Maxon’s Cinema 4D R21 will be available on a subscription basis as well as via perpetual license upon its September 3 release, the company announced at SIGGRAPH.
At the same time, Maxon said, it will offer only a single, fully featured version of C4D, discontinuing Cinema 4D Prime, Broadcast, Visualize and Studio, as well as BodyPaint 3D, as of September 1. The new software will have all of the features from all Cinema 4D editions and BodyPaint 3D, the company promised.
“With R21, we have overhauled virtually every aspect of how our customers choose, download, purchase, license and manage Cinema 4D,” said Maxon CEO David McGavran in a prepared statement. “The availability of a unified version of C4D will allow us to focus on developing one amazing 3D solution.”
Users with a Maxon Service Agreement (MSA) already in place will receive a perpetual license to Cinema 4D R21, Maxon said, which will let them continue using the software but will not include future upgrades. Those users will also be offered new two-year subscriptions at a discounted price. Some future upgrades may be available via subscription only, Maxon warned.
The Redshift renderer, which was acquired by Maxon earlier this year, will continue to be sold separately in a standalone version but will also be available as an add-on to Cinema 4D subscriptions. The subscription bundle, however, will work only with C4D.
New Features in Cinema 4D R21
An example of a surface sculpted using Maxon Cinema 4D’s new Caps and Bevels tools.
Maxon
For 3D modeling, a new system of Caps and Bevels gives users expanded options specifically when designing 3D text, but can be used on any spline-based object to create convex and concave bevels. The Volume Builder has been improved with a new cache layer for speeding up workflow, a UI for defining and adjusting thickness along spline volumes, and the ability to create curvature vertex maps with the Volume Mesher. Also new are Vector Volumes, which allow directions to be stored in voxel grids; they can be used with the new Field Force dynamics object to create and control new forces for dynamics simulation.
Volume Enhancements in Maxon Cinema 4D R21
Maxon
New MoGraph and character animation tools include a Mixamo Control Rig that allows Adobe Mixamo mocap data to be used to quickly animate a character in C4D. Auto-weighting algorithms have been improved through the addition of bone glow, and other weighting workflow improvements have been implemented.
For a complete list of features in R21, visit the C4D website.
An annual Cinema 4D subscription, including access to Maxon’s Cineversity training site and Team Render, is $719.88 ($59.99/month, billed annually); adding Redshift to the package increases the price to $983.88 ($81.99/month). C4D is available on a month-by-month basis for $94.99/month or $116.99/month with Redshift. A perpetual license (sans Redshift) is $3,495.
Maxon Cinema 4D: www.maxon.net
