Process and Production: Prototyping with Jay Payne
Prototyping
Workshop Part 1: Can
As a designer there will be times where clients and briefs will request us to create prototypes in product and package design such as cans, bottles, cartons and much more. Cinema 4D is a labor saving software for this because you can quickly whip up a prototype that you can present. For todays lesson we will be introduced to the creation of 3d prototypes for visualising packaging, the outcome of this session will be a series of design prototypes using Cinema 4d.
To begin with we opened Adobe Illustrator and opened 'bottleshape.ai' and 'Canshape.ai' which are two illustrator files provided for this workshop. Once opened we used the rulers and centred the rulers to the bottom centre of each file, I then saved both files as Adobe Illustrator 8. Note that illustrator files that are going to be merged into Cinema 4d have to be saved as 'illustrator 8' otherwise they will not work.
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Once merged into Cinema 4d we are then presented with two separate white lines, The outer can, and the top of the can, using a Lathe nurbs on both I can form a basic can shape. one thing I noticed however when using the lathe tool on the top part of the can, it creates a a glitchy looking circle in the centre, to fix this I selected the original path and used the Points tool found on the far left of the interface, once selected with the points tool the line will reappear as blue and can be adjusted using the red blue and green arrows. To fix the glitchy ring problem I click and dragged the red arrow until I got a smooth surface.
Next we set up the environment for rendering, Just like all other cinema 4d workshops we created a floor and background so when we render our projects the object we have created isn't floating on a black background. The reason as to why we create a floor/background is because when we add lights we can get some shadows casting onto the floor to make the product look more realistic. We then created a material, gave it a colour and assigned it to both the floor and background. I chose a light purple initially so i could differentiate the object from the background easily, later on I change the background to a light grey for final rendering. Additionally I added a compositing tag to the floor and ticked 'Comp background' this will create a seamless connection to the floor and background when rendering. Below is a quick render of the can with a seamless background.
Now comes the fun part of adding a material to the object, I always enjoy this part because it's provides a great opportunity for experimentation with colours, shines and mapping on textures. During Jay's workshops I tend to follow the tutorial sheets provided to get ahead of the class to give me ample time to experiment and document on blogger. First things first I created a new material, added a reflection legacy which can be found in the reflectance tab, then I added Fresnel and made sure 'Dielectric' and 'PET' options were selected, afterwards I altered the material's global's down to 50%. Finally i went over to the Colour option and added 'Canlable.jpg' as a texture and added the material to the can body lathe object resulting in the texture wrapping around the can.
At this point I was ahead of the class, so I gave into the temptation of applying the texture to every other object as well as the can to see what it looked like. Worth it.
Once the texture was added to the object the mapping of it was actually distorted which can be seen in the images above. To fix this issue is rather simple, first select the can lathe object and select projection then cylindrical which can be found in the material tag, then click fit to object which can also be found in the tag menu.
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Next I added a metallic material to the top of the can, this was a rather quick and simple process, first i created a new material and in the reflectance tab i added a GGX with the roughness set to 20%. I then made a grey colour on the colour tab (about 36%) and adjusted the globals down to 50% again. This material was then added to the top of the can below is a screenshot of this.
This next bit was a more integral part to creating a more realistic rendering, lighting and shadows. As stated before the reason why i added a floor object is so when I added some lighting I could cast a shadow of the can. For this project I use three lights
An initial Omni light with the XYZ co-ordinates of the position set at -500, 1000, -500. This is the main light that will be creating the shadow.
A copy of this light with the XYZ co-ordinates of the position set at 500, 1000, -500 and the intensity reduced to 50% this is more of a backup light used as a highlighter this was set to not cast shadows.
And then an area light which with the XYZ co-ordinates of the position set to 500, 400, -400 with a horizontal rotation of 45 degrees. This light is used to cover more area on the object was also set to not cast shadows.
The reason why only one light was set to cast a shadow is because of the positioning of the lights, if all three were set to cast shadows it would create three separate shadows of the can at different angles. Below is an example of all three lights having a cast shadow setting.
Additionally I changed the purple material to a lighter stone grey, I believe that this colour is a more professional looking background for the final render. Next we used the cloner tool to create two copies of the can, this is to create a line up of the can that will be rotated at different angles randomly creating a more realistic outcome. To create the copies I first added a cloner object, random effector and grid array, and dragged the can and top object into the cloner object. Next i edited the count to 3, 1, 1 and adjusted the size to 400, 200, 200.
Finally we created a random rotation only parameter effector and adjusted the Horizontal axis rotation. For this part I chose not to follow the sheet and put 180 degrees rotation in because I wanted my can rotation to look different to everyone else in the class. I experimented with this until I found a preferred arrangement.
All that remained for the first part to the workshop was to render it. Using render settings i selected Anti-aliasing and changed 'Geometry' to 'Best, changed output size to 1000 x 1000, and changed the DPI to 300 because it's a still render. I also added ambient occlusion which will add additional shadows to the base of the can creating a better looking outcome. After all that was set i rendered it as a Jpeg and completed this section of the workshop. Below is a render of my can arrangement.
During the break I remapped the can design for an already existing soft drink called 'Tentacle grape'. I did this because I wanted to present a different outcome from the rest of the class. The cinema 4d workshops are essentially tutorials and when documenting them on our blogs each outcome are almost identical, this means Jay is pretty much marking his own work seeing that he provided the designs for the original mapping. Below is the render for the remapped can. However this isn't my design it was a label design I found on google. you can actually see on the information of the right can it states bottle because the original product doesn't come in can form. I will be creating my own design in my spare time and remapping it onto the can, this will be documented and shown below.
On the following weekend I was able to get round to designing my own can design for Jay's can workshop. I wanted to do a minimalist design with a limited colour palette, and through experimentation i came up with the design below.
I wanted to do something car related and I used a series called 'Initial D' as my primary inspiration for this design. Initial D basically resolves around cars, racing and drifting so I took one of the cars from the series, used the image trace tool on it and placed it in the centre of the design. I wanted to make the car look like it was mid drift so I created a trail line and coloured it with a vibrant hot pink colour. I edited the Nutritional value bar on the right from jay's original can design, and added a bar code. I decided to name the drink 'Drift energy' and use the font 'Last Feast' which is a font that I had purchased the royalty to for previous designs.
I was finally able to get access to Cinema 4d on my computer at home allowing me to experiment with the software in my spare time without having to jump on a train to Huddersfield to use the studio. Below is a render of the can design mapped onto the can clones that were used in Jay's workshop.
I wanted to do something car related and I used a series called 'Initial D' as my primary inspiration for this design. Initial D basically resolves around cars, racing and drifting so I took one of the cars from the series, used the image trace tool on it and placed it in the centre of the design. I wanted to make the car look like it was mid drift so I created a trail line and coloured it with a vibrant hot pink colour. I edited the Nutritional value bar on the right from jay's original can design, and added a bar code. I decided to name the drink 'Drift energy' and use the font 'Last Feast' which is a font that I had purchased the royalty to for previous designs.
I was finally able to get access to Cinema 4d on my computer at home allowing me to experiment with the software in my spare time without having to jump on a train to Huddersfield to use the studio. Below is a render of the can design mapped onto the can clones that were used in Jay's workshop.
The adjustment of the cans in the render was a little off, sadly I didn't have the time to sit there finding the perfect shot on the day I posted this. Overall I think the design came out really well and I enjoyed creating this can render in the long run. I will be including my own design and can render of 'Drift Energy' onto my portfolio.
Workshop part 2: Glass Bottle.
After the break we resumed our workshop by create a glass bottle, this is a bit of a trickier object to create in comparison to the can, but we learn how to create a glass texture along side a liquid texture so the bottle looks like it has something in it which looks really good in the final render. To begin with we merged the 'Bottleshape.ai' into Cinema 4d just like we did with the can giving us a 2 white lines, one for the bottle and one for the liquid. Using the lathe nurbs again I created the full shape of the bottle and the liquid. Afterwards I created both a floor and background for the same reason I did for the can I coloured it a light grey in attempts to make a matching background to the can shape.
Next we created the glass texture, Jay provided a C4D document with a green glass texture ready to be copied and pasted on our bottle project. I wanted to experiment with the hue of the glass texture for this and I was able to change the colour of the glass to a hot pink colour below is a screen shot of a quick render of the bottle, as you can see the liquid inside still doesn't have a texture meaning it's a solid opaque shape.
To create the liquid texture i copied the glass texture and made it a yellow colour, once again i experimented with the hue of the liquid making a reddish pink liquid colour, I think that this texture looks great and is definitely something I wish to explore in my spare time.
Next we created the glass texture, Jay provided a C4D document with a green glass texture ready to be copied and pasted on our bottle project. I wanted to experiment with the hue of the glass texture for this and I was able to change the colour of the glass to a hot pink colour below is a screen shot of a quick render of the bottle, as you can see the liquid inside still doesn't have a texture meaning it's a solid opaque shape.
To create the liquid texture i copied the glass texture and made it a yellow colour, once again i experimented with the hue of the liquid making a reddish pink liquid colour, I think that this texture looks great and is definitely something I wish to explore in my spare time.
Once I had the material textures on both the bottle and the liquid it was time to create a label for the bottle, to do this i created a cylinder object with the caps removed making it hollow. Next to make the label fit snugly around the bottle i changed the radius to 73. following that I created a new material set as an alpha channel and added 'Beermask.JPG' I then inverted this mask and added it the the cylinder. Afterwards I selected 'Turn off tile' 'projection' 'cylindrical' in the material tag option and then fit to object to create a label wrapping around the bottle. Next I selected colour channel and added 'beerlable.jpg', Selected the reflectance tab and added a reflection legacy and created a Fresnel texture set at dielectric and Jade. I then turned down the globals and applied it to the cylinder.
I believe i missed a step when creating this bottle because when the label was added you could see the reflection of the label on the back of the label itself through the bottle. This isn't a major issue especially when creating a quick prototype to send to clients. But it's something i will have to look up to resolve for better looking final renders. I decided to move on and begin creating the bottle cap. that'll sit on top of the bottle.
To begin with I created a star shape with 20 points and adjusted the XZ axis to 33 inner radius and 37 outer radius. Next i created 4 circle shapes with different each with a different radius, 33, 29, 17 and 0. I then created a loft nurb and dragged all 5 shapes into the nurb. Afterwards I dragged all 5 shapes to the top of the bottle and individually adjusted the circles to form a bottle cap. I then selected the loft object and changed the subdivision to 'U subdiv' 41, 'V subdiv' 2 and 'Iso subdiv' 3, ticked organic form and turned caps off. To make the cap look a bit more rounded at the edges where the cap has been bent round the bottle i added a cloth surface set to thickness 1 and subdivision 2, which can be found in the simulate drop down menu and the top and and dragged the loft nurb into it. looking at the bottle cap now I think I did it too thin when looking at a real bottle cap. (I have a glass jar full of them next to me as I type this)
To begin with I created a star shape with 20 points and adjusted the XZ axis to 33 inner radius and 37 outer radius. Next i created 4 circle shapes with different each with a different radius, 33, 29, 17 and 0. I then created a loft nurb and dragged all 5 shapes into the nurb. Afterwards I dragged all 5 shapes to the top of the bottle and individually adjusted the circles to form a bottle cap. I then selected the loft object and changed the subdivision to 'U subdiv' 41, 'V subdiv' 2 and 'Iso subdiv' 3, ticked organic form and turned caps off. To make the cap look a bit more rounded at the edges where the cap has been bent round the bottle i added a cloth surface set to thickness 1 and subdivision 2, which can be found in the simulate drop down menu and the top and and dragged the loft nurb into it. looking at the bottle cap now I think I did it too thin when looking at a real bottle cap. (I have a glass jar full of them next to me as I type this)
Next is the cap material, the picture above is in fact the bottle cap with the material added, (I forgot to grab a screenshot of the cap before the material was made and added). First I created another new material and added a reflection legacy, and a Fresnel texture with dielectric and PET options selected. I then added the 'Cap.jpg' in the colour tab and added the material to the cap.
I forgot to grab a screenshot of this but when you add the material to the cap it creates a really distorted and to fix this I had to go to material tag, projection and then flat, select fit to object and select texture tool found on the far left of the UI. with the texture tool selected i could then use the rotate tool and rotate the texture 90 degrees and click fit to object again. This will resolve the distortion issue resulting in the image above.
Finally all that remained was to add lighting and render. Both were exactly the same settings for the can so I copied the lights from the can project and brought them into the bottle project the lights being.
An initial Omni light with the XYZ co-ordinates of the position set at -500, 1000, -500. This is the main light that will be creating the shadow.
A copy of this light with the XYZ co-ordinates of the position set at 500, 1000, -500 and the intensity reduced to 50% this is more of a backup light used as a highlighter this was set to not cast shadows.
And then an area light which with the XYZ co-ordinates of the position set to 500, 400, -400 with a horizontal rotation of 45 degrees. This light is used to cover more area on the object was also set to not cast shadows.
The render was also the same as the can. Anti-aliasing changed from 'Geometry' to 'Best, changed output size to 1000 x 1000, and changed the DPI to 300 because of it being a still render, ambient occlusion also added. After all that was set I rendered it as a Jpeg and completed this section of the workshop. Below is a final render of the bottle.
I really enjoyed this session with Jay, as always I am eager to learn more about cinema 4d and getting the chance to experiment with the software and create portfolio worthy renders at the same time is great!
The render was also the same as the can. Anti-aliasing changed from 'Geometry' to 'Best, changed output size to 1000 x 1000, and changed the DPI to 300 because of it being a still render, ambient occlusion also added. After all that was set I rendered it as a Jpeg and completed this section of the workshop. Below is a final render of the bottle.
I really enjoyed this session with Jay, as always I am eager to learn more about cinema 4d and getting the chance to experiment with the software and create portfolio worthy renders at the same time is great!
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