Making Realistic Ice Cube Models in Cinema 4D

While I use Cinema 4D r11.5 for most of my 3D modeling you can follow this tutorial in an version of Cinema 4D or use nearly any other 3D modeling program that supports arrays. If it doesn't support arrays, you can still

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manually make the ice cube bubbles (it will take a little more work though). This tutorial too about 15 minutes to create and anyone should be able to follow it without any problems.

First we start with a primitive cube.

In the cubes settings I set the X, Y and Z axis segments to 10 (ten each).

Next I converted the primitive cube to a polygon (CTRL + C keys). I set the cube size to all 200 on the X, Y and Z axis-es.


Next I select the "polygon" tool, so that I can work with the individual segments, rather than faces or points. Select all (CTRL + A) before going to the next step.

I then go to the structure menu and choose "Set Point Value". in newer versions of Cinema 4D it may show as "Crumple" in the structure menu.


In the Set Point Value (or Crumple), I chose "Crumple [Axial] and set all of the X,Y and Z axis values to 10 (inches).


Next I add a HyberNURBS to the project and drop the cube into the HyperNURBS. Now we have the basic ice cube shape.

Before we add any bubbles to the ice cube we are going to create the ice cubs effects


I created a new material in Cinema and named it "Ice Cube". I check both "Transparency" and "Reflection" check boxes. I left the Reflection settings to default and in the transparency settings I set the refraction to 1.2 and made sure the Fresnel setting was set to 100% is checked (100% should be default).

Next in the "Specular" setting of the material i made the following setting changes:

Mode: Plastic
Width: 35%
Height: 85%
Falloff: -15% (negative 15 percent)
Inner Width: 0%

I then applied the material to the ice cube polygon.

Next we are going to add bubbles to the ice cube.

Add a primitive sphere to the project.

Since the sphere is too large I scaled the sphere down equally to a size that I felt resembled an ice cube bubble.

Next I add an "Array" to the project and drag the sphere into the array. This will allow me to create a more random group of bubbles without having to create each bubble manually.

In the array property settings I select the following:

Radius: 75 inches
Copies: 7
Amplitude: 75 inches
Frequency: 0
Array Frequency: 5

Afterwards I drag the array around until I have it set in the cube like I want it to look.

Next I copy the array to create a 2nd instance of the array.

In the second array settings I set the property settings t

Radius: 50 inches
Copies: 10
Amplitude: 50 inches
Frequency: 0
Array Frequency: 3

Again I move the second array around to and view it in the perspective viewport from different angles to ensure the bubble stay inside of the ice cube polygon.

I then add the ice cube material to both arrays that I just created. Now all of the objects have the same material applied.

I would suggest setting your rendering properties to Best and 4x4 anti-aliasing at the minimum for a better quality render and no jaggy edges.

As you can see from the quick render below the ice cubes look almost real.

Here are a couple more quick renders of the ice cubes.

As you can see the 3D ice cube model doesn't require a lot of work to look photo realistic.

NOTES:

You can group the ice cube objects in Cinema 4D and then group it with a polygon reduction deformer and reduce the number of polys in the model. You can also export and UV map the model for other uses.

If you want unique looking individual cubes, simply group everything, make copies and make slight changes to the bubble arrays.