Maxon Cinema 4D 11.5 Broadcast Edition review

To coincide with the launch of Cinema 4D 11.5, Maxon has added a new Broadcast Edition aimed at motion graphic professionals. The software is based on version 2 of its MoGraph plug-in module (available separately for £413 inc VAT) and comes packaged with a library of supporting setups and ready-to-use elements.

The key to MoGraph, and so to the Broadcast Edition, is the concept of the "clone". Clones are automatically-generated copies of 3D objects that can be arranged in linear, radial, grid and nested arrays, either in space, along splines or on the surfaces of other objects. Once generated, these clones can be animated, coloured and disrupted via a range of "effectors", allowing the creation in minutes of high-impact motion graphics that look as if they took weeks to set up.

MoGraph 2 adds a number of improvements, starting with the ability to use rail splines to define clone orientation, scale and volume spread. For example, to create the effect of flowing blood cells within a vein. You can also now loop or fix cloned animations, while the core Random and Spline effectors offer additional modes.

It also extends cloning into entirely new areas. The PolyFX object allows you to treat the polygons of objects and segments of splines as clones - great for shattering and reassembling effects. The MoSpline object lets you create organic line-based patterns and then apply effectors to these. And the Camera Shader lets you project any camera view onto an object's surface.

MoGraph 2's standout capability, however, is its dynamics system. MoDynamics is based on the Bullet physics library and lets you quickly add a whole host of realistic gravity-based effects to your clones, complete with automatic collision control. Trying to create similar effects, say of a tumbling stack of boxes, would be almost impossible via keyframing. With MoDynamics, you simply add two tags and set various properties such as bounce and friction to bring your clones to life.

It's clear that MoGraph 2 is a major upgrade, but the advances that make it a breakthrough release come from its host. Of particular relevance here are Cinema 4D 11.5's RAM playback of animations, the tighter integration with AfterEffects (you no longer need to bake clones before import) and, above all, render instancing, which cuts memory requirements and boosts rendering speed.

This tight integration between MoGraph 2 and Cinema 4D 11.5 makes the Broadcast Edition the natural choice for broadcast professionals looking to quickly and easily add 3D impact and creativity to their work. It comes highly recommended.

Author: Tom Arah