For my final project, I have decided to make a sci-fi loop animation using Cinema 4D and Redshift render engine. I am deeply inspired by digital artists like Beeple and Stuz0r, who make amazing artworks that couldn’t be done on paper. I chose Cinema 4d because most digital artists use them to make renders and simple animations. I am a total beginner at this software with only a few practice renders for my 100 days of making projects. I remembered spending 4 hours on just one still life rendered image. However, after getting familiar with its built-in render engine I have to learn a completely new render engine for my animation. This is because Redshift offers powerful real-time rendering which makes the workflow more efficient and less painful. It also provides better materials, faster rendered time, more realistic lightings, and tons of different features. Unfortunately, the learning curve of using it is quite time-consuming, and I had to constantly search online for the effect I want.
I am following an amazing course on Skillshare by digital artist Visualdon, who makes sci-fi retro loop animations. I spent a lot of time following the tutorial and making this train animation.
My original plan is to build on top of what I had and tell a story in this space train station. The original story is the departure of a couple in a long-distance relationship (a female in an astronaut suit and a retro-looking robot), with trains and crowds going continuously in the background (loops after loops), they are still not willing to set apart. I was originally planning on sculpting my main characters in Zbrush, but after knowing that it would take me a few more months to get the result I wanted, I decided to just use models I find online.
Everything was out of control after I got obsessed with adding more props into the scene. I added a noodle shop, a coffee stand, and more decorations into the scene, which is completely irrelevant and would probably not be shown in the video. I spent too much time cleaning up my models and making the right materials, and at one point I realize it might be impossible for me to finish the story I intended to tell.
Another bad news is that I realize animating characters in Cinema 4D is not easy. I was originally planning on rigging my characters in Daz 3D, but I gave up after playing around with it for an hour. It was extremely complex and confusing which I should have planned ahead and practiced for my 100 days projects. I finally decided to use Mixamo instead and mix the character movements in C4D. The result is that I only have time to make one character.
I am not satisfied with my final video. The color and lighting are not correct, the scene could be made better with different materials, the camera movement is pretty awkward, and the character’s movement could be polished more.