I was reminded by email the other day that Cinema 4D was 25 years old. That was truly amazing as Cinema 4D, a 3D and animation application by German company Maxon, has always seemed like the new kid on the block’ compared to the likes of Lightscape, Maya, 3DMax and others.

It only seemed a couple of years ago I was heavily involved with Cinema and indeed, used it most days. I even modelled a TV commercial using Cinema that was broadcast for a few weeks in the Sydney market on Channels 7 and 9.

This email therefore became a timely hint to get re-acquainted with Cinema and see what today’s version is like. But because of the huge breadth of an application such as this, I am going to cover it over a number of articles as single web based one just would a) not do it justice and b) too long to ingest in one bite.

This first one will discuss what Cinema 4D is and what it does.

Introduction

At its most basic, Cinema 4D is a 3D package that allows objects to be modelled and then animated. The ‘4D’ in the name derives from the standard three dimensions of height, width and depth, combined with the fourth dimension of time.

With Cinema, you can create something as simple as a spinning series of letters or as complex as a complete movie. Indeed, Tron: Legacy used Cinema 4D extensively according to Maxon.

To understand what Cinema is capable of, I remember talking to the principles of Maxon some years back, the very same bods that do all the hard work writing the code for the program. They claimed at the time to be physicists and scientists first and software engineers and programmers second and this might seem strange until you consider some basic things that Cinema might be used for to create and animate.

Let’s use the example of a snooker table, and a person actually playing to illustrate the complexity, and also give an indication of the depth of capability of Cinema. Not only can Cinema be used to ‘make’ all the objects used in such a scene consider the following scenario.

When a snooker player hits the white ball, a specific amount of force propels it across the table toward its target. The friction of the felt has an influence on its acceleration and deceleration and to a much lesser degree, its direction. That amount of force then dictates how much the target ball will move and in what direction; the force of the felt and any other barriers (edge of the table, other balls etc) also come into play here. And if another ball is hit, its movement, direction and so on also all have to be calculated.

Let’s now look at the player. When he bends over the table to line up and hit the ball, his movement, angle, force and so on are all governed by his skeleton and muscles that interact together to create the full movement. This is called inverse kinematics and a simple example is pulling your elbow back. Not just the elbow moves, but the shoulder does as does the forearm, wrist, hand and fingers. In fact they have no choice, but this movement must all be calculated.

Changing tack a little now, look at the items in our snooker scene. The balls have colour and light reflects off them depending where on the table they are. The felt has colour AND texture as does the wood of the table. The player’s clothes also have these characteristics, and when the player moves, creases and folds are created and destroyed.

And hardest of all, their hair might be moving caused by a fan or a breeze through a window.

Now perhaps after taking their shot, our player lights a cigarette (yes, yes I know it’s illegal in a snooker hall but this is a virtual one and anything goes). The sparks from the box as the match strikes over it illuminate and quickly go out, the fire of the match head flares and then steadies and smoke rises and spirals.

All this Cinema can create in a virtual world, which can then be rendered out as an AVI, Quicktime or MPEG file and included as footage or superimposed or combined (composited) in your existing camera footage.

The power built into Cinema 4D Studio then allows far, far more than creating spaceships and explosions! And to a large degree, all of the complex mathematics and science are removed from the end user, allowing them to concentrate on the creative process.

The Creative Process

In Cinema (and most other 3D applications) the basic workflow to creating an animation is:

1. Modelling
2. Adding textures
3. Animation (keyframing)
4. Render

Of course each of these steps has multiple options in its own right – lots of them in some cases. In Part 2, I’ll look at modelling in Cinema, how it is done, its options and possibilities.

If you are interested in seeing how Cinema 4D Studio was used in Tron:  Legacy, click here.

For more information on Cinema 4D Studio see www.adimex.com.au

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com