Cinema 4D as a Design Tool (1)
This was my first Process and Production Lesson of the year. This, which was taken by Jay, was an introductory lesson to Cinema 4D. Although I have worked on the software previously, I thought the lesson was an excellent recap of the software looking at all the different ways in which the software can be used to create amazing design. 
We started off by looking at inspirational work created in the software. There is a vast number of outcomes you can produce on the software; comparing artist Baugasm (who creates a series of animated Instagram posts) to the Channel 4 Rebrand that included a series of moving blocks. It was noted that while these moving animated blocks could have been manually created, Cinema 4D stepped in to make a fascinating outcome.
So we started off by setting up a professional folder approach. This industry way of setting up files and folders is a good habit to get into when saving design files. We then started by producing a piece of artwork in illustrator. We then put this into Cinema 4D and played around with the shortcuts and moving, scaling sizing and spanning the image using the necessary tools. 
We then edited the extrude mode, to make it look more realistic and included a MoFont which is the Cinema 4D approach to inserting font. We then created materials and looked at the effect of these - naming each one is also a very industry way of managing large amounts of features. Adding a Composting Tag then allowed us to break down the already marked light functionality. We later merged the background and the floor to give just emphasis on the artwork created. An HSV allows us to edit the colour and then we set up a camera, turned it on, and framed it to an interesting composition. We then added lights to the scene and followed stock settings for simple two-point lighting (Key -Light and Full-Light). We also researched into the different types of light and worked out that the stock settings are the best for what we are trying to create. We then turned the shadows on, tweaked a few lighting settings for visual purposes and deleted any hard shadows by adding a Full Light. 
Overall, the idea of using these settings is to manipulate and find a way to make them work for your own advantage. Aesthetically, as designers, we should always be looking out for imperfections and problems within the designs that we create. Using the render settings we can turn our quality up to best and allow for us to save our files by whatever method of output is suitable for what we are creating. A 300DPI will allow for higher resolution and the smoothening out of harsh, jagged lines and edges.
We then moved onto the animating side of the Production Workshop.
Using the camera, and by creating a null object to the coordinates provided, we scaled, rotated and set up the animation. Using the stopwatch, ad the starting and end points, we made the animation move over 25 Frames Per Second. Setting it then to 200 Frames, and by speeding it up and slowing it down, we made a simplistic but effective animation. The use of the timeline dopesheet allows us to actually view the line of the animation. We then saved this animation using the relevant saving features.
Overall I was very impressed with the breadth of knowledge I gained in just a 4-hour workshop. I think that although the final outcome may be simple, it has enabled me to refresh my memory on the software and I look forward to working more with Cinema 4D.
Here is the final animated outcome:
