MAXON Computer today unveiled CINEMA 4D Release 11 (R11), the next generation of its highly acclaimed 3D animation software suite. The super-charged release is packed with advanced capabilities that deliver dramatically improved ease of use and workflow, image quality and integration into any production pipeline. CINEMA 4D R11 highlights include a non-linear animation system, new global illumination render engine and dramatically improved render speed. Customers also benefit from the powerful Projection Man matte painting system, developed by MAXON for Sony Pictures Imageworks, support for the COLLADA file format and CineMan – a RenderMan-compliant tool that connects to Pixar’s industry-leading rendering solution. Additionally, multiple improvements were made to MAXON’s popular texture painting toolset BodyPaint 3D Release 4. All of these capabilities and more serve to underscore MAXON’s ongoing and deep commitment to helping 3D digital artists further advance creativity and control.
“MAXON has spent the last 20 years developing some of the industry’s most advanced 3D software technologies; continually raising the bar for 3D animation software excellence,” said Harald Egel, CEO and co-founder, MAXON, in the press release. “CINEMA 4D R11 is no exception. This release contains the next-generation features our customers worldwide have come to expect from MAXON.”
Expanded integration options, new workflow tools and boosts in performance for both PC and Mac users sit at the heart of the new release. On average, rendering speeds are now more than twice as fast as the previous version. CINEMA 4D R11 also boasts an all-new Cocoa-based architecture supporting 64-bit processing under Mac OS X Leopard.
“We are pleased, that MAXON has created the CineMan connection to Pixar’s RenderMan directly from within CINEMA 4D,” said Chris Ford, Business Director – RenderMan at Pixar, in the press release. “Now MAXON customers can benefit from Pixar’s Academy Award-winning rendering technology, featured in Ratatouille, The Incredibles and many others.”
“Our customers told us what they needed and we listened,” said Paul Babb, president and CEO of the MAXON US office . “This exciting new version is as ideal for the novice as it is for the power user who wants to produce compelling imagery in today’s fast-paced environments.”
CINEMA 4D Release 11 Highlights:
The list of capabilities and enhancements that comprise the new CINEMA 4D R11 is extensive; with each element designed to provide ultimate control to enhance the professional 3D modeling, texturing, animating and rendering process:
– Non-Linear Animation
Move beyond the keyframe. Animation Layers and Motion Clips tools let users easily build, layer and loop discreet motions containing hundreds of keyframes in complex hierarchies.
– Completely New Global Illumination
Take advantage of the most current algorithms and computer hardware with the all new easy to use Global Illumination engine. This technology delivers heightened flexibility to achieve ultra-realistic results with a minimum of setup time, even for animations.
– BodyPaint 3D
New tools for painting rich, detailed textures onto a 3D model as well as an improved workflow are part of this major upgrade to the popular 3D painting application. The improvements facilitate even tighter integration into industry-standard painting pipelines with brush import, WACOM tablet support, PSD format enhancement and more.
– Improved Rendering Speeds
Tremendous optimizations in multithreading and CPU efficiency offer dramatically improved rendering speeds. Overall render quality has been greatly enhanced as well. New parameters make it possible to create even more realistic glass materials.
– Support for 64-bit on Mac OS X
CINEMA 4D R11 is the first comprehensive 3D package completely re-engineered to take full advantage of the Mac OS X 10.5 release. As a native 64-bit Cocoa application, CINEMA 4D can be used in 64-bit mode to utilize greater RAM resources so you can build and render more complex projects. All 64-bit processors are supported. Users can easily switch between 32-bit and 64-bit mode to suit their individual needs.
– Projection Man
Leverage the same powerful matte painting system originally developed by MAXON exclusively for Sony Pictures Imageworks and recently used to create such blockbuster features as Hancock, Speed Racer, Beowulf and Surf’s Up. This formerly exclusive toolset enhances workflow and makes it easy to create and patch the mattes. Tight integration with Adobe Photoshop and MAXON BodyPaint 3D simplifies editing and manipulating extensive digital mattes and even fully immersive 3D environments.
– CineMan
Power users can easily render CINEMA 4D projects utilizing Pixar’s RenderMan Pro Server, or other RenderMan-compliant engines including 3Delight (dna research) and AIR (SiTex Graphics) through support for the RIB format.
– COLLADA Support
R11 now supports COLLADA, an open standard XML-based format that facilitates the transfer of 3D assets between applications. Exchanging scenes with other 3D applications is now easier than ever for diverse Digital Content Creation (DCC) production pipelines.
– Customer Friendly
An online update mechanism ensures users always have access to the latest updates and enhancements. A new license server technology helps corporations, studios and schools maximize and manage their investment.
– Additional Features
CINEMA 4D R11 also boasts optimized render control settings, animation ghosting, a doodle tool and support for 3D Connexion devices (Mac and Windows). For a complete list and description of all the exceptional elements that comprise this new feature-rich version of CINEMA 4D, please visit the products pages
CINEMA 4D Release 11 is expected to ship September, 2008. For pricing and upgrade information, visit www.maxon.net.
Source: MAXON Computer
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Willie” for the heads up.]
oh yeah, it’s also worth noting, though absent for the press release R11 will no longer have separate licensing for Win and Mac, if you have one, you have both, so as you start to realize the superiority of the Mac platform, you don’t have to worry about dropping the dough on a license transfer
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@Willie G
Hopefully its not like maya and runs faster one windows than mac…. though being 64 bit it will be interesting to see how it will run in vista… and if there actually are more than 5 people running cinema 4D on vista…
although I really love many aspects of C4D, I must admit that their modeler sucks dunkeynuts. I spend more and more time in both Rhino and Modo. A nodebased composer for setting up shaders would’ve been kind of nice as well…
“CINEMA 4D R11 also boasts an all-new Cocoa-based architecture supporting 64-bit processing under Mac OS X Leopard.”
“CINEMA 4D R11 is the first comprehensive 3D package completely re-engineered to take full advantage of the Mac OS X 10.5 release.”
That’s the sort of language I would have like to have seen in the Maya release.
Why does all the “Cocoa-based architecture supporting 64-bit processing” only support RAM addressing? there is no 64 bit register for 64bit instructions?
@ Victor, no it’s not limited to RAM, but in the world of 3D creation, being able to access large amounts of RAM is crucial, as it allows for rendering of far more complex objects and/or scenes. The release is just worded that way for emphasis.
@jtc… Actually, a couple of months ago, I was at a friend’s house who had created himself a Hackintosh. It was spec’d out to the same as a previous gen MacPro tower. He had it running as a triple boot machine… Win XP, Vista 64-bit, and OSX 10.5(.3 , at the time) via EFI emulation. We downloaded Cinebench, the benchmarking program for Cinema 4D, and ran it on all three operating systems. OSX scored best of the three.
But does the Mac version export to Shockwave 3D (SW3D) format? We’ve been unable to upgrade since version 9 because they dropped support for this format in the Mac version.
Just answered my own question: NO, only the Windows version exports to SW3D format. Guess we’re still stuck with running version 9 on a G5.
Did someone say PINA COLLADA?? mmmmm
Shockwave? WTF are you smoking that you think you need Shockwave in 2008?
@Willie G
IMO Shockwave is still the best for the kind of cross-platform real-time 3D development that I need to do. Yes, there are other 3D engines, but none that have all of the other capabilities that Director has (e.g., text, printing, 2D animations, communications, video, Mac authoring). I am constantly on the lookout for something else, but there’s just nothing that can do all that I need to do. Believe me, with all the trouble Director has been having recently I would gladly switch to something else in a heartbeat if there was a viable alternative.
And what I’ve been smoking has nothing to do with my opinion on the subject.
I don’t really understand a damn thing this post is saying, but it all sounds really impressive. AIR? RIB? COLLADA?
As long as it’s a positive development for the Mac platform!
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Missing shockwave3D exporter on the mac:
When C4D R10 came out, there was no Shockwave3D-SDK to compile the exporter into the universal binary that would run on intelMacs. It was also not clear how the future of Director would be under Adobe. But Adobe is now ressurrecting Director and they put some effort into the next Version of the Shockwave3D engine. This will be happen in Director 12. So having a solid and working Shockwave3D exporter in Cinema4D is a very good thing.
Now there is a new SDK out, but it seems that the Shockwave3D exporter was still not updated. The main reason could be, that not enough people using this format.
Shockwave3d is still the most solid 3D format on the web, the plugIn is more spread then any other “web3D” plugIn and Cinema4D is a perfect tool to squeeze out very high visual results (especially with texture baking and bodypaint).
Would be great if a few Mac people could write Maxon, that they want to have the Shockwave3D exporter back in place.