Maxon Cinema 4D 11 review

Thanks to its new non-destructive, non-linear Motion System, animation becomes another of Cinema 4D's object-based strengths. Moreover, like the new Projection Man matte painting, it's extraordinary power for the price.

But those users producing static images rather than video haven't been neglected, as Cinema 4D 11 includes a major overhaul of rendering. First, the Render Settings dialog has been simplified to concentrate on core settings, letting you add advanced controls as needed. Life has also been made a lot easier by the inclusion of a wider range of output presets targeting common paper sizes and video formats. Custom presets can also be saved and re-used including child presets that inherit all of a parent's properties unless overridden - very handy for synching output for different resolutions.

Crucially, it's not just the practicalities of rendering that have been reworked; the underlying engine has too. It's impossible to be precise about what this will mean in practice for the end user, as it depends on your set-up and the sort of work that you produce. However, Maxon claims average speed gains of over 100% and that's certainly true of the sample files we tested.
Faster rendering is the one feature that every user will benefit from and ensures that Cinema 4D 11 is a worthwhile upgrade for all. For new users and those producing animations, especially cinematic work, Cinema 4D 11 is essential.

Read the full review of Maxon Cinema 4D Studio and all its modules here

Author: Tom Arah