How to model a 3D The One Ring using Maxon Cinema 4D
We’ll create this 3D model in 4 easy steps:
- Model the ring
- Create the textures
- Create the landscape
- Set up the lights
You will need the following files to complete this tutorial:
Script.Tif
Fire.Jpg
Right click on them and choose 'Save As'.
Once you have the files, let's get started.
1. Model the Ring
First of all open Cinema 4D and start a new scene.
Create a cylinder (Objects/Primitives/Cylinder) with the following attributes:
Radius 200
Height 75
Height Segments 1
Rotation Segments 120
And turn off Caps
This will give you the basis of the 3D ring and should like this:
Create a Hyper NURBS object (Objects/Nurbs/HyperNURBS) and drag your cylinder into the NURBS object.
Select the Cylinder in the Object manager and make it editable (Keyboard Shortcut C, or right click and Make Editable)
Go to polygon Mode (Tools/Polygons) and select all of the polygons (Keyboard Shortcut Ctrl+A, or Selection/Select All).
Go to Structure/Extrude and in the attributes manager type in the following values:
Maximum Angle 90
Offset -30
And switch on Create Caps
That’s the ring modelled. It should now look like this:
2. Textures
Next, let’s start creating the textures.
In the materials manager, go to File/Shader/Danel, to create a new Danel Shader Material.
Double click on the Danel shader and change the diffuse colour to a bright orange. I used the following values:
Red 255
Green 204
Blue 2
Change the specular 3 colour to yellow.
Red 255
Green 255
Blue 0
And turn on Anisotrophy
Make sure your texture preview looks the same as the one in the image above.
Drag the material from the material manager onto your cylinder.
Go to your render settings (Keyboard Shortcut Ctrl+B, or Render/Render Settings) and switch the Antialisaing to Best.
Render the image (Ctrl+R or Render/Render View).
Your ring should now look like this:
Next, lets create the texture for the script.
Create a new material (Keyboard Shortcut Ctrl+N, File/New Material).
Load the fire image into the colour channel of the new material.
Load the Script image into the bump channel and turn the strength down to -30
Load the Script image into the Alpha channel and turn off Soft.
Turn on Glow, adjust the Outer Strength to 400 and adjust the radius to 4
Drag the new material onto your cylinder.
Switch the display to show stacked materials (Keyboard shortcut N~S)
Click on the material in the object manager (As shown above) and then in the attributes manager for that material, change the following parameters:
Projection - Cylindrical
Offset Y – 38%
Length Y – 24%
and turn off Tile.
That’s the ring finished =)
Render your image, you should now have something that looks like this:
3. Modelling the Landscape
Next, let’s create the landscape and background.
Go to Objects/Primitives/Landscape
Change the Landscapes attributes as follows:
Size 4000m – 75m – 4000m
Width Segments 200
Depth Segments 200
Rough Furrows 100%
Fine Furrows 100%
Scale 1
Sea Level 64%
Plateau Level 100%
This will have created a landscape that looks like this:
Now let’s create a texture for the landscape. Luckily for us, Cinema 4D comes shipped with a built in Lava Material. Click on Window/Content Browser or Keyboard Shortcut Shift+F8.
In the content Browser navigate to Presets/Maxon/Cinema4D/Add Ons/Materials/Channel. Double click on the lava material to load it into the scene.
Drag the lava material onto your landscape and render the image.
You should now have something that looks like this:
Double click on the lava material and turn on the Alpha Chanel.
Change the texture type to Gradient.
Click on the Gradient preview and change the type to 2D Circular. Swap the colours around on the gradient slider, and move the black slider further in.
4. Set Up The Lights
Now let’s work on the lights.
Create a light (Object/Scene/Light)
In the attributes manager change the Shadow to Shadow Maps (Soft) and turn the intensity down to 60%
Change the coordinates for the light to:
X 0
Y 11.522
Z -327.211
Create another light and change the shadow to Shadow Maps (Soft).
Adjust the coordinates for the new light as follows:
X 310.053
Y 91.247
Z -35.873
Et Voila, your 3D Impression of The One Ring is complete.
Render to view the finished image.
Back To Top
