Transcript:
Hey, guys! Demetri, this is going to be a very interesting video and one that combines two of my favorite applications cinema, 4d and illustrator and more specifically using cinema 4d inside Adobe Illustrator. Yep, you heard, right. Cinema4d can now be used inside illustrator, so forget about illustrator’s 3d effect where you need to struggle to get a usable result 2,000 years later with the cinema plugin we’re talking about the real deal 3d we can move around a 3d environment, rotate our camera easily and also make a ton of other changes from within illustrator, so let’s see what we can do with it first of all to get access to the 3d environment. All we need to do is switch to the 3d workspace available in our workspace tab. Alternatively, we can access all the sin aware items from within the window menu here now to load a file. We don’t need to do anything special. We just import our C4D file the regular illustrator way, so we can either place our C4D file in illustrator document or just open the file, so let’s import a file and see what we can do with it the first time. I tried this, I had a ridiculous grin on my face and it still doesn’t get old. No matter how many times I work with the plug-in, It’s just amazing, witnessing the ability to work with 3d inside illustrator. The cool thing about this whole connection, though, is that we have some deep interaction between 2d and 3d elements, But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s first see the interface. The interface is quite simple to figure out this control bar here allows us to control the camera, along with some other options like framing of objects, cutting out the 3d object, so we can in a blended with respect your artwork underneath and also the ability to save image and save or see 4d file. This material panel here is the equivalent of the swatches panel, so it contains all 3d materials from the loaded see 4d file along with any materials. We might create an illustrator. The same structure panel contains all the elements available in our scene, so we can enable and disable elements, switch cameras and enable and disable lights. The attribute’s panel is contextual and is populated with different settings, depending on what we selected in the scene structure panel. And that’s about all you need to know about the interface. Now let’s go through some of the cool stuff We can do with a plug-in. I think one of the first things as designers will want to use. The plug-in for is from Mock-up’s. So let’s take this a simple example here. I have a business card and I would like to present it to the client. Of course I can present the from the back of their business cards like this, but it would be much more impactful if we would present the design in a nicer way. So I created a couple of little setups here, which will allow me to present my design on a business card. Now all I need to do is just load up my c40 files in Illustrator and try things out. I’m going to place the files in my document, And now all I need to do is drag my design onto the 3d object. [MUSIC] And just like that we’re all set. The great thing with 3d mock-ups is that we’re not restricted to a specific angle. We can move the camera around zoom in or out, and, of course, make a ton of other changes like disabling an object or rotating it. Of course, if we make a change in the cinema 4d file and save it when we go back to illustrator, this change is recognized, and now we can work with the updated file. [MUSIC] The other cool thing is that we can keep working on the design and at the same time preview how that will look in real life, which can be quite helpful, trying to figure out the intricacies of a given design. But of course, the cool stuff don’t end here. Let’s open up a different example. What I would like to show you? Here is two things the first one has to do with the mixing of 2d and 3d elements. As you can see here. We have our 3d scene that renders exactly how we want but contains a background we can easily get rid of it by enabling the Alpha Channel. Now we can just combine the 3d artwork with the background elements here. The mixing, though, of the 2d elements with 3d can go much further than that by using object buffers for those that don’t know what object buffers are think of them as masks for your 3d objects. So if for example, we have these two 3d objects here, and we want to put a vector element in between, we can do that easily by using one mask for one of the 3d objects and another one for the other. [MUSIC] And now we have basically three elements are two 3d objects and a vector element So now the vector element can be in between the two 3d elements [Music]. Alternatively, we can do the same thing by enabling one object in one layer, duplicating it and enabling the other object on the second layer [Music] but let’s go back to a previous example. The other great thing this workflow allows us to do is the fact that we can keep experimenting with our design. We can have multiple instances of a seafoody file than illustrator document and on top of that we can have different variations of our design so here, for example. I have set up my scene with this specific angle. But in this instance, I can change the camera angle, disabled objects or even change other elements like the intensity of light or the color of a light and this right here is one of the most important things that Plugin offers the ability to keep iterating and refining our design. Without the hurdles of workflows of the past. We will just have to make multiple renders test them out in Illustrator, go back to the 3d app and adjust things and so on and so forth, we can keep experimenting and testing out ideas on the fly from within one single application, and since we can iterate more and work faster, we have the ability to refine and make sure that our design fits our needs now. I would like to show you Another example that showcases the freedom that this constant iteration offers is a few months ago. I did this short video here. You can watch the whole thing in the cart above as you can see. It’s an exploration and patterns in the creation of images out of the simplest of elements before this plugin finding all the right visuals and colors for each segment of the video would take a lot of time, mainly because we would have to first design the pattern export it as a JPEG or PNG import it into cinema test it out and keep repeating the process over and over again for each pattern. But now with this plug-in, this exploration of designs can happen in a very organic way. I can not stress enough. How important this is as you can see here. It’s really easy for me to test the designs out. All I need to do is drag my patterns on the right object and refine until satisfied. I can move things around. I can change colors. And since we have the ability to change frames, we can also preview how the animation will look like. Once ready. We can just save the results in a new seafoody file and then go to cinema to further refine materials and light settings. This is just awesome! The animation also comes in handy when creating storyboards based on and Maddux. We just load up the frame needed, add other elements of the frame and keep repeating that until we’re done and, of course, having the ability to manipulate an object and set it up. The way we want to can work wonders for our drawings. Now all we need to do is trace the object as you can see. The possibilities are just endless. We can use the plug-in in multiple different ways whether that is to combine 3d elements with 2d but use it for mock-ups to test of designs have it as reference. However, you choose to use it. It will open up a lot of creative possibilities, and the cherry on top is that the Plug-in is available for free through Madison’s website. So you can install it and start playing around if you’re new to 3d I would strongly encourage you to download the plug-in and start messing around. It’s really easy to figure out, and I think you will be hooked. Also, if you have any questions about 3d in general or how the plug-in works, let me know in the comments below, and I’ll do my best to answer them either in the comments of this video or if the demand is there in a completely new video, so bring in the questions, and that’s about it for now If you enjoy the video, consider subscribing to the channel, and I’ll see you on the next one. You [Music]!