Question: I own an EGS graphics card. When selecting an object. some lines are not deleted and others remain. Answer: This is not a CINEMA4D problem but the fault of the EGS software not emulating the Amiga operating system correctly! Question: I have an A4000/030, and I have installed the turbo version (881) of CINEMA4D. My computer crashes after starting the program. Answer: That turbo version was specially developed for work with a mathematical coprocessor. The standard A4000/030 does not have one. Either fit a coprocessor to your Amiga or use the ÒsmallerÓ turbo version (020). Question: I own an A1200 with a turbo board (MC68030/25MHz and MC68882/33MHz coprocessor), and have installed the turbo version (881). The program crashes during some operations, i.e. Boolean operations. Answer: The problem is the asynchronous frequency of your board. Switch the coprocessor to synchronous frequency. Question: Whenever I select a menu item using the SHIFT key as described in the manual, the menu hangs and the requester does not appear. Answer: You have probably installed a tool which redefines the mouse buttons or the SHIFT key. Disable all such tools before starting the CINEMA4D editor. Question: I have an Amiga with plenty of RAM. Despite this, Cinema4D reports before rendering that there is insufficient memory. The scene is not particularly large. How much memory does Cinema4D require then? Answer: You are raising an important issue. Unfortunately, it is not possible to relate a particular scene construction with a specific amount of RAM required. There are, however, some points which help keep memory requirements within reasonable limits: 1. All textures are always held in RAM in their entirety. You should therefore remove unnecessary textures. 8-bit textures are smaller than 24-bit textures and almost always look just as good. 2. Textures in HAM6 format (4096 colours) are converted into 12-bit textures and therefore require more space than their filesize would suggest. 3. The higher the voxel level selected, the larger also the memory requirement. For each level, the memory increases by a factor of 2 to 3. However, a higher voxel level also increases the rendering speed. 4. General hints on saving memory: - close programs running in the background. - start the raytracer/scanline separately. - work on a separate screen, exclude the workbench from the editor. Alternatively, open the editor on the workbench. - interrupt the computerÕs boot procedure and start the raytracer separately from the shell. But ensure that the stack is large enough (25,000) when you do this. - displaying inactive objects as a cube in the editor also saves a few bytes. It also speeds up screen redraws considerably. Question: I have done everything as required. But my memory is still Òeaten upÓ during rendering, and then the error message appears again. Answer: If you have been using the turbo raytracer, there is another possibility. The version for the MC68881/882 maths coprocessor requires a lot more memory for some calculations. It calculates at double precision, i.e. each number or coordinate takes up 64 bits of memory. The ÒsmallerÓ turbo raytracer for the MC68020 CPU solves this problem. Rendering will be slower, however, as some rounding occurs. This rounding will only be noticed with glass, mirror or fog objects, though. Consider first if you really need all the objects in a scene and perhaps remove those not visible to the camera. Proceed as follows to install the 020 version of the raytracer: 1. Open a shell. 2. Enter the following line: MC4D2-1:c/lhx x MC4D2-2:Programm020.lha Ray#? RAM: The raytracer is now extracted onto the RAM disk. 3. Now the 020 raytracer must be copied into the Cinema4D directory - but under a different name to avoid overwriting the 881 raytracer. copy RAM:Raytracer TO C4D:Raytracer020 copy RAM:Raytracer.info TO C4D:Raytracer020.info The raytracer can only be started under this name from within Cinema4D if you enter the new name into the start paths in the editor settings. 4. Finally, we tidy up behind us: delete RAM:Ray#? ALL Editor and construction problems Question: I cannot create a spiral staircase as described in the manual on p. ??? Answer: You are right. Cinema4D places the steps Òinto the bendÓ. Or, more accurately, the centre of the object axis is positioned on the bend. Before duplicating it, move the axis of the step to the edge. The object, however, is now positioned tangentially to the curve. That has not been possible up to now. Now you can also, for example, tilt airplanes into a bend. To create a spiral staircase, use the Duplicate and Rotate functions. You may need to place the object axis outside the respective step. Question: I am trying to set points for my own polygons, but Cinema4D ignores all mouse input. Answer: You need to place control points before creating your own polygons. But these cannot be located just anywhere. First create an axis, which must be a polygon axis. To do this, select the item ÒAxisÓ from the ÒObjects - PolygonsÓ menu. Do not confuse this axis with an axis from the ÒObjects - Basic objectsÓ menu! Now place the control points with the left mousebutton. Question: I am trying to select several points in Point mode. This was possible in Version 1 by using the SHIFT key, but it no longer works. Answer: Press the CTRL key. Now draw up a frame around the required points (with the CTRL key held down). You can select further points by pressing the SHIFT key and clicking on more points. To select a further group of points, press the CTRL and SHIFT keys simultaneously and draw up a frame with the mouse. Question: I am trying to place a graphic underneath the window in the editor, as the manual says I can. Answer: You can enter the filename of a background picture in the display dialog window in the main toolbar. Question: For almost all my new scenes, I keep needing the same object. IsnÕt there a simpler alternative to loading it every time? Answer: Yes, there is. This involves the possibility of adding extensions to Cinema4D. 1. Load your favourite object into the editor. 2. Remove all unnecessary parts (further objects, background pictures, light sources...) so that only the actual object (with all materials, textures...) remains. 3. Save the object under a name of your choice in the directory ÒCinema4DonCINEMA/Extensions/Ó. It is best to disable all options other than ÒObjectsÓ and ÒMaterialsÓ when saving. 4. Quit Cinema4D and restart the program so that the change becomes effective. 5. Open the ÒObject barÓ from the ÒWindowÓ menu. 6. Click on the ÒExtensionsÓ icon (top left). A pulldown menu appears with a list of all the objects stored in the ÒExtensionsÓ drawer. Release the mousebutton over the required one. You can assemble your own library of frequently needed objects in this way. Question: I am having big problems with entering values. The information window always shows a value of, say, 100, when the grid clearly indicates that the object is at least 200 units in size. Which value is the correct one? Answer: Cinema4D always places the object coordinate system in the geometric centre of the object. For a cube with edges 200 long, the coordinate systemÕs relative position is 100/100/100. The displayed size, however, uses the axes of the object coordinate system. The axes are only half as long, which is why the information window shows a value of 100/100/100. This can create confusion, especially when accurate work is needed (e.g. walls with a specific length, height and width). There are several ways of dealing with this: - Double each measurement when entering it. If the wall is to be 11.5cm wide, enter either Ò23cmÓ or Ò2*11.5cmÓ. - Especially when you are frequently working with basic objects and need to scale these accurately, you should create a set of new basic objects with their axes on key positions and scaled. We shall demonstrate this using the example of a cube. - Create a (standard) cube with an edge length of 1. - Move it to the position 0.5/0.5/0.5. - Move the axis to position 0/0/0. - Scale the axis to 1/1/1. Now you can scale the cube accurately by entering the real values. If you need this object frequently, you should save it as an extension: - Delete all objects from the scene, except the cube. - Select from the menu ÒProject/Save asÓ - Enter the path ÒC4D:ExtensionsÓ and the name Ò_CubeÓ. The underscore makes objects saved in this way appear sequentially in the list. - Save the object only (all other switches disabled). Next time you start the program, you will be able to select the cube directly from the extensions field in the object bar, and enter the real values for scaling operations. The third method of enabling you to enter the real values is only to scale of the object axes. This method is not very intuitive since the axes extend beyond the object and its maximum dimensions. Also, the axesÕ origin will still be in the geometrical centre, and this can lead to problems when entering values for the position. Problems with Boolean operations Question: I want to create a hemisphere, but the Boolean operation ÒA - BÓ does not work. The sphere is still present. Answer: This ÒproblemÓ is a logical result of the underlying principles. You have cut through the sphere using a plane which has no depth, only length and width, and therefore no volume. Always use a body with volume as a ÒknifeÓ, a cube for example. Make sure that this is a little wider than the sphereÕs diameter to prevent the creation of Òzero areasÓ. Question: I have drilled a hole through a cylinder using the Boolean operation ÒA - BÓ. But the hole is not visible. Answer: Yes, the hole has been generated. However, both the original objects and the result are still on the same coordinates. The ÒdrillÓ is still in the hole. Delete or move the original objects, or move the Boolean object. Material and texture problems Question: How do I generate realistic wood textures? Answer: Wooden textures look best when both a colour and a relief texture have been defined. Both receive the same texture file. The strength of the relief depends on the size of the texture and on the distance of the camera from the object. You will need to experiment a little. Normally a value of between 20% and 30% is enough. Question: When I select a texture in the Edit Material window and then click on ÒDisplayÓ, all I get is a HAM picture of my 24-bit texture even though I have a 24-bit graphics card. Answer: Select ÒSettings - Editor...Ó in the ÒProjectÓ menu. Then select ÒStart pathsÓ. In the text field next to ÒPicture displayÓ, enter the path to the picture displayer for your graphics card, for example ÒTools/ViewTek/VT_PicassoÓ. Question: I wanted to view a texture in the Material Manager window. But Cinema4D refuses to cooperate. Answer: There are two possibilities: - the texture does not exist as an IFF file (rather than as a TIFF, GIF or JPEG picture). Convert the graphic first into the IFF (more precisely: IF) format using a suitable conversion utility. Or select another picture viewer in the editor settings. - Your Amiga cannot display the resolution of the picture, for example a HAM8 picture on an ECS Amiga (such as the A3000). Or perhaps it is a 24-bit texture. Question: Is there a way of working with so-called reflection maps? Although I can place such a texture on the sky, this results in background interference. And I cannot put a surface into the background of a scene. When using a background picture, it is obscured by the sky. What can I do? Answer: ÒReflection mapsÓ are reflections of the sky in an object, with the sky itself being invisible. There is a trick but this works in scanline mode ONLY: Create the object and assign a reflective material (chrome) to it. Create the sky using the texture which is to be reflected in the objects. Then you build a black sphere around your scene. Make sure that the camera is located within that sphere. The sky texture is now reflected in the objects, with everything around the scene being black. Light sources and light effects Question: I have reconstructed a prism from the physics class at school. A narrow beam of light enters it but does not re- emerge (with total reflection) - it appears to go straight through. Answer: Correct! The light beam is neither reflected nor refracted. But this is due to the principle of computer raytracing which does NOT follow the light ray but the ray of vision. In the case of the prism this means that the light will indeed go straight through the prism. To make the light source (or an object) visible, you need to position the camera at the expected point of exit. Question: Why is it not possible to specify the colour temperature of a light source? This would, for example, make it possible to generate large libraries of normed light sources. Answer: The colour temperature of a light source consists of the entire spectrum of frequencies, with individual frequencies being emitted differently. In Cinema4D (and almost all other raytracing programs) you only enter one value for the entire lightwave spectrum, that of the colour of the light source. You could, of course, resort to positioning an unlimited number of light sources on top of each other, each with a different colour and different intensity (joke!). But even if you restricted yourself to those light sources whose intensity is above a certain value, that would still be so many that rendering times would get out of control. ... and you would still only have defined one single light source in the scene... Animation problems Question: I am trying to create a circular camera path around a scene, but it does not return to the starting point. Answer: You are using a closed polygon as the animation path. But though that works in space it does not work in time. A future event (end point) is expected to be identical with a past event (starting point). Non-relative time can only extend into one direction in a linear fashion. The solution is to place a further point at the end of the polygon, at a position identical with the first (the same coordinates). Question: ThatÕs what I have done, but there is still no circular movement! Answer: Correct! The polygon is flat at the start and flat at the end because you no longer have a closed polygon now. To obtain an almost circular camera path despite this, proceed as follows: - Create a standard circular polygon. - Move it to the coordinates 0/0/0 (all the following values assume this position). - Open the polygon. - Enter ÒCubicÓ as the polygon type. - Now place three additional points in point editing mode at the following coordinates: No 4: 100/-100/0 (counting starts with 0) No. 5: 100/-100/0 No. 6: 100/100/0 The polygon now has seven control points (numbers 0 to 6). You will see that there is an almost perfect circle from the second to the sixth (that is, from numbers 0 to 5). The rendering of the animation now proceeds from the second to the last position. Assuming that each control point coincides with the beginning of each second (0:0, 1:0,...), you specify that rendering is to go from 1:0 to 4:14 (at 15 frames per second). Raytracing problems Question: When rendering scenes, Cinema4D reports that it cannot find the raytracer. The rendering is aborted. Answer: Check the path for ÒraytracerÓ in ÒSettings - Editor...Ó. You do not enter the drawer in which Cinema4D is to put rendered pictures here, but the location of the raytracer. If the raytracer is not in the same directory as Cinema4D (the default), then enter the new path. Question: I get rendering errors when rendering complex fog objects (several nested fog objects). Answer: This is a fundamental problem. You have assigned the same material to several fog objects nested within each other. The raytracer remembers for each material whether is inside the object or has left it. But this only works with separate materials. Assign a different material to each fog object. Once created, a material can only be assigned to further fog objects by duplicating it. Each fog object situated within another one requires its own material (even if this is identical with another and even if it has the same name). Cinema4D takes a long time rendering with the raytracer. How can this be accelerated? Answer: The raytracer of Cinema4D is relatively fast as it is a so-called ÒadaptiveÓ raytracer that will only trace what is necessary (e.g. reflections, glass effects, ...). However, the rendering time varies for each scene and each setting. There are a few things you can do to speed things up: 1. Use as few reflections as possible. 2. Transparencies (especially glass transitions) take MUCH time. 3. Shadow-casting light sources increase the rendering time by a factor of 1.5; hence your Amiga takes three times as long with two shadow-casting lights. 4. The higher the voxel level, the faster a scene is generally rendered. However, the memory requirement also rises (see above). 5. Each anti-aliasing level triples the rendering time. Tip 1: you rarely need a factor larger than 2. Tip 2: Render the scene without anti-aliasing and then use the softener in an image editing program afterwards. 6. 8-bit or 24-bit textures are rendered particularly fast. Question: How can I set the raytracing values (voxel level, picture size, etc) when I call the raytracing program separately? Answer: All rendering settings are saved with a scene. A scene file, however, can only be saved from within the editor. If cannot, or do not want to, render a scene from within the editor, then load the scene into the editor first. Make the required settings there and then save your work. Now quit the editor and call the raytracer. Question: I have constructed wine glasses. The rendered objects, however, appear dull and opaque. Answer: The light ray enters the glass object but does not exit on the other side. Increase the value for rendering depth in the rendering settings. General problems Question: My scenes all appear very artificial. Usually all objects are visible but far too small. Answer: This is a fundamental problem which the best raytracer cannot solve for you. When working with the computer, you are the model builder, director, lighting engineer, cameraman etc all in one. The professionals have only learned one of these trades (but properly), or many years of experience. Our advice is: Watch lots of commercials and feature films! If you want to let spacecraft fly against each other, watch the next episode of ÒStar TrekÓ. If you are more into interior design, browse through the specialist magazines. Pay special attention to whether the photographer really shows all the objects in a scene fully. Where does the light come from? Which colours were used? Are any corners of the picture emphasised? In short, ask yourself how the professionals do it. What can I adapt from these techniques? And donÕt shy away from editing rendered pictures with a paint program - even film directors insert the laserbeams into a picture after shooting it. Real ability requires long practice. Start with simple objects before embarking on your first space battle animation. Question: How can I print my rendered pictures? Answer: There are several possibilities: 1. Save the picture. Then load it into a normal paint program and print it from there. 2. Save the picture and use a special print program (Studio or TurboPrint). This will give the best results. 3. Even simpler is using the ÒGraphic DumpÓ program that comes with the operating system. It is located in the directory ÒSystemX.Y.Tools/*Ó. Doubleclick on the program icon and then bring the screen containing the raytracing picture to the front. Printing will start after a short wait. To print a wireframe model with a black background, select negative output and black-and-white in ÒSystemX.Y.Prefs/PrinterGfxÓ. This gives black lines on a white background rather than a totally black sheet of paper.