Tutorial: Page (1) of 1 - 07/02/05

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HOLIDAY GRAPHIC SIMPLE STARS IN CINEMA 4D By Ko Maruyama The fourth of July is coming up for everyone, but here in the United States we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independance and the country's departure from colonial rule on that date.  Independence Day is marked by the icons of our country's flag, stars and stripes.  Because stars take a few million years to create, we'll create a graphic that only a requires few minutes using MAXON's CINEMA 4D. (Beginner Tutorial)


(http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters/declaration_transcript.html)


1. The Star Spline

The star spline can be found in the spline section of the standard palette, or through the Object pulldown menu.


 


3. The default star comes with 8 points.  If you want a standard 5 point star, you can control the number of points in the attribute manager.  Select a value of 5 in the dialogue box for points.



4. To create some simple geometry from this star, place it into an ExtrudeNURBS object.  If you're using R9, with the star spline selected in the object manager, simply hold down the OPTION key and select the Extrude NURBS object from the standard palette.




5A. In the Caps part of the attribute window, change both the Start and End to "Fillet Cap" and shift the radius to a value of "10".

5B. Select the Fillet type: ENGRAVED.

5C. Set Constrain to "on" by checking the empty box next to the word "Constrain".



6. While the object is extruded, it has a depth of 20m which extends from the front of the spline (located at 0,0,0).  In order to center the extrusion on the axis of the NURBS object, move the star spline half the distance of the extrusion in the opposite direction of the extrude (20/-2) or (-10).





That's it.

Now you have a star to incorporate into your graphic or animation.



To download a simple star animation file (REQUIRES CINEMA 4D R9),  stars.c4d.

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Ko Maruyama is a freelance animator in Los Angeles.  In addition to working on film and broadcast animations, Ko teaches at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design - focusing on motion design.  When working, writing or testing software allows, you can find him lending a hand in the After Effects board and lurking among the Cinema4D, Visual Effects and Photoshop posts within the DMNForums.

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