MAXON Computer, a leading developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions, today unveiled CINEMA 4D Release 11 (R11), the next generation of its highly acclaimed 3D animation software suite. The super-charged release is packed with advanced capabilities that deliver dramatically improved ease of use and workflow, image quality and integration into any production pipeline. CINEMA 4D R11 highlights include a non-linear animation system, new global illumination render engine and dramatically improved render speed. Customers also benefit from the powerful Projection Man matte painting system, developed by MAXON for Sony Pictures Imageworks, support for the COLLADA file format and CineMan – a RenderMan-compliant tool that connects to Pixar’s industry-leading rendering solution. Additionally, multiple improvements were made to MAXON’s popular texture painting toolset BodyPaint 3D Release 4. All of these capabilities and more serve to underscore MAXON’s ongoing and deep commitment to helping 3D digital artists further advance creativity and control.

“MAXON has spent the last 20 years developing some of the industry’s most advanced 3D software technologies; continually raising the bar for 3D animation software excellence,” said Harald Egel, CEO and co-founder, MAXON. “CINEMA 4D R11 is no exception. This release contains the next-generation features our customers worldwide have come to expect from MAXON.”

Among the highlights included in today’s release is the highly-anticipated Projection Man tool. “Projection Man allows our artists to quickly project a painting onto geometry in a scene, simplifying even the most complex setups which can be easily organized within a single Photoshop file,” said Dennis Bredow, Texture Lead at Sony Pictures Imageworks.”The flexibility of the tool and its ease of use allow our painters to focus less on the mechanics of the shot and spend more time creating beautiful imagery.”

Expanded integration options, new workflow tools and boosts in performance for both PC and Mac users sit at the heart of the new release. On average, rendering speeds are now more than twice as fast as the previous version. CINEMA 4D R11 also boasts an all-new Cocoa-based architecture supporting 64-bit processing under Mac OS X Leopard. “We are pleased that MAXON has created the CineMan connection to Pixar’s RenderMan directly from within CINEMA 4D,” said Chris Ford, Business Director – RenderMan at Pixar. “Now, MAXON customers can benefit from Pixar’s Academy Award-winning rendering technology featured in Ratatouille, The Incredibles and many others.”

“Our customers told us what they needed and we listened,” said Paul Babb, president and CEO of MAXON USA. “This exciting new version is as ideal for the novice as it is for the power user who wants to produce compelling imagery in today’s fast-paced environments.”

The list of capabilities and enhancements that comprise the new CINEMA 4D R11 is extensive; with each element designed to provide ultimate control to enhance the professional 3D modeling, texturing, animating and rendering process:

Non-Linear Animation
Move beyond the keyframe. Animation Layers and Motion Clips tools let users easily build, layer and loop discreet motions containing hundreds of keyframes in complex hierarchies.

Completely New Global Illumination
Take advantage of the most current algorithms and computer hardware with the all new easy to use Global Illumination engine. This technology delivers heightened flexibility to achieve ultra-realistic results with a minimum of setup time, even for animations.

BodyPaint 3D
New tools for painting rich, detailed textures onto a 3D model as well as an improved workflow are part of this major upgrade to the popular 3D painting application. The improvements facilitate even tighter integration into industry-standard painting pipelines with brush import, WACOM tablet support, PSD format enhancement and more.

Improved Rendering Speeds
Tremendous optimizations in multithreading and CPU efficiency offer dramatically improved rendering speeds. Overall render quality has been greatly enhanced as well. New parameters make it possible to create even more realistic glass materials.

Support for 64-bit on Mac OS X
CINEMA 4D R11 is the first comprehensive 3D package completely re-engineered to take full advantage of the Mac OS X 10.5 release. As a native 64-bit Cocoa application, CINEMA 4D can be used in 64-bit mode to utilize greater RAM resources so you can build and render more complex projects. All 64-bit processors are supported. Users can easily switch between 32-bit and 64-bit mode to suit their individual needs.

Projection Man
Leverage the same powerful matte painting system originally developed by MAXON exclusively for Sony Pictures Imageworks and recently used to create such blockbuster features as Hancock, Speed Racer, Beowulf and Surf’s Up. This formerly exclusive toolset enhances workflow and makes it easy to create and patch the mattes. Tight integration with Adobe Photoshop and MAXON BodyPaint 3D simplifies editing and manipulating extensive digital mattes and even fully immersive 3D environments.

CineMan
Power users can easily render CINEMA 4D projects utilizing Pixar’s RenderMan Pro Server, or other RenderMan-compliant engines including 3Delight and AIR through support for the RIB format.

COLLADA Support
R11 now supports COLLADA, an open standard XML-based format that facilitates the transfer of 3D assets between applications. Exchanging scenes with other 3D applications is now easier than ever for diverse digital content creation production pipelines.

Customer Friendly
An online update mechanism ensures users always have access to the latest updates and enhancements. A new license server technology helps corporations, studios and schools maximize and manage their investment.

Additional Features
CINEMA 4D R11 also boasts optimized render control settings, animation ghosting, a doodle tool and support for 3D Connexion devices (Mac and Windows). For a complete list and description of all the exceptional elements that comprise this new feature-rich version of CINEMA 4D, please visit http://www.maxon.net/pages/products/new_e.html. Extensive CINEMA 4D R11 tutorials and demonstrations can be found on the MAXON USA. 24/7 education and training resource site, Cineversity.

Availability
CINEMA 4D Release 11 is expected to ship September, 2008. For pricing and upgrade information, please visit www.maxon.net.