MoGraph: Television studios have come to love C4D coupled with this powerful module. Chances are, if you've seen NFL or game show bumpers (fast flowing animated graphics and logos that serve as transitions to commercials or player highlights) you are seeing MoGraph in action. The coupling of full 3D object creation and cloning with motion make this a very rich feature. Microfilmmakers can bring some literal or abstract effects into their work in just a few clicks. (Even if you don't used this on your films, this module can be a moneymaker for your studio when you need to make cash for your upcoming film, as paying clients love this sort of work for TV shows, training videos, podcasts, etc.)
NET Unlimited: This lets you use every networked computer at your disposal to create your own “render farm.” CG can bring a single computer to its knees in computational requirements - especially for special effects. This is almost an essential gotta-have for all but still images. As an FYI, there are commercial render farms with hundreds of machines available to C4D users for particularly long or CG complex scenes.
Sketch and Toon: As the name implies, you can make your CG work look non-CG. This highly customizable tool comes with a wide range of presets as a “starter” for developing your own looks. Doing something Techno or SciFi? This module also allows you to create computer-y looking buildings for “Jack Bauer”-types of internal building diagrams and see-throughs.
Thinking Particles: Truly a special effects powerhouse. Smoke, chunks of stuff, fire balls, all obeying your every command with an unassuming interface. (For smoke and volumetric effects, Thinking Particles does need to team up with Pyrocluster, which is part of the Advanced Render module. As such, if you're buying modules al a carte, then this is probably one you wouldn't want to get without Advanced Render.) For Microfilmmakers, this fills in the blanks left by some of the other video-post particle generator options by providing full 3D rendering and control.
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.
That said, you can bring even the most powerful system to its knees in screaming pain by over-setting things like Thinking Particles or Global Illumination. Learning to use and set the features is a must.
I did find that in some instances, rendering to the “Picture Viewer” option was not congruous with the “Render View” option when working with GI interior scenes lit by the “Sky” advanced render option. Specifically, the GI intensity between the two was way off, looking too dark in the Picture Viewer and too light in the actual render. This isn’t a deal-breaker by any means but it did require some extra render testing and fussing with images when processing through the Picture Viewer. I’m not sure why the render settings for these two rendering options are not synchronized.
This is a cinematic quality software that presupposes that you need Hollywood or Broadcast quality CG elements in your work. If you are only casually thinking about adding CG elements in your film production or work flow, C4D may not be a good fit.
Maxon has done an excellent job of making their product easy to learn and use. But it’s also rich enough in capabilities that if you don’t use some of these features, you’ll be continually relearning them when you do. There are alternatives that cost less for film producers that only incidentally need CG in their productions.
The full C4D Studio costs a chunk of change. Even if you get the stripped down C4D Core and only get three of the modules, you are almost at the full Studio price. This is a capital purchase both in money spent and time spent to become familiar with it. If you are a C4D user already, depending on modules you may already own, or even if you have the full Studio version, the upgrade cost is not insignificant. But if you need rock solid performance with the features, quality and abilities that C4D R11 brings to the table, R11 is money well spent. Very well spent.
This release has actually changed my personal studio workflow - it’s that significant. Being a creature of habit, that’s hard to do.
At this point in C4D’s life cycle, the synergy of the integrated modules creates serious production gains while offering even greater quality. It has reduced my “requirement-to-program” hop to accomplish many everyday as well as specialty tasks.
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.
