My mind is still reeling from this weekend’s viewing of the Kubrick classic accompanied by the San Francisco Symphony. The orchestra was flanked by two choirs. Their performance of Lux Aeterna was positively spine-tingling. I believe I shed a tear or two. In case you forgot, filming for this ground-breaking film was begun in 1965,…
Category: Cinema4D
A new typeface!
Now, THIS is exciting! Monotype has created a brilliant update to the gorgeous Johnston typeface on the occasion of its 100th birthday. This is very serious business. Watch the video to get a sense for just how exciting this is! Just to tease me, it appears that they released the bold version only. Of…
S5 mosaic Installation
So I created this mosaic of pretty much every picture I ever took at work using a program called Mazaika. The image was constructed from more than 4,500 pictures of all the people and products that came together to enable us to create the amazing Ion Torrent S5. The image turned out to be quite…
Some Vials and a Box
I often do not know exactly what I’m rendering. I just try to make things look good. Unfortunately, our products will never look like this on our web site. Our “real” real product shots are required to have a pure white background and a reflective white foreground à la outdated Apple ads, but this is…
Pillows
Sewn from one of my favorite typefaces – Chuck. Motivation for Dude pillows came from this excellent tutorial. I had planned to make inflatable vinyl letters, but the slightest tweak in lighting and materials produced this by accident, and it works for me.
Sketch & Toon PGM
The marketing team has decided that at least one of our product manuals should contain line art instead of photographs. I like this idea a lot, especially now that I’ve been able to spend a little time with Cinema4D’s Sketch & Toon renderer. Like everything else about Cinema4D, this tool is amazing. There are more…
3d Loft Project
I’m on the Architectural Committee here in the lofts. We’re hoping to do a little sprucing up next year, so we need a 3D model of the building. I mean, obviously, right? Since Cinema4D 17 includes a new SketchUp importer, I thought it’d be cool to do the modeling in SketchUp. This way, everyone would…
Ion Torrent One Touch DX
Some of you will remember my photo of this instrument. The photographic image is used on our website and in printed materials, and it looks pretty good. Well, starting today, I’m hoping that we’ll be replacing all of our photos with renders created with my latest addiction – V-Ray. This renderer blows away anything else…
Thermo CostCalc App Icon
I’ll admit it certainly looks a wee bit garish and not entirely plausible at the enormous size above, but it needs to be bold to stand out on an iPad home screen, where it will be smaller than this: I’m not even sure what this App is, but I know it had to have a…
Ion Torrent PGM Dx II
After many years of practice and tens of thousands of renders, this is probably the most realistic-looking 3D render I’ve ever created. And I’m not satisfied with it. This week I’ll take the plunge and get a copy of what may be the best of the “photo-realistic” renderers – V-Ray. Stand by for a comparison.
Ion Torrent S5 XL
I’m getting excellent realism with the new Cinema4D version 17. After a few refinements and a days-long render at much higher resolution, a large version of this rendering will hang on the wall of our offices in South San Francisco and Guilford, Connecticut offices. I used Photoshop’s awesome Vanishing Point Filter to create this visualization….
I Am a Material Boy
I’ve been asked to provide several larger-than-life renderings for one of our offices. While I’m excited about seeing my renders prominently displayed, I realize that my materials will need to be absolutely perfect if they are to stand up to scrutiny from the engineers who designed the instruments and selected the actual materials. So, it’s…
Ion Torrent PGM Dx
Another of my recent Cinema4D renders. From my company web site: The Ion PGM™ Dx System is a reliable and robust in vitro diagnostic (IVD) next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform that is designed to deliver the proven performance and simplicity of the Ion Torrent™ PGM system, while empowering clinical laboratories with the flexibility to develop molecular…
Ion Torrent S5
Now that’s it’s official, I can finally share some of the 3D work I’ve been producing for the last several months. Behold the S5! The ‘S’ is for Simplicity, Speed, Scalability… This amazing instrument has many applications. It has the potential to make the world a better place for all of us. I’m lucky to…
Oh Just Frigate
Working on a cover of a book about pirates. The image started as a model from the Sketchup 3D Warehouse, exported in 3DS format, imported into Cinema4D. What you see is pretty much straight out of Cinema.
Distractions
It’s true – the new 5K iMac is mind-blowing. Ii takes just a few minutes on a 5K retina display to realize that there will be no going back. After my boss saw it, I had no trouble convincing him that I could not live without a 5K display at work. So now I’ve been…
iBurn For You
I worked with a 2D file provided by Andrew to create a 3D splash screen for a Burning Man mapping app called iBurn. With it, burners will always be able to tell how far they are from The 7 Deadly Gins or Hungover Camel Hydration Station or even F.A.R.T. Kamp, for when they get the…
Weekend Renders
There’s a reasonable chance that I’ll be asked to serve on the board of our Home Owner’s Association in a few months, and one topic that will be revisited again is an update of the interior of our building. A facelift is long overdue, and having a few convincing 3D renders may go a long…
Don’t Panic
A friend asked for a panic button for an iPhone app he’s thinking of building. Now that he has this button, he’s half way there. My first thought was of an ultra-modern chrome and plastic job, but this is what came out. My creative process with Cinema4D is like a box of chocolates … The…
My 3D Server Room – Yay!
What you see is a fairly accurate view of the server room at work. If you’re interested, here’s how I created this. Note that the method I use is just one way to accomplish this. There are “easier” methods, like rendering directly inside of SketchUp with any number of snap-in renderers, (I like TheaRender) but…
Weekend Render Madness
For fun this weekend, I did one of the Cinema4D tutorials by the amazing Chris Schmidt. I learned so much in the process. The techniques used to create the spherical wire mesh on the microphone are awesome and so much fun! Thank your Nick and Chris for the awesome tutorials! Dude mic is based loosely…
This is My Brain on Protein
Did you know that there are databases in the public domain with free 3D models of organic materials like DNA, enzymes and proteins? Accurate and highly detailed, these models can be downloaded from a number of sites and imported into most 3D packages, including my favorite – Cinema4D. I have no idea what I’m looking…
Bottle Number Two
Modeling this bottle was a great learning experience. I used several cool tools and features to create it. The etched glass on the front of the bottle is a displacement map made by simply assigning a simple image with an alpha channel to the material and sticking it to the front of the bottle. I…
Cinema4D vs. Studio Photography
Inspired by a recent post on Grant’s site, in which he alludes to the many challenges of product photography, I decided to create a challenge for myself. I wanted to see what level of photorealism I could achieve with the Cinema4D Physical Renderer and a few simple 3D objects by recreating Grant’s product shots. To…
Today’s Mystery Render
I often don’t know exactly what I’m rendering or how it works or how it will be used. I certainly have never seen one of these things. I’ve heard it referred to as a “cartridge”, and that’s about all I know. I’m pretty sure the real cartridge shell is not transparent – I’ll bet it’s…
A Dozen Protons
Another visualization. Cinema4D physical renderer.
Google Nexus 7
I’m working on a project that includes a Nexus 7, so I downloaded this perfect 3D mesh file from TurboSquid and rendered it in Cinema4D. Someday I hope to be able to show you the cool things I’m working on.
Cinema4D Camera Calibration
Learning Cinema4D camera calibration with help from the Gorilla. Extra credit if you find the shot used as a basis for this booklet cover.
Latest Desktop Wallpaper
If you see moiré patterns, it’s time to get that 5K iMac!
Putting it All Together
It’s not only the knowledge of the HUNDREDS of eyeballs that will see this image on the cover of the extra-geeky Electrophoresis Journal cover that makes it satisfying. It’s also the fact that I get to use all of my graphics skills in one place to produce something this wild and whacky while at work….