Drawing with Particles

 

 

 

 

Compatibility

The minimum software requirements for the Premium Training videos are Cinema 4D version R16 and X-Particles build 642. If you use Cycles 4D, the minimum build required is 321.

We recommend Cinema 4D R20 and X-Particles build 724 or above because some of the effects demonstrated use newer features, however if you have previous versions/builds, the same effects can be achieved with alternative techniques. We recommend Cycles 4D build 353.

 

Introduction

Explore the numerous ways of using X-Particles to draw, paint and write with particles.

Build adjustable rigs to control the flow of particles.

Create stencil colliders and output particle Wet Maps as animated Vertex Tags.

Use alembic Vertex Maps in Cycles 4D as masks to reveal paint.

01 Methods

Discover a number of ways to draw using X-Particles.

Set-up particle emission using a Text Spline.

Animate particles along a Spline using Modifiers.

Build a particle spray can rig using a target Spline and a Collider Object.

02 Stencils

Use the Collision deformer to build a clean, efficient shipping container surface.

Create an Emitter Path Spline to animate a spray can.

Adjust the stencil geometry to provide an evenly detailed polygon surface ready for the creation of a Vertex Map.

03 Wet Maps

Explore the xpWetMap Tag.

Set up the painting of vertex weight using particle collisions.

Use Actions to optimise the Wet Map Rig for faster simulation and playback.

Bake the Wet Map Vertex Map using the Alembic Exporter.

Animate a stencil peel using Cinema 4D Deformers.

04 Graffiti

Introduce the graffiti spray can rig into the scene and coordinate it with the Wet Map animation.

Scale-up, scale down and add some natural movement to the spray can object using Effectors.

Build the graffiti spray on effect over the initial stencil.

05 Rendering & Compositing

Explore the Cycles 4D Sky Texture and link it to a Sky object for realistic atmospherics and lighting.

Use the baked alembic Vertex Maps in Cycles 4D Materials to create an animated mask.

Map Procedural Noise to scene geometry to create custom bump maps for the paint and metal materials.

Set-up a Cryptomatte pass at render time for use in the compositing stage.

 Download all the accompanying Cinema 4D scene files for these videos.