New Features in CINEMA 4D Prime Release 12
CINEMA 4D Prime R12 offers a wealth of new features for both the newcomer and the experienced user. These features help create higher-quality renderings and offer great new tools for modeling and animation.
The new CINEMA 4D Prime feature set contains brand-new functions such as linear workflow and the Camera deformer as well as features previously only available in modules or bigger versions, e.g. Ambient Occlusion or Character tools.
Click below to learn more.
The new CINEMA 4D Prime feature set contains brand-new functions such as linear workflow and the Camera deformer as well as features previously only available in modules or bigger versions, e.g. Ambient Occlusion or Character tools.
Click below to learn more.
New CINEMA 4D Prime R12 Rendering Features
Linear Workflow
In short: Linear Workflow helps you create better looking images with less effort - by default. Especially the dark areas in an image, that required additional light sources or tweaking Global Illumination settings are now rich of detail and contrast, without having the bright areas of an image overblown.
In detail: Linear workflow is a powerful CG and compositing technique that eliminates the influence of gamma throughout the render process to produce more realistic results with less effort. CINEMA 4D makes it simple to adopt a linear workflow - in fact, it's enabled by default!
Monitors use gamma to adapt colors to the way our eyes see them - but colors don't mix the same way in real life. CINEMA 4D automatically strips the gamma from your textures and uses linear space to process the lights and colors in your scene. In a linear workflow, you don't need as many lights and global illumination doesn't require as much tweaking. The resulting images have better color representation, rich detail and proper contrast.
In CINEMA 4D, every new scene applies a Linear Workflow without any special setup. Old scenes still render exactly as before, but you can of course adapt their lights and materials to a linear workflow to enjoy the benefits. As you work, your scene is represented properly even in CINEMA 4D's OpenGL viewports. Once you adopt a linear workflow, you'll see a dramatic change in the quality of your renders.
In detail: Linear workflow is a powerful CG and compositing technique that eliminates the influence of gamma throughout the render process to produce more realistic results with less effort. CINEMA 4D makes it simple to adopt a linear workflow - in fact, it's enabled by default!
Monitors use gamma to adapt colors to the way our eyes see them - but colors don't mix the same way in real life. CINEMA 4D automatically strips the gamma from your textures and uses linear space to process the lights and colors in your scene. In a linear workflow, you don't need as many lights and global illumination doesn't require as much tweaking. The resulting images have better color representation, rich detail and proper contrast.
In CINEMA 4D, every new scene applies a Linear Workflow without any special setup. Old scenes still render exactly as before, but you can of course adapt their lights and materials to a linear workflow to enjoy the benefits. As you work, your scene is represented properly even in CINEMA 4D's OpenGL viewports. Once you adopt a linear workflow, you'll see a dramatic change in the quality of your renders.Color Profile Support
If you have a digital camera you have already heard of it. And as a professional Photoshop user you use them on a daily basis. Color profiles contain detailed information about how a specific device handles colors. Whether you output to page or screen, your images pass through several devices that handle colors in different ways. CINEMA 4D's color profile support allows you to utilize the actual color profiles for these devices to ensure your colors are accurately portrayed.
Color profiles are taken into account throughout the CINEMA 4D workflow. Color profiles embedded in bitmaps are properly handled and even procedural shaders take into account the document color space. Monitor profiles are taken into account to properly represent colors in CINEMA 4D's OpenGL view, and your output profile is applied to your final renders. Embedded profiles are even taken into account when displaying images in CINEMA 4D's Picture Viewer. With Color Profile support, you'll have complete control over color throughout your CINEMA 4D workflow.
Color profiles are taken into account throughout the CINEMA 4D workflow. Color profiles embedded in bitmaps are properly handled and even procedural shaders take into account the document color space. Monitor profiles are taken into account to properly represent colors in CINEMA 4D's OpenGL view, and your output profile is applied to your final renders. Embedded profiles are even taken into account when displaying images in CINEMA 4D's Picture Viewer. With Color Profile support, you'll have complete control over color throughout your CINEMA 4D workflow.
Enhanced Picture Viewer
CINEMA 4D's Picture Viewer allows you to view full animations with sound, mix multipass layers and apply color correction to your rendered results. In Release 12, all that power is multiplied as you open as many Picture Viewers as you want. Fullscreen playback mode allows you to view your animations without distraction. When you aren't in Fullscreen mode, the Navigator allows you to easily move around within large renderings. An RGB histogram gives precise information about the color and brightness of images.
Photometric Light Parameters
Achieving accurate lighting has never been easier, with the addition of photometric light parameters in CINEMA 4D. You can now enter precise Lumen or Candela brightness values for any light rather than using abstract percentage values. You can now specify an accurate color temperature for each light as well, and set the white balance on CINEMA 4D's camera to match existing footage or set the mood of a scene on a global basis without modifying each light.
Render Queue
CINEMA 4D's new Render Queue offers a new and powerful workflow for rendering multiple CINEMA 4D scenes on your computer. You can easily add scenes to the queue, change priorities, and even adjust which camera or render setting is used without opening the scene. Once you've started a batch render, you'll see a preview of the render and estimated completion time, and once the render is done you can review a complete log of the render process. It's the best way to make sure CINEMA 4D is still working, even when you're out to lunch.
Ambient Occlusion
Ambient Occlusion helps making your scenes look even more realistic by adding contact shadows to adjacent objects. Corners or seams often appear much darker in reality than in standard CG renderings. Ambient occlusion helps by occlusing light from nearby surfaces and thus generating contact shadows. This feature was up to now only available in the Advanced render module and is now part of every CINEMA 4D R12 version.
New CINEMA 4D Prime R12 Deformers
New Deformers
Camera DeformerCINEMA 4D's Camera Deformer lets you distort objects based on their position on the screen. Originally designed for character animators to customize a key pose of their character, this deformer offers amazing possibilities. A control grid is projected from the camera view onto an object, and you can reshape objects by simply moving the points of the grid. You can link a camera to the deformer even if it's not active, so you can effectively create camera projected deformations with this amazing tool.
Mesh DeformerLike an FFD on steroids, the Mesh Deformer allows you to modify any object based on a simpler cage. The Mesh Deformer makes it possible to efficiently deform a high resolution mesh using a low poly cage. Control your low poly cage with joints, morphs or even soft body dynamics and easily transfer the action to a denser mesh. Your workflow is faster because complex calculations don't have to take into account extremely dense topology. Gain even more control with precise falloffs that determine what areas of a mesh will be deformed.
Correction DeformerWith the Correction Deformer you can modify the points, edges or polygons of deformed objects or parametric primitives, without losing their intrinsic benefits. When applied to deformed objects, you can manipulate deformed points in a local coordinate system rather than their deformed state. You can even use this powerful deformer to model on top of any of CINEMA 4D's primitives or generators, while retaining all their parametric power to adjust size or resolution.
Smoothing and Surface Deformer
Iron out the wrinkles in any mesh with CINEMA 4D's Smoothing deformer. Whether you've got unwanted folds in your cloth or need to smooth out some joint deformation, simply add a Smooth Deformer and set your falloff to polish out any irregularities.
CINEMA 4D's Surface Deformer makes it easy to deform one mesh to match the surface of another. The deformation can be fixed or even slide along a surface while still conforming to the proper shape.
More Deformers
Jiggle DeformerThe Jiggle Deformer can easily create secondary motion without additional joints. Simply apply the Deformer to an object and you will automatically see the object react with secondary motion. You can refine the effect using vertex maps and parameters for defining stiffness, structural integrity and drag and a fall off.
Squash & Stretch Deformer
The Squash and Stretch Deformer helps animate objects that should adhere to the basic principals of character animation but themselves do not have to be rigged, e.g. a bouncing ball. This Deformer's numerous settings allow for very accurate control of the object's animation behaviour and look, e.g. a bouncing ball will become wider and more flat when it impacts on a surface and will stretch and narrow when repelled.
Cluster DeformerThe Cluster Deformer links a point selection or vertex map to another object so a null can be used to transform the points. Because the Cluster Deformer and joints use separate weighting you can easily animate additional areas of a model without adjusting the overall rig. And because it is a separate Deformer it can be applied before or after other Deformers, such as Skin. Clusters can be very useful in facial animation and offer a more consistent workflow in conjunction with other 3D applications.
Point Cache Deformer
With the Point Cache Tag and Deformer you can store the results of deformers and simulations such as Cloth and dynamically apply them via the same falloff parameters as the MoGraph Effectors. This allows you to easily deform a simulated mesh or mix between two simulations. Caching the point data also allows you to remove entire rigs and simulations from a scene for faster workflow and more reliability when rendering across a network.
And a lot more CINEMA 4D Prime R12 Features
Python Integration
In addition to the full C++ API and CINEMA 4D's own C.O.F.F.E.E. language, developers can now leverage the power of Python to create scripts, plugins, custom objects, tags and file filters for CINEMA 4D. Python is a powerful programming language with a comparatively simple learning curve. Python's unique blend of simplicity and power excels in a wide range of software development tasks. A wide selection of existing Python scripts and libraries can be adapted for use in CINEMA 4D, and the growing number of applications supporting Python means it's a great tool for exchanging data and assets within your pipeline.
Real Units
CINEMA 4D now truly supports units, ensuring that calculations are accurate and scene scaling remains consistent. Units are automatically converted, and scaling and unit information is automatically stored within each document. Users are free to view documents in a completely different unit, and all units are converted automatically.
OpenGL Enhancements
CINEMA 4D's viewports are faster and more accurate than ever before with dramatic OpenGL enhancements. On average systems, animation playback is 30-50% faster than Release 11.5, while systems fully supporting OpenGL 3.0 will experience even more performance improvements.
Double Precision
CINEMA 4D now uses double precision for all internal calculations, so dramatic differences in scale don't cause problems. If you need to visualize a hummingbird in a football arena, double precision will help eliminate any glitches.
New Dynamic IK
With CINEMA 4D's Dynamic IK, it's easy to make any joint chain react to the forces of nature and collide with objects in the scene. This replacement for CINEMA 4D's old bones-based Soft IK provides quick and easy dynamic simulations with joint chains. Add dynamic IK to snakes, snails, and puppy dog tails and get some reaction.
New Weights Manager
Weights provide the vital connection between your character's joints and skin, and good weighting is key when it comes to character animation. CINEMA 4D's Weights Manager puts powerful weighting controls in a convenient interface. A spreadsheet view makes it easy to see exactly what weights are applied for each point and joint, and apply convenient functions including copy and paste. The Weights Manager streamlines the whole process and makes it easy to find and fix weighting issues so you can get animating.
Dual Transforms - Zero Out Your Objects
Getting objects into position within 3D space often results in some pretty wacky values, but dual transforms let you zero out those coordinates and work with a clean system for animation and expressions. You can get all your F-Curves in the same spot and set constraint limits that make sense. Dual transforms gives you a clean set of PSR data to use throughout CINEMA 4D.
New Architectural Shaders
With CINEMA 4D's new architectural shaders, you can piece together flagstone pavement or build a brick house. The enhanced Brick shader makes it easy to set up various stagger and gap sizes, and you can use gradients to define the range of brick colors. There's even an option to add dirt on the brick and grout. The Pavement shader offers similar options for defining a flagstone surface, with gradient and smudge settings to create a perfect walkway.
All New Features in CINEMA 4D R12
New Features in CINEMA 4D R12
| Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio | |
| New | ||||
| New Center option for display safe (Action Safe, etc.). | x | x | x | x |
| New interpolation mode for background. | x | x | x | x |
| Double precision: Integration of real units in CINEMA 4D. | x | x | x | x |
| Material colors for objects without materials can be defined. | x | x | x | x |
| View Clipping can be used to clearly display any region of the scene. | x | x | x | x |
| Integrated linearer workflow in CINEMA 4D. | x | x | x | x |
| Integrated color management in CINEMA 4D. | x | x | x | x |
| Program preferences now with filters and additional functionality. | x | x | x | x |
| A hard drive memory limit and a save path can be defined for the Picture Viewer. | x | x | x | x |
| Import settings for scaling for CINEMA 4D files. | x | x | x | x |
| You can scale during FBX import and export. | x | x | x | x |
| Null Object display can be disabled in the Viewport. | x | x | x | x |
| CINEMA 4D supports unfrozen transoformations (dual transformations). | x | x | x | x |
| White balance. | x | x | x | x |
| Light source color can be defined via its color temperature. | x | x | x | x |
| Support for IES lights. | x | x | ||
| New Camera Deformer. | x | x | x | x |
| Several methods available for restricting the The Jiggle Deformer’s effect. | x | x | x | x |
| New Smooth Deformer. | x | x | x | x |
| New Correction Deformer. | x | x | x | x |
| New Mesh Deformer. | x | x | x | x |
| New Surface Deformer. | x | x | x | x |
| Modified behavior for distorted coordinate system. | x | x | x | x |
| Scenes can be scaled as a whole. | x | x | x | x |
| New command for creating absolute animation layers. | x | x | x | x |
| The particle modifiers can recognize mass in conjunction with Dynamics. | x | |||
| New handling of conversion commands. | x | x | x | x |
| New conversion command. | x | x | x | x |
| The Joint tool can automatically place joints at the correct view depth. | x | x | x | x |
| Several new Mirror tool functions. | x | x | x | x |
| New Weights Manager for easy handling of Weights. | x | x | x | x |
| New Constraint tag mode ("PSR"). | x | x | x | x |
| New Constraint tag options ("Parent"). | x | x | x | x |
| New Contraint tag mode, Bounds. | x | x | x | x |
| New command: Reset FK | x | x | x | x |
| Parameters for the prevention of IK chain flipping. | x | x | x | x |
| IK Tag now offers dynamics behavior. | x | x | x | x |
| The Pose Morph tag offers more than the previous Morph and Posemixer tags combined. | x | |||
| The Point cache can loop cached animations or play them backwards. | x | x | x | x |
| Expanded functionality in the Weight tag’s Joint list. | x | x | x | x |
| The Render Queue replaces batch rendering. | x | x | x | x |
| Images can be assigned any available color profile when saved. | x | x | x | x |
| Numerous additions for After Effects export. | x | x | x | x |
| The Bake tag can now bake displacements. | x | x | x | x |
| Python scripting language now integrated into CINEMA 4D. | x | x | x | x |
| New Coordinate Manager mode. | x | x | x | x |
| Improved texture settings for camera mapping (Film and Pixel Aspect). | x | x | x | x |
| The number of Tiles can now be defined in the Texture tag. | x | x | x | x |
| Several new functions added to Normals tag. | x | x | x | x |
| Command for loading textures for all materials. | x | x | x | x |
| New stone pavement shader. | x | x | x | x |
| New brick shader. | x | x | x | x |
| Interactive selection process for link fields. | x | x | x | x |
| Multiple Picture Viewer windows can be opened. | x | x | x | x |
| Navigator/Histogram in the Picture Viewer. | x | x | x | x |
| Display of Title Safe / Action Safe / Pixel Aspect in the Picture Viewer. | x | x | x | x |
| Display filter in the Picture Viewer. | x | x | x | x |
| Full Screen Mode for the Picture Viewer. | x | x | x | x |
| New Dynamics functionality, including Soft Bodies, new XPresso Nodes and baking. | x | |||
| Dynamics recognizes MoGraph selections. | x | x | ||
| New Trigger Velocity Threshold parameter defines collision strength required for Dynamics to take effect. | x | x | ||
| MoSpline contains an L-System for simulating growth processes. | x | x | ||
| 2 commands for assigning a new color profile to images/textures. | x | x | x | x |
| Texture color profile can be modified in the bitmap information dialog window. | x | x | x | x |