Unit 2: Communication Skills for Creative Media Production

The main function of Cinema 4D is to create and texture 3D models, and then export or render them to other pieces of software, or to video or image format. It is capable of doing all of this to a professional standard. Cinema 4D also has a great texturing capability (which I will mention later), as well as great animation function for scenery and character models.

I chose Cinema 4D as my software to develop my game environment for many reasons. First and foremost the software is simple and intuitive to use, so creating simple models won't be as hard as other, more complex software-such as Poser Pro. I also have previous experience in Cinema 4D, which means I can create more complex models. Cinema 4D also has an extremely detailed texturing system which allows me to texture my objects with ease.

Cinema 4D is relatively easy to use, and as I have previous experience in the software, I can begin to make more complex models. Another strength of Cinema 4D is it’s texturing system, with a large variety of built-in textures, and the simplicity to add more textures makes it very easy to texture objects. It is also simple to edit the settings of the textures. However, cinema 4D does not have the biggest choice on modeling tools, meaning the majority of more complex models cannot be made (or in some cases they can still be made, but with much more difficulty).

This compares to Poser- a 3D graphic design program heavily weighted on created 3D models of humans and animals. Poser has gained popularity due to allowing relative beginners to create models, and make basic animations, while still having enough options for professionals to create detailed models. Poser also has an array of models from other 3D modeling software that you can use built-in. Another program that can be compared to Cinema 4D is 3D Studio Max, while it is more complex to learn than Cinema 4D, it has a wider variety of modeling tools-which means more complex models can be created. 3D Studio Max also has less animation availability than Cinema 4D.

There are many export options in Cinema 4D-

These are the options for exporting 3D models in cinema 4D to other 3D modeling or animation software. These export options are to allow the created models to go into other Cinema 4D save files, or other software-such as Adobe Illustrator (.ai).

There are also a lot of render settings for Cinema 4D-there is many options (such as ambient occlusion, global illumination and sketch and toon). There are also output options for the final render, allowing you to export your final product as a variety of video or image file types, at different resolutions and frame rates.

I believe I have been moderately successful in using Cinema 4D. I have used many of its offered modeling techniques; I have used the texturing and the lighting systems as well. I have used primitive and spline modeling to create my 3D objects to a good standard, and then proceeded to choose the correct texture and move it into its position. I have used to the correct export and render options for my concept’s design (using “sketch and toon” for example). I have also used Cinema 4D’s variety of tools, such as extrude to create my models.