The Body as an Abstract Animation image

The Body as an Abstract Animation As part of a school project, students learned how to use Cinema 4D while creating a metaphoric fantasy voyage through the human body.

Mohole is a renowned media school in Milan, Italy, that teaches artistic forms of expression. Students learn all aspects of creation from film to photography, graphic design, comic illustration and 3D animation. Among the programs used to teach animation is Cinema 4D. The primary focus lies on architectural visualization, motion graphics and 3D character design. The Forbhidden project was created for the Milan Design Week, at which Mohole wanted to present its student works.

The basic idea was to use visual metaphors to showcase the wonders of the human body. A team of four students was responsible for all phases of production, which lasted four weeks and was realized with Cinema 4D - modeling, texturing, animation, lighting and rendering. The students were part of a two-year 3D masters program, of which they had already completed the first semester. The skills they had attained in the course of their studies gave them the ability to handle all project requirements with ease but also master complex challenges that the project posed. One of the many challenges was optimizing the scenes and materials in order to shorten render times.

With Cinema 4D it was easy for the team to separate the scene into layers using complex multi-pass renderings. The passes contained different channels, e.g., alpha and depth of field, which made it possible to add more effects in the compositing phase, which themselves took less time to render. This made it possible to add depth of field effects to backgrounds in After Effects. Cineware was used to fine-tune the scene in After Effects. Finally, Adobe Premier was used for color correction, cutting and adding audio tracks.

Student tutor Enrica Paltrinieri characterized the work with Cinema 4D as follows: "Cinema 4D is so easy to understand and learn that you can quickly realize a project and experiment with various approaches to solutions and workflows without spreading yourself too thin. The seamless integration with After Effects lets students concentrate fully on their creative work without having to deal with bothersome technical issues!"


Websites of contributing students:
Website of Giovanni La Rocca: www.behance.net/giolarocca
Website of Eleonora Alban: www.behance.net/elliealban

Mohole website:
www.mohole.it