included.

Point Selection From PolygonsThis selects the points which belong to thepolygons that are already selected. Point modewill then be entered automatically.

Select Adjacent PolygonsThis command affects only polygons and onlymakes sense when you are in point mode. Itselects polygons which directly border theexisting chosen set of points.

You will be switched to polygon mode whenyou use this command.

The initial selection

The polygons bordering on the selected points are selected

Hide SelectedThis makes all selected points or polygonsinvisible. If you hide selected polygons, theassociated points are also hidden. However, inpoint mode, only the selected points are hidden,not the polygons attached to them.

Hiding of elements is useful if you want toconcentrate on a particular area of an objectwhile painting; hide the areas that you are notinterested in.

Hide UnselectedThis command hides all elements which are notselected. If you hide deselected polygons, theassociated points are also hidden. However, inpoint mode, only the deselected points arehidden, not the polygons attached to them.

Unhide AllThis command makes all hidden elements visibleagain. In polygon mode only hidden polygonsare made visible, in point mode only the hiddenpoints.

Invert VisibilityThe visibility of all elements is inverted. Visibleelements are hidden and hidden elements aremade visible. In polygon mode only the visibilityof all polygons is inverted whereas in pointmode only the visibility of all points is changed.

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Set SelectionHere you can freeze selections for the long term.You can freeze either polygon or pointselections. You can then manipulate frozenselections at any time using these icons in theObject manager:

Frozen point selection Frozen polygon selection

More information can be found below underFrozen Selections in the Object manager, below.

Warning

If a Polygon Selection tag is active in the Objectmanager (shown by a red frame) when you callthis command, the tag is replaced with the newselection. If you do not want to lose your oldselection tag in this way, make sure it is notactive!

Information on how to apply separate materialproperties to these frozen selections is in RestrictTo Selection, page 269.

Frozen Selections in theObject ManagerIf you froze one or more selections (see thepreceding section), some useful functions arenow available to you in the Object manager.These are hidden behind particular small iconswhich are associated with the active object:

Frozen point selection Frozen polygon selection

Frozen Point Selection

A double-click on this icon opens a dialog whichcontains the following choices:

All actions are performed as soon as you click onthe relevant button.

Name

Enter a name for the selection; press OK toconfirm or Cancel to lose the name change.

Restore Selection

This restores the frozen selection. All otherelements of the object are deselected.

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Select and Hide Others

Restores the frozen selection and makes allother points of the object invisible.

Select Points

The points of the frozen selection are added tothe existing selection.

Deselect Points

All points of this frozen selection are deselected.

Hide Points

All points of this frozen selection become invisible.

Unhide Points

All hidden points of this frozen selection becomevisible.

Frozen Polygon Selection

Double-click on this icon to open a dialog whichcontains the following choices:

All actions are performed as soon as you click onthe relevant button.

Name

Use this text box to enter a name for theselection; press OK to confirm or Cancel to losethe name change.

Restore Selection

This restores the frozen selection. All otherelements of the object are deselected.

Select and Hide Others

Restores the frozen selection and makes allother polygons of the object invisible.

Select Polygons

The polygons of the frozen selection are addedto the existing selection.

Deselect Polygons

All polygons of this frozen selection are deselected.

Hide Polygons

All polygons of this frozen selection becomeinvisible.

Unhide Polygons

All hidden polygons of this frozen selectionbecome visible.

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CHAPTER 21 • STRUCTURE MENU • 385

21. Structure Menu   

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21 Structure Menu 387Edit Surface .................................................................................................................................................. 387

Disconnect ............................................................................................................................................... 387

Explode Segments ................................................................................................................................... 387

Split ......................................................................................................................................................... 387

Make Editable ............................................................................................................................................... 388

Align Normals ............................................................................................................................................... 388

Reverse Normals ........................................................................................................................................... 389

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21 Structure Menusince now there are two edges. (See alsoSmoothing Tag, page 189.)

Preserve Groups

This option is selected by default. With thisoption the polygons are disconnected in onepiece from the object (as long as they wereconnected to begin with). If this option isswitched off then each active polygon isseparated individually and independently fromall other active polygons.

Explode SegmentsThis applies to the integrated version ofBodyPaint 3D with CINEMA 4D only. Pleaseconsult the CINEMA 4D Reference manual fordetails.

SplitThe Split function differs very slightly from theDisconnect function; the difference is that, whenusing Split, the disconnected polygons leave aseparate object behind. The original object is notchanged.

The polygons mode must be active and apolygon selection must exist in order for you touse this tool.

Note

If you wish to delete the separated part from theoriginal object, you can choose Delete directly

Functions selected from the Structure menu takeeffect on the selected object - any sub-objectsremain unchanged.

With most functions the object is modified if afunction can be applied to the current selection.However, some of these menu functions will notbe available if you are not in Point or Polygonmode or if no elements are selected.

Hidden elements are therefore not modified (seeFrozen Selections In The Object Manager,page 382).

Edit Surface

DisconnectSurfaces, either individual or connected surfaces,can be split from an object. Select somepolygons of an object and choose Disconnect tosee the results. The separated polygons will stillbe at the same position, but physically they areno longer connected to the object. The originalobject still contains the points of these separatedpolygons, so the geometry is not destroyed.

The polygons mode must be active and apolygon selection must exist in order for you touse this tool.

A good example of using Disconnect would beto cut a hole into an object and keep thedisconnected surface to use as a cap.

Note

At the seams of the disconnected polygons, thePhong shading disappears and a ridge appears,

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after the split as the selection is still active (thisworks only if you are in polygons mode).

Make EditableThis is relevant only if you are runningBodyPaint 3D with CINEMA 4D. Please consultthe CINEMA 4D reference manual for details.

Align NormalsWhen an object is created in a 3D modelingprogram, by convention the surface normalsshould point outwards from the object.However, it is quite possible that some of thenormals point in the wrong direction (i.e.inwards). This can lead to rendering anomalieslater on. Fortunately, the problem is easilyrectified by choosing the Align Normalsfunction, which re-aligns the offending surfacenormals so that they point in the correctdirection.

BodyPaint 3D adjusts the orientation of thenormals according to the normal direction of thefirst polygon in a polygon selection.

If no polygons are selected, all normals arealigned.

Note

BodyPaint 3D does not recognize an object’sinner and outer surface. A sphere has an innerand an outer side, but only one surface level,which can be confusing. We need a betterdefinition.

Let us define this single surface level to have anInner and an Outer property. Outer designates,in principle, the direction in which the surface

normals point and Inner is therefore theopposite direction. This plays a role with textureprojection, where you have the possibility toproject textures from only the front or the back(see Texture Mapping, page 255).

So, if there is an equal number of normalspointing one way as point the other way howdo we decide which is the Outer surface? Wecould either choose randomly or, perhaps, lookat the first polygon in the sequence and use itsnormal as the basis of our calculation -BodyPaint 3D does the latter.

Why exactly are these normals needed?

As described above, the direction of the normalsdefines the interior and the exterior of an object.This is important, among other things, fordisplaying an object in the Perspective View.

Occasionally, a situation can arise in which somepolygons become invisible in the PerspectiveView. This can happen if Backface Culling is onand the reason is as follows.

To save on processor performance you mayhave, sensibly, enabled Backface Culling (seepage 22) for your scene; this is where only thepolygons visible from the front of an object aredisplayed in the Perspective View. The polygonspositioned directly at the back of an object arenot drawn.

When displaying a sphere and other volumeobjects in the Gouraud shading mode you maynotice no difference, simply because you do notsee the back of the sphere anyway. But shouldyou select all the polygons of this sphere andreverse the normals (see next section), you willnow see only the back of the sphere; the front isnow transparent since you now have invertedthe sphere. The inside is now the outside - andthis becomes invisible because of the BackfaceCulling.

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Should you find yourself inadvertently in asituation like this you should switch off BackfaceCulling and reverse the normals of thesepolygons.

Another important factor is smoothing withangle limit active (see Smoothing, page 189).BodyPaint 3D calculates whether edges are tobe smoothed based on the angle of thepolygons to each other. If two polygons withdifferently aligned normals lie next to eachother, BodyPaint 3D calculates incorrect angleinformation, causing ghastly results whensmoothing.

The angle of the normals to each other is alsosignificant when using Displacement Mapping(see page 237).

Reverse NormalsThis function is similar to Align Normals. Here,however, the normals are reversed. If nopolygons are selected, all the normals of aselected object are reversed. With an activeselection only the normals of the selectedpolygons are considered.

Note

Reversing the normals is achieved by changingthe point sequence in a polygon.

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CHAPTER 22 • FUNCTIONS MENU • 391

22. Functions Menu   

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22 Functions Menu 393Connect ........................................................................................................................................................ 393

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22 Functions Menu

Connect

BodyPaint 3D’s Group Objects command (seepage 199) enables you to place objects into agroup. The Connect command converts anobject group into a single object.

For example, a fence consisting of hundreds ofindividual planks can be connected to form justa single fence object.

Connect requires an object group to be selectedin the Object manager. Only use the commandif you are certain that the object will not requireseparation later on; although you can split theobject into its original parts manually, it is atime-consuming process.

Note

Only polygon objects can be connected. Otherobjects such as light sources will be ignored.

Tip

You can speed up render time by connecting anygroups that contain lots of objects. The reasonfor this is that a single object can be renderedmore quickly than a few hundred objects, eventhough they contain the same number ofpolygons.

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23. Plug-ins Menu   

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23 Plug-ins Menu 397Execute Last Plug-in ..................................................................................................................................... 397

Compile File … ............................................................................................................................................. 397

Sub-folders ................................................................................................................................................... 397

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23 Plug-ins Menudocumentation. If no such information issupplied in the documentation, perhaps theplug-in is listed in the Plug-ins menu.

Execute Last Plug-inThis menu item on the Plug-ins menu executesthe last plug-in that was used.

Compile File …Use this command (on the Plug-ins menu) tocompile a C.O.F.F.E.E. program. A file requesteropens for you to locate the file that you wish tocompile.

Sub-foldersYou can create sub-folders within the Plug-inmenu structure to help you organize your plug-ins. To do this, use the Macintosh Finder orWindows Explorer to create a sub-folder of anyname within the Plugins folder. Next, copy theassociated plug-ins into the sub-folder, takinginto account the naming conventions used byyour operating system. The new structure willappear in the Plug-ins menu the next time yourestart BodyPaint 3D.

In general terms, plug-ins are auxiliary moduleswhich extend the function range of a program.Within BodyPaint 3D, plug-ins are able, forexample, to automate particular functions or toadd new import and export filters.

For this purpose BodyPaint 3D includes anefficient programming language, C.O.F.F.E.E.,available to both developers and end-users.

This is a completely object-orientedprogramming language whose syntax is closelyrelated to C++ or Java. Further information onthe development of plug-ins can be found in theC.O.F.F.E.E. SDK (Software Development Kit) onour website (www.maxon.net); there you willalso find links to different plug-in vendors.

Note

Plug-ins can be developed freely by anyone andoffered for sale. However, MAXON Computer, asthe manufacturer of BodyPaint 3D, has noinfluence on the quality of these plug-ins andyou should assure yourself as to the value-for-money and usefulness of a plug-in beforepurchase. Of course, we give as much support aspossible to all vendors and developers of plug-ins - however, if a problem should arise with oneof these products, please contact themanufacturer of the plug-in directly. Pleaseunderstand that MAXON Computer can give noinformation on, or provide technical support for,third-party products.

As already mentioned, plug-ins can solve diversetasks. Consequently, after installation, your newplug-in may appear in one of several placeswithin BodyPaint 3D's menu structure. To thisend, please consult the vendor’s plug-in

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24. Render Menu   

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24 Render Menu 401Render View ............................................................................................................................................ 401

Render Active Object .............................................................................................................................. 401

Render Region ......................................................................................................................................... 402

Render to Picture Viewer ......................................................................................................................... 402

Render Settings ....................................................................................................................................... 402

New Render Settings ............................................................................................................................... 403

Delete Render Settings ............................................................................................................................ 403

Render Settings Dialog ................................................................................................................................. 404

General Tab ............................................................................................................................................. 404

Output Tab .............................................................................................................................................. 410

Save Tab .................................................................................................................................................. 412

Effects Tab ............................................................................................................................................... 415

Options Tab ............................................................................................................................................. 416

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24 Render Menufolder, in the ‘Tex’ folder of the BodyPaint 3Dfolder, in the Texture Paths specified in theGeneral Settings (including their sub-folders).

Render Active Object

This function renders the active object and itschild objects in the active editor window. Theother objects are ignored and will not appear inreflections or transparencies. To define therender mode and further render options, use therender settings (see below).

You may cancel rendering at any time bypressing the ESC key or by clicking the mouse.

Once rendering commences, a render progressbar appears at the lower left of the editorwindow.

Missing textures

If BodyPaint 3D is unable to find the textures forany of the materials used in a scene, an alert willappear. If you choose to continue rendering, thematerials will be used without the missingtexture maps. BodyPaint 3D searches fortextures and animation files in the followinglocations: in the scene folder, in the scene’s ‘Tex’folder, in the ‘Tex’ folder of the BodyPaint 3Dfolder, in the Texture Paths specified in theGeneral Settings (including their sub-folders).

The Render menu contains all the options youneed to render a picture. You can define severalrender presets, e.g. for preview and for finalrendering. In this way, you do not have tochange the settings constantly.

Note

BodyPaint 3D’s RayBrush technology enablesyou to paint onto a rendered picture in threedimensions - see page 182.

Render View

This function renders the scene in the activeeditor window. If you are working in the allviews mode, you can render each view one byone. To define the render mode and furtherrender options, use the render settings (seebelow).

You may cancel rendering at any time bypressing the ESC key or by clicking the mouse.Once rendering commences, a render progressbar appears at the lower left of the editorwindow.

Missing textures

If BodyPaint 3D is unable to find the textures forany of the materials used in a scene, an alert willappear. If you choose to continue rendering, thematerials will be used without the missingtexture maps. BodyPaint 3D searches fortextures and animation files in the followinglocations: in the scene folder, in the scene’s ‘Tex’

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Render Region

This function renders a region in the editorwindow. Once you have chosen the function,drag a box to define the region. To define therender mode and further render options, use therender settings (see below).

You may cancel rendering at any time bypressing the ESC key or by clicking the mouse.Once rendering commences, a render progressbar appears at the lower left of the editorwindow.

Missing textures

If BodyPaint 3D is unable to find the textures forany of the materials used in a scene, an alert willappear. If you choose to continue rendering, thematerials will be used without the missingtexture maps. BodyPaint 3D searches fortextures and animation files in the followinglocations: in the scene folder, in the scene’s ‘Tex’folder, in the ‘Tex’ folder of the BodyPaint 3Dfolder, in the Texture Paths specified in theGeneral Settings (including their sub-folders).

Render to Picture Viewer

This function renders the scene in the PictureViewer. Once rendering commences, a renderprogress bar appears at the lower left of theeditor window. The bar shows you the time thathas elapsed since the render started.

The Picture Viewer includes some displayoptions. For example, you can turn off colorchannels and change the viewing size. (Seepage 273.)

To define the render mode and further renderoptions, use the render settings. You may cancelrendering at any time by pressing the ESC key orby clicking the mouse.

You must use the Picture Viewer as opposed tothe editor if you wish to save the picture. Entera filename in the render settings before yourender. See page 412.

Missing textures

If BodyPaint 3D is unable to find the textures forany of the materials used in a scene, an alert willappear. If you choose to continue rendering, thematerials will be used without the missingtexture maps. BodyPaint 3D searches fortextures and animation files in the followinglocations: in the scene folder, in the scene’s ‘Tex’folder, in the ‘Tex’ folder of the BodyPaint 3Dfolder, in the Texture Paths specified in theGeneral Settings (including their sub-folders).

Render Settings

A project can have several render settings. Thisfunction opens the active settings (indicated bya tick on the Render menu).

The default render settings are called ‘New’. Ifyou wish to add further default settings, createthe settings and then save the otherwise emptyscene in BodyPaint 3D’s root folder under thename ‘Template.c4d’ (see Initialisation File,page 66). For a full description of all the rendersettings, see page 402.

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New Render Settings

You can use this function to create new rendersettings. The render settings dialog opens.

Enter a name for the new settings under Nameon the General page - choose a meaningfulname (e.g. ‘Preview’) so that the new settingswill be easy to distinguish from any othersettings.

Once you have finished creating the settings,the new name will appear in the lower sectionof the Render menu.

You can create settings for a variety of purposes.Perhaps you will create settings with lowantialiasing, no reflections and no shadows forpreview rendering called ‘Preview’. You mayalso create settings with high antialiasing,reflections and shadows called ‘Final Rendering’.You can create as many settings as you like.

To choose which settings are active, click on thecorresponding name in the Render menu. Theactive tick will then appear in front of thatname.

Delete Render Settings

This function deletes the active render settings(indicated by a tick on the Render menu). Thename of the settings will be removed from theRender menu.

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Render Settings Dialog

General Tab

Name

This enables you to change the name of thesettings (the default name is ‘New’). Choose ameaningful name (e.g. ‘Preview’) so that thenew settings will be easy to distinguish from anyother settings.

Render Mode

This setting defines the mode used to render thepicture.

As Editor

If you select this mode, the renderer will use theeditor window’s active shading mode, e.g.wireframe, Gouraud shading.

Cel-Render B/W

Cel-Render B/W renders all objects as blackoutlines on a white background. You can refinethis mode using the Cel-Renderer options on theOptions tab - see page 416.

The render time for the Cel-Render B/W modeincreases linearly with the number of polygons,even though the mode is heavily optimized.

Cel-Render Color

Cel-Render Color renders all objects using areduced color palette and black outlines on ablack background. This gives the renderedsubjects a cartoon-like feel. You can refine thismode using the Cel-Renderer options on theOptions tab - see page 416.

The render time for the Cel-Render Color modeincreases linearly with the number of polygons,even though the mode is heavily optimized.

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Raytracer

This is a combination of two modes - scanlinemode and raytracing mode. Raytracing mode isused only for those parts of the picture thatcannot use scanline mode (e.g. transparentsurfaces, hard shadows). Otherwise, scanlinemode is used since it is faster. This automaticswitching between modes (termed adaptiveraytracing) accelerates rendering with zero lossin picture quality.

If you use the following settings, the scanlinemode will be used:

Transparency No RefractionReflection Floor & Sky OnlyShadow Soft Only

If you choose the following settings, scanlinemode will be used as much as possible butraytracing mode will be used where required(e.g. transparent surfaces, hard shadows):

Transparency With RefractionReflection All ObjectsShadow All Types

The two sample pictures below show the samescene.

The left-hand picture was rendered using thescanline mode only - there are no shadows, onlythe sky is reflected and, although the bottle andglass are transparent, there is no refraction.Raytracing mode was chosen for the right-handpicture. Now hard shadows are visible, thebottle is reflected in the mirror and the bottleand glass both refract light. Even so, all parts ofthe right-hand picture that do not use theseeffects used the faster scanline mode.

As you can see from the pictures, the effectsoffered by raytracing can make all the differencein rendering a realistic picture.

Note

You can speed up rendering by using a multi-processor system. BodyPaint 3D detects theextra processors automatically and distributesthe render task accordingly. For example, if youare using four processors, the render speed canincrease by up to a factor of 3.6.

Antialiasing

Images consist of pixels and are prone tostaircase effects. This phenomenon is calledaliasing. BodyPaint 3D equips you withpowerful antialiasing modes to defeat theseugly pixels.

You can set the strength of your chosenantialiasing mode using the Oversamplingsetting — see page 407.

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Antialiasing > None

If you select None, antialiasing is switched off.Expect a grainy image...

Antialiasing > Edge

If you select Edge, object edges will beantialiased. Shadows and textures will not beantialiased, though...

Antialiasing > Edge And Color

If you select Edge And Color, shadows andtextures as well as object edges will beantialiased...

Antialiasing > Always

If the Always option is selected, each pixel in theimage will be antialiased - even those pixels thatdo not require antialiasing...

The Always option should be considered anextreme measure - it causes a large increase inrender time yet the image improvements areoften negligible. Edge And Color with a highoversampling value gives high-quality renderingand is usually the better choice.

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Oversampling

This value refers to the maximum number ofadditional rays that are calculated for a pixelrequiring antialiasing.

The higher you set this value, the more accuratethe antialiasing will be. However, increasing theoversampling value will increase the render timeas well.

The render time is influenced greatly by theantialiasing and oversampling values. Forexample, Always antialiasing with 3 x 3oversampling takes about four times longer torender than Edge And Color with the sameoversampling, yet the difference in imagequality is usually minor.

You should reserve Always for the very highestimage quality.

Edge And Color provides almost identical resultsto Always and is rendered in a fraction of thetime. It is often more effective to choose ahigher oversampling value for Edge And Colorrather than move up to Always. A good time vs.quality compromise for quality images is EdgeAnd Color with 4 x 4 or 6 x 6 oversampling.

Transparency

Transparency > None

If you activate this option, transparency andalpha channels will not be rendered...

Transparency > No Refraction

No Refraction means that all transparentmaterials will be rendered but withoutrefraction. If you are working with alphachannels, make sure you use No Refraction,otherwise the surfaces will be renderedopaque...

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Transparency > With Refraction

Select this option if you wish transparentmaterials to refract as well. Refraction is oftenessential for realistic glass and water. Anyrefraction in the render will increase the rendertime. If there is no refraction in the render, therender time will not increase, even though thisoption is selected...

Reflection

Reflection > None

If None is selected, reflections will not berendered.

Reflection > Floor & Sky Only

If Floor & Sky Only is selected, only the floorand sky objects in the scene will be reflected.This option is rendered very quickly and is agood compromise for time-critical projects...

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Reflection > All Objects

If you select All Objects, all the objects in thescene can be reflected. If there are no reflectiveobjects in the scene, the render time will notincrease, even though this option is selected...

Shadow

Shadow > None

If None is selected, shadows will not berendered. The scene may lack contrast andappear flat as a result...

Shadow > Soft Only

If you have selected Soft Only, soft shadows willbe rendered. Soft shadows render extremelyquickly and look natural (often more naturalthan hard shadows, which take longer torender)...

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Note that BodyPaint 3D is one of the fewprograms that enable you to cast soft shadowsfrom omni lights. See Omni, page 318.

Shadow > All Types

If All Types is activated, soft shadows, hardshadows and area shadows will be rendered.Additional rays must be calculated for hardshadows and area shadows...

Output Tab

The settings on the Output tab refer torendering in the Picture Viewer only. Thesesettings have no effect on rendering in thePerspective View. As a result, you must renderto the Picture Viewer if you wish to save therendered picture.

Resolution

You can use this setting to define the size of theimage. You choose the resolution from thepopup menu or enter your own values in thetwo text boxes to the right.

If you do the latter, the resolution popup menusetting will change to Manual automatically.(You do not have to select Manual yourself.)The popup menu lists common formats.

Film Format

The film format corresponds to an image’s X:Yratio.

You can choose the film format from the popupmenu or enter your own values in the two textboxes to the right.

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If you do the latter, the resolution popup menusetting will change to Manual automatically.(You do not have to select Manual yourself.)The popup menu lists common film formats.

The resolution and the film format are linked. Ifyou change the film format, the resolution willbe adjusted automatically in the Y direction. Trythe following example for clarification.

Select a resolution of 320 x 240. This is thesame as a computer’s 4:3 ratio. Change thefilm format to 70 mm (cine format) - theresolution changes to 320 x 145 automatically(it is scaled in the Y direction to match theformat).

The default setting for the film format isAutomatic. This means that images will berendered in the specified resolution independentof any particular ratio.

Two lines will appear in the Perspective View toframe the area that will be rendered.

Pixel

The two values specified here define the ratio ofa pixel’s on-screen width (left box) to its on-screen height (right box). The pixel ratio formost monitors is 1:1, so usually you do not needto change this setting.

However, some display media use a pixel ratioother than 1:1 and the setting must be adjustedto avoid distortion such as circles appearing asellipses.

If you need to calculate the pixel ratio manually,expand the editor window so that it fills theentire screen. Select the side view and import acube. Measure the cube’s width and height witha ruler and enter values in the correspondingpixel boxes.

Frame

This popup menu and the two fields to its rightare valid for the integrated version withCINEMA 4D only - please see the CINEMA 4DReference manual for details.

Field Rendering

This popup menu is valid for the integratedversion with CINEMA 4D only - please see theCINEMA 4D Reference manual for details.

Frame Rate

This setting is valid for the integrated versionwith CINEMA 4D only - please see theCINEMA 4D Reference manual for details.

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Save Tab

Format

BodyPaint 3D supports the following pictureformats: TIFF, TARGA, BMP, PICT, IFF, JPEG,Photoshop PSD and any formats installed onyour system under QuickTime.

QuickTime 4 upwards supports the followingsingle picture formats: BMP, Photoshop PSD,SGI, JPEG, PICT, PNG, TIFF and QuickTimeImage.

Note

If you are using Windows, you must installQuickTime to take advantage of the extraformats.

Options

This is relevant only if you are runningBodyPaint 3D with CINEMA 4D. Please see theCINEMA 4D reference manual for details.

Name

This popup menu is valid for the integratedversion with CINEMA 4D only - please see theCINEMA 4D Reference manual for details.

DPI

You can use this setting to choose the DPI forthe following picture formats: BMP, TIF, PICT.The DPI affects a picture’s print size.

An example

You render a picture that is 700x1000 pixels. Ifyou save the picture with 72 DPI, the print sizewill be 24.7cm x 35.3cm. If you save the picturewith 300 DPI, the print size will be 5.9cm x8.5cm - assuming that the print programsupports the DPI setting.

Alpha Channel

If you activate this option, a pre-multipliedalpha channel will be calculated duringrendering.

The alpha channel uses the same resolution asthe color picture. Pixels in the alpha channel areeither white or black. A white pixel in the alphachannel indicates the presence of an object inthe corresponding pixel of the color image. Ablack pixel in the alpha channel indicates noobject in the corresponding pixel of the colorimage.

You can use the alpha channel for compositingin image editing programs.

Imagine that you have a scanned image of anairfield and you wish to render an aircraft inBodyPaint 3D and place it on the runway. Youcan render the aircraft with an alpha channel inBodyPaint 3D. Next, use the alpha channel inthe image editing program to cut out the non-aircraft parts of your render so that the airfieldshows though in those parts. The edges of thealpha channel picture are antialiased in grayscaleso that there is a soft transition in thecomposited picture.

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Pre-multiplied alphas have one particularshortcoming - please study the image below.

On the left the rendered image, in the middle the alphachannel and on the right the result

Can you see the dark seam caused by the alphachannel? This arises because both the pictureand the alpha channel were rendered withantialiasing. By definition, the color picture andthe alpha channel must be multiplied and so theblack is calculated twice.

You can avoid this dark seam by using theStraight Alpha option. Note that straight alphasare only suitable for compositing programs -they are unusable as conventional pictures.

Warning!

The entire alpha channel will be masked if youuse a sky, floor or background object in yourscene! Do not use any of these objects if youneed the alpha channel.

Alpha channels are integrated automatically forTARGA, TIFF, PICT and PSD. If you haveactivated Separate Alpha or if you have chosena different picture format, the alpha channel issaved separately to the color picture. These filesare indicated by an ‘A_’ before the filename,e.g. ‘A_room.tif’. Separate alphas are saved inthe TIF format.

Straight Alpha

You can use this option if straight alphas aresupported by your compositing program. Thisavoids the dark seam associated with pre-multiplied alphas. Note that straight alphas areonly suitable for compositing programs - theycannot be used as conventional pictures.

On the left the rendered image, in the middle the alphachannel and on the right the result

Activate the straight alpha only when you wishto post-edit the result. The picture is useless asdirect output.

Warning!

The entire alpha channel will be masked if youuse a sky, floor or background object in yourscene! Do not use any of these objects if youneed the alpha channel.

Alpha channels are integrated automatically forTARGA, TIFF, PICT and PSD. If you haveactivated Separate Alpha or if you have chosena different picture format, the alpha channel issaved separately to the color picture. These filesare indicated by an ‘A_’ before the filename,e.g. ‘A_room.tif’. Separate alphas are saved inthe TIF format.

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Depth Channel

The depth channel contains grayscale pixels thatindicate how distant objects are from thecamera. The darker a pixel, the more distantthat part of the object is.

On the left the rendered image and on the right the depthchannel

Depth channels are often used in post-production to add effects such as depth of fieldand fog. The depth channel can also be used toinsert objects within the picture.

Depth channels are integrated automatically forTARGA, TIFF, PICT and PSD.

If you have activated Separate Alpha or if youhave chosen a different picture format, thedepth channel is saved separately to the colorpicture. These files are indicated by a ‘D_’before the filename, e.g. ‘D_room.tif’. Depthchannels are saved in the TIF format.

Separate Alpha

Alpha channels or depth channels are usuallyintegrated automatically for TARGA, TIFF orPICT pictures. If you wish to save the alpha/depth channel as a separate file, activate thisoption. In addition to your color picture (e.g.

‘room.tif’), you will also have a file containingthe alpha channel (e.g. ‘A_room.tif’) or depthchannel (e.g. ‘D_room.tif’).

Note

If you have activated both Alpha Channel andDepth Channel, only the alpha channel will beintegrated into the picture. The depth channelwill be saved as a separate file.

Path

Choose the folder and filename so that thepicture can be saved automatically afterrendering.

You can type in the entire path if you wish.Alternatively, click on Path to open a systemdialog so that you select the folder.

If you enter a name without a path, the picturewill be saved in the active scene’s folder.

External

You can use External to specify an applicationfor the rendered picture to be passed on to. Forexample, you can redirect the picture to animage editing program for further processing. Ifyou are using Windows, you can use a batch filewith command parameters. If you use aMacintosh, you may use AppleScript.

Click on External to open a system dialog sothat you can select the program.

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Effects Tab

Depth of Field

If this option is activated, depth of field will berendered if it is used by any of the cameras. Youmay wish to switch off depth of field forpreview rendering.

Please note that this is a post-processing effect -it will not be visible until after the normal imagehas been rendered.

Lens Effects

If this option is activated, lens effects will berendered if they are used in your scene. Youmay wish to switch off lens effects for previewrendering.

Please note that this is a post-processing effect -it will not be visible until after the normal imagehas been rendered.

Glow Effects

If this option is activated, glow effects will berendered if they are used in your scene. Youmay wish to switch off glow effects for previewrendering.

Please note that this is a post-processing effect -it will not be visible until after the normal imagehas been rendered.

Note

Glow effects are like the lens effects. They arepost processed effects (they are only taken intoconsideration after the actual picture isrendered), so you cannot see them in reflectionsand you cannot see them through transparentobjects.

Volumetric Lighting

Volumetric lighting permits shadows in visiblelight. This can produce stunning effects, but italso increases render time significantly. Deselectthis option if you want to turn off volumetriclighting.

Level of Detail (CINEMA 4D scenes only)

This value influences all CINEMA 4D objects inthe active scene that support a reduction indetail, such as metaballs, primitives and NURBS.However, any objects that have their own Levelof Detail setting (see Display Tag, page 196) willcontinue to use their setting.

If the value is set to 100%, the objects will berendered with full detail. If the value is set to50%, the objects will be rendered with only halftheir usual detail.

Note

If you render to the editor window, the editor’slevel of detail value (Display menu) will be usedin preference. It is only when you render to thePicture Viewer that the value in the rendersettings is used.

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Scene Motion Blur

This is relevant only if you are runningBodyPaint 3D with CINEMA 4D. Please see theCINEMA 4D reference manual for details.

Dithering

This is relevant only if you are runningBodyPaint 3D with CINEMA 4D. Please see theCINEMA 4D reference manual for details.

Object Motion Blur

This is relevant only if you are runningBodyPaint 3D with CINEMA 4D. Please see theCINEMA 4D reference manual for details.

Filter

You can apply built-in post-processing filters tothe rendered picture.

None

No filter is applied.

Soft

Each pixel is balanced with its neighbour to yielda softer transition. Use Strength to increase ordecrease the effect.

Edges

The Edges filter emphasizes transitions in thepicture. This reinforces the edges. Use Strengthto increase or decrease the effect.

You can use Edges to sharpen your pictures - forexample, try using the filter with 30% strengthfor a still.

Medium

Medium filters out unattractive peaks in pixelcolor values. Use Strength to increase ordecrease the effect.

Options Tab

Active Object Only

If this option is active, only the active object isrendered in the Picture Viewer.

Auto Light

If there are no lights in your scene, BodyPaint 3Dwill use the auto light (a standard light source)when rendering so that you can see the objects.

Log File

If this option is enabled, the render log will berecorded in ‘Renderlog.txt’ in the BodyPaint 3Dfolder.

The render log contains a complete history ofthe render process including system resourceinformation. In particular, you can check the logif you need to identify problems that occurredduring rendering.

The information in the log file is not overwrittenby subsequent renders. Rather, new loginformation is appended. As a result, this file cangrow to a fair size over time. You may wish todelete the file manually from time to time - a

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new file will be created the next time the log isrecorded. (You will not confuse BodyPaint 3D bydeleting the file).

Textures

This option activates or deactivates textures forrendering. For example, you might deactivatetextures for a test render or for cel-rendering.

If the option is activated, textures will berendered. If Textures is deactivated, the averagecolor value of the top texture layer (the right-most texture in the Object manager) will berendered.

Cel-Render Color with and without the Texture option active

Cancel if Texture Error

If BodyPaint 3D cannot find a texture whenrendering the scene, an alert dialog will appear.If this option is not selected and you confirm thealert, the rendering continues without themissing texture.

Ray Depth

The Ray Depth value determines how manytransparent objects (or areas made invisibleusing the alpha channel) can be penetrated bythe renderer. The lower you set the ray depth,

the fewer the number of objects that can beseen through. Those areas that cannot bepenetrated are rendered black.

A processing depth of 1 means that calculationsare finished for that pixel once a ray hitssomething in the scene. Transparencies andalphas are therefore not visible.

A value of 2 means that, after a ray has hit asurface, a second ray is calculated for thetransparency. The greater the processing depth,the further rays are followed into the scene andthe results rendered.

The following scenes with transparencies andalphas were rendered with a ray depth of 2, 4and 8.

Reflection Depth

When a ray is sent into the scene, it can bereflected by reflective surfaces. With certainarrangements, e.g. two mirrors opposite eachother, it is possible that a ray will be reflectedendlessly - it is trapped between the mirrors andthe raytracer would never finish rendering thepicture. In order to prevent this, you can set themaximum number of reflected rays in ReflectionDepth.

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You can also use Reflection Depth to limit therender time for the picture. Often, only the firstgeneration of reflection is important. Furtherrays tend to add very little to the image qualitybut increase the render time considerably.

A processing depth of 1 means that calculationsfor a pixel are finished once a ray hits somethingin the scene. Reflections are therefore notvisible.

A value of 2 means that, after a ray has hit asurface, a second ray is calculated for thereflection. The greater the processing depth, thefurther rays are followed into the scene and theresults rendered.

The following scenes with reflective objectswere rendered with Reflection Depth set to 2, 4and 8.

Shadow Depth

The shadow depth is analogous to the reflectiondepth. In this case, tests are carried out to see ifa surface point lies in the shadow of anotherobject.

This is tested for using additional shadow rays,which are sent from the surface in the directionof the light source.

The value you enter for this setting determinesfor which generation of camera rays shadowsare calculated. For example, if you reduce thevalue to 2, shadows will not be rendered forreflected, transparent or refracted rays.

The following scenes with reflective andtransparent objects were rendered with ShadowDepth set to 2, 4 and 8

Threshold

This value helps to optimize the render time.With complex scenes, particularly thosecontaining many reflective and transparentsurfaces, 90% of the processed rays contributeless than 10% to the general picture brightnessand color. With a threshold value of, forinstance, 15%, the rays stop their movementfrom the camera into the scene as soon as theirbrightness falls below this critical value.

What exactly does that mean?

When a ray hits a surface, the values fortransparency and reflection are calculated. If, forexample, the threshold is set to 15% and thesurface has a material with 10% reflection(Brightness slider), the material will not reflect.

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In order to render the reflection in this case, thethreshold must be reduced to 9% or less (or thereflection of the material must be increased to16%).

Sometimes it is useful to increase the thresholdto prevent minor details being reflected.Although minor details are calculated correctly,too much detail in reflections can distract theviewer. However, if you wish to calculate allrays, set the threshold to 0%.

AA Softness

This stands for antialiasing softness and theoption enables you to control how hard or softthe antialiasing is. You can use this to fine-tunethe antialiasing to suit your picture.

For crisp pictures, set the value between 0 and50%.

If your pictures should retain a soft look, use avalue between 50 and 100%.

Note

As a rough guideline, use a value between 20-60%. This is only a rough guideline thatdepends on the subject matter - do not worry ifyour preferred setting differs.

Cel-Renderer

These options apply to the render modes Cel-Render B/W and Cel-Render Color.

Cel-Render B/W renders all objects as blackoutlines only on a white background. Cel-Render Color renders all objects with a reducedcolor palette and black outlines on a blackbackground. This results in a classic cartoonstyle.

Illumination

If this option is activated, the shading of objectsis affected by the illumination. Shadows will alsobe rendered. Note that this option only has aneffect with Cel-Render Color.

If Illumination is deactivated, the average colorvalue of the top texture layer (the right-mosttexture in the Object manager) will be used torender the objects. As a result, each object has amonotone color. Also, shadows will not berendered with the option deselected.

Outline

This option draws an outline around thesilhouette of objects. This is critical with the Cel-Render B/W mode since if you deselect theoption all you will see is the background color!

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With Cel-Render Color, the outline helps tobring out the individual objects and give them acartoon feel.

Note

The outline is drawn around the silhouette ofindividual objects only. For example, if you haveconnected an object group to form an individualobject, only the overall silhouette will beoutlined, not the individual silhouettes.

You can change the color of the outline usingEdge Color.

Edges

If this option is activated, all polygon edges areoutlined in black. This creates a shadedwireframe feel. You can change the color of theedges using Edge Color.

Edge Color

This option enables you to change the colorused by the options Outline and Edges. Thisoption affects both cel rendering modes (Cel-Render B/W and Cel-Render Color).

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Background Color

This option allows you to change thebackground color for the Cel-Render B/Wmode. The option has no effect on the Cel-Render Color mode.

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25. Window Menu   

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25 Window Menu

425Layout ..................................................................................................................................................... 425

Painter ..................................................................................................................................................... 426

New View ................................................................................................................................................ 426

Object Manager ...................................................................................................................................... 427

Material Manager .................................................................................................................................... 427

Picture Viewer ......................................................................................................................................... 427

Coordinate Manager ............................................................................................................................... 427

Structure Manager .................................................................................................................................. 427

Browser ................................................................................................................................................... 427

Global Status Bar ..................................................................................................................................... 428

Active Tool Manager ............................................................................................................................... 428

Console ................................................................................................................................................... 428

Command Manager ................................................................................................................................ 428

Menu Manager ....................................................................................................................................... 428

Other Entries ........................................................................................................................................... 428

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25 Window MenuLoad Layout

If you have setup your working environment toyour satisfaction and saved it (as a ‘.l4d’ file),you can reload that configuration with thiscommand.

Reset Layout

This instruction resets your BodyPaint 3D layoutto the original, preset layout. This is particularlyuseful if you need to call our support team sinceyou and they then have a common interface towork from. Your own customized layouts canincrease your workflow enormously but whensearching for an elusive problem a common,standardized layout is essential.

Save as Default Layout

Use this to save the visible working environmentas the default layout. When you next startBodyPaint 3D this is the layout that will be used(remember that this only saves yourBodyPaint 3D setup - you must clear up yourdesktop yourself!).

Note

In the General Settings you can choose to savethe layout automatically when quitting theprogram.

However, if you have slaved for hours creatingthe perfect working environment and want to besure that the layout is saved immediately, youshould use Save as Default Layout. After all,power cuts have an uncanny knack of happeningwhen you have not saved your work!

Most of the following menu entries activate awindow or a manager. If the particular windowor manager is already present in the layout, butnot in the foreground, the call will cause it tocome to the front. If the selected item is not inthe layout or if an additional view panel, iconpalette or status bar is opened, this appears firstin a new window. With the drawing pin (seepage 60) this window can then be placedelsewhere within the layout.

LayoutUnder this menu entry are some functions thatallow you to modify your work environment tosuit your own preference. More information onthis can be found in Chapter 4, Workflow, page55.

New Icon Palette

This opens a new, empty icon palette in its ownwindow. You can then populate this palette withicons from the Command manager (seepage 36).

Edit Palettes

If you choose this command, the Edit Palettesmode is activated and the Command manageropens. The icons are surrounded by blue frames,indicating that you may edit them - e.g. you candrag icons from the Command manager anddrop them onto any of the palettes.

There are two ways to exit the Edit Palettesmode - either close the Command manager ordeselect the check box.

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Save Layout as

This command lets you save your layout underits own name so that you can create as manynamed setups as you need; e.g. one for paintingin the Perspective View, one for editing UVmesh in the Texture View.

Layout files have the extension '.l4d'.

Default Layouts

So that you can access different layouts quicklythis command shows all the '.l4d' layout namesthat are present in the ‘Prefs’ folder within the'BodyPaint 3D' folder.

PainterThis menu item enables you to open editors andmanagers that relate to painting.

Brush Settings

This opens the Brush Settings dialog. You canalso open the dialog by double-clicking on abrush preset in the Brush manager.

In the dialog you adjust parameters for theactive brush.

For details on the Brush Settings, please seepage 89.

Color Settings

Opens the Color Settings dialog. You can alsoopen the dialog by double-clicking on a colorpreset in the Color manager.

The dialog enables you to adjust parameters forthe active color.

For details on the Color Settings, please seepage 75.

Brush Presets

This opens the Brush manager. This managergives you access to the default brush presets aswell as your own brush presets.

For details on the Brush manager, see page 98.

Color Presets

This opens the Color manager. This managergives you access to the default color and patternpresets as well as your own presets.

For details on the Color manager, see page 83.

Layer Manager

Opens the Layer manager. The Layer manager isthe control center which gives you access toyour textures. Not only can you select individuallayers to edit them, you can also drag-and-dropto reorder the layer stack, create new layermasks or merge layers together.

For details on the Layer manager, please seepage 107.

Bitmap Info

This opens the Bitmap Info manager. Thismanager provides you with information such asthe size or memory consumption of the activelayer or active material. You can also adjust theactive layer’s opacity.

For details on the Bitmap Info manager, pleasesee page 115.

New ViewBodyPaint 3D enables you to open as manyviews on a scene as you want and theperspective is always freely adjustable withineach view (see View Menu, page 13).

This is where you create a new view; when itfirst appears it uses the standard 3D perspective.

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New Texture View

BodyPaint 3D enables you to open as manytextures in their own view window as you wish.To open a texture in the view, either drag atexture into the view or double-click on thetexture’s name in the Layer manager.

Object ManagerThis opens the Object manager. In this manageryou can activate an object (even if it is notvisible in the Perspective View), change theobject hierarchy and manipulate the variousproperties of the objects. The Object manager isdescribed in detail in Chapter 11, page 187.

Material Manager

This opens the Material manager which holds allthe materials and textures present in a sceneand also shows material previews. You canassign a material to an object using drag-and-drop; simply drag the material onto theappropriate object in the Object manager.

The Material manager is described in detail inChapter 12, page 207 while the various textureprojections are discussed on page 255.

Picture ViewerThis opens the Picture Viewer window, alsoknown as the Picture manager. When youperform a final render, the picture appears in

this output window (instead of in thePerspective View). Also, you can view imagefiles (e.g. textures) directly in this window andyou are even able to convert them to otherformats.

Coordinate ManagerUse this to open the Coordinate manager. This isa universal tool for the numeric manipulation ofelements within your scene.

The Coordinate manager is described in detail inChapter 15, page 285.

Structure ManagerThis opens the Structure manager. The Structuremanager enables you to select and edit theactive object’s points, polygons and UVWcoordinates. You can edit the coordinatesnumerically.

The Structure manager is described in detail inChapter 14, page 277.

BrowserHere you open the Browser. The Browser is anenormously powerful tool for the administrationof your project data and libraries. Wholedirectories can be scanned to create a catalogand can be saved with a preview as well as withfurther information. Instead of searching longand hard in the murky depths of your hard diskfolders use the Browser to get your chosentextures, objects or scenes with just a fewmouse clicks.

The Browser is described in detail on page 57.

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Global Status BarThis opens the Global Status Bar, which showsinformation such as the render time.

Active Tool ManagerThe more complex tools (for example, theselection tools) within BodyPaint 3D havevarious parameters (such as the radius ofselection) which are shown in the Active Toolwindow; here you can also adjust them asnecessary.

The adjustable parameters are described withinthe appropriate chapters for the individual tools.

ConsoleThe Console window is used for the output andcontrol of C.O.F.F.E.E. programs. C.O.F.F.E.E.print commands are displayed here, as are anyerrors. In the case of errors, the number andprogram position are shown.

Command ManagerThis function opens the Command managerwhich contains a list of all the functions andcommands that exist in BodyPaint 3D, includingthe various icons and keyboard short-cuts. Hereyou can arrange your own icon palettes orchange the shortcuts to suit your own needs.

There is a more detailed description of theCommand manager on page 36.

Menu Manager

You can use this manager to rearrangeBodyPaint 3D’s menu structure. The use of themanager is self-explanatory. If you get in atangle, you can restore the structure with Revertto Original.

Other EntriesBodyPaint 3D is able to hold several scenes inmemory at the same time.

At the bottom of the Window menu is a list offilenames for all the open scenes. Choose afilename to access that scene. The order of thelist corresponds to the order in which the sceneswere opened.

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26. Help Menu   

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26 Help Menu 431Help (CINEMA 4D) .................................................................................................................................. 431

Help (BodyPaint 3D) ............................................................................................................................... 431

MAXON Online ...................................................................................................................................... 431

Personalize .............................................................................................................................................. 431

Info .......................................................................................................................................................... 431

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26 Help Menu

Help (CINEMA 4D)This menu item only appears if you are runningBodyPaint 3D with CINEMA 4D. It opens theonline CINEMA 4D 3D manual that was copiedto your hard drive during the standardinstallation process for CINEMA 4D.

Help (BodyPaint 3D)This opens the online BodyPaint 3D manual thatwas copied to your hard drive during thestandard installation process.

MAXON OnlineThis menu item will open the MAXONhomepage provided that you have an Internetbrowser installed. This is the place for the latestBodyPaint 3D information as well as serviceupdates.

PersonalizeThis opens the Registration dialog so that youcan enter your final serial number. You willreceive your final serial number once you havereturned your registration form to us or to yourlocal Maxon contact.

Warning

The serial number that is included with theprogram will expire after six months of use, afterwhich you will no longer be able to use theprogram. Please send in your registration form assoon as possible.

InfoThis opens the same info screen thatappears momentarily when the programloads. You can use this screen to checkthe version number of BodyPaint 3D, besure to quote this number whencontacting technical support. You canclose the window by clicking on it.

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Appendices   

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Appendices 435Appendix 1 Formulas .................................................................................................................................... 435

Units ........................................................................................................................................................ 435

Operators ................................................................................................................................................ 435

Constants ................................................................................................................................................ 436

Appendix 2 Programming Plug-ins ............................................................................................................... 437

The C.O.F.F.E.E. Programming Language ................................................................................................ 437

The API ................................................................................................................................................... 437

C.O.F.F.E.E. Support ................................................................................................................................ 438

Appendix 3 File Formats ............................................................................................................................... 439

Image Formats ........................................................................................................................................ 439

3D Formats .............................................................................................................................................. 440

Appendix 4 Support ..................................................................................................................................... 443

Appendix 5 Glossary ..................................................................................................................................... 445

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Appendices

Appendix 1 FormulasYou can type in a formula whereverBodyPaint 3D accepts a value, e.g. in theCoordinate manager.

This appendix lists all the units, operators,functions and constants that you may use inyour formulas.

UnitsYou may enter values using any of the unitslisted below (examples in brackets) - regardlessof the basic units defined in the general settings(BodyPaint 3D will convert the units for you).

km kilometres (23 km, 0.125km)m metres (13.23 m, 1000m)cm centimetres (11.5 cm, 328.275cm)mm millimetres (14 mm)um micrometres (678 um)nm nanometres (3.867 nm)mi miles (12.5 mi)yd yards (17.9 yd)ft feet (512 ft)in inches (0.125 in)F frame number (0 F)

Note

If you change the basic units in the generalsettings, e.g. from metres to millimetres, onlythe measurement units are changed, not existingnumerical values. For example, if an object has awidth of 10 metres, but you then change thebasic units to millimetres, the object will thenhave a width of 10 millimetres. If you wish toscale the objects to reflect the change in units,

group all the objects and scale the group usingthe Coordinate manager.

OperatorsThe function parser has the most importantarithmetic operators built in (examples inbrackets):

+ addition (144 + 14 = 158)- subtraction (144 - 14 = 130)* multiplication (144 * 2 = 288)/ division (144 / 12 = 12)MOD modulus (123 mod 4 = 3)^ power (12 ^ 2 = 144)( open bracket ( 3 + (4 * 2) = 11 )) close bracket ( (3 + 4) * 2 = 14 )

FunctionsABS absolute value (abs(-123) = 123)SIN sine (sin(30) = 0.5)COS cosineTAN tangentASIN arc sineACOS arc cosineATAN arc tangentSINH sine hyperbolaCOSH cosine hyperbolaTANH tangent hyperbolaLOG10 logarithm to base 10 (log10(100) = 2)LOG logarithm to base e (log(e) = 1)EXP exponential function (exp(5) = 148.413)SQRT square root (sqrt(144) = 12)SQR square (sqr(12) = 144)

Note

Function arguments must be bracketed. Thenumber of open brackets must equal the number

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of close brackets. Functions may be embedded:sin(sqr(exp(pi)))

The argument of a trigonometric function isalways interpreted in degrees. sin(2*pi) does notmean the computation of sin 180 degrees,merely approx. sin 6.283 degrees.

ConstantsBodyPaint 3D includes two important constants:

PI Pi (3.142)E Euler’s number (2.718)

With all the above you should be able to defineeven the most complex operations in a veryprecise way. You can combine them freely. Forexample:

2km+exp(sin(4mm*pi))/((sin(14cm))^2+(cos(14cm))^2)

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Appendix 2 ProgrammingPlug-ins

The C.O.F.F.E.E. ProgrammingLanguageC.O.F.F.E.E., BodyPaint 3D’s plug-in language, isnot based on macros or scripts but is a completeand powerful programming language in its ownright. It closely resembles C++ and Java so thatif you are already familiar with these languagesyou will immediately feel at home withC.O.F.F.E.E. You simply have to learn the variousfunctions implemented by BodyPaint 3D.

Before you can start programming, you willneed the SDK (Source Development Kit) fromMAXON Computer - you can obtain this fromMAXON Computer’s web page atwww.maxon.net.

What is the advantage of programming inC.O.F.F.E.E.?

Apart from the ease of integrating newfunctionality into BodyPaint 3D, BodyPaint 3D isa multi-platform program; BodyPaint 3D isavailable for the Apple Power Macintosh (MacOS 8 and above) and Intel PC (Windows 9x andWindows NT/2000). Writing plug-ins inC.O.F.F.E.E. means that your new BodyPaint 3Dfunction will work immediately on all theseplatforms; no re-compilation or reprogrammingis required.

How do you create such a program?

Simply write your C.O.F.F.E.E. programs in anyeditor (perhaps that supplied with yourcomputer) or word processor and save it as a

regular ASCII text file; BodyPaint 3D will happilyprocess regular text, with no high-ASCIIcharacters.

So that BodyPaint 3D can find its C.O.F.F.E.E.programs and load them automatically, theymust be placed in the Plug-ins folder whichshould be in the root BodyPaint 3D folder. If youcheck the contents of this folder, you shouldfind some examples already there.

However, you can also store C.O.F.F.E.E.programs elsewhere on your hard disk. If youwant to load such a program into BodyPaint 3Djust use the File > Open menu command - sucha file cannot be automatically integrated intoBodyPaint 3D’s menu structure.

The APIYou can, if you wish, write your applicationsusing any C/C++ compiler rather than theC.O.F.F.E.E. language. You can accessBodyPaint 3D's functionality through pre-defined interfaces. These interfaces are in theform of an API (Application ProgrammingInterface) library which is part of the SDK.

Note, however, that if you use an externalcompiler (as opposed to C.O.F.F.E.E.) this will beplatform dependent and you will need to re-compile your program for each platform youwant your plug-in to support. Your plug-ins mayeven require reprogramming.

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C.O.F.F.E.E. SupportSupport for BodyPaint 3D developers is availableexclusively on MAXON Computer’s website:

www.maxon.net

There you will find, among other things, theSDK. This contains the C.O.F.F.E.E. compiler anddetailed descriptions of the programminglanguage and the interface libraries. It is, ofcourse, possible for commercial plug-inmanufacturers to keep their source code secretand proprietary.

Our developer support is not static; theinterfaces to BodyPaint 3D and theirfunctionality are updated frequently. Therefore,please take note of announcements atwww.maxon.net on a regular basis.

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Appendix 3 File FormatsWhile working with BodyPaint 3D there will beoccasions when a particular graphic format willnot load or a 3D file will prove difficult toconvert. There are so many formats and sub-formats for images and 3D files thatBodyPaint 3D cannot even dream of copingwith all of them.

The following sections contain summaries of allformats that BodyPaint 3D supports. If you needmore detailed information, you should refer tothe relevant technical information for thatformat.

Image Formats

TIFF

Bit depths

1, 4, 8, 24, 32

Compressions

Uncompressed, RLE compressed.

Notes

Only Baseline TIFF is supported. Exotic formatssuch as CMYK images are not supported, nor arefiles that have been LZW compressed (this is dueto licence rights). It is of course not possible togive an exhaustive list of non-supported formats,since such a list in a sense could never bedefinitive.

With QuickTime installed LZW compressedimages and other variants are also imported.

IFF

Bit depths

1, 4, 8, 16, 24

Compressors

Uncompressed, RLE compressed.

Notes

IFF images are read only if they conform to theCommodore/Electronic Arts specifications.

EHB, HAM-6 and HAM-8 modes are supported.

TARGA

Bit depths

24, 32

Compressors

Uncompressed.

Note

Only TGA-1 is supported. With QuickTimeinstalled other variants are also imported.

PICT

Bit depths

4, 8, 16, 24, 32

Compressors

Uncompressed, RLE compressed.

Note

With QuickTime installed all PICT variants areimported (as long as the QuickTime compressorsare available).

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BMP

Bit depths

1, 4, 8, 16, 24

Compressors

RLE-4, RLE-8.

JPEG

Bit depths

24

Note

Grayscale JPEGs cannot be loaded.

PSD

Bit depths

1, 8, 24, 48

Color Formats:

Indexed Color, RGB, not CMYK.

Notes

For writing, multiple alpha channels aresupported.

When importing, layers are preserved and willappear in the Layer manager.

With QuickTime installed, all QuickTimeformats are supported i.e. PNG, SGI andQuickTime image.

3D Formats

DXF

BodyPaint 3D offers complete support for DFXfiles written by AutoCAD (up to and includingversion 12) or by the export filters of otherapplications, provided they are 100%compatible.

LightWave

BodyPaint 3D can convert LightWave Version 5files and scene descriptions completely, althoughyou may need to post-edit light source settingsand texture placements. UV coordinates can beimported with LightWave Version 6

3D Studio Import

– These files are loaded:3DS (regular 3DS files)PRJ (3DS project files)MLI (3DS materials libraries)

– The object hierarchy is copied 1:1, referencedobjects are duplicated in BodyPaint 3D.

– The following material channels are imported:environment light, specular color, specularsettings (are recalculated), transparency,luminance, color texture, specular texture,transparency texture, environment texture,relief (bump) texture, luminance texture.

CAUTION!

The 3DS transparency texture is the exactopposite of the transparency mode inBodyPaint 3D. In 3DS materials are moretransparent the darker a texture pixel, whereasin BodyPaint 3D they are more transparent thelighter the pixel.

– UV mapping is copied.

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– Position, scaling, rotation and light sequencesare adjusted to suit BodyPaint 3D.

– Textures can be renamed automatically onloading.

– So-called target objects loaded from 3DS (fromcameras and light sources) become axes (nullobjects) and are given the extension ‘t’, whichis added to their object name.

– 3DS files are binary files and are not recognisedby their extensions but by their identifier.

3D Studio Export

– All polygon objects, light sources and camerasare exported, Hyper NURBS objects aretransformed into polygon objects.

– Material export:color, luminance, transparency, environment,specular, specular color, relief (bump), all withany defined textures. The mean value of thetexture channel is exported with the shader.

Note

Regrettably, 3D Studio can cope only withfilenames consisting of eight characters plus athree-letter extension. Therefore texturefilenames will be truncated to conform with thisrestriction.

3D Studio accepts only one UV coordinate perpoint. Therefore texture mapping differ afterexporting in this format.

QuickDraw3D Import

– Light source and camera information cannotbe read.

– The following objects are ignored:Torus, TriMesh (new with QD3D v1.5); NURBScan cause problems in certain cases.

– References (both internal and external) are notread.

– UV coordinates are not read.

– Textures are not read.

QuickDraw3D Export

– Light source and camera information cannotbe written.

– UV coordinate export is supported.

– Texture export is supported.

– ASCII 3DM files cannot be written, only binary.

Note

QuickDraw 3D accepts only one UV coordinateper point. Therefore texture mapping mayappear different after exporting in this format.

Direct3D Export

– Typical extension *.x, ASCII Format, MESH andFRAME format.

– Zoom factor for entire scene, automaticindenting.

– Rename texture names to any extension.

– Texture information (UV coordinates andtexture names)

– Texture channels:color, luminance, specular, specular color,transparency, environment.

Note

For all scenes to display properly with aDirect3D Viewer it is necessary for all textures tohave an edge length of a power of 2 (i.e. 2, 4, 8,16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, …).

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VRML V1.0c and 2.0 Import

– ASCII format.

– Creating all basic objects (cuboid, sphere, cone,cylinder).

– Polygon objects of any size and number ofvertices (n corners are triangulated).

– Perspective cameras, light sources (direct,point, spot).

– Material tags:ambient color, diffuse color, specular color,emissive color, shininess.

– WWW Links are created as a BodyPaint 3Dattribute (WWW tag).

Note

Object names in VRML files must not containany special characters (not even +, –, *, /). Thismay be the only reason that BodyPaint 3D isrefusing to load a file!

VRM L 2.0 Import

– Inline scenes (references to scenes areautomatically loaded).

VRML1.0c and 2.0 Export

– ASCII format (optionally formatted).

– Hierarchical saving of all objects: HyperNURBSare converted to polygon objects.

– Object names are converted, special charactersare filtered/converted.

– Textures:If there are any textures, the program looks forthe color texture, the luminance texture andthe environment texture (in that order). Colortextures, even inline textures, are saved as files.

– Materials:

Color, luminance, specular, specular color,transparency, environment.

– WWW links/addresses are saved: when anobject is selected in the web browser, theprogram branches to that link.

Wavefront OBJ Import

– The file to be imported must have the fileextension ".OBJ". The file itself contains noinformation to suggest its origin. Without theextension, BodyPaint 3D cannot open theobjects.

– ASCII format.

– Polygon objects are loaded.

– Objects are given a dummy material.

– UV mapping is supported.

– No object hierarchy can be created.

Wavefront OBJ Export

– ASCII format.

– Polygon objects; HyperNURBS are convertedto polygon objects, UV coordinates.

DEM Landscape Import

– BodyPaint 3D does not support the morerecent DEM-SDTS format.

– The VistaPro-DEM format is supported.

– The file to be imported must have the fileextension ".DEM". The file itself contains noinformation to suggest its origin. Without theextension, BodyPaint 3D cannot open the file.

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Appendix 4 SupportWhat can you do when you are stuck and themanual does not appear to help? - You maywant to contact technical support.

MAXON Computer, and its distributorsworldwide, will help you with any technicalproblems you encounter. So that we can helpyou as efficiently as possible, please keep inmind the following:

Please contact us (or your local distributor) inwriting if possible, preferably by email.

We have telephone lines, of course, butproblems with a package as complex asBodyPaint 3D may take time to solve - it is notalways possible to solve the problem while youare on the phone. With email, however, ourtechnicians can consult with colleagues forassistance — even the programmers if necessary— and get back to you as soon as possible.Email is also convenient for attaching anexample of the problem and, likewise, it may behelpful for us to send you a scene.

Please keep support enquiries separate to otherenquiries, orders etc.

Orders are dealt with by our busy Sales staff, soyour support question is unlikely to be passedonto a support technician.

Please allow for a reasonable response time.

We operate on a queuing system basis only. Ourcustomers are equally important and we willrespond to you at the earliest opportunity.

Please supply your telephone number andtimes when we may contact you on thatnumber.

Occasionally, we may need to contact you forfurther details.

Please send an example scene to demonstratethe problem, if applicable.

“When I paint, I get a mess”. It is difficult tosolve problems with such limited detail andsometimes we need to examine the problemscene. After all, we and our hard-working betatesters, have tested the functions many-a-timewithout finding a fault.

Please keep any example scenes as small andas relevant as possible.

For example, if only an alloy wheel is required todemonstrate the problem, please delete the restof the car - it merely gets in the way. This savesour time and in turn we can respond to yourproblem sooner.

Please supply us with a complete description ofthe relevant steps leading up to the problem.

Ideally, we would like a little ‘recipe’ thatgenerates the problem consistently. Please keepthe 'recipe' concise.

Include rendered images if relevant.

Please tell us which settings you used.

Please tell us which programs you have runningat the same time as BodyPaint 3D. If you areusing MacOS, please let us know which systemextensions are loaded.

Sometimes, another program or a systemextension (MacOS) may cause a problemindirectly.

Please include details of your hardwareconfiguration.

“I have a Macintosh/PC” is of little help on itsown. Also, please let us know which version(e.g. 6.00) of BodyPaint 3D you are using. Ifyou have Internet access, please use the supportform on our website (www.maxon.de). Tell uswhat other programs and system extensions youare running concurrently with BodyPaint 3D.

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If the program crashes, it will display an errormessage. Please let us know the exactmessage.

If you are using Windows, you will see manyother details listed. Please ignore these extradetails - they are as enlightening as theinfamous Macintosh message “ApplicationUnknown has quit unexpectedly because oferror -1”...

Please let us know BodyPaint 3D’s message.

If you have Internet access, please check theFAQs on our website before you contacttechnical support.

Often, you will find the answer in the FAQs.

Our service is limited to technical support only.We cannot undertake subcontracting.

“Can you paint my spaceship model, please?”

We must concentrate our resources on helpingcustomers with genuine problems that arewithin the bounds of technical support.

However, there are numerous web addresseswhere you can find additional help. Please visitour website (www.maxon.de) for links to thesevaluable resources.

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Appendix 5 GlossaryAlpha channel, Alpha buffer

Used for blends with 2D images or movies. Thischannel determines at which points and to whatextent an underlying picture will be visible.Alpha channels are usually grayscale images; thedarker a pixel the more intensely the underlyingpicture comes through.

Ambient

This refers to the surrounding light which causesthe scene to generally appear brighter. InBodyPaint 3D this property is set in theEnvironment object.

Antialiasing

Method for reducing the undesirable zig-zageffect along object and colour edges. It isachieved by generating intermediate points fromcolours of adjoining pixels. Images that havehad antialiasing applied normally appearsomewhat blurred.

Backup

Security copy of data or of files.

Bitmap

Two-dimensional pixel graphic.

Browser

Application that lets you manage and view files.

Bump Map

Relief texture. The surface is seeminglyindented. Usually grayscale images. The darkera pixel, the more strongly the object is indented.BodyPaint 3D also lets you reverse thisbehaviour.

CAD

Computer Aided Design.

CPU

Central Processing Unit, the heart of thecomputer. Without it, nothing works.

Drag-and-drop

This is the technique of grabbing an object onscreen with the mouse and keeping the mousebutton depressed while moving it to anotherposition. When the target is reached, the mousebutton is released and the object ’dropped’. Thismay trigger other actions (like launching aprogram).

Gouraud Shading

This shading algorithm smooths the edges ofobjects. Without it, objects usually look faceted,i.e. the individual surfaces are visible.

Halo

Refractive and reflective effects around a lightsource.

HSV

One of the colour models—Hue-Saturation-Value.

Label

This is usually a non-tiled texture, analogous tothe labels that you find on bottles.

Lens Flares

When photographing or filming light rays mayfall into the lens, causing smaller or largercoloured rings on the exposed material. Suchflares can be the result of air bubbles or lensesthat are not completely tight. One normally triesto prevent this disturbing effect, however, inphotorealistic computer graphics it is sometimesdesirable to use them as a design element (thisis sometimes overused).

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Local Coordinates

Every object has its own origin, which issubordinate to the world coordinate system (orother objects that are higher in the hierarchy).Local coordinates are useful for determiningpositions of subordinate objects.

Mapping

The way in which a texture is projected onto anobject. Also refers to the technique that is used,such as Bump Mapping, etc.

Mesh

Synonym for wireframe.

Model

Complex 3D structure consisting of one or many(hierarchically structured sub-) objects.

Multi processor system

Computers working with multiple centralprocessors. This can be used to work on severalprocesses simultaneously or to have severalprocessors tackling one task. Applications needto support this type of processing in order tobenefit from it.

OpenGL

The standard, developed by Silicon Graphics, forexchanging 3D data between applications andgraphics cards.

Phong Shading

This Shading algorithm smooths the edges of anobject. Without it, objects may look faceted, i.e.each individual surface is clearly visible.

Pixel

Picture element. The size of a pixel depends onthe resolution of the output device. Monitorsusually have 72 pixel per inch (dpi), laserprinters 600.

Plug-in

Separate add-on which is integrated into themain application at launch and is then calledfrom within it. Plug-ins are not normallyautonomous, i.e. they do not work outside anapplication.

Polygon

3D models consist of (control) points andconnecting lines. Each surface area that isformed is called a polygon.

Procedural textures

Mathematically generated textures (2D and 3D).Their advantage is that they are largelyindependent of the projection type and can,depending on their programming, be tiledseamlessly.

QuickTime

Apple graphics standard. There are QuickTimemovies and images as well as the VR (virtualreality) walkthroughs.

RAM

Random Access Memory: Data may be read andwritten to this memory in a non-sequentialmanner. When you switch off the computer, thecontents of this type of memory are deleted.

Raytracing

Computes the course of a light beam in space.In non-scientific computer geometry it is notlight rays that are being traced but visual rays,i.e. rays that emanate from the viewer’s eyerather than from a light source.

Rendering

Refers to the computing of images. The methodused (raytracing, scanline ...) is irrelevant. Theapplication of filters to 2D images (such asbrightening and sharpening) is also calledrendering.

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RGB

The colour model Red/Green/Blue. Mixingvarying parts of these three colours producesthe intermediate colours.

Scanner

Device for reading images (from books, photosetc.) into the computer. Useful for creatingrealistic textures. With a 3D scanner it is evenpossible to capture three-dimensional objectsand convert them into models.

Scene

Refers to the whole of a 3D computer model,consisting of objects, light sources, cameras, etc.

Seamless Textures

See Tile Textures.

Shadow buffer

Buffer for storing information which allowsobjects to cast a shadow. These buffers are usedparticularly for generating soft shadows.

Texture

Usually a 2-dimensional image, which can beused as a label, a tile, or in its full format fordefining material attributes. There are also 3-dimensional textures, which are normallygenerated with the help of mathematicalalgorithms. These are normally referred to asprocedural textures (see separate entry) orshaders.

Tile textures

These are textures which can be joinedseamlessly (tiling). However, when looked atfrom a distance, distinct repetitions can bevisible in the pattern, if you cover a large areawith small tiles. If you want to avoid this, use amathematically generated ’infinite’ texture – seeProcedural Textures.

User interface

Appearance of a program allowing interactionwith the user. Includes all graphical elements,such as menus, popups, buttons, etc.

Vertex

A node. Vertices are the intersections of twolines in a wireframe model and of three edges ina surface model. In BodyPaint 3D vertices areedited in Point mode.

Virtual Reality

No widely accepted definition exists, but what isgenerally meant is an artificial, computer-generated three-dimensional world.

Volumetric Lighting

Special lighting technique, which calculatesshadows within visible light.

Voxel

Volume element. Originally, the expression wasused in medicine, in analogy to pixels, whenscanners were able to read in three-dimensionalobjects. They were the smallest spatial unit thata medical scanner was able to resolve.

Wireframe

Most common way of representing objects in a3D editor. Objects are shown as wire structures.Often, this is the only possible representation,but BodyPaint 3D also supports GouraudShading, Flat Shading, Cuboid, Skeleton andinvisibility.

Z buffer

Is used for computing quick previews, that takeno account of shadows or surface detail.

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X. Object-Manager

Index   

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INDEX • 451

Index

Symbols

2D Shader 238–2493D Formats 4403D Shader 249–255

new 2083D Studio 440

A

Achromatic Light 44Active Channel

display 183Active Layer 110Active Object

apply texture to 211copy 197, 305copy active tag to children 201cut 197delete 197, 306deselect all 306edit object axis 367edit with object tool 366frame (in camera) 13frozen selections 382information 199link view to 15move 361quick navigation 364render 401render in Picture Viewer 416resize 362rotate 363save 196search for 200select all 306setting display of 14shading property of 14show animation path of 14

X-ray mode 14Active Tool Manager 375, 376, 377, 428

introduction 9Active Tool Window. See Active Tool ManagerAdd

blending mode 76layer mask 114

Additive textures 268Align. See SnapAlign Normals 388

in DXF files 294Alpha Channel 108, 110, 112, 115, 231

in brick shader 239in cloud shader 240in cyclone shader 241in fire shader 242in flame shader 242in galaxy shader 243in RTTM display 23in Saturnring shader 245in sunburst shader 247omit from render 407render with 412separate alpha option 414when rendering 407

Ambient Illumination 332Animation

animation path 14drag-and-drop 59export to VRML 2 298

Animation Pathdisplaying 14editing 14

Animationsin the browser 63play with Open 290

Antialiasing 405lines with OpenGL 46softness 419

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while selecting 166API

for C.O.F.F.E.E. 437AppleScript 414Area Light 321Area Shadows 323Arrange

icon palettes. See Command Managermaterials. See Sort Materialsobjects in the Object Manager 188view 24

ASCII Cloudload 278

Auto Light 416with quick shading 20

Axes Tools 370

B

Back Light 353Backface Culling 14, 22

disabling 15display tag in Object Manager 189invisible polygons 388option for VRML 1 297option for VRML 2 298

Backgroundand alpha channels 232color 421compositing 192picture 15

Background Color 81Background Layer 107Background Picture 15Backlight 353Backup Copies

automatic 41Bake UV 146Bank 370

axis 370changing with the mouse 363

Basic Units 42overriding 435

Batch Filewith external in render preferences 414

Beardbrush preset 101

Beveloption for brick shader 239

Biasin light shadow tab 334relative vs absolute 335

Bitmapbrush type 95edit UV 146info for material 115load 96selection, editing 81selection tools for paint 163textures 127transform 172

Bitmap Filters 151Blending

layers 116of layers 108–109

Blending Modes 75Blur

to soften a texture 215BMP 440Border

adding to texture channel 179Bounding Box. See also Marquee

used to group objects 199Brightness

of color 77of light 328of material color 213

Browser 57–65and C.O.F.F.E.E. 64and the Drawing Pin 60creating a catalog 58drag-and-drop 59importing into 60information window 64movies 63new catalog 60

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open catalog 60opening from the Window Menu 427preferences 63relative catalog paths 61render all pictures 64saving from 61scenes 64search 65select all images 63settings 28sorting 65use of catalog example 62

Brush 171bitmap 96direction 93fade 94filter 96hardness 91jitter 92preset 70pressure 90random setting 95rotation 92settings 89settings effectors 92shape 89squeeze 92strength. See Brush: pressuretool 171

Brush Manager 98close 98

Brush Positionpainting mode 78

Brush Presetsdelete 99duplicate 99edit 99export 98import 98new 98new group 98rename 99save 98

viewing 99Brush Settings 89–97

save 97Brush Type

bitmap 95generic 89

Bump Map. See Relief MapBump Texture 230

C

C++and C.O.F.F.E.E. 437

C.O.F.F.E.E.and plugins 397and the Console Window 428API 437in the Browser 64programming 437SDK 437shaders 238Source Development Kit (SDK) 397support 438

Camera 311–357depth of field 312edit 364editor 15focal length 312focus 313frame scene with 13frame scene without 13framing 13in View menu 15interactive control 313lens effects 345move 364move hotkey 6rotate 365rotate hotkey 6scale 365scale hotkey 6scene 15target 315

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tool 364undo/redo view 304

Camera Tool 364Cancel

render 211Canvas

fit to UV 149size 179

Catalogdelete pictures 63example of use in Browser 62making paths relative in Browser 61new in Browser 60open in Browser 60save in Browser 61

Cel Render 404Channel Shader 238Channels

material 82material, copy/paste 214multiple, painting to 83of material 112

Chromatic 43Circle

interpolation 216Clip Mapping 231Clipping

of light 317, 331Clone

texture 171Close

all 290, 291brush manager 98brush settings 97file 290on the Pin menu 40texture 130the Browser 63the document 290the Material Manager 209the Object Manager 196the Structure Manager 279

Close All 290, 291

Colorbackground 81, 421blending 75brightness 77choosing 76copy 80editing settings 80foreground 81manager. See Color Managerof material 213of texture 129paste 80picker 170preset 70presets 83. See also Presets: colors/patternssettings 75sliders 77using to select 167

Color Depthinformation 64of texture 214

Color Manager 83close 84

Color System 43Command Manager 36, 428Command Palettes 32

introduction 8new 32

Commandsgrouping 34

Compositing Background 192Cone

light 319shadow 338

Connectan object group 393select polygons/splines 379

Connect Function 393Console Window 428Context Menus

introduction 8

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Contrastof light 328

Convert to polygons 388Coordinates

generate UVW 201Copy 38

active object 197, 305cells in Structure Manager 279color 80image in picture manager 274layer 110material 210tag to children 201

Createa MultiBrush 102

Create Mask 181Cube

light 337Cubic Mapping 260Cursor Keys 363

in the Structure Manager 277Cut 38

active object 197, 305cells in Structure Manager 279material 209

Cut/Copy/Pastecolors 80

Cylinder 296Cylindrical Mapping 259

D

Darkenblending mode 76

Decal Mapping 263–265Deformers

and level of detail 189and UVW coordinates 201

Delete 38active object 197brush presets 99cells in Structure Manager 279color/pattern presets 84

layer 113material 210object 306palette command 36points 366render settings 403selected UV 149tag from children 201

DEM 295Depth Channel 414. See also Alpha ChannelDepth of Field

for cameras 312option in Render Menu 415

Deselectfrozen points 383frozen polygons 383hide elements deselected 381

Deselect Allactive objects 306cells in Structure Manager 280points/polygons 379preview pictures 63

Differenceblending mode 76

Diffusionmaterial 220

Direct3D Format 292, 293, 441Direction

of tablet pen 93DirectX Format 292, 293Disconnect

surfaces 387Disk

loading patterns from 78Displacement

mapping 237material 237

Displayof lights in editor 315of objects, control of 198tag in Object Manager 189

Display Modefor active object 14

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for inactive objects 15introduction 20options 20–23

Display Selected Channel 183Display Tags Option 196Display Units 40Dissolve

blending mode 75Distance

brush setting 94Distant Light 319Dock

windows 7, 30Drag-and-drop

in the Browser 59in the Brush Manager 99in the Color Manager 84in the Layer Manager 110in the Object Manager 187

Draw Line 174Draw Polygon

in texture view 175Draw Text 174Duplicate

brush presets 99color/pattern presets 84layer 113

Dustin visible light 341

DXF 292, 294, 440circle option 294

E

Edgesfilter 416

Edit2D shader 218animation path 14brush presets 99camera 364glows 347in View menu 13

lens effects 349material 211, 212menu in Browser 63menu in Brush Manager 99menu in Color Manager 80menu in Material Manager 209menu in Object Manager 197menu in Structure Manager 279model 367movie 219object 199, 366object axis 367object tag 201palette 36, 425points 366polygons 366primitive objects 388selection mask mode 81streak 348surfaces 387texture 107, 369texture axis 369UV points 136UV polygons 137, 139–141

Edit Material. See Material EditorEditor Camera 15Effectors

for brushes 92when painting textures 79

Environmentcolor 356fog 356material 227

Environment Object 356Erase

blending mode 76Eraser 172Exclusion

blending mode 76Expand Object Group 199Export

brush presets 98color/pattern presets 83

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from picture manager 273scene 291settings 27

External Compilerfor C.O.F.F.E.E. 437

Eyedropper 77, 170

F

Fadebrush stroke 94

Falloffof light 330

Featherselection 166

Feature Overview 55Field Rendering 411File

close 290close all 290, 291export 291formats 439import 290import ASCII into Structure Manager 278import into Browser 60initialization 66layout 426logfile example 416menu in Browser 60menu in Material Manager 208menu in Object Manager 189menu in Structure Manager 278new 289open 289quit 5recent files 42, 298, 299revert to saved 290save 290save all 291save as 291save project 291

File Formats 439

for textures 131Fill

layer 181selected UV polygons 181

Fill Light 352Film Formats

for render 410Filter

edges when rendering 416for brush 96ignore for material channel 76render post-processing 416wet edges 96

Filtersbitmap 151

Final serial number 431Fit Canvas 149Flat Mapping 259Flatten

layer 114Flip

texture channels 181Floor object 354Focal Length

of camera 312when scaling 365

Focusof camera 313

Fogenvironment 356material 228shader 251simulating 229visible light 323

Foldingcommands 34

Fontof text 174

Foreground Color 81Fractal

turbulence 248

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Frame Ratewhen rendering 411

Framesshow safe 15

Freehand Selection 376Freeze Selection 382Fresnel

material transparency 224Frontal Mapping 260Frozen Layers

DXF option 294Frozen Selections 382Functions

mathematical 435menu 393

G

General Settings 27, 40–52Generate Backup Copies 41Generate UVW Coordinates 136, 201Genlock. See also Alpha Channel

in Material Manager 231Glossary 445Glow 346

editor 347material 236

Gouraud Shading 20in preferences 64

Graphics Tablet 40, 93using with texture painting 79

Grayscaleto RGB 115

Grid Linesfor textures 369

Groupcolor/pattern presets, show 84commands to palette 34expand objects 199icons 8objects 199presets 83

tabs 31windows 30

Groupspreserve when disconnecting 387

Grow Selection 380GUI 6

H

Hard Shadows 322Hardness

of brush 91Heading 370

axis 370changing with the mouse 363

Helpoverview of features 55with layers 117

Help menu 431Hermite. See BézierHide

deselected points/polygons 381object with backface culling 15objects in Object Manager 198other than frozen selection 383selected points/polygons 381

High Quality Shading 183Highlight. See SpecularHotkeys 6HPB System 370

option 40HSV 77HSV Model 45

I

Icon Editing. See Command ManagerIcon Palette

new 40, 425Icons

for brush presets 99for color/pattern presets 84

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grouping 8IFF 439Ignore Filter

for material channel 76Illustrator 295

load object 196Image

formats 439in the background 15

ImportASCII cloud 278brush presets 98color/pattern presets 83file 290settings 27

Inactive Objectdisplaying 15

Informationabout current scene 200about MAXON 431about selected object in Object Manager 199in Browser 64

Initialisation filesNew.c4d 66Template.c4d 5Template.cat 66Template.l4d 66

Input Fieldsintroduction 8

Interactive Controlof camera 313of NURBS 310

Interactive Mappingof UV mesh 150

Interpolationcircle 216

Invert Selection 379Isoparms 21

J

Jitter Brush Function 92JPEG 440

K

Key Light 352Keyboard Shortcuts 36

adding your own 37Keys

for quick navigation 364hotkeys 6using cursor keys 363

L

Launching 5Layer

active 110alpha channel 110, 112and the texture tag 193background 107blending 108–109, 116delete 113drag-and-drop 110duplicate 113DXF option 294fill 181flatten 114info 115mask 110, 111material channels 112memory 117merge 113move 116, 170new 113offset 116opacity 108, 116re-arrange 110strength 108, 116textures 267tutorial 117

Layer Manager 107, 426active material channels 82

Layer Mask 111add 114managing 114

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Layersfrozen, DXF option 294

Layoutload 56, 425save 42save as 57, 426save default 425

Lens Effects 345–357edit 349option when rendering 415

Level of Detailview 20

Lightbias of shadow 334glow 346lens effects 345

Light Cube 337Light maps 352Lighten

blending mode 76Lighting

ambient light 332area 321brightness 328clipping 331contrast 328distant 319dust in visible light 341falloff 330key light 352memory needed 317negative 328, 332noise 317, 343omni 318outline shadow 337parallel 320radiation option 317render time needed 318shadow map 322shadows 316show clipping range 317show illumination range 317show visible light 317

soft shadow 336spot 319target light 354texture mapping 352visible 324volumetric 324

Lightsdisplaying in editor 315

LightWave 440Lines 174

antialiased by OpenGL 46List

of textures 109, 159Live Selection 378Load

bitmap 96catalog 60colors/patterns 80layout 56, 425manager settings 41, 43, 46material 289materials 209object 196point cloud 278scene 289texture 129, 130

Lockpainting mode 78

Log File 416Luminance

material 221

M

Macintoshsimulating right mouse button 5

Magic Wand 167Magnet

UV points/polygons 144Magnify 364. See also ZoomMake Tab 39Manager

active tool 428

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colors 83command 428layer 426menu 428picture 427pin icon 39

Manager Settingsloading 41, 43, 46

Managersdocking/undocking 39introduction 7

Managing Textures 132–134Map

UV mesh interactively 150Mapping

clip 231cubic 260cylindrical 259decal 263–265different on same object 269displacement 237flat 259frontal 260MIP 217of textures 255–267restrict to selection 269RTTM 23SAT 217shrink wrapping 262spatial 260spherical 258texture, disable 15types 258–265UVW 260

Mapping Types 258–265Marquee

selection 375Mask

create from polygons 181for layer 110, 111managing for layers 114

Materialallocating texture 130

channels 82, 112channels, copy/paste 214channels, list 109color 213color brightness 213copy 210cubic mapping 260cut 209cylindrical mapping 259delete 210diffusion 220edit 211, 212enable for editing 107environment 227fog 228fresnel 224glow 236ignore filters 76load 209, 289luminance 221new 208painting multiple 182paste 210reflection 225relief map 229remove duplicate 212remove unused 212rename 212render 210save 209search 256sort 211specular 234transparency 222view active channels 112

Material Channelconverting 115

Material Editor 212–219, 220Material Manager 207, 427

introduction 9redo 209

Memorylayer 117

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needed by lighting 317Menu

help 431Menu Manager 38, 428

revert to original 39Menus

editing 38introduction 8

Mergelayer 113

Mesh, UV 134. See also UV MeshMetal

brush preset 101simulating 227specular on material 234

Metal Shader 253MIP Mapping 217MIP Maps Option 46, 47Mirror

selected UV 149texture channels 181

Missing Textures 401Mix

texture channels 219Mixed Textures 269Mixing

layers 116of layers 108–109

Modeledit 367scale hotkey 6

Model Tool 367Modes

of blending colors/patterns 75of painting 78

Motion Blurobject 416scene 416

Mouse 5right mouse button, Macintosh 5wheel 5

Mouse Hitpainting mode 78

Mouse Wheel 95using with texture painting 79

Moveactive object 361bitmap 172camera 364cells in Structure Manager 277hotkeys 6layer 116points 366quick navigation 364selected UV 149UV points/polygons 141

Move Layer 170Movie

creating (rendering) 412data, editing in texture 219displaying in Browser 63editing in texture pane 218opening 290playing 290render as 412render formats 412

Multi Channel Palette 81Multi Channels

texture 82MultiBrush 100

creating 102Multiply

blending mode 76

N

Nameof texture 116

Negative lighting 328, 332New

3D shader 208alpha channel 115brush preset 98brush preset group 98camera 311catalog 60

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command palette 32icon palette 40, 425layer 113layer mask 114line in Structure Manager 278material 208render settings 403scene/document 289submenu 38tag in Object Manager 189texture 129texture tag 193view panel 426

New.c4d 66Noise

in lighting 317, 343Normal

blending mode 75Normals 22

align 294, 388and decal mapping 263displaying 14general information 388reverse 389

Null Object 309NURBS Objects 310–357

O

Objectdelete 306edit 199, 366environment 356floor 354load 196motion blur 416move hotkey 6null 309paste 197rotate hotkey 6scale hotkey 6sky 355use shading property 22

Object Axis 367editing 367

Object Groupconnect 393

Object Hierarchy 188Object Manager 187

drag-and-drop 187introduction 9redo 197texture menu 201

Object Property. See TagObject Tag

edit 201Objects

controling display 198expand group 199group 199select all 306

Oilbrush preset 100

Omni Light 318Opacity

adjusting for color/pattern 75of layer 108, 116

Opencatalog 60file 289in picture manager 273scene/file 289texture 130

OpenGLantialiasing lines 46

Operators (mathematical) 435Optimal Mapping 136, 147Optimize

UV mesh 147Outline

UV polygons 181Oversampling 407Overview of Features 55

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P

Paintlock mode 78object tutorial 69selection tools 163texture 127with textures 77

Painterwindow 426

Painting Mode 78Palette. See also Command Palettes

edit 425grouping 34multi channel 81

Palette Commanddelete 36

Palettesedit 36

Parallel Light 320Paste 38, 305

cells in Structure Manager 279material 210object 197

Pathrender option 414texture 71texture, option 51to texture 214

Pathscatalog 61

Patternpresets 83. See also Presets: patterns

Pattern Manager. See Color ManagerPatterns

blending 75defining 75loading from disk 78picking with eyedropper 77preset 77tiling when painting 78

Pendirection 93

draw direction 93graphics tablet options 79pressure 93tilt 93

Perspective View 16, 70Pick

color 170PICT 439Picture

in the background 15Picture Manager 273

export image 273open image 273zoom 274

Picture Sequencerender 412

Picture Viewer 427. See Picture Managerrender to 402

Pin Menu 39Pitch 370

axis 370changing with the mouse 363

Pixel Ratio 42in render settings 411

Plasticspecular on material 234

Plug-ins 397folder 214programming 437

Pointcloud 278delete 366

Pointsdeselect all 379edit 366edit UV 136select from polygons 381selecting UV 137UV magnet tool 144UV move tool 141UV rotate tool 143UV scale tool 143UV shear tool 144

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UV snap when moving 142Points Tool 366Polygon

select from points 381selection 377

Polygonscreate mask 181delete UV 149deselect all 379drawing 175edit UV 137editing 366fill UV 181invisible with backface culling 388mirror UV 149move UV 149outline UV 181select connected 379selecting UV 137UV 135UV, editing 139–141UV magnet tool 144UV move tool 141UV rotate tool 143UV scale tool 143UV shear tool 144UV snap when moving 142

Polygons Tool 366Preferences

Browser 63general 27, 40

Preserve Groupswhen disconnecting 387

Presetsadding to the colors manager 80brush 70brush, save 97color 70colors/patterns 83colors/patterns, delete 84colors/patterns, duplicate 84colors/patterns, export 83colors/patterns, icons 84

colors/patterns, import 83colors/patterns, rename 84colors/patterns, save 83colors/patterns, show group 84colors/patterns, view 84patterns 77

Pressureof brush 90of tablet pen 93

Previewsdeselect all in Browser 63

Programmingin C.O.F.F.E.E. 437

Programming Interface. See APIProject

save 71, 291Projection

changing type 15modes 16–19

Projection Modesand UV mesh 135

Projection type 69Property

object. See Tag

Q

Quadranglesand polygons 373

Quick Navigation 364Quick Shading 20QuickDraw3D 441Quit 5

R

Randombrush setting 95

Ray Depthin render settings 417

RayBrush 182Raytracer

render setting 405

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Raytracingsamples in metal shader 251

Re-arrangeobjects in Object Manager 188

Real Time Texture Mapping 23save 41

Recent File List 42Recent Files 298, 299Recover

last saved file 290Rectangle Selection 375Redo 304

in Material Manager 209in Object Manager 197in Structure Manager 279view 13

Redraw Limit 42Reflection

as a lens effect 345material property 225when rendering 408

Reflection Depthwhen rendering 417

Refractionwhen rendering 407

Refractive Index 225Region

render 402Registering 431Relief Map

for materials 229Remap 146Remove

duplicate materials 212unused materials 212

Renamebrush presets 99color/pattern presets 84material 212

Rendera region 402active object 401alpha channel 412

as movie 412cancel 211edges filter 416field rendering 411film format 410frame rate 411lens effects 415material 210mode 404path 414picture sequence 412post-processing filter 416stop 273straight alpha 413tag 191time needed by lighting 318

Render Active Object 401Render Menu

depth channel 414depth of field option 415

Render Settings 402–403delete 403lens effects 415mode 404name of 404new 403oversampling 407pixel ratio 411ray depth 417raytracer 405reflection 408reflection depth 417refraction 407resolution 410save formats 412shadow 409shadow depth 418threshold 418transparency 407volumetric light 415

Resolutiontexture 129

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when rendering 410Reverse Normals 389Revert to Original Menus 39Revert to Saved 39, 290RGB 77

to grayscale 115RGB Model 44Right Mouse Button

on a Macintosh 5Rotate

active object 363bitmap 172brush tip 92hotkeys 6texture 180texture when painting 79UV points/polygons 143

RTTM. See Real Time Texture MappingRubber Stamp. See Mouse Hit

S

Safe Framesactivating 15

SAT Mapping 217Save

active object 196all files 291brush preset 97brush presets 98color/pattern presets 83colors/patterns 80default layout 57, 425file 290layout as 57, 426layout at program end 42material 209project 291RTTM textures 41scene 290settings, general 27texture 131when rendering 412

Save as 291Save Project 71Scale

active object 362bitmap 172hotkeys 6texture 178texture when painting 79UV points/polygons 143

Scale Axesoption in general settings 46

Sceneload 289

Scene Cameras 15Scene Motion Blur 416Screen

blending mode 76SDK 437Seamless tiles 266Search

active object 200for material 256in Browser 65paths 51, 401

Segmentation. See SubdivisionSelect

adjacent polygons 381by color 167hide 381invert 379points from polygons 381polygons 366polygons from points 381UV points/polygons 137

Select Allcatalog images in Browser 63objects 306points/polygons 379

Select Connected 379Selection

anti-aliasing 166feather 166freehand 376

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freeze 382frozen 382grow 380live 378magic wand 167polygon 377rectangular marquee 375restrict material over 269shrink 380tolerance 168tolerant 138, 375, 376, 377, 378tools for paint 163

Selection Fundamentals 373, 374Selection Mask

edit 81Selection Menu 373Selection Tools

for paint 163Selective UVW Mapping 262Serial number

entering your final number 431Set Selection. See Freeze SelectionSetting Ray Depth 417Setting the Render Resolution 410Settings

Browser 28brush 89color 75import/export 27pattern 75save 27

Shader - 2Dcloud 240cyclone 241fire 241flame 242gradient 241marble 243neptune 244noise 245saturnring 245starfield 246stars 247

sunburst 247turbulence 248uranus 248water 249

Shader - 3Dearth 250fog 251marble 252metal 253rust 253terrain 254venus 254wood 253

Shaders 238–255Shading 14

high quality 183objects, property of 22

Shadow Bias 334Shadow Depth

and materials 226when rendering 418

Shadows 316area 323color 333density 333hard 322outline 337soft 336transparency 335when rendering 409

Shapeof brush 89

Shearbitmap 172UV points/polygons 144

Shortcutskeyboard 36

Show Normals 14Show UV Mesh 136Shrink Selection 380Shrink Wrap Mapping 262Size

of texture 116, 178

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of texture canvas 179Skeleton Display 21Sky Object 355Sliders

for choosing color 77Smoke

simulating 229Smoothing 189

and surface normals 389how it works 190tag in Object Manager 189

Smudge 97Snap

UV points/polygons 142Sort

materials 211Sort Materials 211Sorting

in Browser 65Source Development Kit. See SDKSpatial Mapping 260Specular

metal 234plastic 234

Spherical Mapping 258Splines

polyline 292select connected 379

Spot Light 319Square

interpolation 216spot light 319

Squeeze Brush 92–103Starting 5Store Color 89Straight Alpha 413Streak

editor 348Strength

of brush 90Stroke

UV polygons 181Structure Manager 278

delete cells 279moving cells 277new line 278pasting 279redo 279

Subdivisionand hyper NURBS 310

Support 443for C.O.F.F.E.E. 438

Surfaceediting 387

Surface Normals 22. See also NormalsSurfaces

disconnect 387

T

Tabscreate 39grouping 31introduction 8

Tagdisplay 189new 189render 191smoothing 189texture 193url 195

TARGA 439Target Camera 315Target Light 354Technical Support 443Template.c4d 5Text 174Texture

applying 255applying to one side only 263bitmap filters 151bitmaps 127channels 82choosing with eyedropper 77clone 171close 130

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color 129color depth 214discussion 127edit 107editing 369editing movie 218editing movie data 219effectors 79eraser 172error 417flip 181fog/smoke simulating 229grid lines 369layers 107, 267layers, managing 132–134list 109load 129, 130menu in Object Manager 201metal-like 227mirror 181mixing channels 219name 107, 116new 70, 129optimize UV mesh 147painting with 77painting with graphics tablet 79painting with mouse wheel 79path 214paths 71resolution 129rotate 180rotate when painting 79save 131scale when painting 79size 116, 129, 178soften with blur 215stretching 262tag 193tag, new 193tiling 265to material 130transform bitmap 172wallpaper 80

Texture Axisadapt to object axis 203adapt to view 203adapt to world axes 203edit 369mirror 204

Texture Error 417Texture Geometry Dialog 255Texture Mapping 255–267

light maps 352Texture Paint Option 75Texture Paths 51Texture Tool 369Texture View 70, 127

changing size 159draw polygons 175eyedropper 170texture list 159zoom 170

Texturesdisabling display 15displaying 23missing 401mixing 269

Thresholdwhen rendering 418

Thumbnailsin Browser 28, 58

TIFF 439Tile

and textures 265seamless 266UV 183

Tilingpatterns 78

Tiltof tablet pen 93

Toleranceof selection 168

Tolerant Selection 138, 375, 376, 377, 378Tool

axes 370camera 364

Page 495: Cinema 4d bodypaint 3d Manual

INDEX • 471

points 366polygons 366

TransformUV mesh 149

Transform Bitmap 172Transparency

for materials 222option in lighting 335when rendering 407

Transparent Axes 46Triangles

and polygons 373True Color 128Turbulence

shader 248Tutorial 69

layer 117MultiBrush 102UV Coordinates 134

Typesof brush 89of file format 131

U

Undo 304buffer 303depth of 42in Material Manager 209in Object Manager 197in Structure Manager 279view 13

Undo Depth 132Undock

manager 39window 7

Ungroup Object Group. See Expand ObjectGroup

Unhide 381Units

for display 40URL

tag 195

UVbake 146edit bitmap 146edit points 136edit polygons 137fill polygons 181magnet tool 144move tool 141optimize 147outline polygons 181polygons, editing 139–141rotate tool 143scale tool 143selecting points/polygons 137shear tool 144snap when moving 142tile 183

UV Coordinates Tutorial 134UV Editor 134UV Mesh 134

adapt to canvas 149bake 146bitmap filters 151delete selected 149edit 139–141edit bitmap 146interactive mapping 150magnet 144mirror selected 149move 141move selected 149optimize 147rotate 143scale 143shear 144show 136snap when moving 142transform 149

UV Polygons 135UVW

generate coordinates 201UVW Coordinates 261

generate 136

Page 496: Cinema 4d bodypaint 3d Manual

472 • INDEX

UVW Mapping 134, 260selective 262

V

Version number 431View

active material channels 112arrangement 24brush presets 99cameras 15colors/patterns 84configure 14level of detail 20perspective 70texture 70texture view 159undo/redo 13

View Icons 13View Panels 13

new 426Viewport Settings 27Visible Light 324

dithering 342dust 341preventing contouring 342show option 317

Volume Shader 249Volumetric Lighting 324

render option 415VRML 442

W

Wallpaper 80Wavefront 442Web Browser

and the URL object tag 195MAXON online 431

Wet Edges 96Wheel Mouse 95

Windowactive tool 375, 376, 377change size 8grouping with dock 30undock 7

Window MenuBrowser 427Coordinates Manager 427Painter 426

Windowsdocking/undocking 7, 30

Wireframe 20

X

X-ray modeactivating 14

Z

Zoom. See also Magnifyin picture manager 274texture view 159, 170