From the very beginning, MAXON has always been one of the first developers of 3D software to integrate important new technologies into its applications. MAXON demonstrated its ability to create fast, stable and easy to learn applications with its very first product. Multiprocessor support, multithreading, hyperthreading and DualCore support are just a few of the technologies MAXON has integrated into its applications over the years.

Thanks to MAXON CINEMA 4D's modular development technology MAXON was able to release a Universal Binary version immediately following Apple's shipping of its new DualCore-processor iMacs. MAXON is the first developer worldwide to make a Universal Binary version available - and Apple users can already take advantage of the power of their new Intel-based Macintosh computers.

Ease of Use - It works the way YOU do

As a 3D artist you know that fast, easy workflow is the key to meeting deadlines and beating the competition. MAXON CINEMA 4D allows you to customize almost every aspect of the interface to achieve the fastest and easiest workflow possible. Novices and professionals alike will appreciate the well-designed workflow that makes CINEMA 4D the easiest to learn professional 3D application.

CINEMA 4D's completely customizable interface puts every tool within easy reach. You can easily redesign layouts, palettes and even menus to match your personal workflow or particular tasks. You can also easily switch between layouts and menus with the click of a button. Every tool is completely integrated and can be added to and accessed in any layout.

With cascading shortcuts you can assign a shortcut key to any command and even group commands under a single shortcut. The global pop-up provides easy access to frequently used commands and the HUD puts valuable scene data and tool options at your fingertips. With multiple methods for accomplishing almost any task, CINEMA 4D will fit perfectly into any artist's workflow. You're a 3D Artist In the Real World, and It's Time You Start Working Faster - and Smarter...

Content Browser. Sneak preview included

As an integral part of the MAXON CINEMA 4D workflow, the Content Browser ensures an optimal overview and management of projects and related files.

The Content Browser's sophisticated search functions, in combination with its directory structure view of your project's files help you find your files quickly and reliably. Use drag & drop to manage models, shaders or presets. The Content Browser automatically generates thumbnail preview images to let you see at an instant what each file looks like. Thumbnails of existing files are "passed on" to other catalogs, which keeps new thumbnails from having to constantly be re-generated.

The fact that presets and preferences from various modules can be managed using the Content Browser lets you work more efficiently and helps you save valuable time.

Workflow and Interface

Newly designed icons are now easier to recognize. All icons are group color-coded, making it easier to find the right tool quickly (e.g. all modeling tools are now colored light blue). We have relocated certain tools and functions to improve your workflow even more.

Research has shown that some users prefer a dark interface and some a lighter one. CINEMA 4D R11 now gives you the choice - a single command lets you switch between interfaces.

Our interface also has serious power underneath the hood. We have made it easier for the beginner to get started quickly. Once more experienced, users can delve deeper into other areas such as the powerful new Layers System that enables you to quickly find and select objects without damaging current hierarchies.

If you specialize in an area of 3D such as modeling or animation then you will no doubt love our preset layouts, designed to make the toolset fit your needs. Simply click on a new layout to change the entire interface to a style best suited for that task.

Need more editor space? Then take advantage of CINEMA 4D's nifty Fullscreen mode. This lets you quickly maximize your editor view to full-screen with a simple keyboard command.

Like Fullscreen but still want to access options? Then use our pop-up menus or add functions to an object with the HUD. The HUD is like an interactive post-it note. Just add whatever features you want and these features will appear in the Editor Window.

Integration

CINEMA 4D supports numerous file formats that make it possible to exchange files with a myriad of programs from various disciplines, including architecture, CAD, special effects, compositing, motion graphics, character animation and many more.

The uniformity amongst CINEMA 4D's modules and extension kits lets users easily tailor their software palette to their needs. Each module or extension kit contains functions specially designed for a specific field of use. For example, the MOCCA character animation module contains special muscle and cloth tools, and the Architecture Edition enables connectivity to various CAD programs and high quality material and object libraries.

File Formats

"Man is not an island" and neither is MAXON CINEMA 4D. Because real-world 3D artists do not work in a vacuum, CINEMA 4D includes support for a host of industry-standard file formats. Images and movies in PSD, TIF, Targa, JPG, QuickTime, AVI and other commonly used formats can be imported as textures or modeling templates, or used for final output. Support for vector formats extends to Illustrator import as well as Flash and EPS export. Assets can be exchanged with other 3D applications in DXF, 3DS, OBJ and other formats and entire scenes can be imported using LightWave 3D and FBX formats.

Architects and engineers can enjoy direct import of scenes from Allplan, VectorWorks and ArchiCAD by purchasing additional plugins. Windows users can even populate their scenes using Archvision's RPC format and extensive libraries of real people and objects. Scenes can be exported to the web using Macromedia's SW3D format and final renders can be exported directly to Adobe After Effects®, Combustion®, Final Cut Pro®, Shake® and NxN Alienbrain®. You can easily transfer data with other tools you use frequently which that makes CINEMA 4D the best tool for the job.

Available File Formats (R=Read, W=Write, *=optional):

Modeling

The first step in most 3D projects is creating the objects that will be used in the scene. The most basic shapes are provided in MAXON CINEMA 4D as parametric primitives whose paramters like size, fillet and orientation are easily adjustable. Parametric objects can be used as they are or they can be converted to polygons to serve as a basis for more complex objects. A number of deformers and other generators can be used in conjunction with objects. Their non-linear construction history makes it easy to adjust items as the scene progresses. Splines can be used as the basis for extrudes, lofts, lathes and sweeps, all of which can be adjusted dynamically in real- time and even animated.

CINEMA 4D's extensive polygon modeling tools are essential when creating more complex objects. Automatic and tweak selection modes make it easy to select any element, regardless of the current editing mode and interactive highlighting lets you preview selections and other actions. Polygon tools provide real-time feedback and tasks such as extrusions and bevels can be updated dynamically. A powerful knife tool works in conjunction with n-gons to easily cut holes, planes and paths into objects. The Stitch and Sew tool makes it easy to close holes between objects. With the Brush and Magnet tools you can easily paint point deformations for more organic objects.

Add the finishing touch to your polygonal models with HyperNURBs. This weighted subdivision surface tool smoothes basic polygonal models for a more organic touch. Whether your scenes are real-world or out-of-this-world, CINEMA 4D's powerful modeling tools provide the building blocks for your imagination. CINEMA 4D lets you also work with n-gons - polygons with unlimited edges. This helps you achieve a much clearer overview of even the most complex models.

3D Painting

MAXON's CINEMA 4D Offers the ultimate control over your textures with complete layers, filters and tablet support - All optimized for working in 3D.

With CINEMA 4D you can paint on up to ten channels with a single stroke. A brush can define an entire material rather than a single color. In addition, CINEMA 4D's exclusive RayBrush technology lets you view the results of your painting realtime in a rendered image.

CINEMA 4D's Projection Painting tool makes distortion-free painting a snap. This quick and easy tool lets you paint across UV seams or even multiple objects in a scene. Even the most complex UV coordinates can be tamed with the help of a complete suite of UV editing tools. CINEMA 4D includes three automatic UV unwrapping algorithms, including the new Optimal Cubic Mapping system.

Raybrush Technology

CINEMA 4D's RayBrush technology allows you to paint directly onto a raytraced image. RayBrush eliminates the need to continually switch applications or perform test renders. You can see the actual rendered effect while painting in any channel, including reflection, transparency and bump. You can even paint on multiple textures at once within RayBrush mode. With CINEMA 4D you can paint an entire material with a single stroke.

Each brush can paint up to ten channels simultaneously, so a single stroke of the brush can affect color, bump, specularity, reflection, transparency and other properties. There's no need to match the various channels in your 3D application.

All your favorite painting tools are available in CINEMA 4D, including Clone, Smear, Sponge, Dodge and Burn tools. The standard Brush tool includes Pressure, Hardness, Size, Bitmap, Distortion, Rotation, Jitter and other parameters for hundreds of painting possibilities. The effect of any parameter can be controlled by the pressure, tilt, direction or finger wheel of your graphics tablet. Over 200 presets are provided with CINEMA 4D, representing a variety of natural media and special effects.

With CINEMA 4D you can paint in the 2D view, in the shaded 3D view or in the raytraced 3D view. Changes that you make in the 3D view are applied to the 2D view in real-time and vice-versa.

You can open and edit multiple 3D views at the same time. This enables you to switch between views quickly - there is no need to adjust camera settings. For example, you can use separate views for important areas and areas that are difficult to reach.

Projection Painting

Projection Painting offers hitherto unknown comfort when painting textures onto complex geometry. Visible seams at UV edges are now a thing of the past.

With projection painting enabled you can paint onto a virtual glass plate over the model and then project this painting onto the actual textures. This powerful feature supports all of CINEMA 4D's painting tools and provides full control over the projection and final appearance of your paint strokes.

Say goodbye to unpredictable distortion caused by model contours and perspective - with Projection Painting what you see is truly what you get. Projection Painting even allows users to paint across multiple objects in one stroke to eliminate seams. You can copy and paste between layers while in Projection Paint mode, and you can even join two separate images with perfect blending and distortion.

Material System

Every 3D artist knows a comprehensive material system is key to creating realistic and convincing 3D images. Whether it is artificial or natural materials you are creating, MAXON CINEMA 4D's material system provides incredible control over the properties of your 3D objects. You can easily define an object's color, diffusion, luminance, transparency, reflection, environment, fog, bump, alpha, specular, glow, displacement and illumination properties.

Normalal maps - This is a technology that, until now, has been used primarily in game development, where it is important to be able to give a low-poly object a high-res look. Contrary to normal bump maps that only contain height information in the Z-axis, Normal maps contain height information for the X, Y and Z-axes. This results in much more realistic surfaces and lighting with low-poly objects.

One of the outstanding features of the CINEMA 4D Baker is its ability to create Normal maps from displacements. Normally, you would have to create a high-poly object as a reference from which to generate a Normal map for a low-poly object. With the CINEMA 4D Baker, though, you can create Normal maps using SubPolygonDisplacement*. You will not get faster results anywhere.

The Baker offers even more new possibilities. You can also "bake" the Ambient Occlusion function and add this data to the diffusion map*.

The basis for most channels is a texture or shader. For textures, CINEMA 4D supports most popular image formats including layered PSD files and QuickTime or AVI movie files. A wide range of 2D and 3D volumetric shaders make it easy to create procedural aspects of any surface and easily simulate glass, wood, metal or almost any other surface. Using the filter and layer shaders you can easily combine images, shaders and filter effects. You can also paint details directly on objects in 3D for the ultimate control.

Material magic makes your scenes come alive, and CINEMA 4D provides the tools to make your real-world projects look like a reality.

*Subpoly Displacement is part of the Advanced Render module.

UV Editing

MAXON CINEMA 4D features an arsenal of UV editing solutions that ensure your models and their materials line up properly.

Texturing in 3D is governed by UVs - a set of coordinates that relate polygons to textured areas. Properly aligned UV coordinates are essential to successful painting and quality texturing in 3D. Because almost all 3D models involve contours in 3D space, standard projections like spherical and flat mapping alone can never provide distortion-free texturing. Each model must be set up with properly aligned UVs prior to texturing - just like taping off the trim in a room prior to painting.

CINEMA 4D includes numerous tools to help you create the best UV map for each individual model. You can utilize one of three different algorithms, including Cubic Optimal Mapping, to automatically optimize your UV coordinates and remove overlapping points. The Relax UV tool adjusts the size of UVs in relation to their associated polygons and the UV Terrace tool lets you easily include additional geometry in an existing UV map. The Store and Remap UV features let you easily remap areas of UV coordinates to eliminate seams. Using CINEMA 4D's powerful Interactive Mapping feature you can generate UVs based on standard projection types for different areas of a model. Of course, CINEMA 4D also includes move, scale, rotate, shear and other tools to manually tweak individual UV coordinates.

The LSCM unwrapping method, which lets you unwrap the UVs of a model based on defined seams, also comes in handy when working with complex shapes. Whether adjusting UVs for a low-res game model or a high-res matte painting, CINEMA 4D provides the UV tools you can count on when the UV mapping is not as perfect as the model you have built.

Lighting

Lighting is perhaps the most important aspect of any 3D render. Just like a poorly lit photograph, a 3D scene without proper lighting will fail to meet the expectations of clients and colleagues. MAXON CINEMA 4D offers a complete array of gaffer's tools so you can make your scene outshine the competition.

Various different types of light and shadow calculations provide the basis for an extraordinarily powerful lighting system. An abundance of additional parameters allows you to adjust color, brightness, falloff and other properties.

Beware of the dark side. You can adjust the density and color of each light's shadows, and create visible or volumetric lights with noise patterns that appear in the light cone. A wide variety of options allow you to create tons of different lens flare effects. You can even cheat reality by including or excluding particular objects from the effect of each light.

It is also possible to assign an Area Light any shape in order to give your scene optimal lighting. In addition, falloff is now calculated more realistically. Lights possess settings such as contrast, lens reflexes, shadow color, and volumetric light and noise, among others, that can be edited for each light individually.

Rendering

The MAXON CINEMA 4D rendering engine is known for its legendary ability to deliver stunning image quality with unprecedented speed.

When a deadline is breathing down your neck it is good to know that you can rely on CINEMA 4D's outstanding renderer to deliver great-looking results in a very short time.

CINEMA 4D supports almost any broadcast or film application, with a maximum image size of 16,000 pixels square, and support for QuickTime, PSD, TIF and many other commonly used formats. CINEMA 4D's raytracer computes reflection, refraction and other high quality shading effects with ease. Adaptive and object-based antialiasing options save render time and eliminate artifacts. A variety of modes let you adjust the antialiasing for broadcast, print or other mediums.

CINEMA 4D also supports rendering in 32-bit per color channel, for high dynamics range images in HDRI or OpenEXR format. With support for multiple processors, HyperThreading and Multicore technology, CINEMA 4D squeezes every ounce of rendering power out of your computer. For even faster renders, you can use the Net Render module to spread the rendering workflow to computer systems across the office or around the globe. With fast, high quality results you can count on, CINEMA 4D delivers real-world results on a real-world schedule.

Multipass Rendering

Use MAXON CINEMA 4D's Multi-Pass rendering to gain the ultimate control over your renders. Easily render color, shadow, reflection and other effects to individual files for tweaking using your favorite compositing application. Multiple object-based alpha channels make it easy to layer elements with other 2D and 3D assets. With direct export to Adobe Photoshop®, Adobe After Effects®, Final Cut Pro®, Combustion® and Shake® your multipass layers will be ready to composite in no time.

CINEMA 4D renders the passes in any desired format (image sequences, AVIs or QuickTime movies) and creates a compositing project file that automatically brings all sequences together in the correct format. Depending on the compositing application used, additional data, such as 3D cameras, 3D lights or reference object, will be exported as well.

The following compositing applications are currently supported by CINEMA 4D

§          Adobe After Effects* (V6.5 and higher)

§          Apple Final Cut Pro (V4.5 and higher)

§          Apple Motion (V1.0 and higher)

§          Apple Shake (V3.5 and higher)

§          Autodesk Combustion* (V3.0 and higher)

eyeon Fusion (V5.0 and higher)

Animation

Shift your scenes into the fourth dimension with MAXON CINEMA 4D. Virtually any object, material or tag parameter can be keyframed by simply clicking the animation dot next to its name. To make keyframing even simpler you can activate automatic keyframing of all or selected parameters. The Power Slider lets you quickly define keyframes of the current state at any frame and modify existing keyframes without leaving the default layout.

The Timeline window offers even greater control, with tracks for every animatable parameter and options like layers to organize and control the visibility of objects, tracks and keyframes. In fact, you can open up to four Timeline windows to display different objects or tracks. Master Tracks allow easy manipulation of all keyframes attached to a given object or scene and the region tool helps you easily move or scale any portion of your animation. Tangent controls and miniature curves let you to quickly adjust the interpolation between keyframes.

Use F-Curve mode for more detailed adjustment of keyframe interpolation, or to simply view the animation. Edit multiple curves instantly and take advantage of the snapshot capability to view a previously stored curve while adjusting the animation.

With non-linear animation, it's easy to build, layer and loop discreet motions containing hundreds of keyframes in complex hierarchies. You can easily block out animation based on predefined motions and build upon the basic movement by overlaying additional keyframes or motions.

Audio Support - When your pictures need to sync with audio you can import sound and view its waveform directly in the Timeline. Better yet, activate scrubbing and listen to your audio as you manipulate the time slider. For the ultimate syncronization, attach sounds to specific objects and add a surround sound microphone setup to the scene. You can render the audio from each microphone with full doppler effects, and combine them for true surround sound.

If time is of the essence, CINEMA 4D's intuitive animation workflow will help you beat the clock.

XPresso

Build extensive relationships and add powerful interaction to your 3D scene with XPresso, MAXON CINEMA 4D's visual node-based expressions editor. An expression is a relationship between objects in your 3D scene that often includes some mathematical manipulation, such as using the rotation of one object to change the position of another. Normally, these types of relationships would require programming, but with XPresso they are a matter of drag & drop.

XPresso - the graphical expression editor - XPresso is a tool artists can use to intuitively create relationships between almost any object, material or effect parameter. Most module parameters are even accessible through XPresso, and Thinking Particles is almost completely controlled through the XPresso interface. Relationships can be saved to XGroups to use later on your own projects or share with other users. Variables within your XPressions can be linked to sliders in the attributes manager to create driven-key animation and complete slider-based interfaces to your 3D scene.

XPresso gives you complete control over the 3D scene, and dramatically improves workflow by providing a visual interface to scene properties. Explore XPresso and discover the power of relational animation in CINEMA 4D.

Custom Scripts & Plugins

If there is a specific task you need MAXON CINEMA 4D to do that it cannot do already, then why not program it yourself using our SDK? If you already have programming knowledge then you should be able to understand our programming language, C.O.F.F.E.E., really quickly. If you are not a programmer, simple scripts are easy to write. Check out www.plugincafe.com for handy plugins and to download our SDK, FREE!

Once you've made a script, it works like any other command in CINEMA 4D. Just click on it to run it.

Scripts and plugins can be made as complicated as you need them. They can run continuosly in the background if you wish or only when you click on them.

If you are looking for maximum performance and thinking of a major plugin, then C++ plugins are the way to go. You can even connect external applications to CINEMA 4D using our SDK.