Post pobrano z: How to Create a Low Poly Tree in Cinema 4D

Follow this tutorial step-by-step to create a low poly tree model that you can use in video games, graphic design and illustration projects whilst learning Cinema 4D quickly.

Some of the skills you’ll learn in this tutorial include creating basic 3D shapes, extrusion techniques, basic rendering techniques and how to colour 3D objects.

1. How to Create a Cube

Step 1

Open Cinema 4D and take a look at the top menu bar of the screen. You’ll find almost all the tools that you will need to create the floating island. 

Select a new project in Cinema 4D and enter Perspective Mode by selecting it with the mouse.

Step 2

Navigate the mouse to the top of the screen and click on the Add Cube Object button in the top menu bar.

Primary-Click and Hold on the blue Add Cube Object button. This reveals a sub menu where you can click to create more objects. This will come in handy later on in the project. Create the Cube tool by clicking on it.

Step 3

Make sure that the cube is selected and then click on the Make Editable button in the menu bar on the left of the screen.

2. How to Extrude Polygons from a Cube

Step 1

Select the Polygons button on the left side of the screen. This allows you to select the polygons on the cube.

Step 2

Click the polygon that you would like to extrude. The polygon will appear highlighted in yellow. Hold the Control Button on the keyboard and use the mouse to hover over the direction you want to move the polygons to. For this example we will use the y axis (green arrow). 

The mouse cursor should change shape, indicating that you can move the polygons. Whilst holding the Control Button, click and drag the arrow to extrude the polygons.

Step 3

Choose from any of the polygons sides in order to extrude the object to the shape that you want.

3. How to create the Tree Trunk

Step 1

Use the Scale Tool to create a tapered look to the tree trunk. Make sure to select the top polygon first using the Polygons button.

Step 2

Click and drag the axis using the scale tool to taper the top of the cube.

Step 3

Extrude the polygons and use the Move Tool to change the direction of the tree trunk to give it an interesting shape.

Step 4

Remember to taper the top polygon by using the Scale Tool.

Step 5

Repeat the previous steps a few more times, using the Scale Tool and the Move Tool, until you are happy with the shape of the tree trunk.

4. How to create Tree Branches

Step 1

To create the branches select the polygon for it’s point of origin using the Polygons button.

Once you have a polygon selected, secondary-click the mouse to bring up a menu and select Bevel from the list of options.

Step 2

Click and drag on the selected polygon until you are happy with the shape of the bevel.

Step 3

Use the Move Tool to extrude the branch out. Hold the Control Button on the keyboard whilst using the mouse to click and drag the selected polygon.

Step 4

Taper the branch using the same techniques used to taper the tree trunk. Play around using the Move Tool and the Scale Tool to get the best results.

Step 5

Keep extruding and tapering the branch out until you are happy with the overall shape. Remember to use the Move Tool to send the branch out into different directions.

Step 6

Choose another polygon on the branch and extrude another shape out.

Step 7

Repeat the steps above to create a second and third branch. Make sure to view the tree from different angles in the viewport. This will give you the most interesting shapes for the tree.

5. How to create Low Poly Leaves

Step 1

Navigate to the top menu and click and hold on the Cube Button. This reveals a menu with options to create more shapes. Select the Sphere. This will spawn a sphere in the scene.

Step 2

Navigate to the top menu and click and hold the Bend Button. This will reveal another set of options. Select Polygon Reduction.

Step 3

Drag the Polygon Reduction into the Sphere. This will reduce the amount of polygons in the sphere.

Step 4

Make sure Polygon Reduction is still selected. In the bottom window change the Reduction Strength until you are satisfied with the results.

Step 5

Navigate to the top menu and click and hold the Bend Button again. This reveals another set of options. This time select Displacer.

Step 6

Drag the Displacer into the Sphere. This changes the shape of the sphere and add more options.

Step 7

With the Displacer still selected, navigate to the bottom of the screen where the Displacer options are located. Select the Shading tab and click the arrow button next to Shader. Select Noise from the drop down menu.

Step 8

Select the Object tab and adjust the Height until you are happy with the way the sphere looks.

Step 9

Select the Sphere then select the Scale Tool. Make sure that the Model button is selected and use the Scale Tool to adjust the shape of the sphere until you are happy with it’s shape.

Step 10

Use the Move Tool to position the sphere correctly on the tree. Using all four views in the viewport can help with this. To do this, click on the middle button on the mouse.

Step 11

Duplicate the Sphere by holding the Control Button and clicking and dragging the Sphere Object.

Step 12

Move the new sphere to another position on the tree using the Move Tool. Adjust the look of the new sphere by selecting the Displacer and using the options as outlined in the previous steps.

Step 13

Continue to duplicate and position new spheres to create a look that you are happy with.

Step 14

Repeat the steps to create leaves for the other branches of the tree.

6. How to Group Objects

Step 1

Select all the Sphere Objects that belong to a group of leaves. Group objects by holding the Shift Key on the keyboard and selecting objects with the mouse.

Step 2

With the objects selected press Alt-N to create a new group.

Step 3

Use the mouse to select the Null Group and rename the group with a suitable name.

Step 4

Repeat the steps for each sphere group.

7. How to Colour Objects

Step 1

At the bottom of the screen click on the Create Button and select New Material.

Step 2

Double click on the Material and a new window will appear. Untick Reflectance.

Step 3

Select Colour and double click on the box at the top of the window.

Step 4

Select a suitable colour for the tree trunk and then click the OK button.

Step 5

Apply the material to the tree trunk by clicking and dragging it to the object using the mouse.

Step 6

Repeat the steps to create several different coloured materials for the leaves. 

Step 7

Apply the materials to the grouped objects.

8. How to add Light to the Scene

Step 1

Choose a suitable angle in the viewport by navigating around the scene. Click on the Camera button at the top to create a camera.

Step 2

To set up the basic lighting, you’ll want to go to the Floor button located in the top menu bar. Left Click-Hold and then select Physical Sky from the menu.

Step 3

Ensuring that Physical Sky is selected in the menu on the right, a new menu will appear on the bottom right of the screen. Select the Time and Location tab and choose a time using the left and right arrow keys. This will change the lighting of the scene. Choose a suitable time to light up the scene.

Step 4

To add additional lighting to the scene, select the Add Light button in the top menu bar at the top of the screen.

Step 5

This will create a Light Object which you can move around the scene. Move the light object using the Move Tool to a suitable position.

Step 6

To customise the lighting further, experiment with the light object options in the bottom right of the screen. Here you can adjust the Intensity, Light Type and even Colour.

9. How to Render the Scene

Step 1

Click on the Render Settings button on the top menu bar.

Step 2

Choose the resolution, height and width of the image. This tutorial uses the settings 1920×1200 72dpi.

Step 3

Choose where you’d like to save the file and the file name. You may wish to tick Alpha Channel on, if you want to continue editing the image in another program such as Adobe Photoshop.

Step 4

Go to the Effect button at the bottom left and select both Ambient Occlusion and Global Illumination from the drop down menu. This will add these options to the render.

Step 5

Click the Render button and wait for the render to finish.

Conclusion

And with that, the 3D Low Poly Tree is complete. Feel free to share the own creations below. Explore different camera angles, lighting set ups and colours to find out what works best for the illustration.

You can also export the image to Adobe Photoshop to enhance it further or to use it as part of a larger scene or illustration. 

Post pobrano z: How to Create a Glazed Cookie Text Effect in Adobe Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to use Photoshop’s brush settings, layer styles, and adjustment layers to create a fun, bright glazed cookies text effect. Let’s get started!

This text effect was inspired by the many Layer Styles available on GraphicRiver.

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial:

• Sniglet font
• Biscuits by PublicDomainPictures
• Cement texture by kues1

1. How to Create a Gradient Background and Text Layers

Step 1

Create a new 1000 x 800px document, and click the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to add a Gradient layer.

Create the gradient fill using the Colors #e8d2d6 to the left and #ddbcc0 to the right, and change the Angle to 107.

Step 2

Create the text in All Caps using the font Sniglet, and set the Size to 250 pt.

You can create the whole word at once, or, if you want a more dynamic result, create each letter on a separate layer.

If you are creating the letters separately, make sure to place each one’s layer in a group with the letter’s name.

2. How to Create and Save a Stroke Brush Tip

Step 1

Pick the Brush Tool and open the Brush panel. Choose a hard round tip and use these settings:

Brush Tip Shape

Shape Dynamics

Step 2

Click the Create new brush icon in the bottom right corner of the panel, change the Name to Cookie Stroke, and click OK.

3. How to Create and Stroke a Work Path

Step 1

Right-click the text layer and choose Create Work Path.

Step 2

Create a new layer on top of the text layer, name it Stroke, make sure that the Brush Tool is still active, and hit the Return key to stroke the path.

Pick the Direct Selection Tool (A), and hit the Return key again to get rid of the work path.

Step 3

Put both the text and Stroke layers in a group and name it Text and Stroke.

4. How to Style a Layer Group

Double-click the Text and Stroke group to apply the following layer style:

Step 1

Add a Bevel and Emboss with these settings:

• Size: 7
• Check the Anti-aliased box
• Highlight Mode:
  • Color: #b08965
• Shadow Mode:
  • Color: #d3a35e
  • Opacity: 35%

Step 2

Add a Contour with these settings:

• Contour: Half Round
• Check the Anti-aliased box.

Step 3

Add a Drop Shadow with these settings:

• Color: #762b3d
• Opacity: 38%
• Distance: 3
• Size: 5

Step 4

Add another Drop Shadow effect instance with these settings:

• Color: #7d3848
• Opacity: 50%
• Distance: 15
• Size: 25

This will style the main cookie shape.

5. How to Add a Texture Image

Step 1

Open the Biscuits image, and pick the Elliptical Marquee Tool to select one of the cookies in the image. You can select only the part you want to use as well.

Go to Edit > Copy to copy the selected part.

Step 2

Go back to the original document and go to Edit > Paste to paste the copied biscuit texture.

Place the pasted layer inside the letter’s group on top of the Text and Stroke group. Then, right-click the biscuit texture layer, and choose Create Clipping Mask.

Press Command-T to enter Free Transform Mode, and resize and rotate the texture until you like how it looks.

Hit Return to commit the changes.

6. How to Contract a Selection

Step 1

Command-click the text layer’s thumbnail to create a selection.

Step 2

Go to Select > Modify > Contract, and change the Contract By value to 5.

Step 3

Create a new layer at the top of the letter’s group and name it Glaze 01.

Fill the selection with White, and press Command-D to deselect.

Step 4

Duplicate the Glaze 01 layer and name the copy Glaze 02, and change the copy’s Fill value to 0.

Step 5

Place both glaze layers in a group and name it Glaze.

7. How to Create a Smooth Glaze Style

Double-click the Glaze 01 layer to apply the following layer style:

Step 1

Add a Bevel and Emboss with these settings:

• Size: 9
• Soften: 9
• Check the Anti-aliased box
• Highlight Mode: Soft Light
  • Color: #b08965
• Shadow Mode:
  • Color: #b69c5e
  • Opacity: 35%

Step 2

Add a Contour with these settings:

• Contour: Half Round
• Check the Anti-aliased box.

Step 3

Add a Texture with these settings:

• Pattern: Clouds
• Depth: 25%

Step 4

Add an Inner Shadow with these settings:

• Color: #d3d1c8
• Opacity: 35%
• Distance: 3
• Size: 7

Step 5

Add a Color Overlay with these settings:

• Color: #f1efde

Step 6

Add a Drop Shadow with these settings:

• Blend Mode: Linear Burn
• Color: #2c1c0b
• Opacity: 15%
• Distance: 3
• Size: 3

This will create a soft glaze style.

8. How to Create a Textured Glaze Style

Double-click the Glaze 02 layer to apply the following layer style:

Step 1

Add a Bevel and Emboss with these settings:

• Size: 7
• Soften: 7
• Uncheck the Use Global Light box
• Angle: 85
• Altitude: 26
• Check the Anti-aliased box
• Highlight Mode: Vivid Light
  • Color: #ffffff
• Shadow Mode: Linear Burn
  • Color: #b1997c
  • Opacity: 28%

Step 2

Add a Contour with these settings:

• Contour: Half Round
• Check the Anti-aliased box.

Step 3

Add a Texture with these settings:

• Pattern: Satin
• Depth: 26%

This will create a more textured glaze.

9. How to Create More Letters

Repeat the same steps to create any more letters you need.

Use the Free Transform Mode to rotate the letters and place them however you like.

You don’t need to re-apply all the layer styles for each layer. Instead, you can right-click the styled layer, choose Copy Layer Style, right-click the new layer you want to apply the same layer style to, and choose Paste Layer Style.

Once you’re done, place all the letter groups in another group and name it Text.

10. How to Create a Sprinkles Brush Tip

Pick the Brush Tool and open the Brush panel.

Choose a hard round tip and use these settings:

Brush Tip Shape

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

11. How to Create a Sprinkles Style

Step 1

Create a new layer on top of the Text group, and place it in a group with the name Sprinkles.

Double-click the new layer to apply the following layer style:

Step 2

Add a Bevel and Emboss with these settings:

• Size: 6
• Uncheck the Use Global Light box
• Angle: 98
• Altitude: 53
• Check the Anti-aliased box
• Highlight Mode: Vivid Light
  • Opacity: 5%
• Shadow Mode: Color Burn

Step 3

Add a Contour with these settings:

• Contour: Rounded Steps
• Check the Anti-aliased box.
• Range: 59%

Step 4

Add a Color Overlay with these settings:

• Color: #f88dc7

This is where you can choose the color of the sprinkles on the styled layer, so you can choose any color you like.

Step 5

Add a Drop Shadow with these settings:

• Color: #2a2826
• Opacity: 20%
• Distance: 2
• Size: 3

12. How to Add Sprinkles

Step 1

Rename the styled layer to the color you chose for the Color Overlay effect, and copy its layer style.

Click-drag slightly over the letters to add the sprinkles. You can change the brush tip’s Spacing and Scattering values as needed to create an effect you like.

Step 2

Create new layers, name each one with the color you want its sprinkles to be, and paste the layer style to it.

All you need to do to change the sprinkles’ color is double-click the sprinkles layer, and choose a new Color value for the Color Overlay effect.

Step 3

You can add as many sprinkle layers and colors as you like to fill the text with.

13. How to Add Global Adjustments

Step 1

Once you’re done adding the sprinkles, put the Text and Sprinkles groups in another new group and name it Cookies.

Step 2

Add a Levels adjustments layer and clip it to the Cookies group.

Then, change the Highlights value to 6, the Gamma to 0.90, and the Shadows to 248.

Step 3

Add a Vibrance adjustments layer and clip it to the Cookies group, and change the Vibrance value to 20.

Step 4

Add a Brightness/Contrast adjustments layer and clip it to the Cookies group, and change the Contrast value to 15.

Step 5

Place the Cement texture image on top of the Gradient fill layer, resize it to fit within the document, and rename its layer to Texture Overlay.

Change the Texture Overlay layer’s Blend Mode to Linear Burn and its Opacity to 50%.

Congratulations! You’re Done!

In this tutorial, we created a gradient background and text layers.

Then, we created a simple brush tip, used it to stroke the text, and styled the text and stroke layers to create the main cookie shape.

After that, we created and styled glaze layers, and created a sprinkles brush tip that we added on top of the glazed cookies and styled with different colors.

Finally, we used a couple of adjustment layers to add global adjustments to the effect.

Please feel free to leave your comments, suggestions, and outcomes below.