• Maxon Cinema 4D

  beginner modelling: creating the slot in a key

  Posted by Jeremy Allen on January 8, 2013 at 5:12 pm

  I’m nearly clueless about modelling in C4D, so this seemingly basic task is proving pretty difficult for me.

  I’m trying to create a simple key with a slot on one side. I’ve got the basic spline of the “arm” of the key from Illustrator extruded, but I can’t figure out how to make the slot. As you can see in the picture, the slot kinda swoops in and the channel becomes more rectangular towards the end.

  Any help would be greatly appreciated. Yes, I know I need to learn the basics of modelling, and I will, but right now I need to learn how to do this particular task.

  Thanks in advance!

  

  ———————————————
  8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 18GB RAM, OSX 10.5.8

  C4D 12
  AE CS5 (10.0.2.4)
  FCP 7.0.3
  QT 7.6.4

  Adam Trachtenberg replied 13 years, 4 months ago 2 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Adam Trachtenberg

  January 8, 2013 at 5:29 pm

  The easy (rough and ready) way to do this is to create another object in the shape of the cutout and then use a boolean object to cut it out. The downside to that is that booleans create sharp edges that are difficult/impossible to bevel or fillet. In order to get filleted edges you would have to use poly/subdivision surface modeling, which takes some skill and practice.
• 

  Jeremy Allen

  January 8, 2013 at 6:10 pm

  Thanks for the quick reply Adam. I was kinda thinking in that direction (make an object in the shape of the slot, then subtract from key somehow). This will end up being a still frame, so I’m not really worried about how it gets done, just how it looks in the end. Once I do the boolean, could I make that editable or maybe “Current state to object” to merge the slot into the key geometry?

  For future reference though, could you give me any tips on how to actually model that? Would you use the knife tool to make cuts and then move the points around to make the channel, or something else entirely? Would you know of any decent tutorials on the basics of the modelling tools?

  Thanks again for any extra advice.

  ———————————————
  8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 18GB RAM, OSX 10.5.8

  C4D 12
  AE CS5 (10.0.2.4)
  FCP 7.0.3
  QT 7.6.4
• 

  Adam Trachtenberg

  January 9, 2013 at 1:47 pm

  You can made the boolean object editable, or current state to object, and get a regular object.

  As far as polygon modeling goes, there are probably some good tutorials at C4D Cafe, or really you can follow any tutorial on subdivision surface modeling and adapt it to Cinema. All the programs have analogous tools.

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