MAXON Computer Cinema 4D Tutorials: Creating a Comet with Visible Lights

- Special FX

Special FX:
Creating a Comet with Visible Lights
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CE Requires:
Version 6+

This tutorial will take you through the steps of creating a comet which orbits a sun (not to scale). Creating this comet is more of an arrangment of lights rather than the modeling of points and polygons. In fact, the finished scene here uses only one spline primitive and zero polygons.

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Step 1: Your first task will be to create the actual comet. Create a Light (Objects=>Scene=>Light). Double click on the Light text in the Object Manager to rename it. Rename the light 'Nucleus'. Double click the icon in the Object manager to change the light settings. In the General tab set the color of the light to a greenish blue (R=55% G=95% B=90% Br=200%) and set 'Visible Light' to 'Visible'.

Step 2: In the Details tab set the Falloff to 'Inv. Square'. Click OK to close the Light dialog.

Step 3: Move the light to Z=120m using the coordinates manager.

Step 4: Create another Light and rename it 'Spray'. Double click on its icon to change its settings. The light's color should be a bit more blue than the nucleus to add some color variation to the comet (R=60% G=80% B=90% Br=200%). Set 'Type' to 'Spot(Round)' and 'Visible Light' to 'Visible'.

Step 5: In the Details tab set the Outer Angle to 80 degrees. Set the Falloff to Inv. Square and the Outer Distance to 2000m. Check the box for 'Near Clipping' and enter 200m in the 'To' and 'From' fields. This will clip the beginning of the spot light so you won't see a small light cone protruding from the nucleus light.

Step 6: In the Visible Light tab set the Outer Distance to 2000m. Click OK to close the light dialog.

Step 7: Move the Spray light to Z=-180m using the coordinates manager.

Step 8: Create a third light and rename it 'Short Tail'. Double click on its icon in the object manager to change its settings. Set the color to a darker blue still (R=60% G=80% B=100% Br=100%). Set 'Type' to 'Spot(Round)' and 'Visible Light' to 'Visible'.

Step 9: In the Details tab set the Outer Angle to 25 degrees. Set the Falloff to Inv. Square and the Outer Distance to 3500m. Check the box for 'Near Clipping' and enter 200m in the 'To' and 'From' fields.

Step 10: In the Visible Light tab set the Outer Distance to 3500m. Click OK to close the light dialog.

Step 11: Move the Short Tail light to Z=-155m using the coordinates manager.

Step 12: Create a fourth and final light for the comet and name it 'Long Tail'. Set the color of this light to a dark faint blue (R=20% G=40% B=55% Br=100%) and set 'Type' to 'Parallel Spot(Round)' and 'Visible Light' to 'Visible'.

Step 13: In the Details tab set the Outer Radius to 350m. Check the box for 'Near Clipping' and enter 400m in the 'To' and 'From' fields.

Step 14: In the Visible Light tab set the Inner Distance to 3000m and the Outer Disntance to 10000m. Click OK to close the dialog.

Step 15: Move the light to Z=120 using the coordinates manager.

Step 16: That does it for creating the comet, now add a sky object to the scene (Objects=>Scene=>Sky). Create a new material in the Material Manager (File=>New Material) and rename it 'Stars'. Double click on the material to chnage its settings. Uncheck the boxes for color and specular and check the box for Luminance. In the Luminance channel use the triangle menu and locate the Starfield 2D shader.

Step 17: Drag and drop the Stars material on to the Sky object in the Object manager. Set the Projection to 'Cubic'.

Step 18: Now you'll create an orbit path for the comet. Create a circle spline (Objects=>Spline Primitive=>Circle). Double click the Circle icon in the Object manager to change its settings. Check the box for ellipse and enter 15000m for Radius and 12000m for Radius Y. Make sure Plane is set to 'XZ'.

Step 19: The last object you'll be creating is the sun. Create a Light and rename it 'Sun'. Double click the light icon in the object manager to change its settings. In the General tab set the color to a bright orange-red (R=90% G=50% B=20% Br=250%) and set Visible Light to 'Visible'. Also check the box for 'No Light Radiation'.

Step 20: In the Visible Light tab set the Outer Distance to 2000m. Click OK to close the dialog.

Step 21: Now you need to prepare your comet to orbit the sun. Group together the Nucleus, Spray, Short Tail, and Long Tail and rename the group 'Comet'. With the Comet selected in the object manager select the Object Axis tool and input 180 degrees for H in the Coordinates Manager. This will poing the Z axis of the comet in the opposite direction of the tail so that when the comet is facing towards the sun, its tail is always pointing away from the sun as in real life.

Step 22: Give the Comet a Target Expression so that it always faces the sun. In the Object Manager with the Comet selected go to File=>New Expression=>Target Expression. Enter 'Sun' in the dialog that appears.

Step 23: Create an Align to Spline track for the comet in the Time Line. Open the Time Line window (Window=>Time Line) and with the comet selected go to File=>New Track=>Geometry=>Align to Spline. Control click on Frame 0 of the sequence and input Circle in the dialog that appears. The comet will now follow the orbit around the sun.

Step 24: The comet orbits just a bit quickly. Add more frames to the sequence to lengthen the animation. Double click on the sequence and in the dialog that appears enter 900 for the 'To' field. Your animation should now last 30 seconds if you're at 30 fps.

Step 25: Add some camera motion to the scene by first creating a camera object (Objects=>Scene=>Camera) and at a Target Expression to it the same way you did for the Comet. Enter 'Comet' in the Target Expression dialog.

Step 26: Create a position track for the camera in the Time Line (File=>New Track=>Geometry=>Position). You want to create a camera motion which will start close to the comet, track the comet as it goes around the sun and finally come back in for another closeup. You can create this by hand by moving the camera and recording its position, or you can simply input the numbers we have come up for you.

Step 27: Create a keyframe at frame zero and input the values seen here.

Step 28: Create a keyframe at frame 400 and input the values seen here.

Step 29: Create a keyframe at frame 900 and input the values seen here.