Hirazi B’s C4D side-quest

[Hirazi Blue]

Now that Maxon has graciously provided me with a NFR (temporary, restricted, non-commercial) license for Cinema 4D, after some very much appreciated intervention by some unnamed party (“you know who you are”), I’m about to get terribly side-tracked yet again from my ongoing efforts to teach myself some much needed character animation skills in Softimage.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Cinema 4D, ever since Maxon offered a feature-limited (as to the dimensions of the rendered image) version (upgradable to "better dimensions" for a fee) of their Cinema 4D 6 XL as a coverdisk edition on several magazines. This kept me happy for several months until I started my grand adventure with Softimage.
I won’t bother you with my first impressions (but i do like most of what I've seen so far), obviously influenced by many years of Softimage usage and several months of attempts at learning Maya, but I’ll surely keep you posted once I get to my “second impressions”.
So yeah, this post is basically merely a thank you to Maxon and my unnamed benefactor!
Stay tuned for some hopefully more useful words about the software itself...

[MauricioPC]

I bought the training from Tim Clahpam (C4D in one day) and it's been great. Tim is a excellent teacher and while the projects are simple, I'm getting to learn more about the way C4D works. And man ... it's a very well designed program.

http://helloluxx.com/product/learn-cine ... n-one-day/

This is my pen image after the tablet pen tutorial. Of course there's problems, it isn't perfect, but the idea is to watch and try it for myself. Resolution is low because I've used the C4D R16 Demo, which has a resolution limitation for rendering. As of now, it's going great.

I''ve just finished the last lesson, based on a motion graphics, but I still don't have my own idea for a motion graphics project.

[pluMmet]

Yes the more I mess with C4D the happier I am with it

The color scheme of the icons with all that orange however drove me nutz so I had to do a quick icon revamp.

I'm using the v16 Demo for a bit as I have the very old v10 and there is no direct upgrade so it will be a bit until I can come up with the funds



Should anyone agree with that Green icon scheme this goes in resource>modules>c4dplugin>icons ;)

[gaboraa]

As an old Cinema 4D user, I would like to hear your opinions very much. Back then, character animation workflow was terrible and Cactus Dan's character animation plugins was a must for character animators because built in tools were pain in the arse and not so much reliable to use. If you found these areas robust, I may consider checking out the old guy again.

[pluMmet]

As an old Cinema 4D user, I would like to hear your opinions very much. Back then, character animation workflow was terrible and Cactus Dan's character animation plugins was a must for character animators because built in tools were pain in the arse and not so much reliable to use. If you found these areas robust, I may consider checking out the old guy again.

This new interaction tag is the Bomb!

Basically you can set up loads of sliders that auto activate when your mouse is over the area where a tag is set up... works on loads of stuff.

Of course I had never looked at xpresso before and that is looking deep as well

It looks like we will be able to activate and deactivate animation clips using animation objects/pins or what ever.

Like if I had a fish I could have a floaty clip so that I could have the fish stop @ frame x then I hit the Floaty tag move to frame x+120 hit it again and the fish will be floaty during that time. simple Tag baking example

[pluMmet]

All that and the Motion Tracker in R16 is looking sweet.



Maxon is on top of their game plus they said this:

Maxon Computer, developers of Cinema 4D
“There are currently no plans to stop offering permanent licenses. If in the future MAXON decides to make a subscription model available on a monthly basis or something similar, we will offer this as an additional option, not as a replacement.”

[Bullit]

I am also trying C4D. Some stuff is good and very good but at this time doesn't beat Softimage overall.

[Hirazi Blue]

@Bullit - That's the "wrong" take on things, I'm afraid: if you start looking for software that could ultimately "beat" Softimage you're setting yourself up for big disappointment. After, in my case, more than seven years of Softimage/XSI ingrained workflows alone will not easily be replaced. What you should be looking for is "the best of the rest" and as such Cinema 4D would seem to be a good candidate, speaking from a purely "generalist" approach.
The one workflow I for one will have a very hard time dealing with is the non-nodal material management system. I think i can learn to live without the "ICE Tree", the "Render Tree", however, feels like a must. Until I find the time to get used to the Cinema 4D way of doing it, that is.

[MauricioPC]

You can always use cmNodes.

http://www.cmstuff.com/article/1012/cmnodes+for+r13


From what Maxon has been saying (about more focus on FX), I'm sure a nodal interface is in the cook.

[Bullit]

I actually miss very much ICE tree when i go to Cinema 4D. Coming from 3DsMax to Softimage the Cinema4D materials don't bug me so much. It is still a loss.

But this also have more to do what we request from 3D software.

[pluMmet]

I actually miss very much ICE tree when i go to Cinema 4D. Coming from 3DsMax to Softimage the Cinema4D materials don't bug me so much. It is still a loss.

But this also have more to do what we request from 3D software.

xpresso is not as fully implemented as ICE but it is sooo cool dragging stuff from the UI into the nodes to build them. I'd say that it's just a release or 2 behind ICE as we know it but I think it's better for what it is... it just makes sense to me

I started in Max myself so the material thing is no problem. Plus it's how so many things do it anyway.. Like Messiah Studio for one.

I am really really happy with C4D at this point

[gaboraa]

Ok last night I give it a quick shot and the experience was not so positive... again. Cinema 4D quickly made me recall why I left Cinema 4D in the first place. I sculpt a simple geometry and tried to bake some maps out of it. It wasn't able to bake out a correct normal map out of a simple subdivided sphere. Like in the past, VAMP (so called Gator equivalent) could not transfer weights and uvs correctly. But I think I take cinema 4D too seriously, It has not been made for a focused experience like Softimage and expecting it to be a army Swiss knife is futile I may say. It does motion graphics well and truly well. It would be a great sidekick for another software but standing on its own is not an option for Cinema 4D (for now) in my humble opinion. I will try to discover what has been changed while I was away and I hope I will not feel the same way I did last night.

[pluMmet]

I can't stop using Sculptris for sculpting organics... Nothing is as good IMHO.

Currently

stage 1: I build a quick < 700 poly model (90% of modeler softwares will do)
stage 2: Sculpt in Sculptris
stage 3: I retopo in latest cool thing ;) followed by stage 3.5: a short trip to animation package for UV's
stage 4: bring that into a refinement powerhouse like zBrush or Mudbox for high frequency details.... Bake out maps for completion --> animation package.

I'm working on putting Substance Painter as Stage 5

si has never allowed me to ignore that workflow for organic modeling.

[Hirazi Blue]

After having played with a lot of the features of the Studio version, it has become painfully clear to me that I really miss the unique modular system Cinema 4D had on offer years ago. If I could compile my own version from all available modules, I'd end up with only the stuff I think I need. MoGraph for instance is something I won't really be using. Advanced Render isn't high on my agenda either, but Sketch & Toon would be something I think Í'd need and the Autorigger that seems to be only on offer in the Studio version would be extremely helpful too. Basically XSI|Foundation functionality, but Prime just wouldn't "cut" it, I'm afraid.
This doesn't mean I dislike the features I so easily discard BTW, just that I have decided I don't really need them anymore for what I still want to do with this hobby (and can afford).
;)