Archive notice: This article was originally published on August 1, 2011. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Manufacturer Maxon, which is celebrating its quarter-century anniversary this year, has attempted in R13 to take account of the decentralized workflow and improve it at all points in the pipeline.
What is new is that C4D is now available in four versions for different requirements – although, of course, not every version receives all the new features.
Completely new is the physical renderer, which outputs physically correct images based on the characteristics of real cameras such as focal length, aperture, exposure time and more.
New subsurface scattering now helps create translucent materials such as milk, skin or wax. Combining the renderers produces sampling for effects such as depth and motion blur, area shadows, ambient occlusion, and blurred reflections and transparencies.
The 3D hype can now also be satisfied from C4D – cameras can be converted in the software into parallel, on-axis, off-axis or radial stereoscopic cameras, stereoscopic images can be viewed directly in the 3D view, and the preview uses the display methods anaglyph, interlaced, shutter or side-by-side.
New character-animation tools are also on board and are intended in particular to simplify complex processes such as rigging and cyclic movements. For example, through the new auto-rigger, which simplifies the creation of a joint system and its connection to the 3D geometry.
Custom rig presets can also be created and used.
The camera’s new cursor-based navigation automatically uses a "Point of Interest" in the scene depending on where the user begins navigation. This also achieves more uniform, consistent camera-speed movement regardless of the Point of Interest. Sticky Keys make it possible to use a tool for as long as its keyboard shortcut is held down. When it is released, C4D returns directly to the previously used tool.
R13 brings improved options for asset and scene exchange as well as stronger integration of interfaces with other software applications – the completely overhauled XRef object enables the embedding of external references, allowing XRef objects to be textured, animated, used with expressions and in simulations in the master scene without changing the original object.
C4D Release 13 and BodyPaint 3D Release 13 are expected to be delivered by MAXON and authorized dealers in September 2011. Customers who have a MAXON Service Agreement valid in September 2011 will receive the upgrade automatically.
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