Maxon 2027.0: More Trees, Fewer Detours

For those who don’t know the family: Maxon makes Cinema 4D for 3D, animation and motion graphics, ZBrush for sculpting, Redshift for rendering, Red Giant for effects and Autograph for compositing. The 2027.0 release updates all five. Naturally, it arrived just as I had cleared the afternoon for something completely unreasonable, like finishing my inbox.

Maxon’s Fall 2026 release lands on 14 October with procedural forests, rather better-behaved liquids, UV editing inside ZBrush, render-time fur, relighting tools and an MCP-enabled compositor. That is far too much for one news story without turning it into a small technical novel, which nobody wants to read between two render reviews. So consider this the guided tour: over the next few days we’ll give Cinema 4D, ZBrush, Redshift and Autograph their own longer, properly changelog-verified articles. Red Giant gets its close-up here too. I started with one coffee and one draft. Maxon won.

Cinema 4D: grow a forest, pour a beer

Cinema 4D 2027 introduces a Scatter Generator and Scatter Tag with distribution, filtering, clustering and transform controls. MoGraph Fields and Effectors can shape and animate the results, so a forest needn’t look as though someone emptied a bucket of trees over the landscape. Liquid FX adds foam, spray and bubbles to the unified simulation system. CEO David McGavran mentions beer; for once I can see a compelling case for prolonged, hands-on fluid research. Scene Nodes-based Fields and Effectors, wider CAD import and ACES 2.0 refinements round out the update. Maxon’s Cinema 4D highlights cover the details.

ZBrush: UVs without the field trip

ZBrush 2027 gains a UV Editor with UDIM and texel-density controls, drawing on technology from Cinema 4D. Selection Sets save and recall Polygroups, masks, Polypaint, morph targets and UV arrangements. Over on iPad, Spotlight brings image-driven sculpting and projection, while non-destructive 3D Layers make experimentation less of a commitment. The idea is simple and rather welcome: spend more time sculpting and less time discovering where you left that selection. ZBrush release details have the longer version.

Redshift: the bear grows its own fur

Redshift 2027 revises memory handling and improves interactive feedback, while a new procedural system creates fur, fibers, knitted materials and other textile detail at render time. Cinema 4D material workflows gain more direct access to scene objects, Cloners and particles, and Redshift Live gets further preview improvements. Maxon says interaction is faster, although it has not supplied a universal benchmark, so I’ll reserve judgment until the render queue has had its say. See the Redshift feature overview.

Red Giant: lighting, noise and tasteful dirt

Red Giant 2027 adds Scene Light, an AI-assisted depth-aware relighting tool for After Effects. Artists can place and adjust lights in existing footage, including effects-driven illumination and day-for-night treatments. Universe gets GPU-accelerated Maxon Noise, and Real Lens Flares gains Custom Schmutz and more light-source options. At last, the smudges on the lens can be deliberate, precisely controlled and charged to the correct budget line.

Autograph: the compositor acquires an assistant

Autograph 2027 adds an optional MCP server so compatible AI agents can work with the application’s tools through natural-language instructions. It also gains direct copy-and-paste from Cinema 4D for compatible objects, cameras, lights, nulls and animation. That’s welcome news for anyone who has spent an evening reconstructing a perfectly good camera setup by eye. Naturally, agents will still need supervision; I already provide enough creative chaos without delegating it.

One release, several deep dives

All five 2027.0 releases are available from 14 October 2026. Commercial apps are offered individually and through Maxon One; Autograph is free, although connected commercial effects can carry their own licensing requirements. Check Maxon’s site for current pricing and entitlements. We’ll examine the actual controls, workflows, compatibility and production caveats in the four dedicated follow-up stories. This overview is the tasting menu. Nobody needs the entire kitchen delivered to the table.

Release video

Maxon’s launch video provides a look at the wider release. I’ll let the moving pictures do some of the talking, which is arguably overdue.