Welcome to this course on Modeling a Soda Can in Cinema 4D.

In this series of lessons we will cover a lot of topics to give you a solid understanding of the entire product visualization workflow including:

01. Reference and Inspiration

• Gathering reference and inspiration images and viewing various label designs.

02. Modeling with Parametric Primitives, Points and Subdivision Surface.

• Creating a project folder to save all your files.

• Configuring a viewport, importing a reference image and scaling to real-world size

• use a parametric primitive cylinder as the basis of modeling, add height and rotation segments.

• the use of the make editable function to gain access to points, lines and polygons.

• Using the point mode for shaping the soda can and loop/path cut tool to add segments as necessary

• Use of the scale tool to resize sections of the model uniformly to match the reference image

• Use of the polygon mode with the inset and extrude functions to model the top and bottom of the can.

• Use the subdivision surface object to smooth the edges of the can.

  
  

03. Modeling the Pop Top

• Connecting splines

• Use of splines, extrusion and sweep NURBS to to model details.

• Store selections function

04. Label Design

• Reference gathered inspiration images to create a unique design.

• Use of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to custom-craft a label with illustrations, text, nutritional information and bar code.

05. Texturing

• Create a label and chrome material.

• Use stored selections to apply different materials to various parts of the soda can model.

06. Environment and Lighting

• Create a seamless background using a plane, background object and Cinema 4D compositing tag.

• Create a 3-point light setup with a main light and 2 fill lights.

• Vary the light color properties for added visual interest.

07. Cameras and Composition

• Overview of composition and strategies

• Use the the cloner to duplicate soda cans

• Enable camera ‘grid’ to reference the rule of thirds.

• Enable Depth of Field in rendering settings for added visual impact.

08. Rendering

• Use of Cinema 4D’s Physical Render engine in conjunction with multi-pass layers and object buffers

• Set up final output render settings.

09. Post-Production

• Adjustments in Adobe Photoshop to enhance the image.

• Blurs, sharpening, vignettes, adjustment layers, hue/saturation, curves.

10. Bonus Lessons

• Learn additional composition, modeling and post-production techniques

• MoGraph cloner with random effector

• Radial and motion blurs and focusing the viewers attention on a specific area of an image

• Use the MoGraph cloner in object mode to create water droplets on the soda can