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Anyone Use Cinema 4D for 3D Graphics and Animation?

A

astrostu

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 15, 2007
392
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I'm looking to get into this a little bit ... in my copious amount of "free time." I'm looking into using Cinema 4D software, but I was wondering if that was a good choice (since I don't want to learn one thing and find out it can't really do what I want).

To give you an idea of what types of things I want to do, I would basically (at the moment) use it for astronomy simulations. Like what it may be like to fly through a dense planetary ring. Or showing a neutron star drawing material from its companion star. Also 3-D astronomy illustrations.

I would also like to use it to start to bring some concepts/characters/scenes from a fantasy story I'm writing to the screen, per say. For example, creating and briefly animating something like these plants:

One of them was growing long, thick stems out of its pot. There were no leaves on it, just the oily stems that looked like tendrils and they moved ever so slightly, almost as if they were writhing in the air, waiting to capture anything that came too close.

...

A third among the few dozen in the tightly packed corner had strong stems, small leaves, and large flowers which, except for the color of the flowers, it looked something like a carnation. It was sprouting flowers of all colors, but all the colors were in each blossom: They were red near where they emerged from the stem, with orange stamens and yellow pistols; the flower gradated outward from red to green, then out to purple on the tips, and there appeared to be small drops of blue nectar that gathered down at the base of the bloom. It was beautiful to look at but defied categorization from his books.
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Or this passage:

... and so Shawn extended his hand towards the Fire Goddess. She held out her staff until to top hovered just over his palm. A bubble of lava formed from the tip of the staff, but Shawn felt no heat. As the two men watched, the lava grew until it was about 3 inches around. It then appeared to harden and grow translucent as it developed facets. The object was becoming a large, nearly transparent ruby, and when it had finished forming, it fell from the staff into Shawn's hand.

Shawn held the gem up for a better look as Mike turned to see as well. The ruby was flawless except for something in its heart. As the two looked more closely at it, peering through the sides, they saw in the center a burning flame, flickering but emitting a steady light.
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Will Cinema 4D work for these? Also, would folks recommend buying a book to learn the software, or just going based upon online tutorials?
 
Any program (in that field) can be used to do what you're after, how well they do it another thing. C4D seems to be the defacto standard for mac users (pretty good review on mac cad use in 3D Wold March 2008 - bought in uk), however the industry seem to like 3ds max and I suppose alias/rhino which iirc apart from alias is windows only at present.

3DS Max being that its meant for that sort of animation is the best option (my view) but C4D will do it.

Another alternative and this might be good for characters is carera pro (same company as poser which is part of the package now iirc) although I haven't had much experience with the software outside 3ds max (sometimes with the odd poser model) plus a little alias wavefront (dreadful interface in my opinion) and rhino
 
C4d

I have been using C4D for close to a decade and love it.
Like all 3D modeling software it has a steep learning curve
if you are new to the concepts and interface.

Working through tutorials is a good place to start
- try www.c4dcafe.com.
 
Does Cinema 4D have a downloadable Demo? If it does I would download that and try to work though some of the demos.
 
Thanks for the replies so far. A friend let me borrow their set-up this weekend and I tried out C4D, and it definitely does have a steep learning curve. But I've managed to do some decent stuff (in my opinion), so assuming I can figure out animation (still eludes me), I think I'll go with it.

Still not sure about whether just to rely upon online tutorials or to buy a book, though.
 
C4D is what they teach us at school, apparently it has a better learning curve than the others. I really love it... great integration with After Effects, too. I would definitely recommend it. I know there are books out there, but we were never required to get one for class... I've had a lot of luck with help online, but nothing beats having someone lecture to you everything you need to know.
 
Cinema rocks :)

Ive been using cinema 4d for about 6 years, ( you can see my portfolio at http://www.curaremac.cgsociety.org ) and i must say it is capable of doing what you mention. However, if it is your first aproach to a 3D software, all of them maybe will look to complex, C4D interface and workflow is one of most simple and intuitive ones, so ive recomend it for beguiners. theres a lot of support pages as:

www.c4dcafe.com ( a lot of free videotutorial covering a lot of subjects )
www.c4dportal.com a excelent place full of good people ready to help ( also some very nice videotutorials )
www.c4des.com its the spanish portal, but they publish an excelent magazine, and for the first time the last issue is in english.

i hope it helps,

cheers,

Carlos
 
Cinema is by far the easiest 3d package to learn. After a long time using Cinema I'm just switching to Blender. Learning new stuff sucks... :eek::D
 
fluidedge said:
maya is my program of choice - there is a free PLE version you can use!
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Why do you prefer Maya? I'm trying to understand the preferences and why. Did you start with it and then later try C4D? Or did C4D not do something you needed so you opted for Maya? Something else?
 
i've never used C4D, or indeed any other 3D program.

I was taught 3D using maya, so that is what i'm most comfortable using. I was told that if you're going to learn 3d, start off with the most difficult package that way you'll always be equipped to handle anything!!

There is absolutely no 'best' program to use - i think it always comes down to what you learnt on. In the end, the end result is what matters, how you get there is not important, as long as you are comfortable with your workflow.
 
Hi I'm currently working on cinema 4D for furniture design since two months. I like the program even though there's limits with the nurbs modeller and bugs on surfaces sometimes. Now the programs asks me to register ??? and It won't run any longer after that day. Does anyone could provide me good codes?

In the same time does anyone have experience with Maya for designing objects not muppets?

Thanks.
 
supermilan0479 said:
Hi I'm currently working on cinema 4D for furniture design since two months. I like the program even though there's limits with the nurbs modeller and bugs on surfaces sometimes. Now the programs asks me to register ??? and It won't run any longer after that day. Does anyone could provide me good codes?

In the same time does anyone have experience with Maya for designing objects not muppets?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

You were using trialware, and in order to continue using it, you need to purchase the license. Somehow I think you knew this. ;)

I use C4D and love it.
 
I love cinema 4d - all my designs are rendered using cinema 4d on my g4 mac mini:

http://www.imovatedesign.co.uk <forwards to my blog to see all my work. hope the linkie works. I am just okay with c4d so i am sure you folks can do better with cinema 4d.

Here are some examples:

hippieness.jpg


3daysredblur.jpg


3days4web.jpg


1dcd78c101b6217dfde973530d56ec0a631620080109170509216646.jpg
 
Hi ok Congratulations for your work but I had no doubt C4D was able to do that kind of object. I was talking about more complex 3D sculpt. I design chairs in carbon fibre see my web site, in the past I used to work with Amapi and Strata studio pro. A few years later I discover C4D which is far more pro and complex mainly for the renderings which are amazing but simple operations like nurbs modelling is not possible, or I haven't understood some tricks... Have a nice day. snow in Brussels here. Pol

www.polquadens.com
 
I use Cinema 4D and love it. I'm certainly no expert as I don't have the time to train myself up on it properly. I tend to dabble. I think any software of this type has a steep learning curve although C4D is reputed to be one of the easiest.

I found though it's taken me a long time (as I can't devote long periods to training) for it to 'click' but I'm now making good progress.

Couple of training things I'd recommend which I don't think has been mentioned - The Anne Powers book Cinema 4D is really excellent (search on Amazon) and also Lynda.com has got a series of QT vids which are useful (but expensive if you join only for that training.)

In fact - the Anne Powers book might be a good buy before you splurge $$$ on the software as it will give you a pretty good idea of the learning curve and what you can achieve as a beginner.

Another great web source for info is http://www.base80.com/ - some cracking tutorials.

Also - Astrostu - these pages might be just what you're looking for - http://planetpixelemporium.com/planets.html
 
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