Firsts! - Box Modelling!

 Firsts! - Box Modelling! 

If we're being completely honest, me and 3D modelling have never really got along. As someone who struggles with anatomical forms at the best of times, combining that with the near endless supply of tools and features offered in a program like Cinema 4D, the prospect of having to make a 3D model and rig it made me quake in my boots.

Process

But, there was hope! I was introduced to a form of modelling called box modelling, essentially using singular cubes (or other simple shapes) and manipulating them through their faces, points, and vertices to form shapes. These very blocky models can then be applied to a 'Subdivision Surface' which automatically turns them into more rounded objects and forms.

With a pretty watertight way to model simple characters now, I actually had quite an easy time constructing some anatomical forms based on my existing knowledge of the program. The process of creating your form in very simple shapes through extrusion and manipulation, and then making sure the subdivided version is clean and usable, is a brilliantly fast way to simply 3D model!

That said, I was worried about the rigging process. I'd always heard rumblings of rigging pains and many an abandoned project due to the issues it can cause, but thankfully, this had an even faster shortcut! By using the online site 'Maximo', Cinema4D files can be uploaded as .obj's and then automatically assigned a skeleton rig based on an algorithm (and the user giving the location of key body parts). 

From here the character I created in about 20 minutes was fully rigged and could perform hundreds of pre-made animations available through Maximo, available to download as animations whenever I wanted.

Thoughts

As is the way with most things on my art journey, things are rarely as complicated in practice as they are on the surface, and I need to keep reminding myself of that rather than feeling intimidated by perceptively challenging techniques and software!

In just 30 minutes I had a working character rig, sure it's not the best rig in the world but the process used in creating it is one I now understand perfectly, and something I could probably actually get pretty good at if I studied it further!