For those who don’t know the tool: Cinema 4D is Maxon’s 3D application for modelling, animation, simulation and motion graphics. Version 2026.3 updates UV work, MoGraph cloning and simulation particle management.
UV editing starts over
Cinema 4D 2026.3 introduces a completely new UV editor. It uses the same viewport technology as the main 3D viewport instead of the older system built around BodyPaint dependencies. The workflow remains familiar. Projection, unwrapping, relaxing and packing still occupy recognisable parts of the layout. Automatic packing remains available as a one-click route for assets headed to 3D painting tools such as Substance 3D.
Manual workflows gain ABF unwrapping, local relaxation, pinning, revised packing controls and access to standard modelling tools. The geometric packing method remains available for arranging islands inside the active tile.
Seams become explicit
Version 2026.3 replaces proximity-based UV separation with explicit seams. A seam behaves as a specialised edge selection tag. Artists can mark geometry, clear the active component selection and continue working without losing the UV boundary. This reduces accidental welding when neighbouring UV points sit close together. It also keeps modelling selections and UV boundaries separate.
The editor includes a dedicated seam selection tool. Artists can draw seams directly, extend them through loops and paths, or generate them from polygon selections. Marking selected polygons creates a seam around their open boundary.
Fewer ceremonial clicks
Several smaller changes target operations repeated throughout a working day. Loop selection can stop at existing selections while allowing an enclosed loop to be subtracted. Clicking outside the geometry clears a component selection without switching back to the Move tool. Island alignment also becomes more direct. Hovering over an island edge previews the target, while clicking aligns the island to that edge.
The coordinate manager now works in UV space with absolute values. Artists can position islands precisely and define how much of a tile their bounding boxes occupy. The current build displays these percentages at ten times their actual values. A shown value of 400 corresponds to 40 percent. The bug is planned for correction.
Welding gains directions
The revised weld tool previews which island will move. Direction arrows appear while hovering over compatible edges. Artists can move one complete island onto another or use a modifier to make both sides meet at the midpoint. This provides better control over which parts of an existing layout remain stationary.
The editor also includes a standard transform gizmo with working rotation axes. The previous UV gizmo has been removed. A possible replacement remains under design. Selected UV edges can be straightened and pinned before another unwrap. Mirror commands can place sufficiently similar islands together for symmetrical texture work.
Pins can take a break
UV pins can now be suspended without deleting them. Artists may release the pins temporarily, adjust an island and then reactivate the same constraints. A brush tool provides smear, smooth and relax modes with adjustable size and strength. These operations work locally and respect active pins. Selection synchronisation between the 3D and UV viewports can be enabled or disabled. Context menus adapt to point, edge or polygon mode. The workflow still expects artists to understand why they are cutting an asset. It simply removes several clicks previously required to prove it.
UDIMs remain active
The editor supports UDIM workflows. Opening a texture with a recognised UDIM token can load either the selected image or the detected tile sequence. Moving an island outside the default tile activates the destination tile. Artists do not need a separate Create UDIM command. Unsupported tile numbers appear in red. The default tile may also display in red despite remaining valid. Multiple UV tags can exist on one object.
BodyPaint stays
The rebuilt editor does not remove BodyPaint 3D. Artists can still paint in 2D or 3D and work with layered bitmap textures. Direct support for Redshift materials remains limited in this workflow. Artists can save the painted bitmap and load it into a Redshift material afterward. The new editor therefore separates modern UV handling form the older painting system without deleting the latter.
Particle properties get a map
Simulation particles receive a Particle Property Manager. It lists particle properties and identifies where each one originates, where it is read and where it is modified. Custom properties appear as artists add them. Selecting an entry can locate the scene entity using it, which should help when debugging larger particle setups.
MoGraph learns the edges
MoGraph gains three Advanced Distribution types: Edge, Rivet and UV Projection. The Edge distribution clones objects along mesh edges. It supports multiple source objects, random or iterative clone assignment, count controls, gaps, pinching, initial rotation and random seeds.
Scale can change toward an edge’s centre or its endpoints. Spacing remains aware of clone dimensions as scale changes.
Surface Offset moves clones relative to the mesh. Scaling can remain uniform or follow the edge direction. Colour can stay constant, follow a linear gradient or vary randomly.
An Animation Speed parameter animates the distribution without requiring a separate effector.
Rivets without the rigging ritual
The Rivet distribution places clones around polygon boundaries. Typical targets include screws, bolts and repeated fasteners. It generates separate corner and interconnect clones. Artists can control their count, spacing, scale, spin and jitter independently. Polygon selections restrict the effect to chosen areas. This allows a procedural modelling stack to preserve selected front faces while excluding bevel polygons.
The distribution also works with ngons when supplied with the relevant selection. Curved ngons may produce less predictable placement because they do not lie on one plane. Standard effectors can animate rivets. A Plane Effector and Field can offset, rotate and scale screws as they arrive. The same distribution can also drive boolean cutters for matching recessed holes. It is a narrow tool. Narrow tools are excellent when they replace an afternoon of rigging.
Clones surf across UV space
UV Projection places and animates clones through an object’s UV coordinates. It evaluates a clone’s position in the 2D layout and projects that position back onto the 3D surface. Regular UV layouts provide the cleanest starting point. A plane maps directly to a grid, while a torus carries the same movement around its curved surface.
The distribution includes deterministic and dependent animation modes. Deterministic mode reproduces the same result for a given frame. Dependent mode uses the previous frame’s state and behaves more like a simulation. Dependent animation includes wind, turbulence, variance, noise speed and speed variation. These controls can create quick surface flows such as droplets running down a character head.
More complex interactions may still require particles and a Node Modifier. For graphic motion or lightweight surface animation, the UV route reduces setup considerably. New tools and workflow changes should always be tested on representative assets before entering production.
