10 Must See Cinema 4D Tutorials!

There are always essentials that you need to know, no matter what program you are working in.  We are going to check out some of the must-see, most awesome tutorials out there for Cinema 4D, whether they are making-of’s, case studies, or full on tutorials, you should probably check all of them out.  If not, well you are missing out my friend, now behold…

Now, you have to know how to integrate your Cinema 4D renders into your After Effects pipeline… so let’s have a look-see at Nick Campbell’s tutorial on the subject.  I know there are a ton of different tutorials covering this, and that you might think that I am sticking this here because maybe he is my buddy… but this is actually the tutorial that Maxon chose to have on their website for the release of C4D R11.5 over the summer, so what better choice than that of the makers?

Garus Booth is a little new to the tutorial scene, but he has some good content utilizing After Effects and Cinema 4D as well as some Photoshop and Illustrator, but this tutorial I felt gives out some good information about setting up Global Illumination (GI), and also producing a great looking result.  GI is really essential to know how to set up, because you will be using it a lot in your 3D renders.

I’m not going to link to just one tutorial on this site, because each tutorial is very miniature in size, but I want you to check out all the little fundamental tips and tricks that he has on his site.  There’s a bunch of stuff on Xpresso and modeling techniques, it will probably keep you busy for hours.

Ahh Super Snail… who doesn’t love this guy?  Andrés Hurtado shows you how he went through and created his awesome little guy with the jetpack in this, more of a making-of, rather than a tutorial.  He might not be holding your hand step by step, but you get to see a great deal of what went into this amazing piece of art.

Probably one of my favorite looking tutorials, this one over at GoMediaZine.com by Barton Damer uses some really simple fundamentals of Cinema 4D to create some really killer looking typographic treatments.  It always is nice to be creating something awesome vs. something that is mediocre looking and teaches you the same thing.

Another one from the Gorilla… well another like, ten from him!  These are Nick’s tutorials on the CS Tools, a free set of plugins that you can download that can help with simple tasks like handheld camera rigs, lighting, and object creation.  These are great to have, and Nick’s ongoing look at how to use them all just makes the process easier to integrate them into your work flow.

Pariah Studios has been killing it lately… well I should say Robert Redman, but you know what I am talking about.  They have a ton of tutorials available, mostly all for Cinema 4D, and this one I felt deserved a spot on the list.  You will probably come to some project down the line where you are going to need some grass in your scene, and photos just don’t cut it in After Effects.  For this, you can use the Hair Module to create some realistic looking grass!

Over at one of our “sister” sites, CGtuts+ has had a ton of content being published, especially on the Cinema 4D side of things.  I figured that I would include a few tutorials to conclude our list, the first of which is “Model, Texture, and Render and Interior Scene with Vray.”  Its a two part tutorial spanning a long line of steps, but when you get to the finished product you will be very happy with what you have achieved.

Advanced Render is a very useful renderer, and when you know how to set it up correctly, it can produce some amazing results for you.  In this tutorial on CGtuts+, Mountaga Kane shows you how to utilize all the new features of Advanced Render 3 that ships with Cinema 4D R11+.

An unlikely place to find Cinema 4D tutorials, PSDtuts+ actually has quite a few utilizing 3D because, I mean… you can’t do EVERYTHING in just Photoshop!  This tutorial is great, because you model this steam punk style type element, and then use Photoshop to add in extra elements like gears and pistons as well as windows, class coverings, horns and all kinds of different gizmos.

Hopefully if you haven’t had the guts to dive into Cinema 4D yet, this might give you the push you need, because not all the tutorials that are out there are boring work flow tutorials, you can actually make some pretty cool stuff!  If you got a favorite tutorial that I should see, or should be featured, link it up in the comments!