Looking to learn Cinema 4D quickly and easily by creating a 3D Mini Planet? You can do it in this simple and fun tutorial, where we will go through how to create it step by step. Use it for your video games, graphic design and illustration projects!
We will use the popular low poly style for this project. Some of the skills you will learn will include creating basic 3D shapes, manipulating them, and using basic lighting and rendering. Let's begin!
1. How to Create a Sphere
Step 1
Open your Cinema 4D and take a look at the top menu bar of the screen. Here you will find almost all the tools that we will need to create the 3D mini planet. Left Click and Hold on the blue Add Cube Object button. This will reveal a sub menu where you can click to create more objects. Select the Sphere tool by clicking on it.
Step 2
Once the sphere has been created, you can then change the properties of the sphere in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. Under the Object tab, we can scale the sphere up from 100cm to 250cm. For this tutorial, I have changed the Segments to 15, but feel free to experiment with these options.
Step 3
Now untick Render Perfect and remove the Phong Tag. You can do this by clicking on it to select it and then hitting delete or Backspace on your keyboard. This will enable us to render the sphere in the low poly style (otherwise it will appear smooth when we render).
Step 4
In order for you to see the polygon lines, click on the Display button, which can be found underneath the main toolbar. From there, choose Gouraud Shading (Lines).
Step 5
Select the sphere again by clicking on it. The sphere options should appear again in the bottom right of the screen. Here we can select the type of sphere we would like to use. In the drop-down menu, choose Icosahedron. Now we have the basic shape for our 3D Mini Planet.
2. How to Duplicate the Sphere
Step 1
In order to make any further changes to our sphere, we will need to make it editable. To do this, make sure your sphere is selected and simply click on the Make Editable button in the top right of your screen. Once you do this, you will not have access to the previous options (radius, segments, type, render perfect), so make sure you are happy with your sphere setup before moving on to this step.
Step 2
Next you will want to duplicate our sphere. To do this, Control-Click-Drag on your sphere object on the right of the screen. You should see a small 'plus' symbol appear near your cursor. Drag the cursor down and release to create a duplicate sphere.
3. How to Add Colour
Step 1
Now let's add some colour to the spheres, which will help to distinguish between the two easily. To do this, click on the Create button at the bottom left of the screen. Then select New Material.
Step 2
Double click on the small sphere icon that appears. In the material editor, you will have access to a variety of options that will change the appearance and properties of the shapes that you create. Untick Reflectance.
Step 3
Now click on Color. Choose the colour you want for your planet (you can see the colour I have used below). Once you've chosen the colour, close the material editor.
Step 4
Now Click-Drag the material onto your sphere to apply the material colour.
Step 5
Choose the second sphere from the menu on the right and repeat step 2.
Step 6
Now repeat step 3. This time we want to choose a different colour for the river (you can see the colour I have used below). Once you've chosen the colour, close the material editor.
Step 7
Now Click-Drag the material onto your sphere to apply the colour (as we did in step 4).
4. How to Create the River
Step 1
Before you start drawing out the shape of the river, you need to shrink one of the spheres (the one with the colour of the river). To make things easier, click on the Middle Mouse Button to bring up four different views.
Step 2
Select the 'river' sphere and then select the Scale Tool in the top main menu bar.
Step 3
By clicking and dragging the coloured points that appear on the sphere, you will scale according to that particular axis (x, y, z). However, you will want to scale the whole sphere. To do this, click and drag outside the sphere and scale it down so that it is slightly smaller than the 'land' sphere. I've scaled it down by 95%.
Step 4
To return to our perspective view, simply point the mouse to the correct window and press the middle mouse button. This can be used to select the other views as well.
Step 5
Click on the Live Selection Tool in the top menu bar.
Step 6
Then select Polygons from the left side menu bar.
Step 7
With the ‘land’ sphere selected, you will see that moving the cursor over the polygons will highlight them. Click-Drag the polygons you want for the river path. If you release the mouse button, you can continue you selection by holding Shift and then dragging the mouse cursor across the sphere again.
Step 8
If you need to remove part of your selection, simplyControl-Click-Drag over the unwanted polygons.
Step 9
You can use the navigation tools on the top right to move your view around your sphere.
Step 10
Once you are happy with your selection, right click on it to bring up the menu and select Extrude.
Step 11
You can then Click-Drag (Left or Right) the selection up or down. For this tutorial, we want the selected polygons to move belowthe second sphere. This will reveal our river!
5. How to Create the Mountains
Step 1
To create the mountains, you’ll be using the same tools and techniques that you used to create the river. Click on the Live Selection Tool in the top menu bar. Then select Polygons from the left side menu bar.
Step 2
Highlight the polygons that you want to use to create your mountain.
Step 3
Once you are happy with your selection, right click on it to bring up the menu and select Bevel.
Step 4
You can then Click-Drag (Left or Right) the selection up or down. For this stage of the tutorial, we want the selected polygons to extrude up.
Step 5
Use Bevel on the selection around three times for the best result. This gives it a natural look and also gives us further options for colour at a later stage.
Step 6
Use the same techniques to create more mountains to fill up your landscape. Try out different shapes and sizes to make your planet look as interesting as possible!
6. How to Add Selective Colouring
Step 1
Now it’s time to add some detail to our planet by doing a bit of selective colouring. The process is very similar to what you have done previously. First you must decide what other colours you would like to use. I have chosen three more colours (yellow, red, and white). Create three new coloured materials using the same steps as before (see 3. Adding Colour).
Step 2
Click on the Live Selection Tool in the top menu bar. Then select Polygons from the left side menu bar.
Step 3
Select each area you would like to colour—for example, the mountains.
Step 4
Now Drag-Drop your chosen material into the highlighted area.
Step 5
Repeat this process for the other colours.
7. How to Create Trees
Step 1
To create the small trees that populate the planet, we’ll need to go back to the blue Add Cube Object button again. Left Click-Hold and then select the Pyramidtool from the menu.
Step 2
Once we’ve done that, we can then colour the pyramid by dragging one of our materials to the object.
Step 3
Make sure the pyramid is selected and click the Make Editable button.
Step 4
Now select the Scale Tool on the top menu bar (again make sure that the pyramid is selected).
Step 5
With the Scale Tool selected, squash the pyramid by clicking the top point (the Y axis) and dragging it down.
Step 6
Next, you will want to duplicate the pyramid. Control-Click-Drag on your object on the right of the screen. You should see a small 'plus' symbol appear near your cursor. Drag the cursor down and release to create a duplicate.
Step 7
Then use the Move Tool to move it below the first pyramid.
Step 8
For the tree trunk, we'll need to create a cube. Click on the Cube button.
Step 9
Following the same steps as before, add a colour to the cube. Then scale it down and position it below the two pyramids to create a tree.
Step 10
Then select all the objects for the tree (the two pyramids and the cube) and press Alt-G to make a group. Now you can rename the group from 'Null' to 'Tree' and duplicate the group to create more trees.
Step 11
Now you can place the tree onto your planet using the Move and Rotate tools. Duplicate the group the same way as you would duplicate an object (Control-Click-Drag) and place trees around your planet (select the 'tree' group and use the Move and Rotate tools to do this).
8. How to Render the Scene
Step 1
To set up our 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 2
Making sure 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.
Step 3
Now click on the Render Settings button on the top menu bar.
Step 4
Here you can choose the resolution, height and width of your image. For this tutorial I have chosen 1920x1200 72DPI.
Step 5
Choose where you would like to save your file and your file name. Also you may want to tick Alpha Channel on, if you want.
Step 6
Click on the Effect button and choose both Global Illumination and Ambient Occlusion and exit the menu.
Step 7
Using the controls on the top right of the screen, choose a view that you would like to render. You can also create a camera out of your view if you want to by clicking on the Create Camera icon.
Step 8
Click the Render button and wait for your render to finish!
Awesome Work, You're Done!
And with that, your 3D Mini Planet is complete! Feel free to share your own creations below! You can also export your image into Adobe Photoshop to enhance it further or to use it as part of a larger image. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial, and I’ll see you next time!
