Hello everyone,
I have some experience working with Cinema 4D, but I’d like to work with Blender as well. I would like to know what would be the benefits. My typical work is product visualization - I work in a graphic design agency that designs brochures and we do our portfolio thing in Cinema 4D (http://www.brochuredesignservice.com). Nothing too complex, but I am a little worried about Blender learning curve. Any thoughts?
Did you take experience working in blender?
What the difference between blender and cinema?
There are youtube videos where current C4D users give their first impressions of trying Blender. There are also advanced C4D users who have switched to Blender like Ducky3D on youtube.
The main difference is that Blender does not have any of the motion graphics focused special tools that Cinema 4D has.
Cinema 4D all around feels better optimized. I believe there’s a reason why many consider it the easiest 3D software to learn. While at the same time, it’s capable of making anything anyone does in 3D really.
By optimized I mean:
The menu system is incredibly transparent, which is very difficult in such complicated software.
The Scene structure and origination, imo is beautifully done. Other software’s seem to borrow from legacy CAD/Maya style organization which is clunky and limited. It makes sense if you need a bill of materials for a 3000 part CAD product. But not so much for organizing art. In C4D you can set it up that way, but it’s completely customizable to an astounding degree.
The data for your scene objects and textures is clean in C4D. As in, Blender seems to just throw all of you data and options at you all at once like “HERE! ITS ALL HERE!”. One of the first things I noticed is the cube in your default scene… You click on it’s name and in a dropdown you now see “cube” and it’s green. And it’s like why? None of that is needed. Vertex groups at the top of the object menu?
In C4D you wouldn’t have any vertex groups there because you won’t need them until you do. So you add a vertext tag when it’s appropriate. And that idea expanded all over makes it so the menus are incredibly concise feeling. If you’re not using a feature, you don’t have to scroll through it all the time to get to ones that you do use.
Instead C4D Makes excellent use of both vertical and horizontal menus, which allows you to see more all at once. When they do have drop arrow options open, they have already thoughtfully opened the important ones for you and have hidden the less used options. And then the automatic switching of menu’s is excellently implemented. It all gives the impression, to me, of a more transparent and fluid software to work with.
It’s menu customization is the best I’ve seen. Like in the Object browser, they have this “blank slate” sort of approach, where you can organize it pretty much however you want. And you aren’t forced into a certain way of arranging it. They create new/edit menu panel function is even in your left click. Shift-C calls the command search field, and you can drag and drop the command’s Icon/button from that field directly into the panel. Menu’s can be built on the fly at will and then just X it out if you only needed it temporarily.
You can work procedurally without a node workflow with it’s mograph system. All the little modifiers are so useful. And they exist in your object panel. So you don’t have to click on the object, click on the dropdown menu, find your parameter edit, etc.
You just click on the modifier that’s the parent of your object and the data fields are right there to edit automatically. And while some menus automatically change based on tool or selection, many are persistent. So controls that you just want back quickly are already there. Don’t need to jump back and forth and back and forth. If you do jump back and forth, you can change the menu on the spot. Like I said, the create new/edit menu panel function is in your left click.
Also, they put rotate on the R, makes friggen sense. And so the W is used for quickly switching an objects world or normal orientation for quick movements. W for world… who would have thought key commands could make sense contextually? Definitely not a single person working at Adobe.
And probably the best thing, and this is totally personal, but is C4D instancing. I do industrial animation with very large CAD files. My work was willing to buy me Maya at first because they have a commercial autodesk package. But Maya, and many other programs just try to open a project with 1000 screws perfectly all at once. Cinema 4D finds the same objects and automatically “instances” them into copies that hardly use resources. Blender has an instancing system, but C4D’s is arranged much more fluidly
And finally, Maxon One is like the best deal in 3D as you get redshift and a huge suite of post production FX for after effects. Oh and now Z Brush is there too which imo has the best poly decimation out there and it automatically sends models back and forth between the two seemlessly.
So some of those things can be totally customized in blender to be the same. Although you’ll probably have to watch a tutorial or two first to figure out where they are and what they’re called if the person is new blender. But those things and more importantly, the mindset behind those things is used all across the software.
Shortcomings are mainly down to character animation… which is not bad, it’s just not as good as some alternatives. The animation timeline is good, but I’ve seen better curve smoothing and camera smoothing. C4D has some extensions that overcome this, but they cost money. UV and Normal editing is there, but C4D doesn’t quite have bragging rights here either. I use substance painter for things like that since it’s automatic modes are so good.
The good thing about blender is that it’s free and always available. I’m just here procrastinating because I needed to download blender again after an OS install… and I’m searching if anyone exported a C4D template to download because I don’t want to do all that key binding work. But I use it for somethings still. There are many free and convenient extensions that no other software has, or blender has something very close and it’s free.
This can be summed up in one sentence really; Blender and Cinema4D follow different design paradigms. Neither one is “wrong” but the debate of “how does x compare to x” has been done to death at this point. You can do a Google search and find countless videos, forums and articles all arguing for one or the other. Just choose one, the other, both and learn them if that’s what you want to do.