C4D & Me…

Ventura, CA

After spending a good part of a year avoiding the expansion of my 3D workflow, I decided to give Maxon’s Cinema 4D another chance to not scare me into hiding again. Yes, this wasn’t my first attempt at C4D as I had purchased version R13 many years ago and just neglected it because I couldn’t grasp it, nor had the patience to learn it. Do I regret it? Maybe…but now in 2021, I took a different and more honest approach this time…

TUTORIALS!

I put my ego aside and made myself teachable again. As opposed to After Effects where I pretty much learned everything on my own (not recommended), I sought the accessibility of YouTube creators and services like eyedesyn, CGShortcuts, 3D Fluff as well as subscription services like Skillshare and Cineversity. Here are few examples below from the tutorials…

The great takeaway I got from emerging myself with many tutorials, is that I became more and more comfortable with the interface and was able to maintain a somewhat fast workflow, like how I’m used to with After Effects. Once I figured out the interface for the most part, I was able to step away from the shallow end of the pool and explore the massive pool of features that version R23 offers….like REDSHIFT!

Oh my, Redshift, which was included in the MAXON ONE subscription is an absolute game changer for me. I hardly understand 3D renderers, but I knew that the standard/physical renderers that C4D offers are significantly slower than the Redshift renderer. A bit of a steeper learning curve but with the many tutorials on this node-based renderer, I was able to get a decent grasp of it…but I still have much to learn no doubt. 

Why is this worth mentioning?? Well, as an After Effects artist with a new Mac Pro, 288ghz of RAM and a pedestrian AMD Vega Pro II gfx card, I pretty much have a machine dedicated to AE. I wouldn’t say I have the greatest setup for 3D but with Redshift, I can strike a great balance with quality and speed, especially with the super tight deadlines I face on the majority of live shows and events that I work on. As I learn more and more with C4D and Redshift, I’m sure that workflow will just get leaner and meaner as time goes on.

Why even bother writing this post?

Well believe it or not, I needed a kick in the ass to finally get into 3D again…and stop relying on Element 3D, which is great, but kept me from doing what I really wanted to do.  Thankfully, I realized that the learning curve isn’t that steep when you have so many resources out there to help you demystify the application of your liking. So I would encourage any of you AE artists who are toying with the idea of C4D, I would highly recommend the free trial of C4D and spend a few solid days with tutorials and just getting used to the interface…I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised on how awesome it is. Also, the C4D community is great! Lots or really helpful and cool people out there!

This is just a beginning and will hopefully share more of my 3D work and process as time permits…

God Bless,

 Gabriel