Last few days I was bored and started my 3d Software called Cinema 4d. I am not really a professional 3d artist but I try to learn over time. But I have so many hobbys that the 3d stuff needs to wait often. I mean I can use Illustrator, Photoshop and Cinema 4d already but I rather used these tools to create 2d and 3d Logos.

I think I am already good when we talk about Logos but back to Cinema 4d I must mention that there is a lot to improve. I still need to learn a lot and one thing to learn is re-creating things based on photos. I mean model anything with help of blueprints or photos.

So last days I thought I give it another try. I wanted to model a fish in c4d. I went through my album on photobucket and looked if I can find one photo which I can use as a reference image. And I found some photos of a Mosquito Rasbora Fish which I posted already on my blog some days ago. One of the photos looked nice at least as a reference image, and I decided to use it and loaded it into my viewport of Cinema 4d and started to box model around the fish…

It is basicly created out of a normal box in Cinema 4d and I just added points always if I needed more. I worked with the side view and moved all new created points so that they fit to the reference image. If the created and edited object is not placed in a so called “Nurbs Object” then it looks still funny…

But this is ok because the Nurbs Object I used later will change the results. My first problem was that I did not know how to add new points or let me say lines in the line mode. I am member of a german graphic design forum because I use some other tools I mentioned above. I thought it would be great to ask there because they have a Cinema 4d Section as well. They explained me that there are several ways to add new points. One method is to use the so called “Knife Tool” in Cinema 4d. It helped a lot and I did need it to make the back fin of the fish more round…

And with this know how I was able to make the changes to let the fins for example appear more round…

I did put the whole edited box object into a “Nurbs Object” now to see how the results look. A “Nurbs Object”. Nurbs stands for “Non-uniform rational B-spline” which is something like a mathematical calculation to generate and represent curves and surfaces. So you have seen the angular box I posted above in the second picture. If I put my angular edited fish which I created out of a box (object with so many sides like a dice) in a Nurbs Object, then the edges and the whole surface basically gets more rounded as you can see… you will see the difference between the second picture in the blogpost and the following picture…

As I am new to box modeling, I did not expect such a fat and wide dorsal fin. I had to squeeze the lowest points of the mentioned fin. The whole fish appeared to wide and I squeezed the object and several points together now on the x-axis. It was some testing for me but the result was way better now. I also added a red test texture…

But I then realized on the photo that the fish has more fins then I first noticed. Logically also on both sides of the fish body and not only on top and the back fin. So now I added two new fins on both sides and also one new fin on the back. I did use the “extrude tool” after selecting the areas I wanted to be the fins. I had to “inner extrude” those areas and also to adjust and move again the edge points of the new fins…

So above is the result where I am so far. It´s still not textured because the model is not finished. I still need to create fins up front near the head. And then later some details like the eyes. But for my first box modeling try, it looks ok I guess. I do think that I will finish it. The beginning was easy but the fins were a hell of work in my opinion. I saved the project files a lot in case I mess with the things.

I know a little bit about texturing but I never did try to texture something realistical. I bet I will come up with tons of questions in the german graphic design forum in the Cinema 4d Section. But it is cool that people help and share their know how. They really teached me some stuff and gave me some hints and ideas. I learned some nifty modeling techniques which I can use later. It was fun.

So in case I finish this project.. I will then post more of it in the blog here. In this case you could check out the comment section of this blogpost to look if there are any pingback comments linked to newer blogposts related to the topic here. EDIT: I do also add the related links in this blog post here…

Related Links:

– I Try to Model the Fish in 3d Part 2