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After 10 revisions, Maxon Cinema 4D has blossomed into nothing less than a state-of-the-art rendering and animation system. Results can be seen in thousands of productions - on TV as well as movies such as Spider-Man 3; The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe; Monster House; Fantastic Four ; and Superman Returns . The program owes part of its charm and legacy to its fast rendering abilities, extensive plug-ins, and dynamite output. It doesn't hurt that Cinema 4D is fairly easy to jump into and use.
But all this comes at a price. The program is a bit expensive as it stands, and adding two or three plug-ins (also offered by Maxon) could strain the budget of many studios and boutiques. However, it's a worthy investment, because Cinema 4D is one of the best 3D programs currently shipping for both Mac and PC. This new dot-five version adds a host of new professional features.
One test of any 3D program is its "figure-it-out" factor. Can you jump in without documentation or prior knowledge and start to develop, render, and animate a project? With Cinema 4D, you can. Maxon has continually revised the interface (very notably when it reached version 10) to make the icons color-coded and easily recognizable and to put the menus where you would expect to find them.
Standard operations work as they do in other programs such as Adobe Photoshop and After Effects. You have a layers palette that lets you work on specific objects without disturbing others, and a keyframeable timeline works as you would expect it to. Customizable interface layout presets are built around animation, painting, modeling, etc., so you can switch the program's interface around to focus on what you are doing. The ease of getting into the program makes it very appealing to video production people who may be first getting into 3D. Maxon knows that to expand its market share, it needs to appeal to the masses and the constant refinement of the interface makes it digestible for video producers who don't have a long history of working in 3D. Couple this with knockout renders that look amazingly professional, and it's a program choice - without a steep learning curve for smaller-...