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Is Cinema 4D the right tool for modeling engines or should I use 3ds Max?
I have no prior experience in 3d modeling, but I have over a decade of experience with Adobe’s software. Now my job is requiring me to move into 3d modeling and animation and I am tasked with deciding what software we will use.
I know you can create pretty much anything in the world with Cinema 4D, but I was wondering if anybody has any experience creating accurate models of engines with it. Would you care to share your experience?
I know 3ds Max Design is aimed at the more technical end of things, but I have heard so many good things about C4D about its ease of use, its stability, and its integration with After Effects that I think I would rather use that tool.I guess my basic question is (as stated in the subject line), is Cinema 4D a useful tool for creating accurate models of engines and engine components or should I go for 3ds Max Design? I will be doing some other animation with it besides the engine components in the future (such as motion graphics), but engines are the priority at the moment.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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2 Replies
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This is kind of a tough one to answer, and it depends somewhat on the intended use of the models. If they’re just for graphics/animation, it’s certainly doable in Cinema. OTOH, if the idea is to use the models for CAD/CAM you would want to use a solid modeler like Pro-E or SolidWorks.
Even if you aren’t planning to do CAD/CAM Cinema might not be the best choice because it doesn’t have full-featured NURBS modeling tools which are, in some cases, better suited to mechanical modeling than polygon modeling tools. For example, let’s say you wanted to created a cylinder block. In Cinema, you can use a boolean object to cut a cylinder out of the block, but you would be hard pressed to model a nice fillet on the intersection of the block and the cylinder. That kind of thing is a piece of cake in a NURBS modeler.
What you might consider is purchasing Cinema for rendering, animation, and some modeling, and also purchase an inexpensive, easy to use NURBS modeler like Moi3D for those parts that are challenging in a traditional poly modeler.
The perfect world, IMHO, is a combination Cinema, Rhino, and T-Splines for Rhino. This allows you to do the bulk of your modeling in Cinema (easier/faster than nurbs modeling), and then bring it into Rhino where you can use T-Splines to convert the model to NURBS. Then you can apply the finishing touches like complex booleans and fillets. There’s even a new plugin that automatically imports Rhino files into Cinema. The downside there is that it starts to get pretty pricey when you add up all the parts.
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Thank you for your detailed answer.
The engines will be animated to show the different parts fitting together/breaking apart and some animations to show the airflow (from cold to hot air as it goes through the various sections).
Also, engines aside, I will also be doing some visualizations of various military helicopter maneuvers and behaviors.From what you’ve said, I believe Cinema 4d is our way to go. I will pass along your information to the powers that be and see if they’ll add on any of the NURBS solutions you suggest.
As far as Cinema 4d goes, what C4D modules would you think I need? Someone on a different forum suggested some of the MoGraph module’s cloning features would be useful.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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