Being able to create realistic and lifelike 3D objects is one of the most essential skills for computer graphics artists in nearly every field.  Whether it’s a sci-fi building or spaceship for a matte painting, an item or element for a computer game, or an object for an advertisement, understanding the modeling, texturing and rendering techniques will be incredibly important.

In this tutorial, Bruno Kenzo will show you how to model, texture and render a realistic iMac in Cinema4D.  You’ll learn how to use primitives and various modeling techniques, then you’ll learn how to apply various textures and end up with a result that can be easily used in a future design work.

Later this week on Design.CreativeFan, you’ll learn how to take this very iMac and create a graphic design advertisement around it.

Tools Used:

• Cinema4D

Final Image Preview:

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 iMac on Cinema 4D with many details and some basic modeling tools.

Create a new document on Cinema 4D and go to Objects > Spline Primitive > Rectangle to create a Rectangle Object. Or you can use the Spline Object shortcut like the following image:

Now, change the values on the Object Properties tab.

Duplicate the Rectangle Object (Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V) and move to the position -8cm (Z Axis) for the first one, and the second move to the position +8cm.

Create a Loft Nurbs Object (Objects > NURBS > Loft Nurbs) or use the shortcut. Select both rectangles and place them under the Loft Nurbs Object, so it will appear a Group Icon and the rectangles will be inside of it. And you will get something like this:

This Nurbs works with Splines Objects, you can put as you like, ranging in size, rotation and position of the splines. And it works in a hierarchical way: the first spline that you put will be the first mesh of the object and the others will be the depth of the mesh.

Create a Cube Object (Objects > Primitive > Cube) and change the values on the Object Properties tab and the values on the Position Coordinates. You will get something like this:

Create a Boole Object (Objects > Modeling > Boole) or use the shortcut. Select the Loft Nurbs and the Cube and place them under the Boole Object. Click on it and go to the Object tab. As you can see the Boolean Type is: A subtract B, so what is it? The Boole will recognize the Loft Nurbs (A) as the main mesh and the Cube (B) as the mesh that you want to remove.

Now, we will create the “black part” that sits between the screen and the base: duplicate only the Loft Nurbs Object and move it out of the Boole. Change the values on the Object Properties tab and on the Position tab for both rectangles, like the following image.

Select the Loft Nurbs and change the Z Position to -8.5cm. Select both Loft Nurbs (inside and outside the Boole) and go to Object Properties and change the value on Mesh Subdivision U to 50. So, the edges become smoother.

Now, we will create the screen: create another Cube Object and change the settings like the following image:

After that, we will create the aluminum support: change the Camera View to Right Side (press F3). Now, select the Linear Spline Object (Objects > Create Spline > Linear) and do some points like the following image:

On the Objects Properties tab, change the Type to Cubic and you will get something like this:

Create another Rectangle Object with the following settings:

Create a Sweep Nurbs Object (Objects > NURBS > Sweep Nurbs) or use the shortcut. Select the rectangle and the spline and place them under the Sweep Nurbs Object, so it will appear a Group Icon, like the Loft Nurbs.
This Nurbs works with two splines: the first one is the thickness of the mesh, the second one is the base mesh, in other words, the first spline will follow the second spline.

Here are some examples:

Select the Sweep Nurbs and change some values like the following image. On the Object tab, change the End Scale: 200%. So, the base will become larger relative to the beginning. On the Caps tab, change both Start and End to Filet Cap – Steps: 3 – Radius: 1. Then, the edges become smoother.

Now, create a Cylinder Object (Objects > Primitive > Cylinder) and change the settings:

After that, create a Boole Object and place the Sweep Nurbs and Cylinder under it. It works like the previous Boolean: the Sweep Nurbs (A) is the main mesh and the Cylinder (B) is the mesh that you want to remove.

Here is our finished mesh and the layer order:

Now, we will start the Texturing part. First of all create a new material (Ctrl + N on the materials tab), this will be our Support material. So, rename it to support and on the Color tab, change its color to a light grey (RGB: 183/183/183). On the Luminance tab, click on the texture arrow and choose: Effects > Lumas.

Click on the red image (preview) and on the Shader tab, change its color to a medium grey (RGB: 71/71/71).
Go to the Specular 2 and change its color to a light grey (RGB: 178/178/178).
Go to the Specular 3 and change its color to the same Shader medium grey (RGB: 71/71/71).
On the Anisotropy tab, check the Active property, Projection: Shrink Warp (default) and change the Amplitude and Scale values to 20%.
And finally, click on the Luminance name to go back and change the Brightness: 30%, Mix Mode: Multiply and Mix Strength: 35%.
This kind of luminance makes the edges brighter than the surface, like the preview image.

On the Reflection tab, change the Brightness: 15% and on the texture arrow choose Fresnel. Change the Mix Strength: 35% and Blurriness: 30%. The Fresnel texture makes the reflection looks more realistic, and adding a bit of blur will reflect more opaque.

Finally, on the Specular tab, change the Mode: Metal, Width: 100%, Height: 40% and Falloff: 20%.
So the material will look heavier and denser.

Select this material and drag into the object like the following image:

Copy the support material and paste it. Change its name to base mesh and do some changes: on the Color tab, change the color to a light grey (RGB: 213/213/213).
Go to the Reflection tab and just change the Brightness: 10%.
And again, select and drag it into the Base Mesh object.

Now, we will do the black material that fits around the screen. Create a new material and name it for black. On the Color tab, change the color to a dark grey, almost black (RGB: 16/16/16).
On the Reflection tab, change the Brightness: 15% and Blurriness: 20%. For this one we will not use the Fresnel texture.
And on the Specular tab, just change the Height value to 10%. So, select and drag it.

Create another new material. This one will be the screen material. Download a desktop screenshot (you can find many on Google).
On the Color tab, import this desktop image, and if this is not too much strong, click on the preview image and change the Exposure value, but just a bit. On the Blur Scale property, change the value to a negative value, something between -20% and -40%. It works like a sharpen effect.
After that, go to the Specular tab and change some values: Width: 60%, Height: 25% and Falloff: 10%. And again, select and drag it.

Here is what we have now:

And our final material: the Apple Logo. For this one, download a black Apple logo with a white background. So, create a new material and import it on the Color tab. Besides, go to the Alpha tab and import the same image. Check only the Image Alpha and change the Color to white and Delta to a medium grey (RGB: 82/82/82). This channel recognizes this white color as what you want to remove and the Delta as the smooth color.

To apply this material, create a Plane Object (Objects > Primitive > Plane) and change some values like the following image:

Now, some quick settings to do a cool render. First, add a Area Light Object on your scene (Objects > scene > Area Light). This kind of light does a better result than omni or spot lights.
After that, change the Intensity to 75%. Go to the Details tab and change the Area Shape to Sphere.

Add an Array Object (Objects > Modeling > Array). Change the Radius to 450m and the copies to 2. So, move it 250m on the Y axis.

Add a Floor Object (Objects > Scene > Floor).
Now, go to the Render Settings. Click on the Effect button and add the Global Illumination. On the Irradiance Cache, change the Stochastic Samples to Low, just to reduce the render time, but the result still cool. After that, go to the Anti-Aliasing tab (on the Render Settings window) and change it to Best.

Here are some quick renders: