CINEMA 4D

Now that Cinema 4D includes the ZRemesher toolset, volume modelling has reached a new, more accessible level

AUTHOR

Mike Griggs www.creativebloke.com Mike Griggs is a digital content creator with over two decades of experience creating VFX and CGI for a wide range of clients.

Polygonal modelling has been the backbone of most forms of 3D asset creation for decades, and mastering it is one of the core skills required to properly understand 3D asset creation.

Or at least it was. As computer power has accelerated, it has meant that for many artists, alternative modelling methods are now more than enough to get them through the initial stages of a build.

This is because polygonal modelling works best from a formalised polygonal organisational structure, and well, sometimes artists don’t have time for that.

What if there was a way of creating polygonally correct and efficient meshes that allow an artist of any experience level to fully embrace their creativity? With the latest release of Maxon’s Cinema 4D R26 and the addition of the ZRemesher toolset, a good form of modelling has suddenly gained potential prominence in the life of 3D modelling.

This is modelling with volumes or VDBs. Most 3D artists who have created smoke water simulations have created VDB systems – asequence of volume point data placed in a 3D grid. No polygonal or mesh information is assigned, but as they are volumetric, the objects have an actual interior rather than a shell, which is the norm with polygonal objects. This means they can be ‘fused’ together in ways that would be hard to do using polygonal modelling.

Cinema 4D has an extra set of tools that place a polygonal mesh on a volume, which can then be refined to a desired weight and level of detail using the software’s new ZRemesher toolset.