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Added 6 mre tutorials texts in v2 manual. Needs the images WIP

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MaxonCinema4D_v2/02-Tutorial.md
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- [Every beginning is easy](#every-beginning-is-easy)
- [1. The user interface](#1-the-user-interface)
- [2. All a matter of view](#2-all-a-matter-of-view)
- [3. Working with objects](#3-working-with-objects)
- [4. Three selection processes](#4-three-selection-processes)
- [5. The tool box](#5-the-tool-box)
- [6. The perspective representations](#6-the-perspective-representations)
- [7. Materials](#7-materials)
- [8. Working with hierarchies](#8-working-with-hierarchies)
- [9. The clipboard](#9-the-clipboard)
- [10. Undo mistakes](#10-undo-mistakes)
- [11. Material design](#11-material-design)
- [12. Textures](#12-textures)
- [13. Polygons](#13-polygons)
# Every beginning is easy
The tutorial introduces you to the simple operation of MaxonCINEMA 4D using examples. The tutorial does not require any previous knowledge of using MaxonCINEMA 4D. You should only have the general basic knowledge of how to use the Amiga and the Workbench. If you don't feel challenged, you can skip the tutorial and study the reference.
@ -157,7 +171,7 @@ You can create a basic object by selecting the corresponding menu item. The obje
But you can also use the object bar. This can be opened just like the "Information" window in the "Window" menu.
* To do this, select the "Object bar" menu item and click on the "Basic objects" symbol with the mouse.
* ![](images/objectBar/objectBar_03.png) To do this, select the "Object bar" menu item and click on the "Basic objects" symbol with the mouse.
A drop-down menu appears with the same options as in the "Objects > Primary Objects" menu.
@ -188,7 +202,7 @@ For all objects that require an indication of the number of subdivisions, the mo
With the text function of MaxonCINEMA 4D it is possible to do professional video titling. You enter any text that MaxonCINEMA 4D then converts into three-dimensional letters.
* Select the "Text" function from the "Objects/Special Objects" menu.
* ![](images/objectBar/objectBar_06.png) Select the "Text" function from the "Objects/Special Objects" menu.
A window appears in which you can enter a text. In addition, you can determine which of the supplied 3D character sets should be used.
@ -242,6 +256,8 @@ The easiest way is to click on the black dot that is drawn for each object. This
With this function you can activate an object based on its name. An alphabetical list of all objects in the scene appears. Among other things, you can see that each letter of the text you just created exists as an object titled "Activation." The type of object is always displayed to the left of the name. In addition to area objects, these can also be light sources or polygons.
As you can see there is also a small black arrow next to the dice symbols. This indicates that all letter objects themselves consist of other objects.
* Double click on the letter "g".
@ -446,4 +462,375 @@ In MaxonCINEMA 4D, the term "material" is used to describe surface properties. M
After a short time you can see the scene with the cube, the ball and the ring again, but this time much smaller. Also, the ring isn't transparent this time, because your click on "Test Image" disabled the "Transparency" option.
* If you want, you can now calculate the scene as a full screen with the ray tracer.
* If you want, you can now calculate the scene as a full screen with the ray tracer.
## 8. Working with hierarchies
* Create a new document with a cone.
* Call the "Manage Objects" function from the "Edit" menu. You will now see a window with two selection lists in which the names of all objects created so far are displayed.
When selecting objects, you have already learned the first difference between activating objects and sub-objects. This is followed by a detailed explanation of how objects can be structured hierarchically.
The principle of object management in MaxonCINEMA 4D is based on the possibility of combining objects into new objects, so-called object groups. This gives you a better overview and you can apply certain functions to several sub-objects at the same time. This procedure corresponds to working with the Amiga operating system. There you can, for example, also move or copy entire directories and do not need to duplicate file by file. Just like the Amiga operating system, MaxonCINEMA 4D not only offers you the possibility of combining objects in object groups, but also of removing them from these object groups.
Currently, only the names "Camera" and "Cone" appear in both lists. The "Perspective" camera is always present by default. Next to the cone is a small pictogram with a black arrow. This indicates that the cone is made up of faces. The black arrow is always displayed when an object contains further sub-objects.
* Select the "cone" with a double click.
The contents of the cone object group are displayed. It contains the sub-object "Soil".
* Click on the "Higher" field under the left selection list.
You are again one hierarchical level higher.
Next, you are supposed to make a copy of the cone.
* To do this, click once on the name "Cone" and then on "Duplicate".
The name "Kegel.2" now also appears in the selection list.
* Click once on the name "Cone". Then select the text entry field under the left selection list and change the name to 'Cone.1'. Leave the text input field with <Retum>.
The two names "Cone.1" and "Cone2" can now be seen in the selection list.
Next you should create a new object group to group the two cones.
* Click on "Axis" (An axis is an empty group of objects that does not consist of points or surfaces) . A new object named "Axis" appears.
* Change the name from "Axis" to "Two Cones".
* Move the mouse pointer to the name "Two Cones" (in the left selection list) and double-click.
The left list now shows the contents of Two Cones. Since there is currently no content, the list is also empty. The list on the right has not changed in the meantime and still shows the same thing.
* Step out of the group of objects by clicking on "Up". The same list as on the right appears again. We now want to place the two objects “Cone.1” and “Cone.2°” in the “Two Cones” directory.
* Move the mouse pointer to the name "Two cones" in the right list and double-click. The still empty list appears.
* Select the object "Cone.1" in the list on the left.
* Click on "Move".
You can see that the "Cone" object has moved from the left list to the right. It is now in the Two Cones item group.
* Repeat the action for the object "Cone.2"
Both cones are now in the "Two Cones" directory. You can easily check this:
* Double-click the TwoCone object in the left list. Immediately you will see the content, namely the two cones, just like in the right list.
Let's summarize again:
* Double-clicking on an object group takes you into it.
* A click on "Higher" lets you get out of this object group again.
* With a click on "Move" you can move a selected object from one list to the other.
* In the text entry field below a list, you can change the name of the selected object.
* You can create new object groups with the "Axis" field.
* The Duplicate field allows you to duplicate a previously selected object.
The "Manage Objects" window also offers you other helpful functions. You can save individual objects on the hard drive, for example because you can often use them in other scenes. In this way you can create a whole library of important objects. For example, once you have created and saved a chair, a table and a cupboard, you can access them again at any time.
* Select the Two Cones object to save and click Save. The well-known "file selection" window appears.
* Enter the path name under which the object should be saved. It is best to leave the name at "Two cones".
* Exit the window by clicking the close icon.
You only see one cone in the document window because the two objects are on top of each other. Use the "Select object" function to select the "Cone.2" object and move it slightly on the surface.
* Then use the "Select objects" function to select the "Two cones" object and move the object as you like. You can now see the advantage of a hierarchy: multiple objects can be moved at once.
## 9. The clipboard
One is often faced with the problem that one has laboriously created an object, for example a wheel of a car, and needs it four times. To do this, you can use the duplication function from "Administration" just described. But there is a much more elegant way, as the following section shows. MaxonCINEMA 4D has a so-called clipboard. This is internal storage where copies of objects — that is, bodies, lights, and polygons — can be temporarily stored. The clipboard is comparable to a drawer in which you put copies of important documents so that you can retrieve them at any time.
Probably the most frequently used function of the clipboard is "Copy" from the "Edit" menu. This allows you to create a copy of the active object. The copy is not visible, only stored internally. If you would like to call up this copy, you only have to select the "Paste" function from the "Edit" menu. An identical object immediately appears in the place of the previous active object, even if it has been deleted in the meantime. By calling up the "Paste" function again, you can have any number of copies appear on the editor's workspace.
* Create a cube in a new document.
* Call up the "Copy" and "Paste" functions from the "Edit" menu one after the other. The old cube is deactivated and a new active cube is immediately drawn over it.
* Move the new object a bit so that the old cube becomes visible.
A slight modification of the "Copy" function is the "Cut" function. It basically does the same thing as above, except that the original object — of which a copy is placed on the clipboard — is deleted. You can use this function to delete objects, but you can be sure that the object is not completely lost, but is stored in the clipboard and can be retrieved at any time. This function is similar to cutting an image from a piece of paper and then placing that image in the paper tray.
To delete an object directly — without going through the clipboard — there is the “Delete” function from the “Edit” menu. The active object is deleted from the desktop and from memory. Calling up the "Paste" function now has no effect, since no copy of the previously deleted object has been made.
You can achieve the same by simply pressing the <Del> key or the <Backspace> key.
> note
>
> Of course, an object is only stored in the clipboard until a new object is copied or cut. This new object then displaces the old one from the clipboard
## 10. Undo mistakes
Hasn't it happened to you while working on the computer that you typed in a long text and accidentally deleted part of it? Then you must have wished for a function that undoes such mistakes. MaxonCINEMA 4D offers you this function. To do this, a copy of the active object is created internally (not via the clipboard) before you call an object-changing function. If you then made a change to the object that is not what you wanted, all you have to do is call up the "Undo" function from the "Edit" menu and the active object will appear again in its original state. "Undo" only refers to functions that change objects, but not to functions that move the editor's surface or enlarge the visible section.
* Generate a ring
* Select the "Wrinkle" function from the "Tools" menu. This wrinkled her ring irregularly.
* Choose "Undo" from the "Edit" menu.
You see the originally smooth ring in front of you again.
* You can now undo "Undo" yourself by calling the function again. The crumpled ring then reappears.
* Calling "Undo" again makes the smooth ring appear again. This can be repeated as often as you like, even if you change the view or change the editor section in between.
## 11. Material design
Now that you've learned how to use the supplied library of materials and how to calculate scenes, it's time to create your own materials.
* Close all previous documents and create a new one. Create a sphere and adjust the camera in the "Perspective" view in such a way that the sphere appears centered in the middle of the picture and has a size that almost fills the frame.
* Go to the Manage Materials feature.
* Click on "New" to create a new material.
To the right of the list you can edit the new material. There is a button for all properties of the material such as color or transparency. Depending on which button is currently activated, the values ​​of the sliders and fields to the right of the buttons refer to this set property.
* First change the name from "New" to "Yellow"
The most important property, the color, is at the top left. If you activate the button for the color, you can adjust the hue with the three sliders. Play around with the sliders to get a feel for the different color settings.
Alternatively, you can also enter the color components manually in the fields next to the slider.
* Set a hue of 100% red, 100% green, and 0% blue using the sliders or numeric input. This results in yellow.
Your new yellow material is now in the material list.
* Close the window.
* Assign the new material "Yellow" to the sphere with the "Select Material" function and look at the result in the scanline algorithm. You will see a dull yellow sphere.
The next step is to modify the material you just created. Of course you can now use the "Manage materials" function again. But it is even faster with the "Edit material" function. If a material has already been assigned to the currently active object, a window appears without a selection list in which you can immediately edit the material parameters.
* Call the "Edit Material" function.
You will now see the 'Edit Material' window in front of you.
* Set the "Gloss" text entry field to 40% and exit the window with "OK". Consider the object again using the scanline algorithm.
This time the yellow ball has received a highlight.
By experimenting with the many parameters in the Material window, you can create a variety of interesting materials. You can also save these for later use. To do this, use the "Save" or "Save all" fields in the "Manage materials" function.
## 12. Textures
Even the most sophisticated settings for the material parameters of a surface do not result in the realistic images you are used to from TV commercials. The surfaces of objects only get the right pep when they are covered with textures (images). For example, you can use an image of the Coca-Cola logo to turn a boring top hat into a Coke can in seconds. Or you put a picture of the earth's continents on a sphere. Immediately you get a plastic globe.
As you have already seen, there are parameters such as color, transparency and mirror ability. These determine the appearance of all points on a surface. You could just as well enter them individually for each point on the surface. Textures allow you to do this. For example, you can use a paint program to paint white lettering on a black background. If you use this image as a color texture, the color from your image will be used instead of a uniform color for the entire surface. So you can later see the lettering on the object. The object has a white color wherever the lettering is located, otherwise it is black.
On the other hand, if you use the image as a transparency texture, dark areas of the image will be interpreted as more opaque than light areas. As a result, the object becomes completely opaque in all places where there is no lettering. On the other hand, you can see other objects behind it shining through the lettering. Likewise, a specular texture controls the specular properties of the surface depending on the color in the image. Of course, you can also combine the textures mentioned above.
With all of this, however, the question arises as to how MaxonCINEMA AD brings the images to the surface of your objects. After all, objects can have very different surface shapes, from a flat square to a round sphere to a jagged fractal. Since it would be too time-consuming to determine the exact shape of the surface for each object and then place the texture on it, MaxonCINEMA 4D provides you with three important projection types. In the simplest way, area projection, the image is projected or placed completely flat onto the object in question - regardless of whether it is a flat or a round object. The flatter the object, the more undistorted the image will be projected. You can imagine the surface projection as with the slide projector. The slide - in our case the texture - is thrown onto an arbitrarily shaped object.
On the other hand, if you have an object that is more cylindrical in shape, for example a can or a vase, then the second type of projection is recommended, the cylindrical projection. It bends the texture once around the object and projects it inward.
The previously mentioned globe is generated with the spherical projection. It bends the texture in two directions around the object, eventually becoming spherical and projecting inward onto the object.
But enough dry theory. It's best to try it out for yourself.
* Use the sphere from earlier and go to the Manage Materials feature.
* Create the new material called "Earth Material".
* Activate the "Color" button and click on the icon to the right of the text input field for the texture.
The file selection window appears.
* Select the image named 'Earth' which is supplied with MaxonCINEMA 4D.
MaxonCINEMA 4D now displays the name of your image with the full path in the input field.
* Click on the "Show" button.
MaxonCINEMA 4D immediately loads and displays the image. You see a map of the continents of the earth.
* Click anywhere on the image to stop viewing.
An information window now appears in which MaxonCINEMA 4D displays the size of the image and the color depth.
You have now set a color texture for the "Earth Material" material.
* Exit the window and assign the new material to the sphere.
Now it is a matter of telling MaxonCINEMA 4D how the texture is to be placed on the object.
* Click on the "Texture" icon on the main bar.
The view changes immediately. You can now see a mesh with several grid lines on the sphere. This grid represents the texture. With the actions "Move" or "Scale" you can change the texture as you wish.
* First open the texture bar with the corresponding function from the "Window" menu. There are useful functions for editing textures. From there, click on the "Surface Texture" icon.
You have now informed MaxonCINEMA AD that you want to project the image flat onto the sphere.
* Now click on the "Scale" icon on the main bar and adjust the size of the texture down to about 1/4 in the X direction and 1/2 of the original size in the Y direction.
You have now scaled down the texture. You can see this by the fact that the texture with the fine grid lines has shrunk while the original border has remained the same.
* Click on the "Move" icon on the main bar. As with moving objects, you can now move your texture with the mouse. Again, you can disable the "X" or "Y" icon and then move the texture in either direction only. The "Z" symbol currently has no function because a flat image has no third dimension. With a right-left movement of the mouse you control the X-position of the texture, with an up-down movement the Y-position.
* Click on the 'Edit Texture Axes' icon on the main toolbar. Now you can move, rotate and scale the axes of the texture system along with their limits in three dimensions. Please try this.
* Now click on the "Cylinder Texture" icon in the texture bar.
Instead of the flat boundary, a cylindrical boundary now appears, on which the texture can be seen with its grid lines, filling the format.
* Resize the texture with "Scale" after clicking the 'Edit Texture' icon on the main bar again.
* Activate the "X" icon. Disable the "Y" and "Z" symbols.
* Now click on the "Move" symbol and move the mouse while holding down the left mouse button.
You can watch the texture move around the cylinder without the cylinder itself moving.
Let's summarize:
You are free to choose which of the three projection types (area, cylinder or sphere) you want to use. You can optimally adapt the texture to your object. In addition, you can use the "Texture Axis" icon to set the direction of the texture and position the texture precisely. The fine grid shows the places where the color, transparency or mirror texture will appear later in the image calculation. An example of an application is a label on a soda bottle.
* Click on the "sphere texture" icon.
Now the texture appears wrapped around a sphere again.
* Call the scanline algorithm.
If you did everything correctly, now you can see the sphere with a picture of the continents of the earth.
![Figure 3]()
If you leave the scanline algorithm and move the camera appropriately, you can view the globe from all sides.
* Set the texture size to about 1/4 the original size.
Now the formerly format-filling texture only occupies a small part of the sphere's surface.
* Restart the scanline algorithm.
The sphere is displayed again, but this time it is covered with the texture several times. MaxonCINEMA AD automatically attaches the texture to each other several times, as long as you have not prohibited the program from doing so with the "tile texture" icon in the texture bar.
If you had trouble following this section, you can also just load the "Tutorial 2" scene.
## 13. Polygons
In addition to the basic objects, you can also create complicated organic shapes and objects with polygons.
These polygons represent nothing more than a contour that you can rotate around an axis in three-dimensional space to obtain an object—say, a vase. But you can also place objects along such a polygon, or move a polygon along a polygon to get a tube or, or... there are no limits to your imagination.
MaxonCINEMA 4D offers you pre-made polygons.
* First close all documents and create a new one. Call the "Circle" function from the "Objects/Polygons" menu.
The outline of a circle appears in the document window. This contour (polygon) behaves like a normal object with faces, i.e. you can move, rotate or modify it in the same way.
* Now create a "Line" with the function of the same name from the "Objects! Polygons menu.
You should now get to know a function that allows the contour of the circle to run along the line. that a ring-shaped hose comes out.
* Invoke the 'Path Object' function from the 'Objects/Polygon Objects' menu while holding down the Shift key.
In the 'Path Object' window you can specify which polygon should be used as a path and which one you want to run around the path as an outline.
* Click on the 'Path' field in the window. The object selection window appears. Select the "Line" polygon.
Now the name of the currently selected polygon is displayed next to the 'Path' field. You now have to specify which contour should be moved around this path.
* To do this, click on “Select contour”.
This time a window with two lists appears. All available polygons are displayed in the list on the left, and those polygons that MaxonCINEMA 4D should use as contours are displayed in the list on the right.
* Check the "Circle" polygon in the left list and click "Move" to add it to the right list.
Exit the window with "OK" and also the window for path objects with "OK".
MaxonCINEMA 4D now places the Z-axis of the contour on the polygon line of the path and shifts the contour 10x until a tube is created. It is best to move the camera around the newly created object in the "3D" view so that you can see the result clearly.
Of course, there are a number of parameters in the path objects window that you can play around with. For example, you can increase the number of divisions from 10 to 20 to make the hose finer, or even add caps to the front and back ends of the hose. See the reference for more details.
As already mentioned, you can use polygons to conjure up three-dimensional objects on the screen simply by calling a function that interprets the polygon as the contour of an object and rotates it around an axis in space. So that you can try this out quickly, the "Scenes" directory already contains a prefabricated polygon called "Vase contour".
* First close all documents and call up the "Open" function. Then load the supplied polygon "vase contour".
You can now see the outline of a vase in the XY plane on the workspace.
* Call the "screw object" function
Shift-click from the Objects/Polygon Objects menu. This function rotates polygons (contours) around their Y object axis.
In the window you can specify which polygon you want to use as the contour, by how many degrees the contour should be rotated around the Y-axis and in how many steps this should happen.
* Click on "Select contour". As before, a window with two lists appears.
* Highlight the name "Vase Contour" in the list on the left and click "Move".
* Enter the value 100 in the "Subdivisions" input field and exit the window with "OK".
* Also exit the "Screw object" window with "OK".
MaxonCINEMA 4D now immediately calculates the three-dimensional body and displays it on the workspace. It is best to look at it in the 3D view. Then you can see the vase shape of the object very nicely.
In this way you can create any rotationally symmetrical objects. In addition to the "screw object" function, there are a number of other functions that create objects from polygons. For example, several polygons can be assembled layer by layer to form an object. But all this works just as easily as in the example of the vase just described. For these functions, please see the reference where they are fully documented.
- [Every beginning is easy](#every-beginning-is-easy)
- [1. The user interface](#1-the-user-interface)
- [2. All a matter of view](#2-all-a-matter-of-view)
- [3. Working with objects](#3-working-with-objects)
- [4. Three selection processes](#4-three-selection-processes)
- [5. The tool box](#5-the-tool-box)
- [6. The perspective representations](#6-the-perspective-representations)
- [7. Materials](#7-materials)
- [8. Working with hierarchies](#8-working-with-hierarchies)
- [9. The clipboard](#9-the-clipboard)
- [10. Undo mistakes](#10-undo-mistakes)
- [11. Material design](#11-material-design)
- [12. Textures](#12-textures)
- [13. Polygons](#13-polygons)At the end of this chapter you will learn how to design polygons for your own creations.
* Open a new document, create a line with the function of the same name from the "Objects/Polygons" menu and switch to the "XY" view.
* Click the "Edit Points" icon on the main bar.
MaxonCINEMA 4D now draws all points of the polygon. However, the line has only two points. If "Move" is set, you can grab the points directly with the mouse and move them to a new location.
* To do this, place the mouse pointer on one of the two support points of the polygon and keep the left mouse button pressed. While still holding the button, move the mouse.
You can see the connecting line attached to the point following the vertex and your mouse pointer.
As soon as you release the left mouse button, the support point is placed at the new location. You can easily "grab" points and move them afterwards.
Want a few more points? No problem, all you have to do is click on the appropriate spot and press the <Alt> key at the same time. The rule is that if you click near a connecting line between two vertices, the new point is inserted between the two vertices. Otherwise, the new point is simply appended to the last point of the polygon.
Did you accidentally enter one point too many? Also no problem:
* Click on the relevant point to activate it and press the <Del> key. The point disappears.
If you want to edit several points at the same time, you can do this by clicking the points one by one while holding down the Shift key. Then all clicked points will be activated at the same time. Alternatively, you can also draw a frame around the relevant points by enclosing the desired points while holding down the <Ctrl> key.
Let's summarize again:
* Points are activated by clicking on them.
* You can select multiple points by holding down the Shift key.
* You can frame multiple points at once by holding down the <Ctrl> key.
* Open the "Information" window and set the "'Parameter" page. There is the "'Polygonart'" field. Set the interpolation type to "Cubic".
* Create a flower-shaped polygon using the "Flower" function from the "Objects/Polygons" menu and click on the "Edit View" icon.
* Open the information window and set the "Parameter" page.
The current interpolation type (here it is cubic) is displayed in the "Polygon type" field.
* Change this from Cubic to Linear.
Immediately, the flower changes into something that looks more like a gear than a flower.
By combining the different types of interpolation with appropriately set support points, you can create any conceivable shape, both for use as a contour or as a path along which a contour is moved.
This brings us to the end of the tutorial. You now have an insight into the most important functions of MaxonCINEMA 4D. All other functions are described in detail in the reference
We hope you enjoy your further work with MaxonCINEMA 4D!