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C4D on Mac best choice for me?
I’m about to start learning a 3D modelling, animation, etc to extend my mograph/vfx toolset. I mainly work in AE, Mocha & Photoshop at present, but plan to add Shake later for more hardcore compositing. I have a few Q’s I was hoping one of you could answer about my choice of C4D as my 3D tool:-
– Working on a new 3.2GHz 8-core Mac Pro w/8GB RAM is C4D going to take advantage of all my horsepower, or is something like Lightwave going to perform better on a Mac? I’m taking about rendering speed and interactivity?
– What real-world benefit will a high-end GFX give me in C4D?
– Does C4D work as a true 64-bit app in Leopard? I’ve heard OSX isn’t as ‘fully’ 64-bit as something like Vista 64 or xp64. What does this mean? sorry if this sounds thick…I’ve been on PCs for years, but I thought OSX was a 64-bit OS? Am I better off using C4D on 64-bit Windows to get the best from it?
– I understand C4D will be the fastest to learn as someone from an AE background and it has great integration with AE and good for mograph, which will be my main use for it…but how adept is C4D at handling the more photoreal and organic modelling/animation side? Does it keep up with Lightwave, 3DSMAX, XSI, etc in that respect? I know Maya & Houdini are in another league, but how do the others compare?
– How does C4D Advanced Renderer compare to Mental Ray? Does it use all cores, etc and give you as good a quality render as MR (obviously providing you feed it the same thing!) I notice you can’t use MR with C4D or Lightwave..is this going to limit me further down the line?
Sorry for all the Questions, just want to get it right!
I know I should try all the demos, but as someone who has barely touched on 3D I’d appreciate the views of artists that can chime in on more advanced and less differences between the apps.Thanks muchly,
Jim.*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1.0.1 / Elastic Reality
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Win XP Pro 32 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / DVS SDI Clipstation / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 110GB/80GB/600GB RAID-0 -
7 Replies
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>- Working on a new 3.2GHz 8-core Mac Pro w/8GB RAM is C4D going to take advantage
>of all my horsepower, or is something like Lightwave going to perform better on
>a Mac? I’m taking about rendering speed and interactivity?Cinema will make as much use of your cpus as possible.
>- What real-world benefit will a high-end GFX give me in C4D?
Not much. I believe the nVidia 8800 would be the best choice at the moment (better drivers than ati).
>- Does C4D work as a true 64-bit app in Leopard? I’ve heard OSX isn’t as ‘fully’
>64-bit as something like Vista 64 or xp64. What does this mean? sorry if this
>sounds thick…I’ve been on PCs for years, but I thought OSX was a 64-bit OS?
>Am I better off using C4D on 64-bit Windows to get the best from it?OSX didn’t have 64 support for gui functions prior to Leopard, which prevented 3D apps from going 64 bits. Leopard has addressed that, but Apple made it somewhat difficult for developers to support, so 64 bit conversions are lagging. Hopefully it won’t take too long.
>- I understand C4D will be the fastest to learn as someone from an AE background
>and it has great integration with AE and good for mograph, which will be my
>main use for it…but how adept is C4D at handling the more photoreal and
>organic modelling/animation side? Does it keep up with Lightwave, 3DSMAX, XSI,
>etc in that respect? I know Maya & Houdini are in another league, but how do
>the others compare?Photo real depends on a number of factors, including modeling, lighting, textures/materials, and primarily the skill of the artist. With few exceptions, Cinema is every bit as capable of photo real rendering as any of the other apps you mentioned. The exceptions might be in sufsurface scattering shaders and ultra-realistic character animation … things you aren’t likely to miss for quite some time. 😉
>- How does C4D Advanced Renderer compare to Mental Ray? Does it use all cores,
>etc and give you as good a quality render as MR (obviously providing you feed it
>the same thing!) I notice you can’t use MR with C4D or Lightwave..is this going
>to limit me further down the line?AR has raytracing, global illumination, volume effects, caustics, etc., just like MR. Generally it’s much easier to use but less flexible for the power user. I think that most people will get better results faster with AR, just because it is much more user friendly. If you need more power, VRay , finalRender-2, Maxwell Render, etc., are available for Cinema.
>Sorry for all the Questions, just want to get it right! I know I should try all
>the demos, but as someone who has barely touched on 3D I’d appreciate the views
>of artists that can chime in on more advanced and
less differences between the
apps.No problem. I’m biased, of course, but I think that Cinema is the best choice for someone in your position. And FYI, the skills you learn in any 3D application will translate to any other.
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Thanks Adam,
So do you see any reason why I should use C4D on a PC rather than a Mac?
I’m 95% sure I’m going the mac route (mainly cos if I come unstuck later on I can always run Windows on the mac, albeit not natively.) My only real quarm was whether I wanted to go for Eyeon Fusion as my main compositing app and NOT running that natively would be a real headache by all accounts. So I’ve opted for trusty old Shake for now (maybe this new Apple compositing app will also surface sometime before I’m old and grey!)
But if C4D runs significantly better and can access more RAM on Windows 64 aswell, then that *may* sway me?…
*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1.0.1 / Elastic Reality
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Win XP Pro 32 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / DVS SDI Clipstation / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 110GB/80GB/600GB RAID-0 -
Last thing – is there any benefit in working with 2 x monitors in C4D? I use a 2 mon configuration for most apps, but will C4D work on multiple monitors?
*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1.0.1 / Elastic Reality
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Win XP Pro 32 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / DVS SDI Clipstation / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 110GB/80GB/600GB RAID-0 -
Q1: Other than the 64 bit issue, there’s no reason to prefer the PC over the Mac or vv for Cinema — for all intents and purposes they work identically and they are developed simultaneously.
Q2: I find dual monitors to be quite advantageous. Cinema’s layout is just about 100% customizable, so you can take full advantage of the extra screen realestate. You can also save multiple layouts for different tasks — similar to AE, etc.
AdamT
Cinema 4DXL8 Bodypaint*Remember: Tues. is national Shoe Day. Wear shoes to show your support for bimetalism and the designated hitter rule!*
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FYI
I benchmarked C4d v10.5 on my dual boot quad core 2.66.
The only difference was that OPENGL ran a bit quicker in OS X.
OSX is running off software raided raptors, and windows is on a raptor.
Nicholas Toth
Freelance Animator
nicholastoth.com -
…just wanted to post a thanks for the input as well. I’ve got Maya 6.0, and only use it in about 5% of my workflow. I keep feeling like I’m re-learning it every 6 months, and have never felt confident telling clients it’s a core app of mine (which AE is). So, as my Maya6 (which has never been 100% stable for me) slowly ages, I’m also considering switching over to something a little more AE/mo-grfx friendly.
-Greg Neumayer
Antifreeze Design
https://www.antifreezemotiongraphics.com -
Thanks Adam/Nicolas,
Great news about C4D running great on OSX….I can live without 64 for the time being, as long as it’s on the way and is doable now in OSX, which it sounds like it is. I just wasn’t sure if OSX was a true 64-bit OS, but sounds like Leopard is.
Nicolas – do you find a BIG difference in speed/interactivity running your apps on striped raptors? If so, what RAID config are you running for OS/apps drives? I was thinking of inviesting in one raptor for my OS/apps, but 2 striped seems a little overkill..? Ideally I want to try get 5 x SATAs in my Mac Pro for a RAID-5 for my media, leaving room for one OS drive and one optical drive in the top bay.
*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1.0.1 / Elastic Reality
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Win XP Pro 32 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / DVS SDI Clipstation / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 110GB/80GB/600GB RAID-0
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