OK, now I’ll stop talking about the renderer… for the most part. Even if your job doesn’t require it now, one day it might. Again, depending on your job, this may pay for the upgrade. True measurement means you can build accurately to size with no guesswork, a boon for all the architectural visualizers, TV show VFX people, product design folks and so on. True measurement means you can correctly size your dynamics to emulate “real” objects instead of sitting and guessing as to whether the program recognizes your cloth simulation as something the size of a napkin or the size of a bed sheet. By adding true units, you now can give lights the ability to calculate based on real-world distance, making them more accurate (remember those IES lights). Again, everyone says “So what?” The value comes in your lighting. Most programs, including past versions of Cinema 4D, use a “units” system where the computer may attach an arbitrary label like centimeters, inches, etc., but it calculates everything as “units,” which have no connection to the real world. True units of measurement: OK, this is a feature that everyone generally says “So what?” about but it’s amazingly important to every major facet of doing 3D work, and surprisingly few programs have it. Finally, a 3D package where you can set it up to render multiple scenes all at once (say, while you sleep…) with no command line stuff, a simple interface and the ability to just fire it off and forget it. Somebody please tell the other 3D companies to take a look at how MAXON has done this. It’s even handier for architectural renders, so anyone in that field may find this pays for the package by itself.Īn architectural rendering created in C4D this fall by Antwerp designer Nick Ervink plays up natural light. Why is this useful? It makes life much easier if you are on set and can write down what light was used, then go home and download the IES data from the manufacturer and simply plug it in to your lights. I’ve set up similar things in Mental Ray and while it works well, C4D’s is a lot easier.Īnother new feature is the inclusion of IES lights, which are basically lights that can use data downloaded from a light company to precisely simulate a given type of light. This is available in other packages but here it’s easy to use and very fast. Linear color space is now a default for the renderer, which lets you render a richer and more subtle color palette that is closer to life. Cinema 4D’s renderer has always been one of its secret jewels and Maxon has sweetened the cache with some welcome refinements. But in real production, this is a huge mistake and can cost you the job. All too often, rendering is seen as a loose end to be done quickly and forgotten. At the end of the day, it’s not really how you got the image that counts, it’s how good the image looks and did you finish before deadline. This is the big one in any software package: if the renderer is problematic or overly slow or complex, you have a problem. What’s brand new in the R12 Studio upgrade (in what I think of as the order of importance)? First, the renderer. Not all versions of R12 have all the features we are covering, so please double-check before buying. The first thing to clarify is that I was given the full “Studio” version of the package to examine. My review criteria fell within a set of initial questions I ask of any new package before I invest in it: 1) Were the features in the new release worth an upgrade for those who have a previous version of the software? 2) Was Cinema 4D a viable package for doing the kind of work we do as 3D artists? 3) Was there a good reason why a studio using other software might add Cinema 4D to its toolset? 4) What were Cinema 4D’s advantages and disadvantages once you sat down and actually started using it?
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