How to Create a Money Fountain in Cinema 4D Using Soft Body Dynamics
In this Cinema 4D tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a money fountain effect using emitters, soft body dynamics, turbulence, and aerodynamic forces. This setup allows hundreds or even thousands of paper-thin objects—like dollar bills—to interact naturally with gravity, air resistance, and each other.
While this tutorial focuses on money, the same workflow can be adapted for confetti, photographs, flyers, or any paper-like object, making it a flexible technique for motion design, title sequences, and VFX shots.
Preparing the Dollar Bills for Dynamics
Before adding dynamics, it’s important to optimize the geometry of your dollar bills. Because soft body simulations rely on object segments to calculate spring behavior, segment count directly affects both performance and realism.
- Lower segment counts result in stiffer, more rigid motion
- Higher segment counts allow more bending, but increase calculation time
A good starting point is keeping segments low (for example, 4×3 or 5×4) and increasing them only as needed once the motion feels right. This balance is critical when cloning hundreds of objects from an emitter.
Using an Emitter to Create the Money Fountain
Once the dollar bills are prepared, they’re placed inside a Cinema 4D emitter. Rotating the emitter allows the bills to shoot upward, letting gravity pull them back down for a natural fountain effect.
Key emitter settings to adjust:
- Birthrate (controls how many bills are emitted)
- Emitter size (wider emitters reduce collisions)
- Speed variation (adds randomness and realism)
If nothing appears at first, make sure “Show Objects” is enabled in the emitter settings.
Adding Soft Body Dynamics for Realistic Motion
Applying a Soft Body tag to the emitted objects allows them to bend, collide, and react naturally. On its own, gravity will pull the bills down, but additional forces are needed to avoid stiff, unrealistic motion.
At this stage, the bills will fall correctly but still appear rigid—this is where turbulence and aerodynamics come into play.
Enhancing Motion with Turbulence and Lift
A Turbulence force introduces rotation and chaotic movement as the bills fall. Increasing turbulence strength dramatically improves realism, especially for paper-like materials.
To further enhance the effect, enabling Lift in the Aerodynamics section allows air to push against the bills, slowing their fall and creating a floating, swirling motion. This simulates air resistance and helps prevent the bills from dropping too quickly.
For added variation, you can:
- Duplicate the emitter
- Lower the lift value on one emitter
- Create a mix of “light” and “heavy” bills falling at different speeds
Preventing Intersections and Exploding Geometry
When working with large numbers of soft body objects, intersections can cause unstable simulations or sudden “explosions.” If this happens, try:
- Changing the Emitter Seed
- Lowering the birthrate
- Increasing emitter size to give objects more room
These adjustments help prevent objects from spawning too close together.
Improving Visual Quality with Subdivision Surfaces
If your camera moves close to the bills, you may notice faceting. Instead of increasing segments (which slows simulations), a more efficient approach is to:
- Cache the dynamics
- Apply a Subdivision Surface
- Add edge or point weighting to preserve sharp corners
This keeps simulations fast while allowing smoother renders when needed.
Caching the Simulation for Smooth Playback
Once you’re happy with the motion, caching the simulation ensures clean, predictable playback. Using the Project Settings > Cache option lets you bake all dynamics at once, which is especially useful for complex scenes with hundreds of soft bodies.
After caching, you can freely scrub the timeline, adjust camera angles, and prepare the scene for rendering.
Creative Variations and Final Tips
This setup isn’t limited to a traditional fountain. By adjusting emitter size, direction, or speed, you can create:
- A money gun effect
- Bills flowing along a spline
- Slow-motion floating paper reveals
The included free scene file lets you explore these variations and experiment further.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can this technique be used for confetti or photos?
Yes. Any flat, paper-like object works well with this setup, including flyers, photographs, or custom shapes.
Why do my bills look too stiff?
Increase object segments slightly, add turbulence, and enable lift in the aerodynamics settings.
How do I improve performance?
Lower segment counts, reduce birthrate, and cache the simulation before rendering.
What Cinema 4D version does this work in?
This technique works in modern versions of Cinema 4D that support soft body dynamics and emitters.
The full scene file is available for free in the Alpha Pixel Freebies section, along with additional tools and tutorials.