Hey guys! My name’s Vova, I’m a motion designer
here, at the Motion Design School production team! In this video, I’m going to tell you how
to create a model of a cute stylized character in Cinema 4D on the example of this monkey. Over the course of creating the character,
I will show you a bunch of little tricks and techniques I use daily and that significantly
facilitate the workflow. Let’s start ) I’ll start with uploading the sketch of
the character, kindly provided by Yana Abramova, into the scene. She is a very talented illustrator, so make
sure you follow her and me on Instagram. I’ll switch to the Front view. If you’re new to Cinema 4D, then click this
button or the mouse wheel to switch between views. We need the Front view. And now – the project settings. (Shift+V hotkey). Select the sketch here. Great. We need to decide on the size of the character. It’s a good practice to create real-sized
or approximately real-sized models. So, I’ll create a model of a human, and
make the character’s height, let’s say, about 130 centimeters. Let’s fit the size of the sketch to the
guide. And increase the opacity of the image to help
us. Done. Now, I’ll do the same thing for the Right
view. I’ll divide the creation of the model into
three stages and use a different set of tools for each stage. First, I’ll show you how to easily and quickly
create the character’s body and head. I’ll then get down to the limbs and the
tail. At the third stage, I’ll create all the
character's minor details, such as the ears, the face, and the spot on its belly. In short, let’s get started. To create these smooth shapes, I’m going
to need a cube and a Subdivision Surface. I will make the cube editable straight away
by clicking this button. If you pack the cube into the Subdivision,
it becomes a sphere. And now, we can adjust its shape by creating
additional edge loops. You can find the Loop Cut tool here, or you
can as well press M and L successively to activate it. And now, if I will create an edge loop in
this area of the cube, it will be more detailed because there’ll be more edges. The areas with fewer edges will look smoother. Let’s create a cube like this and make it
editable. I will also add a few edge loops to it. Next, I need to add a Subdivision Surface. When you select the cube and click this icon,
holding down Alt, the cube gets added to the Subdivision. Let me now match the shape of the object to
fit the sketch with Rectangle Selection and Scale. I also recommend that you enable the grid
of the model for convenience. OK, I have more or less matched the shape
in the sketch. Let’s now check what the object looks like
when I switch to another view. Let me make a few changes. Please note that I’m scaling the loop only
on one of the axes, rather than on all of them. That’s because I don’t want to spoil the
shape I’ve created in the previous view. So, the basic shape of the head is ready. I propose that we create the character’s
body in the same way. Let’s now get to create the limbs. To begin with, I’ll create a null and I’ll
move it at the base of the foot. My course of action is to create a few null
objects for the basis of the foot, the knee, and the thigh. Then, using Tracer, I will create a spline
that passes through these null objects. I will also need to create a cube with a few
edge loops and a Subdivision. It’ll be the foot itself. The last step will be to connect the cube
with the Tracer using Spline Wrap. This way, I’ll get an easy and adjustable
rig of the leg with controllers. It’s more than enough for this cartoonish
character. Let’s begin. Create three null objects and group them into
a separate null. Let’s now select the nulls and add a Tracer. The nulls have been automatically added to
the list. If you want to create a more complex rig of
a leg, you can drag and drop new nulls to this list. For now, three is enough. Choose the Connect all objects mode. Set the curve type to B-Spline to achieve
a smooth curve. As I’m dragging the null, you can see that
the line isn’t smooth, and the knee is sharp. That’s because I need to also set the interpolation
mode of the internal points. Choose Adaptive because it renders more points
on curved sections and fewer points on straight ones. The basis is ready. I will now create the geometry of the leg
itself. Group it into the null and add it to the very
bottom of the leg group. This one is important. Now I just need to add Spline Wrap to it and
place it on the same hierarchy level as the leg geometry. Right here. I’ll set the Tracer here. Done. As you can see, the geometry follows the nulls. I’ll duplicate this group to get the second
leg. I will also change how the controllers look
to make them more visible and easier to select. Like this. And I’ll make the geometry itself semi-transparent
here. And, lastly, I will hide Spline Wrap in the
Viewport. That’s it. I will similarly create the character’s
arms. I’ll duplicate one of the legs. The arms will be larger than the legs and
slightly more complex in shape. That’s why I’ll add another null to it. I’ll duplicate this one and add it to the
Tracer here. I’ll arrange them approximately like this. Now I need to create a smooth thickening and
narrowing of the arm. I’ll do this here inside Spline Wrap in
the Size tab. Note that this option allows you only to reduce
the shape. So I recommend that you use Scale to make
the geometry of the limb thicker than it should be. I’ll select the cube and scale it up on
all axes so that it’s as wide as the width of the largest part of the arm. And now, let’s spend a few happy moments
adjusting the Size Graph and the positions of the controllers. Done. I’ll duplicate this arm and make the second
one. Now I will similarly create the tail. I’ll speed the video up not to repeat myself
the third time. The only difference is that I’ve added another
controller and a little more edge loops to the geometry to make the model smoother. Well, this is about it. I’ll now attach the tail to the rest of
the monkey. The face and the minor details can be created
in several ways, for instance, using textures or creating them as separate geometries. I’ll show you the second way, using the
Shrink Wrap modifier. You can find it here. It allows you to project one geometry onto
the surface of another. Let me show you how it works on the example
of this spot on the monkey’s belly. I’ll create a polygon and set its orientation
like this. For convenience, I will hide everything in
the Viewport apart from the character’s body and the new polygon. Let’s adjust its size approximately like
this. I’ll use the Subdivision Surface modifier
to round off the corners. I’ll make the polygon editable to be able
to add new edges to it, and I’ll add an edge here. If you hold down Shift, you can place the
edge exactly in the middle. Like this. I’m a little closer to the shape I need. Let’s adjust the shape in the Point mode
so that it matches the sketch. Like so. And I’ll add another loop here in the middle
to round it off more precisely. Done. Now I need to project this geometry onto the
surface of the body. For that, I’ll group the Subdivision into
a null. And now, I’ll add the Shrink Wrap modifier
to it. As a Target Object, I’ll set the object
I want to project onto. And now you can see that the geometry is exactly
matched with the surface. Now I can extrude this part forward to get
rid of the intersections with the geometry of the body and also to create a smooth edge
of the spot. To achieve that, I’ll use the Cloth Surface
generator, in which I’ll increase the Thickness. And now, I’ll add another Subdivision Surface
to it. Note that the smoothness of this geometry
directly depends on the object onto which it is projected. So if you have noticed some angularities or
that the highlight is not smooth enough, then increase the number of subdivisions on the
character’s body. I will similarly create the character’s
face. The approach here is the same, so I’ll jump
to creating the character’s ears. I’ll also create them from a cube, adjusting
it like this. Now I can pack it into the Subdivision. And symmetrically place the ears on the head. There you go, the model is ready. Now it’s up to you to pose, color, and animate
it. Click the ‘Like’ button if you liked the
video! We’re planning to create more free tutorials
on 3D modeling, design, and animation. Your suggestions will be very helpful! And if you’re dying to throw yourself into
3D, there are plenty of courses on 3D modeling, rigging, and animation on our website. They will help you become a pro even if you’ve
just got interested in this topic. Follow the link in the description. See you next time.
