CINEMA 4D Visualize gives you a comprehensive suite of modeling and texturing tools and rendering options. Features included are Global Illumination, Physical Sky, sketch-style rendering and huge librairies of 3D scene fillers, textures, lighting environments, and much more.

CINEMA 4D Visualize has a massive range of import options that let you work with models from a large variety of 2D and 3D applications. There is file exchange support for many leading 3D CAD applications such as VectorWorks, ArchiCAD and Allplan.

You can create simple walk-throughs and stills in Visualize but you can also create breathtakingly realistic visual animations - in ways not possible in the real world. CINEMA 4D Visualize breaks through the limits of your own imagination.

Overview

Modeling in CINEMA 4D

The first step in most 3D projects is creating the objects.

The most basic shapes are provided in MAXON CINEMA 4D as parametric primitives. Parametric objects can be converted to polygons to serve as a basis for more complex objects. A number of deformers and other generators can be used in conjunction with objects.

Splines can be used as the basis for extrudes, lofts, lathes and sweeps - all of which can be adjusted dynamically in real-time, and even animated.

 

In Good Shape

CINEMA 4D's comprehensive polygon tools provide real-time feedback. A powerful Knife tool works in conjunction with N-gons to easily cut holes, planes and paths into objects. The Stitch and Sew tool makes it easy to close holes between objects. With the Brush and Magnet tools you can easily paint point deformations for more organic objects.

Whether your scenes are real-world or out-of-this-world, CINEMA 4D's powerful modeling tools provide the building blocks for your imagination.

UV Editing

MAXON's CINEMA 4D features an arsenal of UV editing solutions that ensure your models and their materials line up properly. UV coordinates are essential to successful painting and quality texturing in 3D.

Whether adjusting UVs for a low-res game model or a high-res matte painting, CINEMA 4D provides the UV tools you can count on when the UV mapping is not as perfect as the model.

Materials and Textures

CINEMA 4D Visualize comes with hundreds of pre-defined textures. No matter if you are an architect, interior designer or product designer, the available high-quality materials simply need to be dragged and dropped into your scene and your objects are ready to shine. Of course you can always tweak existing presets or even create your very own new materials.

Creating Materials in CINEMA 4D

Whether it's artificial or natural materials you are creating, CINEMA 4D's material system provides incredible control over the surface properties of your 3D objects.

The basis for most channels is a texture or shader. For textures, CINEMA 4D supports most popular image formats, including layered PSD files.

A wide range of 2D and 3D volumetric shaders make it easy to create procedural surfaces and easily simulate glass, wood or metal. With filter and layer shaders you can easily combine images, shaders and filter effects.

3D Painting

MAXON's CINEMA 4D offers the ultimate control over your textures with complete layer, filter and tablet support - all optimized for working in 3D.

With CINEMA 4D you can paint on up to ten channels with a single stroke. A brush can define an entire material rather than a single color, and CINEMA 4D's exclusive RayBrush technology lets you view the results of your painting in real-time in a rendered image.

CINEMA 4D's Projection Painting tool lets you paint across UV seams or even multiple objects in a scene. 

Projection Man

Projection Man revolutionizes the workflow for creating digital mattes, making it simple to set up an initial painting and even easier to patch the matte when necessary. Using CINEMA 4D's internal painting tools or Adobe Photoshop it's easy to edit and manipulate extensive digital mattes, making it possible to create extended, wild camera rides. Whether you're ballooning over a city, shooting through rapids, flying off cliffs or simply creating a basic set extension, you'll be amazed at the power and speed of the Projection Man matte painting workflow.

Graphics in Motion

Shift your scenes into the fourth dimension with MAXON's CINEMA 4D. Building professional 3D animation has never been easier and more intuitive.

Virtually any object, material or tag parameter can be keyframed by simply clicking the circle next to its name. To make keyframing even simpler you can activate automatic keyframing of all or selected parameters. The Power Slider lets you quickly define keyframes for the current state at any frame and modify existing keyframes without leaving the default layout.

The Timeline

The Timeline window offers even greater control with tracks for every animatable parameter and options such as layers to organize and control the visibility of objects, tracks and keyframes. Master Tracks allow easy manipulation of all keyframes attached to a given object or scene and the Region tool helps you easily move or scale any portion of your animation.

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F-Curves

Use F-Curve mode for more detailed adjustment of keyframe interpolation, or to simply view the animation. Edit multiple curves instantly and take advantage of the snapshot capability to view a previously stored curve while adjusting the animation.

Non-Linear Animation

With non-linear animation it's easy to build, layer and loop discreet motions containing hundreds of keyframes in complex hierarchies. You can easily block out animation based on predefined motions and build upon the basic movement by overlaying additional keyframes or motions.

 

Audio Support

When your pictures need to sync with audio you can import sound and view its waveform directly in the Timeline. Better yet, activate scrubbing and listen to your audio as you manipulate the time slider. For the ultimate syncronization, attach sounds to specific objects.

Particles

CINEMA 4D even features an easy-to-use particle system. Any object can be used as a particle - such as geometry or lights. Particles can then be affected by various effects like gravity, turbulence, wind and many others to create stunning animations.

Lighting and Rendering

CINEMA 4D Visualize offers numerous types of lights and shadows that can brighten up even the most challenging situations. And the render engine takes control of all available processor cores to get high-quality results as quickly as possible.

Let There be Light

CINEMA 4D offers a complete array of gaffer's tools so you can make your scene outshine the competition.

Light up your scenes with CINEMA 4D's lighting system and produce outstanding results in little time with the built-in render engine.

Lighting

Various types of light and shadow calculations provide the basis for an extraordinarily powerful lighting system. Control color, brightness, falloff and other properties and adjust density and color of each light's shadows. You also can use Lumen or Candela brightness values for any light rather than using abstract percentage values. Create visible or volumetric lights with noise patterns that appear in the light cone. Lights offer settings such as contrast, lens reflexes, shadow color, volumetric light and noise, and many more.

Rendering

CINEMA 4D's outstanding renderer delivers great-looking results in short time thanks to its linear workflow, support for multiple processors, HyperThreading and Multi-Core technology.

With CINEMA 4D's Multi-Pass rendering you can easily render color, shadow, reflection and other effects to individual files for tweaking using your favorite compositing application. Multiple object-based alpha channels make it easy to layer elements with other 2D and 3D assets. With direct export to Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Combustion, Shake, Fusion and Motion, your Multi-Pass layers will be ready to composite in no time. CINEMA 4D supports rendering in 16-bit and 32-bit color depth for high dynamics range images in DPX, HDRI or OpenEXR format.

Furthermore, the support of color profiles makes sure your renderings appear as they should, no matter which device you're working with.

Stereoscopy

Create eye-popping stereo 3D visuals using the complete stereoscopic workflow in CINEMA 4D Release 13. Easily convert existing projects or create new stereo scenes using a few simple camera settings, and preview the stereo effect within the Viewport. Render the merged image or individual channels and preview the stereo effect within CINEMA 4D’s Picture Viewer.

Stereo Camera and Rendering

A few simple settings convert any CINEMA 4D camera into a stereo rig. Simply enable one of the stereo modes, define the eye-separation and convergence, and choose between parallel, off-axis, on-axis or radial placement. Safe regions can be defined manually or defined automatically by CINEMA 4D. 

Real-time Stereo Display

Preview stereo effects in real-time by enabling the Stereoscopic mode for any view. Stereo previews can be displayed in Anaglyph, Side-by-Side, Interlaced or Active Shutter mode for compatibility with a variety of 3D monitors, projectors and glasses.

Lighting

Let There be Light

CINEMA 4D offers a complete array of gaffer's tools so you can make your scene outshine the competition.

CINEMA 4D's extraordinarily powerful lighting system lets you adjust color, brightness, falloff and other properties. You can change density and color of each light's shadows, create visible or volumetric lights.

You can also assign an Area Light any shape in order to give your Project optimal lighting. Lights offer settings such as contrast, lens reflexes, shadow color, volumetric light and noise and many others.

Global Illumination		IES Lights
Achieve greater realism with Global Illumination, which provides a more accurate representation of scene lighting by taking into account light that bounces between objects. The Global Illumination engine can also utilize an HDRI-based sky for outstanding image-based illumination.		Many light manufacturers offer IES data for free download to realistically simulate the look of the real lighting fixtures. Brightness, color temperature, falloff and direction are already included in IES lights to produce the most realistic lighting. CINEMA 4D already includes several pre-defined, ready-to-go lamps.
Sky is the Limit		Caustics
CINEMA 4D Studio boasts an amazing SKY tool for the easy creation of a natural surroundings, including clouds, haze, atmosphere and global positioning. And there is a collection of presets helps you quickly find the fitting atmospheric environment for your scene.		Caustic effects, like the reflection of light from the face of a watch or on the bottom of a swimming pool, are easy to create with CINEMA 4D,  By accurately displaying the effects of light as it interacts with specific materials.

Rendering

The Key to Ultimate Photorealism

Renderings will look even more realistic and exciting with CINEMA 4D Visualize's advanced rendering functions.

Features such as Global Illumination, Physical Sky, depth-of-field, smoke, Ambient Occlusion and many others will bring your pictures and animations to life.

More Photorealism		Accurate 3D Motion Blur		Physical Camera
Achieve an even more photorealistic look with the new, physically correct depth of field effect, which also lets you render objects that lie behind transparent surfaces. The new Physical Renderer now renders these objects directly in the image and not as a post effect.		Produce accurate 3D motion blur based on real optical parameters. Rotational motion is blurred properly because the full 3D animation data is used, and because the blur is produced at render time rather than as a post effect, it interacts properly with shadows, transparency and other Project elements.		Imitate a photo or movie camera using focal length, f-stop and shutter speed or angle to dial in the depth of field and motion blur. You can optionally define the ISO or Gain, which combines with other camera settings to define the image's exposure. Simulate other flaws of real-life cameras such as lens distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration for the ultimate photorealism.

Stereo Camera and Rendering		Real-time Stereo Display
A few simple settings convert any CINEMA 4D camera into a stereo rig. Simply enable one of the stereo modes, define the eye-separation and convergence, and choose between parallel, off-axis, on-axis or radial placement. Safe regions can be defined manually or defined automatically by CINEMA 4D.		Preview stereo effects in real-time by enabling the Stereoscopic mode for any view. Stereo previews can be displayed in Anaglyph, Side-by-Side, Interlaced or Active Shutter mode for compatibility with a variety of 3D monitors, projectors and glasses.

Advanced Material Settings		3D Like it's Drawn
With SubPolygon Displacement (SPD) you can create awesome displacement effects and Subsurface Scattering can be used to simulate the scattering of light beneath the surface of objects to more accurately simulate materials such as wax, fluids, jewels, organic materials and skin. PyroCluster uses particles to create stunning special effects like smoke, dust, fire and more. Combined with the power of CINEMA 4D's particle systems, PyroCluster can create truly amazing special effects.		The Sketch and Toon toolset in CINEMA 4D has the ability to create non-photorealistic styles of 3D renderings. Not only architects and engineers will enjoy the clean and precise technical illustrations it provides. Artists will appreciate its ability to render 3D scenes as a quick scribble or charcoal sketch. A variety of settings make it easy to create illustrations ranging from halftone stills to cel-rendered animations. Comprehensive control and wide-ranging flexibility gives the user the opportunity to create almost any desired effect.
Network Power		A Choice of 3rd-Party Renderers
Thanks to the parallel nature of its individual work processes and unique features such as dynamic load balancing and hot plug, CINEMA 4D's network rendering tools can react quickly and dynamically to meet your needs. CINEMA 4D Visualize supports up to 3 network clients, with up to 256 processor threads each. The easy-to-use web interface allows you to quickly add jobs, change job priorities and monitor the current progress of your network clients.		Many 3rd-party developers offer their render engines for use in conjunction CINEMA 4D. Some of the renderers supported by CINEMA 4D are: 3delight (via CineMan*) AIR (via CineMan*) Arion Render FinalRender Stage 2 fryrender Indigo Renderer LuxRender Maxwell Render mental ray / iray (via m4d) octane render Pixar's RenderMan (via CineMan*) VRay for C4D

Integration

Vectorworks and CINEMA 4D - A Perfect Team

As a Vectorworks user you already know the CINEMA 4D render engine can be used to help create fantastic images in Renderworks. Now you can enhance your visualization capabilities even further with CINEMA 4D Visualize.

The project structure, lights and materials are converted perfectly to CINEMA 4D, so your first CINEMA 4D rendering looks exactly like your last Renderworks image. Now you can take it from here and create an even more exciting visualization. On top of Renderworks' high-speed rendering and great image quality, CINEMA 4D Visualize offers the following advantages:

Even Better Image Quality Through Advanced Settings

CINEMA 4D is a full-featured 3D rendering package with outstanding image quality and is used worldwide in the production of Hollywood blockbusters. CINEMA 4D Visualize lets you achieve the same image quality by offering the same knobs and dials for adjusting materials, lights and rendering parameters.

CINEMA 4D's material system offers 15 channels (color, diffusion, luminance, trasparency, reflection, environment, fog, bump, normal, alpha, specular, specular color, glow, displacement and illumination), each with a comprehensive set of shaders and settings that let you create the perfect material. Or you can use the advanced material presets from our library (see below).

Light objects also offer numerous settings ranging from shape, illumination, shadow, falloff and visibility to photometric, caustics, lens effects and others. This allows you to create any type of illumination, from daytime to nighttime, natural or artificial lighting and more.

For exterior renderings, the Physical Sky tool puts options such as sun position, the object's geographic location, clouds, atmosphere and even a rainbow or accurately positioned planets and stars at your fingertips.

The camera offers controls for focal length, depth-of-field and white balance. Multiple cameras in a scene can be managed using a Stage object, eliminating the need for a separate compositing application.

CINEMA 4D's Picture Viewer can do a lot more than just display a rendered image. Using the filter tools you can make changes to saturation, exposure, contrast, and brightness, giving your image a personal style without using an external image editing application.

Animating It All

The most common type of animation is to let a camera fly around an object or through a scene. CINEMA 4D offers a set of tools that makes creating such an animation easy as pie.

You can draw a path and let the camera follow it or you manually set keyframes to which the camera moves. A target object ensures that your lens always points in the right direction. Or you can walk through the scene with keyboard or mouse controls just like in a computer game (incl. collision detection to prevent walking through walls) and even record this for later playback or fine-tuning.

But animation doesn't end there. Almost every setting or parameter in CINEMA 4D can be animated by Ctrl+clicking on the small black circle next to it. It's easy to create a scene in which doors open, lights dim, the weather changes, movies play on screens, water moves and cars drive.

Customizing

XPresso - The Graphical Expression Editor

Build extensive relationships and add powerful interaction to your 3D scene with XPresso, CINEMA 4D's visual node-based drag & drop Expressions editor.

XPresso is a tool that artists can use to intuitively create relationships between almost any object, material or effect parameter. Variables within your expressions can be linked to sliders in the Attribute Manager to create driven-key animation or complete slider-based interfaces to your 3D scene.
Explore XPresso and discover the power of relational animation in CINEMA 4D.

Your Own Scripts and Plugins

CINEMA 4D offers three options for programmers to create their own functionality: programming in C.O.F.F.E.E., a proprietary programming language; Python, a standard programming language; or C++ SDK.

More

Camera Matching

New in R14

Sculpting

Organic modeling is made easy with the fully-integrated Sculpting system in CINEMA 4D Studio Release 14 and BodyPaint 3D. Transform any base mesh into virtual clay, shaping it with tools like Pull, Pinch, Smooth, Knife or Scrape. Advanced symmetry tools allow you to mirror a single stroke along multiple axes, and even radially. Finer details can be added using stamps and stencils, and you can apply masks to limit the sculpting to specific regions. You can even organize your sculpt project in a hierarchical layer system and modify mask and strength options for each layer. Directly texture, animate and render your sculpted mesh, or easily bake it to a low-poly mesh with displacement and normal maps.

Modeling

Model faster and more accurately with new interactive Workplane modes, dynamic guides and a completely redesigned Snap system. Easily align your workplane to any world axis, the camera or the current selection, then snap to the grid or adjust global coordinates based on the workplane orientation. Draw linear or planar guides directly in the Viewport or snap to dynamic guides generated around each component. You can also easily select objects or components by simply painting over them with the right mouse button pressed.

Animation

Accelerate your animation workflow with enhancements to cameras, dynamics and character tools in CINEMA 4D R14. Quickly morph between camera positions and create dynamic camera animations with the Motion Camera system. Gain greater realism and control over dynamics in CINEMA 4D Broadcast and Studio with aerodynamic forces, plastic springs and breaking connectors, as well as enhanced XPresso control over dynamics. Give life to your characters with updated rigs and enhanced capabilities of the Character object.

Rendering

Achieve greater rendering realism and compositing control with CINEMA 4D R14. Simulate wood grain, weathering effects and normal mapping with new shaders. Enjoy faster, more accurate GI calculations with Multiple Importance Sampling and radiosity maps. And you have even more control over your renderings with color grading in the Picture Viewer and as a post effect. Optimize your compositing workflow with the Position Pass.

Workflow

CNEMA 4D R14 offers amazing enhancements to exchanges with key applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects and Nuke. You can manipulate 3D objects, lights and textures directly in Adobe Photoshop. New options have been added for exchanging your 3D scene with After Effects. A new seamless connection to NUKE has been added that automatically creates your multi-pass composite, through multi-layer OpenEXR support.

Interface

Work faster and more efficiently with numerous enhancements to the workflow and interface in CINEMA 4D R14. You’ll enjoy the more attractive and responsive 3D view with new object highlighting and outlining, and improved OpenGL shadows. Easily access commands and add tags using the new spotlight-style Commander. New composition helpers have been added to arrange your scene based on grids or golden spirals, and you can easily choose the focal distance with the new camera focus picker. Arabic speakers will especially enjoy the CINEMA 4D interface in their native language, including a specially-designed right-to-left layout mode.

System Requirements

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Windows XP, Vista or 7 running on Intel or AMD CPU with SSE2-Support; Mac OS X 10.5.8 or higher running on an Intel-based Mac; 1024 MB free RAM, DVD ROM drive. Standard DVD installation can take up to 4 GB of disk space. Software must be registered for permanent use.

Supported Operating Systems for CINEMA 4D R14 and BodyPaint 3D R14
Windows

• Windows 7 (all variations)
• Windows 7 64-bit (all variations)
• Windows Vista (all variations)
• Windows Vista 64-bit (all variations)
• Windows 2008 Server
• Windows 2008 Server 64-bit
• Windows XP (Pro / Home) Service Pack 2 & 3
• Windows XP Pro 64-bit
• Windows 2003 Server
• Windows 2003 Server 64-bit

OS X

• Apple OS X 10.7 (and up)
• Apple OS X 10.6 (and up)
• Apple Mac OS X 10.5.8 (and up)

Minimum CPU Requirements CINEMA 4D R14 and BodyPaint 3D R14
Minimum processor Windows PC

• Intel Pentium 4
• Athlon 64
• Sempron (K8 with SSE2)
• VIA C7

Minimum processor Macintosh

• Intel CoreSolo

Supported processors

• Intel Pentium M
• Intel Pentium 4
• Intel Pentium 4D
• Intel XEON
• Intel Core Solo
• Intel Core Duo
• Intel Core 2 Duo
• Intel Core 2 Quad
• Intel Core i7
• Intel Core i5
• Intel Core i3
• Intel Celeron
• Intel Celeron D
• AMD Sempron (K8/Socket 754)
• AMD Athlon 64
• AMD Opteron
• AMD Phenom

Processors not supported

• Intel Itanium
• Intel Itanium II
• Intel Pentium
• Intel Pentium II
• Intel Pentium III
• AMD K6
• AMD K7
• AMD Athlon XP/MP
• AMD Duron
• Power PC G4
• Power PC G5

A Word About Graphics Cards

In short, CINEMA 4D and BodyPaint 3D run on any OpenGL-capable graphics card (which includes the vast majority available in the past 10 years). We do however strongly recommend using a dedicated 3D graphics card with a chipset from AMD or NVIDIA. Currently, powerful graphics chips are also available on mid-range notebooks.

Always make sure to use the latest drivers (no beta versions), certified for your operating system. Newer drivers are usually faster and more stable.

If you're looking for speed comparisons, conduct a search for CINEBENCH scores on the internet.

Disclaimer: MAXON cannot be held liable for the compatibility of specific graphics cards with the Enhanced OpenGL mode. Due to the amount of possible combinations of graphic chipsets, operating systems and driver revisions, it is impossible to guarantee the operation on all systems. Also, technical specifications in MAXON products are subject to change. Please use the most current demo version of CINEMA 4D oder BodyPaint 3D to test the compatibilty on a specific system.

A Word About NVIDIA 3D Vision

If you intend to use NVIDIA's 3D Vision shutter glasses for your stereoscopic experience please note that a quad buffered graphics card is required for use in conjunction with CINEMA 4D.

A list of graphics cards that support the neccesary features can be found at NVIDIA's website:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro_pro_graphics_boards.html

Supplementary Information

Reviews: http://www.maxon.net/en/news/reviews.html
Customers Stories: http://www.maxon.net/en/customer-stories.html
Videos: 

• Manufacturer’s YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/MaxonC4D
• Mad Macs’ Youku Channel: http://u.youku.com/madmacs/

License Server:

For educational institutions and production facilities managing multiple licenses of CINEMA 4D and BodyPaint 3D, MAXON offers a robust license server technology that makes the management of numerous licenses and groups of licenses with various configurations a breeze.

Network administrators can define groups, assign individual licenses, and define a unique lease time for each group. This means you can allow laptop users to extend their lease for off-site work, or give a specific project group access to additional licenses. All this control means you can make more efficient use of your investment in MAXON Software.

Download PDF manual here.


Maxon Service Agreement:

The MAXON Service Agreement (MSA) is optionally available to MAXON customers. Participating customers are kept up-to-date with the newest releases of CINEMA 4D and/or BodyPaint 3D. As soon as a new software version is available, MSA participants will receive these automatically, allowing them to immediately take advantage of all new features and advancements.

The MAXON Service Agreement is ideal for companies working with fixed budgets - no more surprises when planning next year's expenses. In addition to the most up-to-date software version, MSA participants also receive enhanced services such as expanded use of software or discounted admission to special events, and more.

You’re on the go and don’t always work in the office? Software licenses included in the MSA can also be installed onto a second computer (e.g., a laptop for working on the go or on a computer at your home office) as long as both installations are not used simultaneously.

If you are interested in becoming a MAXON Service Agreement participant, please contact us .