Cinema 4D Community Mentors

I have been a designer for a long time but I never really took the time to immerse myself in the community. Only 2 years ago was introduced to Cinema 4D and I couldn’t get enough. My problem was that I didnt know where to go to find inspiration or tutorials for all the basics but I had to find them. Since diving into search and trying to find other people that love this application as well as video and motion graphics I found some of the most talented people that not only share what they do they take time out of their own days to live chat and really respond to answers in emails and I just want to share the people that I look up to and couldn’t thank enough for all that they share with us.

Mike “the monkey” Senfton. This guy comes from a DJ world (I do as well) and he is someone of real brilliance when it comes to creative expression through art. Not only does he understand that timing is key but he understands what beauty is in the presentation of a product or identity. His solutions to simple animations are really unique and something that not only myself but hundreds if not thousands of people look up to. Not until recently has he really come out to display what he does on camera and before that you can find his presence on Mograph.net. Which is just an amazing community to join if you do motion graphics. People really help out and try to do what they can to help you push forward. The Monkey was asked by the makers of Cinema 4D to do a presentation at N.A.B. about integrating sound into Cinema and after watching it I was blown away by all that he knows and shared with us. Not to long after he was approached by Nick Campbell (The Gorilla) and asked to do some tutorials for greyscalegorilla.com and he agreed. What an absolute pleasure to watch this man work and just play around with Cinema 4D. Here are two videos for you, the first is the NAB presentation and the second is the tutorial by The Monkey. The third is a piece of brilliance he created for ECHO.

Mike “the Monkey” Senften NAB 2010 from Lukasz Pason on Vimeo.

Joint Chains, Spiral Growth, Iterative Hierarchies, & the Golden Section from 4Dthieves on Vimeo.

Ecko Artifaks from 4Dthieves on Vimeo.

Nick “The Gorilla” Campbell. This guy… oh this guy is what this world needs more of. A man dedicated to not only creating beautiful motion graphics but on an endless question to share with us anything he can through his amazing tutorials. Most people who do tutorials they say do this and that, put in this number here and you get this. Not Nick. He takes the time to tell you why and what if this and if you did this you could get to the same place but we are going to go this way. He dives into a project with you and if he gets stuck while doing it he doesnt pause or cut the video so that he can make it perfect he troubleshoots right there. Live on camera. This is more valuable than the actual tutorial you are watching. Its something you only get to witness when you work on a project. Not only does he teach us he does a weekly live uStream for an hour where we either focus on a top or dive into questions right from the chat window. I’ve had my own questions answered during this and its so cool to have that kind of connection with a person you really look up to. He’s also done a lot with Photography and After Effects. He shows you not only 3D animation but compositing and lighting and so many different aspects of the video motion world… truly a guy that inspirational and inspired with positive energy for all of us to indulge in. One big thing that he’s done for the community is his 5 Second Projects. These are projects that anyone can do. It has to be animation, no longer than 5 seconds and inside a topic that he picks for us. The latest one was Nude No More and it was sponsored by Thredless. The winner was just announce and they got some cool prizes from Thredless.com. Check out the latest video tutorial from Nick on how to do a cool 7up animation as well as a video that tells you why you should do a 5 second project.

How To Make The Cherry 7up Look With Cinema 4D from Nick Campbell on Vimeo.

Five Reasons To Enter the FiveSecondProject from Nick Campbell on Vimeo.

There are more people that choose to inspire and share with us and I just want to mention them briefly. Robert Redman from Pariah Studios also shares a lot of knowledge with us and he too has some great tutorials for us. He goes beyond Cinema 4D and teaches Realflow and a few others. you can find him at http://www.pariahstudios.co.uk/ Secondly John Dickinson from Motionworks also share a lot of great technical info with all of us and you can find him at http://www.motionworks.com.au/ . Just recently I discovered James White from Signal Noise. Well I a have been a fan of his work for a long time but he is now making tutorials in graphic design as well as a live broadcast to share and answer anything we throw at him. He’s such a friendly guy and so respectful thats its no wonder why his art is so beautiful and I have much respect for him.

With all of these mentors that indirectly teach us we can really grow as a community and I hope that more and more people find the time to share something new with all of us. I hope that one day I too can share more than just a project file with the community and embrace you with knowledge about a certain technique inside C4D. The road is never ending with design and if you think you have nothing else to learn you are kindly mistaken because there is Always someone better than you. Find that person and learn from them. Drive yourself to try something new everyday you can. Go back and look through the basics just incase you missed a key point that could quicken an process. Immerse yourself in the community that shares and encourages through constructive criticism so that you too prevail in the endless stride to perfection. Be open, be kind and explore beyond the limits of your knowledge everyday.