Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

18
Cinema 4D – How to create realistic grass in Cinema 4D Hair module in release 11 of Cinema 4D is an excellent innovation. Using this module, we can create beautiful green grass, which looks amazingly real. The image shown below bears it out. In this tutorial, we will learn how to create this grass with blue sky interspersed with clear clouds. We will also see how to place the grass on the soil with the soil looking like real soil. All this is very simple, thanks to the creators of Cinema 4D. I have done this tutorial in release 11. You can do this tutorial in any other version provided it ships with hair module. Here we go: 1. Open cinema 4D, go the primitive objects, select plane primitive and enter the following parameters in the object properties: Width: 2000 Height: 2000 Width Segment: 2 Height Segment: 2

Transcript of Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

Page 1: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

Cinema 4D – How to create realistic grass in Cinema 4D

Hair module in release 11 of Cinema 4D is an excellent innovation. Using this module, we can create beautiful green grass, which looks amazingly real. The image shown below bears it out.

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create this grass with blue sky interspersed with clear clouds. We will also see how to place the grass on the soil with the soil looking like real soil. All this is very simple, thanks to the creators of Cinema 4D. I have done this tutorial in release 11. You can do this tutorial in any other version provided it ships with hair module. Here we go:

1. Open cinema 4D, go the primitive objects, select plane primitive and enter the following parameters in the object properties:

Width: 2000Height: 2000Width Segment: 2Height Segment: 2

Your screenshot should look like this:

Page 2: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

2. Name the plane as Soil (to do so, double-click plane in the object manager in the upper right hand corner and type soil). Now we will give the soil color to the object soil. Go to material menu (bottom), click file, and click new material. This will open material dialog, as shown below:

Page 3: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

3. Double-click the material dialog to open material editor. Check and select color dialog in the editor and click on the default white color, which will open the color picker dialog. Using color slider, make the color brownish and click ok. Uncheck specular in the color dialog to remove any shininess from the material because we don’t want the soil to shine. The screenshot of the material editor is given below:

Page 4: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

4. By default, the name of the material you created will be Mat. Click it and rename it as soil material.

5. Select the soil material and drag it all the way to object manager and drop it on soil object. The soil should now turn brownish.

Page 5: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

6. Having created soil for the grass to grow, we shall now create sky, which is done in two simple steps. Go to the upper horizontal menu, click the menu showing light object, select sky.

Page 6: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

There are other ways to create more complex sky, but we will keep it simple for the while.

7. Go back to the material manager; create new material, open material editor to create clouds in the sky. Click color and in the color dialog, click texture tab and select surfaces>clouds.

Page 7: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

8. Rename the new material as sky material and drag and drop it into sky in the object manager. Render the scene to view the soil and sky. It should now look like this:

Page 8: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

9. We’ll now proceed to create grass on the soil. Click hair module in the main menu and select add hair. In the object manager, drag and drop hair into the soil object thus making hair child of the soil. Render the scene. It will look like this:

Page 9: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

10. By default, the hair color is brown. But we want it green because we are creating grass.

11. In the material manager, click hair material, which will open the material editor for the hair.

12. Click color>texture tab>create new texture. It will open the color picker. Choose green color in the picker, uncheck specular and close the editor.

13. Render the scene again, and now the grass is looking green.

Page 10: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

14. If your scene looks like the screenshot above, you’ll notice that the number of grass blades is fewer. You can make them denser if you want.

15. In the object manager click hair which will give you a number of parameters in attributes manager. Click the tab named Hairs and in field called count, increase the count to 25000. Render the scene and you’ll find the blades much denser than before.

Page 11: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

16. However, the blades are unnaturally straight in the above screenshot. Realistic grass has blades bent randomly, hasn’t it?

17. Double-click the hair material in the material manager to open the hair material editor. Check the option called “frizz” in the editor. Let frizz parameters be at default value. Close the material editor and render the scene. Voila you have created perfect grass!!

Page 12: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

18. One more issue. The realistic grass is not fully green. It often has its tips slightly yellowish due to the direct exposure to the Sun. In order to make its tips appear slightly yellowish, do the following.

19. Click the hair material in material manager once. In the attributes manager, click the tab called “tips” and uncheck the option “as roots”. Click texture>create new texture, which will open the color picker and make the color yellowish. Click ok.

Page 13: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

20. Render the scene again. You’ll now find that grass now has a mix of green and yellow, green at the bottom and yellow at the tips. Pan, dolly and magnify the scene, and you will have a field of grass extending up to horizon.

Show it to your friends and tell them it’s your latest with brand new canon camera. They will believe it!!!That’s the power of Cinema 4D.

Page 14: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

To save the scene, do the following:21. From the main menu, choose render>render setting

Page 15: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

22. Click the tab named “general” and choose full render.23. Click the tab named “output” and choose the following

parameters:Width: 800Height: 600Resolution: 300Frame range: current frame

Let other parameters be unchanged.

Page 16: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

24. Click the tab named “save” and click the tab called path, which will open the path to your hard drive where you have to save the file. Name it realistic grass and click save. Make you change the format to BMP or JPEG.

Page 17: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

25. Click the tab named “anti-aliasing” and in the drop-down-menu, choose “best”. In the filter field, choose “still image”.

Page 18: Cinema 4D - Using hair module to create realistic grass in cinema 4D

26. Close the render setting dialog, go back to render menu, choose “render to picture viewer”.

27. Cinema 4D will render the scene. Mark it: you need to have a faster machine to get faster render of such scenes. I use PC with core2duo processor, 2gb ram, nvidia multimedia display card and 250gb hard drive. It works well.

Have fun.

[email protected]