Cinema 4D Version 8: Maxon's dark horse gains momentum.

Cinema 4D has been slowly gaining respect in the 3D world. The software provides excellent modeling, animation, and rendering tools for both Mac and PC platforms at less than $600 for the base package. Version 8 further strengthens Maxon Computer's flagship product by adding advanced rendering, particles, and character animation tools.

For more demanding users, the XL bundle at $1695 contains additional modules, including Advanced Rendering, Network Rendering, Thinking Particles, Pyrocluster, and Mocca for character animation. With this version, Maxon has separated the modules so that users can order only the ones they need. With each costing from $200 to $500, however, it makes sense to order the XL package with everything.

With this new release, Cinema 4D's interface has been updated to improve workflow. Along the top and left side of the window is a palette with the most common commands. Along the right side is a scene browser and the new Attribute Editor. A timeline and a materials window appear along the bottom of the viewport.

One nice new interface feature is the Attribute Manager, a window that consolidates a number of disparate dialog boxes into one interface. In addition to parameters common to all objects, such as position, rotation, and scaling, the Attribute Manager also displays parameters unique to a selected object. A HyperNURBS object would have an extra panel to control the amount of subdivisions on a surface, for example.

Expressions also have seen interface improvements. Cinema 4D provides Xpresso, a node-based interface for setting up and modifying expressions. The visual interface sets up each object as a node, the attributes of which can be connected to attributes on other objects.

You can model in Cinema 4D using primitives, NURBS, and polygons. The package comes with most of the standard primitives, which are all parametric, so they can be modified in real time.

The NURBS implementation is basic, offering the ability to draw curves, then lathe, extrude, or sweep them into 3D objects. Polygonal modeling probably is the best way to model in Cinema 4D, particularly when combined with HyperNURBS--basically a fancy name for subdivision surfaces. New to this version is the ability to weight specific vertices of a HyperNURBS object, allowing a higher degree of control over the resulting surface.