New Timeline Features
The all-new Timeline that debuted in Release 10 has been further
enhanced in Release 10.5, to offer even better control over
animation and help tame your cluster of keyframes. It’ is easy to
create basic animation in CINEMA 4D and Release 10.5 makes it easier
than ever to fine-tune timing and create motion magic.
Relative Keys
Relative Keys in Release 10.5 allow you to easily adjust the
length of a motion sequence without changing the basic timing.
Simply set intermediate keys to relative mode and their time value
will automatically be adjusted as you tweak the timing of
surrounding keyframes. This makes it simple to speed up an animation
sequence without affecting the overall timing.
Reduced Modification Mode
Complicated animation tracks with many keyframes, such as those
created via motion capture data, can be difficult to manipulate. One
method of simplifying the animation is to use Key Reducer. The Key
Reducer features an improved algorithm in Release 10.5. Another new
method of dealing with such tracks in CINEMA 4D R10.5 is the Reduced
Modification Mode, which provides a simplified F-Curve based on
keyframe data. When adjusting this simple curve, the resulting
change in the overall animation is immediately applied to each of
the keyframes.
Summary Track
In addition to hierarchal summary tracks on each object, CINEMA
4D Release 10.5 now features an overall summary track for the
Timeline view. This makes it easy to see exactly where keyframes are
located, whether they’ are on objects, materials or even post
effects, and to easily adjust the timing of an entire filtered
timeline view at once.
More New Features
In addition to the major changes, many smaller changes have been
made to the Timeline to help improve your workflow. Among these are
improved display of keyframe data, expandable mini F-Curves within
the keyframe view, the option to link the Timeline selection with
the Object Manager, and the ability to copy data between different
Timeline views.
XRefs - External References
Release 10.5 offers a powerful new external referencing system (XRefs)
to help manage large projects and share assets within a team.
Using XRefs, a single master file is used to reference objects
and materials stored in separate CINEMA 4D files. The master file
updates all the references automatically so changes made by one user
in a workgroup are displayed immediately in the master project.
With this great team-based workflow, individual pieces of an
animatic can be split into XRefs and assigned to separate artists
for development and refinement. The master scene updates as each
artist works and provides an overview of the status of the project.
In addition to the time savings, XRefs saves hard drive space as
well. You can simply reference commonly used objects and materials
rather than copying them into multiple scenes.
Improved HTML Documentation
The context-sensitive HTML help system introduced in Release 10
has been enhanced in R10.5 to make it easier to find the feature or
solution you're seeking.
An improved index and full-text searching now return more
relevant results, and search terms are now highlighted within the
help text. Once you've found the information you're seeking, the
page can now be bookmarked for easy future reference - just like in
your web browser.
All this makes the integrated HTML help system much easier to
use, which in turn makes it easier for you to use CINEMA 4D.
UV Tools - Unwrap UVs Faster and More Cleanly
CINEMA 4D Release 10.5 adds UV unwrapping using the powerful ABF
algorithm, for faster and more clean unwrapping of organic meshes.
This new weapon joins an arsenal of UV editing tools available in
CINEMA 4D and BodyPaint 3D, including LSCM mapping, optimal mapping
and projection-based mapping.
A good UV mesh balances the size of
a each UV to its respective polygon, while keeping neighboring UVs
evenly sized. The ABF algorithm relaxes the UV mesh into a
compromise between these two conflicting ideals resulting in a
clean, paintable mesh.
The images below helps illustrate the difference between an LSCM
and ABF solution when unwrapping UVs.
DWG Import
CINEMA 4D Release 10.5 continues to open new doors to the
architectural visualization and engineering communities with the
addition of DWG import. Widely used by AutoCAD users and the CAD
community as a whole, the DWG format offers an outstanding means of
importing CAD drawings into CINEMA 4D for visualization.
The robust DWG import supports not only geometry, but also layers
(with colors) and object attributes such as visibility. Blocks and
block references within the DWG file are represented in CINEMA 4D as
object groups and instances, so the basic project structure is
retained.
The importer also supports other DWG object types, including:
Line, arc, circle, ellipse, elliptical arc, polyline, 2D polyline,
3D polyline, face, polyface mesh and polygon mesh. Colors (RGB and
indices) within the DWG file are imported as materials, and the
ByLayer and ByBlock settings are taken into account on import. Users
also have the opportunity to define the scale and curve subdivision
factors used in the import.
New Allplan 2008 Connection
CINEMA 4D R10.5 offers much improved connectivity to Allplan
2008. A CINEMA 4D scene file or object can now be easily sent to
Allplan 2008 with a click of the mouse. Previous poly count
limitations are now a thing of the past.
Even objects that are deformed, twisted or smoothed maintain
their appearance when transferred to Allplan 2008. This
functionality offers fantastic possibilities for finding new shapes
and forms in architecture.
Two methods are available for applying this new technology:
Either the user creates a new model from scratch in CINEMA 4D and
sends it directly to his Allplan project, or an Allplan object can
be imported in CINEMA 4D, modified and then sent back to Allplan.
Heads Up Display
CINEMA 4D's Heads Up Display has proven to be an outstanding
workflow aid since its introduction with Release 9. This powerful
tool has been greatly enhanced in Release 10.5 to make working on
complex projects easier than ever before.
Among the many HUD improvements, you can now drag and drop
parameters directly from the Attribute Manager into the HUD. Objects
can be dropped directly into the HUD as well, to make selections
easier. Object HUD elements can automatically activate the move,
scale or rotate tools, or even execute any CINEMA 4D command or
script. HUD parameters are now stored with their associated objects
too, so you can merge multiple scenes without losing your controls.
The display of each HUD element can be individually customized
with custom icons and unique colors for each element. HUD groups and
sliders can also be set to automatically fold and expand on
mouseover, so elements stay out of the way until you need them.
Lighting Tool
Release 10.5 introduces a revolutionary way of lighting your 3D
scenes. With the new lighting tool, you don't arrange lights within
the scene. Instead, you arrange the lighting itself.
Simply click on an object surface to create lighting that will
affect that area. Activate modes to control the overall surface
lighting, diffuse or specular placement, or to move lights in a
trackball or pivot fashion.
Easily create complete lighting setups with keyboard modifiers to
generate new lights and adjust existing lights. Discover an entire
new way of lighting your 3D scenes.
New Modeling Tools
Three new tools are available to make life easier for those
needing to model clean, polygon-based topologies.
In order to work cleanly with Subdivision Surfaces or Deformation
Objects, particularly objects created using box modeling must be
edited manually when creating topology. Connect edges or points
flawlessly using the Connect command, and use the Disconnect command
to reverse the results.
The Spin Edge command can be used to angle horizontal or verticle
lines that result from box modeling, without causing unwanted
deformation of the geometry. Applying the Spin Edge command will not
generate additional points - the selected edge will automatically be
attached to existing points.
These three tools help you create clean geometry that will stand
up to and deformation when animated.
System Requirements:
Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.3.9 / Windows
2000, XP - 512 MByte RAM, CPU with 1 GHz
Recommended System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 / Windows
2000, XP - 1024 MB RAM, CPU with 2 GHz - QuickTime 7.1
DVD ROM drive, hard disk. Depending on your license Macintosh or
Windows only. For continued use of the program, registration with
MAXON Computer is necessary.
