A Flashlight

8/9/2019 A Flashlight

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Modeling with Parametric Objects A Flashlight

We will start this workshop with an empty scene File>New .

The Head of the Flashlight

1. Add a Cone object

The object will have the same size regardless of whether you use millimeter,centimeter, or kilometer as units. The numerical value is what is important. Forexample, if you measure 32 mm on a real object, then this measurement canbecome 320 units in CINEMA 4D.

2. Add a Bulge deformer and subordinate the deformer under the cone

3. Add a Rectangle spline and place it in the front viewport (XY viewport), abovethe right edge of the upper cone cap, and give the rectangle a width of 30 and a

height of 100 units. Convert the spline with Make Editable in the Functionsmenu or by using the (C) key. The parameters of the spline in the Attribute

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Manager are lost but we can now edit the points of the spline directly in UsePoint Tool mode. Use the Live or Frame Selection to select either the upper orlower two points of the rectangle. Then right click into an empty area in theviewport and use Chamfer from the context menu. While holding the mousebutton, drag the mouse to the left or right to round the spline points, or enter avalue in the Attribute Manager after selecting the tool. When you are donewith the two points, select the other two points and do the same, but with adifferent radius.

4. Add a Lathe NURBS object and subordinate the rounded rectangle splineunder it.

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5. Add Cylinder and Boole . Subordinate the Cone and the Cylinder under theBoole object.

The Handle of the Flashlight

The handle can be made out of a cylinder object, the Height of which should be940 and the Radius 85 units.

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Move the cylinder down along the Y axis until the upper cap is level with the headpiece of the flashlight.

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The Bottom Cap of the Flashlight

1. First we will take care of the outer shape of the bottom cap and again use arectangle spline. Change its size to a width of 170 and a height of 90 units, and placeit as level as possible under the cylinder of the handle.

In order to gain direct access to the rectangle , you need to convert the splinewith the (C) key as well as select the two points on the left side of the rectanglein the Use Point Tool mode. Switch the mode in the Coordinate Manager toWorld and set the X position value to 0. This should move the two selectedpoints to the world Y axis. Now select the lower of the recently moved points andright click in an empty spot in the viewport. In the context menu choose SetFirst Point . Then deactivate the Close Spline option of the former rectanglespline in the Attribute Manager . Select the right points of the spline one by oneand use the Chamfer function to round the corners with different radii.

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As mentioned, we will now create a new Lathe NURBS object and place theopen spline as its child.

2. Create a new cylinder and give it a Radius of about 84 units. The Height is notso important for the next few steps. The cylinder should be located parallel to theworld X axis. Therefore, pay attention to the +X or X setting in the Orientationmenu of the cylinder.

3. Add the Symmetry object. Place the cylinder as a child of the Symmetry

object. The axis system of the Symmetry object acts as the base for themirroring. The mirror plane therefore has to be set to ZY in the AttributeManager so the mirrored cylinder appears to the right of the original.

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4. The Boole object can be helpful, especially with mechanical parts. Subordinatethe Lathe NURBS object and the Symmetry object under the Boole object.

The Boole object can be set to different modes in the Attribute Manager in theBoolean Type menu. A subtract B means that the second object subordinatedunder the Boole object (B) is subtracted from the first subordinated object (A).

The other options of the Boole object influence the quality of the calculation andare only of interest for further manipulation of the calculated object. Theinterconnected objects can still be edited as separate entities. With Createsingle object these objects can be merged to one single surface. High Qualitysimply activates a different algorithm. Sometimes, though, the deactivation of this option can lead to a better result. Hide new edges merges the faces

created by the union of the objects into N-gons. This can result in a cleaner lookand a more efficient geometry, and should be used when the Boole object is tobe converted into an editable polygon object.

5. Add another cylinder with a radius of 15 units.

6. Add second Boole object. Subordinate the first Boole object and the secondcylinder under the second Boole object.

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The Knurling at the Head of the Flashlight1. Add Star spline. S et the number of points to 160 teeth and oriented the starspline along the XZ plane, an inner radius of 126 and an outer radius of 127.2. Add a Circle spline with radius of 115 units and subordinate it under the Starspline in the Object Manager . The advantage here is that we can adjust thealignment and position of the circle in the Coordinate Manager . Therefore, setthe Coordinate Manager to Object mode and reset all position and rotationvalues to 0. Dont forget to press the Apply button. Then check the plane of theCircle spline and, if necessary, correct it in the Attribute Manager to thesetting XZ . Now the star and circle are located in exactly the same plane andposition.3. Select the two splines with (Ctrl) or clicks, or by a frame selection with themouse in the Object Manager . Then select Make Editable in the Functionsmenu or simply use the (C) key. The two still selected splines can now becombined into a new spline with Functions > Connect. You can now delete thetwo original splines. The newly connected spline can now be placed as a child of

new Extrude NURBS object from the Objects>NURBS menu. A movement of 50 units along the Y direction should be enough.

4. In this case you can switch to Bezier interpolation. Select the inner four pointsbelonging to the circle and right click into the empty area of the viewport. SelectSoft Interpolation in the context menu. The selected points automaticallyreceive soft interpolated tangents. In order to get back the outer corners of thestar spline, invert the current point selection of the four inner points by selectingSelection>Invert and right clicking in the viewport. Choose HardInterpolation in the context menu to reduce the tangents of the points to 0lengths.The Reflector of the Flashlight

1. Start with a new Circle spline , which can be deformed individually along itstwo axes by using the Ellipse option in the Attribute Manager . Its lower end

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protrudes into the head part of the flashlight in such a way that the curve of theellipse portrays the reflector.

2. Convert the Circle spline by pressing the (C) key, switch into the Use PointTool mode, and select the lowest point. With a right click into an empty part of the viewport, open the context menu and select Set First Point . Deselect theClose Spline option of the spline in the Attribute Manager and delete the twoellipse points on top and on the left.

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3. Activate the Move tool in Use Point Tool mode and hold the (Ctrl) key whileclicking on the spline. Click the mouse in the area of the spline just before whereit reaches the inner wall of the focus ring. Select the point at the upper end of thespline and select Hard Interpolation in the context menu. Now move this pointdown.

4. Add a Lathe NURBS object and subordinate the spline under it.The Light Bulb in the Reflector

1. As a result we will use a new slim Cylinder with radius of 13 units andcombine it with a Boole object.

2. Add the Capsule . Choose a capsule Radius slightly under the radius of thecylinder used to cut the hole in the reflector.

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The Cover Glass of the FlashlightAdd a new cylinder , align it vertically, and match its radius to the upper edge of the reflector.

The Texturing of the Flashlight1. Create a new material in the Material Manager by going to File>NewMaterial . A double click on the gray preview sphere in the Material Manageropens the settings of this material in a separate Material Editor . These settingscould also be done in the Attribute Manager.2. The Bump channel is used for simulating this roughness. It can be activatedon the left side of the Material Editor with a checkmark and edited by clicking inthe right side.3. The Gradient can be found in the menu that opens after clicking on thetriangle button in the Texture area of the Bump channel. The settings of the

Gradient shader can be accessed by clicking on the large button in the Texturearea of the material channel or by clicking on the preview image of the shader.

4. Pull the material from the Material Manager onto the handle cylinder in theObject Manager. In the Texture Tag settings, choose Cylindrical as theProjection of the material.5. Activate the Use Texture Tool mode. In order to fit the projection to the

dimensions of the object, use the Fit to Object command in the Tags menu of the Object Manager.

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6. Change 100 tiles in the X direction and 50 in the Y direction , with a Y length of the projection of 300 units. In addition, the options Tiles andSeamless need to be activated. The Seamless option alternately mirrors the tilesand actually generates the diamond structure, since the gradient itself showsonly a diagonal line.

The alternate tiling of these lines to one another builds the diamond shape. Byplacing the Interactive Render Region , which can be found in the Rendermenu in CINEMA 4D, over the cylinder in one of the viewports, we can easilyfollow the changes made by the number of tiles or the size of the projection.7. Increase the number of Height Segments of the handle cylinder to 3. Pressthe (C) key and switch to the Use Point Tool mode. Use the Frame Selection toselect the upper of the two subdivisions. In the Coordinate Manager enter thevalue 315 for the Y position of these points. Then press the (Enter) key or theApply button to actually apply this value. The points in the lower subdivision areto be changed in the same manner and moved to the Y position of -235. Bothmeasures were applied in the Object coordinate system of the cylinder.

8. We will now switch to the Use Polygon Tool mode and use the Ring

Selection , in the Selection menu, to select the polygon strip that is betweenthe two previously moved subdivisions. With the Ring Selection tool activated,move the mouse over the middle polygon strip and click on it when the desired

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faces are highlighted. Then select Set Selection , also located in the Selectionmenu. This saves the information of the selected faces in a polygon selection tag,which then appears in the Object Manager, behind the cylinder, namedgrooved. For applying a material, though, only the name is of importance. Entername grooved into the Selection field of the Texture Tag. An even easier way isto simply pull the selection tag from the Object Manager directly to the Selectionfield of the Texture Tag dialog in the Attribute Manager.9. Activate the Color channel by clicking on it in the channel list on the left.

There, use a very dark and desaturated blue. Metals generally have a very darkcolor.10. Activate the Reflection channel with a checkmark and set a slightly bluecolor with medium brightness . In order to make the metal appear less polished,increase the value for the Blurriness (Dispersion) to 20%. This increases therender time but looks more natural for a basic commodity like a flashlight. Thehighlight should be relatively small but intense. This setting can be made withthe Height and Width settings in the Specular channel.

11. Lastly, go to the Illumination channel and switch to the Oren-NayarModel . This increases the impression of a slightly rough surface. Use the samesettings for a second new material that will be used for the head and bottom of the flashlight. No bump is necessary in these areas.

The Material of the ReflectorCreate a new material that you could call Reflector , and apply a strongReflection of about 95% and a small intense Specular . In addition, activate theLuminance channel, set it to 50%, and reduce the color brightness of the Colorchannel to about 40%. This causes the reflector to react, in addition to thereflection, to the incoming light and be brightened through luminance. We willsee if all this looks as desired at the end, after the lighting is added.

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The Glass Material The material for the lens is structured in a simple way. One main part, of course,is a high brightness in the Transparency channel. The Exit Reflections option

can be turned off since this doesnt matter with such thin objects and would onlyuse up valuable render time. A Refraction of 1.5 is enough for glass. In addition,I want to strengthen the reflective properties by activating the Reflectionchannel with a brightness of 100%. This high value will be balanced by the strongtransparency. The brightness of the color is reduced to 20%. I dont use ahighlight this time, since the reflector behind delivers enough brightness.

The Floor in the SceneWe will create a new material and give it a brightness of 100. The desired overallmatte look is generated by the settings in the Illumination channel. We useagain the Oren-Nayar Model and increase the Diffuse Falloff value to 100%.

This widens and diffuses the highlighted area on the object as seen at thepreview sphere of the material.

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We will add this Floor object, which can be found in Objects>Scene , and applythe previously created material to it.The Compositing TagRight click on the Floor object in the Object Manager and choose CINEMA 4DTags>Compositing Tag from the context menu.

The Compositing Tag offers many options in the Attribute Manager fordetermining how the object should behave in the scene later on. For example,the object could be set to invisible for the camera, yet remain visible inreflections or behind glass walls. Shadows could also be turned off, or theprecision level for the global illumination or the edge smoothing could be altered.Other options adjust the calculation of individual alpha masks, like with the Multi-

Pass rendering. In our case we just need to deactivate the shadows and the Seenby GI options. This will prevent the floor from participating in the globalillumination.

The Light Sources in the SceneUse a classic studio light setup with a main light and a fill light . Both lightsshould be Area lights because these lights simulate a very realistic behavior.

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Documents

A Flashlight