May 21, 2009 by John Dickinson | 33,048 views | Comments (49)
In this 3 tutorial series we’ll look at how to build a glass shatter effect, based on a recent project for Damages 2, using Illustrator, After Effects and Cinema 4D. This section includes capturing the template in After Effects, paths in Illustrator and setting up imported splines as polygons in Cinema 4D. For a 10% discount on Trapcode Particular and other Red Giant Software products use the code Motionworks10. Watch tutorial (10mins, 40MB) Gallery Post
PURCHASE THE COMPLETED CINEMA 4D AND AFTER EFFECTS PROJECT FILES ($6.00):
49 Responses to this post
May 21, 2009 at 6:54 pm |
Awesome. Lots of great C4D tips I didn’t know about. I even learned something about Illustrator. Can’t wait for Part 2! (So glad you’re making these.)
May 21, 2009 at 7:23 pm |
necisita part 2!
May 21, 2009 at 7:52 pm |
yes,great..
thanx john.C4D tuts more..
May 21, 2009 at 9:06 pm |
Thanks John!
May 22, 2009 at 4:08 am |
WOW, tahnk y ou so much, I was waiting for this for years…
May 22, 2009 at 4:48 am |
HI JD, may I ask you why you didn´t use the Livetracer inside AI to define the paths? I am not that much into AI, but isn´t it possible to avoid handrawing the whole structure- at a certain point this will be really a lot of work doing it by hand…
May 22, 2009 at 5:39 am |
JD,
From a design perspective why did you choose to shatter in C4D and not in AE? What I am puzzled about is that you use the AE glass shatter map as your template. Aren’t you re-creating an identical shatter, but in another program? Don’t get me wrong, AE and C4D are my two favorite programs – so the more tuts on both the better. I’m just curious why all the extra steps?
Best, James Wicks Zfx Studios, LLC South Florida
May 22, 2009 at 1:53 pm |
Illd drawing the path manually gives clean paths with minimum control points, and it actually didn’t take very long. Jim I wasn’t recreating an identical shatter, the Shatter template was just a guide to get me started in Illustrator. The final version has a lot more detail, including more longer shards and a bunch of smaller ones. The Shatter effect in After Effects is great for some things but just doesn’t compare with the results possible when working in a dedicated 3D app, especially when it comes to materials.
May 24, 2009 at 3:42 am |
Very nice, thanks!
When is part 2 coming?
May 24, 2009 at 11:26 pm |
Before I start this, it looks awesome by the way, Do you think what you are teaching will translate to 3ds Max? I don’t want to get far into it and realize I don’t have the ability to do something. I’m fairly new to 3ds max so it may be difficult to translate…
May 25, 2009 at 3:43 am |
Part 2 will be out in a few days. I don’t know how this would translate across to 3D Studio Max as I haven’t used that software, sorry.
May 25, 2009 at 11:09 pm |
I watched it and so far were good, thanks for responding. Hopefully you don’t lose me on part 2! If you do I’ll just get a trial of Cinema 4D because this effect is just to cool. I think it nice someones making tutorials for c4d because the majority of them are 3ds max.
May 26, 2009 at 8:59 am |
Looks like a damn good tutorial..
Thanks A lot John
May 26, 2009 at 9:23 am |
Great look, John! Love that you’re doing more tuts in C4D. Thanks!
June 4, 2009 at 3:09 pm |
I’m kind of stuck. I’m using cinema 4d ,and I’ve done the illustrator portion. But I can’t seem to bring the shatter map into cinema 4d. I’m using illustrator cs4.
June 4, 2009 at 3:17 pm |
Hi RemingtonM, make sure you save your Illustrator file as version 8 before attempting to import it to Cinema 4D.
June 4, 2009 at 7:15 pm |
Thanks for your quick response, How do you you save it as an Illustrator 8 file? I looked around for a while, but didn’t find anything. I really want to make this work, because this effect is amazing! I’ve never used cinema 4d or Illustrator before this.. I’m a 3ds max, AE, photoshop kind of guy.
June 4, 2009 at 7:24 pm |
I figured out how to save it as an .eps file. I selected Illustrator 8 and it still seems to not be working.I’m using the latest cinema 4d, I think its 11
June 4, 2009 at 10:35 pm |
It can’t be an eps… must be a .ai file. If you still have problems send me the file and I’ll save it for you. (john at motionworks dot com dot au).
June 5, 2009 at 10:39 am |
It worked! I was saving it to send to you and a box popped up asking me which version I wanted to save as. Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it. I’m sure I’ll be back with more questions later on.
August 25, 2009 at 1:44 am |
Hi John,
Thank you for these tutorials. I am new to After Effects and am following part 1 of the Shattering Glass tutorial. When I try to save the psd file out of the AE render queue, it doesn’t save. I have to choose Composition, Save frame as, Photoshop layers. Am I doing something wrong here or is there a bug in my program?
Thanks
Lesley
August 25, 2009 at 2:36 am |
Hi Lesley, when you add something to the render queue you choose the format eg. Photoshop, in the Output Module section.
November 7, 2009 at 9:34 pm |
Thanks John, used this technique in a modified way for a VFX shot for a feature – great tut, really appreciate your sharing. Lots of good little “gotcha” tips in there, like fixing the texture to the polys…
November 8, 2009 at 2:38 pm |
Thanks Mark, I worked through this project with Tim Clapham as my help-line
Much of it I screen recorded as I was doing it so that I could create this tutorial. Best wishes, John. By the way, you might want to set up a Gravatar so we can see your pic with comments on blogs like mine 
December 5, 2009 at 5:20 pm |
Splendid teaching John. As a novice on C4D you really speed up my learning curve. Pdfs don’t do it for me – spending hours finding the answers I look for converts the text into ants after a while.
One question; Why is it important to check the hierarchical box in objects after selecting the Nurbs? When else do I need to consider this?
Thanks //Erik
December 6, 2009 at 10:19 am |
I think I got it. Othetwise only the first path, in a chain of paths, will be extruded?
December 6, 2009 at 2:26 pm |
Shazam! That’s it Erik, well done.
December 6, 2009 at 2:24 pm |
Thanks Erik, I can see from your next comment that you worked out the answer, well done. Best wishes, John.
December 10, 2009 at 1:23 pm |
Espero poder descargar este fabuloso tutorial y seguir aprendiendo, gracias por el aporte se ve muy bueno
December 10, 2009 at 5:40 pm |
Gente como John Dickinson y Andrew Kramer merecen un premio Nobel por hacer educación accesible a todo el mundo :]
December 21, 2009 at 12:52 pm |
I love your website
December 21, 2009 at 2:59 pm |
Thanks Nasirou
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