C4D - Advanced Compositing For Beginners

[Fragma]

In this tutorial I will show you how to achieve professional
compositing effects using Cinema 4D. The outcome should look
similar to this:



So lets get started. First thing's first, you need to choose an
image which you will use to composite your 3D object into. Make
sure that the image you choose is High Definition. In this
tutorial I will be using an image I found on http://ezr.me/269.

Now we need to turn the image into a material so that we can use
it. Double click the empty space in your Materials Manager, and a
new material will be created.



Double click on the newly created material, and you will be faced
with the Material Editor. For now, we only need to focus on the
"Colour" tab, so uncheck Specular which will be checked by
default.
Under the Texture sub-title of the Colour tab, browse for your HD
image. Also, take a note of the images resolution, as you will
need to know it for the next step.



Now click the icon with 4 arrows pointing away from each other and
a white circle behind them. A drop down will appear, and you'll
need to select "Background".



Drag your newly created material onto the Background object in
your Objects Manager. The image will now be shown as the
background to your view port. Now along the top icon menu, select
the 3rd clipboard image, which will open up your Render Settings.



Now under the Output tab, you will need to change the Width &
Height values to match those of your image. In my case, I will be
changing the width to "1152" & the height to "864".
You can close your Render Settings for now.
Now you're going to need to add a Plane. Go to Objects > Primitive
> Plane. Using your view port navigation icons located to the top
right of the window:

Position your plane so that it aligns with the floor of your
background image.



Whilst holding CTRL, drag the material from your Background
object, onto your Plane object.
Right click on your Plane object, and select Cinema 4D Tags >
Compositing.

Click the newly created compositing tag, and have a look at the
Attributes Manager. Check the box next to Compositing Background,
and uncheck the box next to Cast Shadows. If you now hit render
you will see your plane doesn't show.



Now this step is more of a security measure, which prevents your
from accidently messing up your scene. Go to Objects > Scene >
Camera. Click the little black target box next to your Camera
Object. Right click your Camera object, go to Cinema 4D Tags >
Protection. This will prevent the camera from moving around when
you're looking through it.



Now to add your 3D Object. In this tutorial I'll be using MoGraphs
MoText, however you can use any 3D Object you want. Go to MoGraph
> MoText, and in the Attributes Manager, alter your settings until
you're happy with how it looks. Also I find it easier to set the
Align attribute to Middle. The font I've used is called
"HelveticaNeue LT 95". I also set the depth to 60.



Now the image I'm using doesn't have much of a light source, so
I'm just going to place 1 light above the text, unchecking the
Camera target icon so that I can move around my scene.
Go to Objects > Scene > Target Light, and place the light above
the text like so:



Now under the Light's attributes, select the Shadow tab. Set the
Shadow to Area, and the Density to around 75%. If you hit render
you'll be able to see some basic shadows forming.



Go back to your Render Settings, and click Effect. Select Ambient
Occlusion & Global Illumination. The default settings for both
will do for now. You can close your Render Settings again.
Now we're going to work on texturing the text. So add a new
material like you did at the start.
I'm going to set the colour to bright white.
I'm also going to add a bit of relfection, so under the reflection
tab, click the small arrow next to where it says "Texture". Select
Fresnel. Set the Brightness to around 20%, and the Mix Strength to
about 40%.



Drag the material onto your text and see what it looks like. Just
be aware that it may take a lot of tweaking until you get the
texture to look how you want it.
Now at the minute, the only reflections are being created through
the text object itself. To make the scene look more realistic, we
want the text to reflect the background image. Go back to the
scene icon and this time select "Sky".



Now you'll need to create a new material, which will be pretty
much the same as the first one you created for the background.
This time however, make sure the only tab selected in the Material
Editor is the "Luminance" tab. Load up your image in that tab, and
drag it onto the Sky.

Now we need to add a compositing tag onto the sky just as we did
with the Plane. Only this time, the settings need to be slightly
different. Make sure they're the same as mine:



Now to make your text look a little nicer, under the Attributes
Manager, select the "Caps" tab, and change your settings to the
following:



And that's it, you're done.
Hopefully you guys liked this tutorial and learned some new
helpful tips along the way.

[AceInfinity]

I've had Cinema4D for months now, and I only opened it once, and that one time I opened it I didn't even try anything lol. It was just the automatic start that happened after registering the program. I have to look at it someday.

[ShellsRus]

Dude, nice tutorial! I will try this when I have time and I will post pics once completed!