MAXON Computer Cinema 4D Tutorials: Film Reel

- Film Strip

Film Strip:
Film Reel
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PDF / Project Works with:
CE Requires:
Version 6

This is the reel that will be used in conjunction with the film strip and the projector tutorials. You will be creating one half of the reel and then using a symmetry object to finish it off.

Modeling

Step 1: Create a cylinder (Objects=>Primitive=>Cylinder) and double click on the icon in the object manager to change its settings. Change the Radius to 375, Height=10, Height Segments=1, Rotation Segments=36 and a Fillet with 2 segments and a radius of 3m.

Step 2: Make the cylinder editable (Structure=>Make Editable) and switch to the top view (View 2, F2) and polygon mode (Tools=>Polygons). Now select the Live Selection tool (Selection=>Live Selection) and in the Active Tool Dialog uncheck ‘Only Select Visible Elements'. Select the inner and middle polygons for the holes in the reel as shown. Polygons are in groups of five, with one in between.

Step 3: In the coordinates manager input 650 for size X and Z.

Step 4: Select the Extrude Inner tool (Structure=>Extrude Inner) and in the Active Tool Dialog input 10 and click Apply. This will position the reel holes properly.

Step 5: Switch back to Perspective View (F1) and select the Bridge Tool (Structure=>Bridge). You can see that both the top and bottom polygons are selected for the holes because of your Live Selection settings. You need to bridge a hole between the top and bottom polygons. With the Bridge tool, click and drag from the top set of polygons to the bottom set for a single hole. Be sure to go from the same corner on the top to the same corner on the bottom. For example, bottom left to bottom left. The hole is formed. Repeat the process for the other five holes.

Step 6: Bring in a HyperNURBS object (Objects=>NURBS=>HyperNURBS) and drag and drop in the Cylinder object. You should be presented with a smooth half of the film reel.

Step 7: Create a Symmetry Object (Objects=>Modeling=>Symmetry) and double click on the on the icon to change its settings. Set the Mirror Plane to XZ and click OK.

Step 8: Drag and drop the HyperNURBS object into the Symmetry object and then move the HyperNURBS object to Y=35 by inputing 35 in the Y Position field in the Coordinates Manager.

Step 9: You need to create a connector piece for the two halves of the reel. Use an Oil Tank object to do this (Objects=>Primitive=>Oil Tank). Change the settings for the Oil Tank object to Radius=55, Cap Height=10%, and Height=230. Move the oil tank to Y=-95.

Step 10: Your final task in modeling the reel is to add a small cylinder to the center piece to act as some kind of fastener to connect the reel to the projector arm. Bring in a cylinder (Objects=>Primitive=>Cylinder) and change the settings to Radius=10, Height=75, and a Fillet of 5m. Position the cylinder at Y=75m.

Step 11: Group all the objects together and name the group ‘Reel’.

Materials

Step 1: The material for the reel will be dirty silver. You’ll create the dirt using one material, and the silver color with another. The silver material makes use of the Color, Reflection, Environment, Bump, and Specular channels. The color channel is left with the default setting of a grayish color.

Step 2: You want just a slight reflection for the reel since it is quite old. Set the reflection brightness to around 15%.

Step 3: For the bump use Granite 4.jpg, located in the ‘even more’ folder, at 5%. This will give the reel a scratchy metal look.

Step 4: The specular will be fairly wide and short since the metal is old and has lost much of its shine. Set the width to 50 and the Height to 25.

Step 5: Create a new material for the dirt. This material will only use the color channel and the alpha channel. For the color choose a dark rusty red color. The color used here is R=30, G=15, B=10, Br=100.

Step 6: In the Alpha channel use the image Dirt.jpg (also located in the ‘even more’ folder). Make sure to check the box for ‘Invert’ so the grime is not so dense. Even so, the dirt may be just a little too thick. You may want to bring the image into an image editing program and lighten it up a bit so its not so dense.

Step 7: Apply the Metal material to the Reel object using a Cubic projection, then apply the Dirt material over that one, also using a Cubic projection with the tiling for X and Y set to 0.25 each.