Module 1 Formstorming

Weekly Activity Template

Kurtis Lauwereys - Welcome to my formstorming exploration work using Cinema 4D.

Project 1

Module 1

Here is what I was able to accomplish with the Week 1 tutorials, and some trial and error of deformers I was unfamiliar with.

Activity 1

Click each photo for more details on my process.

My first object was a D20 dice, because I am an avid gamer and love fantasy and sci-fi stuff.

I love how the resin material looks here, especially the subtle glow, and want to eventually recreate this in Cinema 4D.

I started with a primitive platonic, then added a bevel deformer to round the edges and points.

Next I added a blue frosted glass texture to make it match as close as I could. To make it look like resin/glass I needed to figure out how lighting works because it was mostly clear without lighting/rendering. I also gave it a plane with a wood texture to match the table I shot the photo on.

Here is the final result. I left out the numbers on the dice because this single item honestly took me like 7 hours, plus 1 full existential crisis and crying breakdown over how difficult Cinema 4D is. Then I moved on because at this stage I was 100% over it as I'm sure you can tell by my sass in this description. None of my SketchUp knowledge is transferring to C4D, it's so vastly different. The lighting setup is 'physical sky' plus 3 omni lights set to visible with soft shadows.

The stark white plastic contrasting the slightly shiny blue interests me, and I like the inset on the bottom so I wanted to try and model it.

I started with a cylinder, and oriented them to the -X in the object settings. From there I tried to deform bevel only one side, but it was not possible, so I decided to split the object into 3 parts using 3 cylinders.

At this stage I was fighting with the lower blue section, trying to edit the cylinder into a poly object that then had an inset. Jen showed me there is a primitive tube (thank you Jen!) and that solved my problem immediately. I made its size match my cylinder size and then pushed them together.

I copied the 3 omni light sources from my dice model, but not the 'physical sky' light because it washed it out too much. Then I added a ground plane to match the table I took the photo on, and this was the final result.

I love lemonade so I chose to model one of my favourite glasses full of pink lemonade as my 3rd object.

I like the simple faceted shape of this glass a lot, both as a design to model but also because it makes me think of faceted gemstones. I think the thicker glass bottom with the thinner glass walls will be a useful type of modelling to learn because I see a lot of objects in real life that have this material attribute.

I started by making a cylinder with 12 rotation segments. Then I made a tube that had the same exterior radius as the cylinder, and gave the tube 12 rotation segments. The physical glass has 12 faceted sides which is why I chose 12 segments.

At this stage I made a 2nd cylinder and used the yellow handles to change the size, making it fit snug inside the walls of the tube. This will become pink to represent the lemonade inside of the glass. It has the same number of facets so it wil fit properly.

Here I played with materials using Google Gemini to explain how to make glass, and pink lemonade. I couldn't figure out how to make the facets more reflective unfortunately, but decided to leave it as is due to time constraints. I'm mostly happy with this, minus the glass not reflecting where it creases. I copied the lights and plane in from the previous objects I modelled.

My 4th item is nail polish, because I enjoy painting my nails. When it feels like the world is falling on top of me, and I have enough time to spare, painting my nails is one of my go-to ways to de-stress. It takes me about 2 hours to do it though so I haven't done it at all this year as I'm in pure survival mode with classes.

I chose this specific bottle because the shapes are fun. The main glass is a rectangle, but inside of it is a cut out slightly tapered on the bottom, and flared on the top section I want to see if I can replicate. Based on the week 1 tutorials I don't think I can make a perfect match, but I can likely get close.

Here I made some shapes and played with the interior polish chamber a lot. Getting the slight curve at the top was difficult but I managed to do it with the squash & stretch deformer, plus the taper deformer. I tried to use bulge to make the slight curve on the bottom but it wasn't working because it's a radial tool so I removed it.

Here I added the materials, and instead of trying to figure out how to cut the shape out from the glass I just stuck them inside one another. Visually it would probably look the same so I didn't bother trying to cut it out.

Finally I played with the lighting to try and make the glass stand out, and I also added the table plane back. I messed with the glass for a while to try and get it to not reflect so much red but so many of the tutorials are for Redshift materials and I didn't have time to mess with it, so I adjusted the lighting and it was close enough to what I wanted.

I do a lot of my process work that involves sketching on my iPad so I selected my Apple Pencil as my final item. The iPad has helped me take a lot of notes and removed the barrier or transferring physical media to digital, so I really enjoy that product.

The shape looks fairly simple, but I wonder how I'll be able to do the rounded bottom, with the coned point tip and the one flat edge along the barrel.

I started by making the cylinder, then I tried to bulge the end of it but it wsn't working so I solved it by making a sphere with the same radius and sticking them together. Next I made a cone with a matching radius, and adjusted the dimensions so it had a slightly blunt edge.

I decided to try and make the tip more accurate here, by using 2 cones and a cylinder to put it all together instead of 1 cone. I'm a lot happier with this than the original cone shape. I did it by using the original cone length as the halfway point, and used the midway radius as both the ending radius of cone 1 and starting radius of cone 2.

I decided not to try and carve the flat section since I didn't know how to do that and didn't want to break my model. Here is the finished product with lighting and basic white plastic material rendering.

Activity 2

My first activity 2 item is my ADHD book because I have intense ADHD. I wanted to explore making the book cover using the real image of the cover as a material, plus trying to use booleans to divide objects to make the cover overhand the pages.

I like the slight overhang of this cover form of this book, and the slight curve to the spine. I decided to not model the dust jacket as a separate object on top of the hard cover since that's more complex than I feel comfortable with at this stage. Instead I'm pretending the dust jacket is the hard cover.

I started with a primitive cube, and modified the size with the yellow handles. Then I changed it into a polygonal object, so I could extrude a small section to create the spine. I selected the 2 long edges along the spine, and used the bevel tool to bevel it while increasing the subdivisions to make it curve.

I learned how to do boolean subtractions to make the book cover. To do this I used a primitive cube and shaped it to be oversized compared to the cover, so it extended slightly past the cover allowing me to carve it out fully when I subtracted it from the cover.

This stage is where I got stuck. I was trying to colour the interior of the book cover dark blue, but I couldn't select it no matter what I tried, and the material only showed up on the outside. I imported the real book cover as a material and made a selection on the boolean cover object to drop it into using the inset tool. Then I added the lighting sand table plane, rendered it, and called it a day.

Not one to be defeated, I tried again, this time succeeding. I figured out that I needed to apply the blue material onto the cube inside the boolean, which made the interior of the division area all blue (which is the inside of the book cover). From here I just poly selected the other edges I needed that weren't part of the boolean and applied the material to each poly surface, making the books hard shell match much closer to the real object.

I chose this Bluejays Stanley tumbler because so far I haven't done any formstorming that has a handle or major extruded element as part of the form. It also connects to my self care theme because I use this to keep my water cold which encourages me to drink more water. Room temp water is not pleasant and I often forget to drink anything, so I'm chronically dehydrated, but this is helping.

I want to focus on building this handle because it's an interesting shape. It projects out slightly more at the bottom than the top, and it has a bevel design around the edges in addition to the sharp curves that make up the main form of the handle. This image shows the bevel more, to see the difference in the projection look at the previous image.

I also want to try and replicate this twisted shape where the lid sits in. I've never done anything with a twist like this yet, so trying to tackle that plus integrating it into the metal will be a challenge. I excluded the lid as part of this formstorming because it's too complex and I'm already out of time, so I'm trying to make my life easier.

The first thing I tired to get the main shape was using multiple tapers. As you can see this did not work at all, because the primitive cylinder was bending where I didn't want it to bend. I tried multiple boundary settings for the deformer, and I also played with the length and tried turning fillet on and off in the taper settings, but nothing was working.

I realized when I went back to try other deformers that I could probably solve my issue by giving the cylinder a lot more segments, and this did in fact solve my issue. I have it 60 rotation segments, and 20 height segments. I eyeballed it to see how it looked, there was no math involved. Then I played with the original 2 tapers and adjusted their range so the bottom one only spanned the bottom 7 height segments and was set to 'limited' mode. The taper above it sits only on height segment 8, and is also set to 'limited' mode. This got me a nearly perfect shape for the main body of the Stanley tumbler.

So here I fought with the handle for a solid 3 hours. There were tears. All I wanted was the bevel to work and for the sweep to work, in the same parent/child relationship. This did not happen until I spoke to Cerin and Cerin told me the sweeps work ONLY with flat 2d shapes, not 3d objects, and even custom splines are wonky. Bless Cerin's wisdom, because that got me to this rectangle version of the handle after 3 hours of furious trial and error. My objects panel at this point has 12 versions of this handle and a bunch of random geometry from my trial/error testing.

It was at this moment Kurtis found a braincell. I realized I needed to alter the path of the original spline to give that spline the curve, which would make the entire rectangle curve as well and look a lot more like the real handle. I did this by using the Spline Chamfer tool, which is under 'Spline' > 'Add' > 'Chamfer'. From there I swapped out the rectangular spline with the new chamfered rectangle spline and it gave me a perfect curve. Then I had change the sweep into an editable poly by pressing C. Next I had to edge select all of the edges along the corners of the rectangle excluding the edges that were going to press up into the body of the Stanley Tumbler. This is nearly a perfect replication of the real handle, so I am moving on.

To hollow out the container I first duplicated the body and handle to have a backup just in case. Then I deleted the handle since i didn't need it for this stage. Next I copied the body again and left it in place, but I just changed it to an editable poly by pressing C. I disabled the Y axis and then scaled the entire thing slightly inside of the original, until I was happy with the width. Next I moved it up slightly, and then I copied it all again. I used a boolean subtraction to cut the scaled down copy out of the main body, giving it a fully hollow form to match the real version. I am VERY happy with how this is turning out now.

I tried to use extrude to push the handle extension arms back in so they wouldn't punch through the tumbler wall, but it didn't work. I solved this by making a copy of the tumbler and handle, then did a boolean subtraction to subtract the tumbler from the handle. I copied that group and then combined it all into 1 poly object, where I was able to edge select the excess I didn't need and delete it.

I started playing with the materials more, using bump maps and reflections. The original bump map was too large so I had to scale it down by changing its UV size to 20% of it's original size. I used an image for the metal but it lacked metallic effect here. This is the first version of my materials and they are kind of ugly, but it's good to show the process. The version with the bump map scaled down is the next photo in the sequence.

Here I added the interior metal twist, I forgot about it earlier and created it with an arc set to 'segment type' sweeping along a helix. I made the brushed metal photo metallic by adding an anisotropic reflectance layer to the material. I also noticed at this stage I should have added more subdivisions to the original wall design because there is a slight tiling effect you can see only along the rim, but it's way too late to fix that now so it's staying. That taught me to test with the materials earlier in the process, because with default materials it looked good, but with metallic the issue became obvious. I also played with the lighting here, adding a target light directly on the object, 2 area lights with area shadows, and then 1 overall omni light for broad illumination. Every light has 'soft shadows' enabled to create a nice realistic shadow.

For my final object I decided to use a Yu-gi-oh necklace I bought this year, because I like the line-work shapes and don't have any other objects like that to try and model. This is the Millennium Ring from the original show, and it brings back a lot of happy childhood memories and nostalgia so it will be included in my final objects since they focus on self care.

I think I can manage to make most of this using the torus, cones, cylinder, and maybe an array or just a lot of rotation around a central null object. The material will need to be tested often for this to make sure it doesn't create any weird tile effects like in my Stanley mug. If I'm feeling brave I will also model the chain, but I didn't photograph it fully because the metal is rusting and it looks ugly where it rests against my skin.

I started by creating the main ring using a torus and adjusting its size, then the triangle by using a 3 sided cylinder. Next I made the small rings that connect to the spike by using the torus again at a much smaller scale and changing their axis in the attribute manager. The spike was made using a cone with a bevel to give it a slightly blunt tip, and everything was aligned using the top and right side non perspective views. I learned from the Stanley Tumbler to test the metallic materials early so I copied the Stanley material and tested it with the lighting from my Stanley model, and didn't find any distortions. I tweaked the colour of the basic material and the anisotropic layer to get it as close as possible, and reduced the roughness from 50% to 20% so it looks a lot closer to the real object.

I originally tried to duplicate the spike object group using the array generator, but I only need 5 of them in the lower half of the circle and that's not an option for an array so I had to rotate everything manually. I added a small cylinder in the middle of everything since so far I haven't moved the main ring and triangle from the world origin spawn point. Then I grouped this into the spike object to use it as the rotation point, copied the object, and used positive and negative rotations based on that small cylinder to get everything to align perfectly. I did the same for the small rings near the top, but deleted the spikes out of those groups.

So you might be wondering what is happening here. I was not about to fight with the spline tool to get a nice linework style Egyptian Eye design, so instead I took a photo from directly above of the pendant, and drew over it using Illustrator's curved pen tool. Then I imported it into C4D but because it was an outline, there wasn't an easy way to fill the void. I went back to Illustrator, and changed the objects from outlines to a solid mass and this is what the final shape was before I imported it into C4D. It worked very well and saved me a lot of time.

Here is the eye design extruded and then moved into position in the pendant. I am supremely happy with how this looks. I achieved the smoothed edges by changing the cap shape to 'round' so it had a highlighted and more reflective effect. It was too flat and not as visually appealing before that.

This is where I played with the chain system and learned a new method. This was really complicated to do, and I had to follow a guide online. I first made a single chain link using a sweep of a rectangle with rounded edges to turn it into a circle, and an actual circle. Next I put it into a cloner generator, and set the cloner to 'object' mode. I added a matrix generator set to 'linear' mode, and dragged the matrix into the 'object' attribute in the 'object' section of the cloner. I used a spline wrap deformer, drew a spline, and selected the drawn spline as the one my spline wrap would use. This is not how the final will look, this was to test it and make sure it worked. The final will look like the pendant is hanging from it.

Here is the final version. I played with the lighting, and positioned the item so it looks like it's dangling from the chain it's attached to like it is in the original photo. Overall this is my favourite item I've modelled so far, and I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Material Workshop 1

During our cross discipline discovery workshop I gravitated towards this because of the colours. This is mercerized cotton, a high quality thread used in higher end luxury and durable fabrics. It's silkier finish makes it more suitable for higher end attire like formal dresswear and business clothes, and it's more resistant to piling then un-mercerized cotton making it suitable for home linens and bedding. Mercerisation is a process for cellulose fabrics, mostly flax and cotton, that improves its resistance to tearing and shrinkage, improves its ability to absorb dyes, and gives it a silk like sheen.

This is the un-mercerized cotton, which you can see lacks the shiny lustre of the mercerized cotton. Un-mercerized cotton is commonly used for fabrics where you want more absorbency, like towels, as it has better moisture absorption properties. It is softer than mercerized cotton too, so it's sought out for fabrics where softness is an important factor. It's matte texture makes it suitable for anyone that wants a more homemade or vintage appearance, and it is a lower cost fabric than mercerized cotton.

This is an air dried cone 10 pottery clay bowl. Cone 10 requires a higher temperature in the kiln to properly bake, than say a cone 4 or cone 6 clay. Cone 10 clay is used for it's durability and versatility, allowing artisans to make really beautiful work that if fired at the correct temperature will last a very long time.

This is what an unglazed Cone 10 bowl looks like after firing; this was made by my friend who is in the glass stream of craft and design but who also does ceramics as his secondary stream. I like how it gets an orange/red sheen to it post firing, which I was told is due to the iron content and how it reacts to the heat in the firing process. It looks a little more orange/yellow in this photo, in real life it is slightly red leaning.

Here is a series of pumpkins made for the craft and design glass sale, using soda lime (soft) glass. My friend in the glass program said the softer glass can't be mixed with harder (borosilicate) glass, as they have different thermal and expansion properties and will literally explode in the kiln if you try and fire them together. Soda lime glass is the most commonly made type of glass and is used extensively in many industries, from electronics to beverage containers, to decorative home goods and sculptural items like this pumpkin.

Material Workshop 2

During this workshop where we closely examined textures of materials Jen brought in, I really liked the super fine hair like texture on the tennis ball. From afar it just looks kind of fuzzy, but up close you can see all these micro threads making up the outer skin on the ball. It almost looks like grass after cutting the lawn.

I love holographic things, and while I don't have a video of this, the image shows how reflective this material is. It's very fun to look as the different layers of holographic film create different shapes depending on the angle of the light. The actual material is very sleek with low surface tension, but it's been crinkled slightly created sharp contours in the light and a more visually interesting form along all the peaks the light hits.

This material I believe is a resin like plastic block. It felt a little waxy which makes me think it's a resin. Anyway I like the linear pattern imprinted into the surface. I don't know how it was created, but it reminds me of brushed aluminum or other metals. There is also a nice contrast to the smooth side where there are no visible cuts in the surface, making me think this block might have been bigger and then cut down to size with a sharp blade. This texture reminds me a lot of home made candles, after they have been slimmed down with a knife.

So I kind of hate this texture, it makes me uncomfortable, which is why I included it. It's good to get out of your comfort zones after all. This is a sponge zoomed in on, and it reminds me of all the strange deep sea creatures and life we don't typically see. It looks soft, yet somehow sharp at the same time, like those stinging nettle plants that have a very dense cluster of ultra sharp hairs that look soft until you touch them, and then all you get is pain. They are a very rude plant.

I'm ending this workshop on a happy note, looking at a very soft and inviting texture which is a plushy/stuffed animal. I really like the long pile of this textile because you can rub your fingers through it to change the direction, and draw shapes into it with your finger. In this photo it makes me think of an impressionistic style body of water painting. It also gives me fond childhood memories because I had so many stuffed animals I essentially had my own petting zoo, it was absurd, and a few of them had this style of 'fur'.

Project 1 - Final Models

Final Project 1 Design

Digital Published Google Model Viewer Design 1

How to ADHD Book by Jessica McCabe

Digital Published Google Model Viewer Design 2

Limited Edition Stanley Tumbler with Sheridan Logo and BlueJays Branding

Digital Published Google Model Viewer Design 1

Yugioh Millenium Ring Pendant

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