Mantrid's Journal: Cinema 4D - Mine at last!

Well a week or so ago I finally bit the bullet, plunked down the Cdn $950 (plus taxes, shipping...), and purchased my own copy of Cinema 4D R8 Core.

I finally received it two days ago (heh well it seemed like a long time - waiting for it to arrive was like waiting for Christmas). So far I have been duly impressed - going through the 5-8lb manual (ah nice to finally actually have documentation!) I discovered that the core version has more features than I thought - ie: it has some particles (there is an extra 'Thinking Particles module with very advanced particles), and bones complete with IK ('Soft IK' is part of a more advanced animation module).

It's both liberating and daunting as I begin working with this package. Actually, daunting is an overstatement - I really love C4D's interface...the daunting part comes from the sheer amount of stuff to master.

This program seems far ahead of 3ds MAX R4 in many ways, although 3ds had some better modelling options in some cases. The rendering engine is sublime - I was worrying needlessly by not opting for the 'advanced rendering' package (although you'll need it for Caustics, Radiosity/Global Illumination, and Depth of Field which one can usually work around anyways).

I am impressed so far :)