Cinema 4D Tutorials: Modeling Tools

In this 4th episode of intro to Cinema 4D Tutorials, you’ll learn how the modeling tools work.  The tools that will be covered are the array, atom array, boole, spline mask, metaball and symmetry.

Array

Duplicates geometry in a radial fashion. Control the array object’s radius, number of copies, amplitude, and frequency in the attributes manager. Amplitude and frequency allow you to offset the duplicates in the Y axis. Generate a lot of geometry quickly and animate it with the array object.

Atom Array

Creates a sphere for each point of the geometry and a cylinder for each height and rotation segment. The sizes of the generated spheres and cylinders can easily be controlled in the attributes manager. The atom array works on any parametric primitive.

Boole

Allows you to use two pieces of geometry to cut, add, subtract, and intersect forms to make compound shapes.

Spline Mask

Allows you to use two splines to cut, add, subtract, and intersect forms to make a compound spline shape. The spline mask needs to be used in conjunction with a NURBS object to add geometry to the spline and be visible in the renderer. 

Metaball

Creates a virtual ‘skin’ around multiple pieces of geometry and provides a fluid/liquid look. The geometry’s position can be animated to create a fluid simulation.

Symmetry

Duplicates a piece of geometry based on the center of the 3D environment. Control the objects cloned direction in the X, Y, or Z axis using the mirror plane function. 

Hope you enjoy this episode of intro to Cinema 4D tutorials. If you have any questions about any specific modeling tools features, insights that you would like to share, or tutorials you like to see created, please leave a comment below.