CINEMA 4D R9.6 Reviewed By Kathie Berry

Long time users of CINEMA 4D already know its capabilities and ease of use. New users are finding a high end modeling program without a steep learning curve that rivals any software on the market today. In this review I will touch on most of the basic core components of the program as well as highlighting the new functions in CINEMA 4D R9.6, a free upgrade to those who already own R9.5x.

If you are contemplating purchasing the program either as a core application or in one of the bundles which include different modules, you will be very pleased with how quickly things take place. The shipping is very fast and I found the sales department to be extremely helpful and readily on call if I needed them. Installation was a breeze and I entered my temporary serial numbers which worked perfectly. MAXON recommends that you register to get your permanent serial numbers as soon as possible even though the program will function for 90 days with the temporary numbers. Registering was easy and quick and I had my permanent numbers emailed back in a very short time and was ready to go.

The core program is a modeler's dream in itself. If you find you want to expand by purchasing the modules separately instead of purchasing one of the bundles that is fine. They offer even more functionality for every need. MAXON has given us even more options by designing the program to interact seamlessly with 2D and motion graphics programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe After Effects as well as Final Cut Pro, Combustion, and more. You will also now find support for MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 for QuickTime. QuickTime VR files export easily for work in other programs. I find that each new release gives me more options for export and exchange which further aids in streamlining my workflow.

For some time CINEMA 4D has incorporated exchange plugins with CAD programs such as Vectorworks, Allplan and ArchiCAD. Now in R9.6, BodyPaint 3D supports exchange with Maya 7.0. I have also found that the ability to import displacement maps created in Zbrush to be used on low polygon figures is a wonderful solution to otherwise overly dense polygon models. When using the Riptide free plugin this works very well.

Users of R9.5 saw the content browser and the full screen mode incorporated. With R9.6 the content browser has even more options. You are able to display several browsers and set them in your layout which is especially helpful to have content specific browsers for working in BodyPaint and CINEMA 4D. This is very handy as now in Windows you are able to set environmental variables which can set user defined content libraries. Very nice if you wish to set up a library of just BodyPaint brushes for example. Double clicking an item's icon will open the file in its application and you can navigate through the hierarchies by using your right and left mouse button as well as keyboard shortcuts.

Release 9.6 includes a reworked text engine. You will now find a few things that are much more functional. I really like the new OS compatibilities. Text created on a Mac will now not differ from text created on a PC. Also, you will find that kerning, differing type sizes between systems and the partial editing of Unicode characters have all been reworked. Support for all TrueType and PostScript fonts is now unlimited and that includes support for Japanese typefaces as well. You are able to now use all typefaces in a given font including the currency symbols. The only limitation is that only open typefaces that include TrueType fonts will work on the Mac OS operating systems.

Japanese Fonts with an Extrude NURBS

Not that I will ever have occasion to need it (but it's nice to know it's there) is the new BugReports option in preferences.
Bugreport's option in user preferences	In the rare event that CINEMA 4D should crash the program now will automatically attempt to recover the file. Also at that time other files will be saved that can be used to generate a report to MAXON by email. This new function will help the programmers identify a problem and get it fixed for any new versions which is very helpful to us all.

One of the most fun and definitely helpful new functions I have found is included in the Sweep NURBS object. The scale, growth and rotations have been renamed to "end scale", "end growth" and "end rotation" to facilitate the new functions included. For "start growth" the length is adjusted from the starting point. If you apply the new "stick UV's" option and you restrict the length of the sweep NURBS by using either "start growth" or "end growth" the stick UV's will determine if the UV's should run the entire length of the spline or adapt which will uniformly scale the texture when you modify the "growth settings".

Scale settings in the Attribute Manager

You can see how I set up the scale function in the attributes manager to adjust the diameter as well as the rotation of the sweep NURBS along its length.

It was an extremely fun and easy way to construct a ring of sausages and will come in handy for numerous projects where the values of diameter as well as rotation along a sweep NURBS object need to vary.

Wireframe of Sausages done with Sweep NURBS

Final render of sausages

Advanced Render 2.5 has all of the elements you need to produce fantastic renders and output in various formats. MAXON has given us a quality high end render engine that is intuitive while working in the background to evaluate and render our material settings as well as depth of field, color settings, glow, vector motion blur and much more.

I am in love with the sky module in Advanced Render 2.5. The options for creating beautiful skies, different types of weather and actually pinpointing a time of day or night allow for unlimited effects and weather situations.

Creating beautiful skies has never been easier

I have always appreciated the rendering capabilities in CINEMA 4D over other programs and now it's even better. Even more options are available to widen the scope of exporting to other programs for further compiling. Antialiasing filters have been optimized for 32 bit rendering. This will make compositing 32 bit images much easier.

You can now define your animation output to render each frame or every second, third or fourth frame. This is a great time saver for test renders allowing you the option to output every tenth frame so that you can get an idea of what the final output will be. This function is invaluable in moving the pipeline along when working under time constraints.

Render Frame Settings

New in this release is eyeon's Digital Fusion format as a save option. You will find that in your render settings under the Output function. This setting will export as a "*Comp" file from CINEMA 4D. You will check the 3D data box below if you wish to export cameras, lights or objects. The relative option is used to decide which frames should run in the compositing application in reference to animated cameras as well as other output.

Digital Fusion Settings

Under the multi-pass option, if you save your file with Motion Vector chosen your output will enable color coded motion vectors. This is really a nice function as when rendering each of your object pixels will be rendered with a different color. For example red = X and green = Y. Blue is not used in this instance. The maximum length can be defined using the motion scale setting under options. However, be mindful that if your settings under motion scale are too small clipping will occur and if they are too large the output will be inaccurate.

Motion Vector Settings

A new option for compositing that may seem a bit complicated until it is explained is the matte object selection under the compositing tag in the attributes manager. When applying a render tag to an object you now have the option to check matte object and assign a color. When rendering, this object will now be devoid of any shading or lighting and will only display containing the color that you have defined in the settings behind the option. How is this useful? In my dealings with matte painters and artists working in a pipeline in studios I find that any option that contributes to the ease of transferring the work between artists is welcomed. In this case, let's say that the scene being worked on contains a scene of a large futuristic city and a space traveling vehicle passing in front of the city. Certain artists will be assigned to work on the futuristic city while others may be working on the spaceship.

In the final phase the city and the spaceship will need to be brought together where it is helpful to render the city and the spaceship separately in multi-pass renders. In this instance the city could be rendered as a matte object where having the entire city rendered in a single color matte "mask" would be very helpful when doing further compositing. Matte objects function well when areas of an image need to be blanketed without using a "mask". The new "external compositing" tag will be very helpful also allowing objects with this tag to be exported as Null objects into a compositing object file along with their animation properties for use in a compositing application.

Rendering has never been better than in R9.6. Just for our own edification a friend and I decided to do a comparison render of a wonderful scene that he composed in release 8.2 to see the differences if any in render time. Our machines were fairly close in specifications and we each rendered his "Flying V" image with exactly the same settings. Below is the beautiful model and scene done by Paul Salmons. The scene included Global Illumination (Radiosity) and the file rendered out at 46 minutes in version 8.2 while in version 9.6 on my machine it rendered in 23 min. 14 seconds.

XPresso, PyroCluster 2 and Thinking Particles are just plain fun. If you have never experienced the joy of creating scenes with each of these functions you are in for a treat. Basically, expressions control the relationship of objects in your scene one to another. For example, let's say that you have a sailor's spyglass. Traditionally they are collapsible sections that slide down one into another when not in use. When used you will pull on one section and its relationship to the next section grabs and pulls it upward also until all sections are fully extended. This action of one section affecting other sections is a simple example of XPresso. With PyroCluster 2 you can create wonderful smoke effects, awesome explosions, fiery meteor trails in the sky and more. Thinking Particles are emitters that emit your smoke, fire or moving objects such as leaves falling softly to the ground in the fall. There is no end to the number of scenes and ideas that you can use each of these functions to create.

Setting Up Xpresso

In the example of the toon toaster, you can see that I used Thinking Particles for the smoke coming from the toaster which created XPresso nodes that controlled the smoke in the scene by mathematical interpretation.

CINEMA 4D comes with a number of pre-defined XPresso setups which take the frustration out of setting up your scenes when you are learning this function. Others can be downloaded from the MAXON site for use in your program also. Here you can see Smokey the Toaster after his render.

Smokey the Toaster Feeling Out of Sorts

In R9.6 we now have frequency bands included in the XPresso sound node settings. The more frequency bands that are added, the more precise the sound will be however it will take longer to calculate. You can add an output frequency for the band you wish to adjust and with the left and right amplitude nodes you will output data from the sound file's band input nodes. This allows for greater control over your sound file's output in quality.

Animate Preview Setting

Release 9.6 also gives us some new settings in the material manager. "Animate Preview" behind the "illumination" selection will display animated textures and shaders in the viewport when the timeline slider is moved or the animation is played. Depending on the resolution of the textures or shaders this can be very memory intensive. You can however, adjust the "redraw settings" to help things.

MOCCA 2 including Clothilde are also included in the bundles and while my expertise is limited in animation, I did find that the MOCCA 2 functions were fairly easy to understand and there is an in depth description of the functions for creating bones and rigging your characters in the MOCCA 2 manual which comes in .pdf format included with the program. In fact, there are comprehensive .pdf manuals included for each of the modules as well as the main program itself and a quickstart guide.

If you have never modeled clothing before you are in for a treat. Clothilde is easy to understand with most of the functions being automatically available at the click of your mouse button. It didn't take any time at all to model my first dress. To show you just how easy it is here are some of the steps I did using the DAZ Inc. Vicky 3 figure as a base.

Creating a Dress in Clothilde

You are now able to use an offset function in the cloth tag to define at what frame your calculation animation will begin.

Setting the offset for Calculations

The wonderful thing about Clothilde is not only can it help you design clothing, but it can be used for a multitude of functions. Here I performed a shrink wrap for a banana to keep it fresh. Below you will also see that I constructed a pillow using the cloth and collider tags included with Clothilde. This feature of MOCCA 2 is definitely one that has only just tapped its capabilities for my modeling.

A Couple of Clothilde's Many Uses

Conclusions:

When it comes to software that's been purpose-built for everyone from specialist industry studios right down to the lone hobbyist, MAXON can't be beaten in this reviewer's opinion. Ease of use, completely customizable interface and tools for every project provide the software package that meets all expectations. With a core program that is outstanding in its own right, the artist can expand by adding modules that will cover any need from rigging and animation to texturing and rendering as well as digital output that is quickly becoming an industry standard. I found that it is extremely user friendly and the documentation and tutorials included were exactly what I needed to get up and running in each of the modules in a very quick time span. I have been a convert for some time and the new Studio Bundle of Release 9.6 added even more functions and tools that made it a joy to open the program and get to work.

The only downside that I experienced was learning to rig and animate quickly enough to include an in depth review of the full gamut of functions and features to include in this review. That was not due to lack of documentation or great tutorials but simply time constraints and the lack of any prior animation skills on my part.

MAXON has also been one of the first firms to make sure that their new software is available in versions for Apple's new Intel-based Macintosh computers. When you purchase the 32 bit version you will also now be able to download the 64 bit version at no extra cost. Encompassing dual core integration and hyper threading during rendering, CINEMA 4D is showing daily that it is on top of the latest developments. As you can tell by now, I am sold on this great program and its modules and I look forward to new developments on the horizon.

There are many ways to purchase CINEMA 4D which include purchasing the core program and then the modules separately as you need them, or you can purchase one of the two bundles available which are the Studio Bundle and the XL Bundle. Below is the breakdown of those bundles.

XL BUNDLE	STUDIO BUNDLE
CINEMA 4D core program	CINEMA 4D core program
MOCCA 2	MOCCA 2
Advanced Render 2.5	Advanced Render 2.5
Thinking Particles	Thinking Particles
PyroCluster 2	PyroCluster 2
NET Render (3 client license)	NET Render (unlimited license)
	Dynamics
	BodyPaint 3D R2.5
	Sketch and Toon

System Requirements

Minimum hardware requirements

• Mac OS X 10.3 or Windows 2000 / XP
• 512 MByte RAM, CPU 1GHz

Suggested hardware requirements

• Mac OS X 10.3 or Windows 2000 / XP
• 1024 MByte RAM, CPU 2 GHz
• QuickTime
• Current OpenGL-capable graphics card
• CD-ROM-drive, hard drive.

Depending on license, Macintosh or Windows only.
Registration with MAXON Computer is required for
long-term use of software.

I have really enjoyed reviewing CINEMA 4D R9.6 as well as exploring further some of the functions and capabilities included in R9.5. Keep watching as next month I will be reviewing MAXON's awesome BodyPaint 3D R2.5 module. I think you will be amazed at what it contains, and what you will be able to create with it.

Kathie Berry
Websites: http://www.planit3d.com ¦ http://www.berry-designs.com
Email: kathie@berry-designs.com