A program of choice to many motion artists, Cinema 4D has a rather counter-intuitive method of producing depth of field. Both the camera controls and the way in which C4D handles depth maps can be a cause of major headache, especially for the newcomers to this program.
With the coding support from German motion artist and art director, Derya Ozturk, we have been able to construct an improved camera rig for Cinema 4D that should help you eliminate needless frustration, and get the results you need with just a few clicks.
Please note that while the tutorial will teach you how to use the preset, it will not show you how to construct the demo scene seen in the preview video.
As much as I would like to credit the awesome flute player who provided the audio for this preview, I was unable to locate the “patient zero” among dozens of videos around the net using this jingle. Whoever you are, kudos and don’t ever stop trying!
Code by Derya Ozturk
Concept and math logic by Quba Michalski
Running time: 46min
Difficulty: Easy
Required tools: Cinema 4D R11.5 or R12 (does not work with R13, sorry)
Optional software: After Effects, Frischluft Lenscare plug-in
Please, make sure to enable HD option when viewing the videos.
Preview video:
Tutorial:
UPDATED!
A new version of the Camera Rig has been released (already!). Please visit this link to find the release notes and download the latest version.
Download the files associated with this tutorial below:
- QubaHQ Cinema4D DoF Camera Rig
(old version, go here instead)
http://downloads.qubahq.com/tutorials/QubaHQ_DoF_Camera.zip - Tutorial Video (340MB MP4)
http://video.qubahq.com/tutorials/QubaHQ_C4D_DoF_Camera_Tutorial.mp4
You may also download the tutorial from its Vimeo page. The preview video can also be watched at YouTube.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Cooll!!!!!
[…] QubaHQ returns with another tutorial, this time using Cinema4D and After Effects using Depth of Field and depth maps with as little frustration as possible, and he even provides a preset that you can use. Check out the tutorial here. […]
great stuff Quba! This is going to come in handy.
Very useful rig! I took the liberty of making a few changes and adding a little more user options. Here’s a link if you want to see it:
http://cl.ly/3D3A1R2F042i1G0o1i2C
Also, I used a layer to hide those extra DON’T TOUCH! options haha
Mdhamiri a Nkemi
I really love what you did with the preset. Let me have a closer look tomorrow – if you don’t mind, I would like to include your improvements in the distributed file :)
[…] got to love the Internet, and the motion graphics community. Less than a day has passed since the release of our Cinema 4D Camera Rig and we already have an […]
Quba Michalski
Thanks Quba, Of course I don’t mind. I hope everyone finds it as useful as I have already. :-)
This is such a helpful preset. The tutorial was well explained too. The next thing I need to do is figure out how to get this to work with the CS Tools camera set ups (easy Cam / action cam etc..). Expresso is a wonderfull thing. Congrats guys you rocked this preset!!
Just watched the tutorial, very funny, I’ve said many things similar trying to get the dof to work. Looks awesome, any chance for a 10x version for those of us in the dark ages?
Thanks for all your tutorials.
Mike:
Thanks mate… unfortunately I do not own C4D 10… Even getting the 11.5 was tough :(
Oh well, it was worth asking.
Thanks for the reply.
Great work I was going bananas because I am basically a camera man and switched to animation thanks again for giving this knowledge about cinema 4d
This is freakin’ GENIUS. THANK YOU !!!! Such a useful, thorough, and valuable tutorial. This has been a long time coming and I think I speak for the masses when I say this might be the best overall C4D tutorial ever created.
Really great stuff ! +++ !
Perhaps its possible to combine your camera rig with the other free stuff CS_Tools , i mean the CS_EASY_CAM. Easy_Cam is a movement camera rig. In combination with iDOF it would be a very worthful combo!
See here – > http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/2010/02/cs-tools-easy-cam/
What do you think about the idea ?
Good Idea…
Maybe you can upload it at
http://xpressopresets.net/
for everyones benefit.
Hey! That is such a great tutorial! Will bring a lot of motion guys to a new lever! Enjoying it for the whole 30 min. Normally it is hard to stay awake.
But I do have one question. I dont use the Frischluft Plugin and I dont find the „camera blur“ you did talk about. Please help me on this bit.
CHeers
Thank you..^^
your article seems to be helpful in my study.
habe a nice day.
Thaks man!!-always had a rough time with the quircky C4D DOF, but not anymore :)-CZ
hello, thanks for your good work but the dofcam works on my mac but doesn’t on my w7 both versions 1 and 1.1 the problem i cannot move the segments from the triggers can you help ??
hello cannot use the triggers, can you help ?
Hello,
it does not seem to work in R13, the sliders do not seem to affect any of the parameters. Any ideas on how to fix that?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
I using this in R13 and none of the controls are working. Is there an update coming soon for this. Your tutorial was one of the best BTW
[…] http://qubahq.com/2011/01/presettutorial-c4d-dof-camera-rig/ […]
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