In past editions, C4D had fallen behind the curve in time-to-render as compared to some of it’s competitors. Thankfully, this has been remedied in C4D R11. For socialites, you can never be too rich or too thin. In the CG world, you can never render too fast or too realistically. The new capabilities offered by R11 really mandated an upgrade fulfilled by a render engine code re-write. In speaking with some Pros that have a long history with C4D, this enhancement was welcomed as much as the new features were.
Important to note is that the C4D core edition does not do Global Illumination. GI is that photo realistic rendering where the program automatically calculates how light bounces around a scene. If you need that level of realism, there is a module you can add to the Core edition called “Advanced Renderer”. However, very realistic rendering can still be achieved with the C4D Core package by intelligent lighting placement and creating lighting arrays. This technique is very common in CG production anyway, because true Global Illumination is very expensive in render time. Creating pseudo Global illumination with the Core edition is a snap.
On my Mac system, C4D was very, very stable and that experience has been echoed by other users on both Mac and PC platforms that I talk to. During the review and testing for this article I was able to get C4D to occasionally misbehave, crashing a couple of times. But I can do that with every 3D package I own. Certain 3D software are know to be, um, quirky. This is not one of them, for which I am very grateful. You won’t spend your time wondering what Q&A was thinking while cursing under your breath at 1 a.m.
C4D is in a kind of funny spot for the MicroFilmmaker that requires some CG capabilities and happens to be working with a modest to smallish budget. There are other options for less (Carrara, modo 302) that offer much of what C4D does for less money. Where C4D's strengths lay is in it’s completeness of capabilities and quality of renders. For animation's needs, C4D is better than modo 302 although the rendering quality is very similar. Carrara certainly costs less than either modo or C4D and is has more options than modo but Carrara’s renders are slower and not quite as refined as C4D’s or modo’s.
C4D simply does a lot of things, very well and is extensible so you can expand it to other needs later if required. The target audience is TV and Film studios, so this software is no slouch. Its user experience and capabilities are top notch. You do get what you pay for.
To be frank, C4D is not a good fit for a studio on a super slim budget. It is possible to disguise the CG-ness of lesser software by virtue of post production filtering and other tricks. However, if your CG requirements are significant in your film, and you want them to look pro-studio quality, you can’t go wrong with C4D both in terms of results and ease of use.
The thing I actually appreciate most about this release is the improved interface design and dynamic tool/feature integration - that automatic ability that updates your interface when you choose a new tool. There is now a very friendly face on a very powerful CG software - and that is the exception to the rule.
