The Happenin’ Hotspot for After Effects Artists

Instructions

1. Choose the front view. This will make things easy to see – later you’ll be able to do this in any viewport, but it allows you to see what’s going on.
2. Create a STAR SPLINE object. Star spline will allow you to set up the right number of points in the right area quickly and easily.
   Click the screen grabs for larger images in a new window (pops)
3. Set the number of points in the star to the number of points in the star you want to make. In the attributes window, set the number of points to 5.
4. Now that the Star Spline has been modified, make it editable by using the pulldown menu or simply use the "C" key on the keyboard to make the selected object "editable".
5. With the editable star object selected, open the STRUCTURE MANAGER. Select all of the points (these represent all of the points in the star (not the spikey points, the 3D vertices!) There should be 10 points (count ’0′ as one of the points). COPY THOSE POINTS (cmd or ctrl-C).
6. Create a polygon object. Note: this isn’t a primitive shape, it’s just an empty polygon object.
7. In the polygon object’s structure manager, PASTE the point data from the clipboard.
8. Create a new line (you’re making a new set of data for a new point). This point should have values of (0, 0, 0). The new point will be in the center of x,y,z.
9. With the POLYGON objet selected, and the points now pasted in the object’s structure, you’ll need to connect the points to create polygons. Note from the pulldown menu, the shortcut is to type (in rapid succession) M then E.

   

   SEE MOVIE HERE:

10. Let’s revisit the new point that was created in the center of the structure. Change the Z value to -50. This moves all of the newly created geometry out to meet the new position of the center point.

OPTIONAL EXTRA

11-opt. If you’re going to see around to back of this model, you may want to add a symmetry object to easily recreate the geometry on the other side of this. Add the symmetry object while holding down the option key to add it as a parent to the selected object. Don’t forget to switch the mirror plane to the correct face (this one is XY)

12-opt. Add a material. There are tons of presets that you’ll find in the application. There are even more on the CD in the goodies folder. There are more yet online. Have suggestions for where to find CINEMA 4D materials? Check in at the Toolfarm Forum and let us know where your favorite material site is.

Here’s the file if you need to get there in a hurry. DOWNLOAD .C4D FILE (R 9.6) Go through the steps to figure out how to make this, and you’ll see how easy it is to make many other models using CINEMA 4D. NOTE: There is an alternate version of the model in the file using an array object. Click the READ ME objects for more information. Wanna learn more about C4D? Check out Cineversity Tutorials, now over 500 video tutorials www.cineversity.com.

Purchase Cinema 4D