Ghost in the machine

Ghosts and apparitions don’t play as common a part in the horror genre as they used to, but there is still something fascinating about trying to capture the essence of these ethereal beings – especially nasty, ugly ones with ill intentions!

Everyone’s perception of a spectre will be different, but a list of shared reference points from popular culture might include the spirits that emerged from the Ark in Indiana Jones’ first adventure, particularly at the point that they turned nasty; the mysterious, vengeful pirate ghosts that emerged from The Fog; or maybe even those that visited Scrooge on Christmas Eve. One thing that they all seem to have in common – and which adds to the fear factor – is layered, torn and ragged wrappings.

With that in mind, this tutorial aims to harness the power of Cinema 4D, specifically the Mocca 2 and Hair modules, to add extra interest and sophistication to a basic figure model.

We will first discover the benefits of creating and using a proxy model as an alternate collider object, instead of the original high-poly mesh, and then use Clothilde, Mocca’s Cloth simulation engine to help create layers of cloth wrapping with rips and tears in it, forming the ghostly garb of our character.

We will also explore what properties help to make such a material more convincingly ghostly, using the advanced layering system that was first introduced to C4D in version 8.5.

Finally, we will use the excellent (and surprisingly easy-to-use) Hair module to generate a shock of wispy hair, and generate a suitable hair material without having to know too much about the software’s full depths.

The project file for this tutorial is based on the horror-themed Poser content generously supplied by DAZ Productions. In addition to the original Poser assets, the support files contain all the pre-built scene files, materials and full-size screenshots you will need to complete the walkthrough.

Click here to download the support files (~47MB)