CCV Software - Serving education since 1982 | 6 out of 5 Stars for CINEMA 4D R10 from FilmMakingCentral.com!

6 out of 5 Stars for CINEMA 4D R10 from FilmMakingCentral.com!

mary | 13 March, 2007 08:33

Written by David Basulto

Where do I begin? Some things in life simply get better with age. Wine, cheese, and Cinema 4D by Maxon! As many of you know, Cinema 4D became one of my favorite products last year. Finally I was able to grasp a 3D program! Not only was Cinema 4D easy to learn and extremely user friendly but it is extremely powerful! I was blown away needless to say and have become a bit of an addict (along with After Effects!) to this great program!

Just when I thought Cinema 4D couldn’t get better, guess what? It got MUCH better! New is version R10! Just wait until you see what’s under the hood!

What’s new in C4D10?

First of all I love the new interface! Its highly customizable (one thing I loved about After Effects 7 was being able to darken the interface, I can do that now in C4D10!) and extremely easy to use. The viewport is extremely customizable as well giving you tons of options. If you love to customize your work space like you do in other programs you will be most satisfied! Basically the program got a facelift from a tremendous plastic surgeon!

There is a new enhanced object manager. You can now have more than one!

The new Powerslider for easy animation control! Cinema 4D10 is the only system around to allow recording of keyframes with a single click in slider, on a different frame than the current. This is awesome!

The enhanced filters and search abilities. Find files much easier now!

Context based Help! Now you can right click (on a PC) and you will see a help option! The help area is very detailed, extremely helpful and very powerful! In addition you can also access the search option from here! Did they make this for me? Love you Maxon!

Next are layers, layers, layers! The powerful new layer capabilities allow you to hide, solo, render, hierchy, lock, turn on/off generators, turn on/off deformers, turn on/off expressions, and turn on/off animations. Very powerful yet easy to use!

Another thing I enjoy doing is deconstructing projects. I really learn a great deal by doing so. Cinema 4D10’s new Content Browser makes finding the files, projects, mats etc easy as 1,2,3! I can load pre made materials, sky, cloth etc extremely fast and easy now. I can see examples of how a project was set up and how I can implement in into my own works. Since I can deconstruct the content this can become a great staring point for me to work from. Pre made content can be a huge time saver! Also there are some nice text presets to get you going. They are, of course, completely customizable as well and a great starting point.

Do you like working in multiple documents going back and forth between them? Well now you can! Its extremely easy, just go to the Window tab and on the bottom you will see your various projects. You can copy and paste them into another project as well! Say you were modeling a spaceship for a huge space battle scene. Do the work in its own document then copy and paste it into the space battle scene! It’s very simple! This is great for teams to work on projects as well!

Lastly, C4D10 supports Enhanced open GL with Vertex/PixelShader! This provides greater detail and accuracy. Display: Normal Maps, Real Transparencies, Bump Mapping, Environment Mapping, Volumetric Clouds, Shadows, Various shaders, including Fresnel, and Post effects. Make sure your video card supports it, and check to make sure you have the latest drivers.

Happy yet? Well I hate to burst your bubble but there’s more! Now included with CINEMA 4D R10 is BodyPaint 3D for intense painting and animations! This is huge as this was an add on module in the previous versions! Thanks Maxon!

My thoughts?

I didn’t think it could get better. but it did! Cinema 4D continues to blow me away! I absolutely love this program and Maxon made it ever better and easier for me to use! If you have ever wanted to get into 3D but found other programs mind boggling (like I did!) this is THE program to have! If you have a previous version the upgrade is definitely worth is too! Don’t let the fear that you’re not a rocket scientist stop you from trying to work in 3D.

This is a first for Filmmaking Central...I give Maxon’s new Cinema 4DR10 a 6 out of 5 Stars! Maxon….you make me very happy!

Maxon academic pricing and Maxon non profit pricing are available from CCV Software.