Modeling and texturing electronics is something that most CG artists have to do at some point, because they appear in cinema, videogames and promotional artworks.  Whether it’s a spaceship HUD or an old phonograph, nearly all electronics have elements in common, such as buttons, knobs, speakers, screens, LEDs and more.  These elements can make or break the realism of a 3D model, but they are very easy to create with some proper tools and instruction.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to model and texture a Pioneer CDJ in Cinema4D, with realistic CD bay, buttons, screen and lights.  You’ll see how to use primitives to do the majority of the modeling, as well as using boolean and NURBs to achieve some more complex geometry.

Hi everyone! First of all, thanks for reading this tutorial and I hope you can learn something, not only how to create 3D model like this, but also to understand how a 3D model works. During this tutorial I will explain some tips and tools that I think fit very well with any kind of modeling!
You will learn how to create a very similar Pioneer CDJ on Cinema 4D with many details following the original design.

Final Image Preview

Create a new document on Cinema 4D and go to Objects > Primitive > Cube to create a Cube Object. So, change some values on the Object Properties tab like the following image.

Now, create other Cube Object with these settings.

Go to Objects > Modeling > Boole and arrange the layers like the following image. So, the second cube will cut the first one.

Create another cube following these values.

Create another Boole Object and arrange the layers following this image.

Now, press C on this base mesh to turn it editable. The layer structure is something like this.

After that, we will create the base material. It looks like a black metal. Just follow these settings.
For this one I used a Lumas luminance with a Planar projection, a soft blurriness reflection and a Metal specular.

Now, duplicate this black material, rename it to Red and change the main color to red.

Select some faces from the base mesh and add the red material inside of it.

Now, go to Selection > Invert to select the other faces

And again, add the material inside of it, in this case is the black material.

Duplicate the black material again and on the Color tab load the Pioneer image (the link of this image is on the end of this tutorial).

Select the top face and drop this material. So, the layer structure will be something like the image.

Here is a quick render.

Now, we will create the support of the disc (I don’t know the exactly word for this part). Go to Objects > Spline Primitive > Circle and change the values.

Create another one, but now following these values.

Go to Objects > NURBS > Loft NURBS. So, select both circle and add them inside of this nurbs. A new mesh will be created.

Now, create a Sphere Object (Objects > Primitive > Sphere) and change the settings. After that, create an Array Object (Objects > Modeling > Array) and change its values.

So, select the Sphere layer and add it inside of the Array layer to create something like this.

Create a Boole Object and add both the Loft Nurbs and Array inside of it.

Select the black material and add on this Boole Object. Here is a quick render of what we have now.

Create a Cylinder Object (Objects > Primitive > Cylinder) with these settings. And add the red material on this layer.

Create a Disc Object (Objects > Primitive > Disc) like the image.

For the disc material, duplicate the black material and on the Luminance tab, change the Mix Strength to 60%.

Here is a quick render with the corresponding materials.

Now, create two Cylinder Objects. For the first one choose these settings.

For the second, choose these values.

After that, select the second one and press C (make editable). Select the Polygon Tool and select all the top faces.

Now, select the Extrude Inner tool and create something like this.

Select the Extrude tool and move the mouse down, to create this kind of “ring object”.

And here is a quick render. The first Cylinder I used the black material and the second one I used the red material.

Now, we will do this kind of cogwheel button. Create two Cogwheel Objects (Objects > Primitive Spline > Cogwheel) following these values.

After, create a Loft Nurbs, select both cogwheels and add them inside of this nurbs. Finally, add this nurbs inside of a Hyper Nurbs Object.
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Now, we will create a red detail on the top of this button. Create a new Cube Object with these settings.

Here is a render of what we have now. For the button I used the base material and for the detail, the red one.

After that, we will create a simple cylinder button. Create a Cylinder Object like the image.

And to detail more this kind of button, add another cylinder, but smaller than the first one.

Here is another quick render. The cylinder button I used the base material again, and the detail I used the red material.

Now, we will create another kind of cylinder button, but this one is bigger than the others and has an indication, like a letter or a symbol. First, create a Cylinder Object following these settings.

So, create another one like the image.

Now, create a Text Object (Objects > Spline Primitive > Text) with these settings. Some buttons has a letter like A or B, and others have a symbol, in this case use a symbol font like Webdings.

The material that I used on this text object is the same as the base material but with another color, like yellow, orange or green.

And here is a quick render of this kind of button.

And finally, we will do our last kind of button. This one has a cube as the base mesh. So, create a Cube Object and follow these values.

Change the Z segments to 5. So some vertical lines will appear.

Press C to make it editable and with the Polygonal Tool select three top faces.

On the Y axis, move just a little down. After, select the two faces on the Z axis following the image.

Go to Extrude Inner and do something like this.

Go to the Scale Tool and on the Z axis move these faces.

So, create a Cube Object with these settings.

Here is a quick render of this button. For the base I used the black material and for the detail I used the red material.

Here are some screenshots of other kinds of button. They are all too simple like the others.

Some image of the final render. All the buttons are with the corresponding material and with the right position.

And this other image is a render that I did on my “virtual studio”. I just paste the object inside of it.

I think a tutorial focusing only on the rendering part will be done soon, because all the wallpapers that I do used this kind of “studio”. So, stay tuned guys, soon I will release this tutorial!
Yeah, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any doubts, just post it on the comments.